A murky brown wave that crept into Wellington’s Evans Bay this morning and turned the bay’s waters dark has been captured on video. A Wellington City councillor said the substance was silt that had travelled from the Hutt River,…
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Grace Millane murder: Leo Molloy loses appeal over conviction for Jesse Kempson suppression breach
Auckland businessman Leo Molloy has lost an appeal to quash his conviction for breaching a court suppression order when he named Grace Millane’s murderer online.But the Auckland mayoral candidate says he still maintains the moral…
Speeding car crashes at South Auckland traffic light after being spiked by police
A speeding driver who crashed at a South Auckland intersection, injuring a pedestrian, was chased by members of the public after trying to flee, a witness says.The crash seriously injured the driver’s passenger and a pedestrian…
Power outages: Genesis is being 'scapegoated' by Energy Minister Megan Woods, CEO says
Genesis boss Marc England has rejected claims New Zealand had enough power to handle the unprecedented demand last night, but that commercial decisions had caused widespread outages. Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods said…
High-profile sportsman convicted of computer offence also pleads guilty to driving charge
A prominent sportsman convicted of a computer crime has now pleaded guilty to a driving offence.The latest charge related to the man using a motor vehicle on a lower North Island road while his licence was suspended. He appeared…
Herald afternoon quiz: August 10
Test your brains with the Herald’s afternoon quiz. Be sure to check back on nzherald.co.nz for the morning quiz tomorrow. To challenge yourself with more quizzes, CLICK HERE.
Eight arrested after protests at Parliament House and The Lodge
Police have arrested eight people after dramatic protests and vandalism at Parliament House and The Lodge today.
The action took place following the release of a damning report on climate change.
Five people – three men and two women – were arrested at Parliament House while three men were arrested at The Lodge.
READ MORE: Climate change report a 'code red for humanity'
They have all been taken to the ACT watchhouse and police expect to lay charges.
During the Parliament House protest, a pram was set alight and an activist glued her hands to the pavement.
Meanwhile, three protesters targeted Prime Minister Scott Morrison's official Canberra residence, spraying "duty of care" in red paint out the front.
Mr Morrison described the climate protesters as "unAustralian".
"The Australian way is not what we have seen with the vandalism in our capital today," he said.
He described protesters' actions as "foolishness" that did not align with "the good-hearted nature of Australians who care deeply about this issue".
Mr Morrison likened their actions to "other selfish protests" around this country.
The United Nations called the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report a "code red for humanity" when it was released on yesterday.
The landmark study, led by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel, found at current emission rates, the global temperature is expected to increase by 1.5C over the next two decades.
READ MORE: Landmark climate change study paints grim future for Australia
The report found in Australia, land areas warmed by around 1.4C between 1910 and 2020, largely due to human influence, while heat extremes increased and cold extremes decreased.
READ MORE: Key takeaways from the UN report on the climate crisis
The report also found the intensity, frequency and duration of bushfires will increase in Australia and the frequency of severe droughts would ramp up from every 10 years to every four.
This terrifying 'dragon' was Australia's largest flying reptile
There was once a species of terrifying "dragon" flying over Australia 105 million years ago, according to new research.
The fossil of a pterosaur with a nearly seven-metre wingspan once belonged to Australia's largest flying reptile.
A study on these findings was published Monday in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
READ MORE: Two spacecraft to make Venus flyby this week
The pterosaur likely soared over a large inland sea that once covered much of outback Queensland, known as the Eromanga Inland Sea.
Its spear-like mouth was perfect for plucking fish from the sea.
Researchers including Tim Richards, a University of Queensland postdoctoral student in the School of Biological Sciences' Dinosaur Lab, analysed a jaw fossil from the pterosaur.
It was originally discovered in a quarry just northwest of Richmond in northwest Queensland in June 2011 by fossicker Len Shaw.
Fossickers search for gold and fossils.
Mr Richards said that the pterosaur would have been a "fearsome beast" that likely snacked on juvenile dinosaurs.
"It's the closest thing we have to a real life dragon," Mr Richards said in a statement.
"It was essentially just a skull with a long neck, bolted on a pair of long wings. This thing would have been quite savage. It would have cast a great shadow over some quivering little dinosaur that wouldn't have heard it until it was too late."
READ MORE: Person buried in 1000s with sword, brooches was 'non-binary'
The name of the new species, Thapunngaka shawi, is a nod to the First Nations peoples of the Richmond area where the fossil was found and includes some of the lost language of the Wanamara Nation.
"The genus name, Thapunngaka, incorporates thapun [ta-boon] and ngaka [nga-ga], the Wanamara words for 'spear' and 'mouth', respectively," said Steve Salisbury, study co-author and senior lecturer in the University of Queensland's School of Biological Sciences, in a statement.
"The species name, shawi, honours the fossil's discoverer Len Shaw, so the name means 'Shaw's spear mouth'."
The researchers were intrigued by a massive bony crest located on the lower jaw of the new species and believe there was likely one on the upper jaw, too.
"Semi-circular in shape, it would have resembled a (13cm radius) half dinner plate on its side," Mr Richards said.
READ MORE: Ancient clay tablet turns history of mathematics on its head
"These crests probably played a role in the flight dynamics of these creatures, and hopefully future research will deliver more definitive answers," Mr Salisbury said.
The entire skull was likely over one metre and contained 40 teeth.
The newly discovered species was part of a group of pterosaurs named anhanguerians. These pterosaurs once flew over every continent.
"Pterosaurs were a successful and diverse group of reptiles — the very first back-boned animals to take a stab at powered flight," Mr Richards said.
Their thin-walled bones were largely hollow, which means the pterosaurs were perfectly adapted to flight, but their bones didn't preserve well in the fossil record.
"It's quite amazing fossils of these animals exist at all," Mr Richards said.
"By world standards, the Australian pterosaur record is poor, but the discovery of Thapunngaka contributes greatly to our understanding of Australian pterosaur diversity."
READ MORE: Lion cub frozen 28,000 years ago 'perfectly preserved'
Mr Richards plans to study the specific characteristics of pterosaur flight dynamics.
This discovery marks the third species of anhanguerian pterosaur to be found in Australia.
All of them have been recovered in western Queensland.
The fossil is on display at the Kronosaurus Korner museum in Richmond.
'Narco submarine' carrying $95m cocaine cargo intercepted
More than $93 million worth of cocaine has been seized after a 'narco submarine' was intercepted by the Colombian Navy.
The semi-submersible speedboat was detected by Colombian authorities off the country's Pacific coast before it was stopped and searched by a patrol boat last Saturday, Inside Edition reports.
Two tonnes of cocaine – valued at $95.5 million – was found wrapped in 2000 small packages inside the 10-metre long craft.
READ MORE: How 'narco submarine' boom is fuelled by bumper cocaine trade
US authorities supported the Colombian naval operation.
"Interdicting these drugs helps bring hope, stability and economic prosperity to the Western Hemisphere, a neighbourhood that we share with so many partner nations that are also committed to the rule of law and democratic values," US Coast Guard Vice Admiral Steven Poulin said.
https://twitter.com/JusticiaET/status/1424075934022438926?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
"Together, we will disrupt, defeat and degrade transnational organised crime."
READ MORE: Spain seizes 'narco sub' carrying more than three tonnes of cocaine
'Narco submarines' have been sailed by drug cartels since the 1990s.
They carry tonnes of drugs worth hundreds of millions of dollars on the clandestine journey from Colombia to the coast of Mexico before.
Sitting about one metre below the waterline, they are able to evade radar used by governments and militaries.
READ MORE: US Coast guardsmen jump onto homemade submarine
However navies and coastguards in the US, South America and Europe have intercepted a number of the craft but it is believed many have gone undetected.
'Narco submarines' hit world headlines in 2019 when footage of a heavily armed US Coastguard officer boarding one in the Pacific Ocean went viral.
Shiloh Baptist Church was started 50 years ago out of necessity, says founder Pastor Maynard
BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, August 9, 2021 (MMS-SKN) — Delivering a sermon based on Psalms 126:1-6 under the theme ‘The Lord has done great things for us’, Pastor Emeritus Eric Maynard of the Shiloh Baptist Church in Charlestown, Nevis, told the congregation on Sunday August 8 that the now successful church was started 50 years ago out of necessity.
At the worship service which was attended by Prime Minister of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis Dr the Hon Timothy Harris, Federal Minister of Health the Hon Akilah Byron-Nisbett, and Commissioner of Police Mr Hilroy Brandy among others, Pastor Eric Maynard said that he had just returned from Bible School in July 1971, when the then pastor at the Baptist Church in Brick Kiln called for his intervention.
He noted that the old Volkswagen bus that was used to transport church members from Charlestown to Brick Kiln had broken down the day before. The pastor asked Mr Eric Maynard, who had become a born again Christian five years earlier, to organise and have a service held at some place in Charlestown.
Even though it was a short notice, that Sunday August 8, 1971, they got together and met in the living room in the house of Brother St. Clair Clarke at Craddock Road in Charlestown where they had their first Sunday morning worship away from the Brick Kiln Baptist Church.
“And 50 years later, God would have it that 2021 is the same calendar of 1971,” pointed out Senior Pastor Maynard. “This is no coincidence – fifty years to the day. From there on we never looked back and the rest is history and here we are today.” He however admitted that the first three years were “dark and difficult days.”
He told the congregation that when Pastor Wayne Maynard, who is his son, asked him to deliver the message on that auspicious occasion marking his 50 years in the ministry, he said he wrestled with the idea of preaching especially taking into account that the Prime Minister of the Federation would be present. But the younger Pastor Maynard finally convinced him that he should do the message for Sunday August 8, 2021.
Pastor Emeritus Eric Maynard thanked Prime Minister Harris for accepting the invitation to come to worship at Shiloh Baptist Church on that special day. He said someone had asked him how he and the Prime Minister got to be friends, and he said he believed God told the Prime Minster that he (Maynard) had been praying for him.
“God is my witness I did not tell the Prime Minister I pray for him every day,” said Senior Pastor Maynard. “I believe it is God who told him. I count it as an honour that I could call him whenever I want to, he can call me whenever he wants to and let me know what he wants me to pray about.”
According to the Pastor Emeritus, the struggles were real as it took them three years when the Lord turned their activities, and they realised the dream when they finally got started officially in October 1974.
“We moved from a living room to a wooden tent, then we moved on from the wooden tent when it caved in, to a rented house for a year, to the building what is now the Fellowship Hall, and from there here we are in our Sanctuary for which we give God thanks,” he summed up the 50-year journey. “This is a day of thanksgiving – a day of praise, for God has done great things for us. Tough times don’t last, tough people do.”
In reference to the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, Pastor Emeritus Eric Maynard said God has given the country natural blessings in the form of a great deal of sun, sea and sand, and natural beauty and he advised the congregation that they have to be thankful as they are living in paradise.
He also referred to the divine protection that God has given St. Kitts and Nevis, and people who have the wisdom to lead the population through the current Covid-19 pandemic. He criticised persons who are still resisting taking the vaccine on unsubstantiated claims that they might turn to crocodiles.
“God has blessed St. Kitts and Nevis, taking St. Kitts and Nevis out of the lions’ den,” said Pastor Eric Maynard. “There is a lions’ den called IMF. When they tell you jump, you just have to ask them how high. God gave the wisdom to get us out of that den. It took a great deal of planning and wisdom and God’s guidance and yet some people cannot appreciate that. God has blessed us.”
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