Stats NZ figures showed food prices increased by 4.1% in the year to September.

A man who once starred on television soap Neighbours has been found guilty of making a gesture that resembled a Nazi salute.

Damien Richardson, 56, was charged with performing a Nazi salute at a restaurant in Melbourne's south-east in September 2024, while he was delivering a speech.

Video of the gesture was played to Moorabbin Magistrates Court as Richardson faced a two-day contested hearing this week.

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His lawyer Peter Monagle argued the gesture was performed for genuine "artistic or theatrical purposes", and claimed the restaurant was closed so it was not a public place.

However, Richardson was on Friday found guilty of performing a gesture that "resembles a Nazi salute" in a public place.

Magistrate Justin Foster found the gesture was not performed for artistic, theatrical or academic reasons, and even if the venue was closed for a function it was still a licensed premises, which was a public place.

"The gesture made by the accused does resemble a Nazi salute, and it is likely to be confused with or mistaken for that gesture," Foster told the court.

"So for those reasons I do find that a Nazi gesture, under the definition given to it, has been performed."

However, Foster also found Richardson showed no "loyalty, affiliation or obedience" to Hitler or Nazis in performing the gesture, as described by an expert who gave evidence on Thursday.

As well as the gesture resembling a Nazi salute and being performed in a public place, the expert said it must demonstrate "loyalty or unconditional obedience to Hitler".

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"I do not find that it demonstrates loyalty or unconditional obedience to Hitler," the magistrate said, taking into account all of the context about the gesture being made.

Prior to the salute, Richardson complained about his treatment in some Age articles, which he claimed labelled him as Nazi-like "to shut down what some might describe as extreme right-wing views", the magistrate said.

"The salute that came immediately afterwards was in a mocking gesture, perhaps aimed at The Age, perhaps aimed at himself," Foster said, adding he had not seen or investigated the articles himself.

"Together with the following the words … that he clearly wasn't Adolf Hitler, and that he's not a Nazi.

"And in fact, he went on a few moments later to describe how his own grandfather had fought in the war against Nazis and against the Nazi ideology, and he was very proud of his grandfather for doing that."

Foster found Richardson also spent time during the 10-minute speech "shutting down what might be described as elements of anti-Semitism in the room".

"And so I do not find beyond reasonable doubt, even on the balance of probabilities, that he was showing loyalty, affiliation or obedience, he was doing it to either mock himself or mock The Age newspaper," he said.

Richardson will return to court on December 4 for a pre-sentence hearing.

Typhoon Kalmaegi brought fierce winds and torrential rains to Vietnam on Friday, days after the powerful storm battered the Philippines and left scores dead or missing.

Areas in central Vietnam reported damaged buildings, electricity polls and fallen trees as Kalmaegi weakened to a tropical storm and moved into Cambodia.

Vietnamese state media reported two deaths in Gia Lai and Dak Lak provinces.

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In the Philippines, President Ferdinand Marcos Junior declared a state of national emergency on Thursday as another potentially powerful typhoon was expected to slam into the Philippines’ western coast Sunday night or Monday morning.

Kalmaegi left at least 188 people dead and 135 missing in the deadliest natural disaster to hit the country this year, the Office of Civil Defence said.

Kalmaegi is expected to move through Laos and hit north-east Thailand in the afternoon.

Thailand's Meteorological Department advised people in the region to be cautious of heavy to very heavy rainfall that could lead to flash flood or river overflows.

Vietnam evacuates hundreds of thousands of people

Three fishermen were reported missing on Thursday after their boat was swept away by strong waves on Ly Son, an island in Vietnam's Quang Ngai province.

A search operation was launched but later suspended due to worsening weather, state media said.

Authorities said more than 537,000 people were evacuated, many by boat, as floodwaters rose and landslides loomed.

Vietnam's central provinces were already reeling from floods due to record-breaking rains.

Kalmaegi is forecast to dump more than 609mm of rain in some areas.

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An unusually strong storm for the region in November, Kalmaegi packed sustained winds of about 183km/h with gusts reaching up to 220km/h over the South China Sea as it approached Vietnam.

Waves up to three metres high hit the coast in coastal cities like Danang, and strong winds uprooted trees in Dak Lak province.

Many homes in Quy Nhon, also a coastal city, were left without power for hours.

The country’s financial hub, Ho Chi Minh City, faced a heightened risk of severe floods.

High tides were expected on the Saigon River, and authorities warned up to 100 millimetres of expected rainfall could inundate low-lying areas.

Philippines braces for next powerful storm

Meanwhile, the next approaching storm, Fung-wong, was growing as it barrelled toward the Philippines over the Pacific.

State forecasters said Fung-wong, known as Uwan in the Philippines, could grow to a massive estimated 1400-kilometre diameter before it makes a landfall in northern Aurora province or nearby regions.

They warn that it could hit the densely populated area around the capital, Manila.

Typhoon Kalmaegi displaced more than 560,000 villagers in the Philippines, including nearly 450,000 who were evacuated to emergency shelters, the Office of Civil Defence said.

More than 318,000 others are still in evacuation shelters.

Marcos was scheduled to visit Cebu on Friday, the hardest-hit central province, where the typhoon left 139 dead with 79 others missing.

“We suffered many deaths… it was very grave,” Marcos said on Thursday of Kalmaegi’s deadly aftermath, but he said “the biggest problem that we’re seeing is, we have to think who and how many of the personnel now handling government relief and support in the central Visayas region can be shifted to prepare for Uwan.”

In Cebu, rampaging floodwaters submerged or swept away scores of vehicles in scenes that were caught on camera by residents stranded on roofs.

One of the mourners was Krizza Espra, who went to a mortuary on Thursday to see the bodies of her husband and three children, who were killed when the roof they were sheltering on collapsed.

She said four others in her family, including her mother and aunt, remain missing.

“I hope someone can help speed up the search for their bodies before (they) decompose, we hope we can still recognise them,” she said.

Marcos’s “state of national calamity” declaration allows the government to disburse emergency funds faster and prevent food hoarding and overpricing.

Storm after storm

The Philippines experiences about 20 typhoons and storms each year.

The country also is often hit by earthquakes and has more than a dozen active volcanoes, making it one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries.

Vietnam, which gets about a dozen typhoons and storms a year, has been pummeled by a relentless series this year, leaving little time to recover between disasters.

Typhoon Ragasa dumped torrential rain in late September, then Typhoon Bualoi slammed the central coast and Typhoon Matmo resulted in flooding in the north.

Together, the three storms left more than 85 people dead or missing in two weeks, and caused an estimated $1.36 billion in damage.

Vietnam is among the world’s most flood-prone countries, with nearly half its population living in high-risk areas.

Scientists warn that a warming climate is intensifying storms and rainfall across Southeast Asia, making floods like this year’s increasingly destructive and frequent.

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A newsreader who gained attention after she made a face while changing the word "pregnant people" to "women" during a live broadcast has been deemed to have broken the BBC's impartiality rules.

During a broadcast in June, Martine Croxall overruled her autocue as she introduced a guest who was about to discuss the groups most at risk during heatwaves.

"Malcolm Mistry, who was involved in the research, says that the aged, pregnant people … women … and those with pre-existing health conditions need to take precautions," Croxall said.

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The public broadcaster's executive complaints unit (ECU) has since found her facial expression during the change expressed a "strong impression of expressing a personal view on a controversial matter".

Croxall's facial expression could lead to the perception of "a particular viewpoint in the controversies currently surrounding trans identity".

After the broadcast, the complaints unit noted Croxall received both critical and congratulatory messages which "tended to confirm that the impression of her having expressed a personal view was widely shared across the spectrum of opinion on the issue".

Harry Potter author JK Rowling, who has been criticised for her controversial views on the trans community, was among those who praised Croxall at the time.

At the time Croxall noted on X that she had gained followers after the broadcast.

The ECU also noted "giving the strong impression of expressing a personal view on a controversial matter, even if inadvertently, falls short of the BBC's expectations of its presenters and journalists in relation to impartiality, the ECU upheld the complaints".

The unit said Croxall was "reacting to scripting, which somewhat clumsily incorporated phrases from the press release accompanying the research, including 'the aged', which is not the BBC style, and 'pregnant people', which did not match what Dr Mistry said in the clip which followed".

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One Australian city enjoying warmer weather today will feel temperatures dramatically plummet by up to 20 degrees tomorrow.

Melbourne saw a maximum of 28 degrees today, with the "feels like" temperature sitting a little lower, around 25 degrees, due to a combination of winds and rain, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. 

Tomorrow, the temperature will drop to a maximum of 13 degrees, but will feel as low as five degrees. 

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Weatherzone forecasts that it will feel colder than eight degrees for most of the day.

This is due to a low-pressure system and associated cold front moving from South Australia to Victoria.

It will reach eastern districts by tonight, bringing a sudden drop in temperature, winds and showers with it.

Meredith, Winchelsea, Derrinallum, Skipton, Ballarat, Ocean Grove, Frankston and Cowes are also in the firing line.

A cooler southerly flow will then extend over the state tomorrow, as the low moves east towards the Tasman Sea.

The cold front may also cause snowfall in the Victorian Alps for the second time this week.

Rain will be lashing the city pretty much non-stop from this evening until about 7pm on Sunday.

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By then, however, the temperature is set to be slightly warmer.

Temperatures are set to reach a maximum of 16 degrees later in the day, but the early hours of the morning will feel closer to five degrees.

Weatherzone said rapid day-to-day fluctuations are fairly common in the springtime in Melbourne.

Temperatures can reach into the 40s in summer, but because a cool change usually follows extreme heat, the average maximum in the warmest month of January is actually 26 degrees.

Similarly, the average maximum for the coolest month of July is 13.5 degrees – similar to how tomorrow will feel.

The maximum temperatures are calculated based on the ambient temperature of the air itself, while the "feels like" temperature is measured by the ambient temperature, humidity, and wind chill to more accurately assess how a person would feel sitting outside in the shade. 

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