AUCKLAND, New Zealand — New Zealand’s unexpectedly soft economic landing from the Covid-19 pandemic has continued with a further fall in the unemployment rate. In figures released by Stats NZ on May 5, New Zealand’s joblessness dropped to 4.7 percent in the March quarter. Unemployment sat at a 12-year low of 4.0 percent prior to the arrival of Covid-19, which saw unemployment peak at just 5.2 percent in September last year. Both that peak and subsequent falls have defied the expectations of Treasury and economic analysts. Finance Minister Grant Robertson claimed the figures showed the government’s economic recovery plan was working. “The government’s plan…
Author: zenger.news
SYDNEY — Almost two-thirds of Australians think the coronavirus vaccine rollout is not being handled well, as per a new study. The Australian National University‘s Centre for Social Research and Methods, which surveyed more than 3000 adults, asked one group if the process was “going well” and another whether it was “fair”. The survey found only 3.6 percent of people thought the vaccine rollout was going very well. A further 32.7 percent believe it is going “somewhat well”, while 42.5 percent said it is going “not too well” and 21.2 percent “not going at all well”. In the second group, 32.4 percent of…
PERTH, Australia — A 17-year-old Perth girl has been charged after police allegedly found a package that was supposed to contain AUD 16 million ($12.5 Million) of heroin stashed in her bedroom closet. The Australian Federal Police began an investigation in April after their Chinese counterparts tipped them off to a series of packages headed for Australian shores. The National Narcotics Control Commission (NNCC) and the Guangdong Narcotics Control Board (NCB) in China were working on nabbing the culprits for dealing in multiple consignment transfers between the two countries. Some 254 blocks of heroin, weighing more than 74 kilograms, were switched…
CANBERRA, Australia — Australia’s construction industry continues to grow at close to record highs as a successful government initiative leaves its mark on home building activity. While the Australian Industry Group/Housing Industry Association performance of construction index eased 2.7 points in April, at 59.1 it indicates the sector remains comfortably in expansion territory. The index reached a record high in March. “Australia’s construction sector continued to power ahead in April led by house building and engineering construction,” Australian Industry Group head of policy Peter Burn said. “Across the industry, employment and new orders were both higher in April.” Housing Industry Association…
DARWIN, Australia — The Northern Territory is hoping population growth will speed up its economic recovery after delivering a better-than-expected budget on the back of a massive increase in national Goods and Services Tax revenue forecasts. The 2021/22 budget delivered on May 4 revealed an AUD 1.35 billion ($1.04 billion) deficit and net debt of AUD 9 billion ($6.95 billion), the equivalent to 122 percent of revenue. It’s an AUD 1 billion ($0.77 billion) improvement on last year’s forecast for 2021/22, which predicted the deficit to be AUD 1.7 billion ($1.31 billion), with net debt of AUD 10.1 billion ($7.80 billion).…
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Two years ago, Richard Mutende, 33, was arrested and charged with marijuana possession and sentenced to serve three years in jail at the Chikurubi Prison, a maximum-security facility on the outskirts of Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital. He was to finish his sentence in November, but on April 17, he walked to freedom six months earlier, thanks to an amnesty by President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa. Mutende was part of more than 320 convicts at Chikurubi Prison released early by Mnangagwa to curb the spread of the Covid-19 in the country’s overcrowded prisons. Zimbabwe’s prisons have a capacity of 17,000 prisoners…
NEW DELHI — After months of waiting for an opportune time for a theatrical release amid the raging Covid-19 pandemic, a Bollywood film is taking the hybrid route to reach an audience. Come May 13, film star Salman Khan’s “Radhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai” will become the first big-budget Hindi extravaganza that will have a multi-format release. The movie will also have a wide theatrical release internationally, giving the audience the flexibility to watch it whenever they want. Covid-induced innovation “The pandemic forced us to innovate,” Shariq Patel, chief business officer, Zee Studios, said in April. A Salman Khan Films spokesperson said in…
NAIROBI, Kenya — The past one month has been a difficult one for Richard Lijoki, who lives in Mathare, a slum in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, and works as a waiter in a small restaurant in the city’s central business district. This is after Kenyan President Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta locked down Nairobi and four neighboring counties over rising Covid-19 cases. Kenyatta also revised the start of curfew times in these regions from 10 p.m. to 8.00 p.m.—which did not suit Lijoki’s schedule. He would leave work early to avoid confrontation with police officers enforcing the curfew. He would walk every day using…
NEW DELHI — Swati had been searching for a hospital bed in or around India’s capital Delhi for three days, somehow managing to keep her husband, who was infected with Covid-19, breathing. “After searching endlessly for three days, I got to know about a Sikh group providing free [medical] oxygen in Indirapuram [a satellite town near Delhi],” Swati told Zenger News. “I was refused oxygen everywhere in Delhi and had to come here out of desperation.” Her husband got the oxygen, but the delay proved to be too costly as he died shortly after. Many like Swati have been turning to…
The Nebra Sky Disc, a famous Bronze Age astronomical clock, will be displayed at the British Museum in London from June to October, on loan from Germany. The artifact is said to be the oldest portrayal of the cosmos. The 3,600-year-old disk, which has been restored, is currently on exhibit at the State Museum of Prehistory in Halle, Germany, through May 16. The Nebra Sky Disc after restoration. (State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt, J. Liptak/Newsflash)In return for the Nebra Sky Disc, the British Museum will loan high-ranking artifacts, including the solid gold Mold Cape — considered the…