The McBishops grandson in law, Ford O'Connor, has pleaded guilty to vandalising the rainbow crossing on Karangehape rd.


 No doubt the McBishop will stump up with the fleecings from his faithful flock to pay the fine...


https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/5142...pay-16-000


"The pedestrian crossing was covered in white paint more than two weeks ago, just days after the rainbow crossing in Gisborne was vandalised.
Ford O'Connor, 31, appeared at the Auckland District Court Monday morning and entered a guilty plea.
Destiny church leader Brian Tamaki addressed the media outside earlier, saying O'Connor was married to his granddaughter and was a member of the church.
Community magistrate Jan Holmes said she gave credit to the accused for the early plea and his willingness to pay the approximate $16,000 for cleaning the crossing.

No further penalties were imposed and O'Connor was discharged with conviction.
Prior to the man's arrest, police had said they were treating the vandalism as a hate crime.

Hate crimes, while recorded by police, are not stand alone offences but are seen as a motivating factor.

Police's working definition of a 'hate crime' is as any offence that is perceived, by the victim or by any other person, to be motivate by hostility or prejudice based on a person's characteristic.
This can be race, religion, sexual orientation, gender/transgender identity, disability, or age.
Last week Auckland Pride called for a restorative justice approach to the offending, focusing on repairing relationships between victims, offenders, and the community while at the same time keeping considerations of justice in mind."

The man responsible was being treated for mental health problems. Six people including a young mum, are dead & 8  including a 9 month old baby, are being treated for injuries. A senior police officer was first on scene & when the suspect lunged at her, she shot him dead.
Which probably saved more lives.


https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-australia-68805458

CCleaner tells me  "You have 11 outdated drivers" is it safe to ask them to "Resolve" the problem?.

Its that time of year again, i took a cutting off the tree that my parents neighbours had coming over the fence.
That thing was prolific but getting way too big so they cut all the branches away and still got plenty of fruit falling on their side.
My cutting is now about 5 years old and is growing fast, have picked two full bags of the things this week alone and its only a small bush.
Biggest downside with these trees is the amount of pruning they require so they dont get out of hand!

Get a bit tired of these headlines,  but at least it's something different to the hundreds of stories about pervoskite panels.

https://www.ecoticias.com/en/most-powerf...panel/788/

It sounds like Israel is presently receiving some retribution from Hezbollah and has retaliated against the source of the missiles in Lebanon. Iran has threatened action against Israel following the attack on its consulate in Damascas last week so escalation of military action is that area is hardly unexpected.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/...ity-attack

Oil prices have topped USD90/barrel as would be expected with unrest in the Middle East and gold prices are surging as markets clamour for economic safe haven. The world is restless.

It seems highly unlikely, but its got the McBishop annoyed so it can't be all bad....


https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/...To9RTjtL4p



"  Under New Zealand law, churches are exempt from paying tax, but Luxon has left the door open for changes.

"We will certainly be looking at things like that this term, yep," he said.

Android Gurus, please help!

Phone:  Galaxy A72   -Android 14  One UI version 6.0

There was a QR Code scanner before, and was working OK.  My phone recently updated to One UI 6.0 and now I couldn't find any QR scanner.

Read that the Camera has built in QR code scanner, but when I pointed the camera at the QR Code. nothing happens.  It doesn't scan the Code.

It is enabled in the Camera settings -- just checked. 

What shall I do?  

Do I need to install a third party QR Scanner?   If so, which one to recommend?

Its difficult to avoid that conclusion given their actions. This just looks very much as though they want to encourage wealthy people to own more & more rental properties as a means of maintaining & increasing their wealth, & never mind about the tenants.

Things are done differently in some European countries; its not uncommon for several generations of a family to rent the same property, that would probably work well here too.


https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/...713e&ei=10

ÔÇ£The Green Party says the Government's new rental changes prove "it does not care about renters, which is a majority of people in Aotearoa".┬á ┬á┬á
On Thursday, Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced an overhaul of the tenancy laws - including reintroducing 90-day no-cause evictions and making several changes to notice periods in a move meant to "encourage landlords back to the rental property market".      
The changes mostly affect periodic tenancies and include reintroducing 90-day "no cause" terminations, returning landlords' notice periods for ending a tenancy to 42 days under certain conditions and returning tenants' notice to 21 days. The Government is also reintroducing landlords' ability to give notice to end a fixed-term tenancy at the end of the term without requiring a specific reason.   
While Bishop said the changes will encourage more landlords into the market and put downward pressure on rents, the Greens see it differently.    
Party housing spokesperson Tamatha Paul slammed the changes, saying they give the majority of New Zealanders "little hope".     
"We have a Government that thinks it is running a company not a country, and treats housing as a business. 
"Housing is a human right, and every person deserves a warm, safe and affordable home, whether they own that home or not."   

She accused the Government of being "pro-self-interest" and not for tenants. 
"Homeownership rates in New Zealand have drastically reduced over the past three decades, with more and more children growing up in rental housing and more and more elderly New Zealanders struggling to make ends meet while paying high rents," Paul said. "