The 18-year-old is one of several prominent young Black Ferns fighting to retain the title and secure New Zealand’s seventh World CupBack in 2022, Braxton Sorensen-McGee was in the Eden Park crowd to watch the heart-stopping semi-final between France and New Zealand. The then 16-year-old, at the ground with her school team, remembers the moment of relief when a last-minute French penalty goal attempt drifted wide, allowing the Black Ferns to scrape through to the final of the Women’s World Cup. In another gripping contest against arch-rivals England, New Zealand went on to win the tournament.Now, Sorensen-McGee hopes to play a decisive role in retaining the title. After a breakout 2025, the 18-year-old is the youngest member of the Black Ferns squad, who take on Spain on Monday morning (NZT) in their opening act of the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup, hosted by England. Continue reading…

The president’s attacks on the Smithsonian Institution and other museums have become an effort to redefine why such places exist.

Rotorua and Taupō in northern New Zealand are home to geothermal pools that can heat up to 90C To get to the geothermal pool of the Squeeze near Taupō in New Zealand, you need to kayak across a lake and wade through a stream pinched between the narrow walls of a canyon. As she walked through the forest to get to the pool, Carmen Chan could feel the mud between her toes getting warmer.“It was such a visceral way to be in the forest,” Chan says. The pool had a hot waterfall, the steam from which created a fogginess “like an Indiana Jones adventure” – even though the real world, golf courses and highways, was only 6km away. A decade after that first trip, the now 32-year-old Chan is still hooked. The doctor regularly goes to local hot springs to soak her feet after a long shift at Rotorua hospital. Continue reading…

The federal program supports universities with high numbers of Latino students. Trump officials said they wouldn’t defend it against a lawsuit, which could effectively end the program.