World News – Page 19

February 17, 2026

Our Changing World: Science for future fashion

Senior technician Sean Taylor displays the new solution for mounting sensors onto smart clothing. RNZ

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Over the last three decades the rise of fast fashion, and the explosion of plastics in our clothes like polyester and nylon, has created sustainability and environmental issues.

Globally 92 million tonnes of textile waste is produced each year, and an estimated half a tonne of unwanted clothes is sent to landfills in New Zealand every five minutes. The fashion industry is a major contributor to carbon emissions, and each wash of petroleum-based textiles produces more microplastic pollution that gets into our waterways.

Enter the European UPWEARS project, which aims to use science and innovation to tackle these problems.

Future fashion

“We are expecting to have a totally new, sustainable and innovative supply chain for the textile industry,” says Dr Yi Chen.

UPWEARS is a four-year, €7 million (NZ$13.7m) research project involving 14 partners from seven countries, one of which is New Zealand’s Bioeconomy Science Institute. While the project is led by the French national research institute INRAE, Yi is the UPWEARS New Zealand lead, based on the Institute’s campus in Rotorua (previously Scion).

It is a lofty goal. One that they have split into different sections to tackle; replacing plastic-based yarns with natural ones that will biodegrade, creating new textile processing technologies that are more energy efficient, designing smart sensing ‘e-textiles’ and figuring out if there’s a way to recycle existing textile waste.

Bioeconomy Science Institute

The project is funded by Horizon Europe, the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation. New Zealand can bid for funding by applying with European partners and the New Zealand government pays back to Horizon Europe what is received in grants.

This international collaboration is key, says Yi. The Bioeconomy Science Institute has expertise in biomaterial development, and the campus has biodegradation facilities that will be vitally important for later in the project to test whether the clothing they create can break down. The European partners bring state-of-the-art research facilities like particle accelerators and large-scale additive manufacturing, as well as textile industry knowledge.

The project kicked off in November 2024 with a meeting in France and the next gathering will take place in Rotorua in 2027.

At that stage, they hope to have produced a prototype example of ‘clothing of the future’ – a smart cycling suit with built-in sensors capable of analysing your sweat or environmental conditions. All made from natural fibres that can be reused or biodegrade at the end of the clothing’s life.

Dr Kate Parker at the Bioeconomy Science Institute’s biodegradation facility. RNZ

Creating clever yarn for smart clothing

In one of the chemistry labs on campus Dr Robert Abbel holds up a clear plastic bag with two fibres inside. One is a pale-yellow colour. This is what their European partners send to him – samples of the natural-based yarns they have developed made from hemp and European flax.

The other is a dark black colour, a result of Robert’s efforts to make this yarn able to conduct electricity.

To do this he makes use of a molecule called lignin which is naturally found in wood but is stripped out as waste in the paper-making industry. But Robert has found a way to put this waste to use.

“We process the lignins into nanoparticles and then give them a high temperature, so-called carbonisation, treatment. So they turn into carbon. That means they get conductive. And then we deposit them on the yarns in order to make the yarns conductive so that they can be woven into functional textiles.”

Their collaborators will use these conductive yarns in their aim of creating smart textiles – sensors that are part of the clothing that can monitor different health or environmental markers, such as breathing and heart rate, or air pollutants.

But they will need something to mount these sensors on, and work is underway on that too in Rotorua.

Dr Robert Abbel has been working on how to make the natural fibre yarn conductive using the waste product lignin. RNZ

Putting paper-making skills to new use

Senior technologist Sean Taylor spends much of his time in one of the oldest labs on campus. Once it would have been used to investigate how best to make paper out of wood pulp. Now Sean is applying this knowledge to new research questions.

Cellulose, the main strengthening component of wood, is the most abundant polymer on Earth, and is the basis of papermaking. Now, Sean says, while demand for paper production seems to be waning, there’s growing interest in using cellulose to replace plastic polymers wherever possible.

Sean has been combining cellulose from different sources (different tree species have different length cellulose fibres) with waste lignin to produce a paper-like material that’s stiff, robust and water resistant. Perfect to mount a sensor on for this new smart clothing.

As well as this innovation around biomaterials, some of the Rotorua-based UPWEARS team are also investigating whether there are solutions for existing textile waste.

End of life

In a garage-like space at the back of the campus, Louise Le Gall flicks leavers and pushes a satisfyingly-large red button to switch the big yellow extrusion machine on.

As it hums to life, she explains that it uses a combination of heat and mechanical pressure exerted by two turning screws to melt and mix whatever is fed into it. Louise is currently researching whether she will be able to give used textiles a new lease of life using this machine.

Louise Le Gall is the materials engineer tasked with try to figure out how to recycle waste textiles into 3D printer filament. RNZ

The goal is to take different types of materials and use them to create 3D printing filament, but it is all about characterising what you are working with, she explains.

“You have to know how to play with the parameters to obtain the product you want at the end. So in the case of the UPWEARS project, we have some textile waste. You can have nylon, you can have polyester, you can also have cotton. And our goal is to find which parameter we’re going to choose to mix all that together in the machine, without burning one material and melting the other.”

If it works, they’ll use this recycled textile filament to 3D print padding to be used in the sportswear. Which the team are hoping will be ready for a test run in Whakarewarewa Forest Park in Rotorua in 2027.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

February 16, 2026

Benefits of intermittent fasting ‘fail to match the hype’, major review finds

Source: Radio New Zealand

Intermittent fasting has become a popular phrase in dieting, promising to boost metabolism, shed body fat, and even help reduce the risk of diabetes, hypertension and obesity.

From the 5:2 diet to the eight-hour feeding window, it has become a hot topic for researchers to study and internet personalities to promote.

But intermittent fasting regimes “fail to match hype” for significant loss and reducing health risks in people who are overweight, according to a major review of studies by the Cochrane Collaboration.

Fasting is prevalent among the Indian community.

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Are these the worst wellness trends of the year?

Wellbeing

Review author and physician Eva Madrid, a professor at the University of Valparaiso, said intermittent fasting was no better than following regular dietary advice, or in fact doing nothing at all, for losing weight.

“The key takeaway is that intermittent fasting is not a miracle solution, but it can be one option among several for weight management,” she said.

What is intermittent fasting?

The phrase is an overarching term for cycling periods of normal eating and drinking with times where little to nothing is consumed.

Fasting is promoted by some wellbeing personalities for its ability to encourage the body into “metabolic switching”, where the body relies more heavily on fat stores for energy.

Intermittent fasting is not recommended by health experts for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding, people with eating disorders, people with diabetes or children.

“Given that obesity is a major public health challenge, we wanted to assess, rigorously and independently, whether intermittent fasting actually offers meaningful benefits compared with more conventional dietary advice,” Madrid said.

The types of fasting looked at in the review included the 5:2 diet, popularised by TV presenter Michael Mosley, which encourages participants to eat normal calories five days per week but restricts calorie intake to about 500 calories, the other two days.

Other strategies examined were abstaining from food for 16 hours per day in a method called “time-restricted eating” and fasting on alternate days.

How intermittent fasting studies stack up

The Cochrane team analysed evidence from 22 randomised clinical trials involving 1,995 adults across North America, Europe, China, Australia, and South America.

The review compared the effects of fasting strategies for overweight and obese people with traditional dietary advice that emphasises calorie restriction and eating fruit, vegetables, and whole grains, or with no dietary guidance at all.

According to the analysis, intermittent fasting made little to no difference in weight loss, and little to no difference to quality of life compared to the other two approaches.

The authors also raised concerns about the study designs including how people were randomly assigned to groups and adherence to the diets.

Most studies were also limited to white populations in high-income countries so results couldn’t be extrapolated for other groups.

In addition, most trials included in the review lasted fewer than 12 months, limiting conclusions about long-term sustainability of doing intermittent fasting.

The authors recommended future research should include information about participant satisfaction, diabetes status and long-term loss of lean body mass (weight loss that does not include body fat).

Weight loss doesn’t equal other health improvements

Leonie Heilbronn, who leads the Obesity and Metabolism Lab at the University of Adelaide, said intermittent fasting often provided similar outcomes to reducing calorie intake.

“When you do either a fasting diet or a daily reduction in calories, both of them result in about the same amount of body weight loss. So no arguments there,” she said.

But she said intermittent fasting had some additional benefits that surpassed simple calorie restriction.

“Having that more prolonged fasting period…increases fat burning and allows more rest and repair type mechanisms to start repairing the body.”

However, she thought some methods were less effective than others.

“I think time-restricted eating is a milder intervention than intermittent fasting, in terms of weight loss.”

Luigi Fontana, a professor of medicine and nutrition at University of Sydney said it could be difficult to interpret studies about intermittent fasting, particularly when managing compliance by participants.

Fontana, who studied diets similar to 5:2, said his research showed that people on intermittent fasting did lose some weight, but health risk factors such as blood pressure, glycaemic control and inflammation did not improve.

“Unlike with moderate daily caloric restriction with optimal nutrition, losing weight through intermittent fasting did not automatically translate into broader metabolic benefits,” he said.

Diets alone not answer to long-term benefit

All diets, whether they involve calorie restriction or intermittent fasting, may only deliver short term results, Heilbronn said.

“They are really hard to maintain long-term and it’s not just because you don’t have the willpower.”

She said changes in hunger hormones and energy expenditure could conspire to make you regain weight.

“It’s your body fighting back.”

Fontana recommended combining dietary interventions with regular exercise for longevity of results.

“Whenever you lose weight with any type of diet, you are lowering your resting metabolic rate, and are more prone to regaining weight.

“If you want good results, combine three days per week of resistance exercise like weightlifting and another two or three days a week of endurance.

“Whether that’s running, biking, swimming, cycling — whatever will increase your resting heart rate and your respiratory rate.”

Ultimately, for someone seeking weight loss, it’s about calorie intake and energy output.

“The broader takeaway is that sustainable results come from how consistently a diet can be followed and from the overall nutritional pattern — not from fasting per se,” Fontana said.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

February 15, 2026

Is Wuthering Heights actually romantic? Heathcliff would say no

Source: Radio New Zealand

Emerald Fennell’s film of Wuthering Heights, starring Australian actors Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff and Margot Robbie as Catherine, bills itself as the “greatest love story of all time”. A poll of British readers agreed.

But what would Heathcliff think?

Heathcliff, if you’ve not read the book, seen one of the many adaptations, or heard Kate Bush’s iconic song, is the protagonist of Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë’s sole novel (published originally under the pseudonym Ellis Bell). He’s the ethnically ambiguous foster child of the Earnshaw family, who live in the titular Wuthering Heights on the windswept, desolate Yorkshire moors: the backdrop for his obsessive, doomed relationship with his foster-sister Catherine.

The new film poster evokes a romance ‘clinch cover’.

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. The novel’s narrator, housekeeper Nelly Dean, chastises him for how badly he’s treating her. Isabella loves him, Nelly tells Heathcliff reproachfully, or she would not have abandoned the comforts of her home in the warm, welcoming, comfortable Thrushcross Grange to marry him and live him in the cold, dreary Wuthering Heights.

“She abandoned them under a delusion,” Heathcliff sneers in response, “picturing in me a hero of romance, and expecting unlimited indulgences from my chivalrous devotion.”

Here, Heathcliff explicitly rejects the idea he is any kind of romantic hero. However, for more than a century, he has been interpreted as one, with his intense connection with Catherine – a passion that endures long past her death – captivating audiences.

Indeed, this kind of romantic positioning is evident on the film poster, depicting Heathcliff and Catherine. It is strongly reminiscent of a “clinch cover”: common among historical romance novels published in the late 20th and early 21st century (most infamously associated with male model Fabio).

Plenty of modern readers agree with Heathcliff’s self-assessment, though. “Heathcliff from ‘Wuthering Heights’ isn’t a romantic anti-hero,” reads the headline of one article by Christopher Shultz, “he’s a f#$%ing monster”.

A romance?

People regularly claim Wuthering Heights as their favourite romance novel, to the exasperation of romance readers and writers. It might be considered a love story, but Wuthering Heights is not a romance.

This is clear if we look at it against the (embattled) Romance Writers of America definition: a romance novel needs a central love plot and an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending. Other 19th-century classics fit the bill – Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, for instance – but Wuthering Heights does not.

Even the biggest fans of the book would probably not argue Heathcliff and Catherine’s relationship is in any way healthy.

Warner Bros Pictures

The love story between Heathcliff and Catherine is certainly the element of the book most readers remember – and, indeed, many adaptations focus on it almost entirely. However, the couple are never actually together in any formal way, and their tortured relationship consumes surprisingly little page space.

Notably, Catherine dies approximately halfway through the book. While Heathcliff is tormented by grief for the rest of it, the primary action shifts to their children. This makes it difficult to argue theirs is a “central” love story.

Given Catherine’s death and Heathcliff’s subsequent misery, it is also difficult to make a case that Wuthering Heights has an optimistic ending.

The book ends with a potentially happy union between Catherine’s daughter (also named Catherine) and her cousin Hareton, and the suggestion Heathcliff and his Catherine might be wandering the moors together as ghosts. This is arguably emotionally satisfying – they are together in death the way they were never in life – but not really optimism, especially taking into account the many lives they destroyed along the way.

Dark dynamics

So – if Wuthering Heights is not a romance per se, can we argue that it is romantic?

This hinges on how we define romantic. There’s no doubt that it’s Romantic, with a capital R. Wuthering Heights is deeply influenced by Romanticism, a literary and artistic movement which emphasised intense feeling and passion over logic and reason.

Modern conceptions of romance, though, place more of an emphasis on intimacy, closeness and overall functionality. Britain’s Romantic Novel of the Year awards, for instance, require a “healthy relationship dynamic between the main characters” – and even the biggest fans of the book would find it hard to argue Heathcliff and Catherine’s relationship is in any way healthy.

This said, some of the most popular romance subgenres at the moment revel in dynamics which are – like Heathcliff and Catherine’s – dangerous, intense, destructive and toxic. Dark romance is the most notable example.

Amoral people, illicit passion

As English professor David Shumway notes in his book Modern Love, romantic love was long considered a “destructive passion” – something that was a threat to marriage, rather than its building block. He writes:

In the nineteenth century, romance became grafted onto marriage, but it has never become entirely at ease with the union. This combination produced a tension within the discourse because [romance’s] essential characteristics derive from adulterous love.

Wuthering Heights was published in 1847, right in the middle of the 19th century. In it, we see this tension between companionate marital love and adulterous passion played out. Catherine swears repeatedly that she loves her husband Edgar, but this is at best an uneasy love: a pale shadow of the immense, destructive passion she has for Heathcliff.

“You loved me — then what right had you to leave me?” Heathcliff demands of Catherine on her deathbed.

you have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine.

The appeal of a genre like dark romance – of which Wuthering Heights is surely an ancestor – is its excessive intensity. While dark romance today ends happily, the intensity of Heathcliff and Catherine’s adulterous passion might have been muted if they had ended up together in romantic bliss – and, as a result, this book might not be half so compelling.

Speaking broadly, Heathcliff and Catherine are two mostly amoral people who bring destruction to the lives of everyone around them (as well as each other). Whether or not we consider it “romantic”, it is the force of their illicit passion that has made Wuthering Heights memorable.

Jodi McAlister received an Romance Writers of America academic grant in 2019.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

February 14, 2026

Why being hopeful is more radical than ever now

Source: Radio New Zealand

The most radical thing that you can do right now is hope, according to acclaimed British playwright Simon Stephens.

Best known for his Tony and Olivier award-winning adaption of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Stephens says sharing an experience with people who you might disagree with politically, ideologically or culturally has never been more radical than now.

“It’s an increasingly rare thing nowadays to go and sit in a room with people you don’t know and share an experience, to look in the same direction and engage in the same story together … to turn your phone off and look in the same direction with people who you not only might not know, but if you did know them, you might not agree with them about some things,” Stephens told Saturday Morning.

Playwright Simon Stephens accepts the award for Best Play for “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” onstage at the Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall on 7 June, 2015 in New York City.

Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions / AFP

.”

He admits it may sound “hopelessly romantic”, but he truly believes it.

Despite the challenges theatre has faced, especially since Covid, it needs to persevere, he says.

He draws a parallel with the decade following the World War II – a period when playhouses across Europe were physically and financially devastated. Yet by 1956, the works of the likes of Irish playwright Samuel Beckett and German playwright Bertolt Brecht felt like a creative revolution, he says.

“Part of me thinks 2026 could have the same optimism.”

Simon Stephens: World’s most hopeful playwright

Saturday Morning

Stephens is drawn to the observations of actor and writer Peter Ustinov, who reiterated that an optimist was a person who understood how sad and miserable the world could be. But facing the world with that knowledge is brave, Stevens says.

“I always take the notion that optimism and hope will always be the radical option,” he says.

“It’s always been difficult. It’s not the most difficult time ever. It’s a time which is kind of charged with a grip of a kind of neoliberal technology that’s like paralysing people’s imagination and leading people into a polarised position of fear, and that is monetising fear and monetising polarisation.

“There’s a rank dishonesty and a kind of like unapologetic capital drive to that that I kind of have a fair contempt for, but I think what happens when you go to a theatre, what happens when you go to a gig, what happens when you look at art, proper art, what happens when you engage in real storytelling is you realise the complexities and the nuance of the world, and you realise that there is a determination in the kind of human spirit to keep going.

“You realise that polarisation is a pernicious lie and that the nature of the human animal is really one of contradiction and complexity and uncertainty and that’s the thing that theatre can provide. That’s what theatre is for. It’s what it’s always been for.”

Now one of the world’s most performed living writers for theatre with over 45 plays to his name, Stephens didn’t actually aspire to have a show on in London’s West End when he was younger.

“The writers who most inspired me when I was a teenager, when I was a kid, were songwriters. I kind of went to the type of school that if you kind of like admitted to somebody that you wanted to be a writer or that you liked English or you like reading or you like writing, you just get thumped.

“So, the one art form that allowed a kind of celebration of linguistic expression was songwriting.

“It was only when I was in my 20s that I realised that I had a really quite singularly terrible singing voice and that I was never going to make it as a singer-songwriter. And it was also then that I started going to the theatre for the first time and realised the kind of like kinetic connection between the two art forms, the liveness and the unpredictability, the volatility.”

Stephens is hosting the inaugural Playwrights Workshop as part of the Auckland Theatre Company’s new three-year masterclass project.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

February 13, 2026

The dangers of living by your ‘love language’

Source: Radio New Zealand

Do you need words of affirmation? Quality time? Acts of service? Gifts? Or physical touch?

Figuring out your “love language” has become one of the most successful relationship ideas of the past two decades. Why? Because the idea is simple, flattering and easy to apply.

While incredibly popular and often used as a “go-to” tool on first dates, recent research suggests that the idea lacks strong scientific evidence for its central claims.

Gary Chapman’s five love languages – words of affirmation, quality time, receiving gifts, acts of service, or physical touch – are based on his reported experience working with couples as their pastor.

Moody Publishers

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Introduced by Gary Chapman, an American Baptist pastor, author and marriage counsellor, in his 1992 book The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts, the idea is now a dominant framework in modern relationship advice.

Instead of scientific theory, love languages function like a culturally appealing system that individualises relational strain, obscures power and substitutes a checklist for the harder work of understanding how relationships actually function over time.

A simple idea replacing scientific evidence

The popularity of love languages is exactly what makes them an archetype of bad pop psychology as they package a complex set of relational processes into a simple idea, providing a memorable vocabulary, and then get treated as explanation, diagnosis and solution all at once.

Most notably, this framework emerges from a pastoral counselling context rather than systematic research, and its core claim — that people have a stable primary language that should be matched for relational success — doesn’t apply well to how relational needs operate.

Figuring out how you give and receive love has become one of the most successful relationship ideas of the past two decades.

Hiveboxx / Unsplash+

People typically value all five domains: quality time, words of affirmation, receiving gifts, acts of service and physical touch. They shift depending on stress, life stage, illness, caregiving demands and conflict history.

What gets named as a “primary” language is often better understood as a moving indicator of current deprivation – “this is what I’m not getting” – and not a durable trait. Because the categories are broad and emotionally resonant, they also invite the Barnum effect, in which the model feels deeply accurate precisely because it is flexible enough to fit most people most of the time.

When intimacy becomes a simplified checklist

Another problem with the five love languages is what they do to how people think about relational support. They turn intimacy into a problem of translation: if you just deliver the right behaviours in the right format, your partner will feel loved.

That can push couples toward transactional care (“I did your language, so you should be satisfied”) and away from curiosity and context (“What is happening for you this week? What support do you actually need?”). It also promotes a form of individualisation in which relational issues become framed as mismatched preferences instead of relational processes that require ongoing work.

Once the label enters the relationship, it can function like a conversational dead end.

It also doesn’t seriously address conflict regulation, responsiveness or how couples cope under stress, all of which are areas where relationship science has far more to say. Many “love language” conflicts are not actually about the absence of gifts or affirmation, but are about chronic misattunement, uneven emotional labour, perceived disregard or an unsafe climate.

The structural conditions love languages ignore

Love languages can also obscure power and normalise inequality.

Some categories are easily folded into gendered divisions of labour, like how acts of service and emotional affirmation often land on women as feminised care work, while other partners receive the benefits without addressing uneven burdens.

The framework also sidesteps structural constraints like poverty, disability, illness, class and religious norms that shape what is possible.

When someone is overworked, sick or carrying the relationship’s invisible labour, the problem is rarely that their “language” is being spoken incorrectly. It is these relational and structural conditions make mutuality difficult, and “speaking languages” can become a way to manage the symptoms while leaving the conditions untouched.

The model is also particularly risky where consent and vulnerability are involved. Physical touch as a love language, for example, can be used to moralise access to someone else’s body, especially in contexts of sexual pleasure, coercion, post-partum recovery, trauma or chronic pain.

The love languages framework tends to treat touch as an unambiguous good instead of a context-sensitive practice shaped by consent, safety, timing and bodily autonomy.

Getty Images / Unsplash +

The love languages framework tends to treat touch as an unambiguous good instead of a context-sensitive practice shaped by consent, safety, timing and bodily autonomy. (Unsplash)

What sustains relationships beyond labels

The love languages framework tends to treat touch as an unambiguous good instead of a context-sensitive practice shaped by consent, safety, timing and bodily autonomy in health contexts like having cancer, disability, medication changes and depression. Intimacy largely shifts because bodies and conditions shift.

A model that encourages partners to “deliver touch” can easily misfire when what’s needed is patience, alternative sexual scripts and coordinated coping, not increased physical contact as proof of love.

Above all, love languages only thrive because they are marketable. They offer the satisfaction of self-knowledge, compatibility narratives and quick fixes.

Relationships, of course, are not solved by personalisation alone. Importantly, they are shaped by mutual responsiveness, practical and emotional equity, the ability to repair after harm and the capacity to adapt to changing bodies and lives.

If love languages are useful at all, it is as a thin starting vocabulary for talking about care, and not as a diagnostic framework or substitute for confronting misattunement, power and the real conditions that make intimacy sustainable.

Maha Khawaja is a PhD Student at McMaster University.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

February 12, 2026

James Van Der Beek was synonymous with Dawson. This is why he embraced it

Source: Radio New Zealand

A beloved early 2000s heart-throb, Dawson’s Creek actor James Van Der Beek never shook off the character that shot him to fame.

But how he leaned into it, playing himself in Don’t Trust the B in Apartment 3 and numerous other cameos, enshrined his legacy as one of TV’s most sensitive leading men, baring his soul on and off the screen.

“It’s tough to compete with something that was the cultural phenomenon that Dawson’s Creek was,” he told Vulture in 2013.

“It ran for so long. That’s a lot of hours playing one character in front of people. So it’s natural that they associate you with that.”

James Van Der Beek, star of Dawson’s Creek, has died. The news was shared in an Instagram post.

Instagram

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Van Der Beek’s family announced on Thursday morning that he died of colorectal cancer, which he told fans he was receiving treatment for in 2024.

“Our beloved James David Van Der Beek passed peacefully this morning,” a statement from the actor’s family on Instagram read.

“He met his final days with courage, faith and grace. There is much to share regarding his wishes, love for humanity and the sacredness of time.

“Those days will come.”

Iconic characters

Van Der Beek’s first major film role was in Varsity Blues, playing a second-string high school quarterback who rises to the challenge when the star suffers an injury.

His character, Mox, yearns for a college education to escape his small Texas town, where football is everything.

“I don’t want your life,” he screams in one of the film’s most recognisable lines.

While still a cult classic to many ’90s kids, for most people, he will be forever tied to Dawson’s Creek, playing the titular character Dawson Leery from 1998 to 2003.

The clip of Dawson bursting into full, body-shaking tears as the breeze blows through his hair in the finale of season three became one of the most infamous GIFs of all time, replicated millions of times in online conversations.

The scene was the peak of a seasons-long story arc about Dawson watching his soulmate, Joey, played by Katie Holmes, get together with his best friend, Pacey.

The stars of Dawson’s Creek: Joshua Jackson, Katie Holmes, James Van Der Beek, and Michelle Williams.

Photo12 via AFP

“It wasn’t scripted that I was supposed to cry; it was just one of those things where it’s a magical moment and it just happens in the scene,” Van Der Beek told Vanity Fair.

“All of a sudden, six years of work was boiled down to one seven-second clip on loop.”

Yet in life after Dawson’s Creek, he came around to embracing the character that resonated with so many, even recreating the scene for a skit on Funny Or Die.

Van Der Beek played a fictionalised version of himself as well as cameos as Dawson Leery in several shows and movies.

The most prominent was his role in Don’t Trust the B in apartment 23, which ran for two seasons from 2012.

As a parody of himself, his character was arrogant, self-centred, and shamelessly self-promoting, taking on increasingly bizarre roles to try restarting his career.

James Van Der Beek plays himself in Don’t Trust the B in Apartment 23.

Getty Images/Kelsey McNeal

‘Clown in a leading man’s body’

He also made a cameo as himself in the movie Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, and played Dawson Leerey in Scary Movie.

“The more you make fun of yourself and don’t try to go for any kind of respect, the more people seem to respect you,” he told Vanity Fair in 2011.

“I’ve always been a clown trapped in a leading man’s body.”

Between 2003 and 2013, he made appearances in shows like Criminal Minds, One Tree Hill, and How I Met Your Mother.

He also co-created and played Wesley “Diplo” Pentz, a dull but likeable music producer in the mockumentary satire on Viceland, What Would Diplo Do?

Van Der Beek tried his hand at several reality television competitions, too, becoming a fan favourite on the 28th season of TV contest Dancing with the Stars, finishing fifth overall.

His dance partner, Emma Slater, wrote a tribute on Instagram about their lasting friendship.

“I’m so grateful for you and all you have done for me. Your kindness, patience and empathy for others is unmatched,” she wrote on Instagram.

Last year, he was revealed to be the Griffin on The Masked Singer after two performances.

James Van Der Beek shared this photo with his daughter two weeks before his death.

Supplied/Instagram

Vulnerability shared online

His emotional side, which was immortalised in many tributes from former co-stars and friends, came across in his personal social media accounts, depicting his family’s life in Texas with wife Kimberly Brook and six children.

Van Der Beek’s Instagram account was known for beautifully shot photos of his children and long, heartfelt captions.

“She turned 7 yesterday. My little gem of a human,” he wrote in a post about his daughter’s birthday last year.

“Every time you wrap those tiny arms around my neck for a hug, I revel in how blessed I am to be your dad, and how lucky I am to know you at this age.”

A photo of his family shared on the star’s Instagram.

Instagram/James Van Der Beek

In March last year, he wrote a long tribute to his wife for helping him through his illness.

“There were many moments this past year when the only thing you could’ve done … and the most helpful thing you could’ve done … was to just allow me to be exactly where I was at in my process,” he wrote.

“As agonizing as it was for you. That took a strength I don’t know that I have. As much as it’s sucked to be me at times… I’d wouldn’t for a second have traded places — and not because I’m that altruistic — because I don’t think I could have taken it.”

In his final months, he continued to share about navigating his illness online.

In a post late last year, Van Der Beek spoke about how he found comfort in meditating outside and urged people over 45 to get an early detection test for colorectal cancer.

“If I had caught it early.. The what ifs are a slippery slope,” he said in a video while sitting cross-legged under an oak tree on his property.

“I would like to save anybody I could from having to go into that what-if spiral.”

He walks with one of his sons, tossing a football around.

“The sooner you know it when it comes to cancer, the better off you’ll be.”

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

February 12, 2026

A new wave of romance scams is washing across the internet – here’s how to stay safe

Source: Radio New Zealand

Romance scams are among the most emotionally damaging forms of cybercrime because they combine carefully manufactured intimacy with financial theft – the scammers go after your heart, and then your wallet.

Scammers use common dating apps to find victims and start online relationships, then trick their victims into buying fake cryptocurrency.

Importantly, the romance scammers’ toolkit has changed in recent years. Artificial intelligence (AI) has lowered the cost of impersonation. Convincing profile photos can be generated in minutes, affectionate conversations can be auto-generated, and “proof” of identity can now be faked through voice and video.

These days, convincing profile photos can be generated in minutes, affectionate conversations auto-generated, and “proof” of identity faked.

cottonbro studio / Pexels

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In the lead-up to Valentine’s Day, dating apps get busier. So how can we stay safe from romance scammers?

Anatomy of a romance scam

Romance scams rely on a small number of psychological levers, applied repeatedly. Finding their victims online through various platforms, romance scammers accelerate intimacy, often expressing strong feelings unusually early. Then, they isolate their target.

Often, the entire romance scam quite literally follows a script and plays out like this.

First, the “dating” profile of the scammer appears highly credible. Scammers use attractive photos – increasingly AI-generated or stolen – paired with plausible personal details and consistent messaging.

Second, the scammer pushes to move the conversation off the app. WhatsApp, Telegram or text messages are pitched as more convenient or more private. This shift is key. Once the victim has been persuaded to move the communications off the dating app, they lose access to built-in safety features that could help to protect them. If they’re using their real email address or phone number, this also potentially exposes more of their personal details to the scammer.

Third comes the financial request. The scammer may cite a believable excuse – travel problems, banking issues, family emergencies. But it’s not always an urgent plea for help. Many scams now evolve into investment fraud, where victims are steered into fake profit-making opportunities, often involving cryptocurrency.

Victims may be encouraged to invest “together” or are shown screenshots of supposed past profits. Because the scam is framed as a shared future rather than a request for cash, it can go unrecognised.

It’s harder to tell who’s a real person

Treat investment advice or requests for money as a bright-red flag.

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AI strengthens these tactics by making the scams much easier to scale up. Automated tools allow scammers to maintain frequent, emotionally warm conversations across multiple victims with minimal effort.

For years, video calls functioned as an informal identity check. If you could see someone talk and respond in real time, you would feel confident you were talking to a real person.

Now, generative AI-powered deepfakes – artificial video or audio designed to imitate a person – are increasingly accessible for scammers to use.

A simple face-swapping or voice-cloning tool can be persuasive over a short call. The scammer only needs enough plausibility to move a conversation past doubt. When the victim is already emotionally invested, they ignore red flags more easily.

How can you stay safe online?

While AI makes romance scams more convincing, effective defences do exist.

You can still date online safely – as long as you stay vigilant and follow some easy steps to verify the people you engage with.

Slowing the relationship down remains one of the strongest ways of protecting yourself. If you spend more time talking to the person, there’s a chance some inconsistencies will surface. Besides, scammers get tired quickly.

Keep conversations on the dating platform for longer. Don’t cave into early pressure to move off-platform, and treat this as a potential red flag.

Make sure you identify the person across different platforms. Use reverse-image searches, which can expose stolen or synthetic photos. A genuine person usually has a broader, consistent digital footprint beyond a single curated profile.

Treat investment advice or requests for money as a bright-red flag. This is the most important advice. If someone you have never met in person begins steering you toward cryptocurrency, trading platforms or guaranteed returns, disengage.

Never send intimate images to someone you haven’t met and verified. Financial scams can also quickly pivot to blackmail.

If you have already transferred money, acting quickly matters. Contact your bank immediately and report the incident to Scamwatch or the National Cyber Security Centre. Early reporting can reduce losses and help authorities disrupt larger networks.

Remember that romance scammers are highly skilled at appearing trustworthy, so “trusting your gut” or relying on your feelings won’t necessarily help you.

As generative AI tools proliferate, verifying what’s real online is getting harder. So take things slowly, check details in different places, and – by far the most important step – avoid anything that turns a romance into a money request, no matter how infatuated you might be.

Tony Jan is a Professor of Information Technology and Director of Artificial Intelligence Research and Optimisation (AIRO) Centre, Torrens University Australia.

Where to get help

Help

Need to Talk? Free call or text 1737 any time to speak to a trained counsellor, for any reason.

Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 / 0508 TAUTOKO. This is a service for people who may be thinking about suicide, or those who are concerned about family or friends.

If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

February 12, 2026

Dawson’s Creek star James Van Der Beek dies aged 48

Source: Radio New Zealand

Actor James Van Der Beek, best known for his role in popular 90s TV show Dawson’s Creek, has died.

“Our beloved James David Van Der Beek passed peacefully this morning. He met his final days with courage, faith, and grace,” read a statement shared to Van Der Beek’s official Instagram page on Thursday (NZ time).

“There is much to share regarding his wishes, love for humanity and the sacredness of time. Those days will come. For now we ask for peaceful privacy as we grieve our loving husband, father, son, brother, and friend.”

Can hairdressers spot skin cancer?

Wellbeing

In 2024 Van Der Beek announced he had been diagnosed with colorectal cancer.

At the time, the actor told US media outlet People magazine that he had been working in film and television as he “navigates his care”.

“And I have been taking steps to resolve it, with the support of my incredible family,” he said. “There’s a reason for optimism and I’m feeling good.”

Van Der Beek rose to fame for his role as Dawson Leary in the teen drama series Dawson’s Creek and is also known for his roles in the show Varsity Blues and CSI: Cyber.

The cast of hit teen drama, Dawson’s Creek, which aired from 1998 to 2003.

Photo12 via AFP

Dawson’s Creek co-star Busy Phillips said her heart was hurting deeply for all.

“Every person who knew James and loved him, anyone who loved his work or had the pleasure of meeting him, all of his dear friends and community that surrounded him as he battled this illness, especially his parents and brother and sister,” she wrote on Instagram.

Phillips went on to say: “James Van Der Beek was one in a billion and he will be forever missed and I don’t know what else to say. I am just so so sad. He was my friend and I loved him and I’m so grateful for our friendship all these years.”

Van Der Beek made a surprise virtual appearance at a Dawson’s Creek reunion charity event in September last year, having been forced to pull out of the live event due to a stomach virus.

“I can’t believe I’m not there. I can’t believe I don’t get to see my cast mates, my beautiful cast in person,” he said in the emotional video.

“I wanted to stand on that stage and thank every single person in this theatre for being here tonight.”

He is survived by his wife, Kimberly, and their six children, Olivia, Joshua, Annabel, Emilia, Gwendolyn and Jeremiah.

James Van Der Beek, star of Dawson’s Creek, has died. The news was shared in an Instagram post.

Instagram

What is colorectal cancer?

Bowel cancer – also known as colorectal or colon cancer, affects the colon and rectum.

Bowel cancer develops when there are a series of mutations to the cells that line the bowel, which results in the uncontrolled growth of those cells, according to Bowel Cancer New Zealand.

Initially, these cells develop into polyps which are growths that can be flat or grow on stalks from the bowel wall. These growths are more common as people get older. Although most polyps never develop into bowel cancer, some can if left undetected.

New Zealand has one of the highest rates of bowel cancer in the world. More than 3000 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer each year and over 1200 will die from the disease,

Ninety percent of bowel cancers are curable if caught early.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

February 12, 2026

Samoa authorities detain NZ passport holder following marijuana seizure at airport

Source: Radio New Zealand

Samoa Customs and police found the 43-year-old man in possession of six bottles containing marijuana and other drug paraphernalia. 12 February 2026 Samoa Government

A 43-year-old Samoan national holding a New Zealand passport has been detained in Apia after allegedly being found with 90 grams of marijuana and drug paraphernalia, local authorities said on Thursday.

The man, who resides in Australia, arrived on a Fiji Airways flight on Thursday and was allegedly found in possession of six bottles containing marijuana, along with a cannabis grinder and rolli.ng papers..

He was intercepted during routine border clearance processes at Faleolo International Airport and is in custody for further investigations and questioning, the Ministry of Customs and Samoa Police said in a joint statement.

“The items, which are deemed prohibited goods, were detected during standard screening and examination processes conducted by frontline Customs officers. The substances and associated paraphernalia were seized in accordance with the Customs Act and Narcotics Act,” the statement said.

According to the Samoa Customs CEO, the seizure reflects the agency’s ongoing commitment to protecting Samoa’s borders from the importation of illicit drugs and prohibited goods.

“We continue to utilise risk profiling, intelligence, and screening technologies to safeguard our communities from the harmful impacts of drugs,” the Customs CEO was quoted as saying.

The Customs Ministry said the importation of illicit drugs and related paraphernalia into Samoa is strictly prohibited and carry severe penalties under local laws.

It added that travelers to the country are urged to declare all goods accurately and to familiarise themselves with Samoa’s import restrictions prior to travel.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

February 12, 2026

Cyclone Gezani tears through Madagascar, kills at least 31

Source: Radio New Zealand

By Lovasoa Rabary, Reuters

An aerial view of the city of Toamasina. TSIKY SIKONINA

Fierce winds have left a trail of destruction in Madagascar as Tropical Cyclone Gezani hit the island, killing at least 31 people and leaving another four missing, the country’s disaster management office says.

Of the deaths, 29 were recorded in Toamasina, the impoverished Indian Ocean island nation’s second-largest city, and two in a neighbouring district, the National Bureau for Risk and Disaster Management (BNGRC) said in an updated report.

Residents in and around Toamasina described scenes of chaos as the cyclone made landfall late on Tuesday (US Time).

“I have never experienced winds this violent… The doors and windows are made of metal, but they are being violently shaken,” Harimanga Ranaivo said.

Gezani also left at least 36 people seriously injured. More than 2,740 residents were evacuated as a precaution after the cyclone struck coastal communities before moving inland.

The cyclone’s aftermath displaced another 6,870 people, while a total 250,406 were classified as disaster victims, the BNGRC said.

It was the second cyclone to hit Madagascar this year, 10 days after Tropical Cyclone Fytia killed 14 and displaced over 31,000 people, according to the UN’s humanitarian office.

A general view of the city of Toamasina, on the east coast of Madagascar, struck by Tropical Cyclone Gezani on February 11, 2026. TSIKY SIKONINA

Dangerous winds, rising sea levels

At its peak, Gezani unleashed sustained winds of about 185km (115 miles) per hour, with gusts surging to nearly 270km per hour – powerful enough to rip metal sheeting from rooftops and uproot large trees.

Ahead of the cyclone’s arrival, officials shuttered schools and rushed to prepare emergency shelters.

The BNGRC had warned earlier that rising sea levels in Toamasina were already flooding streets.

Homes collapsed under the pressure of the winds, roofs were torn away, walls crumbled and neighbourhoods were plunged into darkness as power lines snapped.

By Wednesday (US Time) morning, Madagascar’s meteorological service said Gezani had weakened to a moderate tropical storm and had moved westward inland, about 100 km north of the capital, Antananarivo.

“Gezani will cross the central highlands from east to west today, before moving out to sea into the Mozambique Channel this evening or tonight,” the service said.

– Reuters

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand