Author: Press Room

The police officer shot in the head and shoulder during a confrontation with fugitive father Tom Phillips is recovering in hospital, where he remains unable to open his eyes but has managed to share a few laughs with visitors.The rural Waikato officer was critically injured early on Monday morning after approaching Phillips’ quad bike, which had crashed following a police pursuit and the deployment of road spikes.As the officer arrived, Phillips opened fire with a “high-powered rifle”, striking him in the head and shoulder.A second officer responded and fatally shot Phillips at the scene.Aerial footage shows the aftermath of the…

By Susan Edmunds of RNZ While the farming sector may be the one economic bright spot at present, it isn’t stopping some provincial areas from suffering heavy job losses, new data shows. Stats NZ’s business employment data for the June quarter, released on Tuesday, showed the number of filled jobs dropped 10,000 in three months, and that there are now 50,000 fewer jobs than in December 2023. Construction lost 2315 jobs in the quarter, or 1.3 percent. Accommodation and food services was down 1.2 percent or 1869 percent, and administrative and support services was down 1.4 percent or 1337 jobs. Since December…

It will take time for the sequence of events in the Marokopa case to be established, and rightly so, writes criminology lecturer Ross Hendy.Police found two children, alone at a camp site in a remote location, after their fugitive father was shot dead during a burglary early on Monday morning. The death of Tom Phillips came after almost four years on the run, hiding out in dense bush in the North Island’s western Waikato region.Parallels have already been drawn with the ongoing search in Victoria for alleged police killer Dezi Freeman, who remains on the run and is believed to…

Accidental activations of emergency locator beacons are increasing, costing thousands of dollars in wasted resources.Maritime NZ’s Rescue Coordination Centre search and rescue officer James Simpson told RNZ’s Midday Report the “inappropriate” disposal of locator beacons has resulted in call outs to landfills and transfer stations.”That’s detracting from our core business of responding to genuine alerts,” he said.Simpson said ownership of locater beacons had increased in New Zealand, meaning their disposal rate, and their wrong disposal rate had increased.He said it was costing not only money but time.”It depends entirely on where the beacon is located and how easy it is…

Concerns have been raised about the “undue influence” a problem-plagued Dunedin liquor store owner could be having over the operation of two of her businesses. Patricia McCarthy has been in hot water many times over the operation of her liquor stores — including selling to underage customers, selling without a licence and court proceedings. Her daughter Corrina McCarthy now operates the Bottle-O stores in Andersons Bay and Kaikorai Valley and is seeking to renew their liquor licences, but authorities are worried Mrs McCarthy is really running them. The two separate off-licence renewal applications, by McCarthy Enterprises Ltd and Jethro Holdings…

A man has been charged in relation to the theft of a bronze sculpture from a Christchurch community centre which was allegedly turned into scrap metal.Acting Detective Sergeant Steph Trengrove said police were first alerted to the theft from the Mt Pleasant Community Centre on June 6. The sculpture, Flight, was created by renowned Christchurch sculptor Llew Summers in 2018 and was valued at $95,000.Standing at 2.2 metres tall and weighing 2.2 tonnes, the work of art depicts a large bird in flight. Flight was the final major bronze work completed by Summers before his death in 2019 at the…

Published on 09/09/2025 – 17:49 GMT+2 ADVERTISEMENT European lawmakers called for carmakers to sustainably dispose car parts once they become useless when they voted to adopt a European Parliament committee report in Strasbourg on Tuesday. New vehicles should be designed taking into account the easy removal of as many parts and components as possible by authorised treatment facilities, according to the proposed law.  According to official EU data, around 6.5 million of the total 285.6 million motor vehicles on EU roads come to the end of their lives every year. MEPs backed the report on the circularity requirements for vehicle design…

ADVERTISEMENT More than a million hectares of EU forest burned this year by the end of August, according to data provided by the Copernicus satellite, used for Earth observation. This is almost five times larger than the area affected by forest fires in the EU the previous year.  The most affected member states were Portugal with 3% of territory burned, Cyprus with 2,3% and Spain with 0,8%.  In recent years, the European Commission has positioned standby teams managed by the Emergency Response Coordination Center, to assist member states. In 2025, a pool of 22 planes and 650 firefighters was made available by 14 member states.    “The goal here is…

Police are asking for the public’s help as it continued to investigate a crash between a motorcycle and a car that killed one person near Dunedin last week. Emergency services were called to the scene of the crash on East Taieri-Allanton Road at around 1.30pm on Thursday, September 4. “Sadly, one person died at the scene,” police said. The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including new details about the end of the Marokopa search and how the injured officer is doing, plus Banksy’s new politically charged artwork. (Source: 1News)Today, Detective Darrin Healy said police wanted to hear from anyone driving…

ADVERTISEMENT The World Health Organization (WHO) projects that the European Union will face a shortage of 4.1 million healthcare workers by 2030. Factors such as low salaries and poor working conditions are often cited as reasons for the mismatch between the supply and demand. Health and social care is one of the EU sectors with the most evident structural labour shortages, according to a Eurofound study. In 2023, there were approximately 3.7 million practising nurses and 172,000 practising midwives in the EU, the latest Eurostat figures showed.   Among EU countries, Germany recorded the highest absolute number of nurses and midwives…