Author: Press Room

Ukraine’s allies should show Moscow that sabotage “won’t be tolerated,” says senior European diplomat. ADVERTISEMENTRussia was behind up to 100 “suspicious incidents” in Europe this year, the Czech top diplomat has said. The warning comes amid reports that Moscow is increasingly seeking to undermine Ukraine’s allies through cyber, arson and other forms of attack. Speaking to reporters shortly before a meeting with his NATO counterparts in Brussels on Wednesday, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský said Europe must not tolerate such actions. “This year there were 500 suspicious incidents in Europe. Up to 100 of them can be attributed to Russian…

Health commissioner Lester Levy says comments by Labour’s health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall accusing him of allegedly “cooking the books” at the health select committee today “could be considered to be defamatory and we will have a look at that”.Auditor-General John Ryan has revealed that he made two changes to Health New Zealand’s draft financial statements. Health NZ reported a deficit of $722 million dollars for 2024, which was hundreds of millions of dollars short of where it had been forecast.Labour’s Ayesha Verrall had accused the Health Commissioner of a career of “cooking the books”. (Source: 1News)In a statement to 1News,…

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is requesting $47 billion (€45 billion) to help 190 million people globally. ADVERTISEMENTThe UN humanitarian aid agency will be “ruthless” when prioritising how to spend dwindling funds to help civilians in war zones such as Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine, its new chief said on Wednesday.The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) issued its global funding appeal for 2025, seeking $47 billion (€45 billion) to help 190 million people in 32 countries — although it estimates 305 million worldwide need help. Tom Fletcher, a longtime British diplomat who…

Cycling NZ’s contentious handling of a young mountain biker’s selection for the Paris Olympic Games has been revisited during the inquest into the death of elite track cyclist Olivia Podmore.Warning: This story discusses mental health and suicide which may be distressing to some readers.The Coroner’s court in Hamilton on Wednesday heard from Cycling NZ chief executive Simon Peterson, who took the helm of the organisation in February 2023 in the wake of a second major inquiry into the sport in three years.The inquiry was instigated following the tragic loss of Podmore, who died in August 2021 in a suspected suicide.Peterson…

The centre-right European People’s Party is claiming credit for a one-year delay to a regulation blocking EU market access for products linked to deforestation, although it failed in its attempt to further water down the law despite support from the far-right. ADVERTISEMENTThe EU Deforestation Regulation will not take effect until the end of 2025, giving companies an extra year before having to certify their goods are not linked to forest clearance further up the supply chain, following an agreement between the European Parliament and national governments on Tuesday night.The back room agreement between the MEPs and EU Council delegates came…

Lotto’s Powerball jackpot has grown to $17 million after no tickets won this evening. The winning numbers were: 23, 35, 17, 6, 7, 20, bonus ball 39, and Powerball 6.However, one lucky MyLotto player from Canterbury won $1 million with Lotto First Division.Meanwhile, one player from Whangārei won $200,000 with Strike Four. The winning Strike ticket was sold at New World Regent in Whangārei.

A southern council is defending its $34,000 spent on a wallaby hunt despite never finding the rogue animal.In September, Environment Southland was notified of a reported sighting near the Waiau River control gate in Te Anau Basin, prompting an extensive search.While droppings were discovered which likely belonged to a wallaby, the culprit was never found.This week, the Taxpayers’ Union released a LGOIMA response from the council showing the cost of the hunt tallied $34,216, including both contractor and staff costs.That excluded money spent by Tipu Mātoro National Wallaby Eradication Programme, which also assisted in the search.Environment Southland integrated catchment management…

Ukraine has a new way of countering Moscow’s increased use of Shahed drones in mass attacks — redirecting them back to Russia or into the airspace of Kremlin-friendly Belarus. ADVERTISEMENTWhile Moscow might have been producing more drones to attack Ukraine, Kyiv has found a way to crash them or send them back where they came from. On Sunday night, Russian forces launched 110 Shahed drones and other decoys against Ukraine. Some 52 of them were shot down by Ukraine’s air defence forces, while 50 were deemed “lost” — not shot down deliberately by the air defence, and they did not reach their intended…

Businesses in central Auckland are calling for an inquiry into Auckland Council’s “incompetent” management of the City Rail Link project after a leaked document revealed it could face yet another delay.The document was mistakenly published as part of the agenda for Tuesday’s Audit and Risk Committee meeting.It was removed soon after, but not before its contents were published by the New Zealand Herald.It detailed the council’s lack of confidence in French contractor VINCI Grand Projects and calculated a 50% chance the CRL would miss its November 2025 completion date. The City Rail Link was originally set to open in 2021.Shobhana…

By Felix Walton of RNZ Tickets for some Air New Zealand flights could be more expensive next year, with the airline running fewer flights on some domestic routes. Authorities and businesses in Gisborne and Rotorua fear the changes, though temporary, could stunt their growth. Aviation Industry Association chief executive Simon Wallace attributed the need for cuts to the changing business landscape. “When it comes to business travel and certainly when it comes to business travel at a domestic level, we’ve got Zoom, we’ve got Teams,” he said. “I think of my own personal circumstances. I’m not travelling as much within…