Author: Press Room

DFS Galleria has shut its doors, and Smith & Caughey has hosted its last Christmas window. You don’t have to look far to find examples of retailers that have closed their doors in recent times.Now data from Colliers confirms what many shoppers have noticed – there are a lot more empty shops in our main centres’ streets.There has been a jump in the percentage of empty retail spaces, as a proportion of overall space, in both Auckland and Wellington.The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including a big bank’s prediction for interest rates coming down, Trump’s warning over a Gaza peace…

Published on 30/09/2025 – 9:39 GMT+2 ADVERTISEMENT Online users are falsely alleging that anyone seeking to run for president of Ireland requires government backing and that the government actively tried to block those it disagrees with. Ireland’s presidential election is due to take place on 24 October 2025, with three candidates seeking to succeed outgoing president Michael D Higgins: Catherine Connolly, Jim Gavin and Heather Humphreys. This is the smallest number of candidates since the 1990 election. One video, which has been seen more than 100,000 times on X, claims that the ballot list could have been longer had the…

Fast food operator Restaurant Brands has received a full takeover offer from its major shareholder Madrid-based Finaccess Restauración valuing the company at $630 million.Finaccess already owned 75% of Restaurant Brands, which operated the KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Carl’s Jr. brands in New Zealand, the KFC and Taco Bell brands in Australia, the KFC and Taco Bell brands in California, and Taco Bell and Pizza Hut brands in Hawaii.The company had 516 stores located in New Zealand (155), Australia (70), California (71) and Hawaii, including Saipan and Guam (70).Finaccess offered to buy all the shares it did not already…

Spring may be here, but winter is making a brief reappearance with drivers in the South Island warned not to get caught out by snow tonight and tomorrow.A cold front sweeping up from the south was forecast to bring sleety showers, snow and a “noticeable wind chill” to Te Waipounamu, MetService said.”These areas in the south may see snow down to 300 metres but likely falling even lower in Southland, the forecaster said.New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) urged motorists to take extra care and warned snow and ice could catch some drivers off-guard after a stretch of warmer…

ADVERTISEMENT Modern EU equality policies must also address the challenges faced by men and boys, particularly to counter polarisation and backlash against gender equality, Magnus Heunicke, Danish minister of Gender Equality, told Euronews.   “We must include men and boys in our gender equality efforts, not just as allies for women and girls’ rights and empowerment, but in their own right,” Heunicke said, adding that the bloc should increase efforts in areas where men and boys are overrepresented or face gender-specific difficulties, such as health, loneliness, or social exclusion.  The perception among some men that women’s rights threaten their own is…

Workers at Carter Holt Harvey’s Tokoroa plywood plant have been told that 119 jobs will be lost. The company delivered the news to workers this afternoon. The plant was expected to shut down in November. A union delegate confirmed the news to RNZ. He said a handful of workers would keep their jobs to process imported timber. The future of the factory has been up in the air for the last two weeks after the owners began consultations on closing the plant. Owner of Morrissey’s clothing store Larry Sullivan said most of the plywood factory workforce were locals. It was a hard…

An increasing number of electric motorbike riders are using council-owned parks and reserves for riding.A spokesperson for the Hastings District Council said E-motorbikes are heavy, fast, and almost silent.“This makes them a serious risk to parks, reserves, and reserve users,” the council spokesperson said.“An increasing prevalence of electric and other motorbikes has been seen across Hastings, Flaxmere and Havelock North by the community, Council staff and Police over the past few months.“In the past two weeks, one official complaint has been made to the Council about E-motorbikes in Tainui Reserve from a member of the public.”A police spokesperson said a…

Invercargill’s oldest carved meeting house is being returned to its former glory.Invercargill City Council said the decorative wooden carvings at the 100-year-old Te Wharepuni o Anehana in Anderson Park would be removed and restored.Council parks and recreation manager Caroline Rain said the project would also repair structural damage to the building.The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including a big bank’s prediction for interest rates coming down, Trump’s warning over a Gaza peace plan, and the Wallabies get reinforcements for the weekend’s All Blacks clash. (Source: 1News)”With the carvings safely removed, we can get stuck into re-piling the building and repairing…

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s attempts to get bipartisan support for offshore exploration for natural gas has been written off an an “ham-fisted political stunt” by Labour leader Chris Hipkins.  Luxon on Monday wrote to Hipkins, asking him to commit to supporting offshore exploration for natural gas for at least the next 10 years. Speaking to media this afternoon, Hipkins said if the letter was a serious attempt to get bipartisan agreement on energy policy, “it really hasn’t come out that way”. Labour was “certainly open to having conversations with the government”, but he said his party had been clear about…

Labour leader Chris Hipkins says he doesn’t believe a letter from Christopher Luxon asking him to commit to supporting offshore exploration for natural gas for at least 10 years is a genuine attempt at building bipartisan consensus.Prime Minister Christopher Luxon wrote to Labour leader Chris Hipkins asking him to commit to supporting offshore exploration for natural gas for at least the next 10 years.Hipkins told Morning Report it was a “desperate attempt” by Luxon to preemptively blame the previous government if oil and gas companies don’t see the prospect of finding more gas in New Zealand attractive.However, he is waiting…