Author: Press Room

While Dunedin may have narrowly missed out on securing a major music festival, the man in charge of the city’s stadium says it is not the only event in its sights. Organisers announced yesterday Hamilton had been selected as the new home of the Jim Beam Homegrown music festival – with Dunedin singled out as a close second choice. The annual festival has been held on Wellington’s waterfront since 2008. Homegrown Events Ltd managing director Andrew Tuck said yesterday the proposal to move the event to Dunedin ‘‘held firm and was in our final top two until the bitter end’’.…

ADVERTISEMENTCardinals have wrapped up their pre-conclave meetings in the Vatican, trying to identify a possible new pontiff to follow Pope Francis who died on 21 April at the age of 88.The 133 cardinal electors from 70 countries seem fundamentally united in insisting that the question before them isn’t so much whether the Catholic Church gets its first Asian or African pontiff or if he is a conservative or progressive. Rather, they say the primary task is to find a pope who can be both a pastor and a teacher and someone who can unite the church and preach peace.”We need a superman!”…

A Dunedin-born film-maker says it would be ‘‘absolutely devastating’’ to the country’s film industry if Donald Trump gets his way. The United States President announced in a post on his Truth Social platform on Monday he was authorising the Department of Commerce and the country’s trade representative to ‘‘immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% tariff on any and all movies coming into our country that are produced in foreign lands’’. ‘‘We want movies made in America, again!’’ Shares in some US streaming and production companies, including Netflix, fell following the announcement, but the White House later said ‘‘no…

Qantas has announced that direct flights between Perth and Auckland will take off later this year. Flights between Auckland and Western Australia’s capital would begin in December. The airline also added flights between Perth and Johannesburg, South Africa. Flights from Auckland to Perth, operating as QF112, would take place on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays with an approximate flight time of 8 hours. Perth to Auckland flights would operate as QF111 on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. The approximate flight time was around six hours and 45 minutes. Both flights would use Qantas A330 aircraft with 27 business class seats and 224…

ADVERTISEMENTSpace is getting increasingly crowded and experts are sounding the alarm.In a report, the European Space Agency said around 1,200 pieces of rocket and satellite debris fell back to Earth last year.And as 54,000 space junk pieces larger than 10cm remain floating around the planet, the organisation adds that they are even increasing in “number and size.”Other experts argue the rate of returning objects could reach 15 a day within ten years.Reasons include a rise in satellite launches, particularly by SpaceX and China, as well as heightened solar activity, which slows down space objects, causing them to decay faster.”The cascading…

Three people are in hospital after a house fire in Christchurch this morning. Emergency services were called to Warrington Street in Mairehau at around 8.05am. Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) initially responded with two trucks.”Upon arrival, they found a fire well ablaze on the ground floor of a two-storey house,” FENZ said. Two more trucks from Anzac and Redwood stations were dispatched to the scene. The fire was contained at 8.27am. St John sent three ambulances, one rapid response unit, and one operations manager to the scene. Ambulances at the scene of this morning’s fire. (Source: 1News)Medical crews assessed…

ADVERTISEMENTGreece has been urged to implement stronger legal safeguards at its borders and adopt a “zero-tolerance approach to summary returns” as reports of illegal deportations of migrants continue in the face of mounting international criticism, the Council of Europe (CoE) has said.Michael O’Flaherty, the CoE’s commissioner for human rights, issued the recommendations following a visit to Greece in February.”The commissioner is concerned about the allegations received during his visit regarding persistent practices of summary returns — also referred to as ‘pushbacks’ or ‘informal forced returns’ — at both land and maritime borders,” a memorandum said.”Returning people without carrying out an individual…

The National Party has introduced a new members’ bill to ban social media for those aged under 16. Christopher Luxon announced the bill alongside National Tukituki MP Catherine Wedd this morning. My Social Media Age-Appropriate Users Bill will put the onus on social media companies to verify users are over the age of 16. (Source: 1News)Wedd said the My Social Media Age-Appropriate Users Bill “puts the onus on social media companies to verify that someone is over the age of 16 before they access social media platforms”.Key aspects of the Bill would include obligations for the social media platforms, defence…

ADVERTISEMENTMicroplastics range in size from 5 mm to microscopic levels, and there is scientific evidence that they contaminate soil – which can harm agriculture – and that leakage into waterways and the sea leads to ingestion by animals, including fish, which in turn are consumed by humans.According to some scientific studies, the inadvertent consumption of microplastics can pose health risks, such as reduced fertility and cancer. The public is aware of these dangers and wants the bloc to adopt stricter measures.“I heard that microplastics can even penetrate the cerebral cortex, a part of our brain. When they enter our bloodstream, they seriously…

A trail-blazing tribal leader today starts a new job bringing together eight iwi to look after Taranaki Maunga.Iwi now have equal say with the Crown in running the former Egmont National Park.The Minister of Conservation will need iwi agreement to approve management plans for what is now called Te Papa-Kura-o-Taranaki.Wharehoka Wano will lead Te Tōpuni Ngārahu – a new body of representatives from the region’s eight iwi – to govern the park alongside the conservation minister.The arrangement is laid out in Te Ture Whakatupua mō te Kāhui Maunga, the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Act, passed unanimously by Parliament in January.Another…