Author: Press Room

A Kiwi entrepreneur who held senior roles in Facebook says “it’s hard to say” if the social media platform represents a net good in the world.Leaving Auckland for California, Bowen Pan went on to spearhead the development of Facebook Marketplace from 2014 to 2018. Facebook app log-in screen (file image). (Source: istock.com)He then became a product leader for Facebook Gaming from 2018 to 2020. Q+A asked Pan to reflect on the issues raised by fellow Kiwi Sarah Wynn-Williams in Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism, her memoir where she recounts her time as Facebook’s public…

New Zealand Youth Choir has won the top award at an international competition in Wales.The singers, aged between 18 and 25, have been awarded Choir of the World at the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod in Wales.The choir blends waiata and kapa haka with traditional choral repertoire. It is comprised of around 50 singers and operates on a three-year membership.The award came hot on the heels of another win at the European Choir Games in Denmark earlier in the week, where they won the Grand Prix of Nations, with a score of 97.5 in the Folklore Category.The judges called the New…

Hundreds of homes in the Tasman region remain without power as assessment teams visit flood-damaged properties and tackle a major clean-up ahead.Assessment teams are visiting properties today, focusing on Mārahau, Motueka Valley, Tadmore Valley, Tapawera, Wangapeka, Sherry River Valley, Riwaka, and Brooklyn.The Nelson Tasman region remains under a state of emergency. Parts of State Highway 6 remain closed in the region due to slips and flooding.Currently, 357 households remain without power, according to the Tasman District Council, with work on repairing the network recommencing this morning. Temporary boil water notices are in place for residents of Tapawera, and permanent boil…

A “wall of water” filled with forestry slash has laid waste to parts of a Kaiteriteri holiday park, forcing a daring escape in a digger bucket and leaving locals heartbroken.They say the relentless rain was like nothing they had ever seen and, by mid-afternoon, a torrent of water – waist-high and full of forestry slash – was barrelling through parts of Kaiteriteri’s Bethany Park camp.Picking her way through deep silt, Waka Abel Tasman tourism business co-owner Lee-Anne Jago showed RNZ damage caused to boats, shelters and caravans that were usually stored at the back of the campsite.She said the mess…

Is cash still king? Is it legal for businesses to insist customers pay by credit card or bank transfer? 1News reporter Taylor Rice follows the money to uncover where transaction trends are taking us.Restaurants are deciding to refuse cash payments in a trend that is “growing steadily”, according to the Restaurant Association of New Zealand.The association, with 2000 members across the country, told 1News some restaurants are making the switch to save costs on bank deposit fees, for safety concerns, or for time-consuming reconciliations and to reduce human error.”It’s not just about convenience — it’s a financial and operational decision…

A woman was badly injured when the balcony railing of a Wellington rental collapsed less than an hour after a tenancy began.”My sister leaned back lightly on the railing and all of a sudden the whole thing fell,” Marama Te Kira said. “I didn’t know if she would be paralysed or what her injuries were.”The tenant’s sister landed on a concrete pathway below, bouncing off a wooden planter box on the way down – breaking her sternum and seven ribs, as scans at the hospital would later show.”She was still conscious, but she was just groaning on the ground in…

Dr Philip Polkinghorne’s murder trial revealed the dark secrets of privileged, unhappy lives and inspired a book by journalist Steve Braunias. He describes five haunting memories from the trial. Every day of the eight-week murder trial last winter of Dr Philip Polkinghorne was awful, as in it was a kind of glut of highly memorable awfulness. Polkinghorne’s wife, Pauline Hanna, died in their Remuera home. He said he woke up and saw her slumped forward on a chair with a belt around her neck. She hanged herself, he said, but police very quickly suspected he had murdered her. And so…

Phasing out government assistance for climate adaptation and property buy-outs would be “morally bankrupt”, a climate policy expert says.An independent reference group set up by the Ministry for the Environment on Wednesday released a suite of recommendations to help the government shape climate adaptation legislation.Following a 20-year transition period, homeowners whose houses are flooded or damaged by weather events should not expect buy-outs, the group recommended.The group also recommended that funding for adaptation measures such as flood schemes, sea walls and blue-green infrastructure, should follow a ‘beneficiary pays’ approach in most cases.”This would mean those who benefit most from these…

The cost of damage caused by the latest deluge and flooding in the Nelson Tasman area is expected to run into the millions, with the district’s mayor describing what was initially “a bit of a clean-up job” after last month’s event as now a “complete rebuild”.MetService has lifted a red heavy rain warning for the Tasman district southwest of Motueka while the Nelson Tasman region remains under a state of emergency.Up to 200mm of rain fell in some areas over Friday night into Saturday morning, about 100 homes were evacuated and thousands spent the night without power.Bird’s eye view of…

Published on 12/07/2025 – 8:00 GMT+2ADVERTISEMENTThe Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 forced almost 10 million people to flee their homes, with about 3.8 million displaced within the country and 5.6 million abroad, but most of them want to stay close to their homes, the UN refugee agency’s representative for Ukraine said.The war between Ukraine and Russia is continuing with “increased intensity” so the continuation of international support funding a humanitarian response is crucial, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) representative Karolina Lindholm Billing said on Friday.”At the moment, most who are newly displaced remain within the country and that’s…