Author: Press Room

Former Prime Minister and SIS minister Helen Clark has questioned New Zealand’s continued involvement in the Five Eyes intelligence network, describing it as “out of control”.It comes amid traditional allies and partners of the United States showing increased concern about how long-standing relationships are being handled by President Donald Trump. In an interview with Q+A, Clark said the Five Eyes had strayed beyond its original brief of being merely a coordinating group for intelligence agencies in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand. “There’s been some talk in the media that Trump might want to evict Canada from it……

Ukrainian soldiers say there needs to be compromises on both the US and Ukraine’s parts to bring about a possible end to the war. ADVERTISEMENTSoldiers of the 92nd Assault Brigade of Ukraine reflected on Saturday on the public spat between US President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a day prior.A soldier nicknamed “Edo” told the Associated Press that “many politicians don’t even know what’s happening her, which is why conflicts like the one that happened yesterday arise”.Edo says that everyone should do their part, soldiers should only focus on fighting, and politicians should travel and negotiate to ensure…

Residents who were evacuated from Waipoua will begin to return home from tonight after a large vegetation fire was contained, Fire and Emergency NZ says.It also confirmed that New Zealand’s largest known living kauri tree, Tāne Mahuta, was safe.The fire remains 91 hectares in size with a 5.8km perimeter.Incident Commander Phil Larcombe said an “extensive firefighting effort” over the last five days had contained the blaze.”Today’s objective is to keep it that way.”Ninety-six firefighters and heavy machinery were targeting hot spots, which overnight thermal imaging showed had dropped in temperature.Larcombe said the goal was to go “big and hard” over…

Hundreds of car enthusiasts descended on Christchurch this weekend, with police out in droves to make sure all the extra cars didn’t cause mayhem on the city’s streets.The Chrome Expression session runs between February 28 and March 2 at the Euromarque Motorsport Park and purports to be the country’s “biggest and baddest horsepower festival”.A strong police presence was felt across the Garden City on Friday night with officers monitoring impromptu car meets and conducting roadside checks.One large gathering on Moorhouse Ave was broken up as police descended with lights and sirens, ensuring no illegal activity could take place.Sergeant Ben Rutherford…

European officials continue to express their solidarity with Ukraine after a highly tense meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy in the White House escalated into a shouting match. ADVERTISEMENTThe last day of February 2025 will be remembered, very likely for decades to come following Friday’s shocking debacle in the Oval Office, as US President Donald Trump and VP JD Vance, berated Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a highly anticipated meeting.What started out as a calm and normal meeting later escalated with Vance accusing Zelenskyy of being ungrateful and disrespectful to the United States, as Zelenskyy urged the US to continue standing by…

Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson says she believes her party is uniquely positioned to cut through the “dominant, divisive politics” despite several traditional left-leaning political parties falling out of favour globally.Davidson, who’s nine months into her breast cancer recovery, spoke to Q+A earlier today, claiming that New Zealand could be a “leading light” with her party’s brand of politics.”There are some very real frustrations that some political leaders are exploiting and pitting people against each other, when instead, New Zealand can be a leading light.”We have proven time and time again that we resist that divisive, hateful politics that the…

Grammy-nominated R&B singer Angie Stone, a member of the all-female hip-hop trio The Sequence and known for the hit song Wish I Didn’t Miss You, was killed in a car crash. She was 63.About 4am Saturday (local time), the vehicle she was riding in back to Atlanta from Alabama “flipped over and was subsequently hit by a big rig,” music producer Walter Millsap III told The Associated Press in an email.Everyone else in the cargo van survived except Stone, he said.Millsap said he learned the news from Angie Stone’s daughter, Diamond, and longtime The Sequence member Blondy.Stone was scheduled to…

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon expects Associate Education Minister David Seymour to give problems with the new school lunches programme his “full attention”.RNZ has reported concerns raised by multiple schools about the lunches being late, inedible, repetitive, or failing to meet dietary restrictions.Speaking to reporters in Vietnam, Christopher Luxon described them as teething problems.”David Seymour will work his way through those issues — he’s minister responsible for it and I expect he will, and I know that he’s well aware of the challenges and working his way through what have been some teething issues up front, but he will work his…

Microsoft’s email service, Outlook, appeared to be affected by a global outage on Sunday. According to Downdetector, a site which monitors internet outages, nearly 75,000 people across the world reported being unable to access Outlook. There were also nearly 1000 reports of Microsoft 365 outages too. In a post on X – formerly known as Twitter – Microsoft said it was investigating an issue in which users may be unable to access Outlook features and services. “We’re reviewing available telemetry and customer provided logs to understand the impact. “We’ve confirmed this issue is impacting various Microsoft 365 services.”

The government is expanding powers for the police and courts in hopes of keeping firearms from gangs and high-risk offenders.From Sunday, police have been given new search powers to check compliance with Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPOs).Courts will also be given expanded criteria to apply FPOs, and a process has been set up for orders to be modified or removed.Justice Minister Mark Mitchell said the move demonstrated this government was taking law and order seriously.”The changes in the Act mean courts will be able to issue FPOs to any gang member or associate convicted of a significant offence, and police will…