Author: Press Room

KiwiBank has cut some of its home loan and term deposit interest rates, effective today.Its six-month fixed special rate has been reduced by 16 basis points and is now 5.99%. The one-year fixed special rate has been reduced by 24 basis points and is now 5.55%. The two-year fixed special rate has been reduced by 14 basis points and is now 5.45%. Special interest rates require minimum 20% equity.Its one-year rate is the lowest of the major banks. For standard rates, the six-month fixed term rate has been cut 16 basis points and is now 6.89%. The one-year fixed term…

The clean up is continuing in Mangawhai with the council beginning to clear rubbish from the berms of the most affected areas.Sunday’s tornado left a trail of destruction in its wake.Kaipara District Council chief executive Jason Marris said many residents had already begun shifting rubbish to berms and the council would begin picking up hard commercial waste from the most affected areas on Tuesday.Locals left cleaning up after the mayhem while MetService says such weather events are tricky to track.   (Source: 1News)Marris said the council would organise more than one sweep and there would also be a collection of…

Investors sold off a host of technology stocks from Tokyo to New York on Monday, as they worried that the emergence of a low-cost Chinese artificial intelligence model would threaten the dominance of current AI leaders such as Nvidia.  Startup DeepSeek launched a free AI assistant last week that it says uses less data at a fraction of the cost of incumbent services and by Monday DeepSeek’s assistant had overtaken US rival ChatGPT in downloads from Apple’s app store. The news led the tech-heavy Nasdaq to fall more than 3%, with leading AI chipmaker Nvidia its biggest drag with its shares tumbling…

Police are appealing for information from witnesses after a person was stabbed in the neck at a bar in Palmerston North last night. Officers were called to a bar on Main St after reports of an altercation between a small group of people around 11.30pm. “Upon arrival one person was located with a stab wound to the neck, requiring hospital treatment,” a police spokesperson said. In a statement, St John said it sent one operations manager, one ambulance, and one rapid response unit. “Our crews assessed and treated one patient in a serious condition, but we were not required for…

By Anneke Smith of RNZ  The government’s move to loosen visitor visa rules has already piqued overseas interest from some Americans who have lost their homes in the Los Angeles fires. From this week, ‘digital nomads’ – like IT specialists and social media influencers – can apply for a visitor visa to live and work in New Zealand for nine months. The National Party campaigned on the change ahead of the last election and is now hoping it will boost visitor numbers and interest from overseas businesses. “The government’s ambition is that new visa rules will put New Zealand boldly on…

A Wellington bus lane camera has racked up nearly a quarter of a million dollars in fines for drivers in just over a month.On December 9, new fixed cameras began operating on Riddiford St, Adelaide Rd in Newtown and Chaytor St in Karori.The Riddiford St bus lane runs near the Wellington Regional Hospital.Riddiford Street bus lane in Wellington. (Source: rnz.co.nz)Between December 9 and January 17, 1475 tickets were issued for people driving on the lane which led to $221,250 worth of fines being dished out.It was significantly more than the Adelaide Rd bus lane nearby that raised $26,250 over the…

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte called on alliance members to step up their defence spending beyond their common goal of 2% of their GDP, ADVERTISEMENTNATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned on Monday that Russia was “trying to destabilise” countries in the Alliance as he called on members to increase defence spending. “To guarantee our security in the future we also need to ramp up our efforts now,” Rutte said in a joint briefing alongside Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro, as he visited Lisbon on Monday. “We also know that the goal of 2%, now set a decade ago, will not be enough…

Revocation of coverage of Pacific Edge’s flagship product by a United States healthcare provider has been delayed two months. In a note to the NZX yesterday, the cancer diagnostics company said an update offered no explanation but followed representations by Pacific Edge to Novitas, its parent company GuideWell, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of the General Counsel (OGC), and incoming political leadership to have the local coverage determination revised or withdrawn. Earlier this month, Medicare administrative contractor Novitas, which has jurisdiction for Pacific Edge’s US laboratory, denied coverage…

After a half-century of public silence, a freelance photographer from Vietnam has asserted he took one of the most renowned and impactful photos of the 20th century — the image of a naked girl fleeing a napalm attack in South Vietnam that has long been credited to a staff photographer from The Associated Press.Nguyen Thanh Nghe claimed authorship of the Pulitzer Prize-winning “napalm girl” photograph in the new documentary The Stringer and on the sidelines of its premiere Saturday night (local time) at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.The AP conducted its own investigation and said it had…

The township of Mangawhai has been described as looking like a war zone, with houses destroyed, roofs torn off, debris scattered across the roads, power poles ripped off the base, and trees snapped like twigs after a tornado hit Northland yesterday.Two people were taken to hospital in a serious condition. One was flown to Auckland Hospital by helicopter and the other was taken to North Shore Hospital.Kaipara District Mayor Craig Jepson said at least four homes were destroyed.TVNZ+ Neighbour recounts ‘horrific’ moment tornado hurled woman from her homeBut he said the numbers displaced will be much higher.”There’s a whole heap…