Author: Press Room

A huge heritage-listed tree towers over Maryanne Urquhart’s property in Allenton, Ashburton.For five years, she’s contacted the local council to help with the annual trimming back of new growth at the bottom of the California Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens).”This year, they said no and that it’s my responsibility,” Urquhart said.She said was caught off guard by the response, and felt the responsibility had passed to her without her knowledge or explanation.However, an Ashburton District Council spokesperson said the maintenance of heritage trees on private land has always been the property owner’s responsibility.”As per the district plan, the council can provide advice…

An automotive workshop in Masterton was incorrectly told it needed more loos being refused building consent as it had just one unisex toilet on the premises.Despite a maximum of four people being on the premises at any one time, the Masterton District Council said “future use of the building” needed to be considered and argued the correct occupant load for the floorspace was 40 people.The council said it used its discretion in the consent process to bring this occupancy down to seven people which required one unisex toilet and one accessible toilet facility.In a Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment…

A disease that causes paralysis in birds has killed hundreds of ducks at a Waikouaiti wastewater treatment plant north of Dunedin.The birds were found in and around the oxidation ponds at the treatment plant and were sent to the Ministry of Primary Industries where they identified the contraction of the avian botulism type-C strain.A Dunedin City Council spokesperson said in a statement “it is unrelated to the avian influenza but is being treated as a significant animal welfare issue”.The Medical Officer of Health has confirmed that the risk to human health was very low however the Dunedin City Council was…

New Zealand’s relationship with the central Pacific Island nation of Kiribati has hit an all time low with the entire aid programme for the island country on hold while it’s reviewed because of a lack of “open dialogue”.Also under the spotlight are seasonal workers and immigrants who come from Kiribati under the Pacific Access Scheme.The dramatic moves comes after Kiribati President Taneti Maamau pulled out of a pre-arranged meeting with Foreign Minister Winston Peters last week.Peters has repeatedly tried to meet with Maamau — who was also the Kiribati foreign minister — over the past year and had finally been…

Two Hungarian regions and one Italian top female employment in high-tech jobs across the EU. ADVERTISEMENTHigh-tech professionals represent 5.2% of the EU’s workforce, with over 10 million people.Gender representation in this sector, however, remains uneven. In 2023, women accounted for less than a third of high-tech jobs (32.2%), which marks a slight decrease from 2022 (-0.6%).According to Eurostat, There is only one place in Europe where women outnumber men (50.2%), it’s the Hungarian region of Nyugat-Dunántúl.The next highest shares of female employment were in the Italian region of Marche (48.6%) and in another Hungarian region, Észak-Magyarország (48.1%).The lowest rate of…

A protest depicted in a video on social media happened last year, in response to US and UK airstrikes on Yemen after Houthi militants attacked shipping lanes. The demonstration itself was not bombed. ADVERTISEMENTA video shared on X allegedly shows British and American forces bombing a million-person rally for Palestine in Yemen.It shows swathes of people gathered near the Al-Saleh Mosque in Sanaa, Yemen and has amassed thousands of views, shares and likes.It depicts the crowd listening to speeches and chanting in support, but at no point in the video is there any sign of an attack, explosion or airstrike.That’s…

The Treaty Principles Bill is an attempt to “oppress iwi Māori”, according to a critic, while a supporter saw it an as attempt to ease New Zealanders’ anxiety over the Treaty of Waitangi.The sharply opposing views were expressed on the opening day of oral submissions at Parliament on Monday.The architect of the Treaty Principles Bill, David Seymour, says he has a “thick skin” and isn’t concerned about the “name-calling and abuse” he might receive during oral submissions at Parliament this week.He remains open to having his mind changed on some aspects of the legislation.”No doubt there will be new ideas…

The US is set to pull out of the climate fight with Donald Trump in power. The new American president announced last week that he would withdraw from the Paris agreement and launch a national energy “emergency” that could result in suspending environmental regulations. ADVERTISEMENTToday Radio Schuman looks at how US President Donald Trump policies on climate could impact on the EU with Euronews reporter Robert Hodgson.Last week, Trump’s stance on climate and energy had ripple effects in Europe, particularly among the far-right Patriots for Europe and the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) in the European Parliament. Jordan Bardella of…

A woman has been arrested after a spree of rocks being thrown through windows left locals rattled in a leafy Auckland suburb.A number of houses on Sackville Street in Grey Lynn had their windows smashed in January, the latest in a series of attacks dating back to February last year.On one particularly bad day, six windows were smashed.”We just really want this to stop,” one resident told RNZ at the time.”It’s a really nice street with mixed housing, so there’s some rentals, and there’s some owners, and there’s the Kāinga Ora flats, which we all really like.”It’s terrifying lying in…

Sunday’s rupture follows a string of incidents that have heightened fears of Russian sabotage and spying in the strategic region. ADVERTISEMENTSwedish prosecutors have announced a preliminary investigation into suspected aggravated “sabotage” and ordered the detention of a vessel in the Baltic Sea suspected of damaging an underwater fibre optic cable connecting Latvia and the Swedish island of Gotland on Sunday.”Several authorities, including the National Police Operations Department, the Coast Guard and the Armed Forces, are involved in the investigation,” said Mats Ljungqvist, senior prosecutor at the National Security Unit.The Swedish Coast Guard confirmed to the newspaper Expressen that they were…