Author: Press Room

Exotic hybrid portfolios, overlapping policies, and candidates with a problematic past could all plague plans for the new European Commission outlined by Germany’s Ursula von der Leyen yesterday. ADVERTISEMENTCommission President Ursula von der Leyen pledged to get rid of “rigid stovepipes”, as she unveiled plans for her second mandate yesterday (17 September).   She may indeed seek to avoid the kind of stiff structures that can lead to isolated and contradictory policymaking. But complex compound portfolios and overlapping responsibilities risk making her Commission look more like tangled spaghetti.  Weird pairingsOne common theme of the new portfolios she has handed to her 26 lieutenants is the creation…

Hundreds of people have attended a public meeting in Woodville tonight amid growing opposition to an NZTA proposal for tolling the replacement route for the slip-damaged Manawatū Gorge road.The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) last month asked for public feedback about charging motorists for the Te Ahu a Turanga: Manawatū-Tararua Highway which is due for completion next year.Te Ahu a Turanga is a new highway being built over the Ruahine Range after slips in April 2017 saw State Highway 3 through the Manawatū Gorge close indefinitely. NZTA’s proposal was for $4.30 per trip for light vehicles and $8.60 for heavy…

Questions have been raised about the influence France will have over the new European Commission following the appointment of its new commissioner and the divide between conservatives and centrists. ADVERTISEMENTUrsula von der Leyen ended weeks of speculation and political wrangling when she announced her team of European Commissioners in her official address to the European Parliament on Tuesday.Among those who made the cut is France’s Stéphane Séjourné, who the European Commission president named as one of her executive vice presidents, assigning him the prosperity and industrial strategy portfolio.Yet, things didn’t look so good for France earlier this week. Its former…

Inland Revenue (IRD) has hit “pause” on a process that saw the personal details of hundreds of thousands of Kiwis handed to social media platforms, such as Meta, as it carries out an internal review amid privacy complaints.Privacy researchers raised concerns last week following reporting by RNZ and 1News on the tax agency’s data-sharing practices. IRD has long asserted that its approach involved anonymising personal information — a characterisation that multiple experts have said does not assuage privacy concerns.On Tuesday last week, a spokesperson for IRD told 1News it would continue to share people’s information with online platforms while it…

The four-party coalition in the Netherlands, led by Prime Minister Dick Schoof, has promised to build up the “strictest asylum regime ever.” ADVERTISEMENTThe new Dutch government has fulfilled its promise and submitted a request to the European Commission to secure an opt-out clause from the EU’s migration and asylum system, an unprecedented move from a founding member state.”We need to be in charge of our own asylum policy again,” Marjolein Faber, the Dutch minister for asylum and migration, said on Wednesday morning.Faber belongs to the Party for Freedom (PVV), the far-right, ultra-nationalist party led by Geert Wilders, who is the…

One of the country’s fastest growing shopping districts has been let down by transport officials, its owners say.Westgate, in northwest Auckland, has experienced huge population and commercial growth as shoppers flock to the area for a bargain.New Zealand Retail Property Group’s general manager of projects Campbell Barbour said the project has been 20 years in the making.”It was always meant to be like this — we’re just putting the pieces in the puzzle now,” he told 1News.The puzzle pieces include some of the largest stores in the country, including Bunnings, Costco, and new Asian supermarket Foodie.Last week it was announced…

Budapest will soon be deprived of a share of its EU funds for refusing to pay the fine imposed by the European Court of Justice. ADVERTISEMENTThe European Commission has triggered a special procedure to deduct the €200 million fine that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has imposed on Hungary over the country’s long-standing restrictions on the right to asylum.The fine has to be paid as a lump sum to the European Commission.Budapest missed the first deadline in late August, prompting the executive to send a second payment request with a deadline of 17 September.Since this second request was also…

Residents in an Upper Hutt suburb can expect to see search and rescue teams looking for a missing man who was last seen on Sunday, police say.Property owners with surveillance cameras in the vicinity of Hillside Dr, Maoribank, have been urged to check their footage for any possible sightings of the man.Bret Hill was last seen on Sunday at about 5.30pm on Hillside Dr. According to police, he is 195cm tall, of a solid build, with black hair and a short white beard.A police spokesperson said: “He was last seen wearing black shorts, a dark green t-shirt, a black zip-up…

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen entrusted a financial portfolio to a woman known for administering tough fiscal discipline during Portugal’s sovereign debt crisis. ADVERTISEMENTCommission President Ursula von der Leyen has named former Portuguese finance minister Maria Luís Albuquerque to direct the influential financial services portfolio, a proposal that’s already raised concerns over conflicts of interest. Entrusted by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday (September 17) with unlocking private investment, as part of plans to create an EU “savings and investment union,” Albuquerque, like all prospective commissioners, must now be grilled and approved by MEPs.  They’re likely to…

Not many people have heard of antimony. It’s an element on the periodic table — number 51, to be exact — abbreviation Sb. It’s been known about for at least 3600 years, yet it seems no one ever really knew what to do with it. The ancient Egyptians used it as mascara (which, in hindsight, was probably not the best idea — it’s poisonous). Pliny the Elder was deeply interested in it, and medieval monks used it in chemical experiments because of its fascinating qualities.In other words, antimony has mainly been a scientific curiosity until recently.In more recent times, antimony’s…