Author: Press Room

Faulty street lights are plunging parts of Gisborne into darkness and causing “major problems” for the district council.Councillor Rob Telfer told an operations meeting last Thursday he counted 59 street lights out during a drive from Makaraka to Riverside Rd a few months ago.“I drove back there the other night and there’s actually more. There’s 62 not working.”A council report from August 1 said 10% of the council’s urban street light network was not operating.Telfer pointed out the report said the street light contractor was delivering on its requirements within its “contract scope”.“I would question what that level is? Why…

Germany has reinstated border checks at all land crossings on its nine borders to curb migration and tackle crime, according to officials. ADVERTISEMENTRows of German border police cars and vans have been gathering at the border crossing from Belgium into Germany to carry out passport checks, the same deployment expected at all nine land borders. The move came after Germany decided to reintroduce temporary border checks, effectively putting a land border hold on Schengen, the free-movement zone in Europe, mostly among EU member states.”The goal is to curb migration and protect against the acute dangers posed by Islamist terrorism and…

Despite downsizing from two stores to one, a Dunedin bicycle retailer is confident its long-term sales will not shrink along with it. Bike House Lifestyle — one of two Bike House stores on either side of Stuart St — shut its doors on Saturday. Bike House Sport co-owner Matt Dunstan said they had opened the lifestyle store, at 70 Stuart St, about two years ago following the sports store’s opening in 2011. The lifestyle store sold urban, adventure, gravel and commuting styles of bikes — categories of which had grown over the years but had become tricky to display all…

Key points:Police Minister Mark Mitchell said police data shows a 22% reduction in serious assaults in Auckland CBD, compared with the same time last year.A property manager in Auckland’s CBD told 1News they have noticed a “huge change”.Meanwhile, Labour Party police spokesperson Ginny Andersen said the Government is “just shifting the problem” to Auckland’s wider suburbs.Police Minister Mark Mitchell said cross-government action to tackle crime and antisocial behaviour in Auckland’s CBD is “getting traction”.According to a statement released by Mitchell, police data shows from January 1 to July 31 there was a 22% reduction in serious assaults within the Auckland…

The UK prime minister met with his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni in Rome Monday to discuss how the two countries could bolster cooperation in tackling illegal migration. ADVERTISEMENTFollowing a meeting with his Italian counterpart, Giorgia Meloni, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to add about €4.75 million to her initiative to help stem irregular migration.The funding is a part of Meloni’s “Rome Process”, an agreement signed in July 2023 as part of European efforts to “externalise” migrant controls by outsourcing them to third countries.The Rome Process pledges to tackle the root causes of illegal migration — including conflict, economic…

The return of international flights has been hailed as “massive news” for Dunedin’s tourism and accommodation sectors. Dunedin International Airport Ltd (DIAL) is officially “international” again. In a joint statement with Queensland Airports Ltd and Jetstar Group yesterday, the airport announced that transtasman flights would be returning after more than four years without them. A flight, lasting about three and a-half hours, to and from the Gold Coast would be offered three times a week and aboard Jetstar’s A320-NEO aircraft fleet, from June 2025. Motel Association Otago president and Aurora on George owner Chris Roy said the announcement was “massive…

The Early Childhood Council wants a radical overhaul of early learning regulations, including scrapping rules for pay parity and minimum teacher numbers.It made a 100-page submission to the Ministry for Regulation calling for review or replacement of rules related to early childhood centre health and safety, governance and employment.The submission pitched the creation of a new “assistant teacher” title for unqualified staff and suggested the government’s rules and regulations should only cover the six hours a day the government subsidised.It also called for clearer warnings to services before the Ministry of Education imposed sanctions, and a review of the mechanism…

Youth brain drain is becoming a worrisome problem for the Western Balkan countries of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Serbia. ADVERTISEMENTYouth brain drain is becoming one of the most worrisome problems for Western Balkan countries. All six countries of the region — Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Serbia — rank among the top brain drain leaders in the world due to the pace and intensity of the phenomenon within their borders. They could lose between an estimated 25%-50% of their skilled and educated workforce in the forthcoming decades, according to the research of the…

The number of Kiwis impacted by respiratory disease has risen to 1 million, according to a new report by the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation. The Asthma and Respiratory Foundation released its 2023 Impact of Respiratory Disease in New Zealand report, finding one in five Kiwis were now affected by a respiratory disease compared to one in seven in its 2021 report. “These numbers are not just statistics — they represent our whānau and our tamariki, who are struggling to breathe every single day,” said the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation’s chief executive Letitia Harding. Respiratory disease was the third leading cause…

ILT’S chief executive is pleased with the $111 million revenue the trust had this year, however he says things are not looking as bright for the future. During ILT’s annual meeting yesterday, Chris Ramsay presented a report on the financial performance of the trust for the year ending March 31, 2024. He said revenues for the year were up a “solid 4%” to more than $111m. “We’re pleased with the overall result given all the headwinds and the challenges that we’ve had, to be honest. “We started out the first half of the year, we were close to 8% up…