Author: Press Room

Police are investigating the theft of hundreds of bales of hay worth thousands of dollars in Taranaki.About 600 bales were stolen from a barn at Bel Brooke Racing Stables in Stratford. Police say it happened between 10.30am on Tuesday and 10.30am Wednesday.Another property 40 minutes away near New Plymouth also told RNZ they have had 300 bales stolen.Bel Brooke Racing Stables Owner Trudy Keegan believes the thefts are linked to the ongoing drought because stock feed prices are high due to a shortage of supply.”It’s a shock. That hay has to last us 12 months and everybody is struggling. It’s…

ADVERTISEMENTEU and Central Asian are set for historic new impulse in their relationship, Kyrgyzstan’s Deputy Prime Minister Edil Baisalov told Euronews, as the two regions’ leaders convened more than 5,000 kilometres away in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, for the first EU–Central Asia Summit.Baisalov was interviewed in Strasbourg where he was meeting MEPs and the Council of Europe to promote closer cooperation between the European Union and the increasingly assertive Central Asian states, which he described as the future “tiger economies” of the region. Speaking to Euronews between meetings, Baisalov welcomed the momentum generated by the Samarkand summit, which brought together high-level officials from both…

A survivor says there were some “awful stories” heard in court as Auckland man Micah Te Ahu Fala was sentenced for using hidden cameras to film women and girls in bathrooms, but it was an empowering moment to see him in the dock. Forty-one-year-old Fala was sentenced to four years in prison yesterday on 42 charges against 22 women and girls. He had used hidden cameras to secretly film his female friends, colleagues, children and teenagers in vulnerable positions over a period of nine years.One survivor, who chose to forgo her name suppression, was Angelene Judge, who told Breakfast that…

ADVERTISEMENTThe EU has announced a new strategic partnership with countries in Central Asia at the conclusion of a debut summit in the Uzbek city of Samarkand.The first EU-Central Asia summit saw European Council president António Costa EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen hold two days of talks with the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The summit took place amid a turbulent geopolitical and economic climate, a day after US President Donald Trump announced a raft of global trade tariffs on several countries, including allies like the EU and the UK, rattling markets and drawing criticism from…

The largest festival of its kind in the world, the ASB Polyfest has become a powerful force, uniting Māori and Pacific cultures. Watch this story on the home for all news and in-depth stories, TVNZ+.The seeds of Polyfest were sewn in October 1976, a potent time in New Zealand’s history, with racial tensions brewing alongside what’s been called the Māori renaissance. In our cities, Pacific people were being targeted by police in the notorious Dawn Raids. While, among Māori, long-repressed anger was evolving into organised activism – just months later the occupation of Bastion Point would begin. Bastion Point, January…

The country’s biggest insurance company, IAG, is being taken to court for overcharging about 239,000 customers $35 million by not giving promised discounts and benefits.The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has started civil proceedings against the company for not correctly pricing the premiums charged to customers, and failures to correctly advertise and apply important discounts to its insurance products.FMA head of enforcement Margot Gatland said the IAG breaches were extensive.”IAG is New Zealand’s largest general insurer, including in the personal lines insurance market. Its distribution model relies on its brands and distribution partners, which reinforces the importance of the reliability of…

ADVERTISEMENTThe side effect of tariffs is overcapacity, and European Commission officials describe the journey that products subject to tariffs are likely to make from previously attractive US markets towards European shores as “dynamic”.“There might be trade diversion, with some countries which can no longer export their goods to the US choosing alternative markets,” an EU senior official said. “Of course we [the EU] will be ready to defend our market, we are not going to absorb whatever volume and quantity,” this official added. China is in the EU’s sights after its imports to the US were hit on Wednesday by 54% cumulative…

A Christchurch company leading the way in zero-emission transition technologies is about to build hydrogen fuel stations, firstly in Invercargill and then in its home city, Tim Cronshaw reports. Deep-tech business Fabrum is a specialist in the renewable hydrogen industry and part of a joint venture which has just put in a hydrogen-testing facility at Christchurch Airport. Hydrogen sourced from the North Island will soon be boosted by gas made on site at the South Island stations. Founded in 2004, the company supplies small- to medium-scale liquefaction systems and composite cryogenic tech for the heavy transport, mining, marine and aviation…

Parliament’s Justice Committee has released its report into the Treaty Principles Bill, and recommended it does not proceed.Sending the bill to the committee stage was part of the National-ACT coalition agreement. ACT’s policy was to take the bill to a referendum, but the compromise it reached with National was to take it to a select committee.National and New Zealand First have committed to voting down the bill at its second reading, which could come as soon as next week.The bill received approximately 300,000 submissions and requests for 16,000 oral submissions. In the end, the committee heard 529 submitters, over 80…

ADVERTISEMENTWith a month to go until the first round of Romania’s presidential election rerun, campaigning officially started on Friday for a contest that will be closely scrutinised after the December vote was cancelled and the frontrunner was barred from running again.In December, ultranationalist Calin Georgescu claimed a shock victory in the first round of the race. Yet the election was annulled by the Constitutional Court after allegations emerged of Russian meddling to promote Georgescu, who ran as an independent. Moscow has denied interfering in the vote.Since Georgescu was last month barred from standing in the rescheduled election, the far-right have…