Author: Press Room
Police have charged three people accused of helping run a five-year organised criminal operation that allegedly used a medicinal cannabis licence as cover to illegally distribute cannabis in Canterbury.Officers executed a search warrant in the Christchurch suburb of Middleton today following an investigation that found a group “operating under the guise of a medicinal cannabis licence” was cultivating cannabis legally but allegedly distributing it illegally.Individuals were alleged to have acted as part of an organised criminal group.Acting Detective Senior Sergeant Brad Grainger said the medicinal cannabis licensing system existed to support patients who require cannabis-based products.”The alleged actions of these…
Any peace deal to end Russia’s war on Ukraine should impose obligations on the aggressor, rather than the victim, to avoid a repeat of the invasion in the future, High Representative Kaja Kallas has said as a chaotic US-led push to strike an agreement continues. The original 28-point draft of the proposed deal, written by US and Russian officials, featured sweeping provisions that clearly favoured Moscow, among them demands that Ukraine relinquish its NATO ambitions, surrender territory it still controls and limit the size of its military to 600,000 personnel. But for Kallas, the approach should be the opposite. “If…
When Kiwis tune in for the twice-a-week Lotto draw, they simply see the bright balls bouncing in the tumbler – ever hopeful that their lucky numbers will be read out on screen. But for a process that may look straightforward on screen, there is a surprising amount of precision and organisation that goes on behind closed doors. Seven Sharp’s Hilary Barry went behind the scenes at the Lotto studio and found that the magic of the nation’s favourite prize draw is a tightly run operation described as a “well-oiled machine”. Hilary Barry learns the secrets of the life-changing live draw…
An “elusive” mudfish that is unusual for never leaving its wetlands environment has staged an expected comeback in a muddy pocket of Auckland.Adults and juveniles of the regionally endangered species, also known as Waikaka, were recently found in a Helensville wetland during a joint Auckland Council/Watercare survey.Auckland Council freshwater senior regional advisor Matt Bloxham said the council was “cautiously optimistic” about the discovery as the wetland was choked with invasive vegetation, reducing the area the fish could live in.“But discovering nine fish, including juveniles, hiding in isolated, shaded, water-filled depressions show these fish are making a go of things and…
Only a small minority of European Union countries are on track to meet the bloc’s recycling goals for municipal waste, including reuse and recycling for packaging waste such as plastics, metals and paper, according to a report published on Wednesday by the European Court of Auditors (ECA). Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Slovenia are leading the recycling race, all poised to reach the 55% reduction target for municipal waste and the 65% target for packaging waste by 2025, as set out in EU law. Despite EU waste policy rules being in place for the past…
A Dunedin-founded wine fermentation tracking company has been put into liquidation, with total liabilities of more than $2.2 million. Winely, founded by Jacob Manning and Abbe Hyde, was incorporated in 2018 to develop and manufacture technology to provide real-time fermentation analysis to the wine industry. In their first report, liquidators Andrew McKay and Rees Logan, of BDO Auckland, said the business operations were financed through external private equity investment, together with secured debt, grant funding and loans from Callaghan Innovation Funds. Repayment of investment funds failed to occur in accordance with undertakings and earlier this year the primary funder sought…
By Euronews Published on 26/11/2025 – 16:38 GMT+1 A municipal worker in the German town of Kempten has been arrested on suspicion of stealing more than €1 million from parking meters over hundreds of incidents. The 40-year-old man, whose job involved collecting cash from parking meters, and his 38-year-old wife were both remanded in custody after an investigation by police and prosecutors. The case came to light after a bank reported suspicious activity involving unusually frequent cash deposits into several accounts held by the couple. He faces charges of aggravated theft, while his wife has been charged with aiding and abetting…
As debate grows over National’s plan to lift KiwiSaver contributions to 12%, finance professor Aaron Gilbert warns the policy risks worsening structural inequities already baked into the scheme — and why reform, not tinkering, is urgently needed.On the face of it, the National Party’s proposal to lift KiwiSaver contributions to 12% over the next six years sounds reasonable.There’s broad agreement that contributions are too low, and even the planned increase to 4% in 2028 won’t get most people close to the widely cited “70% of retirement income” benchmark.So yes, employee and employer contributions do need to rise. And the argument…
The European Parliament approved a revision of the EU regulation on deforestation-free products on Wednesday, softening due diligence obligations for businesses and delaying the measure’s entry into force by one year. The vote split the centrist majority, another example of the increasingly frequent convergence between the European People’s Party (EPP), the Conservatives (ECR), and the far-right Patriots for Europe (PfE) on environmental issues. The deforestation regulation prohibits imports of commodities such as cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya, and wood if their extraction has contributed to deforestation or forest degradation. It was initially set to enter into force on…
The woman found guilty of murdering her two children and hiding their bodies in suitcases inside a storage locker will be sentenced at the Auckland High Court today. Hakyung Lee – also known as Ji Eun ‘Jasmine’ Lee – was convicted in September on two murder charges over the deaths of her children, Yuna, 8, and Minu Jo, 6. Today’s sentencing caps off a years-long legal proceeding. A previous trial in 2024 was adjourned for fair trial reasons. The murder investigation into the children’s deaths was launched four years after the children died in 2018. Their bodies were discovered compacted…