Author: Press Room

All governments must announce their nominees for the European Commission by August 30. ADVERTISEMENTUrsula von der Leyen is facing challenging negotiations to create her new College of Commissioners with economic portfolios among the most coveted by European Union member states. Italy, the Netherlands, Finland, Czechia and Romania have all indicated they hope to claim one such portfolio, with the one including the budget highly sought after. “We have the Multiannual Financial Framework to be negotiated in the next term. This will be a very difficult and very heavy dossier, but it will also be something which will be very determining…

A badly injured green sea turtle is healing following surgery after one of its flippers was caught in what is believed to be fishing gear.Found dehydrated, underweight and dying of pneumonia, the turtle managed to break free from whatever caused the injury, likely a net or line before it was found.Auckland Zoo veterinary nurse Celine Campana said it was clear there had been something “tightly” around her flipper.”Probably about half of it was already disintegrating, there were bones falling out of it, it was really miserable.”It’s believed she was caught in fishing equipment, leaving her fighting for her life. (Source:…

A person has been left seriously injured following a crash between a train and a rubbish truck just north of Taranaki’s Stratford this morning. Emergency services responded to the collision at the intersection of State Highway 3 and Radnor Rd shortly before 6.45am. In a statement, KiwiRail’s chief operations officer Siva Sivapakkiam said a rubbish truck collided with a freight train heading northbound at the Radnor Rd level crossing. Emergency services responded to the collision at the intersection of State Highway 3 and Radnor Rd shortly before 6.45am. (Source: Breakfast)”The train driver was shaken but uninjured and is receiving support,”…

Security threats to EU from Russia and China have proved a gamechanger for enlargement policy. ADVERTISEMENTRussia’s invasion of Ukraine and growing interference from China show the EU needs to expand in the coming five years, governments from within and outside the bloc have said. Jakov Milatović, President of Montenegro, and Karoline Edtstadler, Austria’s Europe minister, spoke to Euronews on the fringes of Forum Alpbach, the annual policy congress in the Tyrol.Milatović said 2028 remained a clear, ambitious but realistic goal for his country’s entry to the EU. He said he was very optimistic about closing further chapters — the detailed policy conditions needed…

Some Northland schools have been forced to roster students home on certain days this winter due to staff sickness. It comes as some school leaders in the region say principals are stepping into the breach as the sector struggles to find relief teachers to plug gaps.On August 8, Kerikeri High school’s principal Mike Clent announced students would be rostered from home on different days after an increase in staff sickness, the Northern Advocate reported. In June, Tikipunga High School also made the decision to roster senior students home on Thursday and Friday after staff absences left the school with little…

Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, has said that publicly available voting records suggest Maduro was defeated in Venezuela’s presidential election. ADVERTISEMENTNicolás Maduro has launched a war of words against the European Union after the bloc questioned a decision by Venezuela’s top court to ratify Maduro’s widely disputed victory in July’s presidential poll.Speaking on Tuesday in Caracas, Maduro’s flurry of insults was mostly directed against the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell.“Josep Borrell supports the Palestinian holocaust, the massacre in Gaza. Josep Borrell is complicit in the massacre in Gaza. And now, he’s pointing his weapons at Venezuela,” Maduro said, despite Borrell…

Police have resumed searching for a man missing in Auckland’s Manukau Harbour after a small vessel sank near Puketutu Island last night. A police spokesperson said officers were first notified of the incident shortly before 6pm on Tuesday after one of the two people onboard swam to shore and alerted police. “It was reported one person was unaccounted for and was last seen at around 4.50pm.” A search then began with support from Coastguard and Auckland Airport’s rescue hovercraft.Volunteers from Coastguard Titirangi and Coastguard Papakura were also deployed, with initial support from the Westpac Rescue Helicopter.Police said the search would resume today on…

Most EU member states see a large proportion of their teaching vacancies unfilled at the start of each school year, often thanks to low wages, high workload, and an ageing teacher population. ADVERTISEMENTAs the school year starts across the EU, 24 member states are struggling with teacher shortages, impacting students’ learning and hindering the goal of providing quality education for all.Sweden has been reported as one of the worst affected, with 153,000 qualified teachers needed by 2035.Only Croatia and Cyprus did not report a lack of education staff, according to the European Commission’s Education and Training Monitor 2023 report, while…

Key Points:The Government has announced a new National Infrastructure Agency will be established on December 1.Infrastructure minister Chris Bishop said the agency would act as the Crown’s “shopfront” to receive unsolicited proposals and facilitate private sector investment in infrastructure. The Government also announced that work is underway to develop a “30-year national infrastructure plan”.A new National Infrastructure Agency will be established later this year, and work is underway to develop a 30-year infrastructure plan, Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop said today. The NIA will be launched on December 1 and aims to allow more access to capital for infrastructure and strengthen…

Young people are leaving Germany’s most south-eastern city of Zittau in droves. Houses are also abandoned in the city of Görlitz in Saxony, that sits on the border with Poland. But what impact could the September elections have on residents? ADVERTISEMENTBehind the picturesque old towns and cobbled streets of the east German Saxony cities of Zittau and Görlitz lie decaying, abandoned houses. Alongside the boarded windows, old German script etched on the walls reveals the businesses that used to inhabit the now-vacant buildings: printing houses and a fish house. The forlorn edifices are the casualties of an exodus of tens…