Author: Press Room
More than a dozen flights to and from Tauranga have been cancelled on Tuesday due to volcanic ash from Whakaari/White Island.GeoNet had the volcano at Alert Level 3, denoting a minor volcanic eruption, and images showed a plume of steam and ash reaching over a kilometre high.Air New Zealand’s chief safety officer Nathan McGraw said 16 flights were been cancelled.Customers will be rebooked onto the next available service, he said.Earth Sciences NZ volcanologist Michael Rosenberg said the steam and ash was normal activity and didn’t suggest a larger eruption.”This is very typical of what we’ve seen intermittently over the past…
Published on 25/11/2025 – 17:42 GMT+1 Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will travel to Moscow on Friday to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to media reports. The information came from Hungarian government sources who were involved in the preparations of the trip, according to investigative central European outlet VSquare. The Hungarian government has not confirmed the visit at this time, with Budapest saying it would inform the public about Orbán’s programme in due time. The agenda for the meeting is not yet known. But Orbán has maintained ties to Putin since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and…
MTF Finance has posted its third-strongest sales performance on record for the last financial year, with $792.2 million in new loans. Releasing its annual report yesterday, the company announced it had maintained record originator earnings of $91.6m. It achieved a net promoter score (NPS) of 81.9 compared with 16 for the finance industry, market-leading arrears of just 1% over 31-plus days and total assets of $1.2 billion. The MTF board declared a dividend of 17.5c, a slight increase on 2024, along with a special dividend of 10c per share. The special dividend recognised the continued strong business performance and the…
A person has been charged after a man died in a hunting incident off Stewart Island in July.Police said they were alerted to the incident near Lords River around midday on July 5. A Search and Rescue team was deployed to the island via helicopter, where Jock Grant Davies was found dead.A 39-year-old Ashburton man is due to appear in the Invercargill District Court on December 16 charged with careless use of a firearm causing death.
The EU and Africa have agreed to further green investments and regional infrastructure as the bloc’s representatives gathered in Angola’s capital Luanda for two days of the European Union-African Union summit. The EU is on a path to achieve net neutrality by 2050, a binding goal that will require large-scale deployment of renewable energy such as solar and wind, and batteries for electric vehicles. While the 27-member bloc is invested in domestic production, it sees Africa’s abundant sunlight and vast deposits of key raw materials such as lithium and cobalt as crucial to the energy transition. “We commit to continue…
Regional councillors would be scrapped under sweeping Government proposals that ministers say would deliver the most significant changes to the local government system in more than 35 years.Under the proposal, the 11 regional councils would be governed by “combined territories boards” made up of mayors from city and district councils within each region, rather than separately elected regional councillors.RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop said: “The Government’s belief is that local government has lost the social licence and that New Zealanders have lost faith in local government. This is borne out by the fact that over half don’t bother to vote…
Spain has been decisively leading Europe’s car market during the first nine months of 2025. Madrid reported a remarkable 15% growth in new passenger car registrations between January and September, the highest in Europe, according to new data by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT). One of the reasons was a €400 million extension of a massive EU incentive scheme — Moves III — aimed at boosting electric mobility. The programme, now open till the end of 2025, has spent more than €1.3 billion in the past four years — not just for purchasing vehicles, but also to install…
New Zealand’s ports are processing growing cargo volumes, and businesses are restocking, perhaps one sign that an economic recovery may finally be underway after years of false starts.Port of Auckland chief executive Roger Grey told TVNZ’s You, Me and the Economy special that the port had processed its highest container volumes in nine years last month, with car imports and agricultural equipment flowing through at increased rates.”The economy’s turned and we’re seeing that now,” he said. “We’re really seeing the cargo start to flow, and that means people are buying it.”The growth is reflected across New Zealand’s major ports, including…
A man is being sought by police after allegedly indecently assaulting a woman waiting at a bus stop in the Auckland CBD over the weekend.Graeme Dylan Shuter, 34, allegedly approached two women in a short space of time on Mayoral Dr on Saturday, Detective Senior Sergeant Martin Friend said. Around 9.20am, the first victim was approached by Shuter, who allegedly attempted to “grab her and subject her to an indecent assault”.”Fortunately, she was able to hurry away from Shuter and crossed Mayoral Dr.”Minutes later, the man approached a woman from behind as she waited at a bus stop. Friend said…
Published on 25/11/2025 – 13:42 GMT+1 The European Parliament approved on Tuesday a legal action against the Commission over the withdrawal of a proposal on high-tech patents meant to help small and medium-sized enterprises negotiate with tech giants. A total of 334 MEPs were in favour of the legal action, mainly from left-wing political groups, while 294 voted against and 11 abstained. The matter will be referred to the EU Court of Justice, which oversees the inter-institutional issues. The legal action concerns a proposalto reform standard-essential patents (SEPs) put forward by the European Commission in 2023 and withdrawn two years…