Author: Press Room

Two seizures of cocaine totalling an estimated 33kg have been made by Customs at the Port of Tauranga.Customs said both illicit bundles of kilo bricks were found in refrigerated containers on board a vessel that originated in Ecuador and transited through Panama before arriving in Tauranga on November 20.The pair of containers had been risk-assessed as part of standard procedures and, during X-ray screening, Customs officers identified anomalies in the imagery which led to a physical inspection of the containers and their contents.Among legitimate goods inside the containers, officers located 17 bricks of cocaine in one container and 16 in…

Consumer protection groups, the European airline industry and EU member states have failed to agree on proposed new protections for air passengers, leaving regulations still stuck in legislative limbo after more than a decade. Dissatisfaction with the draft text has now reached such a level that the industry has called for a pause in the negotiations. “We urgently call for a 6-month pause to the deliberations until a thorough impact assessment of the proposed measures has been conducted,” reads a letter sent on Tuesday to the bloc’s transport ministers on behalf of the airline industry operating in Europe. The Council…

A “daring” rescue was carried out by surf lifeguards and police in the black of night on Tuesday after a surfer was pulled out to sea off Piha Beach. The surfer’s relieved mother expressed her gratitude to the hero responders, saying: “We wouldn’t be bringing our boy home today if it wasn’t for them.”Emergency services were called to the Auckland’s west coast at around 8pm, when a man reported to police that his brother was missing north of Lion Rock after being caught in a large rip. Police deployed the Eagle helicopter and the Piha Surf Life Saving Club sent…

Published on 27/11/2025 – 12:50 GMT+1 •Updated 13:26 Ukraine’s former Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said that reducing the size of Ukraine’s armed forces as part of a peace deal with Russia would be “humiliation” for Kyiv and leave the country vulnerable to future aggression. “If you establish a cap on the army (…) it’s a clear message that a foreign power humiliates your army, your nation,” Kuleba told Euronews’ interview programme “12 minutes with”. “We will pave the road to hell with good intentions of satisfying the Russians. And capping the army is the most prominent example of that…

Thirty-seven former patients of the Lake Alice psychiatric hospital’s child and adolescent unit have received individual compensation payments of up to $600,000.The government last year announced its redress scheme for children and teens tortured with electric shocks without anaesthetic or through being injected with paralysing drugs at the unit in the 1970s.One hundred and five survivors opted to receive $150,000 rapid payments.Another 37 negotiated their compensation.Independent arbiter, former High Court judge Paul Davison, KC, determined the amounts these survivors received and he has released a summary of his work on Thursday.The majority received payments between $175,000 and $250,000, but the…

Taking to X to make an “urgent” statement, US conservative influencer and podcaster Candace Owens alleged that French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte had “paid” for her assassination. Her X post from 22 November has garnered more than 40 million views. Although internet users have gone wild for her claims, Owens — who has been at the helm of a fake news campaign which purports that Brigitte Macron is in fact a man — provided no credible evidence to uphold her statements. According to Owens, a “high-ranking employee of the French government” contacted her. “The green light was…

The Government has confirmed a preferred site for the National Erebus Memorial to honour the 257 people killed when Air New Zealand flight 901 crashed into the slopes of Mount Erebus in Antarctica in 1979.Families, members of the recovery operation and New Zealanders had been waiting for a permanent memorial ever since.The Ministry for Culture and Heritage has chosen Cracroft Reserve on Christchurch’s Port Hills as the preferred location.Wreckage from the Mount Erebus plane crash. (Source: Colin Monteith / Antarctica New Zealand Pictorial Collection)Fifty different sites in the Auckland area were investigated, but none were suitable. Bastion Point/Takaparawhau had recently…

A section of SH1 has been closed after a person died in a single-vehicle crash involving a motorcycle north of Kaikōura.Police were called to the crash near Waipapa Bay at around 10am and found one person seriously injured.”Despite best efforts by emergency services they died at the scene.”The crash closed SH1 between Blenheim and Kaikōura. (Source: NZTA Journey Planner)NZTA’s journey planner showed SH1 was closed between Blenheim and Kaikōura until further notice. Detours were in place.Motorists were advised to follow diversions and expect delays while the Serious Crash Unit examined the scene.

The Independent Police Conduct Authority says Wellington police were justified in tasering an armed man who received a serious head injury after he fell onto the road.Police were called to reports that a man, who was armed with a blade from a pair of hedge trimmers, had trapped a woman and her baby in a bus-stop on Cockayne Road in Khandallah just after midday on 9 January.One person who called police told operators the man – referred to in the report as Mr Z – was “out of control”.”I’ve got a situation at bus stop 4411 on Cockayne Rd. I’ve…

Published on 27/11/2025 – 9:01 GMT+1 •Updated 9:50 “The Americans believe everything that Putin says,” Estonian MEP Riho Terras (EPP) told Euronews’ Europe Today morning show in Strasbourg. In his view, the 28-point peace plan promoted by the US administration is “a Russian plan to make Ukraine capitulate,” and US President Donald Trump is “just a week from taking from Putin everything.” “I am very surprised that Donald Trump runs like an errand boy for Putin’s capitulation plan,” Terras said. Last week, a leaked text of a peace settlement seen as too favourable to Moscow sparked concerns among Europeans. The…