Author: Press Room

= By Susan Edmunds of RNZ All the major banks have moved to cut interest rates, after the Reserve Bank delivered a 50 basis point cut to the official cash rate. But one economist has warned the bank may be about to “overshoot” with its rate reductions, and cut too far. Kiwibank said it was passing on the full OCR cut to its floating home loan rates from Monday for new lending and March 10 for existing lending. That takes its variable home loan rate to 6.75%. ASB also passed on the full reduction to floating borrowing, taking its variable…

Members of a tennis club on Auckland’s North Shore are shocked by the theft of their honesty box.Campbells Bay Tennis club members came to play their regular matches on Wednesday morning, only to find a hole where their honesty box for court fees used to be.Club secretary John Roughan told RNZ the offenders dug up the box from the ground and wheeled it away in a rubbish bin.”They had dug the whole thing up,” he said.Roughan said the honesty box was for non-members to put $10-$20, depending on how many were playing and for how long.He said the box had…

Unusual demand at Christchurch ED, not a staff shortage, led to the plea for patients to seek non-urgent medical treatment elsewhere, Health New Zealand says.In a plea on its social media page on Monday, the hospital said its emergency department was “extremely busy” with “large numbers of people coming in for care”.It urged people who were severely unwell to go to the ED or call an ambulance but asked that people with non-life-threatening emergencies go elsewhere “to reduce the pressure” on the department.Everyone presenting at the department would be assessed for urgency, and patients with non-urgent conditions could expect an…

By Natalie Akoorie and Hayden Donnell of RNZ  A number of high-profile senior reporters will leave the New Zealand Herald under its restructure to cut about 30 roles from the newspaper’s editorial team. According to the Herald’s Media Insider, staff that have taken voluntary redundancy include political editor Claire Trevett, deputy business editor Grant Bradley, senior sports reporter Chris Rattue, specialist science reporter Jamie Morton, investigative journalist Nicholas Jones, long-time reporter Kirsty Wynn and social media head Mitch Powell. RNZ understands other senior journalists also applied for voluntary redundancy under the proposal by the Herald’s owner NZME, which was announced in January this year and originally aimed…

Rapper A$AP Rocky was found not guilty today of firing a handgun at a former friend on a Hollywood street in 2021.Los Angeles jurors deliberated for only about three hours before clearing him of two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm.The 36-year-old hip-hop star, fashion mogul and burgeoning actor — whose legal name is Rakim Mayers — risked more than 24 years in prison if he had been convicted.On the eve of trial, he turned down a prosecution offer of just six months in jail, along with probation and other conditions, if he would plead guilty to one…

Queenstown burger bar Fergburger has publicly apologised after a tourist was given a receipt containing a racial slur. A photograph of a receipt, dated for Sunday, was posted to social media on Monday by a Taiwanese tourist.The poster alleged their friend did not give their name to the server who then identified them on the receipt as “ching chang”.The tourist also contacted local tour guide Roxie Fu and told her she was “shocked” at the experience. “Fergburger is such a big company that’s iconic to Queenstown and New Zealand, it’s a shock to see this behaviour, especially in such a…

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has slashed the OCR by 50 basis points to 3.75%. Economists had expected the central bank to deliver a third consecutive big cut today, in a bid to support the weak economy. Two banks had already announced they would cut their interest rates, ahead of the decision. Economists have suggest future OCR cuts will be smaller, fewer, and spread out. More to come

A 28-year-old has been arrested and charged with murder after a man died following an assault in Hastings late on Sunday. Police said they were called to a “group of people fighting” on Kiwi Ln at around 10.30pm on Sunday night. Detective Inspector Martin James said a homicide investigation was launched after a 33-year-old man died in Hawke’s Bay Hospital around 11pm, after he was brought in following an assault. He said a large team of detectives conducted scene examinations at several addresses in the suburb of Camberley and an address in Napier yesterday. “Resulting from this work, a 28-year-old…

The Prime Minister says he is “open” to New Zealand providing peacekeepers in Ukraine if a ceasefire is reached. Luxon’s comments come as top US and Russian officials plan to meet in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday to discuss an end to the war – without Kyiv’s involvement – and European leaders held a crisis meeting in the wake of the US President Donald Trump’s overtures to Russia.Asked whether New Zealand would be prepared to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine in the event of any ceasefire, Christopher Luxon told RNZ that was something he would consider. “I think that is something…

By Phil Pennington of RNZ  Rocket Lab is poised to launch a satellite from Mahia Peninsula for a United States company looking to bolster military and spying operations. BlackSky’s plan is to add laser optic links later to its Gen-3 satellites to give “war-fighters real-time access to imagery during time-sensitive military operations worldwide”. It comes shortly after Rocket Lab won a part in a mega-deal to help develop hypersonic weapons for the Pentagon, prompting the firm to state it was “ready to serve the US Department of Defense”. The New York-listed, New Zealand-born company has also completed a design review…