Author: Press Room

Water Safety New Zealand (WSNZ) is asking people to play their part to prevent more tragedies, following 54 drownings this year.WSNZ acting chief executive Gavin Walker said while that was six fewer than this time last year, 54 was still too many.Heading into the summer months, when people spent more time in and around the water, he said it was important to make good decisions.”We remind Kiwis to do some pretty simple things.”If you’re out in your boat, wear a life jacket, and the same if you’re fishing from land, don’t assume that you’re not going to end up in…

The Prime Minister says he would “discourage” the US from starting nuclear testing again, saying New Zealand is a “proud anti-nuclear country”.Christopher Luxon said there’s been a programme of de-nuclearisation around the world, and New Zealand’s position was “pretty clear”.”We don’t want to see a nuclear arms race.”It comes after the United States President said he wanted to start testing nuclear weapons on an “equal basis” with Russia and China.Luxon indicated there were other ways to test armaments through computer modelling, rather than “having to actually fire them off”.Asked whether it was something he would raise with Trump, Luxon acknowledged…

The start of Great Walk season has been delayed by bad weather in the South Island, with a number of tracks damaged or at risk from avalanches.The Routeburn and the Kepler are partially closed, and the already-delayed reopening of the Milford Track has been pushed back by another week, again due to avalanche risk.The Department of Conservation’s (DOC) southern South Island operations director, Aaron Fleming, told RNZ there had been slips, flooding and track damage across many of Southland’s popular hiking spots.”So we’ve had quite a bit of snowfall, a lot of snow sitting up in the high alpine areas,…

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has been transferred to a prison in New Jersey to serve out the remainder of his four-year prison sentence on prostitution-related charges.The hip-hop mogul is currently incarcerated at the Fort Dix Federal Correctional Institute, located about 55km east of Philadelphia on the grounds of the joint military base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, according to his listing in the federal Bureau of Prisons inmate database as of Friday.It wa not immediately clear when Combs was moved from the troubled Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he had been held since his arrest last September.Lawyers for Combs and spokespersons for the agency…

The asbestos-filled and abandoned Fitz student bar in Palmerston North was burning, black smoke billowing on Thursday, around the same time that work safety experts were nutting out submissions on a Government move they warn will erode controls around the dangerous substance.”We don’t want a watered-down system,” said Helina Stil, president of the Demolition and Asbestos Association. “We told them [WorkSafe].”The Fitz fire was out just after midnight but several nearby schools kept children home on Friday, and were testing for any asbestos fibres that might have been released into the wind, and settled aroundabout.A text alert sent out widely…

A linesman working to repair Southland’s stricken power network following severe weather says the past week has been “apocalyptic”.Around 2200 customers are still without power following a freak storm on October 23, which threw the region into a state of emergency.PowerNet distribution team leader Rob Wylie is one of those leading the charge to fix that, and said the situation was like nothing he’d seen previously.“I’ve worked with a lot of guys in various depots that have been here a lot longer than I have, and they’re the same. I don’t think anyone in the company has seen sort of…

An “extensive” outage in the Far North district has left thousands of people without power this afternoon. A spokesperson for Top Energy told 1News the cause of the widespread outage was a fault on the 33 kV line to Mt Pokaka, near Kerikeri, after a tree fell on the power line. “Staff remain on site at our Kaikohe substation, and it appears the primary protection didn’t operate as expected, so backup protection tripped the station, causing a wider outage.”We will continue to check the equipment at the substation to confirm there has not been any damage arising from the station…

A person has died after a vehicle went into the Waipā River in Waikato this afternoon. Emergency services were called to the scene near Te Pahu Rd in Whatawhata around 5.15pm.”Sadly, after the vehicle was removed, one person was located deceased,” police said.”The road remains closed while the serious crash unit conducts a scene examination.”Motorists have been advised to avoid the area and expect delays.

The co-owner of a South Dunedin pub who failed to disclose his convictions has vowed to sell his stake in the business if it means its liquor licences are granted. But the city’s chief licensing inspector says this “ultimatum or leverage” is all the more reason not to grant the licences. On-licence and off-licence applications for the St Kilda Tavern were heard by Dunedin’s district licensing committee on Thursday before a packed public gallery. The applications by JV Bars Ltd were opposed by police, the medical officer of heath delegate and the chief licensing inspector. Police questioned the suitability of…

More than 100 police officers are under investigation after 30,000 alcohol breath tests were “falsely or erroneously recorded”, RNZ revealed.Acting Deputy Commissioner Michael Johnson said the numbers are “incredibly disappointing and concerning”.About 120 police officers now faced “further scrutiny under a disciplinary process which is underway”.RNZ has seen a memo that was sent to staff earlier this month on behalf of Johnson.The memo said, after evaluating data in August 2025, the Intelligence and Performance team within the National Road Policing Centre identified “an anomaly in data relating to breath testing activity”.”From the audit which covered over 4.6 million breath tests…