Author: Press Room

Tūranganui-a-Kiwa is one of two New Zealand locations selected to take part in a global climate adaptation initiative funded by the National Geographic Society.The Poverty Bay region and Tāhuna-Glenorchy, in the Queenstown Lakes District, join the three-year Preserving Legacies programme, alongside 10 other places and practices from across six continents.It is the first time projects from Aotearoa have been accepted.Led by National Geographic explorer Victoria Herrmann, the project encourages local communities and leaders to create climate action solutions for environmental protection and cultural preservation.Out of 150 applicants, Rongowhakaata Iwi Trust solidified Tūranganui-a-Kiwa’s place.According to its website, Rongowhakaata’s tribal rohe encompassed…

ADVERTISEMENTUkraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he has received information that China is supplying weapons to Russia, including gunpowder and artillery.”We have received information that China is supplying weapons to the Russian Federation. And we are ready to talk about it in detail. Today, we have information from the security service, from intelligence, about gunpowder, artillery.”The Ukrainian leader did not expand in detail on the extent of Chinese support or the type of weapons being supplied, but says Kyiv will reveal its findings comprehensively next week.”I think we will be able to talk about this in great detail next week,…

An Australian company wanting to mine the South Taranaki seabed has asked New Zealand’s Government for a green light under its new Fast-track Approvals Act.Trans-Tasman Resources (TTR), now fully-owned by Australian gold and silver miners Manuka Resources, pulled out of an environmental hearing last year to instead seek permission to mine under the Government’s pro-development fast-track law.The company already had the go-ahead to suck up 50 million tonnes of sand every year from the South Taranaki seabed for 35 years, to extract valuable vanadium along with titanium and iron.It would vacuum up some 180,000 tonnes of sand a day during…

A fatal derailment could have occurred if thieves had succeeded in stealing railway sleepers from active track at Auckland’s Glenbrook Vintage Railway, according to the trust chairperson.Glenbrook Vintage Railway Charitable Trust chairperson Glenn Deed said a member of the public had alerted the team to bolts being removed from a section of track on Wednesday evening.”In the worst case scenario, if they had been successful and it hadn’t have been detected, quite honestly it would have led to a derailment and potentially death,” he said.He believed the thieves were after railway sleepers which were sought after for landscape gardening.”We urge…

New Zealand’s population has increased by roughly twice the size of Hamilton since 2018 — but our housing market appears to have digested the influx, commentators say.Stats NZ data showed the population was 5.31 million at the end of December, up from 4.94 million in December 2018.Natural increase — birth minus deaths — and net migration contribute to the increase, but arrivals from offshore have become a more significant part in recent years.’It is becoming less critical’Infometrics chief forecaster Gareth Kiernan said, population growth outpaced new housing supply and associated infrastructure development through the latter half of last decade.But there…

Hip hop superstar Drake is now complaining about rival rapper Kendrick Lamar’s performance of Not Like Us at this year’s Super Bowl, adding it to his defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group over the diss track and its allegations of paedophilia against Drake.”The Recording was performed during the 2025 Super Bowl and broadcast to the largest audience for a Super Bowl halftime show ever, over 133 million people, including millions of children, and millions more who had never before heard the song or any of the songs that preceded it,” says the amended lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in…

When plumber Hera Eruera arrives at a plumbing job she gets a mix of reactions. Re: News spent a day on the job with Hera to hear how plumbing helped her escape a cycle of poverty. Watch the Re: News video on TVNZ+. One time a customer opened the door and immediately said: “No, not interested”. Hera replied, “Oh, did you not call for a plumber?” And the customer said “Oh you’re the plumber, I thought you were a sales rep trying to sell me something”. “I said ‘No, definitely the plumber, I heard you had a leak’. And so…

A large fire which broke out at the Waitotara Hotel in South Taranaki last night has been extinguished this morning. A Fire and Emergency spokesperson said crews were called to a kitchen fire at the Waitotara Hotel shortly before 6pm yesterday. On the way to the location, they said the large amount of smoke coming from the building prompted a ‘second alarm’ response, requiring more firefighters. The FENZ spokesperson said the fire had spread from the kitchen to the upper levels of the building. At the peak of the fire, 80 firefighters from Waverley, Patea, Whanganui, Hawera, Stratford, New Plymouth…

ANALYSIS: New modelling shows the US-China trade war leaves NZ worse off, but still well placed to weather the storm, writes AUT economics professor Niven Winchester.Forecasting the potential impact of Donald Trump’s turbulent tariff policies is a fraught business – and fraught for business. The US president has changed, paused and exempted various categories of goods so often, the only certainty is uncertainty.On “Liberation Day”, he famously announced far-reaching “reciprocal tariffs” on imports from most trading nations. Since then, he has paused those tariffs, but kept 25% on imports of steel, aluminium and motor vehicles, and 10% “baseline” tariffs on…

ADVERTISEMENTFrom mainstream politics to everyday conversations, issues like migration, war, gender equality and the economy increasingly spark controversy. A new study revealed that in Italy (65%), France (71%) and Germany (74%), friends are the confidantes of choice for political discussions. Denmark is the exception, with 49% of people talking primarily with parents. A research from Debating Europe sought the views of 2,000 people aged between 18 and 35 from Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, and Poland between November 2024 and January 2025. The survey was conducted in the participants’ native languages to aid engagement and understanding.A small share of participants (7%…