Author: Press Room

Kaipara Mayor Jonathan Larsen has survived a recount bid challenge for the top job from one of his councillors Snow Tane.High Court Judge Kevin Kelly on Friday dismissed a judicial vote recount application from Tane who missed out on his bid for the mayoralty by 21 votes.Larsen won the Kaipara District Council mayoralty on October 11 with just 21 mayoral votes out of 10,702 cast. Larsen achieved 3138 votes, Tane 3117.Larsen said the decision created more certainty for the council going forward.“What this means is, I can now push ahead with certainty that we can form a cohesive council,” Larsen…

1News weather expert Daniel Corbett explains why the weather that hit NZ packed such a punch.The intense storm that battered the capital and the South Island this week has certainly left a trail of destruction and disruption across a wide swathe of the country. In a simple sense, a very deep low – for the time of year – passed just south of the country with an active front that extended further. There was also a big high parked northeast of the country, so a very large pressure gradient developed between the two features. Over the distance of around 2800km…

Belgium is not hindering a new way of funding Ukraine’s war effort, EU Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management, Hadja Lahbib, told Euronews in an exclusive interview. Lahbib, who previously served as Belgium’s Foreign Affairs Minister, spoke in the wake of a European Council summit in Brussels on Thursday, 23 October, attended by EU heads of state and government. Leaders hoped to come to an agreement over a bold plan to use Russia’s immobilised assets and issue a €140 billion interest-free loan to help Ukraine with its war effort. However, the EU27 leaders parted without a decision on using…

Updated gender affirming healthcare guidelines are being withheld by the Government in a move health workers and patients say is playing politics with vital healthcare for trans and non-binary people. The 182-page document is an update of a 2018 version and covers information such as mental and sexual health, fertility and gender affirming health care for these patients. ‘My experience of getting hormones wasn’t great’ – Watch Natasha’s story on on TVNZ+ The guidelines were fully approved by Health New Zealand and were meant to be published in March this year but, 24 hours before they were due to go…

Published on 24/10/2025 – 21:30 GMT+2 •Updated 19:42 The European Union wants to play an active role in Middle East diplomacy following the Gaza ceasefire agreement, provided Hamas plays no role in the future of the territory. “Hamas is not an interlocutor for us, it’s a terrorist group,” the EU Commissioner for Crisis Management and Preparedness told Euronews in an exclusive interview in Brussels. “We need to see Hamas disarmed and not being part of a two-state solution,” she added. The 20-point peace plan brokered by US President Donald Trump has opened a window of hope, but the urgency now…

Josh Cairns has known Wisp Hill in the Owaka Valley all his life. As a local lad, he grew up nearby and hunted on the property. Six years ago, Mr Cairns and his family moved back to Owaka where his wife is deputy principal at Catlins Area School and their two young sons attend school. They live on the family sheep and beef farm and he is a full-time manager for Southern Forests and has been overseeing the Wisp development. Ingka Investments bought the 5500ha Wisp Hill in 2021 and undertook 330ha of planting radiata pines that year. Having an…

Thirty-five MEPs asked European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to push Hungary’s European Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi to resign, Euronews has learned. The letter dated Thursday and seen by Euronews was signed by MEPs from four political groups: S&D, Renew, Greens/EFA and The Left. Várhelyi, in charge of the health and animal welfare portfolio, came to the spotlight after a joint investigation by several European outlets claimed that Hungary’s foreign intelligence service allegedly used Hungary’s permanent representation in Brussels between 2012 and 2018 as a platform to spy on EU institutions and recruit their officials. These operations were allegedly partly…

Ingka Investments – the investment arm of Ingka Group, the largest retailer of IKEA home furnishings, recently bought 12,900ha of existing forestry in Northland taking the company’s investment in New Zealand’s forestland to nearly 30,000ha. Ingka recently invited business editor SallyRae to view its operations in South Otago, where its foray into forestry in New Zealand began.  He has seen forestry companies portrayed as evil, some removing identification stickers from their vehicles fearing repercussions in the aftermath of the devastating Cyclone Gabrielle in February 2023. Ingka Investments’ operations manager Dylan Foster, described the division in the community as ‘‘just horrific’’. As the mud was literally slung, there were ‘‘horrible’’ examples of people apportioning blame…

Investors who take more risk in their KiwiSavers are generally being rewarded for it.Morningstar has released its latest KiwiSaver survey, which shows the September quarter was a positive one for KiwiSaver providers.The highest performance in the three months was Koura’s clean energy fund, which returned 33.6%.Over the year, Koura’s bitcoin fund was the top performer, with a near-100% return.At the bottom over three months was InvestNow’s Mint Australasian equities fund and over a year, OneAnswer’s international property fund.Over a year, conservative funds returned 6.1% on average, moderate funds 7.3%, balanced funds 10.7%, growth funds 11.2% and aggressive funds 15.2%.The report…

Published on 24/10/2025 – 16:56 GMT+2 European lawmakers will make the case for wildlife trafficking to be recognised as organised crime by 2030 at the upcoming United Nations gathering in Uzbekistan to discuss wildlife protection from over-exploitation due to international trade. Elephants, rhinoceros, wild birds and amphibians are among the creatures mentioned in the mandate agreed by lawmakers on Wednesday, which included reservations regarding China’s lack of transparency regarding its pangolin stockpiles. Lawmakers asked for increased protection for shark and ray species and proposed a legally binding instrument to stop ivory trafficking in the EU. “We’ve seen an increased demand…