Author: Press Room

Tauranga mayor Mahé Drysdale is yet to move to the city he leads because he says he can’t find a home in his desired school zone.After being elected in July Drysdale said he would commute from his current hometown of Cambridge, but aimed to be living in Tauranga by the end of the year.A ratepayers representative said the mayor needed to move to Tauranga to “to live up to his truths”.Drysdale lives in Cambridge with his wife Juliette and their three primary school-aged children, but finding a house within their preferred school zone in Tauranga was “proving to be very…

At least 51 people are dead after their bus plunged off a bridge Monday on the outskirts of Guatemala’s capital, said Hector Flores, who was helping coordinate the municipal government’s response.Firefighting spokesman Edwin Villagran said a multi-vehicle crash sent the bus off the bridge before dawn. Others were seriously injured.The bus fell 35m into a sewage-polluted stream. It landed upside down and half-submerged.The bus had come from Progreso, northeast of the capital. Volunteer firefighting spokesman Óscar Sánchez said children were among the victims.President Bernardo Arévalo offered his condolences and declared a day of national mourning.

US President Donald Trump moved to substantially raise tariffs on steel and aluminium imports on Monday, cancelling exemptions and duty-free quotas for major suppliers Canada, Mexico, Brazil and other countries in a move that could boost the risk of a multi-front trade war. According to Trading Economics, New Zealand exported about US$39 million (NZ$69m) worth of aluminium to the US in 2023. Trump signed proclamations that raised the tariff rate on aluminium imports to 25% from the previous 10% that he imposed in 2018 to aid the struggling sector. His action reinstates a 25% tariff on millions of tons of steel imports and…

A woman has been charged after a December incident where Napier police say a man was travelling on a mattress on top of a car before falling off and dying.Tamatea man Reif Cotter, 33, was found with critical injuries on a Marewa street on the night of December 27.He died at the scene.In an update, Detective Sergeant Stacey Bailey-Tran said police had now arrested and charged a 23-year-old woman over the incident.The woman was arrested in Hastings yesterday afternoon and charged with excess breath alcohol and reckless driving causing death.”Police are not seeking anyone else in relation to this incident,”…

Education technology is a major feature in Singapore schools with the Government aiming to transform learning to “prepare students for a technology-transformed world”.“We recognise the power and the affordance of technology to help our teachers bring out the best in students in the teaching and learning process,” Yusof Ishak Secondary School Principal Chen Ziyang told 1News.Yusof Ishak Secondary School is one of two schools the Ministry of Education Singapore approved access to after 1News made a request to see the country’s high-performing education system in action.In the latest 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment study run by OECD, Singapore scored…

Surviving on mince and sausages, and wearing second-hand clothes – that’s the plight some pensioners face as the cost of living crisis continues.Those living away from major cities are also feeling the pinch, even if they do not rely solely on the pension.The amount New Zealand’s pensioners are spending each week has been broken down in a recent report from Massey University.For Donald O’Meara and his partner, it is vital that they stick to their budget on their well-planned grocery shops or monthly trips to The Warehouse to stock up on essentials such as toilet paper on Gold Card special…

Christopher Luxon says times have been tough for New Zealanders but there are green shoots emerging, as he responds to the latest 1News Verian Poll, which showed a fall for National – and the left bloc having the numbers to form a government. The poll of 1000 eligible voters revealed National was down 3% and Labour up 4% in the poll, which ran from February 3 to 7.It found that if an election were held today, the left bloc of Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori would have 61 seats — enough to govern.National dipped to 34%, compared to…

China insists that a visit this week by the prime minister of the Cook Islands to Beijing is not meant to conspire against anyone in the South Pacific, despite the trip stirring up a diplomatic spat between it and its chief benefactor, New Zealand.The visit appears to be part of China’s campaign to woo tiny island nations in the South Pacific, where Beijing has been using its economic weight and diplomatic heft in what critics say is a push to reduce the influence of the United States and its allies and give itself access to mineral resources, fisheries and global…

Documents obtained by Euronews reveal the Commission’s protocol only officially communicated Ursula von der Leyen would not be attending the reopening ceremony of Notre Dame Cathedral a few hours before the event began. ADVERTISEMENTDocuments seen by Euronews have revealed the short timescale within which Commission President Ursula von der Leyen decided not to attend the reopening of Notre Dame last year, confirming that she appeared set to attend the event a couple of days beforehand.If the reopening of the iconic cathedral last December was a touchstone event for France following last year’s successful Olympic Games, it was also a fragile…

The ‘blitz on illegal working’ comes as Keir Starmer’s government faces mounting pressure from the increasingly popular Reform UK party. ADVERTISEMENTThe British government has defended its decision to publish footage of immigration raids, as it seeks to stem the rising popularity of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party. The Home Office is set to release videos of deportations later on Monday, a move critics have denounced as insensitive.It comes as national polls show that Reform UK, a far-right party that is vehemently against immigration, is gaining on the incumbent Labour government. Amid such political pressure, Labour has boasted that it has…