ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on August 18, 2025.
Why is the soap scum in my bathroom pink? Is it mould? And can it make me sick?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Taylor, Adjunct academic, mycology, Flinders University How long has it been since you last cleaned your bathroom? If it’s been longer than you planned, you might see a build up of scum, slime or mould around your taps, between the tiles and on the edges of
Road-user charges can pay for more than just road maintenance – NZ could lead the way
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Kingham, Professor of Human Geography, University of Canterbury Getty Images The government heralded its plan to move New Zealand’s entire vehicle fleet to road-user charges as a fairer method of funding road maintenance. For owners of electric and diesel vehicles, this is nothing new. They already
Quiz: can you pick a Victorian from a Queenslander? How our accents change from state to state
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Howard Manns, Senior Lecturer in Linguistics, Monash University AustralianCamera/shutterstock In Australia, we can often tell what state someone is from based on the words they use: whether they go to the beach in “togs”, “bathers” or “swimmers” or if they prefer to eat a “potato cake”, “potato
Antibiotic use likely fuelled the rise of a ‘superbug’ in NZ – genomics offers a defence against the next threat
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rhys Thomas White, Scientist in Genomics and Bioinformatics, New Zealand Institute for Public Health and Forensic Science Getty Images After a routine C-section at an Auckland hospital, a mother developed severe pain and what seemed like postnatal fatigue. It turned out to be an infection with methicillin-resistant
Australia has 120 health workforce policies. But with no national plan, we’re missing the big picture
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephanie M. Topp, Professor, Global Health and Development, James Cook University Steven Saphore/AFP via Getty Australia’s health workforce is under pressure. Wait times are growing. Burnout is rising. Yet the country is awash in policy – just not the kind that solves these problems at the root.
If AI takes most of our jobs, money as we know it will be over. What then?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Spies-Butcher, Associate professor, Macquarie University It’s the defining technology of an era. But just how artificial intelligence (AI) will end up shaping our future remains a controversial question. For techno-optimists, who see the technology improving our lives, it heralds a future of material abundance. That outcome
Images from Gaza have shocked the world – but the ‘spectacle of suffering’ is a double-edged sword
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sara Oscar, Senior Lecturer, Visual Communication, School of Design, University of Technology Sydney The power of the war photograph is that it won’t let you look away. And nowhere is this proving truer than in Gaza. One recent example portrayed a skeletal boy, Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq,
‘Several teachers didn’t believe in ADHD’: families speak about how students with disability are bullied and excluded
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Smith, Senior Lecturer of Wellbeing Science, The University of Melbourne Thurtell/Getty Images One student was routinely punished for her “ADHD behaviours” at school, another was locked in a classroom, while another was sent home 85 times in a single year. These are just some of the
The Arab, the Left and those who remained silent: History will not forgive you
Report by Dr David Robie – Café Pacific. – By Ramzy Baroud The consequences of the Israeli genocide in Gaza will be dire. An event of this degree of barbarity, sustained by an international conspiracy of moral inertia and silence, will not be relegated to history as just another “conflict” or a mere tragedy. The
Why we need protection from brutality of some thuggish NZ police
COMMENTARY: By Saige England A New Zealand policeman pushed over an elderly man who was doing nothing but waving a Palestinian flag at a solidarity rally in Ōtautahi yesterday. Yes the man employed to protect the public committed a violent assault. Not a wee shove, a great big push that caused the man to fall
Putin got the red-carpet treatment from Trump. Where does this leave Ukraine?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew Sussex, Associate Professor (Adj), Griffith Asia Institute; and Fellow, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University The bizarre summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska should sway all but the most credulous doubters that the White House is more interested in friendly relations
Gerard Otto on Palestine, genocide and the media: ‘Not if – but when – but not now’
COMMENTARY: By Gerard Otto This morning there is no article on the political page of The New Zealand Herald about the plight of people in Gaza, the same is the case at The Post and at RNZ. Even the 1News political page is Gaza free but what may stun you over a Sunday morning coffee
