Thursday 29th of January 2026 07:13:18 PM
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Vigil held for child killed in Pāpāmoa landslide, search continues at Mt Maunganui

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The damaged property at Welcome Bay. RNZ / Calvin Samuel

A vigil was held at a church in Tauranga on Friday night for a young boy who died in a Pāpāmoa landslide.

Two people, including the boy, had been confirmed dead in Welcome Bay, while six people were known to be missing in a separate landslide at the base of Mt Maunganui.

St Peter’s Anglican Church musical director Chalium Poppy said the boy – who died with a relative in a house on Welcome Bay Road – was due to come to a piano lesson at the Mt Maunganui church on Thursday.

“It’s all just very raw, like it’s just happening, there are still people that are missing,” he said.

“We’re just responding the only way that… the church knows how, and that’s to sort of open up our doors, provide sanctuary, provide a place for people to come and pray and sit in silence and light a candle. We’re here to serve the community, so that’s exactly what we do, and especially in times of need.”

Poppy said the boy only recently began learning how to play piano with him.

“He was just really bright and incredibly talkative… asked lots of really great questions, like a really cool, sort of inquisitive mind, and obviously talented musically.”

A Chinese woman, believed to be the boy’s grandmother, also died when a landslip hit the house they were in.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the losses were “deeply shattering” and New Zealand was “heavy with grief”.

Excavators have been working on moving piles of rubble while support workers on foot point out the next spot for them to dig. Calvin Samuel / RNZ

Mt Maunganui

Firefighters and police searched Beachside Holiday Park through the night, while families waited nearby for news of their loved ones.

Kate, who was in an apartment near the slip, said she could hear the crews working.

“They had spotlights on, so the whole side of the mountain was pretty bright, you could hear sort of people obviously working all night… they were there all night,” she said. “The families that must be waiting, it must be horrific for them.”

Robyn Leech said the huge of scale of the slip felt “unreal” – she had seen four diggers working at the scene on Friday morning.

Emergency workers close a road following the landslide. DJ Mills

Rachel and Brooke Baldwin came to the cordon near the campsite on Friday with several trays of muffins to feed emergency services and the locals who had gathered.

The disaster had left them shocked, and baking was how they knew they could help.

“We’re not professionals in terms of surveying the land, or you know, testing the earthworks, we can’t help physically but what we can do is bake and we can show out appreciation and our gratitude for the people all over New Zealand that are coming to Mt Maunganui to help our community,” she said.

Mother and daughter bakers dropping off muffins at the scene at the landslide. Alan Gibson / Gibson Images Ltd

Angela Rangi, a Mt Maunganui local, said she visited the hot pools every morning. She had been there the morning of the slip, too, but left before it came down.

Nothing was amiss when she left, she said, but 15 minutes later, she heard a lot of sirens and returned to a disastrous scene.

Local MP Sam Uffindell said it was a sombre day and appeared visibly upset after meeting with families inside the cordon.

Police and fire leaders said it would not be possible or appropriate to discuss the details of anyone rescued or recovered, until identification takes place and families have been informed.

They repeated the message to a media conference on Friday afternoon.

Aassistant national fire commander David Guard at the scene. Calvin Samuel / RNZ

‘Still very much a rescue operation’

“We are in the middle of a rescue operation, and it would be insensitive on families to talk about that openly in the public arena,” assistant national fire commander David Guard said.

“We are continuing to treat this as a rescue operation.”

Luxon said waiting families were dealing with “high anxiety and deep distress”, and the emotions were hitting them all differently.

A man whose relative was among those missing, said she had been running around telling everyone to go before the landslide.

Meanwhile, police were asking anyone with video footage of the slip to send it to them.

As emergency crews swapped shifts and fresh search and rescue staff came in, police district commander Tim Anderson said they were “living in hope” of pulling people out alive from the landslide, as survivors had sometimes been safely rescued in similar circumstances overseas.

*Six people remain unaccounted for, but the whereabouts of three others is also unknown – though it’s believed they are tourists and may have already left the area. Police have appealed for video footage anyone has to be uploaded via the police’s online portal.”

Anyone with information that could help could contact police via the 105 service, referencing Operation Sunbrae.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Federal government’s crackdown on free speech affects all Australians

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ANALYSIS: By Paul Gregoire

Australia’s two federal combating antisemitism bills, the New South Wales laws providing the means to shutdown street protests and move on stationary public assemblies, along with the envoy’s plan to combat antisemitism and the Royal Commission into the same prejudice, have all been set in place following two ISIS-fuelled killers murdering 15 people at Bondi Beach six weeks ago.

While some of these measures were drafted in a hurry immediately post-Bondi in a theatrical attempt to prevent what had already occurred, much of the “combating antisemitism” smorgasbord of laws that serve to clamp down on free speech and the right to political communication in general, appear to have been waiting in the wings for the right political moment to enact.

These dramatic changes that have been foisted upon the country’s public square have been central to a broad campaign that the Zionist lobby has been progressing both locally and throughout the Western world, which is difficult to pin down as most of this advocating takes place behind closed doors, while when featured in the media, these positions are increasingly reflected as the norm.

The Zionist lobby is also known as the Israel lobby. Political Zionism advocates for the establishment of a Jewish state on Palestinian land, which is today Israel.

A key outcome of the doctrine of Zionism is the displacement and genociding of Palestinians. And it is these truths, and the fact that the Gaza genocide is in progress, that make it necessary to progress the lobby’s agenda right now.

But while the Albanese government is implementing the envoy’s plan and a Royal Commission into antisemitism, which both include a definition of antisemitism that serves to block criticism of Israel at the behest of the lobby, the scope of the federal hate laws further reveal desperate Labor and Liberal parties attempting to shore up power in the face of a drastically shifting political climate.

McCarthyite Zionism
 While the Israel lobby has long been understood to have an excessive influence upon the US political establishment, the sway of the Zionist lobby in Australia had not been common knowledge among the broader public until Gaza, as over the past 26 months of the mass slaughter and starvation programme, the lobby’s propaganda machine has been actioned in an attempt to hide this.

As the internet filled with footage of Israeli state actors perpetrating horrific acts in the Gaza Strip in late 2023, the Australian public sphere became a place to attack constituents for speaking out about this worst atrocity since the genociding of Jewish people during the Second World War, and the key way to silence these critics was to charge them with antisemitism — the hate that stoked the Holocaust.

The central target of the local Zionist lobby has been the Palestine solidarity movement, which has been a loud secular voice sprung from a diverse constituency.

Yet, federal and state Labor leaders have been labelling these people, who have been calling for an end to the practice of exterminating humans to obtain land, as outright antisemites and further implied they’re somewhat terroristic.

Assisting in the progression of the Zionist lobby’s hasbara mission, a documentary about rising antisemitism was aired last year, then a series of staged antisemitic crimes swept Sydney streets, rallies against Israel’s barbarity in Gaza have been framed as antisemitic, Jewish voices decrying Israel have been labelled self-hating, while attempts to remove Palestinian voices are underway.

According to US professors Noam Chomsky and Judith Butler, the Israeli state and the Zionist lobby commenced framing criticism of Israel as antisemitic in the late 1960s.

This idea is predicated upon Israel being a Jewish state. It denies the fact that many Jewish people globally don’t adhere to the doctrine of Zionism. And it rests on a flimsy link that only holds because of the force of the lobbyists.

Getting our hasbara on
 The Zionist lobby got a foot in the door when PM Anthony Albanase appointed arch-Zionist Jillian Segal to the newly created position of Australian Special Envoy on Antisemitism in July 2024.

This had appeared to be spurred by the moral panic around antisemitism, however it has since come to light that the envoy programme exists across the Western world, with the first US envoy appointed in 2004.

Segal released her Plan to Combat Antisemitism in July 2025. Albanese implemented it straight after Bondi.

At its heart, the plan inserts the IHRA definition of antisemitism that blocks criticism of Israel into every level of Australian government and all its institutions. Further aspects involve the monitoring of tertiary institutions and the media for antisemitism or rather, anti-Israel sentiment.

The IHRA working definition of antisemitism comprises of two lines and 11 examples of hatred towards Jewish people, seven of which involve criticising Israel.

The body that produced it has never officially adopted it. However, as one of its drafters has been warning over the past decade, the Zionist lobby has been weaponising the definition to silence anti-Israel criticism globally.

The determination to hold a Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion is the result of an all-pervasive campaign to see it established post-Bondi massacre, with the suggested reason being to understand how such a terrorist action was able to come to fruition.

Further moral panic
However, the criminal case against one shooter rules this out, so the inquiry will likely serve to stoke further moral panic.

The NSW government commenced seriously stamping out protest in April 2022.

So, the blanket ban on protests, or the public assembly restriction declaration regime rolled out post-Bondi, can be understood as not only placating the Zionist lobby, via the silencing of Palestine solidarity rallies on Gadigal land in the Sydney CBD, but it’s also as a continuation of the closing of the public sphere.

The 50 pages of hate crime laws the Albanese government whipped out of its back pocket last week, appeared so broad that the suggestion is the measures were in the works long before the antisemitic attack in Bondi on 14 December 2025.

ASIO boss Mike Burgess hinted at a need for these last year, so as to stamp out groups, like the neo-Nazi National Socialist Network and Islamic group Hitz ut Tahrir, as they had both been understood to be hovering just beneath the threshold of criminal activity.

So, broad is the reach is the new listing prohibited hate group regime that the major concern right now is that they might be applied to stamp out pro-Palestinian sentiment and protest in the public square to again placate the Zionist lobby.

But further, these laws sitting on the books could likely be used by a future “true blue” führer, so that their opposition can be eradicated on taking office.

The fallacy of necessitated free speech denial
 NSW premier Chris Minns’ favoured mantra over the period of the Gaza genocide — or the rise in antisemitism in Australia if one is being “politically correct” — has been along the lines of “the reason NSW does not have free speech protections like they do in the United States, is that this state has a multicultural society and therefore, divergent voices must be tempered”. Yet, this is a lie.

During the 1890s drafting of the Australian Constitution, those involved determined not to enshrine rights in the founding document, as it might result in discriminatory laws already on the books that specifically applied to First Nations people and Chinese people becoming invalid, former High Court Justice Micheal Kirby has noted on occasion.

This was just prior to the 1901 federation of Australia, which was when various pieces of legislation were passed in order to progress the White Australia policy. So, rights were initially denied in this country to maintain a form of white supremacy.

The premier is not only progressing this line when the moral panic around antisemitism is in full flight, but he is also suggesting that the right to free speech should not be protected in NSW, over and over again, after NSW MP Jenny Leong introduced the Human Rights Bill 2025 last October, which seeks to protect free speech, or “freedom of opinion and expression”, among other rights.

The failure to protect free speech in this country was initially about maintaining power when attempting to establish an ethnostate. But the ongoing denial of rights protections since Australia embraced multiculturalism commencing in the 1970s, has really been about politicians maintaining power, and not an attempt to save various ethnic groups living here from annihilating each other.

The idea progressed by Minns is that the broad free speech protections in the United States, which are contained in the First Amendment of the US Constitution, would be a problem in our community because it is multicultural.

However, while the US has traditionally been understood to have been a melting pot of different ethnicities, what is operating as societies in both countries today are based upon multiethnicities, and they’re pretty much the same.

The progression of the “combating antisemitism” laws and policies right now is all about placating the Zionist lobby, while Israel takes as many pounds of flesh as it desires upon occupied Palestinian territory, in order to prevent the ongoing mass civil society outcry over this ethnic cleansing, the mass starvation and mass murder, along with the genocidal tactics that are ongoing in the Gaza Strip.

Yet, the federal listing of prohibited hate group regime also provides the ability to the major parties to criminalise their political opponents as hate groups — think, the Greens — at a point in time when the long-term capture of holding government office by the majors is now under threat.

Paul Gregoire is a Sydney-based journalist and writer. He is the winner of the 2021 NSW Council for Civil Liberties Award For Excellence In Civil Liberties Journalism. Prior to Sydney Criminal Lawyers®, Paul wrote for VICE and was the news editor at Sydney’s City Hub.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

‘Thank God’: Parents of conjoined twins grateful they defied medical advice

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Conjoined twin Sawong from PNG wears a party hat as his family and staff at Sydney Children’s Hospital celebrate him reaching 100 days old. Supplied/Jurgen Ruh/Manolos Aviation

The parents of rare conjoined twins say doctors in Papua New Guinea told them to take the boys home as they were beyond hope.

“Thank God we [defied them] and we are where we are,” the boys’ dad Kevin Mitiam, who is also a twin, said in Tok Pisin.

Tom and Sawong – who were fused at the lower abdomen – had unplanned emergency surgery to divide them at Sydney Children’s Hospital on 7 December.

The surgery was brought forward as Tom, the weaker twin, was deteriorating rapidly. A large multi-disciplinary team took seven hours to separate the boys but Tom died soon after he was detached from his brother.

The team spent a further five hours working on Sawong, who is doing well and could return home by the end of February.

“The Port Moresby General Hospital paediatrician team told us [twice] to go back home, that there was no hope for them,” their mum Fetima said in Tok Pisin.

“We were even told not to trust Jurgen Ruh [the family’s spokesperson] because they said he was giving us false hope.

“I am happy and I laugh when I see my baby Sawong and think about that advice,” she said.

“I am full of hope, I cuddle him and talk to him every day, as he grows.”

RNZ Pacific has reached out to Port Moresby General Hospital for a response.

The two-month-olds were medivacced from Port Moresby to Sydney on 4 December, following medical advice that they undergo urgent surgery.

The move followed weeks of tense wrangling over the viability of separating them, which country would accept the case and perform the operation, and how it would be financed.

The boys shared a liver, bladder and parts of their gastrointestinal tract, but had their owns limbs and genitals.

They also had partial spina bifida – a neural tube defect that affects the development of a newborn’s spine and spinal cord. Tom also had a congenital heart defect, one kidney and malformed lungs.

Doctors at Port Moresby General Hospital initially explored the possibility of transferring the twins to Sydney, but the plans fell through when funding from a charity was pulled.

The hospital later made a u-turn and advised the couple to stay in PNG or face the death of either one or both of the boys.

The medical director Dr Kone Sobi said previously that multiple discussions led to their final decision, and added: “The underlying thing is that both twins present with significant congenital anomalies and we feel that even with care and treatment in a highly specialised unit, the chances of survival are very very slim.

“In fact the prognosis is extremely bad and the twin’s future is unpredictable.”

Manolos Aviation pilot Jurgen Ruh with Sawong at Sydney Children’s Hospital. Ruh flew Sawong and his conjoined twin Tom to Port Moresby General Hospital from their home in remote Morobe Province after they were born. Supplied/ Jurgen Ruh/ Manolo Aviation

Ruh told RNZ Pacific on Thursday that although Sawong remains in intensive care, monitored constantly by a specialist nurse, he is “strong and doing well”.

He was no longer on a ventilator, did not need supplementary oxygen and was gaining about 50 grams a day in weight, he said.

“The hose fitting on his nose is simply to monitor his breathing and to assist a little with extra pressure in his lungs.

“Doctors have now closed up a hole in his stomach with stretched skin and he is improving every day, but it will be another month or so before he is released, possibly by the end of February.

“Occasionally Sawong gives the biggest smile on earth; he is just happy with what he has.”

The hospital recently celebrated Sawong’s reaching 100 days old with a simple but touching celebration.

“It threw a little party for Sawong, his parents and all the staff who have been part of his journey. Fetima cut a frozen cheesecake on his behalf,” Ruh said.

A massive funeral for Tom was held a month ago at the Mega Church in Hillsong, Sydney.

The family are expected to scatter his ashes after they return home to their remote village in PNG’s Morobe Province.

While the complex surgery was a success, the results were bittersweet for the parents.

“I thought it was amazing, after the surgery a nurse gave Tom to them and they spent hours just cuddling him,” Ruh previously told RNZ Pacific.

The parents had been through a “rollercoaster” of emotions since the twins were born on 9 October.

“They had accepted that they would lose Tom and there’s been many tears shed along the way,” he said previously.

Ruh said last month that at one stage during negotiations the Sydney Children’s Hospital requested AUD$2 million to do the operation, but funds and guarantees could not be found.

RNZ Pacific understands that the parents had approached the PNG government for funding, but Ruh would not confirm this.

The ABC had reported that the hospital had asked for payment before the twins were transferred from PNG; however Ruh said as far as he knew no money had changed hands.

When asked how it was financed he said: “It’s a mixture of funding which took too long to organise.

“It should never have taken eight weeks to get the twins separated, it should have happened in eight days, but no referral pathway [to a foreign hospital] exists,” Ruh said.

He laid the blame on the PNG health system, and said babies born prematurely or with birth defects were lost in the system.

“It was a very disappointing ride we had, in terms of overall support from Port Moresby General Hospital. Then there were delays in getting them to Australia.

“We were exploring faster options, but we did not have any support.”

The boys were eventually moved from the public hospital to Paradise Private Hospital in Port Moresby, which provided them with free care.

The family felt the twins would be “safer” and have less chance of cross-infection from other babies, particularly of malaria.

A multi-disciplinary team from Sydney Children’s Hospital flew to Port Moresby on 21 November to assess the twins, amid growing public pressure in Australia and PNG.

At that point the boys only had a combined weight of 2.9kg, and Tom was relying on Sawong to keep him alive.

Sawong (left) and Tom while they were being treated in Port Moresby General Hospital’s neonatal unit last year. Supplied / Port Moresby General Hospital

In a letter to doctors in PNG, the Sydney team said surgery was in fact feasible although Tom was not expected to survive it.

“The reason for the early separation is that Sawong is working hard to support Tom,” the letter said.

The team had recommended the twins be urgently transferred in a specialised aircraft with intensive care facilities plus medical and nursing personnel.

The boys underwent multiple investigations at Sydney Children’s Hospital, including an MRI and CT scan to define their anatomy and vascular supply.

“Before the surgery, the medical team [in Sydney] said it was a miracle that Tom had survived for two months,” Ruh said previously.

A huge team including liver surgeons, colorectal surgeons and urologists, specialised cardiac anaesthetists, cardiologists, neonatologists and interventional radiologists were involved in the surgery, supported by a large team of nursing and allied staff.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Government announces $10m for Ringatū marae in Bay of Plenty

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Politicians welcomed to Rātana on Friday. RNZ / Pokere Paewai

The government has announced $10 million for Ringatū marae in Bay of Plenty.

Making the announcement at Rātana, regional development minister Shane Jones said the funding would boost resilience in the Wainui Marae infrastructure near Ōhope.

It followed similar previous investments at Waitangi, Rātana and Parihaka.

Jones said the build would create 71 jobs, and afterwards the marae complex would include a wharenui, wharekai, wharetāonga, wharepaku, and a modern safe space for worship, cultural events and learning.

“I acknowledge our Finance Minister [Nicola Willis] because we are short of putea, but she supported this,” he said.

“And no, this is not an attempt to get votes. If I was going to get votes, Waikato would have voted for me when I gave them $30 million for the Ruakura infrastructure.”

Earlier, Winston Peters also pushed back on the idea such funding could constitute a political bribe.

“No… you should understand that when we’ve come here, we’ve always left a gift. It’s the Māori way and we’ve done it for decades in successive governments,” he said.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Watch: Local iwi speak with father of two children missing in Mt Maunganui landslide

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Local Iwi spoke with a father who is missing two children at the Mt Maunganui campground landslide, during a karakia service.

Around a dozen people from Mauao Trust and local iwi representatives gathered at the base of Mt Maunganui at 6pm on Friday, joined by the families of the missing – together they held a karakia ceremony.

Authorities believed there were six people missing in the landslide, while police were seeking the whereabouts of a further three.

Tracy Ngatoko, mana whenua from Ngati Ranginui and Ngai Te Rangi, she did what she called an “apakura.”

The rescue operation at Mt Maunganui on Friday night. Kim Baker Wilson

“An apakura is a lamental cry, of sorrow, and basically I called upon our mountain, Mauao, to help all the servicemen that are there and the women that are trying to find those that are still unaccounted for.”

After that, three men said three different incantations.

“Evoking the gods to help with the search, evoking the gods to clear the pathway so that it enables them to do the work that they still need to do across the next few days and ahead of us.

“But more importantly, to be with the families that at this stage, a lot of uncertainty, sorrow, anguish.”

Ngatoko said the three karakia were different -one was directly to the mountain, another was a historical prayer, connecting to the events of the past and its history as a burial ground.

The final karakia was to the elements, asking for the weather to stay good to help the workers with the search.

An ambulance at the scene. RNZ / Kim Baker Wilson

She said all the machinery stopped during the ceremony, the only noise was the incantations.

“There’s a saying in Māori that goes, he kanohi kitea he hokinga mahara, which basically means a lot of images brings back multitudes of memories. And so it was quite emotional, just walking around the corner down there and seeing the devastation.”

Ngatoko held back tears as she spoke of the emotion she felt watching the families of the missing crying during the silence and prayers.

She spoke to a man who was missing both of his children in the landslide.

“He’s trying to be as positive as possible because his wife isn’t in a good state at the moment, knowing that the children are still stuck there and just can only but send heaps of aroha and empathy to him”

During the ceremony the skies opened up and drenched the area around the mountain. As soon as the ceremony had finished, the sun returned.

Ngatoko said it was a cleansing.

“In one instance, it was a cleansing in terms of what needs to be done and needs to continue to happen. And the other part of it was the spiritual realm which bestowed itself upon the physical realm.

“When those two powers meet, it was a phenomenal feeling.

“It was also a tohu for us, a symbol of the tears of our ancestors. And no doubt, those of the affected families as well.”

There continued to be restricted access to the area and a rāhui in place.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Oldest member of NZ Winter Olympic team thought dream had passed him by

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Lyon Farrell competing in 2019 in Atlanta. Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images/AFP

With an average age of 20 in the NZ Winter Olympic team, Lyon Farrell is probably considered over the hill in snowboarding years for a first Winter Olympics.

At 27, Farrell is three year’s older than the next oldest members of the 17-strong team, which has been confirmed for next month’s Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.

Farrell achieved a long held dream when his selection in the Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle and Big Air disciplines was confirmed on Friday.

Mentally, Farrell said he felt like a 20-year-old.

“Just staying in it, riding with a bunch of 19-year-olds …I’m still learning new tricks and giving these young guys a run for their money,” Farrell said.

Farrell grew up in Maui, Hawaii but first learned to ski at Coronet Peak in Queenstown with his parents and siblings.

His Mom was American, and his Dad a Kiwi. His grandparents live in Arrowtown and Farrell spent a lot of his childhood in the South Island.

He switched to snowboarding, following in his big brothers footsteps and entered his first competition in 2011.

He first started training with the New Zealand team in 2014 when he was just 15, then got the opportunity to ride with the USA team.

Farrell was with the US team from 2015 to 2022 but missed out on the last Olympics after tearing his ACL in the lead-up and thought that dream might be over.

Things were very different in 2014 when no New Zealand male athletes were sent to the Sochi Winter Olympics that year.

“So that conversation was never really there, there wasn’t really a structured team around slopestyle riding…I didn’t really see it as something that could happen.

“And then 2018 was when Zoi [Sadowski-Synnott] and Nico [Porteous] really started crushing it and I was like whoa all the guys that I’d been snowboarding with when I was 15-16 years old are doing amazing, I’d love to see what’s going on.”

New Zealand had its most successful Winter Olympic Games at Beijing 2022, where Kiwi athletes claimed two gold medals and a silver.

Sadowski-Synnott made history, winning New Zealand’s first Winter Olympic gold medal in Snowboard Slopestyle, alongside a silver in Big Air. She also won a Big Air bronze medal at PyeongChang 2018 and is off to her third Olympics next month.

Farrell had worked with Sean Thompson, Sadowski-Synnott’s coach, when he was as young as 13. He finished second in the Snowboard Halfpipe at the 2014 Junior World Championships under Thompson.

Four year’s ago Farrell started thinking about switching his allegiances back to New Zealand.

“That friendship and connection I had with the Kiwi team was still super strong and at the time it made the most sense to go back to where I started …really paying homage to the place that I learnt how to snowboard.”

Farrell said he didn’t want to look back when he eventually retired and wonder if he could have been a better snowboarder.

“Didn’t really have to do with the Olympics, it more had to do with could I reach my full potential as an athlete. When I started to look at it I saw that the people I was riding with back in 2014 had created something incredible and that was what I wanted to be a part of.”

Zoi Sadowski-Synnott has been an inspiration to Lyon Farrell. Miha Matavz / www.mihamatavz.com

He said a big drawcard was to work with coaches Tom Willmott and Thompson again.

“I believe that they are the best in the world and that the New Zealand team was the best place I could possibly be, so I chose to step away from the US team and go where what I thought was better and I feel it continues to show me that it is.”

After watching a new generation of New Zealand snowboarders emerge, Farrell said he felt lucky to just be involved.

“They’ve kind of lifted me to a level now where I feel like I’m not just a good Kiwi but I’m good on the world stage and I can actually do better than I probably ever have before.”

Growing up, professional sport was a part of Farrell’s household.

His mother Angela Cochran was a professional windsurfer for a couple of decades and still competes, so it was no surprise that Farrell ended up competing in an extreme sport.

“I think it was kind of unavoidable being that my Mum was in a freestyle kind of sport where flipping and spinning and pushing yourself was part of the programme.”

Cochran, who still lived in Maui, competed against New Zealand Olympic medallist Barbara Kendall in the 1990s and 2000s.

The Windsurfing Hall of Famers were still great friends.

“Maui was kind of the mecca of windsurfing and she did a lot of racing and wave sailing with Barbara, so Barbara was kind of my main connection whenever I was in the North Island flying through to see my grandparents in the South Island I’d always be with Barbara and her family, it’s pretty cool to have that connection.

“I don’t windsurf but I picked up a couple of other wind sports along the way, little bit of winging, little bit of stand up paddle, downwind foiling, all sorts of random stuff when I have time in the summer.”

The Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games would take place from February 6-22 across iconic Italian alpine venues.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Person hit by vehicle outside Christchurch Hospital

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The emergency department is still able to be accessed. Supplied / Te Whatu Ora

The road outside Christchurch Hospital has closed eastbound following a crash.

A pedestrian was hit by a vehicle on Riccarton Avenue at 6.50pm.

They have been seriously injured.

Motorists are asked to avoid the area.

However, the entrance to the emergency department is still accessible.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Person found dead, another in critical condition after ‘serious’ incident in Clutha

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Source: Radio New Zealand

RNZ / Angus Dreaver

One person is dead and another is in a critical condition after what police are calling a “serious incident” in the Clutha suburb of Crichton.

Detective Sergeant Hayden Smale says at 6.10pm police were called to Adams Flat Road.

The circumstances of the incident are not yet clear and Smale says police enquiries are ongoing.

One person is dead and another seriously injured after an incident on Adams Flat Road. Google Maps

A scene examination is taking place and a guard remains at the property.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

OpenAI will put ads in ChatGPT. This opens a new door for dangerous influence

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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Raffaele F Ciriello, Senior Lecturer in Business Information Systems, University of Sydney

OpenAI, The Conversation

OpenAI has announced plans to introduce advertising in ChatGPT in the United States. Ads will appear on the free version and the low-cost Go tier, but not for Pro, Business, or Enterprise subscribers.

The company says ads will be clearly separated from chatbot responses and will not influence outputs. It has also pledged not to sell user conversations, to let users turn off personalised ads, and to avoid ads for users under 18 or around sensitive topics such as health and politics.

Still, the move has raised concerns among some users. The key question is whether OpenAI’s voluntary safeguards will hold once advertising becomes central to its business.

Why ads in AI were always likely

We’ve seen this before. Fifteen years ago, social media platforms struggled to turn vast audiences into profit.

The breakthrough came with targeted advertising: tailoring ads to what users search for, click on, and pay attention to. This model became the dominant revenue source for Google and Facebook, reshaping their services so they maximised user engagement.



Read more:
Why is the internet overflowing with rubbish ads – and what can we do about it?

Large-scale artificial intelligence (AI) is extremely expensive. Training and running advanced models requires vast data centres, specialised chips, and constant engineering. Despite rapid user growth, many AI firms still operate at a loss. OpenAI alone expects to burn US$115 billion over the next five years.

Only a few companies can absorb these costs. For most AI providers, a scalable revenue model is urgent and targeted advertising is the obvious answer. It remains the most reliable way to profit from large audiences.

What history teaches us about OpenAI’s promises

OpenAI says it will keep ads separate from answers and protect user privacy. These assurances may sound comforting, but, for now, they rest on vague and easily reinterpreted commitments.

The company proposes not to show ads “near sensitive or regulated topics like health, mental health or politics”, yet offers little clarity about what counts as “sensitive,” how broadly “health” will be defined, or who decides where the boundaries lie.

Most real-world conversations with AI will sit outside these narrow categories. So far OpenAI has not provided any details on which advertising categories will be included or excluded. However, if no restrictions were placed on the content of the ads, it’s easy to picture that a user asking “how to wind down after a stressful day” might be shown alcohol delivery ads. A query about “fun weekend ideas” could surface gambling promotions.

These products are linked to recognised health and social harms. Placed beside personalised guidance at the moment of decision-making, such ads can steer behaviour in subtle but powerful ways, even when no explicit health issue is discussed.

Similar promises about guardrails marked the early years of social media. History shows how self-regulation weakens under commercial pressure, ultimately benefiting companies while leaving users exposed to harm.

Advertising incentives have a long record of undermining the public interest. The Cambridge Analytica scandal exposed how personal data collected for ads could be repurposed for political influence. The “Facebook files” revealed that Meta knew its platforms were causing serious harms, including to teenage mental health, but resisted changes that threatened advertising revenue.

More recent investigations show Meta continues to generate revenue from scam and fraudulent ads even after being warned about their harms.

Why chatbots raise the stakes

Chatbots are not merely another social media feed. People use them in intimate, personal ways for advice, emotional support and private reflection. These interactions feel discreet and non-judgmental, and often prompt disclosures people would not make publicly.

That trust amplifies persuasion in ways social media does not. People seek help and make decisions when they consult chatbots. Even with formal separation from responses, ads appear in a private, conversational setting rather than a public feed.

Messages placed beside personalised guidance – about products, lifestyle choices, finances or politics – are likely to be more influential than the same ads seen while browsing.

As OpenAI positions ChatGPT as a “super assistant” for everything from finances to health, the line between advice and persuasion blurs.

For scammers and autocrats, the appeal of a more powerful propaganda tool is clear. For AI providers, the financial incentives to accommodate them will be hard to resist.

The root problem is a structural conflict of interest. Advertising models reward platforms for maximising engagement, yet the content that best sustains attention is often misleading, emotionally charged or harmful to health.

This is why voluntary restraint by online platforms has repeatedly failed.

Is there a better way forward?

One option is to treat AI as digital public infrastructure: these are essential systems designed to serve the public rather than maximise advertising revenue.

This need not exclude private firms. It requires at least one high-quality public option, democratically overseen – akin to public broadcasters alongside commercial media.

Elements of this model already exist. Switzerland developed the publicly funded AI system Apertus through its universities and national supercomputing centre. It is open source, compliant with European AI law, and free from advertising.

Australia could go further. Alongside building our own AI tools, regulators could impose clear rules on commercial providers: mandating transparency, banning health-harming or political advertising, and enforcing penalties – including shutdowns – for serious breaches.

Advertising did not corrupt social media overnight. It slowly changed incentives until public harm became the collateral damage of private profit. Bringing it into conversational AI risks repeating the mistake, this time in systems people trust far more deeply.

The key question is not technical but political: should AI serve the public, or advertisers and investors?

The Conversation

Raffaele F Ciriello is a voluntary, temporary member of the eSafety Commissioner’s Parent Advisory Group, advising on caregiver and youth responses to Australia’s Social Media Minimum Age laws. This article draws on his independent research.

Kathryn Backholer is Vice President (Policy) at the Public Health Association of Australia. She receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Australian Research Council, UNICEF, The Ian Potter Foundation, The National Heart Foundation, VicHealth, the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education, QUIT, the .auDA Foundation and the Victorian Department of Justice and Community Safety for work related to the health-harms of online advertising.

– ref. OpenAI will put ads in ChatGPT. This opens a new door for dangerous influence – https://theconversation.com/openai-will-put-ads-in-chatgpt-this-opens-a-new-door-for-dangerous-influence-273806

The Mount Maunganui tragedy reminds us landslides are NZ’s deadliest natural hazard

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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Martin Brook, Professor of Applied Geology, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau

Getty Images

The tragic events in the Bay of Plenty this week are a stark reminder that landslides remain the deadliest of the many natural hazards New Zealand faces.

On Thursday morning, a large landslide swept through the Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park at the base of Mauao, triggering a major rescue and recovery operation that will continue through the weekend.

Hours earlier, two people were killed when a separate landslide struck a home in the Tauranga suburb of Welcome Bay. As of Friday evening, six people remain missing at Mount Maunganui.

These events occurred at the tail end of a weak La Niña cycle, which typically brings wetter conditions to northern New Zealand. At the same time, unusually warm sea-surface temperatures have been loading the atmosphere with extra moisture, helping to fuel heavier downpours.

In parts of northern New Zealand, more than 200 millimetres of rain fell within 24 hours in the lead-up to last week’s events – well above the typical thresholds known to trigger landslides.

Regions such as the Bay of Plenty, Coromandel, Northland and Tairāwhiti are especially vulnerable to intense rainfall, which weakens surface soils and the highly weathered rock beneath them, allowing shallow landslides to detach and flow downslope.

Most landslides in New Zealand are triggered by heavy rainfall, through a complex interplay of intrinsic factors – such as slope angle, soil and rock strength, and vegetation cover – and extrinsic factors, including rainfall intensity and how wet the ground already is from prior rainfall when a storm arrives.

Much of this risk is invisible, accumulating quietly beneath the surface until a sudden collapse occurs.

This helps explain why landslides have long proved so dangerous. Since written records began in 1843, they have been responsible for more deaths than earthquakes and volcanic eruptions combined.

Much of New Zealand’s steep, geologically young landscape is pockmarked by the evidence of millions of past landslides, most occurring on pasture and remote areas, far from people.

When landscapes tell a story

At Mount Maunganui, the shape of the land itself tells a story. The surrounding hill slopes are riddled with the scars of past landslides, revealing a landscape that has been repeatedly reshaped by slope failure over time.

New high-resolution mapping now allows scientists to see this in unprecedented detail. A 2024 LiDAR-derived digital elevation model, which effectively strips away vegetation to reveal the bare land surface, shows numerous landslide features across the slopes.

Many cluster along the coastal cliffs, but two particularly large ancient landslides can be seen directly above the holiday park.

A high-resolution elevation map of Mauao and surrounding land at Mount Maunganui, drawn from Land Information New Zealand data, showing landslide features. Two ancient landslides, or paleolandslides, above the campground site are labelled L1 and L2.
Author provided, CC BY-NC-ND

These older slips left behind prominent head scarps – steep, crescent-shaped breaks in the hillside – indicating where large volumes of material once detached and flowed downslope onto flatter ground below.

Subsurface evidence reinforces this picture. A geotechnical investigation carried out in 2000, near the northern end of the campground’s toilet block, found a 0.7 metre layer of colluvium – loose debris deposited by earlier landslides and erosion – buried beneath the surface.

In other words, the site itself sits atop the remnants of past slope failures.

This image provides two views of the slopes above the campground at Mauao (Mount Maunganui). On the left (A) is a 2023 aerial photo showing the steep hillside and the location of earlier ground testing. On the right (B) is a detailed elevation map revealing two ancient landslides (L1 and L2) hidden in the landscape. The star marks the approximate starting point of the January 22 landslide.
Author provided, CC BY-NC-ND

The January 22 landslide appears to have initiated in the narrow zone between the two earlier slips. This is a particularly vulnerable position: when neighbouring landslides occur, the remaining wedge of land between them can lose lateral support, becoming unstable, like a rocky headland jutting out from a cliff face.

Over long timescales, this kind of progressive slope collapse is a normal part of landscape evolution. But when it unfolds in populated areas, it can turn an ancient geological process into a human disaster.

From prediction to prevention

Predicting how far a landslide will travel, and which areas it might inundate, is critically important – but it remains an inexact science.

At its simplest, this can involve rough rules of thumb that estimate how far a landslide is likely to run based on slope height and angle. More sophisticated approaches use advanced computer models, such as Rapid Mass Movement Simulation (RAMMS) which simulate how landslide material might flow across the landscape.

These models were used, for example, to assess landslide risk at Muriwai, Auckland, following Cyclone Gabrielle.

By adjusting inputs such as rainfall intensity and soil properties, scientists can explore a range of possible scenarios, generating estimates of how far future landslides could travel, how deep the debris might be, and which properties could be affected.

The results can then be translated into landslide hazard maps, showing areas of higher and lower risk under different rainfall conditions. These maps are not predictions of exactly what will happen, but they provide crucial guidance for land-use planning, emergency management and public awareness.

New Zealand has made major progress in mapping floodplains, and most councils now provide publicly accessible flood hazard maps that influence building rules and help communities understand their exposure.

In the future, developing similarly detailed and widely available maps for landslide hazards would be a logical – potentially life-saving – next step.

The Conversation

Martin Brook receives funding from the Natural Hazards Commission Toka Tu Ake.

– ref. The Mount Maunganui tragedy reminds us landslides are NZ’s deadliest natural hazard – https://theconversation.com/the-mount-maunganui-tragedy-reminds-us-landslides-are-nzs-deadliest-natural-hazard-274201

Gloriavale Christian School to remain open, for now

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The cancellation of the school’s registration was due to take effect today. RNZ / Jean Edwards

Gloriavale Christian School will remain open for now after its board sought a judicial review of the Ministry of Education’s decision to cancel its registration as a private school.

Secretary for Education Ellen McGregor-Reid informed the school of the decision last month.

The cancellation was due to take effect today.

However, McGregor-Reid confirmed the ministry has agreed to allow the school to remain open after the High Court yesterday granted interim orders preventing the cancellation from taking effect.

She said the community and the ministry have agreed that the school will remain open until the matter is heard.

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Imminent RBNZ rate hike odds narrow despite inflation ticking higher

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Source: Radio New Zealand

File photo. RNZ

  • RBNZ governor says shes committed and confident get inflation back to target
  • A stronger economy will add further price pressures
  • Experts bet on one, possibly two cash rate increses by year’s end

The odds of the Reserve Bank (RBNZ) raising its benchmark interest rate by the end of the year have narrowed after the latest inflation numbers.

Stats NZ data showed a 0.6 percent rise in consumer prices in the three months ended December, pushing the annual rate to an 18-month high of 3.1 percent, just above the RBNZ’s target band.

The RBNZ has been betting on the slack in the economy caused by recession and weak activity to put downward pressure on inflation, with domestic price pressures of wages, rents, rates, insurance, and electricity expected to ease gradually through the year.

RBNZ governor Anna Breman reaffirmed her commitment and confidence in getting inflation back into the target band.

“We still have favourable conditions in terms of reaching 2 percent because we have spare capacity and wage growth is still subdued, and our job is to do a balancing act going forward to ensure that we reach that,” Breman said in a pre-arranged interview with the Reuters news agency.

Her comments about a current data release were highly unusual, although they were similar to those made before the end of last year. She made no mention of any move in the official cash rate.

Next rate move higher

Economists interpreted the latest data as a sure sign that the next move in the OCR was higher, the only issue being when.

The RBNZ’s own calculation of core inflation edged higher to 2.8 percent, which ASB senior economist Mark Smith said showed the fall in domestic inflation has stalled.

“If anything, underlying pricing pressures look to be picking up.”

“There is the risk that annual inflation over 2026 will not cool to the circa 2 percent RBNZ expectation. Today’s CPI data and the RBNZ estimates for core inflation supports this view,” Smith said.

He said ASB was now picking a 25 basis point OCR rise to 2.5 percent in December, and another couple of hikes in the first half of 2027 to 3 percent.

“Rather than tapping on the monetary policy brakes, the moves should be interpreted as the RBNZ easing off on the accelerator,” Smith said.

ANZ senior economist Miles Workman agreed the next OCR move was higher and most likely in December.

He said the RBNZ had to balance between wanting to get inflation lower and not squashing the signs of economic recovery that have been showing through.

“The RBNZ will be aware that if it comes out too hawkish in February and thereby tightens monetary conditions before current green shoots have a chance to get established, those shoots could easily wither.”

In her interview, Breman confirmed the mixed outlook with some “weak signals” such as the fall in December retail sales and lack of strong recovery in the labour market, but a pick up in growth.

“We will get some data on the labour market coming out now in early February, so that will also be important.”

“We have to take all of this information into account when we go into the next meeting.”

The RBNZ makes its next monetary statement on 18 February.

Financial markets are pricing in the first increase in the OCR by October, and a second by year’s end.

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Driver swept away into Mahurangi River still missing

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Emergency crews have been searching the Mahurangi River for any signs of a man who was swept away on Wednesday. RNZ / Finn Blackwell

Emergency crews spent the day scouring the Mahurangi River north of Auckland for any signs of a man swept away earlier this week.

The 47-year-old Kiribati man was last seen on Wednesday when he and his vehicle were washed away near Falls Road in Warkworth.

The man’s nephew was able to escape and sound the alarm.

On Friday, emergency crews made up of about 30 people resumed their search.

Police say additional resources were deployed to the area. RNZ / Finn Blackwell

A number of people wearing hi-viz were wandering the banks of the river Friday morning, searching through dense bush and debris left by the storm.

Drones were also deployed during the day. A large drone flew high above the river while a smaller drone flew close to the bank.

Later, a fire and Emergency rescue raft was seen making its way down the river.

Those on board were searching under large piles of branches and detritus left behind by this week’s earlier severe weather.

Police said additional resources had been deployed to the area.

Searchers have been going through dense bush and debris left by the storm. RNZ / Finn Blackwell

Senior sergeant Carl Fowlie said 17 Land Search and Rescue staff as well as the water rescue crew from Fire and Emergency were assisting in the search.

“Police is continuing to support the man’s family through this difficult time,” Fowlie said.

“We thank all other agencies who have been called upon in recent days for their assistance.”

Fowlie said everyone involved in the search operation was focused on finding the man.

On Friday evening police said they will continue to monitor conditions over the coming days and deploy resource accordingly.

Meanwhile, the wife of the missing man, who RNZ agreed not to name, told a reporter on Thursday she was still holding out hope her husband was alive.

The Mahurangi River north of Auckland where the search has been taking place. RNZ / Finn Blackwell

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Black Caps bowler Adam Milne ruled out of T20 World Cup with injury

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Black Caps coach Rob Walter said the players all feel for pace bowler Adam Milne, who has been ruled out of the T20 World Cup because of a torn hamstring.

Milne suffered the injury while bowling in South Africa’s SA20 league on Sunday, with scans later revealing it was bad enough to prevent him from playing in next month’s World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.

Milne, 33, has been replaced by all-rounder Kyle Jamieson, who is playing for the New Zealand white-ball teams in India as they prepare for the World Cup.

“We’re all gutted for Adam,” Milne said.

“He’d worked so hard to get himself ready for the tournament and was looking back to his best in his eight games for the Eastern Cape Sunrisers.

“It’s unfortunate timing for Adam, and we wish him a speedy recovery.”

Jamieson would be a worthy replacement, Walter said.

“It’s great that Kyle is already with us here in India.

“He’s an integral member of our pace-bowling group and has hit the ground running on this tour.

“He’s a hard worker with a good set of skills and experiences that will hold him [in] good stead for the tournament.”

Walter confirmed a replacement travelling reserve for the T20 World Cup would be confirmed later.

The Black Caps are playing India in the second of five T20 internationals in Raipur on Saturday at 2.30am (NZ time).

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Child killed in Pāpāmoa landslide mourned as ‘bright’ talented musician

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Two bodies were recovered by police on Thursday at the Welcome Bay home. RNZ / Calvin Samuel

A child killed alongside his grandmother when a landslide hit a house in Pāpāmoa was a “bright” talented musician, his piano teacher says.

Two bodies were recovered by police at the home on Welcome Bay Rd on Thursday.

RNZ understands they were a grandmother and grandchild.

St Peter’s Anglican Church director of music Chalium Poppy said the boy was due to come to a piano lesson at the Mt Maunganui church on Thursday.

Poppy said he was contacted by a friend of the family to say the boy was missing in one of the slips.

“I’d been teaching all morning, so I hadn’t heard the news about the slips yet, and so I was a little bit caught off guard and on the back foot, but it became obvious during the day that it was a lot more serious,” he said.

“Then I found out again from a friend of the family, whose son also takes piano from me, that it was confirmed today that he was one of the two victims.”

Poppy said the boy had recently started taking piano lessons with him.

“He had only sort of just started, so he had a few lessons… but like with all my students, I always sort of do a meet and greet first and make sure that it’s going to be a right fit for the student and the parents and everything and so I got to know him through sort of the meet and greet more than his lessons, but he was just really bright and incredibly talkative… asked lots of really great questions, like a really cool, sort of inquisitive mind, and obviously talented musically.”

The church had opened its doors on Friday and were holding a vigil.

“It’s all just very raw, like it’s just happening, there are still people that are missing,” he said.

“We’re just responding the only way that… the church knows how, and that’s to sort of open up our doors, provide sanctuary, provide a place for people to come and pray and sit in silence and light a candle. We’re here to serve the community, so that’s exactly what we do, and especially in times of need.”

Bay of Plenty District Commander Superintendent Tim Anderson confirmed on Friday afternoon one of the people who died at Welcome Bay was a Chinese national.

An aerial photo of Welcome Bay Rd where a landslide came down. Supplied

He confirmed six people were currently unaccounted for, including two teenagers, following the landslide at Mt Maunganui.

The youngest of those missing was 15-years-old.

“We have been unable to establish the whereabouts of three further individuals.

“While we do not currently believe they were involved in the slip, further enquiries are required to rule it out.

“Those three parties are believed to be tourists, and we believe it is likely they left the area.”

Police were asking anyone with video footage of the slip at Mt Maunganui yesterday to upload it via this online portal.

“Additionally, anyone who might have information that could help our enquiries into the three parties whose whereabouts are yet to be determined is also asked to get in touch,” Anderson said.

People could do so through the 105 service, referencing Operation Sunbrae.

“We are wrapping support around the families of those whose loved ones are unaccounted for,” Anderson said.

“We would also like to acknowledge the wider community, who have similarly shown such an outpouring of support and empathy for those affected, including the family of those who died in Welcome Bay.”

Anderson said there were still thousands of people across the region affected by the weather event, and Police, alongside other agencies, were working to support the communities.

“In Welcome Bay, where a number of evacuations were carried out, Police are carrying out additional patrols around those vacant properties until residents can return.

“Police will continue to work with our partners to support the ongoing operation at Mount Maunganui as the first priority, and will also continue to deploy our staff across the region where they are most needed.”

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Witness describes ‘water and debris everywhere’ as slip engulfs Hicks Bay Motor Lodge

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The chief chef at Hicks Bay Motor Lodge said two feet of deep silt, water and debris surrounded the motel after a large slip crashed into the back of rooms on Thursday morning.

Georgina Taiapa said water was still flowing down from a nearly 200-square-metre slip that crossed SH35 and swept down into the lodge.

Helicopters have been air-lifting help and supplies into Te Araroa and Hicks Bay today after slips and flooding cut off the East Cape community on Wednesday night.

Taiapa – who is also a member of the Hicks Bay rural fire brigade – was staying at the lodge to keep an eye on guests – and receive any local evacuees – when the slip came down at about 3am Thursday.

She moved about five guests into the lodge’s restaurant and looked after them with food and coffee until daylight.

When the sun came up, she was able to see the extent of the devastation.

Slips across SH35 above Hicks Bay Motor Lodge. Supplied

“There was just water and debris and silt everywhere, and then when I went up around the back, [and] there was just sludge and all the water running off the slip. Where the slip had come down, there were just big trees. We were quite lucky, actually,” Taiapa said.

She said the flooding in recent days was the worst she’d seen in nearly 16 years in the area.

Her own home – near the Wharekahika river – had been “flooded out” and she would be staying at the lodge until she could find somewhere to live.

Slips across SH35. Supplied

“I haven’t been able to get down here and have a look, but I’ve been sent videos of it. It is what it is.

“Just until they can sort something else with the house, but that’s going to be a long time. You’ve got to carry on. Can’t do anything about it. I’m just making sure that the guests are all safe and well, and they all get evacuated and get back where they need to get to. I’m okay.”

She said the lodge was well equipped for food for the next couple of days, and power had come back at about 1.30 pm on Friday.

The owner of the lodge, Tony Holden, said about eight rooms had been yellow stickered by the council following the slip.

Gisborne District Council said at least 90 households were cut off in the Tai Rāwhiti district, but not all would require assistance at this stage.

By midday Friday, there had been four helicopter drop-offs across the area, which had been used to deliver two building assessment teams, conduct welfare checks and move people to other locations.

Another four flights were scheduled to deliver medical supplies and food to parts of Hicks Bay and Te Araroa later in the day.

Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz told RNZ on Friday morning that at least seven communities were cut off and more information would come to light about their needs during the day.

“After today, we’ll be able to know who is there. It is a small community, but still, they have real needs – especially for this weekend with no access. We have to look at their water and food needs, their electricity needs. All of that is what we will take into account today,” Stoltz said.

Gisborne District Council chief executive, Nedine Thatcher Swan, said the exact number of isolated communities – needing supplies flown in – was likely to grow as the day progressed.

The Gisborne District Council says flooding and slips have severely impacted Onepoto, Wharekahika and Te Araroa. SUPPLIED

“It’s been really hard to try and understand the number that are impacted, so that’s why we’ve got people deployed in there this morning to really get a grip up on how many,” she said.

“Speaking to our community link teams in there yesterday, they’re talking like they’re cut off from Tai Rāwhiti, but – within there – we’ve got pockets that are cut off from one another.”

Slips and unstable land could cause problems in the area for weeks to come. She was urging people to stay clear of any landslips in the district.

“Just be very, very careful. Do not go near those landslides. The ground may still be unstable – no matter how much we may think we know that area – they are unpredictable and could move without warning.”

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Tokelau airport project scrapped despite multi-million dollar design

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By Kaya Selby, RNZ Pacific journalist

New Zealand has scrapped a project to build an airport in Tokelau after sinking NZ$3 million into the design phase.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade told RNZ Pacific that the Tokelau government had been advised of their decision.

Tokelau is completely inaccessible by plane, with visitors and its roughly 2600 residents required to travel via boat from Samoa. A return fare on the boat, which runs once every two weeks, is approximately NZ$306, with a travel time of around 24-32 hours.

“This decision was made in the context of the high cost of the project and the constrained fiscal environment currently facing the New Zealand government,” MFAT said in a statement.

“We recognise that air services have been a long-held aspiration of the people of Tokelau. ”

The government had spent around $3 million on feasibility, design, business casing and procurement planning since 2020, with funding agreed to the year before. The project faced delays due to COVID-19.

Stuff reported in 2022 that tenders for the project that had been put out for one provider who would be willing to work with the council of elders, or Taupulega, on a design concept.

Intended design
An Official Information Act request from October 2024 confirmed that the intended design included one terminal with an 800m by 30m runway on Nukunonu, the largest of Tokelau’s three atolls.

A tender for a construction contractor had been placed as late as September 2025, with an expected timeline reaching out to 2030, according to MFAT’s DevData tool.

Children collecting inati (part of a fundamental cultural system of resource sharing) for their families. Image: Elena Pasilio/RNZ

John Teao, former chairman of the Wellington Tokelau Association, said he was personally pleased to see the project come to its end.

“There’s not enough land to have an airstrip . . .  and it’s also the environmental impact — it’s a pristine environment,” Teao said.

“I just don’t see any any justification for an airport.

“Maybe in the future, if they have sea planes or things like that.”

Teao said he hopes to see the money spent on something more useful, such as improving the existing boat system.

Bridging the gap
The New Zealand Labour Party’s Pacific spokesperson, Carmel Sepuloni, said this project was intended to bridge the gap between Tokelau and the world.

“While the details are unclear, it’s disappointing to hear this news,” she said in a statement.

“There are real risks that come with having no access to an airstrip. With a population of about 2500 and almost 10,000 Tokelauans living in New Zealand, travel to and from Tokelau is difficult.

“There’s a clear need and given Tokelau is within the realm of New Zealand, I’d expect the government to offer a clear explanation as to why they’ve scrapped these plans.”

An election in Tokelau for their General Fono is set for January 29. Each village is selecting their candidates for just over a week of campaigning.

The Fono consists of three Faipule, or village leaders, three Pulenuku, or village mayors, and 14 general delegates, elected for a three-year term.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Rātana: Māori willing to work with any political party, says Kiingitanga’s Rahui Papa

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Politicians welcomed to Rātana. RNZ / Pokere Paewai

Kiingitanga representative Rahui Papa says the coalition has done some good, but has been challenging for Māori – and that sometimes the Crown should not be involved.

He says Māori will be willing to work with any political party, no matter the colour.

Politicians were welcomed to Rātana Pa with a pōwhiri this afternoon.

Papa says with an election date of 7 November, Māori will be listening to what parties say about what is best for them.

He pointed out the irony that the day after the election – 8 November – was the same date Tahupotiki Wiremu Rātana received his vision.

He says Māori have had their ear to the ground on economics, but emphasises the value of mana motuhake and families supporting one another at home.

The Māori Queen Te Arikinui Kuini Nga wai hono i te po was welcomed to Rātana with a powhiri this morning, ahead of political parties arriving.

Te Arikinui Kuini Nga wai hono i te po and Te Rangimaheu Te Heuheu (center) being welcomed to Rātana. RNZ/Pokere Paewai

Sitting beside her was Te Rangimaheu Te Heuheu, the new Ariki of Ngati Tuwharetoa, making his first visit to Ratana since the passing of his father Sir Tumu te Heuheu in September, aged 84.

Speaking to media, Waikato-Tainui leader Tuku Morgan said the relationship between the Crown and Māori had become “pretty fractured” under the current government.

He said Māori now had a “greater sense of urgency” to find creative ways to work together.

“When you’re pushed into a corner, and when you’re marginalised and minimised they way we have been… it makes us much more united in our view to find innovative ways to survive in the long term.”

Morgan pointed to the Māori Queen’s new business investment platform – the “‘Kotahitanga Fund” – as an example of that innovation. The multimillion-dollar venture would provide funding for Māori entrepreneurs and businesses.

“We can’t rely on the Crown to do everything for us. That is a fallacy,” he said. “Despair is not an option.”

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi are both absent, surveying damage and helping local communities after the recent storms.

Tama Potaka and Nicola Willis are representing National.

They are attending along with Labour leader Chris Hipkins and members of the Greens, New Zealand First and Te Pāti Māori.

Politicians welcomed to Rātana. RNZ / Pokere Paewai

MPs speaking at Rātana

Labour leader Chris Hipkins told reporters the prime minister had made the “right decision” to skip the commemorations to instead visit weather-hit communities.

“It is the right place for him to be at the moment,” Hipkins said.

“I do want to extend, on behalf of the Labour Party, our thoughts to… those who have tragically lost loved ones, those who are still uncertain about what’s going on, those who have had to leave their homes.”

Speaking at Rātana, Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer told RNZ her own Te Pāti Māori colleagues had also stayed in their electorates to support those affected.

“My message to them was: you’re not to leave your people.”

Ngarewa-Packer says the leader of the nation needed to be where the biggest hurt was – and in fact should have visited sooner.

“The prime minister’s advice was probably a bit slow… he probably should have been there yesterday… we know previous leaders would have done.

“Looking after those that are hurting at the moment is the priority.”

Climate crisis?

Ngarewa-Packer said the flooding drove home the seriousness of the climate crisis and the need to future-proof vulnerable communities.

“Why does it always take a tragedy for us to be able to sit there and say well, maybe, we do need to listen to the experts?”

Hpkins said the flooding was an undeniable consequence of climate change.

“You’d have to have your head buried in the sand to not recognise the fact that what were previously once-in-a-hundred-year events are now happening all of the time,” he said.

But NZ First leader Winston Peters dismissed some of the “alarmism” linking the flooding to climate change.

“It’s not new. We’ve had higher tides. I’ve seen them myself as a younger boy,” Peters said.

In a remarkable acknowledgement, Peters said the government had not done enough to prepare communities for such disasters:

“I’m just giving you the honest answer… we’ll have clear plans going forward to do better and do more with the New Zealand people.”

Green co-leader Marama Davidson told reporters the government had neglected to invest in infrastructure to protect communities from extreme weather events.

“That impacts on real people’s lives and loss of livelihood.”

NZ First leader Winston Peters speaks at Rātana. RNZ / Pokere Paewai

Kamaka Manuel, spokesperson for the Tumuaki of the Rātana Church, acknowledged whānau across the North Island who have been impacted by flooding and landslips over the past few days.

“Our thoughts and our prayers go out to our whānau that are in those areas and for the whānau that are experiencing loss as a result of those horrific events that have happened in the last 24 hours,” he said.

Despite the devastation elsewhere, Manuel said the celebrations at Rātana Pā have proceeded well, with Te Arikinui Kuini Nga wai hono i te po and the new Ariki of Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Rangimaheu Te Heuheu Tukino IX, welcomed onto the marae this morning.

“It’s been lovely to have them all here and return to Rātana Pā.”

Manuel said this year the hui has returned to older traditions, with 24 January dedicated to rangatahi celebrations.

“As a young fella growing up here, the 24th was a sport parade in the morning and we would all get on the parade and donate our colours of where we came from. Obviously pertinent to our hāhi. And it’s going to be a wonderful opportunity for my own mokopuna to be a part of that and relive some of those childhood memories of their koroua,” he said.

He said the return to these traditions allows mōrehu to come together ahead of the founder’s birthday on 25 January, while placing rangatahi at the heart of the celebrations.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins speaks at Rātana. RNZ / Pokere Paewai

Manuel said the hui also symbolises the importance of Māori unity.

“Today’s coming together and arrival of our Queen and also our Ariki really, really symbolises just how important the kotahitanga o te iwi Māori is, in this aspect.”

While the Prime Minister will not attend due to ongoing weather disasters across the North Island, Manuel said the kaupapa of Rātana remains unchanged, with the Māori Queen and Ariki still participating and political parties being welcomed.

“We’ve already seen the Queen herself initiate a pathway that is of a view to really showing the powerfulness of kotahitanga amongst te iwi Māori,” he said.

“For us, it’s around ensuring that we are conducive to those efforts and that we are continuing to be unified and support…ensuring that our value system is also brought in parcel and parcel with that mana motuhake.”

Manuel said Rātana continues to be regarded as the first national hui of the Māori calendar.

“We’re excited to see what our rangatahi have prepared. They’re feeling quite empowered to be able to have a strong input into the running of the hui,” he said.

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Man dies at Auckland’s Cheltenham Beach

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Source: Radio New Zealand

RNZ / REECE BAKER

Police have confirmed a person has died at Cheltenham Beach on Auckland’s North Shore.

A spokesperson says they recieved a report of a man being pulled out of the water unresponsive just after 3pm.

Despite emergency services providing medical assistance the man died at the scene.

The immediate area is being cordoned off.

Police will make enquiries into the man’s death on behalf of the Coroner.

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Police respond to incident at Cheltenham Beach

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Source: Radio New Zealand

RNZ / REECE BAKER

At least five police officers are at Cheltenham Beach in Auckland’s Devonport.

A witness at the beach told RNZ they can see what appears to be a body bag on the beach beside police officers.

The witness says they can also see a surf rescue jet-ski.

The beach is a popular swimming spot opposite Rangitoto Island in the Hauraki Gulf and is known to have relatively flat, calm waters.

More to come…

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Firefighters get callouts as severe weather hits Canterbury

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Fire and Emergency received eight weather-related callouts shortly after 2pm across Kaiapoi and Rangiora. RNZ / Alexander Robertson

Firefighters in Canterbury are responding to a house believed to have been struck by lightning, and another where the ceiling has caved in as a bout of severe weather crosses the mainland.

It comes after MetService issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the Canterbury regions of Hurunui, Waimakariri and Christchurch City.

Fire and Emergency said shortly after 2pm, it received eight weather related callouts in half an hour across Kaiapoi and Rangiora.

A Hato Hone St John spokesperson said it was notified on an incident on Kingsbury Avenue, Rangiora, around 3.30pm, with one person taken to Christchurch Hospital in a moderate condition.

… More to come

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‘Unelected globalist bureaucrats’ – Peters praises United States’ WHO withdrawal

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Source: Radio New Zealand

In a social media post, Winston Peters has praised the US withdrawal from the World Health Organisation. RNZ / Mark Papalii

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has praised the United States’ withdrawal from the World Health Organisation, and has questioned whether it is worth New Zealand continuing to put money towards it.

The United States has officially exited the WHO, a year since President Donald Trump gave notice via executive order.

The US still owes the WHO US$260 million (approximately NZ$442m) in fees, but the US State Department has said the American people have paid more than enough.

In a post on X, Peters commented on the US’ withdrawal.

“This is what happens when a bunch of unelected globalist bureaucrats are not accountable or responsible with worldwide taxpayers money,” he said.

Peters, who is also Foreign Affairs Minister, sent the post from his personal social media account, rather than from his ministerial account.

He questioned whether membership continued to represent value for money.

“With the US withdrawing its membership it puts into question the current state of the WHO, its effectiveness, and if our taxpayers money is being responsibly spent overseas instead of here at home,” he said.

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Six people including two teens missing after Mount Maunganui landslide, police say

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Police say six people including two teenagers are missing at Mount Maunganui after Thursday’s landslip at a campsite, while they are seeking further information on three others.

Police District Commander Tim Anderson told media the youngest among the missing was a 15-year-old and another teenager was also missing.

“There has been speculation or discussion around children. The youngest ages are 15 years of age. So we’re talking about youth or young people or teenagers.”

Asked if it was just one teen among the missing, Anderson said: “two”.

He said police did not believe the three people they were seeking information on were still in the area.

They may possibly have been overseas tourists, but police would like to confirm their whereabouts, he said.

Officials work at the scene of the landslide at the Beachside Holiday Park in Mt Maunganui on Thursday. Alan Gibson / Gibson Images Ltd

The slip came down at the Beachside Holiday Park at Mount Maunganui at about 9.30am on Thursday, smashing into campervans, tents, vehicles and an ablution block near the Mount Hot Pools.

FENZ assistant national commander David Guard, Regional Response Coordinator said it was still being treated as a rescue event.

Anderson said police would make a call “day by day” as to when the operation moves from a rescue to a recovery mission.

There had not been any signs of life beneath the rubble “as of today”, Anderson says, “but we live in hope”.

The slip at Mauao, Mount Maunganui as seen from the air. Screengrab / Amy Till

Guard would not confirm whether bodies had been recovered from the Mt Maunganui campground site.

“We are in the middle of a rescue operation and it would be insensitive on families to talk about that openly in the public arena.”

That information will become public in time, he said.

Every inch of soil and debris removed from the site will be worked through, he said.

The agency was committed to staying on site until the situation had been brought to a conclusion, he said.

A large digger arrives at Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park to help with the search operation. RNZ / Kim Baker Wilson

Tauranga Mayor Mahé Drysdale said initial indications were that there may have been a small slip in the early hours of Thursday morning, and some people were able to move away from the area.

How much warning there was would be addressed at a later date but the focus right now was on the rescue response, he said.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said New Zealand was full of grief and what happened at Mt Maunganui was an absolute tragedy. He has spent the morning with families of some of those missing.

Luxon said he had seen neighbours and “friends of friends of friends” going to houses to help clear slips and debris and there was something inspiring to see community members reaching out and supporting neighbours in tough times.

Roads near the holiday park were closed in the immediate aftermath of the slip on Thursday. DJ Mills

Rescuers were “deeply deeply committed to doing everything they can to help find these loved ones,” Luxon said.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand’s Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams worked overnight in what authorities described as a complex and high-risk environment.

A far-reaching cordon is in place at Mount Maunganui which was closed following the slip.

Mount Maunganui local Robyn Leech whose apartment overlooks the slip on Friday morning said that crews had been furiously digging through the debris for nearly 24 hours.

The mood was eerie and sombre and the area was practically deserted, aside from Search and Rescue crews, police and security, she said.

The scene at Mt Maunganui on Friday. Supplied / Alan Gibson

An ambulance at Mt Maunganui on Friday. Supplied / Alan Gibson

A group of about 50 people, including media, had gathered at the cordon by 10.30am on Friday with locals concerned about the situation and looking for an update.

Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell earlier said further slips at the campground where people remained missing were a “massive consideration”.

Mitchell said the risks were clear from how two firefighters died in a secondary slip in Auckland during Cyclone Gabrielle.

“That is a major safety concern and one that is being taken seriously. There’s geoscientists on site. We actually evacuated the Mt Maunganui Surf Lifesaving Club yesterday for exactly those reasons.”

View of the scene at the landslide that crashed through the Beachside Holiday Park in Mt Maunganui. Supplied / Alan Gibson

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ER Report: A Roundup of Significant Articles on EveningReport.nz for January 23, 2026

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ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on January 23, 2026.

Trump’s Greenland grab is part of a new space race – and the stakes are getting higher
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Marie Brennan, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Waikato Pituffik Space Base, formerly Thule Air Base, in northern Greenland. Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images US President Donald Trump’s position on Greenland has shifted almost daily, from threats to take it by force to assurances he

Scott Morrison and Dan Andrews got it wrong. Here are 7 ways to get crisis leadership right
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Toby Newstead, Senior Lecturer in Management, University of Tasmania Five years ago, as Australia burned through the catastrophic Black Summer bushfires, then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison was photographed relaxing on a Hawaiian beach. When he returned, his now-infamous words – “I don’t hold a hose, mate” – epitomised

Caitlin Johnstone: Oppose Israel’s abuses while you still can
COMMENTARY: By Caitlin Johnstone I’ve seen some Australians expressing confusion as to whether or not they can still legally criticise Israel online after new “hate speech” laws were passed on Tuesday under the pretence of combatting “antisemitism”. The answer is yes, and you definitely should keep opposing Israel and its genocidal atrocities. I am worried

Digital ‘tokenisation’ is reshaping the global financial industry. Is NZ ready?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Murat Ungor, Senior Lecturer in Economics, University of Otago Getty Images Imagine investing in a premium Central Otago vineyard, or owning a slice of prime Wellington commercial property, all without needing millions in upfront capital. Through asset “tokenisation”, this is becoming a reality. Essentially, tokenisation converts physical

How to get managers to say yes to flexible work arrangements, according to new research
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melissa A. Wheeler, Senior Lecturer, Graduate School of Business and Law, RMIT University Diva Plavalaguna/Pexels In the modern workplace, flexible arrangements can be as important as salary for some. For many employees, flexibility is no longer a nice-to-have luxury. It has become a fundamental requirement for staying

Why are human penises so large? New evolutionary study finds two main reasons
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Upama Aich, Forrest Research Fellow, Centre for Evolutionary Biology, The University of Western Australia Rock formations in Love Valley, Cappadocia, Turkey. Nevit Dilmen/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY “Size matters” sounds like a tabloid cliché, but for evolutionary biologists the size of the human penis is truly a puzzle.

What’s the best way to remove a splinter?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Woods, Lecturer, Nursing, Faculty of Health, Southern Cross University Splinters are everyday injuries commonly involving a small shard of wood, glass, metal, plastic or a thorn that becomes embedded in the skin and the soft tissue underneath. The outer skin layer, known as the epidermis, has

Grattan on Friday: Coalition split is massive blow for Ley but the fault lies with Littleproud
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Sussan Ley may pay the price for the implosion of the Coalition, but the blame rests squarely with Nationals leader David Littleproud. He’s the one whose leadership should be on the line. When you stand back from it, the behaviour

From grand harbour spectacular to intimate perfection: the varied dance at Sydney Festival 2026
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Erin Brannigan, Associate Professor, Theatre and Performance, UNSW Sydney Stephen Wilson Barker/Sydney Festival Of all the arts, dance has a special capacity to create worlds. Centred around the moving body, these worlds draw on other art forms – music, visual art, design, projection – to fill-out visions

Eugene Doyle: Mark Carney’s moment – a new non-aligned movement?
COMMENTARY: By Eugene Doyle Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney gave a speech at Davos this week that signals there may still be a leader in the West worth following. “Middle powers must act together because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu,” he warned. The Canadian PM was brutally honest about Western

Instead of a marriage, the Coalition should be an on-again, off-again affair
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Linda Botterill, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The short-lived split between the Nationals and the Liberal Party after last year’s election has been followed by another breakup less than nine months later. The Nationals are publicly stating they cannot work under Sussan

Ian Powell: Bondi Beach’s murderous terrorism aftermath – an Aotearoa perspective
COMMENTARY: By Ian Powell On 14 December 2025, a father and son, reportedly linked to the ISIS clerical fascist organisation, committed a murderous attack on innocent participants at a Jewish celebration on Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach. Fifteen were killed and around 40 seriously injured. There is no way this horrific event can be minimised. It

RSF condemns verdict in ‘fabricated’ case against Filipino journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned the guilty verdict against Filipino journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio whose case has been challenged since her arrest almost six years ago. Cumpio was found guilty today on a charge of “financing terrorism” in the Philippines, and now faces a sentence

Two teenagers among missing after Mt Maunganui landslide

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Police say six people including two teenagers are missing at Mount Maunganui after Thursday’s landslip at a campsite, while they are seeking further information on three others.

Police District Commander Tim Anderson told media the youngest among the missing was a 15-year-old and another teenager was also missing.

“There has been speculation or discussion around children. The youngest ages are 15 years of age. So we’re talking about youth or young people or teenagers.”

Asked if it just one teen among the missing, Anderson said: “two”.

He said police did not believe the three people they were seeking information on were still in the area.

They may possibly have been overseas tourists, but police would like to confirm their whereabouts, he said.

Officials work at the scene of the landslide at the Beachside Holiday Park in Mt Maunganui on Thursday. Alan Gibson / Gibson Images Ltd

The slip came down at the Beachside Holiday Park at Mount Maunganui at about 9.30am on Thursday, smashing into campervans, tents, vehicles and an ablution block near the Mount Hot Pools.

FENZ assistant national commander David Guard, Regional Response Coordinator said it was still being treated as a rescue event.

Anderson said police would make a call “day by day” as to when the operation moves from a rescue to a recovery mission.

There had not been any signs of life beneath the rubble “as of today”, Anderson says, “but we live in hope”.

Police tape at the cordon of a massive landslide in Mt Maunganui which has people trapped beneath it. RNZ / Kim Baker Wilson

Guard would not confirm whether bodies had been recovered from the Mt Maunganui campground site.

“We are in the middle of a rescue operation and it would be insensitive on families to talk about that openly in the public arena.”

That information will become public in time, he said.

Every inch of soil and debris removed from the site will be worked through, he said.

The agency was committed to staying on site until the situation had been brought to a conclusion, he said.

A large digger arrives at Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park to help with the search operation. RNZ / Kim Baker Wilson

Tauranga Mayor Mahé Drysdale said initial indications were that there may have been a small slip in the early hours of Thursday morning, and some people were able to move away from the area.

How much warning there was would be addressed at a later date but the focus right now was on the rescue response, he said.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said New Zealand was full of grief and what happened at Mt Maunganui was an absolute tragedy. He has spent the morning with families of some of those missing.

Luxon said he had seen neighbours and “friends of friends of friends” going to houses to help clear slips and debris and there was something inspiring to see community members reaching out and supporting neighbours in tough times.

A view on Friday of the landslide that crashed through the Beachside Holiday Park in Mt Maunganui on Thursday. Supplied / Alan Gibson

Rescuers were “deeply deeply committed to doing everything they can to help find these loved ones,” Luxon said.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand’s Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams worked overnight in what authorities described as a complex and high-risk environment.

A far-reaching cordon is in place at Mount Maunganui which was closed following the slip.

Mount Maunganui local Robyn Leech whose apartment overlooks the slip on Friday morning said that crews had been furiously digging through the debris for nearly 24 hours.

The mood was eerie and sombre and the area was practically deserted, aside from Search and Rescue crews, police and security, she said.

The scene at Mt Maunganui on Friday. Supplied / Alan Gibson

An ambulance at Mt Maunganui on Friday. Supplied / Alan Gibson

A group of about 50 people, including media, had gathered at the cordon by 10.30am on Friday with locals concerned about the situation and looking for an update.

Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell earlier said further slips at the campground where people remained missing were a “massive consideration”.

Mitchell said the risks were clear from how two firefighters died in a secondary slip in Auckland during Cyclone Gabrielle.

“That is a major safety concern and one that is being taken seriously. There’s geoscientists on site. We actually evacuated the Mt Maunganui Surf Lifesaving Club yesterday for exactly those reasons.”

View of the scene at the landslide that crashed through the Beachside Holiday Park in Mt Maunganui. Supplied / Alan Gibson

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Greens put forward member’s bill to entrench Māori seats

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The bill is in the name of its Māori Development spokesperson Hūhana Lyndon. RNZ / Peter de Graaf

The Green Party has put forward a member’s bill to entrench Māori seats into law, arguing the electoral settings are undemocratic.

The party announced the bill, in the name of its Māori Development spokesperson Hūhana Lyndon, at Rātana celebrations this afternoon.

“This bill aims to correct a constitutional imbalance of the treatment of Māori seats,” Lyndon said.

“General electorate seats are currently entrenched. Māori seats are not. That’s not democracy; it is constitutionally flawed, and prejudices Māori in the electoral system.”

Māori seats can currently be abolished by a simple majority.

Lyndon’s member’s bill proposes a law change to increase this threshold to a supermajority of 75 percent.

This change has been sought before through a member’s bill in the name of former Labour MP Rino Tirikatene, who represented Te Tai Tonga.

His Electoral (Entrenchment of Māori Seats) Amendment Bill proposed a 75 percent threshold but was voted down at second reading in late 2019.

Lyndon said her member’s bill also included proposals to allow Māori voters to switch rolls at any time and to vote on a different roll for local elections, as recommended by the Independent Electoral Review 2023.

As always with members’ bills, they must be drawn from the biscuit tin to be read a first time in the House.

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Live: At least six missing at Mt Maunganui landslip, including two teenagers

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Follow the RNZ liveblog above.

Search teams are still trying to find several people who were believed buried by landslides in the Tauranga area following this week’s devastating storms.

On Thursday morning at least two people – one of them a young girl – were missing after a landslide came down on several structures at campground at the base of Mauao, Mount Maunganui.

Meanwhile, a person was seriously hurt and two others killed after a landslide in Welcome Bay in Papamoa.

Follow the RNZ liveblog at the top of the page for the latest updates.

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Serious injuries in Tasman crash

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Source: Radio New Zealand

File photo. RNZ

A two-vehicle crash in the Tasman region afternoon resulted in serious injuries, police said on Friday afternoon.

The crash happened just before 12.50pm at the intersection of the Appleby Highway and McShane Road in Appleby.

“Initial indications are there have been serious injuries,” police said in a statement.

“The road will be closed, with diversions in place. Motorists, please avoid the area if possible.”

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Ex-Christchurch Boys’ High School teacher in long-running employment dispute awarded $25,000

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Source: Radio New Zealand

.

Christchurch Boys’ High School. Wikimedia Commons

A former Christchurch Boys’ High School (CBHS) teacher who left her job of 18 years amid claims of bullying and false accusations has been awarded $25,000 in compensation.

Susan Mowat resigned from her role at the school in 2019 after two years of disputes with the school’s headmaster Nic Hill, which she said had a significant impact on her wellbeing, reputation, and ability to work.

The school and the board denied her claims, and said they were vexatious and out of time.

Mowat raised claims against her former employer of unfair dismissal and unjustifiable disadvantage, with a five-day hearing held before the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) in April 2025.

The ERA found the school board did not adequately address Mowat’s concerns about being blamed for things she had not done, but that she had not been unjustifiably dismissed.

Some of the disputes were centred around a series of anonymous letters submitted to the board throughout 2017 and 2018 that were critical of Hill.

Hill told the board he believed Mowat had written the letters because of previous conflict between the pair and the language, content and handwriting in them, but an independent investigation was unable to conclude who had written them.

Mowat said the process and behaviour by the board throughout that time caused her employment to become untenable.

In a determination released this week, authority member Lucia Vincent said Mowat was unjustifiably disadvantaged when the board told her it did not intend to respond to issues it considered it had previously had responded to during the investigation into the letters.

Vincent said the board took a “shutdown approach” by not adequately addressing Mowat’s concerns while maintaining they had, which was unfair.

“This approach unjustifiably disadvantaged Mrs Mowat who felt unheard and her concerns minimised by the board during a vulnerable time for her following the investigations.

“It was not consistent with the duty of good faith that required a more active, constructive, responsive and communicative approach. Nor was it what a fair and reasonable employer could have done in all the circumstances at the time.”

Vincent said there was no evidence the shutdown approach was intended to force Mowat to resign, and the breach of duty by the board was not serious enough to warrant her foreseeable resignation, so she had not been unjustifiably dismissed.

The authority did not find Mowat was unjustifiably disadvantaged on three other claims that related to the board chair’s comments that her conduct amounted to harassment, alleged changes to board meeting minutes and concerns over mediation.

In light of the personal grievance, the authority awarded Mowat $25,000 in compensation for the physical and mental symptoms she suffered during her final years of employment at CBHS.

School and teacher respond

Mowat said the determination confirmed she had been unjustifiably disadvantaged following an investigation into anonymous letters that were written to the Board of Trustees in 2017 – 2018.

Her lawyer Kathryn Dalziel said for at least a year, Mowat had raised genuine concerns about repeated unfair treatment, inaccurate assumptions about her conduct, the mishandling of critical information, and the board’s refusal to meaningfully engage with the issues she put before them.

Kathryn Dalziel. Pool / Iain McGregor / The Press

She said the ERA confirmed the board adopted a “shutdown approach” to Mowat’s concerns that was neither fair, reasonable, nor consistent with an employer’s duty of good faith.

“This decision formally recognises the significant impact these events had on her wellbeing, her reputation, and her ability to work in an environment she had loved and contributed to for 18 years. Suz is relieved that the authority has acknowledged the harm caused and has awarded compensation accordingly.”

She said Mowat hoped the decision would encourage CBHS – and all schools – to reflect carefully on their responsibilities as employers, particularly during periods of conflict or complaint, and to ensure that they had full and accurate records.

“No employee should experience what Susan went through simply for raising concerns in good faith.”

Board chair Emily Flaszynski said it was happy with the ERA’s findings, and was pleased the long-running employment matter had concluded.

She said the authority identified a single procedural issue – that the board didn’t adequately address Mowat’s concerns – but it was pleased no other negative findings were made in relation to how Mowat was treated, nor in relation to Hill.

Flaszynski said the board was now focused on moving forward, and remained committed to the wellbeing of its staff and students and to fair and respectful employment practices.

She acknowledged Hill for his dignity and leadership.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Trump’s Greenland grab is part of a new space race – and the stakes are getting higher

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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Marie Brennan, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Waikato

Pituffik Space Base, formerly Thule Air Base, in northern Greenland. Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images

US President Donald Trump’s position on Greenland has shifted almost daily, from threats to take it by force to assurances he won’t. But one thing remains consistent: his insistence the Arctic island is strategically vital to the United States.

Within hours of the president’s speech at this week’s Davos summit, Reports began circulating that Washington and Copenhagen had quietly discussed giving the US small, remote patches of Greenland for new military sites. Nothing confirmed, everything whispered, but the speed of the speculation said a lot.

What once felt like Trumpian theatre suddenly looked like a real geopolitical move. It was also a hint Arctic power plays are now bleeding into the politics of outer space.

This all happened very quickly. The notion the US might buy Greenland from Denmark (which resurfaced in 2019) was at first treated like a late-night comedy sketch.

But behind the jokes lay a growing unease the Trump administration’s fixation with Greenland was part of a wider geostrategic ambition in the “western hemisphere” – and beyond.

That’s because Greenland sits at the crossroads of two fast-shifting frontiers: a warming Arctic that will change shipping routes, and an increasingly militarised outer space.

As global tensions rise, the island has become a geopolitical pressure gauge, revealing how the old international legal order is beginning to fray.

At the centre of it all is Pituffik Space Base, formerly known as Thule Air Base. Once a Cold War outpost, it’s now a key part of the US military’s Space Force hub, vital for everything from missile detection to climate tracking.

In a world where orbit is the new high ground, that visibility is strategic gold.

Space law in a vacuum

Trump has leaned hard into this logic. He’s repeatedly praised Thule as one of the most important assets for watching what happens above the Earth, and has urged the US to “look at every option” to expand its presence.

Whether by force, payment or negotiation, the core message hasn’t changed: Greenland is central to America’s Arctic and space ambitions.

This is not just about military surveillance. As private companies launch rockets at record pace, Greenland’s geography offers something rare – prime launch conditions.

High latitude sites are ideal for launching payloads into polar- and sun-synchronous orbits. Greenland’s empty expanses and open ocean corridors make it a potential Arctic launch hub. With global launch capacity tightening due to fewer available sites and access problems, the island is suddenly premium real estate.

But American interest in Greenland is rising at the same time as the post-war “rules-based international order” has proved increasingly ineffective at maintaining peace and security.

Space law is especially vulnerable now. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty was built for a world of two superpowers (the US and Soviet Union) and only a few satellites, not private satelliete mega constellations, commercial lunar projects, or asteroid mining.

It also never anticipated that Earth-based sites such as Thule/Pituffik would decide who can monitor or dominate orbit.

As countries scramble for strategic footholds, the treaty’s core principles are being pushed to breaking point. Major powers now treat both the terrestrial and orbital realms less like global commons and more like strategic assets to control and defend.

Greenland as warning sign

Greenland sits squarely on this fault line. If the US were to expand its control over the island, it would command a disproportionate share of global space surveillance capabilities. That imbalance raises uncomfortable questions.

How can space function as a global commons when the tools needed to oversee it are concentrated in so few hands? What happens when geopolitical competition on Earth spills directly into orbit?

And how should international law adapt when terrestrial territory becomes a gateway to extraterrestrial influence? For many observers, the outlook is bleak. They argue the international legal system is not evolving but eroding.

The Arctic Council, the leading intergovernmental forum promoting cooperation in the Arctic, is paralysed by geopolitical tensions. The United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space can’t keep pace with commercial innovation. And new space laws in several countries increasingly prioritise resource rights and strategic advantage over collective governance.

Greenland, in this context, is not just a strategic asset; it’s a warning sign.

For Greenlanders, the stakes are immediate. The island’s strategic value gives them leverage, but also makes them vulnerable. As Arctic ice melts and new shipping routes emerge, Greenland’s geopolitical weight will only grow.

Its people must navigate the ambitions of global powers while pursuing their own political and economic future, including the possibility of independence from Denmark.

What started as a political curiosity now exposes a deeper shift: the Arctic is becoming a front line of space governance, and the laws and treaties designed to manage this vast icy territory and the space above it are struggling to keep up.

The old Thule Air Base is no longer just a northern outpost, it’s a strategic gateway to orbit and a means to exert political and military power from above.

The Conversation

Anna Marie Brennan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Trump’s Greenland grab is part of a new space race – and the stakes are getting higher – https://theconversation.com/trumps-greenland-grab-is-part-of-a-new-space-race-and-the-stakes-are-getting-higher-274111

Fines for freedom camping implemented at popular Wānaka attraction

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The Queenstown Lakes District Council has taken over management of the public conservation land at Mount Iron from the Department of Conservation. Queenstown Lakes District Council

Freedom campers will soon face a $800 fine if they stay in the carpark of a popular Wānaka attraction after a recent management change.

The Queenstown Lakes District Council has taken over management of the public conservation land at Mount Iron from the Department of Conservation.

This covers the State Highway 84 Mount Iron carpark and about 55 hectares of reserve land – the existing 100-hectare Mount Iron Recreation Reserve was already under council control.

The change means overnight camping – in tents, campervans or vehicles – will be banned at the site.

The council said summer ambassadors would advise campers of the change over the coming weeks and signs would be installed before enforcement started.

The council’s freedom camping bylaw does not apply to reserve land.

Council parks manager Dave Winterburn said the council’s Mount Iron Reserve Management Plan, which was adopted last April, would now apply to the reserve land.

“Having all the reserve land at Mount Iron managed by one organisation is a great outcome for the community and will enhance the experience for Mount Iron users long-term,” he said.

The Department of Conservation said the change formalised what had already been in place since 2024, as the council already managed the site on a day-to-day basis.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Māori Queen welcomed to Rātana

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Te Arikinui Kuini Nga wai hono i te po and Te Rangimaheu Te Heuheu (center) being welcomed to Rātana. RNZ/Pokere Paewai

The Māori Queen Te Arikinui Kuini Nga wai hono i te po has been welcomed to Rātana with a powhiri this morning, ahead of political parties arriving in the afternoon.

Sitting beside her was Te Rangimaheu Te Heuheu, the new Ariki of Ngati Tuwharetoa, making his first visit to Ratana since the passing of his father Sir Tumu te Heuheu in September, aged 84.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi are both absent, surveying damage and helping local communities after the recent storms.

Tama Potaka and Nicola Willis will represent National.

They, along with Labour leader Chris Hipkins and members of the Greens, New Zealand First and Te Pāti Māori, are to be welcomed with a pōwhiri at 3pm.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Scott Morrison and Dan Andrews got it wrong. Here are 7 ways to get crisis leadership right

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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Toby Newstead, Senior Lecturer in Management, University of Tasmania

Five years ago, as Australia burned through the catastrophic Black Summer bushfires, then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison was photographed relaxing on a Hawaiian beach.

When he returned, his now-infamous words – “I don’t hold a hose, mate” – epitomised a crisis leadership approach that came across as being built on detachment and dominance.



Read more:
‘I don’t hold a hose, mate’: Australia’s political history is full of gaffes. Here are some of the best (or worst)

Fast forward to January this year and Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan is standing in fire-devastated Natimuk, announcing mental health support packages and expressing concern for traumatised livestock.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promises those affected: “we’ve got your back”.

Our new research suggests something is shifting with crisis leadership – although we still have a way to go.

This isn’t a story about men versus women leaders, nor Labor versus Liberal.

Rather, these contrasting responses reveal a tentative movement toward a more virtue-based approach that centres ethical considerations and away from the “strongman” prototype that has long dominated.

The masculine crisis leader prototype

Popular culture and much crisis leadership research have long celebrated a particular kind of leader in times of crisis: tough, decisive, emotionally detached and domineering.

Think of US President Donald Trump’s COVID response – confident, dismissive of experts and unmoved by growing death tolls – or former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s famously tough “Iron Lady” approach to the Falklands War.

These leaders emphasise speed over deliberation, command over collaboration and displays of strength over expressions of care. It’s a style linked to ideals of masculinity that have shaped expectations for generations.

This prototype doesn’t just disadvantage leaders who don’t fit the mould (particularly women and those who embody characteristics culturally coded as feminine). It also sidesteps the deeply ethical nature of crises, where decisions about who gets help, who is protected and who bears the burden carry profound moral implications.

Morrison’s Black Summer response exemplified these failures. He appeared to many to demonstrate physical and emotional detachment rather than accountability.

His forced handshakes with devastated community members in Cobargo came across as performative dominance rather than genuine compassion.

His refusal to meet with former fire chiefs advocating for climate action risked being widely interpreted as a closed-minded approach.

The result? Communities felt abandoned precisely when they needed leadership most.

This pattern extends beyond any single leader or political party.

During Victoria’s COVID lockdowns, then-Premier Daniel Andrews was widely criticised for appearing to take a highly centralised, heavy-handed approach while appearing to lack empathy for what people were experiencing.

His leadership hinged on the command-and-control elements of the masculine prototype, even while working toward public health goals.

The 7 key virtues

Our research identifies how seven key virtues inform effective, ethical crisis leadership: courage, humanity, justice, prudence, temperance, transcendence and wisdom.

These virtues stem from the ancient philosophy of virtue ethics and are central to modern psychology and leadership development research.

By analysing 67 speeches given by heads of state, we identified the distinct role each virtue plays in crisis leadership and how their combined use offers a richer approach.

Different virtues serve distinct purposes in crisis leadership.

Leaders can showcase their own humanity, courage, wisdom and justice to build trust. They ask citizens to demonstrate temperance, humanity and wisdom to ensure cooperation. And they emphasise shared courage and transcendence to unite everyone in the belief the crisis can be overcome.

This approach offers a more effective way to lead – a shift we have seen hints of in the response to the natural disasters rocking Australia in the early months of 2026.

Let’s unpack these seven virtues:

Courage is increasingly framed as a collective attribute (we are courageous), rather than an individual one (he is courageous). Instead of awaiting a lone heroic strongman, the emphasis increasingly falls on communities’ collective resilience, even if traditional imagery of bravery still features prominently.

Humanity sits at the heart of current responses, encompassing empathy, care and compassion. Tangible responses include mental health support, concern for animal welfare and case workers to help navigate complex recovery needs. This isn’t “soft” leadership, it’s recognising that care for those suffering is foundational to effective crisis response.

Justice involves standing with communities, indicating accountability and ensuring everyone has support – even if the adequacy of that support remains contested.

Prudence (practical wisdom applied to difficult decisions) allows leaders to balance multiple perspectives and navigate complexity. While Morrison and many leaders in the past dismissed expert warnings about climate-intensified fire risk, current Australian leaders publicly reference the need to work with emergency services and consider multiple perspectives.

Temperance (encompassing humility, patience and restraint) remains the most tentatively expressed virtue in the face of current crises. While leaders avoid aggressive dismissiveness, there’s room for more explicit acknowledgement of the mistakes inevitably made under pressure.

Transcendence – our connection to the intangible – allows leaders to bolster a shared belief that crises can be overcome.

Wisdom allows crisis leaders to consider more holistic data and diverse perspectives.

What still holds us back – and where to next?

Despite these shifts, the masculine prototype remains powerful. Technical, rationalist language still dominates. Stoicism, decisiveness and firm command are still celebrated.

And other acts of virtue by local leaders which help address the crisis remain largely invisible, such as the grassroots organising and outreach activities that let people know others genuinely care.

The shift we’re seeing represents real but tentative progress.

To consolidate and extend the shift we need to educate leaders in how to practice virtue-based crisis leadership and move on from the outdated strongman approach.

The Conversation

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Scott Morrison and Dan Andrews got it wrong. Here are 7 ways to get crisis leadership right – https://theconversation.com/scott-morrison-and-dan-andrews-got-it-wrong-here-are-7-ways-to-get-crisis-leadership-right-274017

Oscars 2026: Who will win and how do I watch in NZ?

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Source: Radio New Zealand

It’s that time of year again – Hollywood is ready to honour the year’s best films, actors and actresses at the 98th annual Academy Awards.

The full list of nominees was announced overnight NZ time and One Battle After Another is still the picture to beat, but the American vampire thriller Sinners may well put a stake in its heart as it smashed an all-time record by bagging a whopping 16 Oscar nominations.

Here’s our thoughts on who might win, and how to watch the Oscars and the top nominees here in New Zealand.

PATRICK T. FALLON

Global Indigenous ocean leaders to gather at Waitangi for moana protection wānanga

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Taiātea is an Indigenous-led symposium and knowledge exchange grounded in the understanding of the moana as a living ancestor. Supplied

Indigenous leaders from across the Pacific and beyond will gather at Waitangi next month for a 10-day wānanga focused on protecting and restoring the Pacific Ocean, Te Moana Nui a Kiwa.

Taiātea: Gathering of the Oceans Voices, Views and Leadership Symposium will bring together more than 20 Indigenous ocean leaders, marine scientists and researchers from Canada, Australia, Hawai’i, Niue, Rapa Nui and the Cook Islands, alongside Māori leaders from across Aotearoa.

The symposium was last held in 2019 and centres on weaving Indigenous knowledge and leadership into ocean protection, climate resilience and future decision-making.

A public forum will be held at Te Tiriti o Waitangi Marae (Te Tii Marae) on 4 February, coinciding with Waitangi celebrations in Paihia. The forum is open to the public and will focus on Indigenous approaches to kaitiakitanga, tino rangatiratanga and mana motuhake in marine governance.

Te Tiriti o Waitangi Marae chair Ngāti Kawa Taituha (Ngāpuhi) said the gathering reflects the deep responsibility iwi and hapū hold to the moana.

“We are looking forward to again welcoming our manuhiri from the Pacific and the motu, as the Taiātea Forum shares and discusses the practice of Tino Rangatiratanga and Mana Motuhake.”

Taituha said like Te Tii, the moana was a taonga to be cared for and treasured.

Supplied

Taiātea leader Sheridan Waitai (Ngāti Kuri, Te Rarawa, Tainui) said the hui was about strengthening long-standing relationships between Indigenous peoples who share common responsibilities to the ocean.

“We are connected through our shared kaitiakitanga of taonga and our ecosystem,” she said.

“As kaitiaki of the moana, it is important we come together to discuss what others have achieved with similar constraints, learn about what is working, what isn’t, and move forward together with purpose.”

Following the Waitangi forum, Indigenous leaders will travel to Tūwharetoa and Whanganui to meet with haukāinga, take part in further knowledge exchanges and discuss specific case studies in freshwater and marine management.

Taiātea lead researcher Lisa Te Heuheu (Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Maniapoto) says the mātauranga held by haukāinga is at the heart of the kaupapa. Supplied

Taiātea lead researcher Lisa Te Heuheu (Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Maniapoto) said the gathering continues kōrero around protecting mātauranga Māori and taonga tuku iho (treasure handed down by ancestors), aligning with the Wai 262 ‘Tiaki Taonga’ framework.

“The knowledge held by our haukāinga is at the heart of this kaupapa,” Te Heuheu said.

“These exchanges create space for people to share lived experiences, learn from one another and strengthen relationships to the ocean.”

Organisers say the symposium is designed to support Indigenous-led solutions to environmental challenges, while also creating opportunities for collaboration with researchers, agencies and non-government organisations.

The 2026 gathering at Te Tiriti o Waitangi Marae (Te Tii Marae) will be the third time the wānanga has been held. Supplied

Taiātea leaders are inviting marae, hapū, iwi, environmental groups, government agencies and marine researchers to attend the public forum at the Waitangi Forum tent on 4 February.

Waitai said keeping the forum open was key to building collective momentum around moana protection.

“This is about growing the collective to gain momentum in the protection of our moana and in that way our knowledge exchange is inclusive,” she said.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Grandmother and grandchild confirmed as pair killed in Papamoa landslide

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Welcome Bay Road. RNZ / Jamie Troughton

Two people killed when a landslide hit a house in Papamoa were a grandmother and a grandchild, RNZ understands.

Two bodies were recovered by police at the home on Welcome Bay Road on Thursday..

Police earlier said two people were unaccounted for after a slip came down towards properties on the road.

Another person at the property had been seriously injured.

At least one house on Welcome Bay Rd suffered damage in the early-morning slip, with others also evacuated.

Police said they were working to support the pair’s loved ones, and the deaths would be referred to the Coroner.

Emergency Management Minster Mark Mitchell confirmed the news during an interview with Australian news outlet ABC.

Meanwhile, multiple people remain unaccounted for at a Mt Maunganui campsite, after a large slip came down on campervans and a shower block just after 9.30am on Thursday.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Fonterra expects to wrap up Mainland Group sale in the first quarter

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Fonterra will hold a shareholders meeting on 19 February to approve a proposed capital return of $2 per share. 123rf / Supplied images

Dairy giant Fonterra expects to complete the sale of its consumer business in the first quarter of this year.

The $4.2 billion sale of Mainland Group to France’s Lactalis remains subject to numerous regulatory approvals, with Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board the most recent to green-light the acquisition.

The co-operative will hold a special meeting for shareholders on 19 February to approve a proposed capital return of $2 per share, equivalent to around $3.2b once the sale is complete.

Farmer shareholders overwhelmingly approved the sale of Mainland Group in October, which includes well-known brands like Anchor, Mainland and Kāpiti.

The capital return required at least 75 percent approval of the votes cast at the upcoming special meeting.

“As previously indicated, the payment should be tax-free, although it is recommended that shareholders and unit holders obtain independent tax advice on the effect of the capital return based on their individual circumstances,” the co-op said.

Fonterra said the separation of the consumer brands was also progressing well.

“Holding the shareholder vote on the capital return in February will enable Fonterra to return capital to shareholders and unit holders as soon as possible after the transaction is complete,” it said.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Harry Styles announces world tour – but New Zealand misses out

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Source: Radio New Zealand

British popstar Harry Styles has revealed an international run of 50 shows across seven cities, but he won’t be making it to New Zealand on his world tour.

The tour, Together, Together was announced on Thursday, in support of his fourth album, Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally, out on 6 March.

The schedule kicks off 16 May, 2026 in Amsterdam, where Styles is booked to perform six shows, Rolling Stone reports. He is then on to London for another six, followed by two in São Paulo, Brazil and two in Mexico City.

The artwork for Harry Styles’ album Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally.

Supplied

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Phoenix captain CJ Bott announces pregnancy

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Phoenix captain CJ Bott Marty Melville / PHOTOSPORT

Wellington Phoenix captain CJ Bott will sit out the remainder of the women’s A-League season after announcing her pregnancy.

Bott and her fiancé have announced they’re expecting their first child in July.

“It’s crazy,” she said. “I’m still wrapping my head around it but it’s something that I’ve always dreamed about and it’s really special.

“We’re over the moon and we’re really excited for this next phase of our lives.

“To bring a little baby into the team will be a lot of fun.”

As a result, Bott will sit out the remainder of the A-League. But the experienced Football Fern is contracted to the Phoenix for another season and plans to play on.

“The next phase of my life is going to be a bit nuts. It already is crazy playing football professionally but adding a little one into the mix will be a lot busier.

“But I think it will be fun and a challenge that I’m more than ready to take on.”

And she still hopes to contribute to the team this season.

“I plan to be as involved as much as I can with the team.

“I’m gutted to be missing out and not being able to do my part, but I definitely have a role off the field, so I still feel very involved and I’ll be supporting from the sidelines.”

Bott will remain the women’s club captain while Mackenzie Barry will continue to lead the side in her absence.

The Phoenix sit eighth on the table and play Adelaide in Porirua on Sunday.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Manage My Health data breach: Fraudsters could attempt to contact customers

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Manage My Health said it had notified most people affected by the data theft. RNZ / Finn Blackwell

The hacked online patient portal Manage My Health says fraudsters could now be attempting to contact its customers.

The organisation said in a statement it had notified most of the people affected by the data theft that happened late last year.

But it warned people might now be sending spam or phishing emails that impersonate the company.

“We’re also aware that secondary actors may impersonate MMH and send spam or phishing emails to prompt engagement. These communications are not from MMH. We’re investigating steps to limit this activity and have included guidance below on how to protect yourself below,” it said.

Manage My Health said some of the people it initially contacted about the hack had not been affected.

“We are progressing through the notifications, with most of affected patients having now received a notification email. Our priority is to continue notifying the remaining affected patients and ensuring they receive appropriate support.”

The organisation said it was working closely with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, which announced an inquiry into privacy aspects of the hack this week.

The cyber criminal(s) demanded thousands of dollars as a ransom, threatening to otherwise release the data on the dark web, potentially exposing more than 120,000 New Zealanders’ medical details.

There had been no further mention of the Manage My Health data from the hackers since the last reported deadline passed (January 9).

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

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