A number of remand prisoners at Papua New Guinea’s Bomana Prison have been injured in a confrontation with Correctional Services officers.
Port Moresby General Hospital has confirmed to local media that nine inmates were rushed to hospital, and that two are in a critical condition.
Sources at the maximum security prison in Port Moresby told RNZ Pacific that on Monday officers conducted a standard activity in a cell block where they ordered 62 men held on remand to vacate their cells and allow a search.
The stated objective of the search was to locate contraband, specifically mobile phones.
However, the inmates allege that officers destroyed property belonging to remandees, including “essential legal and court documents, clothing, bedding, and various personal necessities”.
An injured inmate at Port Moresby’s Bomana Prison. Image: RNZ Pacific
They also claim officers misappropriated property, including food rations.
When the inmates subsequently protested about their belongings being destroyed or taken away, a confrontation resulted.
Officers responded ‘violently’ They claim officers responded violently, called in off-duty officers for reinforcement and brutally assaulted most of the 62 remandees with bush knives, iron bars and other instruments.
A source within PNG’s Correctional Services has confirmed to RNZ Pacific that a confrontation took place between inmates and officers.
Acting Correctional Services Commissioner Bernard Nepo also confirmed the incident to The National newspaper, but did not address the circumstances around the injuries.
RNZ Pacific spoke briefly with the Minister for Corrections, Joe Kuli, who said he was not aware of the incident, but that he would seek information from officials.
Port Moresby General Hospital . . . confirmation to local media that nine inmates were rushed to hospital. Image: RNZ Pacific
RNZ Pacific has sought comment from Correctional Services.
The inmates are seeking intervention by higher authorities over what they describe as “inhumane treatment” and misconduct by Correctional Services officers.
Many of the inmates are being held in prolonged pre-trial detention. Due to a backlog in PNG’s court system, some remandees wait years in prison before going to trial.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
The arrest and charging of British-Fijian publisher Charlie Charters has pushed Fiji’s anti-corruption watchdog into fresh controversy.
Charters’ arrest by police last weekend has raised sharp questions about whistleblowers, due process, and political pressure in the Pacific island nation.
The 57-year-old appeared in the Suva Magistrates’ Court on Monday charged with two counts of aiding and abetting.
The Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC) alleges he helped an officer of the commission unlawfully release official information, which was then posted on his Facebook account, “Charlie Charters”.
In a statement, FICAC saID the first charge related to posts made between 2 November and 14 December 2025. The second related to a post on 2 February 2026.
Under section 13G of the FICAC Act, it is an offence for an officer or former officer to divulge official information without written authorisation.
Charlie Charters speaking outside the court. Video: FijiVillage News
Section 45 of the Crimes Act states that a person who aids and abets an offence is taken to have committed that offence and is punishable accordingly.
Stopped at airport Charters was stopped at Nadi International Airport on Saturday while travelling to Sydney.
He reportedly declined requests from FICAC officers to reveal his sources and spent two nights in custody before being granted bail.
The court imposed strict bail conditions, including surrendering his travel documents and a stop departure order.
The Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC) headquarters in Suva, which is at the centre of a growing legal and political dispute. Photo/Supplied
A non-cash bail bond of $2000 was set with a surety. The matter has been adjourned to March 2.
FICAC said it had not issued a public comment earlier because the matter was under active investigation.
“It would have been inappropriate and contrary to established investigative practice to discuss a live investigation while inquiries were continuing, irrespective of commentary circulating on social media,” the statement read.
“The matter is now properly before the court and will proceed in accordance with due process.”
Agency challenged But Charters’ lawyer, Seforan Fatiaki, has strongly challenged the agency’s actions.
He has publicly alleged that the arrest and detention were aimed at forcing his client to reveal his source instead of pursuing a genuine criminal investigation.
Charlie Charters’ lawyer, Seforan Fatiaki . . . claims his client’s arrest and detention have been aimed at forcing him to reveal a source. Image: PMN News
“It was made clear that Mr Charters’ arrest and detention were carried out for the sole purpose of extracting that information from him,” Fatiaki said.
“If Mr Charters will not volunteer that information, FICAC cannot lawfully use its powers of detention and arrest to pressure him into giving it.”
Fatiaki described the actions as a gross misuse of FICAC’s statutory powers, particularly the prohibition on departure from Fiji.
The case comes at a sensitive time for FICAC. Fiji’s Judicial Services Commission is reportedly of the view that the appointment of the agency’s current head, Lavi Rokoika, was not legal.
Appointed after sacking She was appointed last May after the sacking of former commissioner Barbara Malimali.
The High Court has since ruled that Malimali’s removal was “unlawful”.
Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka has sought to distance his government from the unfolding saga.
“We will not interfere [with FICAC],” Rabuka told reporters in Suva.
Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka . . . the government “will not interfere” with the work of Fiji’s anti-corruption agency. Image:/ Fiji govt/PMN
He acknowledged Fiji does not have a whistleblower policy but said it needed one. Rabuka added that questions remained about “how do we know that the whistleblower is genuine and the facts that they raised are factual”.
As the case heads back to court next week, many in Fiji and across the Pacific will be watching closely.
For some, it is about whether anti-corruption laws are being upheld. For others, it is about whether those who publish leaked information can do so without fear of being forced to reveal their sources.
Republished from Pacific Media Network News with permission.
Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith said the settlement included an agreed historical account and redress for historical breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi.RNZ / Mark Papalii
Ngāti Ruapani mai Waikaremoana and the Crown have signed a Deed of Settlement for historical claims dating back to 1866.
Representatives from the Crown, including Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith and the various hapū of the rohe gathered at Tuai to commemorate the settlement process finishing after six years of negotiation.
In a statement, Goldsmith said the settlement included an agreed historical account and redress for historical breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi which caused significant harm to generations of Ngāti Ruapani.
The settlement package includes:
$24 million in financial redress;
An undivided half share of Patunamu Forestry Ltd;
Four commercial redress and two cultural redress properties; and
Approximately 12,000 hectares of land added into Te Urewera.
Ngāti Ruapani mai Waikaremoana chair Kara Puketapu-Dentice said Waikeremoana, like other parts of Te Uruwera, carried a complex and deeply painful history.
“The hapū of Waikaremoana and the wider Te Urewera experienced invasion, displacement, and the systematic loss of land and livelihood.”
The settlement also included an apology for the Crown’s breaches, including those inflicted during its campaigns against the tipuna of Ngāti Ruapani mai Waikaremoana and other Tūhoe hapū in Waikaremoana.
These included attacks on kāinga at Te Kōpani in 1866, the displacement and starvation of hapū, and the coerced acquisition of around 178,000 acres of land under threat of confiscation which left the hapū virtually landless by 1895.
Puketapu-Dentice said he welcomed the opportunity to formally acknowledge his people’s history and bring closure to a process which required them to repeatedly recount those experiences.
“It allows us to recognise the truth of what occurred, while creating space for future generations to focus on rebuilding and renewal.”
Around 3500 descendants of Ngāti Ruapani, Ngāti Hinekura, Whānau Pani, and Ngāi Tarapāroa hapū maintain their connections to Waikaremoana and the wider Te Urewera, remaining centred around Waimako and Te Kuha marae.
“This settlement provides a foundation for the hapū of Waikaremoana, alongside other Tūhoe hapū, to restore their presence and strengthen their communities,” Puketapu-Dentice said.
“We have much to rebuild over the generations ahead. This settlement enables us to focus on restoring our relationship with our whenua, supporting our whānau, and ensuring that Waikaremoana continues to sustain future generations.”
In a statement, Minister Goldsmith said the long-awaited agreement acknowledges the past and looks to the future.
“It is a privilege to sign the Deed and deliver the Crown apology to Ngāti Ruapani in their rohe,” he said.
“A key feature of the settlement is the return of Crown-owned land into Te Urewera, reflecting a central aspiration of Ngāti Ruapani to restore their connection with Te Urewera.
“While no settlement can fully remedy the injustices of the past, this agreement represents an important step forward. I hope it will support Ngāti Ruapani to achieve their cultural and economic aspirations for future generations to come,” Goldsmith said.
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Dave van Zwanenberg, left, and Craig Stevens.Supplied
The wives of two firefighters killed in a landslide during Cyclone Gabrielle have recounted the moment they learned their husbands had died.
Volunteer firefighters Dave van Zwanenberg and Craig Stevens were buried while responding to slips on Muriwai’s Motutara Road on 13 February 2023.
Stevens was freed from the pile but later died in hospital, while van Zwanenberg was found dead after two days of searching.
A coronial inquest into their deaths is being held in Auckland.
Van Zwanenberg’s wife, Amy, said she first heard that her husband was trapped as she was preparing to evacuate their home at about 2.45am on 14 February, several hours after the slip fell.
“I had just started to pack the car to leave when members from FENZ (Fire and Emergency NZ) arrived to tell me what had happened. They were fairly vague on details other than that Dave was missing. They were searching for him and conditions were obviously incredibly challenging,” she recounted.
“Under an hour later I was told that they had called off the search due to the severity of the conditions, high risk to search personnel and low chance of Dave’s survival.”
She said the following days were extremely difficult.
Dave van Zwanenberg with his children.Supplied / van Zwanenberg family
“We spent that night in an odd sort of horrific limbo without much hope but the distressing thought of Dave, whether alive or dead, alone in a pile of mud and rubble still waiting to be found,” she said.
“You can imagine how difficult and heart-wrenching that was to explain to our six-year-old son.”
Van Zwanenberg’s body was recovered on 15 February, two days after the slip.
“I was told at about 10.45am on the 15th of February that a body dressed in FENZ uniform had been located and later that day this was officially confirmed as Dave,” van Zwanenberg said.
“I was told I was not allowed to see or touch him, which was very hard to hear, but I was granted the privilege to go to the site and say goodbye from the outside of the undertaker vehicle. On its departure, men and women who’d been involved lined the exit in a guard of honour, an incredibly touching salute.”
Amy van Zwanenberg said she was proud of her husband’s work as a volunteer firefighter, which he did alongside working as a vet.
Amy and Dave van Zwanenberg.Supplied / van Zwanenberg family
“While adjusting to life without Dave has been very painful and my two young children are now growing up without their dedicated father, a life-long loss, they can be proud of who he was and the respect he’s been given even in death,” she said.
Steven’s wife, Lucy, echoed that sentiment.
“When Craig left [that day] both his mum Marianne and I talked about how proud we were of him being out there in the cyclone helping the community,” she said.
“I never saw him conscious again.”
Stevens died in hospital on 16 February, three days after the slip, surrounded by his family.
Craig Stevens is survived by his wife Lucy and his two children Kauri and Tai.Supplied via NZ Herald
“Finding out Craig wasn’t going to make it and then having to tell the boys they were going to lose their dad was the hardest and most distressing moment of my life,” Lucy Stevens said.
She described Stevens as a perfect husband and father.
“My six-year-old said the other day, ‘I at least needed one dad, and that one was perfect.’ The deep loss of their perfect dad and my loving husband and partner in life will remain with us forever.”
Stevens’ mother, Marianne, was visiting Muriwai from the United Kingdom when Cyclone Gabrielle hit.
Lucy Stevens read a statement written by Marianne to court.
“As a mother every fibre in your being wants to protect your child, and I was unable to do that,” she said.
Coroner Erin Woolley was visibly emotional as she thanked the women for giving evidence.
“I’m always grateful when family members have the courage to give evidence. I find it moving just listening to you so I admire you for having the ability to do that and thank you very much for doing so,” Woolley said.
The Cyclone Gabrielle inquest will move into its next phase in mid-March, with a focus on the events in Hawke’s Bay.
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Another bank has adjusted down its long-term rates, but borrowers deciding whether to take a longer term will need to weigh up a few factors.
BNZ said it was reducing its three-year rate by 10 basis points to 4.99 percent, its four-year rate by 36 basis points to 5.19 percent and its five-year rate by 40 basis points to 5.29 percent.
It comes after Westpac last week said it was trimming the same terms.
It was the first bank to move after the latest official cash rate (OCR) announcement.
The Reserve Bank indicated it expected to raise interest rates a little faster and earlier than previously forecast – but not as quickly as markets had priced in.
Wholesale markets fell as a result.
Commentators said it could be good news for borrowers and should mean a temporary end to the increases in home loan rates seen in recent weeks.
Mortgage adviser Glen McLeod, head of Link Advisory said, with longer term rates starting to come back down, he was beginning to see more interest in longer term fixed rates, but it was still a relatively small portion of clients.
“Part of my role as an adviser is to explain the pros and cons of where those rates currently sit and how suitable each option is for an individual client. I talk clients through what each rate term could mean in the current environment, where we are in the interest rate cycle, and what is likely to happen based on the best economic information available.
“From there, I look at different borrowing strategies and match them to the client’s goals. The key thing is ensuring clients fully understand the risks and what they are ultimately signing up for. Longer term rates can be appropriate in some situations, but it really depends on the person’s circumstances and risk profile.”
ANZ said in its latest Property Focus report that it was worth remembering that all rates out to two years are now below 5 percent whereas in late 2023 they were all above 7 percent.
“Given that, and our expectation that the next move in the OCR is likely to be up, we still see merit in fixing for longer at current rates, with the 18-month to three-year part of the mortgage curve likely appealing to many borrowers.”
They said four- and five-year rates were above where they expected one- to three-year rates to top out next year.
“From a pure cost perspective (that is, disregarding the value of certainty), one might only be inclined to fix for four or five years if you expect one- to three-year rates to rise above 6 percent over the next two to three years.
“That is possible, but it is not what we expect. Taking all of that into consideration, the 18-month to three-year part of the curve looks like the sweet spot, offering a good mix of certainty and low cost.”
The Fiordland Wapiti Foundation has a track record of two decades of deer management with volunteers within a zone known as the Wapiti Area.Supplied
A community conservation effort is hoping to fund a new processing facility for wild deer in the deep south.
Deer numbers have been exploding in Fiordland National Park following the decline of viable commercial and taxpayer-funded helicopter operations over many decades.
The deer have been ravaging the bush and the Fiordland Wapiti Foundation hopes its planned abattoir in Te Anau will save precious bush and provide an outlet for culled deer.
General manager Roy Sloan said hunting is costly and this initiative could support it by selling meat to the market.
The Fiordland Project estimates that venison sales will help fund deer control operations in the National Park at a greater scale than is currently possible.
A helicopter operation collecting wild deer in Fiordland National Park.SUPPLIED / Mark Hollows
“It’s a charitable trust; we’re getting donations from various building companies around the country” Sloan said.
“Our goal is to raise $3 million to build this plant.”
The group of hunters and conservationists is confident funding can be secured.
Sloan is thrilled with the level of support shown for the project so far, with $2 million raised.
A number of tradies and professionals, including electricians and architects, have pledged their time to the project.
Plans of the building, seen by RNZ, show areas for skinning and boning, packaging and processing, and a chiller.
“We know that it’s costly to do deer recovery. We we know that the government can’t afford it, and we know that DOC can’t afford it,” Sloan said.
And while he admits it’s a gamble, he said the risk of a community model might just pay off.
A helicopter hunts deer above the snowline.SUPPLIED / Mark Hollows
“‘What’s the worst that can happen?’ That in five years we fall over. ‘But what’s the best that can happen?’ We could be still going and solve these problems.”
The Fiordland Wapiti Foundation also maintains a number of back-country huts in the area, including Fiordland National Park’s oldest hut.
How did wapiti become pests?
wapiti are similar to red deer, but more pale and much larger and heavier
The first wapiti were introduced into New Zealand in 1873, primarily for hunting
By the 20th century, wild deer had spread throughout the forests, feeding on young trees, shrubs, ferns and ground cover plants
From the 1920s, the government employed cullers to control deer populations
In 1966 the first live deer were captured from the wild by helicopter
By the 21st century, populations of wapiti and red deer have created major ecological problems
Deer remain a pest species, significantly impacting native ecosystems
The owner of a business operating out of Lyall Bay says the partial lifting of the rāhui on Wellington’s South Coast has come as a “positive shock”.
The rāhui was put in place on the stretch of southern coast from Ōwhiro Bay to Breaker Bay after the Moa Point wastewater plant failed, leaving up to 70 million litres of raw sewage flowing into the sea each day at the beginning of the month.
Lyall Bay beach in Wellington on Friday.RNZ/Bill Hickman
‘Suddenly it’s all good’
Owner operator of Wellington Sauna Project mobile saunas, Johan Balzer, said the “sudden” lifting of the rāhui caught him off guard.
“All of the information that we were being fed, it was looking like it was going to be months and months. So, in my mind, I was thinking the worst,” Balzer said.
“Suddenly, it’s all good, which is great and it’s fantastic – and I can’t wait to get back there myself – but I have a feeling that there’s going to be a lot of people who [might] wait a while, a few weeks, to see what it really is like,” Balzer said.
Balzer said he had previously based his sauna in Lyall Bay or Evans Bay ahead of the shutdown.
His customers typically took a plunge in the ocean to cool down and cleanse after a sauna session at the beach.
Balzer said there was an immediate 50 percent reduction in bookings in the week following the failure, despite the fact he could still operate from Evans Bay.
“Wellingtonians are a bit divided. I was looking at all the data, checking out LAWA and NEWA and they were saying that Evans Bay was good but it would still have people that – despite that information – just didn’t want to go in the ocean. But at the same time, you’ve got a lot of loyal daily swimmers out at Hataitai and they didn’t seem to be concerned,” Balzer said.
Wellington mayor Andrew Little swims at Lyall Bay after announcing the lifting of a swimming ban.RNZ / Mark Papalii
“We have to be realistic and practical about what we’re asking people to do. Conditions can change rapidly. There are areas where the risk remains higher, such as near the short outfall pipe at Tarakena Bay,” he said.
“A risk remains, but monitoring results so far show that it is low and it is now up to people to decide how they respond to the current information,” Little said.
Owner of Dive Wellington, Dave Drane, said he was leaving it up to diving students to decide whether they wished to swim, but his staff were happy to dive on Friday.
“[Tertiary students] will be diving across the road in Taputeranga Marine Reserve today. I’ve left it up to them, it’s their personal choice whether they want to get in the water or not. But they’re all keen to get in and see the reserve again,” Drane said.
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Samson Aruwa on the seat dedicated to Sophia Crestani in Dunedin.RNZ / Tess Brunton
A man who carried Sophia Crestani away from a deadly stairwell pile-up and helped free at least 30 others at a Dunedin student party says the night is burned in his memory.
Samson Aruwa carried the 19-year-old University of Otago student away from the five-to-six people-deep pile at the overcrowded party in October 2019 after managing to free himself while wearing a moon boot.
CPR was carried out on Crestani outside but she could not be revived.
Aruwa said it was an honour to receive the award but also a sense of melancholy.
Sophia Crestani.Facebook
“There was like a lot of tragedy surrounding that night. I don’t think I go a day without thinking about it at least once. It’s kind of burned in my memory. It’s like my Roman Empire,” he said.
“It wasn’t just me there that night. There were a lot of people there that had, like, a significant hand in helping out.
“Without the other people helping me, we wouldn’t have been able to get anywhere near as many people out as we did.”
Aruwa became a nurse after the deadly party and although his career choice was more about following in the footsteps of his mother, the events of that night gave him more confidence.
“I know how I’ll act in an emergency and I know that I’ll be trying to find the best solution,” he said.
Chambers said the party resulted in tragedy but the situation could have been much worse if it was not for Aruwa’s selflessness.
Richard Chambers with Samson Aruwa.RNZ / Tess Brunton
What Aruwa did on that night was remarkable, showing exceptional courage and acting selflessly in the face of a life threatening crowd crush, he said.
“It was a chaotic evening and to do what you did for those that were tangled in what was an absolute mess that night was just absolutely remarkable.”
Maggot Fest at the Manor was heaving with hundreds of people and there was only one exit after tenants sealed up the other doors.
The stairs were jam-packed and the door was a bottleneck when people started to fall.
As some remained behind locked doors, Aruwa was trying to pull people out of the pile-up.
The seat dedicated to Sophia Crestani.RNZ / Tess Brunton
Crestani’s mother, Elspeth McMillan, said she believed there would have been more dead and injured party-goers without Aruwa’s act of courage.
She criticised the tenants – whose name are suppressed – saying it was not safe or responsible for some tenants to at times remain in secured rooms and let their party grow on its own, saying more active oversight might have led to the party being controlled or shut down before it became critical.
Sophia Crestani’s parents Bede Crestani and Elspeth McMillan.Tess Brunton/RNZ
Crestani’s father, Bede Crestani, said Aruwa showed dignity and courage despite chaos from all sides as more people tried to enter the party while people were being crushed.
“His courage was bigger than his stature. We have to contrast that on the night to the tenants. They were absent. They were on the stairs. They did nothing. They were derelict,” he said.
“They were weak people.”
McKenzie said there was evidence that some of those in closed off rooms knew people were asking to be let in and being in their rooms did not absolve them of responsibility.
Bede Crestani also commended Aruwa’s courage at the inquest.
“Didn’t matter what anybody said, what anybody thought. He was saying it. He stopped the court. It just shows the courage. It was a breath of fresh air and it put truth to lies,” he said.
“This is a courageous man in many ways.”
He thanked Aruwa for the care he showed his daughter, saying he was true to his values despite being under immense pressure.
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne
The Morgan and YouGov federal polls have the Coalition gaining from One Nation since Angus Taylor replaced Sussan Ley as Liberal leader. Unlike the DemosAU and Fox & Hedgehog polls that I reported Tuesday, these two polls have Labor clearly ahead of the Coalition and One Nation after preferences.
Whereas the combined primary vote for One Nation and the Coalition was 49% in both DemosAU and Fox & Hedgehog, it was just 44.5% in Morgan and 46% in YouGov.
Essential is the other new poll, and that gave the Coalition its first lead over Labor after preferences in a poll since the May 2025 election. Essential’s respondent preferences favour the Coalition more than other polls that use respondent preferences.
After the five federal polls this week, analyst Kevin Bonham’s two-party aggregates that use 2025 election preference flows have Labor leading the Coalition by 53.3–46.7 and One Nation by 53.4–46.6.
YouGov poll
A national YouGov poll for Sky News, conducted February 17–24 from a sample of 1,500, gave Labor 29% of the primary vote (down one since the February 3–10 YouGov poll that was taken before the Liberal leadership spill), One Nation 24% (down four), the Coalition 22% (up three), the Greens 13% (up one), independents 6% (up one) and others 6% (steady).
By respondent preferences, Labor led One Nation by 56–44, a one-point gain for Labor. They led the Coalition by 53–47, a one-point gain for the Coalition.
Anthony Albanese’s net approval was up four points to -14, with 54% dissatisfied and 40% satisfied with his leadership. Taylor’s initial net approval was -5 (38% dissatisfied, 33% satisfied), a large improvement on Ley’s -40 net approval. Albanese led Taylor as better PM by 45–34 (47–25 against Ley).
Cost of living was rated the most important issue by 41%, followed by housing affordability and immigration each on 10%. Respondents were asked which of the Coalition, One Nation, Labor or the Greens they preferred to handle various issues.
Combining Labor/Greens against Coalition/One Nation, right-wing parties led on cost of living by 35–34, on housing by 33–32 and on immigration by 48–28. However, these leads are far narrower than in the recent DemosAU poll, where the right led by double digit margins on all these issues.
By 60–40, respondents in this poll did not want immigration restricted from terror-controlled regions. This contrasts with the Fox & Hedgehog poll, where by 59–17, respondents supported an immigration ban from “high risk” areas.
Essential poll
A national Essential poll, conducted February 18–22 from a sample of 1,002, gave Labor 30% of the primary vote (down one since the late January Essential poll), the Coalition 26% (up one), One Nation 22% (steady), the Greens 11% (up two), all Others 7% (steady) and undecided 4% (down two).
By respondent preferences, the Coalition had its first two-party lead in any poll since the 2025 election (by 48–47). Essential did not report a two-party estimate for its January poll, which was about the same on primary votes for Labor.
By respondent preferences, the Coalition had its first two-party lead in any poll since the 2025 election.Bianca De Marchi/AAP
Essential’s respondent preferences have been weaker for Labor than applying the 2025 election preference flows to the primaries, which would give Labor above a 51–49 lead. In contrast, Morgan has generally had better respondent flows to Labor than the 2025 election method.
Albanese’s net approval was up six points since January to -6, with 48% disapproving and 42% approving. By 53–12, respondents thought Australia was becoming more divided over more united, with 35% staying about the same. By 36–32, respondents thought social cohesion in Australia was strong rather than weak.
Morgan poll
A national Morgan poll, conducted February 16–22 from a sample of 1,649, gave Labor 31% of the primary vote (down one since the February 13–16 Morgan poll taken after the Liberal spill), the Coalition 24% (up 0.5), One Nation 20.5% (down one), the Greens 12.5% (steady) and all Others 12% (up 1.5).
By respondent preferences, Labor led by 54.5–45.5, a 0.5-point gain for the Coalition. By 2025 election preference flows, Labor led by 54–46, a 0.5-point gain for the Coalition from my estimate of the previous poll).
Morgan shows gains for the Coalition from One Nation since Taylor replaced Ley. In the Morgan poll taken before the spill, One Nation led the Coalition by 25–20 on primary votes.
WA DemosAU poll: Labor way ahead
A Western Australian state DemosAU poll, conducted February 12–23 from a sample of 969, gave Labor 36% of the primary vote (down five since the November DemosAU poll), the Liberals 21% (down nine), the Nationals 4% (down two), One Nation 17% (not asked previously), the Greens 13% (steady) and all Others 9% (down one).
Labor led the Liberals by 57–43 after preferences, a one-point gain for Labor.
Labor Premier Roger Cook’s net positive rating was down two points to +6 (34% positive, 28% negative). Liberal leader Basil Zempilas’s net positive was unchanged at -3. Cook led Zempilas as preferred premier by 43–30 (47–34 previously).
WA Greens leader Brad Pettitt was at -14 net positive and WA One Nation leader Rod Caddies at -17.
Tasmanian EMRS state poll
A Tasmanian EMRS state poll was reported by Bonham. Conducted February 16–19 from a sample of 1,000, it gave the Liberals 29% of the vote (down eight since November), Labor 23% (down two), the Greens 15% (down two), independents 15% (down four), One Nation 14% (not previously asked) and others 4% (down one).
Tasmania uses a proportional system for its lower house elections, so a two-party estimate is not applicable. One Nation’s 14% is ten points below its federal support in this poll.
An ABC investigation has unearthed horrifying vision of gay and bisexual teenagers being beaten unconscious in Sydney. The teenage boy perpetrators are reported to be supporters of Islamic State (IS).
The ABC journalists consulted and interviewed me for the piece, including showing me all the videos they’d obtained. The vision was sickening – but not surprising.
My research examines how people and communities become targets when otherwise distinct extremist ideologies converge around a perceived common enemy.
We are seeing ideological convergences across Islamic extremist, far-right and other grievance-based movements that frame both Jewish Australians and LGBTQIA+ people as threats. Antisemitism will be under the microscope during the royal commission, while Victoria is holding a parliamentary inquiry into attacks against LGBTQIA+ people.
With that in mind, the attacks in Sydney are not merely an abhorrent anomaly. Incidents like these are foreshadowing future, more severe violence, unless something is done to curb it.
Reviving thousands of years of hate
Violent, homophobic attacks are unfortunately nothing new, including in Australia.
In the 1980s and ‘90s, dozens of gay men were murdered in Sydney by youth gangs, who would lure the men to secluded places.
Some were mistakenly labelled as suicides. As a result, a lot of perpetrators were never held accountable.
This, combined with the stigma attached to being LGBTQIA+ in Australia, and policing strategies that members of these communities felt unfairly targeted them, led many to distrust law enforcement.
There’s good reason for this. History is littered with examples of discriminatory policing, including the 1994 raid on a Melbourne gay nightclub, where patrons were subject to invasive strip searches, and the violence that ended the first ever Sydney Mardi Gras in 1978.
This bred reluctance to report hate crimes to police. It’s likely there were many more instances of violence than we know about.
Since then, there’s been a seismic shift in attitudes toward LGBTQIA+ people, both in policing and in the community. But now this history is butting up against today’s violent forces, putting LGBTQIA+ communities under threat again.
In the current political climate, the recent attacks in Sydney will be seen by some as another instance of Muslim communities being targeted based on a very small minority of adherents, coming as it does after the Bondi terror attack and headlines around ISIS brides. Australian Muslims would likely be angry and disgusted by the actions of these youths.
But importantly, these developments are part of a broader story about Islamic State’s reawakening the world over, especially in Australia: a country that’s contributed a lot of fighters and sympathisers to the IS cause.
Australia was one of the Western countries that produced the most young men per capita to fight for IS in the 2010s. The men were very active in both recruitment of other fighters and in some of the worst atrocities, such as the young son of an Australian jihadist being photographed holding a severed head.
The same jihadist, Khaled Sharrouf, also kept Yazidi women as sex slaves.
Some men were stopped from leaving the country and were instead violent in Australia. Teenager Abdul Numan Haider was fatally shot in 2014 after threatening counterterrorism police with a knife.
Late last year, the Bondi terror attack brought this history back to the fore. The alleged attackers had an IS flag on their car.
An IS resurgence puts LGBTQIA+ Australians at particular risk. IS believes homosexuality is punishable by death, and has a track record of throwing gay men from roofs.
A harbinger of what’s to come
Islamic State has long found its recruitment power in young, disenfranchised men and boys attracted to ideas of dominance and strength. The videos of the Sydney attacks show this in practice.
The boys, acting in the name of IS, continue to kick their victim once he’s unconscious, shouting slurs and threats.
Their willingness to use almost deadly force for a prolonged period of time shows a desensitisation to violence. Combined with their words during the attacks and their clothing, we can also see a high level of religious motivation.
The perpetrators, five of whom have been convicted for the bashings, are reported to be adherents to so-called “hate preachers”. These preachers are anti-Jewish, anti-gay and promote violent jihad.
Under this influence, and the belief that LGBTQIA+ people are subhuman, the attackers think they can operate with moral impunity, and to a degree, criminal impunity.
But it’s not just Islamic extremism driving rampant homophobia. Extreme-right groups such as the National Socialist Network have targeted pride events and drag story time with threats and intimidation.
Based on research and the extremism I study online, authorities should be seriously concerned about these sorts of hate crimes towards LGBTQIA+ people. Against the backdrop of tight law enforcement, resourcing, and the potential breakdown of protective procedures and policies related to the Bondi attack, these incidents require urgent attention.
Crucially, those communities targeted must be listened to, for they are intimately aware of the threats they face and potential security solutions.
Having hard conversations
We need to reach men and boys susceptible to being radicalised by IS before we see more mass violence. Casting a light on the issue is an important first step.
Then we need to stop hate preachers, cutting off the violence at the source. Proposed new laws in New South Wales will help, but the severity of the issue calls for a broader conversation.
Hate preachers operate in plain sight, often carefully calibrating statements to avoid hate speech legislation in public, while inciting hate privately. They target and groom young men, susceptible to narratives offering empowerment, perceived morality, strength and belonging through action.
Many more actors spreading hate operate in the shadows, often online and anonymously. The current political climate makes this a tricky discussion, especially as these issues are too often used for political advantage in bad faith, but we need to consider how to unmask these people and stop them spreading hate.
Little can be achieved while hate speech issues are weaponised for partisan advantage or reduced to culture war theatre. What is unfolding is not a symbolic debate but a security issue with immense human consequences.
The patterns are visible. The ideological convergence is documented. The grooming pathways are known.
If we continue to treat these incidents as isolated flare-ups rather than early warning signals, we will miss the opportunity to intervene before the violence escalates. That means bipartisan leadership, sustained resourcing for prevention and intelligence, and the courage to confront both online radicalisation and offline enablers without fear or favour.
A Fairlie farmer who ended up with a shattered leg after a farm accident has spearheaded a fundraiser to get his local town a new helipad.
It was a normal day on farm for Andrew Hurst, he’d just returned from a bull sale when he was driving a two-wheeler round his farm.
In a split second he was under a Hilux that he had not seen coming from the other direction.
He was airlifted to Christchurch where he spent weeks in hospital undergoing over 10 surgeries to put his leg back together.
Hurst credits the skill and speed of the rescue helicopter with saving his leg and after recovering he quickly went about fundraising $90,000 for a new helipad.
“I felt Fairlie needed something better than just a piece of grass to land on.”
The Westpac Rescue Helicopter is flying into Fairlie on Thursday to officially open the new helipad.
Hurst said it had been a real community effort, with the local Lions Club, companies the Fairlie Community Board, and the Canterbury West Coast Air Rescue Trust getting involved.
He admitted building the helipad was more complex than he first anticipated.
“Initially I thought I’d just be able to go down with a digger, scrape a bit of grass off and pour some concrete.”
“It turns out there’s a lot more involved in a helipad than that! But the helipad is as good as it could ever be, I’m stoked with what the community has achieved.”
Hurst said he would hate to think the rescue helicopter couldn’t help someone because it couldn’t land.
“This new helipad is on an IFR route, which means helicopters can fly here in low cloud or more adverse weather conditions.”
“We are a small, rural community, the rescue helicopter is the fastest way we can access critical care – the helipad will save lives,” he said.
Canterbury West Coast Air Rescue Trust chief executive Christine Prince said the Fairlie community has shown an extraordinary level of commitment and heart throughout the helipad project.
“This helipad is a meaningful investment in the future health and safety of Fairlie which will benefit families for generations.”
She said the opening of the helipad is part of a major transformation of the region’s rescue helicopter service, known as MISSION 2026.
The Trust has purchased three state-of-the-art H145 rescue helicopters for the Canterbury West Coast region.
The first of these helicopters is now in service, with work underway to make the other two mission-ready.
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Portia Woodman-Wickliffe has again announced she is bowing out of the international stage.Photosport / Masanori Udagawa
The greatest of all time is hanging up her black jersey, again.
Portia Woodman-Wickliffe, who came out of retirement for last year’s Rugby World Cup, has announced she is bowing out of the international stage.
She leaves an incomparable legacy behind.
Woodman-Wickliffe was a Rugby World Cup winner in 2017 and 2022, a Sevens World Cup champion in 2013 and 2018, an Olympic gold and silver medallist and Commonwealth Games gold and bronze medallist.
Whether in sevens or 15’s, Woodman-Wickliffe has lit up fields around the globe with her raw pace, power, and inexplicable eye for the try-line.
She walks away as the highest try scorer for the Black Ferns in both codes.
The Black Ferns confirmed the news on social media.
“I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to represent my country, my iwi, my hapū and my whānau one last time on the World Cup stage, a moment I will cherish forever. As I step into this next chapter of my life, I feel both excited and a little nervous, but I’m ready.”
Woodman-Wickliffe was named World Rugby’s Sevens Player of the Year in 2015, Women’s Player of the Year (XVs) in 2017 and in 2020 was named as the top women’s sevens player of the past decade.
The Woodman family name carries with it a bit of weight on the rugby field.
Not only did Portia grow up with an All Black father Kawhena, her uncle Fred Woodman played in two tests in the infamous 1981 series against the Springboks.
Arguably, Woodman-Wickliffe’s high-water mark in the 15-a-side code was during the 2017 Women’s Rugby World Cup, in which she scored a tournament-record 13 tries.
Eight of them came in one match against Hong Kong.
Pita Tipene said he wouldn’t quote the ‘derogatory comments’ made by Cabinet Ministers.RNZ / Peter de Graaf
Northland Regional Council chairperson Pita Tipene has called on Cabinet Ministers to stop making “derogatory” comments about councils.
Representatives from local and regional councils were gathered in the Beehive’s banquet hall for the All of Local Government conference on Thursday.
Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour had just delivered a speech about his Regulatory Standards Act and how it will impact councils once it takes effect as law.
Tipene got to his feet at the end of the question and answer session afterwards.
“Too often I hear politicians who sit around the Cabinet table, and you are the highest ranking politician who will address this forum, making very derogatory comments, particularly about regional councils but councils in general,” he said.
“I can quote them but I won’t. I’m really trying to get the message across that we are in this together and those sorts of comments, while we embrace change, must stop.”
Councillors broke into applause when Tipene stopped speaking.
Seymour responded by saying he was “a lover, not a fighter”.
“You guys can probably judge from the presentation today, I’m not bagging anyone. We do need to work together, we do to be more constructive and having a focus around a better conception of what good regulation looks like is a good way to unite us.
“We are all together as one, brother.”
David Seymour says he’s a lover, not a fighter.RNZ / Mark Papalii
“There are comments that come from Cabinet ministers, in fact from the prime minister himself, who say things like councils have got no social licence.
“When the first media statement came out from minister Simon Watts, he said, not exactly but close to these words, nobody knows who their regional council chairs are, everyone knows who their mayors are, they’re getting on with the fluffy stuff.
“It’s really playing councils off against each other because the focus is squarely on regional councils. So my point was, we, central government and local government, are in this together.
“We need to be proactive, positive and working together, not being disparaging towards local government.”
ANZ bank’s February survey showed headline confidence falling five points to a net 59 percent optimism level.RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
ANZ headline business confidence down 5 points to net 59 percent optimism
Firms’ own outlook edges higher to 52.6 pct, manufacturing most bullish
ANZ puts the stumble down to the rise in wholesale interest rates
Profit, exports, investment indicators steady or a touch lower
ANZ warns price/cost indicators mixed, may test RBNZ confidence inflation headed lower
The rise in business confidence has taken a breather amid rising wholesale interest rates, but remains broadly upbeat.
The ANZ bank’s February survey showed headline confidence falling five points to a net 59 percent optimism level, but the measure of firms’ own business performance edged higher.
Chief economist Sharon Zollner said the survey overall was solid and the dip might only be temporary.
“The sharp turn in interest rates seen from late-November until mid-February has had an impact on the Business Outlook survey – expected credit conditions and profitability have taken a hit, and past activity has also seen a bit of a wobble.”
She said the Reserve Bank’s recent comments about policy seems to have helped ease rates, which may calm nerves in the next survey.
However, Zollner said there were a few inflation signs that needed to be watched, with inflation expectations the highest since mid-2024.
“The net percent of firms expecting to increase their prices eased very slightly but is still trending in the opposite direction to our and the RBNZ’s inflation forecasts.”
“The net percent of firms expecting higher costs also remains elevated.”
Zollner said the RBNZ has frequently expressed confidence that inflation was headed back into the 1-to-3 percent target band in the near term, but might yet be surprised.
She warns that inflation expectations and pressures are rising which may test Reserve Bank confidence that inflation will fall back into its target band soon.
Manufacturing was the most upbeat at the headline level, but agriculture related firms had the highest readings for export, profit and investment expectations.
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The news comes after an Australia real estate website reported the former New Zealand prime minister had been house hunting for properties in Sydney’s northern beaches.
According to RealEstate.com.au, Ardern and husband Clarke Gayford were seen looking at homes for sale in Curl Curl and Freshwater.
The website puts the median price for homes in Curl Curl at AUD$4.1 million (NZD$4.8m) with a growth of 6 percent in the last 12 months.
In Freshwater, RealEstate.com.au said the median price was $3.9m.
In a statement, a spokesman for Ardern said her family had been travelling “for a few years now”.
“For the moment they’re basing themselves out of Australia – they have work there, and it brings the added bonus of more time back home in New Zealand.”
Ardern, Gayford and 7-year-old daughter, Neve Gayford, had been living in the United States where Ardern was working for Harvard University.
New Zealander Roma Forbes is Australia’s top university teacher.
Ōpōtiki-born Forbes, who teaches physiotherapy at the University of Queensland, has been in Australia for 16 years, she told RNZ’s Afternoons.
“I studied physiotherapy at AUT in New Zealand and then came over to the University of Queensland to be a clinical educator, and I thought I’d last five minutes in Australia, but here I am 16 years later.”
She accepted the 2025 Australian University Teacher of the Year award, which recognises her student-centred approach to health education, in Canberra on Tuesday.
“It is quite a unique approach, like in the universities in New Zealand, we have huge numbers of students. I’ve got 200 physiotherapy students each year, and we really don’t want students to be another number, or to get lost in vast numbers. So, it’s so important that we get to know students individually.
“We’ve put them into spaces where they can work together. They can be valued and they can contribute to the group,” she says.
Her acceptance speech, which she says she delivered in her still strong Kiwi accent and included the use of te reo, emphasised the importance of student voices being heard.
“The area that I teach is pain, and particularly chronic pain. And so many people have misconceptions about what chronic pain is, so to actually hear from students, what do they understand about chronic pain? What’s been their experiences for them and maybe with their families or even their grandparents?
“To really hear what their views are, it’s so much easier, more fun to teach when we know the perspectives they’re coming in with.”
Forbes says she remains deeply proud of her eastern Bay of Plenty roots and acknowledges Te Whakatōhea and the whenua she grew up on when she speaks publicly.
She credits her upbringing in Ōpōtiki with shaping her resilience and strong sense of responsibility to community.
While she’s found great professional success over the ditch, Forbes hasn’t ruled out returning home.
“I left for personal reasons; my partner was actually over here. So, I miss New Zealand a lot. I’m very tempted all the time to come home and be able to help with universities there.”
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bridgette Glover, Early-career Researcher, Media and Communications and Writing, University of New England
Viewers of Netflix’s hit series, Bridgerton (2020–) know the leading matriarch, Lady Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell), as a widowed mother dedicated to finding “love matches” for her eight children.
However, in season four’s first instalment, we watched Violet – now about 50 years old – finally navigate her own romance. In a series known for its spicy sex scenes and heated entanglements, why is Violet’s romantic arc significant?
For decades, midlife female sexuality has been portrayed on screen as nonexistent, in decline, or subject to ridicule. But following the cultural reshaping of menopause in recent years, a growing number of shows and films are helping reframe what female sexuality can look like beyond age 40.
Violet’s garden in bloom
Adapted from the historical romance novels by Julia Quinn, each season of Bridgerton focuses on one of the children’s love stories. Viewers expect episodes brimming with equal parts drama and sexual tension.
Season four’s central romance, for instance, is between Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson) and lady’s maid Sophie Baek (Yerin Ha). As anticipated, part one ended on a hot and heavy cliffhanger.
And yet, fans are also invested in Violet’s storyline this season, which sees her sexuality finally brought out of the margins.
We first saw Violet’s interest in pursuing romance in the spin-off series, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (2023), when she awkwardly confesses to her friend, Lady Danbury, that her long-dormant libido is stirring. Using the metaphor of a garden, she explains that when her husband Edmund died, so too did her garden:
And I did not even think of the garden. I did not want the garden. But lately without warning, the garden has begun to bloom.
With the arrival of Lord Marcus Anderson (Daniel Francis) in season three, Violet’s “garden” was brought back into the conversation. And now, in season four, we find her ready to be tended to.
‘I am mature now’: an honest romance
When Violet arrives at Marcus’ home in episode three, she is determined to communicate her concerns and needs about moving towards a physical relationship.
Putting aside her anxieties, she asserts:
I am mature now. My body – well, I have had eight children with this body, and I am different now. All of me is different now. And how will that be? I want it. I want to be seen and touched. By you. [But] I am nervous.
Free of her usual metaphors and euphemisms, Violet’s honesty provides the scene with a groundedness rare to the period drama series.
When she invited Marcus over for “tea” in episode four, he finds her seductively leaning against the bed in Regency-inspired lingerie. In a now fan-favourite line, Violet explains “I am the tea that you are having”.
Written by executive producer Shonda Rhimes, this scene infuses the traditionally awkward Violet with a newfound sexual confidence. Paired with Rhimes’ direct dialogue – “I am the tea” – Violet’s empowerment is bolstered by a specific female gaze geared towards emphasising her enjoyment.
The facts of midlife sexual desire
Speaking on Bridgerton: The Official Podcast, showrunner Jess Brownell highlights how the media has historically focused on the male gaze and men’s pleasure.
With Bridgerton set during a time when women had severely limited agency, Brownell explains how crucial it is to balance the scale in terms of representation:
It’s very important in those intimacy scenes to let the women be the ones experiencing the most pleasure.
This prioritisation of the female gaze is especially critical for the representation of midlife female sexuality. With menopause traditionally tied to patriarchal notions of “decline and decay” – rather than a garden in bloom – 20th century screen media preferred that older women recede into the background.
The result of rarely seeing an older woman “yearning for sex” is that we assume it must be “far behind them”, says American scholar E. Ann Kaplan. Those who dare to desire after 40 are depicted as shameful or desperate.
In reality, studies show that post-menopausal women value sex and are still sexually active. Women over 65 do commonly report low libido, but these experiences are also found to be impacted by more than just hormonal changes. Psycho-social factors such as well-being, relationship quality, and Western ideas around youth and femininity, play a significant role in how women feel about sex at midlife and beyond.
Women of all ages are worthy of being seen
As more diverse conversations around menopause and sexuality continue within Hollywood and academia, screen media are also starting to take part. While film has room to improve, television has rapidly become the domain for bolder portrayals of midlife female sexuality.
Violet is the latest to reflect these conversations, following in the footsteps of characters such as Jean Milburn (Sex Education, 2019–23), Maud O’Hara (Rivals, 2024–), Sylvie Grateau (Emily in Paris, 2020–) and the characters of And Just Like That … (2021–25).
As 58-year-old Ruth Gemmell, who portrays Violet, argues:
People of all ages should have sex on screen. I mean, we are not dead yet.
Looking ahead to future seasons, let’s hope for more onscreen steaminess that isn’t limited to the younger cast.
ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on February 26, 2026.
A cosmic explosion with the force of a billion Suns went unseen – until we caught its echo Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ashna Gulati, PhD Candidate, Radio Astronomy, University of Sydney Some of the universe’s most extreme explosions leave behind almost no trace. The original explosion is unseen, but our observations can capture the long-lived echo it leaves behind as the shock front ploughs into its surrounding environment. In
‘Buy it nice or buy it twice’: what the ‘frugal chic’ trend tells us about our clothing habits Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lorinda Cramer, Lecturer, Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies, Deakin University The “frugal chic” aesthetic is having its moment, however contradictory the concept may seem. “Frugal” suggests a focus on thriftiness, while “chic” oozes a sense of classic luxury. Coined by former model and content creator Mia McGrath
20 billion galaxies: new survey of the sky will reveal the universe in unprecedented detail Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anais Möller, Senior Lecturer and ARC DECRA Fellow, School of Science, Computing and Emerging Technologies, Swinburne University of Technology When you look up at the night sky, it appears unchanging. But if you look deep enough you will find that the sky is in fact constantly shifting.
A new space race could turn our atmosphere into a ‘crematorium for satellites’ Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Revell, Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry, University of Canterbury When we look up at the night sky and see a satellite glide past, we might not consider climate change or the ozone layer. Space may feel separate from the environmental systems that sustain life on Earth. But
There are more than 4.6 million food posts on TikTok alone. Why, then, do we still love cookbooks? Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Garritt C. Van Dyk, Senior Lecturer in History, University of Waikato Two of Australia’s top ten bestsellers in 2025 were cookbooks, both by Nagi Maehashi of RecipeTin Eats. Other popular books include Brooke Bellamy’s Bake with Brooki and Steph De Sousa’s Easy Dinner Queen. Yet increasingly, people
Baftas racial slur controversy: what should the BBC have done? Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maxwell Modell, Research associate, Cardiff University At the 2026 Bafta awards, big wins for independent British film I Swear and American horror film Sinners were overshadowed by a regrettable moment. Activist John Davidson said the N-word – arguably the most offensive slur in the English language due
How Russia is intercepting communications from European satellites Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Aleix Nadal, Analyst, Defence, Security and Justice team, RAND Europe Officials recently sounded the alarm over Russia intercepting communications from European satellites. But this isn’t a new problem. Ever since the initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014, two Russian satellites have been secretly stalking European spacecraft. They
How Peter Mandelson went from US ambassador to arrested over misconduct claims Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sam Power, Lecturer in Politics, University of Bristol Peter Mandelson was released on bail this week after being arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Coming just days after the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the images of the former US ambassador being led away by police
Why you can’t tie knots in four dimensions Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zsuzsanna Dancso, Associate Professor of Mathematics, University of Sydney We all know we live in three-dimensional space. But what does it mean when people talk about four dimensions? Is it just a bigger kind of space? Is it “space-time”, the popular idea which emerged from Einstein’s theory
New global study: long after war, nearly 4 in 10 people injured by landmines and explosives die Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stacey Pizzino, Lecturer, School of Public Health, The University of Queensland When a war ends and peace agreements are signed, most people assume the danger is over. But for many communities around the world the danger remains in the ground, waiting. Landmines and other explosives left behind
One Nation has been on the fringes of Australian politics for 30 years. Why is its popularity soaring now? Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Josh Sunman, Associate lecturer, Flinders University Since the 2025 federal election, poll after poll has shown surging support for right-wing populist party One Nation. The party, and its leader Pauline Hanson, have been on the Australian political scene for 30 years. Yet until recently, One Nation had
What Bridgerton’s ‘pinnacle’ tells us about sex talk today Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra James, Research Fellow, Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University Among the corsets and chemistry, the latest season of Bridgerton gets one thing right: the taboos around talking about sex and sexual pleasure. Newlywed Francesca asks in hushed confusion what it means
How Australia’s new fuel efficiency scheme quietly created a carbon currency for cars – and it’s working Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hussein Dia, Professor of Transport Technology and Sustainability, Swinburne University of Technology Australia’s new fuel efficiency scheme has been in place for just seven months. But the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard has already created a new, tradeable carbon currency applying just to cars and light commercial vehicles
Does ‘free’ shipping really exist? An expert shares the marketing tricks you need to know Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian R. Camilleri, Associate Professor of Marketing, University of Technology Sydney You’re scrolling through an online retailer, like Amazon, Shein or eBay, and spot a shirt on sale for $40. You add it to your cart, but at checkout, a $10 shipping fee suddenly appears. Frustrated, you
TikTokers are ‘becoming Chinese’ in a new trend that’s part parody and part politics Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Justine Poplin, Teaching Associate, Faculty of Education, Southern Cross University “Drink hot water” has become an unlikely life philosophy on TikTok, as countless users track their journey towards “being” or “becoming Chinese”. All of this is part of a broader social media trend dubbed “Chinamaxxing”. Out of
French Senate vote endorses New Caledonia’s future status By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk French Senators have endorsed a Constitutional amendment text regarding New Caledonia’s future political status. Two-hundred and fifteen senators (mostly an alliance between right and centre-right parties) voted in favour, and 41 voted against. The four-hour sitting was marked by a lengthy address by French Prime Minister
What is Shen Yun, the Chinese dance troupe connected to the bomb threat at the Lodge? Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Haiqing Yu, Professor, School of Media and Communication, RMIT University Yesterday’s evacuation of the prime minister from the Lodge has been linked to the Chinese dance troupe Shen Yun. In a bomb threat emailed to the group, the sender said explosives would be detonated if Australian performances
Modern multicultural Australia must strengthen the ties that bind our diverse groups: Julian Hill Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Assistant Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs minister Julian Hill has warned Australia needs to strengthen the “bridging social capital” that holds our diverse society together, or risk further fragmentation. In a speech on Wednesday to the McKell Institute canvassing the challenges
Politics with Michelle Grattan: Geoffrey Watson calls for a royal commission on the CFMEU scandal Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Victorians faces a state election late this year, with the Labor government pitching for a fourth term. A key issue will be the government’s failure to deal with thuggery and corruption in the building industry, centred on the Construction, Forestry
More than 45,000 Indigenous households lack adequate housing. Here’s what must change Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vivienne Milligan, Honorary Professor of Housing Policy and Practice, City Futures Research Centre, UNSW Sydney Finding and affording adequate housing is a challenge many Australians face, but few more so than First Nations people. New national research shows unmet housing need among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Andrew Barnes, Perpetual Guardian founder.Supplied
Estate planning, trust and investment manager Perpetual Guardian Group is stepping back into the corporate supervision market with the purchase of Trustees Executors Limited for an undisclosed sum.
The companies are the oldest trustee institutions in the New Zealand, with histories stretching back more than 140 years.
Perpetual Guardian Group provides estate planning and investment services, and looks after over 125,000 client relationships, with $2.8 billion in funds under management, and $8b in total assets under management.
Trustees Executors supervises more than $200b worth of KiwiSaver, managed funds and other investment products.
It is the appointed supervisor for a wide range of investment managers and listed entities, including Milford Asset Management funds, Fisher Funds schemes, Midlands Funds, and the NZX‑listed Vital Healthcare Property Trust.
Perpetual Guardian previously exited the supervision sector in 2021, but said the acquisition will make it the country’s largest provider of fiduciary services.
Fiduciary services make sure that fund managers follow the rules, protect investors’ money, report accurately, and run their fund the way they promised.
Perpetual Guardian said it has notified the Financial Markets Authority of the sale.
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Stats New Zealand numbers out Tuesday show beer consumption fell 10 percent to 265 million litres in the year ended December 2025.
It’s part of a sustained downward trend in overall alcohol consumption, happening in New Zealand and around the world.
Brewers Association of New Zealand executive director Dylan Firth told Midday Report it saw a bit of a shift this past year.
But not only that, Firth said there have been a “slight decline” over recent years, giving the industry time to look at what it was doing and understand its consumers.
He said there was “definitely” more of a push towards the lower, no alcohol space.
Firth said the higher alcohol beers had taken more of a hit.
“If you actually break down the data closely, the real story isn’t just about total volumes that are moving, it’s about how they’re shifting.
“The beer above 5 percent ABV, it fell about 27 percent which is quite significant but at the same time, 2.5-4 percents category was broadly stable, in fact a slight increase, so what that shows is there’s a shift in that space.”
Firth said lower carb options had seen “massive growth” and he put it down to a generational shift.
He said the younger generation don’t drink as much and they are drinking less as they get older for health reasons.
Firth also said Covid-19 lockdowns saw a change in the way people meet – with a lot moving to online – meaning not as many people were going out socially to have a drink.
Despite this, beer wasn’t going away, he said.
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The government says its tough on crime approach has driven a significant drop in the number of victims of violent crime.
It comes as the latest New Zealand Crime and Victims Survey reported 49,000 fewer victims of violent crime in the year to October 2025 than two years previously.
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith put this down to the coalition’s approach to law and order and the near doubling of police foot patrols.
“Since day one, we’ve been working tirelessly to restore real consequences for crime, and to place victims back at the centre of the justice system,” he said.
“We have reformed the sentencing regime so those who cause the most harm are imprisoned for longer, given Police effective tools to deal with gangs, stopped taxpayer funding for the proliferation of cultural reports, made stalking an illegal and jailable offence, given victims of sexual assault the power to determine if offenders are granted name suppression, restored Three Strikes, and much more.”
Police Minister Mark Mitchell and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon speak on the latest crime statistics.RNZ / Kim Baker Wilson
Police Minister Mark Mitchell said higher police visibility in communities was helping deter crime and keep criminals off the streets.
“Our investment into the frontline has seen 12 new and expanded beat teams stood up nationwide, including the launch of a beat team in Hamilton this week.
“Our beat officers do an outstanding job at keeping the public, businesses and retailers safe. We know there is a lot more to do but these results show we are heading in the right direction.”
Goldsmith said while the government was tracking ahead on its violent crime reduction target it still had more work to do.
“This is going to be another busy year. We just announced plans to provide police with the power to issue move-on orders to deal with disorderly behaviour.
“Our Crimes Amendment Bill is making its way through the house, and legislation to strengthen trespass laws will soon be introduced.”
Children’s Minister Karen Chhour said Oranga Tamariki figures showed there had been a 22 per cent drop in serious repeat youth offending compared with when the Government came into office.
“This is well ahead of our target of a 15 per cent drop before 2030,” she said.
“We promised to fix what matters to New Zealanders. Ram raids are down 85 per cent. Kiwis are no longer being expected to live in fear that their cars have been stolen and used by young offenders in a ram raid of our local small businesses.
“Young offenders are avoiding re-offending because they know Courts, Oranga Tamariki and Police are working together more closely. They know now that their actions will have consequences.”
The livestream is due to start about 1.30pm and will be at the top of this page.
The Defence Force is going to begin testing air, land and sea drones from a Mount Maunganui company.
Syos Aerospace drones are used in Ukraine and it recently took another step towards helping develop ‘wingman drones’ for the UK’s Apache attack helicopters, including for strike and target acquisition
The government said the trial of the combat-proven tech would strengthen capability while growing local industry.
“Having cutting-edge drone technology developed and supported by local businesses will reduce supply chain risk and strengthen our resilience,” said Defence Minister Judith Collins in a statement on Thursday.
Neither the Beehive or Syos’ media releases said how many drones or what the deal was worth. RNZ has asked for more information.
The trials in coming months would include transporting supplies, and doing maritime patrols and route reconnaissance.
Supplied
NZDF said it was looking at integrating the drones with a fire control system designed and built in New Zealand by European firm Hirtenberger.
New Zealand consulting firm Sysdoc would support training.
Its long-range drone project has a ballpark budget of $100-$300 million over four years. Other sums would be spent on AI in behind that.
Budget 2025 funded counter-drone systems – say, that shoot down drones – as one of 15 “priority” projects, but not maritime or other drones.
Supplied
Collins said the Syos deal was exactly what the recently released defence industry strategy called for, for delivering on the $12 billion defence capability plan.
The army and navy get to test Syos’ SG400 Uncrewed Ground Vehicle, SM300 Uncrewed Surface Vessel, SA2 ISR drone and SA7 one-way effector drone.
The NZDF has been part of big drone-testing exercises by the US and other Five Eyes partners in recent years, but last year took just a single drone to one such joint exercise in Australia.
Syos said it was delighted.
Syos chief executive and founder Sam Vye.Supplied
“Our platforms and systems have been proven in some of the world’s most demanding environments, and we’re proud to bring that experience to New Zealand’s capability development,” said chief executive and founder Sam Vye.
“Structured experimentation” at NZDF aligned with how they worked, he added.
The NZDF is trying to align itself with its Australian counterpart on emerging military tech. This was an objective of the AUKUS Pillar Two agreement; NZ has not joined that agreement but was still pushing to become more interoperable as combat, reconnaissance and other tech becomes more advanced.
Some of the universe’s most extreme explosions leave behind almost no trace. The original explosion is unseen, but our observations can capture the long-lived echo it leaves behind as the shock front ploughs into its surrounding environment.
In new research accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, we have discovered what may be the clearest example yet of one of these hidden explosions: the radio afterglow of a powerful gamma-ray burst whose initial blast went unnoticed.
The only other viable explanation for what we see is an extraordinarily rare event in which a star is torn apart by an intermediate-mass black hole: a long-hypothesised, elusive class of black holes that has proven difficult to detect.
Either way, we’re watching the slow-motion aftermath of one of the most extreme, rare events the cosmos can produce.
While these jets are launched in all directions, we only observe the small fraction whose emission is directed towards us. When it is directed away from us, the initial flash goes unseen, and all we can observe is the slowly fading afterglow.
Animation of a gamma-ray burst showing the narrow, high-energy jets.NASA
Although these so-called “orphan afterglows” of gamma-ray bursts have been predicted for decades, finding them has proven extraordinarily difficult. Without a high-energy flash to announce their arrival, astronomers have to search thousands of square degrees of sky.
As a result, these cosmic explosions are easy to miss, and hard to recognise when they do appear – until now.
A cosmic ghost appears
Using the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP), a 36-antenna radio telescope at Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara in Western Australia, we scanned vast regions of sky for unexpected long-lived radio transients (astronomical objects that appear and change over weeks to years). We were trying to catch rare events that reveal themselves only through their fading radio emission.
In data from one of these wide-field surveys, we noticed a radio source (named ASKAP J005512-255834), that hadn’t been there before.
It brightened rapidly, releasing 10³² Watts of energy into space – comparable to the total radio energy output of billions of Suns – and then began to fade slowly over time.
Brightening of the radio afterglow detected in the RACS survey with ASKAP. Observations beginning in 2022 capture the source turning on, after which it remains detectable for more than 1,000 days.Emil Lenc
This behaviour immediately set it apart. Most radio transients either evolve quickly or flare repeatedly. This source did neither. Instead, it behaved like the lingering echo of a single, immensely powerful explosion.
Although ASKAP J005512-255834 was bright at radio wavelengths, it left almost no signal at other wavelengths. We could not see a counterpart in visible light or X-rays.
This is exactly what astronomers expect from an orphan afterglow: the fading, widening glow of a tightly focused cosmic jet that was not initially pointed towards Earth, becoming visible only after it slows and spreads.
A busy neighbourhood, billions of light-years away
This rare transient is located in a small but bright galaxy around 1.7 billion light-years from Earth. The galaxy has an irregular structure and is actively forming stars, making it a natural environment for extreme stellar events such as stellar collapse or violent stellar disruption.
The image on the left shows the location of the radio afterglow within the galaxy 2dFGRS TGS143Z140, captured with the Magellan Telescope in Chile. On the right, we see the same radio source detected by the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope in India.Ashna Gulati
The position of the explosion is off to one side, not aligned with the galaxy’s central nucleus. Instead, it appears to lie within a compact star-forming region, possibly a nuclear star cluster.
This raises new questions about what kinds of environments can host such powerful cosmic events.
Could it be something else?
Because ASKAP J005512-255834 is so unusual, we had to do some detective work to figure out what it might be. We carefully examined (and ruled out) some alternative explanations, including stars, pulsars and supernovae.
The only other scenario capable of reproducing the observed radio behaviour involves a star being torn apart by an intermediate-mass black hole. These are a rare class of black holes that sit between stellar remnants and the supermassive giants found in galaxy centres.
Such events are thought to be extremely rare at radio wavelengths, but we cannot completely rule out this explanation. Confirming it would make this the first example of its kind, a discovery just as interesting as an orphan gamma-ray burst.
A hidden universe revealed by radio waves
Was this discovery a stroke of luck, or the first glimpse of a long-hidden population? Until recently, we simply didn’t have the tools to know.
ASKAP J005512-255834 is the most convincing orphan gamma-ray burst afterglow yet identified. It was found by using our radio telescope to search for the long-lived echo of an explosion we didn’t know had occurred.
Using the same approach, we now hope to uncover many more of these orphan afterglows and finally give them a place in our cosmic story.
In doing so, we may be able to build a full picture of the gamma-ray burst population, including those that never announced themselves with a flash, but lingered quietly as ghosts in the radio sky.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is taking questions after the announcement of a new crime figures.
It comes as the latest New Zealand Crime and Victims Survey reported 49,000 fewer victims of violent crime in the year to October 2025 than two years previously.
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith put this down to the coalition’s approach to law and order and the near doubling of police foot patrols.
“Since day one, we’ve been working tirelessly to restore real consequences for crime, and to place victims back at the centre of the justice system,” he said.
“We have reformed the sentencing regime so those who cause the most harm are imprisoned for longer, given Police effective tools to deal with gangs, stopped taxpayer funding for the proliferation of cultural reports, made stalking an illegal and jailable offence, given victims of sexual assault the power to determine if offenders are granted name suppression, restored Three Strikes, and much more.”
Police Minister Mark Mitchell said higher police visibility in communities was helping deter crime and keep criminals off the streets.
“Our investment into the frontline has seen 12 new and expanded beat teams stood up nationwide, including the launch of a beat team in Hamilton this week.
“Our beat officers do an outstanding job at keeping the public, businesses and retailers safe. We know there is a lot more to do but these results show we are heading in the right direction.”
Goldsmith said while the government was tracking ahead on its violent crime reduction target it still had more work to do.
“This is going to be another busy year. We just announced plans to provide police with the power to issue move-on orders to deal with disorderly behaviour.
“Our Crimes Amendment Bill is making its way through the house, and legislation to strengthen trespass laws will soon be introduced.”
Children’s Minister Karen Chhour said Oranga Tamariki figures showed there had been a 22 per cent drop in serious repeat youth offending compared with when the Government came into office.
“This is well ahead of our target of a 15 per cent drop before 2030,” she said.
“We promised to fix what matters to New Zealanders. Ram raids are down 85 per cent. Kiwis are no longer being expected to live in fear that their cars have been stolen and used by young offenders in a ram raid of our local small businesses.
“Young offenders are avoiding re-offending because they know Courts, Oranga Tamariki and Police are working together more closely. They know now that their actions will have consequences.”
The livestream is due to start about 1.30pm and will be at the top of this page.
The “frugal chic” aesthetic is having its moment, however contradictory the concept may seem. “Frugal” suggests a focus on thriftiness, while “chic” oozes a sense of classic luxury.
Coined by former model and content creator Mia McGrath before trending on TikTok, this is one of the latest attempts to change how we think about clothes and disrupt our voracious appetite for fashion.
McGrath encourages Gen Z to think about the positive aspects of making do with less. For her, being frugally chic refers to:
An individual who values quality, high taste, and freedom. They reject this new world of overconsumption that preys on the insecurities of unconscious doom scrollers.
Frugal chic means a commitment to purchases that will last for many years and be part of a “forever wardrobe”.
McGrath calls on consumers to invest in quality – “buy it nice or buy it twice” – while blending luxury purchases with cheaper and even thrifted clothes.
Slow fashion, repair cafes and capsule wardrobes
McGrath is not the first to try to influence change by promoting sustainable, responsible clothing consumption.
The global slow fashion movement supports individuals to (as the name suggests) slow down clothing purchases. But simply shopping less is easier said than done.
Slow fashion is driven by an increased awareness of the environmental and societal impact of the purchases we make. It also means forming a different, deeper relationship with our clothes.
Repair cafes set up in many countries (including Australia) further aid this work. They offer opportunities for people to fix their clothes – whether broken zips, missing buttons, rips, or something more complex – with the help of skilled repairers.
An uptick in “capsule wardrobes” has also been framed as a responsible choice. A capsule wardrobe encourages fewer classic, high-quality items in neutral colours as staples that can be worn interchangeably with each other and with bolder accent pieces.
Each of these matters as a counterpoint to what has become a massive problem: Australia’s spiralling consumption and discard rates.
Many of those clothes don’t form part of a “forever wardrobe”. Across that same year, Australians sent 220,000 tonnes of castoffs to landfills. That’s 880 million items. A further 36 million items of unwanted clothing were shipped overseas, adding to mounting global landfills.
Fast fashion emits greenhouse gases and microplastics, with much of its waste sent to landfills in developing countries.Misper Apawu/AP
The production, consumption, use and disposal of clothing are emission-intensive. In 2024, Australia’s per capita emissions for clothing were equivalent to driving more than 3,600 kilometres in a petrol-fuelled car. That’s further than a road trip from Melbourne to Perth.
Despite these startling figures, our shopping continues.
Restrictions and austerity
Frugal chic has plenty of historical parallels. Though the contexts differ, these moments encouraged Australians to make do with the little they had.
More than 150 years ago, as a flood of gold-rush migrants descended on Australia, many had only a few changes of clothes – as many as could be counted on one hand. This was considered sufficient.
Clothing did not have a single life. It could be mended, adjusted and adapted. It could be passed down from person to person. Clothing was so valuable it was often bequeathed.
At the end of its wearable life, clothing was recycled into something new. It might be cut down to fit children, pieced together and sewn into quilts and waggas (quilts made out of recycled clothes, fabric scraps, old blankets and burlap bags) for warmth at night, or torn into rags.
This considered attitude to clothing did not end in the 20th century. Global upheavals continued to underline the critical importance of long clothing lifecycles.
In the Great Depression, as rates of unemployment soared, clothing budgets plummeted. This demanded ingenuity to keep families clothed.
Austerity measures introduced in Australia during World War II included the rationing of clothing. Measures also included the control of clothing styles to save fabric, threads and buttons. Known as “victory styling”, this created a direct link between less clothing and contributing to the war effort.
Some responded by making new clothes out of old garments salvaged from the back of wardrobes. Others turned to novel materials such as sugar bags to make themselves new outfits.
Reframing restraint
Like these historical examples, the “frugal chic” aesthetic frames frugality as virtuous – aligning with the shift towards sustainability – and aspirational, signalling an intention to live more mindfully.
But “frugal chic” is not without tension. For one thing, most “frugal chic” content casts frugality as a choice rather than a necessity for dealing with issues of overconsumption or low income.
For another, it could be seen as an example of the pressure placed on women to look and act in certain ways – not simply to prioritise sustainability, but to appear both fashionable and financially savvy at the same time.
Will the “frugal chic” aesthetic change how we think about our clothes? It’s hard to say, but all rallying cries for sustainable fashion consumption hold potential for much-needed change.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anais Möller, Senior Lecturer and ARC DECRA Fellow, School of Science, Computing and Emerging Technologies, Swinburne University of Technology
When you look up at the night sky, it appears unchanging. But if you look deep enough you will find that the sky is in fact constantly shifting. Satellites, asteroids and interstellar objects pass by. Stars not only shine brightly, they can suddenly burst with energy or explode in bright supernovae.
There is a plethora of explosive and cataclysmic phenomena waiting to be witnessed. For physicists, this is an opportunity to study our universe and physics that we can’t reproduce on Earth.
A whole new era of discovery is opening with the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory. For the next ten years, Rubin will create a high-definition video of the southern sky, revealing our universe in an unprecedented way. Many of the objects it finds will have never before been seen by human eyes.
More than 20 years in the making
This moment has been more than 20 years in the making, from the concept to completion of the Rubin Observatory.
Located on a dark sky mountaintop in Chile, the observatory represents a generational leap in astronomy with its ultra-wide, deep and high-resolution imaging capabilities.
Rubin has the largest camera ever built, with 3,200 megapixels. Each image scans an area equivalent to 40 full moons. The resolution of the images is so high that if we pointed the camera toward a lime located 24 kilometres away, it would be able to resolve exactly what type of fruit it is.
Last year, Rubin amazed us with its first test images. These images revealed a swarm of new asteroids never before detected, stars varying in our Milky Way and beautiful deep images of galaxies. This is just a taster on what is to come.
The telescope will be uniquely used for the Legacy Survey of Space and Time. This ten-year-long survey, which has just started, aims to solve the biggest mysteries of the universe – and the nature of the physics out there.
Spot the cosmic difference! A new science observation (left) is compared against a reference template built from archival data (centre). Subtracting the two leaves only what has changed, a new source visible in the difference image (right). This is a supernova candidate found with the Fink broker using Vera C. Rubin data.Rubin Observatory/Fink broker
20 billion galaxies
With its advanced imaging capabilities and its systematic scan of the sky, Rubin will image an incredible number of objects in our universe over the next decade.
Starting in our cosmic backyard, our Solar System, it will make 6 million detections of asteroids. Moving toward our galaxy, it will catalogue 17 billion stars. Farther away, it will gather colour images of 20 billion galaxies.
The same patch of the sky will be imaged up to 100 times each year. With an expected 10 terrabytes of image data per night, the amount of data Rubin will deliver in a single year will be greater than all optical observatories combined.
With this data, we aim to answer fundamental questions. These include the nature of the most mysterious components of our universe: dark matter and dark energy.
I am particularly interested in using the data to measure whether the universe expansion maintains a constant acceleration or changes with cosmic time. This accelerated cosmic expansion is attributed to dark energy, which comprises 70% of our universe. Yet we still don’t know what it is.
By itself, this measurement would be amazing, especially since recent observations have hinted the expansion rate may be changing. From the physics point of view, this will allow us to narrow down which potential theories can explain dark energy.
A firehose of cosmic treasures
To find changing sky objects, we compare a new image to an “old” or reference image. The difference between the two images can reveal a new object or a change of brightness.
So how do we find the most interesting exploding stars or asteroids within this mass of detections?
Rubin has selected seven “community brokers”. A broker is both the infrastructure and the team that receives this data firehose within minutes of detection, processes it to find the most exciting objects, and makes them publicly available.
One of these community brokers is Fink, which I have the privilege of co-leading.
Fink is made up of hundreds of scientists and engineers around the world working together to understand our universe. With the incredible Rubin data, comes a great opportunity but also a big challenge.
We need state-of-the-art technologies such as distributed computing (a network of computers, similar to commercial cloud services) and artificial intelligence tools to process the data very fast. We are talking about analysing thousands of detections from Rubin every minute or two, and up to 10 million every night for ten years.
Become a Rubin citizen scientist
You can also engage with Rubin right now.
Rubin’s first images are available online and you can use apps such as Orbitviewer to track asteroids, as well as look at deep images with SkyViewer.
You can also become a Rubin citizen scientist. For example, you can help to identify changing objects in our universe with Rubin Difference Detectives and find comets with Rubin Comet Catchers.
The data from community brokers is also publicly available. Through our Fink portal, you will be able to inspect the latest detections from Rubin just minutes after an image has been taken.
The data may not look like the stunning Rubin first light images. But they come directly from the telescope and are full of universe treasures.
Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour criticised the airline, saying it should go back to the basics.RNZ / Mark Papalii
Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour has renewed his call for the government to sell its 51 percent stake in Air New Zealand after it reported a significant half-year loss.
The airline posted a bottom-line loss of $40 million in the six months ended December, compared to last year’s profit of $106m.
Revenue was up just over 1 percent to $3.44b, compared to $3.4b a year ago.
Seymour, also the leader of the ACT Party, criticised the airline, saying it should go back to the basics.
“The taxpayer has to have a purpose for having all that capital tied up. My question is, what is that purpose if they’re not providing a service that is affordable and timely? Instead, they seem to have been distracted by a million other objectives.”
Seymour said Air NZ had been doing “politically motivated stuff” when it couldn’t take off and land on time for a decent price.
“Get woke, go broke. We hear about electric planes, glossy reports on climate change, paper cups in the Koru Lounge. What they can’t seem to do is take off and land on time,” he said.
“I’m fortunate that as an MP I don’t have to pay for work flights, but whenever I look at one privately, they’re looking at $600 to go from Wellington to Invercargill one way. That’s crazy.”
Seymour’s comments come as the airline continues to face severe disruption due to grounded aircraft.
Air NZ said the half-year loss was largely driven by global engine maintenance delays, slower-than-expected recovery in domestic demand, increasing costs, and a weaker New Zealand dollar.
It said that while capacity would likely increase modestly in the second half with aircraft returning to service and new aircraft, the airline was cautious on whether it would translate to earnings uplift.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour criticised the airline, saying it should go back to the basics.RNZ / Mark Papalii
Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour has renewed his call for the government to sell its 51 percent stake in Air New Zealand after it reported a significant half-year loss.
The airline posted a bottom-line loss of $40 million in the six months ended December, compared to last year’s profit of $106m.
Revenue was up just over 1 percent to $3.44b, compared to $3.4b a year ago.
Seymour, also the leader of the ACT Party, criticised the airline, saying it should go back to the basics.
“The taxpayer has to have a purpose for having all that capital tied up. My question is, what is that purpose if they’re not providing a service that is affordable and timely? Instead, they seem to have been distracted by a million other objectives.”
Seymour said Air NZ had been doing “politically motivated stuff” when it couldn’t take off and land on time for a decent price.
“Get woke, go broke. We hear about electric planes, glossy reports on climate change, paper cups in the Koru Lounge. What they can’t seem to do is take off and land on time,” he said.
“I’m fortunate that as an MP I don’t have to pay for work flights, but whenever I look at one privately, they’re looking at $600 to go from Wellington to Invercargill one way. That’s crazy.”
Seymour’s comments come as the airline continues to face severe disruption due to grounded aircraft.
Air NZ said the half-year loss was largely driven by global engine maintenance delays, slower-than-expected recovery in domestic demand, increasing costs, and a weaker New Zealand dollar.
It said that while capacity would likely increase modestly in the second half with aircraft returning to service and new aircraft, the airline was cautious on whether it would translate to earnings uplift.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
The man was found unresponsive in a cell on October 6, 2023. (File photo)RNZ / REECE BAKER
Police officers did not provide proper checks on a man in custody before he was found unresponsive in his cell and later died, the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA), has found.
The man died in hospital three days after being found unresponsive in a cell at the Auckland Custody Unit on October 6, 2023.
The IPCA found there were failings by police in the care of the man who died after self-harming in his cell.
The man had been taken into police custody after a stabbing at an Auckland dairy the day before and had told police he was “trying to reach heaven”.
It was reported the man was acting aggressively and erratically and tripped, falling to the ground while attempting to escape.
He was taken to the Auckland Custody Unit and while he was escorted inside, one of the officers tripped him, the IPCA said, unnecessarily, causing him to fall to his knees.
The officers involved said the man was very strong and believed to be on drugs. Three officers held him against a wall, with one officer holding him by the hair and pulling him off balance.
The IPCA said while the man was behaving erratically footage showed he was not significantly resisting and it was unnecessary for him to be held by the hair and taken to the ground.
The police sergeant in charge believed the man was experiencing psychosis or “excited delirium” and posed a risk to staff so he was put in a restraint chair.
He was taken to hospital due to the possibility of excited delirium, where he was sedated and discharged the same day.
The hospital noted was presenting as well and didn’t appear to be at an increased risk to himself or others.
A police doctor said the man could be place on frequent monitoring in his call, requiring him to be checked five times an hour, rather than constant monitoring.
The IPCA said given the advice from the hospital, this decision could not be criticised.
Overnight, police recorded completing 80 checks on the man but more than half did not appear to be done in line with police policy as officers watched him on a CCTV screen rather than physically entering the cell.
Thirty checks of the man were recorded the next morning, but these included looking at CCTV, talking to him over the intercom and checking on the man from the officer’s work stations.
“In our view, these checks were inconsistent with policy as the officer did not go to the cell,” the IPCA said.
Shortly before 11am, an officer checked on the man and found him unresponsive. He was given first aid and taken to Auckland City Hospital where he died three days later as a result of suspected self-harm.
“From the footage, it is apparent to us that the man was listening for, and observing, staff movements looking for an opportunity to self-harm. While we cannot say that this tragic incident could have been prevented, proper checks would have reduced the opportunity for it to occur,” the IPCA said.
Auckland City District Commander, Superintendent Sunny Patel, said after the death an investigation began along with a review into the prisoner checking system.
Patel said several “learnings” had now been put into place including updating their people in police custody policy.
“We would also like to again extend our condolences to the man’s family and friends.”
The man’s death remained before the Coroner.
Where to get help:
Need to Talk? Free call or text 1737 any time to speak to a trained counsellor, for any reason
Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 / 0508 TAUTOKO. This is a service for people who may be thinking about suicide, or those who are concerned about family or friends
Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour criticised the airline, saying it should go back to the basics.RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour has renewed his call for the government to sell its 51 percent stake in Air New Zealand after it reported a significant half-year loss.
The airline posted a bottom-line loss of $40 million in the six months ended December, compared to last year’s profit of $106m.
Revenue was up just over 1 percent to $3.44b, compared to $3.4b a year ago.
Seymour, also the leader of the ACT Party, criticised the airline, saying it should go back to the basics.
“The taxpayer has to have a purpose for having all that capital tied up. My question is, what is that purpose if they’re not providing a service that is affordable and timely? Instead, they seem to have been distracted by a million other objectives.”
Seymour said Air NZ had been doing “politically motivated stuff” when it couldn’t take off and land on time for a decent price.
“Get woke, go broke. We hear about electric planes, glossy reports on climate change, paper cups in the Koru Lounge. What they can’t seem to do is take off and land on time,” he said.
“I’m fortunate that as an MP I don’t have to pay for work flights, but whenever I look at one privately, they’re looking at $600 to go from Wellington to Invercargill one way. That’s crazy.”
Seymour’s comments come as the airline continues to face severe disruption due to grounded aircraft.
Air NZ said the half-year loss was largely driven by global engine maintenance delays, slower-than-expected recovery in domestic demand, increasing costs, and a weaker New Zealand dollar.
It said that while capacity would likely increase modestly in the second half with aircraft returning to service and new aircraft, the airline was cautious on whether it would translate to earnings uplift.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
When we look up at the night sky and see a satellite glide past, we might not consider climate change or the ozone layer.
Space may feel separate from the environmental systems that sustain life on Earth. But increasingly, the way we build, launch and dispose of satellites is starting to change that.
Over the past few years, the number of satellite launches has skyrocketed. There are now nearly 15,000 active satellites in orbit around the Earth, most of them part of “mega-constellations” in which each satellite has a service life of only a few years.
New satellites must be quickly launched as replacements. To avoid leaving old, dead satellites in Earth’s already-crowded low orbits, most satellite operators deliberately de-orbit them into Earth’s upper atmosphere.
Here, they burn up or break apart into smaller pieces: a process known as “demisability”. In effect, satellites have become part of throwaway culture.
That approach is now being taken to a vastly larger scale. We are concerned about the implications for Earth’s climate and atmosphere.
A sleeper risk for our climate and ozone layer
Last month, SpaceX applied to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for permission to launch one million more satellites for untested “AI data centres”.
That sheer number isn’t the only issue. SpaceX’s Starlink V2 “mini” satellites happen to weigh about 800 kilograms (kg) – roughly the mass of a small car – with later versions expected to reach around 1,250 kg. The planned V3 satellites are larger still, comparable in scale to a Boeing 737 airliner.
Rocket launches already contribute to climate change and ozone depletion. Scaling them up to deploy a million aircraft-sized satellites would push upper-atmosphere heating and ozone loss far beyond previous estimates, with the steady burn-up of dead satellites compounding the impacts.
This comes as burnt satellite dust is already being found in the atmosphere. In 2023, scientists studying aerosols in the upper atmosphere found metals from re-entering spacecraft. Just recently, lithium has been detected from the uncontrolled re-entry of a Falcon 9 rocket.
This is just a fraction of what is to come if planned megaconstellations go ahead – and SpaceX is far from the only player. Other operators worldwide have already asked for a combined total of over one million satellites.
All the while, the full environmental consequences remain poorly understood because satellite builders rarely disclose what their spacecraft are made of.
Scientists assume a large fraction is aluminium, which burns up into alumina particles, but the exact mix of materials – and the size of the particles produced – remains poorly constrained.
But we know the very smallest particles, finer than a human hair, can stay suspended in the atmosphere for years, contributing to ozone depletion and climate change.
Following similar assumptions to a previous study, we estimate that a million satellites could mean that a teragram (one billion kgs) of alumina accumulates in the upper atmosphere – enough, alongside launch emissions, to significantly alter atmospheric chemistry and heating in dramatic ways we do not yet understand.
There is no public mandate for a single company in one country to make changes on that scale to the planet’s atmosphere.
The consequences are not confined to the atmosphere. Not all re-entering satellites burn up; debris is already hitting the ground and the chance of a casualty from megaconstellation re-entries is now about 40% per five-year cycle – rising for both people and aircraft as more satellites are added to orbit.
These pieces of shredded debris, which came from an expendable trunk module attached to one of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, fell on farmland in Saskatchewan, Canada, in April 2024.Samantha Lawler, CC BY-NC
In space, the picture is no less stark: the Outer Space Institute’s CRASH Clock suggests a collision would occur within 3.8 days if satellites stopped avoiding each other.
Many experts agree we are in the early stages of the Kessler Syndrome: a cascading chain reaction of collisions that multiplies space debris.
Our skies are not a dumping ground
Our night sky, especially cherished in New Zealand, is one of the few things everyone on Earth still shares.
According to simulations built by astronomers, constellations on the scale proposed by SpaceX would fill the sky with many thousands of satellites visible to the naked eye anywhere on Earth. Eventually, there could be more visible satellites than visible stars.
For scientists, observing the deaths of stars and searching for new planets would become much harder. Stargazing, astrotourism and cultural astronomy would similarly be disrupted worldwide.
All of this means the FCC’s ruling on the SpaceX proposal, now open to public submissions, could affect everyone – whether through changes to the atmosphere, growing collision risks in orbit or the loss of an unspoilt night sky.
One solution being discussed is to dispose of dead satellites in orbits away from Earth. But this would require much more fuel per satellite to escape Earth’s gravity, increasing both payload and the environmental impact of rocket launches. Some debris would still return to Earth.
With SpaceX and others planning rapid expansion, global regulation is needed: in an uncapped system, regulating one firm just shifts the problem elsewhere. As the largest operator, SpaceX is best placed to lead on an environmentally sustainable solution, just as Du Pont did with phasing out CFCs in the 1980s.
A first step is to define a safe atmospheric carrying capacity for satellite launches and re-entries. Environmental assessments should cover the full lifecycle, including atmospheric effects, and address both orbital safety and impacts on cultural and research astronomy.
Whatever the regulatory outcome, using the atmosphere as a crematorium for satellites at this scale cannot be a solution.
Foreign Minister Winston Peters announced travel bans on members of the Iranian regime involved in the violent suppression of protests.RNZ / Mark Papalii
The Foreign Minister is warning New Zealanders to get out of Iran, adding that the advice to not travel there has been long-standing.
“It has been horrifying to witness the brutal killing of thousands of protesters in Iran,” Winston Peters said.
“Iranians have the right to peaceful protest, freedom of expression, and access to information. Those rights have been ruthlessly violated.”
New Zealand joined Australia, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Canada and the United States in implementing travel bans targeting 40 individuals, including Minister of the Interior Eskandar Momeni, Minister of Intelligence Esmail Khatib, and Prosecutor-General Mohammad Movahedi-Azad. It will also include members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Peters said if war broke out in Iran, which he said was possibly likely, there was a risk innocent New Zealand citizens could be retaliated against by the local regime.
He told RNZ he suspects there could be hundreds of Kiwis in Iran – currently 26 are registered as being there.
“The last time we had this exercise when we were getting people out rapidly when we thought there was an emergency it proved to be well over 130 and very dramatically in the last few days, so we just don’t know.
“Get out, I suppose, is the safest answer for us to give them, and it’s been the advice we’ve given them for some considerable time now,” he said.
In this circumstance Peters says there could be retaliation and that’s why he is encouraging New Zealanders to get out.
“If war was to break out the retaliation against innocent citizens who are there with no essence of guilt whatsoever could be nevertheless very huge, and that’s what we’re warning people against – not just getting caught up in the war but being caught up in retaliatory measures by the local regime.”
Peters told RNZ the motivation for New Zealanders staying in Iran is most likely being near family and making sure they’re safe.
“New Zealanders need to know we go to extraordinary efforts to try and keep our people safe but they have to do their bit to.”
On whether war is likely to break out in Iran, he said, “it’s possibly likely and you have to deal with the worst case circumstances if they arise and that’s what we’re trying to do”.
Peters said there were many countries who shared New Zealand’s view that “Iran is being supported by countless examples of terrorist proxies worldwide – and there are many Middle Eastern and Islamic countries who hold that view as well”.
On global tensions Peters told RNZ it’s the worst he’s seen it since World War II.
“It’s made things all that much more difficult for countries like New Zealand that’s got a tremendous record of supporting peaceful measures and engaging in freedom and democracy and the rule of law.
“It’s made it difficult for all of us but we’ve got to press on and make sure we don’t lose this battle,” he said.
At the time a ministry spokesperson said all diplomatic staff had left Iran on commercial flights, shifting operations to Ankara in Turkey.
The government’s long-standing advice over a number of years has been not to travel to Iran and in January, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) urged any New Zealanders still in the country to leave now.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Police arrested two women and a man.RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Three people have been arrested after a shooting in Te Kauwhata, north of Huntly.
Police received a call shortly before 7am on Saturday that a man had arrived at Waikato Hospital with a gunshot wound.
Officers went to the address in Te Kauwhata where the man was injured and arrested two women and a man.
They also seized a firearm and ammunition.
Both women, aged 27 and 59, are due to appear in Huntly District Court on Friday. While a 56-year-old man is due to appear in Hamilton District Court on 20 March.
They are charged with unlawfully possessing a firearm and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
One in seven children are living in hardship in the latest recorded year, according to new data from Stats New Zealand.
The national statistics agency released the data for the year between July 2024 and June 2025 on Wednesday morning.
Around 17,900 households were interviewed for the research.
The number of children that were recorded as living in material hardship was 14.3 percent – one in seven.
There was no significant change in that from the year recorded prior or since 2018.
In the latest statistics, a child recorded as facing material hardship was recorded as being in a household going without seven or more of 18 necessities.
Those included being unable to pay for utilities on time, having to put up with feeling cold and putting off doctors visits.
That was a change to the year prior where the threshold for material hardship was six or more.
14.9 percent of Māori children were recorded in material hardship which was not statistically different to the year prior.
For Pacific children, that figure was 18.7 percent five points higher than in 2024.
17.8 percent of children lived in households with less than half of the 2018 year’s median equivalised disposable household income after housing costs were deducted.
That was not different to the year prior.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Late last year, the British government announced anyone classed as a British citizen would soon need a valid UK passport to enter the country, or have to get a $1300 certificate in their foreign passport.
The change has ensnared dual British citizens.
The British government said it warned people of the impending changes but The Independent’s travel correspondent, Simon Calder, told Morning Report the communication had been woeful.
He said the impact had only just hit home in the past six weeks causing a lot of consternation, upset, and expense.
“I think it is absolutely the case that the British government did not come out … and say, ‘By the way when we make this finally compulsory, you do know that everything is going to change’.
“Because if they said it two years ago, people would be in a much, much better position than they are now.
“Yes, you can argue that you’re a dual citizen, you’re living abroad, you’ve got to keep your eye on stuff, but frankly it passed me by and I spend very little time doing anything other than looking a various new bits of bureaucracy.”
This week the British Home Office confirmed airlines could accept expired (post-1989) UK passports – should they wish to.
Calder said the take-up had been mixed, with British Airways, Easy Jet, and Virgin Atlantic confirming they would accept expired passports, but others such as Singapore Airlines had been a bit “enigmatic”.
He stressed, however, that it wasn’t as simple as showing up with a post-1989 passport and people needed to be careful not to get caught out.
“Things happen, people change their names, maybe they get married and that expired passport if it’s in a different name to your current New Zealand passport that is not going to work.”
Calder said the airport support hub should be able to help travellers.
“You can’t rely on that and look, it’s expensive, it’s stressful and you’ve taken annual leave so our suggestion is, you really should be travelling with the right documentation.
“We’re inundated with people contacting our travel agents around clarity because it really is confusing.”
She said airlines could only deal with the information they’d been provided and would face fines if they got it wrong.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Tall Blacks and Australian NBL players like Reuben Te Rangi will be looking for different contracts in the off-season.www.photosport.nz
The winless Tall Blacks hit the road this week faced with the duel challenge of qualification for next year’s Fiba World Cup hanging in the balance and players leaving camp early to chase lucrative overseas contracts.
Home and away defeats against Australia late last year put New Zealand on the back foot in the Asian Qualifiers.
The Tall Blacks need a win against the Philippines on Friday or Guam on Sunday to keep hopes of finishing in the top three in their qualification group alive.
New Zealand’s road to qualifying for the world cup for an eighth time started in November and will not conclude until March next year – all things going to plan.
But the Tall Blacks’ campaign could come to a halt as soon as July if they do not start winning.
Head coach Judd Flavell said there was a “lot of urgency” to get results in this window.
“We need to win as many games as we can, it doesn’t mean that if we lose this game it is all over but there is a lot of importance on these two games in this window and the same can be said for every window after this.”
Flavell will have a strong core of players to call on against the undefeated Philippines including New Zealand Breakers teammates Reuben Te Rangi, Taylor Britt, Max Darling, Carlin Davison, Alex McNaught and Sam Mennenga as well as Brisbane Bullets trio Tyrell Harrison, Taine Murray and Tohi Smith-Milner.
Akita Northern Happinets centre Yanni Wetzell is also back for the first game while Jordan Ngatai’s return to the black singlet will see him add to his 93 appearances.
But some of those players will leave camp before the Guam game.
“We have some players who have made themselves available [for the Philippines game] but they’re moving on to [club] contracts and the thing with these international windows is they are during the seasons and the Australian NBL season has come to an end for most of the guys in our squad and so those guys have got another contract that they’re looking to go to and some of those contracts are quite lucrative.
“Guys have put up their hand to come along to this first game because they know how important this one is and we’ve got another great chance to develop our depth in the second game.”
The Tall Blacks sit dejected after their loss during the FIBA World Cup Qualifier against Australia.Marty Melville/ Photosport
Flavell said the unavailability of players at different times of the year, either through college seasons in the United States or club contracts around the world, was the “number one challenge” the Tall Blacks faced.
“When it comes down to it you really want to try to build as much continuity as you can and that’s going to result in taking steps forward and having progression.
“But it is what it is, it’s to no one’s fault it’s just how it works and we’ve got to do the best we can and be problem solvers.
“It effects all countries, but if you look at a some of the super power teams, and Australia is one of those super power teams, with the depth they have and some of the other countries for a smaller country like us we’re probably effected a little bit more.
“It’s a funny old season the international qualification windows where you come together for a few days and play a couple of games and then you don’t see each other for three months and then you come together and try to do it again really quickly.”
Flavell has had mixed results against the Philippines.
His first game in charge of the national team in November 2024 was a loss to the Gilas in Manila. It was the first time the Tall Blacks had lost to them.
However, last year Flavell guided the team to two wins over Philippines in Asia Cup qualifiers to take the head-to-head to six wins for the Tall Blacks.
Back in “basketball-mad” Manila, Flavell said New Zealand would face a “hostile” environment fuelled by around 20,000 Gilas supporters.
Having played a number of times over the last 12 months Flavell said they “have great familiarity” with what the Philippines will put on the floor and did not expect any surprises.
Following their showdown with the Philippines, the Tall Blacks travel to Guam.
Flavell and many of the roster had not been to Guam before.
Like the Tall Blacks, Guam are at the bottom of the Group A standings with two losses, against Philippines, in the first window.
New Zealand has taken care of Guam in their two previous match-ups, with a 125-43 win back in 1999 and more recently a 113-94 win during the 2020 Fiba Asia Cup Qualifying campaign but Flavell said the current Guam team they knew less about.
“It’s always a bit of danger when you don’t know so much about your opposition”.
Guam host Australia in the first game in this window.
The third qualifier window is in July, when Philippines and Guam both come to Auckland.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
