Tuesday 24th of February 2026 09:17:36 PM
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Former NZ basketball player Nathaniel Salmon accepts American football college offer

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Nathaniel Salmon has accepted an offer to play college football. Supplied

NZ American football player Nathaniel Salmon has accepted an offer to play college football for Washington State Cougars – but it’s been one of the most unconventional paths to the American college system for the Porirua-born athlete.

Two years ago, the 21-year-old had never even touched a football and was pursuing a career in basketball, after playing for Manawatū Jets and Wellington Saints in the NBL.

During a 2024 stint playing for the North Gold Coast Seahawks in Australia, Salmon was approached by the NFL International Player Pathway (IPP) and jumped at the chance.

“The opportunity that was laid out to me was pretty life-changing,” Salmon told RNZ. “Who wouldn’t give it a shot?”

The IPP is an NFL initiative to give international athletes the opportunity to learn the sport and try out with professional teams.

The representatives told him, if he went and trialled for the programme, he would have a decent shot at making it onto a roster.

“I was like, ‘What the hell?’.”

At the trial, “they liked what they saw and they selected me”, he said.

What followed was an intensive 10-week training programme in early 2025 at the IMG academy – an elite sports training facility at Bradenton, Florida.

He was identified as a tightend – the Swiss army knife position on the outside of the offensive line, responsible for catching the ball, as well as blocking.

The position requires a combination of size, strength and athleticism, and basketball players are often well suited. Standing more than two metres tall and weighing more than 120kg, Salmon fits the bill.

“At first, it was pretty hard. I didn’t know if it was for me, because I was so new to it.

“Obviously, it was my first time putting on a helmet and pads, so that was new. I just kept training and I just started falling in love with it.”

The NFL limits how many players can be on a roster during the regular season to 53, but an exemption grants an additional practice squad spot to a qualifying international player.

Thirteen other players attended the academy, but they knew they were competing with athletes all over the world, Salmon said.

“There’s international players in college that are eligible for the spot, there’s international players in the international football league that are eligible for the spot.

“There are guys that maybe just lost their IPP spot, and they’re still training for it and trying to get one back.”

Nathaniel Salmon spent 10 weeks training as a tightend at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. Supplied

After Salmon attended a pro-day – an opportunity for athletes to showcase their skills to scouts and team representatives – Los Angeles Chargers invited him to their early-season minicamp.

“When I got there, I didn’t feel like I shouldn’t have been there,” he said. “When we started training, I felt like I was keeping up with all the guys that were playing high-level college football for four years.

“To come into the NFL programme and do well… I was pretty chuffed about that.”

Despite performing well at the minicamp, Salmon was ultimately not signed to the Chargers’ international player roster spot and his dream of playing American football seemed over.

Then his manager pointed out he was actually eligible to play college ball – a prospect that has become increasingly appealling in recent years, because of rules allowing players to profit from their name, image and likeness (NIL).

Some players can now earn more playing college football than they would on an NFL rookie contract.

“I was eligible because, one, I’ve never been to college… and, two, I was never actually signed by an NFL team.”

It took a few months, but he was eventually granted a full four years of NCAA eligibility to play college football.

Last November, Salmon started a frantic few weeks of receiving offers and making visits to colleges across the US.

“They just wine and dine you, man. I was fortunate enough to bring my parents out to visit… everything was paid for.

“They just treat you like you’re a superstar. It was an unreal experience for not only me, but my parents as well.”

Salmon visited several programmes, including North Carolina – where NFL legend Bill Belichick coaches – but Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, ticked the most boxes.

“It’s quite a lot like New Zealand in terms of climate and the geographic side of things. It’s very green and hilly.

“It honestly felt like home, when I first got there.”

It also presented the best opportunity for him to find a place within the team.

“The whole coaching staff at Washington State, they’re completely new there – they only got there like a week ago. You can go into that coaching staff and they won’t have any favourites.

“They wanted me to be their guy.”

Joining up with the Cougars makes Salmon the first player to ever train with a professional team, before entering a college programme, he said.

“It’s honestly unheard of.”

Salmon said he still had a lot to learn, but the passion for the game has already ignited.

“I’m falling in love with the game and I think I’ll just keep loving the game more as I go along. I have a drive to get better and I want to reach my ceiling with this game.

“I know where I can get to and I really want to get there.”

Washington State was the perfect place for him to develop his craft, he said.

“The tight end coach at Washington State, he’s really passionate about getting me to where I want to get to.

“I’m trying to keep striving to do my best and get better every day.”

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

My GP is leaving me after nearly 50 years

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Source: Radio New Zealand

My second son’s birth 42 years ago was uneventful. I recall it was surprisingly quick. We barely had time to drive to the birthing unit before I was on my back, panting. At my head offering encouragement was my husband. At the business end was a young GP with blonde hair, glasses and a quiet manner.

I shall call him Dr C.

This month, I will have been Dr C’s patient for almost 43 years. I have been on his books longer than all bar one of his patients. He has seen me through childbirth, menopause, creaking bones and sagging skin. I thought he would see me out. But last month he emailed his patients to say he was retiring.

RNZ

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

Weekend heat: Ice-creams, swimming pools and cancelled tours

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Hundreds of sailors made the most of blazing sunshine and 10-15 knot winds in the Bay of Islands at the 50th annual Tall Ships race. RNZ / Peter de Graaf

With temperatures reaching the high 30s in Napier and Hastings on Sunday, many spent the day finding ways to beat the heat.

Renske Speekenbrink works at the Napier i-site Visitor Centre, where people were popping in to cool off.

“Walking in the streets with no air-con, it’s quite hot, so we’ve been quite welcoming.

“I did see a few people who were super sweaty who said they’d just arrived. We just said to take a minute to catch your breath, we’ve got air-con inside, we can tell you a bit about the area, and give you a map.

“We’ve been recommending going to the museum, which has air-con, or to cool off in the ocean.”

But the intense heat meant popular summer hotspots and activities were not an option for visitors.

“There were people who actually had to cancel their push bike tour, and they’re doing it tomorrow because it’s supposed to be a bit cooler tomorrow,” Speekenbrink said.

Te Mata Peak, a normally busy lookout in Havelock North, had been closed off since because of high fire risk.

Speekenbrink said Hawkes Bay Fire and Emergency would be re-assessing the conditions on Mondaymorning, to determine if Te Mata Peak could re-open to the public.

At Rush Munro’s Ice Cream Parlour in Hastings, owner Vaughan Currie had more customers than usual on Sunday.

He said they typically sell about 320 cones on a hot day, and they had done about 20 percent more than that.

“We’ve had a really strong day, probably one of the strongest Sundays we’ve had for January so far. It’s obviously weather-driven.”

He said some unique flavours had been the parlour’s most popular this summer.

“At the moment we’re selling a lot of feijoa, so I’m struggling to keep up with that, and a close second would be passionfruit.”

Meanwhile, in Kaikōura, which reached 30 degrees on Sunday, there were also gusts of up to 90km/h.

But Sylvia Wong, who works at the Alpine-Pacific Kiwi Holiday Park, said the weather did not put off campers.

“There are still a lot of people camping. All of the people here are jumping into our pools half-naked because it’s just too warm to stay in the tent site, so they either go to the beach or chill out in the pool.

“They told us they couldn’t bear the heat. Sometimes, they walk into reception and ask if we sell ice cream or if we have extra ice. They want to cool down with a cold beer and stuff like that.”

She said a total fire ban in place in Kaikōura was reassuring after a burn pile sparked large fires destroying four homes in the town late last year.

Despite record-breaking temperatures in many places, the sun was not out for everyone.

Several wet weather warnings were in place this past weekend, including in the ranges of the Grey and Buller districts in the South Island.

Flooding on Sunday also caused the closure of the key road link between Canterbury and the West Coast on State Highway 73.

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

Auckland’s stalled housing developments a year on: What’s changed

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Source: Radio New Zealand

This half-finished apartment block in Auckland’s Epsom has been derelict for the past six years. MELANIE EARLEY / RNZ

Unfinished housing developments are dotted across the Auckland region, with many seemingly in a state of limbo.

The derelict properties often led to concerns from local communities about vandalism and squatters.

A year ago, RNZ looked at several stalled developments in Auckland and explored the reasons behind why they had been left in various unfinished states.

As 2026 begins, have any of the developments been finished or demolished? Or do they continue to sit in a dilapidated state?

‘Blight on the Epsom landscape’ remains

Originally called The Epsom Central Apartments Project, this building on Manukau Rd has sat unfinished for years. MELANIE EARLEY / RNZ

The Epsom Central Apartments Project halted six years ago after Auckland Council found it had not complied with building consent.

The original partnership, Epsom Central Apartments LP, was put into receivership in 2022, and purchased by Xiao Liu the director of a company named Reeheng Ltd in 2023.

A year ago, locals complained the building was a “blight on the Epsom landscape” and had at one point been filled with rats and squatters.

In 2025, no noticeable progress had been made to the building, the owner of former neighbouring business Just Laptops, Forrest Tan, said.

Since then, Tan had demolished his building, partly to prepare for a rebuild he said, and partly because a previous scaffolding collapse at the derelict site next door had damaged his old building.

“This would be an ideal time to demolish [the building]. My site is now a clear, open space. Once my new building goes up demolition would be extremely difficult since it’s a boundary-to-boundary structure on a busy stretch of road.”

The building is on Epsom’s busy Manukau Rd. MELANIE EARLEY / RNZ

When RNZ visited the site, there was no obvious work ongoing, but the old precarious looking scaffolding did appear to have been tidied up or replaced and pedestrians no longer had to walk underneath it.

Has NZ’s highest residential tower restarted?

The Seascape apartment project was on hold for about a year. RNZ / Ziming Li

New Zealand’s would-be tallest apartment building, Seascape tower in Auckland’s CBD had construction halted for about a year.

In September 2024, it was reported the work had stalled due to a dispute between the developer and the builder.

But a year later, work resumed on the tower with contractors beginning to appear at the site.

Bayleys was also running a marketing campaign for unsold units with the words “a new chapter begins”.

Pukekohe’s ‘lock and leave’ houses

The Valley Road construction project in Pukekohe. MELANIE EARLEY / RNZ

Several duplexes on Pukekohe’s Valley Rd had remained just the wooden frames of houses for at least a year, locals said, but it appeared as though some construction had been underway in 2025.

A year on, the duplexes were still covered in scaffolding and behind a fence, with no workers on site when RNZ visited, but it was obvious construction had been taking place.

The lots were listed for sale by Barfoot and Thompson in mid-2025, with the listing stating construction was due to be completed in “late 2025”.

‘Eyesore’ no more

In the coastal suburb of Mairangi Bay on the North Shore, a new build construction site which long worried locals as work appeared to have stalled was moving forward at some pace.

Nick Rogers who lived near the site on Beach Rd said work on the site seemed to stall in 2024 with just the exterior shell created.

But by the end of 2025, Rogers said work was underway again.

“It restarted about two or three months ago and is at quite some pace! Locals are relieved,” he said.

According to property records, the site was last sold in 2015 – it was not yet clear when the construction was due to finish.

Kingsland’s ‘The George’

The George on New North Road in Kingsland. MELANIE EARLEY / RNZ

Marketing for The George on New North Rd in Kingsland began emerging in early 2022, and was listed at the time by Harcourts, as nine luxury townhouses starting at a price of $1,785,000.

A website for the development had long since been defunct, but when RNZ visited the site in December, it was an active construction site.

Despite being little more than some planks of wood and a fence scrawled with graffiti a year ago, the building had now taken shape.

The developer of the site, CSS Luxury Homes Ltd said the site was due to be finished in mid to late 2026.

Vinod Kumar Chawla, the director of the company, said the project had stalled due to issues with finances.

“Many ups and downs but good times will come again,” he said.

“It’s a good location, top class finishing… one of the best in the city.”

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

Australia’s ‘antisemitism crisis’ – examining what’s real and what isn’t

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Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last week announced a Royal Commission into the Bondi Beach Attack and antisemitism. Andrew Brown weighs the evidence on Australia’s “antisemitism crisis” for Michael West Media.

ANALYSIS: By Andrew Brown

Australia is being told it faces an unprecedented wave of antisemitism — a crisis requiring extraordinary measures, including a Royal Commission. But police data, court findings, and parliamentary evidence tell a very different story.

This is not a story about denying antisemitism. It is about how inflated claims are being used to silence criticism of Israel, criminalise protest, and narrow democratic space.

Australia is being told it faces a moral emergency so grave it justifies extraordinary measures.

A sweeping wave of antisemitism, unprecedented in scale, is said to be engulfing the country, demanding heightened policing, vast public funding, and now a Commonwealth Royal Commission.

A manufactured narrative?

The claim has been repeated so often it has hardened into common sense. But when examined against evidence rather than repetition, the crisis begins to dissolve. What remains is not a surge in antisemitic violence, but the manufacture of a narrative

and its rapid elevation into state doctrine.

This is not denial of antisemitism. Antisemitism is real, dangerous, and must always be confronted where it occurs.

What is being challenged here is the scale, the framing, and the political use of the claim. When slogans replace evidence, the alleged crisis collapses.

Start with the numbers. Australians are repeatedly told there were around 1200 antisemitic incidents in New South Wales and more than 2000 nationally. These figures are treated as settled fact by politicians and the media.

They are nothing of the sort.

They are not police statistics. They are not court outcomes.

They are self-reported incident logs compiled by advocacy organisations using expansive definitions that collapse political speech into racial hatred. Protest slogans, Palestinian flags, stickers, online criticism of Israel, opposition to Zionism, and support for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions are all counted alongside genuinely hateful conduct.

Dissent counted as hate
 Once dissent is counted as hate, the number grows and its meaning evaporates.

When these claims were tested against formal state processes, the picture changed radically. Evidence to the New South Wales Upper House antisemitism inquiry showed that only around 13 to 14 incidents met the threshold for potential criminal prosecution.

New South Wales Police did not dispute this.

From 1200 incidents to low double digit chargeable cases is not a rounding error. It is a categorical difference. If Australia were facing a genuine wave of antisemitic violence, police data and court proceedings would reflect it. They do not.

Fake terror plots
 The panic has been sustained by a series of high profile incidents that do not survive scrutiny.

In Sydney, the so called caravan plot and multiple graffiti and vehicle fire cases were initially framed as antisemitic attacks. Later reporting revealed hoaxes, staged events, or criminal activity unrelated to antisemitism as a social phenomenon.

Corrections arrived quietly, long after the alarm had done its work.

The Melbourne Synagogue fire was, we are told, the work of Iran, so it too cannot be seen as a result of local antisemitism.

More damning still was evidence from police inquiries that hundreds of antisemitic incident reports were generated by a single individual, identified as a Jewish teenager who made more than 500 calls alleging threats and attacks. These reports were logged, counted, and publicly relied upon as indicators of a statewide and national surge before being identified as false or self-generated.

This is not a footnote. It exposes a systemic failure.

A reporting framework that allows one person to materially inflate incident figures is not measuring social harm. It is manufacturing it. When that data is amplified by media and cited by politicians as “proof” of crisis, the error ceases to be technical. It becomes political.

Political amplification has been decisive. Senior leaders talked up early claims before facts were settled. Media followed. Initial allegations raced into headlines. Clarifications barely whispered.

Public memory retained the fear, not the correction.

What is unfolding follows a pattern of “manufacturing consent” described decades ago by Noam Chomsky who observed that modern democracies rarely suppress dissent through force. Instead, they manage perception by narrowing the range of acceptable opinion while preserving the appearance of open debate.

Australians are still permitted to speak. They are encouraged to condemn antisemitism in the abstract.

But questioning the scale of the alleged crisis, interrogating the numbers, or insisting on a distinction between hatred of Jews and criticism of Israel is treated as suspect. This is not censorship. It is calibration.

‘Fake protesters’ narrative

The consequences have been most visible in the treatment of protest. Australia has seen one of the largest sustained protest movements in its modern history, with weekly demonstrations in support of Palestine drawing tens of thousands.

Jewish Australians march openly.

Jewish speakers address crowds. Jewish banners appear alongside Palestinian ones. The focus is ceasefire and accountability.

Yet these protests are relentlessly framed as incubators of antisemitism.

The misrepresentation following the October 8 gathering near the Sydney Opera House was emblematic. Claims of genocidal chanting were broadcast nationally and internationally. Those present publicly disputed the account.

The disputed version was amplified. The disavowals were marginalised. A contested moment was frozen at its most inflammatory interpretation and reused as an origin myth.

Sydney Harbour Bridge propaganda
 The fracture became impossible to ignore after the Harbour Bridge march, one of the largest demonstrations in Australian history. No violence. No arrests. Jewish Australians marching openly.

Yet the event was branded a hate march by the government’s antisemitism envoy.

If a peaceful protest of that scale can be declared hate without evidence, antisemitism is no longer being identified. It is being declared. And once it can be declared, it can be weaponised.

That weaponisation has a clear objective: to shut down criticism of Israel.

As Israel’s war in Gaza has intensified and the occupation of the West Bank has deepened, the international conversation has shifted toward allegations of genocide, apartheid, and war crimes.

Rather than answer those charges, Israel’s defenders have sought to redefine the debate itself. The problem is no longer what Israel is doing. The problem is those who are talking about it.

Criticism of Israel is reframed as antisemitism. Opposition to Zionism is reframed as racial hatred. Support for Palestinian rights is reframed as extremism. Pro-Palestinian protest is recast as a domestic security problem rather than a human rights movement responding to mass civilian harm.

The endgame
 This brings us to the endgame. The government’s mandate for a Commonwealth Royal Commission into antisemitism has now been released. It does not ask whether a nationwide antisemitism wave exists. It assumes one.

From its opening premises, the mandate proceeds on the basis that antisemitism is prevalent across Australian society and institutions and that protest, education, and political expression warrant scrutiny. These are not hypotheses to be tested. They are conclusions already reached.

This is not a fact-finding exercise. It is an implementation exercise.

Many Jewish Australians reject this strategy and stand openly with Palestinians. The issue is not Jewish identity. It is the instrumentalisation of antisemitism claims to silence dissent, suppress protest, and shield a foreign state from accountability.

Antisemitism must always be confronted where it exists.

But evidence must precede power.

Anything less is theatre.

Andrew Brown is a Sydney businessman in the health products sector, former deputy mayor of Mosman and Palestine peace activist. This article was first published by Michael West Media and is republished by Asia Pacific Report with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

SH73 reopens after flooding between Canterbury, West Coast

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Source: Radio New Zealand

On the West Coast, winds and heavy rain also brought down trees onto State Highway 6 and caused surface flooding. MetService

Flooding has closed the key road link between Canterbury and the West Coast, as a fierce thunderstorm swept over the region this afternoon.

State Highway 73 between Otira and Arthur’s Pass was closed at about 4.30pm, but was reopened by 9pm, with the section affected by the mudslide open to one lane with a temporary 30km/h speed restriction in place.

NZTA said road users should expect delays and are asked to travel with extra care.

Orange heavy rain warnings were in place until 9pm for the Westland ranges and Haast, and the headwaters of lakes and rivers south of Arthur’s Pass, and until 1am for ranges of the Grey and Buller districts.

Earlier in the day, Canterbury was under a strong wind warning, which brought down trees, partially blocking the road.

NZTA said road users should avoid the area or delay their journey, if possible.

MetService meteorologist Rob Kerr said strong winds meant a band of intense thunderstorms spread across the South Island were blown clear across the Southern Alps to Christchurch.

Rain stations in and around Mt Cook Village, Arthur’s Pass and Carrington had all recorded heavy rain – between 150 to 220 millimetres in around 15 hours, Kerr said.

At the same time, Christchurch and Kaikōura were among the hottest places in New Zealand on Sunday, reaching temperatures of 32.9 and 34 degrees Celsius respectively – close to the national high of 36.3 degrees in the Hawke’s Bay.

A severe wind warning was in place for Marlborough until 9pm, which could see severe gale northwesterlies gusting 120 km/h in exposed places, while a severe wind warning for the Tararua District, Wairarapa and Wellington will end at 4am Monday.

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

Sāmoa set to become third Pacific nation to open Jerusalem embassy

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RNZ Pacific

Sāmoa is set to become the third Pacific nation to have an embassy in Jerusalem.

Prime Minister Laaulialemalietoa Polataivao Schmidt told a gathering of the Sāmoa branch of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem on Tuesday he had instructed the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to begin work on the opening of an office in Jerusalem.

He said he wanted the embassy up-and-running this year.

The move follows the establishment of Fiji’s embassy in Jerusalem last year, and the opening of Papua New Guinea’s embassy in the city in 2023.

Only a handful of countries recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel — in 2017, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly (128-9) during a rare emergency meeting to ask nations not to establish diplomatic missions in the historic city as Occupied East Jerusalem is envisaged as the capital of the State of Israel.

In discussing his decision, Laaulialemalietoa talked about Sāmoa’s connections to Israel.

He touched on the meeting he had with Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel while receiving medical treatment in New Zealand last year.

“I am very grateful when the [deputy] Minister of Foreign Affairs came all the way from Jerusalem to visit me when I was sick in New Zealand,” he said.

‘Blessing’ for Sāmoa PM
“It was a blessing for me to know that Israel has also had an eye [on] Sāmoa, because we had a lot of connection in many ways.”

Haskel was in New Zealand briefly in November following a trip to Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

Fiji’s embassy, in September, was met with mixed reactions, with the coordinator of the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre saying Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka was “not on the right side of history”.

Fiji’s government called it “a strategic step” to enhance cooperation between the two nations, and reaffirmed its support for a peaceful two-state solution “where both Israelis and Palestinians can live in dignity and security”.

“Fiji has maintained longstanding diplomatic relations with Israel while also supporting the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people,” it said.

Opposition Human Rights Protection Party leader and Sāmoa’s longest serving former prime minister Tuila’epa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi . . . letter to the editor of Samoa Global News raises criticisms of Sāmoa’s embassy move. Image: Samoa Global News screenshot APR

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Football: Wellington Phoenix fight back to grab draw in A-League clash

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Isaac Hughes scores a goal for Wellington against Adelaide. Masanori Udagawa/Photosport

Wellington Phoenix have shown some heart and courage in their A-League men’s match against Adelaide in Wellington, fighting back from two goals down at halftime to draw 2-2.

The home team weren’t looking good in the first half, as Adelaide scored the opening goal in the 14th minute to Ryan White.

Luke Duzel scored a second just before the break to give the visitors a decisive lead, but the Phoenix came out a different team in the second half, as they surged back into the match, playing with enthusiasm and attacking flair.

Isaac Hughes rewarded the small crowd, neatly finishing off at the near post from a Ramy Najjarine corner.

Lively midfielder Corban Piper headed home the second in the 65th minute, following a pinpoint cross from Tim Payne, who returned from a long injury layoff that lasted almost three months.

The Phoenix had good chances to win the game. Paulo Retre hit the post, Luke Brooke-Smith had a goal ruled out in stoppage time, when a teammate ventured offside, and Alex Rufer blasted over the top from close range right at the end.

The result keeps the Phoenix in 10th place in the 12-team league. They have 15 points from their 12 games, nine points behind leaders Auckland FC.

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

Fire breaks out at Auckland’s NZ Badminton Centre

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The fire was contained and the building was not badly damaged. RNZ/Marika Khabazi

About 60 people have been evacuated, after a fire broke out at a large badminton centre in Auckland.

The owner of the NZ Badminton Centre on East Tamaki Road, Dev Senthiya, said about 20 firefighters put out the blaze, which came from the roof of the building.

Those inside when the fire alarm went off all made it out safely, Senthiya said.

The fire was contained and the building was not badly damaged, he said.

Senthiya believed the blaze was caused by an electrical fan in the roof overheating.

Fire and Emergency was unavailable for comment.

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NZ Breakers bounce back with gritty win over ANBL champions Illawarra Hawks

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Parker Jackson-Cartwright led the Breakers to victory against the Hawks. Blake Armstrong / PHOTOSPORT

Forty-eight hours after their worst display of the Australian NBL season, the NZ Breakers have regrouped for a gritty 101-96 win over defending champions Illawarra Hawks in Sydney.

American point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright led all scorers with 23 points, while Tall Blacks forward Sam Mennenga had 21, as the Auckland-based team secured their ninth win of the season to keep their playoff hopes alive, closing to within 2.5 games of the sixth-placed Tasmania Jackjumpers.

On Friday, the Breakers were embarrassed 103-62 at home by Sydney Kings, with coach Petteri Koponen under pressure to re-engage his players.

They led through the first and second quarters, enjoying a 49-43 advantage at halftime, before building a 15-point lead midway through the third period.

The Hawks piled on 11 straight points to close the deficit, but the Breakers still led by five heading into the final stanza and held off their rivals down the stretch.

Mennenga left the door ajar with a pair of free-throw misses, but Cartwright converted from long range and added two free-throws.

Down by three with six seconds remaining, Illawarra guard Tyler Harvey committed a costly backcourt turnover that gave the visitors a chance to pad their advantage.

Jackson-Cartwright supplemented his scoring feats with eight assists, seven rebounds and three steals, while American forward Izaiah Brockington had 20 points, American centre Rob Baker slotted four three-pointers among his 17 points and Mexican teenager Karim Lopez grabbed five steals, along with his 16 points and six assists.

Another American, Quentin Peterson, led the Hawks with 22 points, but his team committed 19 turnovers and sent the Breakers to the line for twice as many free-throw attempts (28).

The Breakers visit the Cairns Taipans next Saturday.

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

Top seed Elina Svitolina wins 2026 ASB Classic women’s crown

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Elina Svitolina serves during the ASB Classic final. Alan Lee/Photosport

Ukrainian veteran Elina Svitolina has won the 2026 ASB Classic women’s tournament in Auckland.

The 31-year-old proved too good for China’s Xinyu Wang, winning in straight sets 6-3 7-6 in an hour and 43 minutes.

Despite the scoreline, the contest was far from easy for Svitolina, who entered the match as the top seed and heavy favourite, after winning 18 of the 22 previous WTA Tour finals she had played in.

Svitlolina also beat Wang in their only previous meeting on tour at Wimbledon in 2024.

An even battle for much of the first set saw both players holding serve, until Svitolina managed to break Wang to move 4-2 up.

She then held her nerve to win the first set 6-3 in 32 minutes. Breakpoints proved elusive, with each player earning just one opportunity each.

The second set was just as tight, with both rivals holding serve all the way to a tiebreaker.

Wang, who was playing in just her second career singles final, started the tiebreak superbly to claim a 3-0 lead, before Svitolina came roaring back to win the next four points.

Wang, 24, showed plenty of composure though, to save a matchpoint and lock the scores up at 6-6.

Svitolina quickly created another and this time, she served it out to win the tiebreaker 8-6.

All eyes now turn to the men’s tournament, which starts on Monday, with veteran Frenchman Gael Monfils – Svitolina’s husband – the defending champion.

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SH73 closed by flooding between Canterbury, West Coast

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Source: Radio New Zealand

On the West Coast, winds and heavy rain also brought down trees onto State Highway 6 and caused surface flooding. MetService

Flooding has closed the key road link between Canterbury and the West Coast, as a fierce thunderstorm swept over the region this afternoon.

State Highway 73 between Otira and Arthur’s Pass was closed at about 4.30pm.

Contractors also worked to clear a large mudslide blocking both lanes further east on SH73.

Earlier in the day, Canterbury was under a strong wind warning, which brought down trees, partially blocking the road.

NZTA said road users should avoid the area or delay their journey, if possible.

More rain was expected for the West Coast, with an orange heavy rain warning in place until 9pm Sunday for the ranges.

A heavy rain warning was also in place for the Westland District about and north of Haast.

On the West Coast, winds and heavy rain also brought down trees onto State Highway 6 and caused surface flooding.

Grey and the Buller Ranges are under an orange heavy rain warning until 1am Monday.

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Iranian Kiwis concerned for family overseas amid deadly protests

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Iranians gather while blocking a street during a protest in Tehran. AFP/SUPPLIED

Iranian New Zealanders hold grave concerns for their family members, amid a deadly crackdown on anti-government protests in Iran.

Reports from Teheran suggest security forces have killed or injured hundreds over the past three days, as unrest spreads nationwide.

Forough Amin from Iranian Women in NZ said the regime had shut down landlines, mobile networks and internet access.

She said families abroad were cut off, relying instead on scattered footage shared via Starlink satellite connections.

Amin said New Zealand should follow Australia’s lead and expel the Iranian ambassador.

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Wānaka freeskier Melville-Ives wins Colorado Freeski Halfpipe World Cup

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Finley Melville-Ives, current 2025/26 FIS Freeski Halfpipe World Cup Standings leader with the yellow bib. FIS/Andrew Wevers

Nineteen-year-old freeskier Finley Melville-Ives of Wānaka continues to warm up for the Winter Olympics in sensational style by winning the Aspen Freeski Halfpipe World Cup in Colorado.

Melville-Ives was the top qualifier into the finals and immediately showed why, when he dropped into his first of two runs, producing a technical display with consistently massive amplitude.

He scored 95.00 to surge straight to the top of the leaderboard.

Despite the best efforts from the star-studded field, Melville-Ives’s score remained untouchable, with his second run a victory lap all the way to the top of the podium for the third time in his already impressive career.

“I had such a good training, so I said to my coach, ‘I am going to go hammers for my first run’ and I was stoked, I can’t believe it held,” Melville-Ives said.

He was joined on the podium by two Team USA athletes, with Hunter Hess in second place and three-time Winter Olympian Nick Goepper in third.

The result also means the reigning world halfpipe champion now leads the standings for the 2025/26 Freeski Halfpipe World Cup Tour and was presented the yellow bib.

“I am just trying to have as much fun as possible when I’m skiing and skiing is my happy place,” he said.

“The halfpipe is like a blank canvas and you’re just like an artist with a paint brush.”

Snowboarder Dane Menzies also secured a podium finish at Aspen, with a third place in the Snowboard Slopestyle World Cup, marking his first World Cup podium.

Qualifying through to the finals in 10th position, Menzies put down a clutch performance on the first of his two finals runs, stomping back-to-back 1620s on the jumps and executing near flawless technical rail tricks to impress the judges.

Sitting in the top spot after run one and looking to up the ante, Menzies unfortunately had a bobble on the second rail feature, resulting in a throwaway score.

With nine athletes still to drop in, it was a nerve-wracking wait to see if his score would hold for podium position, but it did.

“It means a lot to make it on the podium, after getting fourth here last year and consistently making finals, but not getting on the box,” he said. “I have been working super hard for this one, really trying to get more consistent and dialled in on my rails and cleanliness on the jumps, so I am happy it paid off!”

Aucklander Mischa Thomas, 17, competed in the women’s Freeski Halfpipe finals, with a career-best fifth-place finish in just her fourth World Cup appearance.

Gustav Legnavsky, 20, competed alongside Melville-Ives in the men’s final, finishing ninth.

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

Heavy traffic after car flipped in North Shore crash

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Source: Radio New Zealand

A car flips on Waipa St on Auckland’s North Shore. Supplied / K Choi

Traffic has been building on a main road in Auckland’s North Shore, after a car flipped in a crash.

Police said a car crashed into a parked vehicle on Waipa Street in Birkenhead and then rolled at about 3pm Sunday.

One person was taken to North Shore hospital in a moderate condition.

A car flips on Waipa St on Auckland’s North Shore. Supplied / Justine Hillman

There have been reports of heavy traffic in the area.

Police said the scene had been cleared.

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Firefighters, helicopters battling Canterbury scrub blaze amid sweltering heat

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Source: Radio New Zealand

On Friday, FENZ suspended all fire permits for Canterbury, warning of extreme fire danger Sunday. RNZ / Nate McKinnon

A dozen fire crews and several helicopters have responded to a fire in Rotherham, a small Canterbury settlement south of Hanmer Springs.

A shed and about 100 square metres of vegetation were ablaze, but sweltering temperatures and high winds had emergency services on alert.

Fire and Emergency (FENZ) said crews on the scene were working to contain the fire, with more on their way, including three helicopters.

On Friday, FENZ suspended all fire permits for Canterbury, warning of extreme fire danger Sunday.

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ER Report: A Roundup of Significant Articles on EveningReport.nz for January 11, 2026

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ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on January 11, 2026.

Clark condemns US withdrawal as ‘assault on international system of cooperation’
By Pretoria Gordon, RNZ News journalist A former head of the United Nations Development Programme is concerned that US President Donald Trump may set a precedent for other countries. The President has signed a memorandum ordering the withdrawal of the United States from 66 international organisations. These include the Framework Convention on Climate Change, the

Popular Auckland hot springs gets name change to Kaipātiki
By Pokere Paewai, RNZ Māori issues reporter As 2025 ticked over into 2026, New Zealand’s popular Parakai Springs near Helensville officially became Kaipātiki Hot Springs, the traditional indigenous name for the area which reflects the whakapapa of tangata whenua Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara. The change comes as Te Poari o Kaipātiki ki Kaipara assumes management

NGOs warn of catastrophic impact in Gaza – Penny Wong doesn’t care
The Australian government remains silent on Israel banning 37 international aid organisations in Gaza, despite warnings from humanitarian groups. Stephanie Tran reports. By Stephanie Tran of Michael West Media Under new registration requirements introduced by Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, NGOs have been required to submit lists of their Palestinian employees for

Rise in kitchen fires has firefighters worried

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Source: Radio New Zealand

There have been at least eight fatal house fires since July last year. VIKTOR CAP / 123RF

There are fears New Zealanders are becoming more complacent around fire safety at home, Fire and Emergency (FENZ) says.

The number of fatal house fires increased to 17 for the year ending June 2025, compared to 13 in the 12 months prior.

There have been at least eight fatal house fires since July last year.

FENZ risk reduction and investigations manager Pete Gallagher said there had been a concerning uptick in devastating blazes beginning in the kitchen.

“We saw a decline in this a few years ago and now it’s starting to rise back up again.,” he said.

“And that’s a real concern because pretty much everyone’s involved in the cooking process at some time in their life. And so it’s really important that they understand that that’s a high-risk activity and they need to be aware of the dangers it creates.”

FENZ said people over 65 were at greater risk.

“That’s possibly just due to not being able to react perhaps as quickly to the circumstances around them. Which is why it’s so important that everyone has a smoke alarm so that they get the early warning that something’s gone wrong and they can start making their way out of the house as early and as quickly as possible.”

Although it was difficult to pinpoint the reasons for an increase in cooking-related fires, Gallagher felt a “complacency attitude” had potentially crept in.

“Of course, as we come into the summer months and people are cooking outside, they’re cooking on barbecues. These are very high-heat items. The grill plate is often a lot hotter than the surface of a stove.

“And so we need to adjust our cooking habits a little bit and associate the risk to the surroundings from the cooking method we’re using.”

People cooking outside with a barbecue needed to ensure it was not pushed hard-up against the house, and allow an air gap.

FENZ urged people to visit the Check It’s Alright website before cooking on a campfire.

“We need to keep an eye on the weather conditions to make sure the wind doesn’t get up. And if it does, then it’s time to extinguish the fire and make sure it’s well out before we leave the camping area.”

Fires caused by lithium-powered batteries also remained an ongoing problem, Gallagher said. FENZ reported last year fires linked to lithium batteries had more than doubled in four years.

“These devices contain a huge amount of energy. And when that’s released, it can happen quite violently, causing a very rapid fire growth or rapid fire development.”

The summer period was particularly risky for lithium-powered devices, as they did not like being exposed to excessive heat.

“Just think about not leaving the cellphone sitting in the car in the hot sun, because that can cause the lithium battery to malfunction within the phone,” Gallagher said.

“Laptop, scooter, whatever the device is, that can cause a real significant fire very, very quickly.”

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

Bluebridge cancels all Connemara sailings through to Tuesday

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Source: Radio New Zealand

More sailings cancelled after mechanical issues. Supplied

Bluebridge has cancelled all of the Connemara sailings through to Tuesday.

A problem with the winch that controls the stern door led to 200 passengers being stuck for 15 hours on Thursday.

It said it has been working hard to establish a timeframe to fix the problem, but that is not yet clear.

Further cancellations were possible for next week, and Bluebridge would be contacting affected customers directly.

Bluebridge had apologised expressing disappointment for having a mechanical issue during peak travel period.

Some passengers had previously expressed frustration at the delays, but many praised the work of the crew to keep them comfortable and up to date with the situation.

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

More than 80,000 impacted by Manage My Health breach in Northland

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Source: Radio New Zealand

*This story has been updated to reflect that funding was available for general practitioners to provide consultation.

More than 70 percent of those impacted by the Manage My Health breach are based in Northland, according to Health NZ.

The ransomware group behind the attack, Kazu, demanded US$60,000 (NZD$105,000) after hundreds of thousands of medical files were stolen from the privately-operated patient portal, used by some general practices around New Zealand.

So far, Manage My Health has notified around half of the approximately 120,000 patients whose data has been stolen.

The breach was limited to 6-7 percent of 1.8 million registered users, within the ‘My Health Documents’ module only, according to Manage My Health.

A spokesperson for Health NZ said it was estimated that 86,000 people in Northland were impacted.

Health NZ said it would ensure support was available for those in the region.

*Alex Pimm, group director of operations for Northland, said funding was available for general practitioners to provide consultation.

He said it would be for those impacted to discuss their clinical information as well as for mental wellbeing support.

Those who are impacted by the data breach will also be provided with an 0800 number to call.

Pimm said Health NZ used Manage My Health in Northland to enable patients to access some documents – such as their hospital discharge summaries, clinic letters, and referral notifications.

“This system allows consumers, with or without a primary care provider, to access this important information,” he said.

“While Health NZ’s own data systems have not been compromised, any issue involving patient information is taken very seriously.”

Northland is the only area of the country where Health NZ uses Manage My Health to share information with patients.

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‘Ever since I was a young lad, Holdens were my passion’

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The Hillsborough Holden Museum in New Plymouth has dozens of classics from the original family car the Holden 48-215 through to the muscly, Monaros of the 1970s.

“Ever since I was a young lad, Holdens were my passion. We started off with one, bought another, bought another, and now we’ve ended up with 50 in the museum,” Fabish told RNZ’s Summer Times.

“It’s a car that was manufactured in Australia, for Australia and New Zealand. They’re a beautiful family car. Ever since 1948 when the first one was built, you just fell in love with them,” he says.

He was saddened by the decision to cease manufacture almost ten years’ ago, he says.

“I think everybody that owned a Holden at the time were devastated about them closing, because, they just bought out one of the last models, the Gen F, and it was an absolutely beautiful family car. And then they turned around and no more.

“So, it was hard to comprehend that they could stop manufacturing a vehicle like that.”

Every vehicle in museum is in working order, he says.

“You can hop in and start it. Everything’s pristine, shiny, kept nice and clean for the public to view.”

One of his favourites in the collection is a classic 1980s Holden ute fully restored and repowered along with the GTSR W1.

“The fastest manufacturing car that come out of Australia. It’s the last model they brought out from HSV [Holden Special Vehicles] developing 636 horsepower, and it’s got most up-to-date technology in it, so it’s pretty cool.”

Fabish says he’s always on the lookout for generous donations to his citadel to all things Holden.

“An HT Monaro would be nice sitting in there. XU-1 Torana would be nice to have in there. We have had them in there before for a short time, but at the moment we’ve got no more room to take any loan cars.

“If anybody would like to donate something to the museum, hey, we will make room.”

The Hillsborough Holden Museum is open every weekend and public holidays 10am till 4pm and is open during the school holidays through to 26 January.

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

Clark condemns US withdrawal as ‘assault on international system of cooperation’

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By Pretoria Gordon, RNZ News journalist

A former head of the United Nations Development Programme is concerned that US President Donald Trump may set a precedent for other countries.

The President has signed a memorandum ordering the withdrawal of the United States from 66 international organisations.

These include the Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Democracy Fund, and nearly 30 other United Nations agencies.

Helen Clark, who was also New Zealand prime minister from 1999 to 2008, said it was a “very troubling” move.

“It is an assault on the international system of cooperation, which has been painstakingly built up over many, many decades,” she said.

Clark was concerned that other countries, which were like-minded with the current US administration, would also withdraw.

New Zealand unlikely
However, Clark did not expect New Zealand to be one of them, as the country had always stood for multilateralism.

“I do think New Zealand, and other like-minded countries, do need to be thinking about their positioning, because to say nothing when there is a comprehensive assault on the international system is not a good position to be in.”

Clark said the Framework Convention on Climate Change was ratified by the United States Senate back in 1992.

“It’s not clear that President Trump can simply withdraw from it, and this will no doubt be litigated within the United States.”

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

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Weather: Heat warnings as temperatures set to hit high-30s

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Source: Radio New Zealand

File photo. RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King

Hastings is forecast to hit 37C on Sunday, and neighbouring Napier an almost equally sweltering 36C, as a wave of heat – and heat warnings – spread across the country.

But several warnings for rain and strong winds are also in place, particularly in the South Island and Wellington.

Heat alerts, first introduced in 2021, were in place for various locations, including Whangārei, Whitianga, Tauranga, Whakatāne, Rotorua, Taupō, Gisborne, Napier, Blenheim, Kaikōura, Christchurch and Timaru.

Hastings however had the highest forecast peak of 37C in the afternoon, down one degree from the 38C forecasters previously predicted.

That would still exceed 2025’s peak 35.6 degrees, recorded in Kawerau on 7 December.

Hastings Deputy Mayor Michael Fowler said people should avoid spending too much time in the sun.

“Keep out of the heat, keep hydrated, look after your neighbours, look after your pets.”

The district council had taken measures to prepare for the heat. It had closed Te Mata Park and told staff and contractors to avoid work that could create sparks – but residents also needed to ensure they were prepared to deal with near record temperatures, he said.

“Hastings used to get very excited about a 35C heat. Well this is going to be more than that… People need to be absolutely vigilant about this and take it seriously.”

The top of the North Island – including Northland, Auckland, Bay of Plenty and the East Cape – would be “fine and warm” with “patchy morning fog and cloud about Auckland and Northland”, MetService said.

The lower half of the North Island would have “cloudy periods. Showers about the Tararua Range, and a few elsewhere in the evening. Northwest gales for Wellington and Wairarapa.”

“Avoid lighting outdoor fires or doing any activities that may cause sparks or heat, and ensure any previous fires are fully extinguished,” Fire and Emergency said in a warning on its website.

Despite the heat, several weather warnings were in place across the country.

Most of Westland, and Fiordland north of Doubtful Sound, were under orange-level heavy rain warnings until 9am Sunday, as were the Westland ranges and headwaters of the Canterbury lakes until 9pm.

Orange-level strong-wind warnings were in place overnight for much of inland and high-country Canterbury, and they took effect at 3am for Marlborough, and at 6am for much of the Wellington region, where severe gale northwesterlies gusting up to 120km/h in exposed places were forecast.

Thundery rain was possible in the Buller/Grey districts, while Westland and Fiordland could expect “rain with heavy falls and possible thunderstorms”.

Rain and scattered showers were forecast to fall in Canterbury, Otago and Southland, with possible thunderstorms in the Queenstown Lakes District.

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

Scotty Stevenson: ‘Club sport is withering on the vine’

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Scotty Stevenson was just ten when he saw Keith Quinn commentating on the Rugby World Cup and thought it looked like a great job. Sixteen years after commentating his first rugby game for Sky Sport, the 48-year-old broadcaster and writer now covers cricket matches for TVNZ.

While the job of thinking on the spot to narrate live sporting action is a joy, he says, it’s also a big responsibility.

“These are people’s lives. This is their athletic career. And your voice is going to be attached to their good moments and their worst moments for eternity,” Stevenson tells RNZ’s Summer Weekends.

“I’ll never forget Stu Wilson’s kindness that day. He was a great wingman to have because I was bloody nervous” – Scotty Stevenson with the late All Blacks captain Stu Wilson after commentating his first rugby game in 2009.

Supplied

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

Former PM Helen Clark criticises Trump for pulling US out of international organisations

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Helen Clark said the US pulling out of 66 international organisations was a “troubling move”. AFP / Kena Betancur

A former head of the United Nations Development Programme is concerned that Donald Trump may set a precedent for other countries.

The President has signed a memorandum ordering the withdrawal of the United States from 66 international organisations.

These include the Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Democracy Fund, and nearly 30 other United Nations agencies.

Helen Clark, who was also the Prime Minister from 1999 to 2008, said it was a very troubling move.

“It is an assault on the international system of cooperation, which has been painstakingly built up over many, many decades,” she said.

Clark was concerned that other countries, which were like-minded with the current United States administration, would also withdraw.

However, Clark did not expect New Zealand to be one of them, as the country had always stood for multilateralism.

“I do think New Zealand, and other like-minded countries, do need to be thinking about their positioning, because to say nothing when there is a comprehensive assault on the international system is not a good position to be in.”

Clark said the Framework Convention on Climate Change was ratified by the United States Senate back in 1992.

“It’s not clear that President Trump can simply withdraw from it, and this will no doubt be litigated within the United States.”

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

Drivers report chipped windscreens from Transmission Gully roadworks

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Dave Vercoe’s chipped windscreen after driving on Transmission Gully. Dave Vercoe

Some people driving on Transmission Gully on State Highway 1 are reporting getting chipped windscreens from roadworks being done on the road.

People have taken to social media posting photos of the chipped windscreens, noting that the stones had flicked off other vehicles, or that the chips had happened once they’d left the roadworks speed restriction zone.

Dave Vercoe was one of those whose windscreen was damaged after leaving the restricted speed area.

“Literally within about 100 meters, of course a stone flicked up from a car in front of me, not their fault, and smacked into my windscreen.”

Vercoe told RNZ that everyone had been following the 30km/h speed restrictions, but there was a lot of loose chip on the road the day his windscreen was damaged.

“You could hear all the stones bouncing underneath your car.”

Vercoe said he has taken an alternative route since, but will likely revert back to Transmission Gully next week.

In a statement, the Transport Agency said there were temporary lower speed limits in place on Transmission Gully where new chipseal has been laid to avoid stone chip damage to vehicles and also to protect the new road surface.

“Drivers are asked to follow the advertised temporary speed limit in place and to also consider using State Highway 59 to avoid the roadworks on Transmission Gully.”

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Tennis: Top seed Elina Svitolina to meet Xinyu Wang in ASB Classic women’s final

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Elina Svitolina celebrates a point against Iva Jovic in her semifinal. Alan Lee / www.photosport.nz

Ukrainian number one seed Elina Svitolina is into the ASB Classic final for the second time after beating American Iva Jovic in straight sets.

Svitolina won the first set 7-6 in a tiebreak, before putting on a commanding display to win the second set 6-2.

“It’s nice to get a straight sets win, yesterday was a big battle,” Svitolina told Sky Sports, referencing her three set quarterfinal victory over British qualifier Sonay Kartal on Friday.

“In the first set Iva was playing really well and I had to really fight back and dig deep and try to find my level, and I’m very happy I could finish this match in two sets to save some energy for the final.”

Svitolina last made the ASB Classic final in 2024, where she lost in three sets to American Coco Gauff.

In the other semifinal, Chinese seventh seed Xinyu Wang won an enthralling three-set match over fourth-seeded Filipino Alex Eala.

Xinyu Wang celebrates her ASB Classic semifinal win. Alan Lee/Photosport

Eala, 23, served for the match at 5-3 in the second set, but was unable to deliver the decisive blow and allowed her rival to creep back into contention.

Wang, 24, seemed to be cruising in the first set, when she broke her opponent’s serve twice for a 5-2 lead. Incredibly, Eala broke back, then broke again… and again, winning six straight games to take the set 7-6.

The Filipino again fell behind in the second with an early break, but went on another run, taking four straight games to serve for the match at 5-3.

This time, the Chinese fought back, breaking to stave off defeat and breaking again to take the set 7-5.

The match crept past two hours, as Wang took her momentum into the third and deciding set, breaking serve for an early 4-0 advantage. Eala began to labour and needed a medical timeout, as her back seized up, but she was able to return to the court and promptly held serve to stem the bleeding.

Wang held serve to close within a game of victory, but Eala overcame a double fault to hold, broke to stay in the contest and held to love, as Wang began to flag.

Eala could not complete the comeback though, as Wang took full toll of her first matchpoint to advance to the championship round with a 5-7 7-5 6-4 win in 2h 48m.

“It was a crazy battle from the start to the end,” Wang told Sky Sport. “She’s an absolute fighter and, to be honest, I feel more pressure when I’m 5-0 up.

“Really happy that I got through this one today and through to my first-ever final.”

Wang has played in one previous WTA final, losing to Czech Marketa Vondrousova at Berlin last June. She has made two previous appearances at Auckland, losing to compatriot Xiyu Wang in the second round two years ago.

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

Popular Auckland hot springs gets name change to Kaipātiki

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By Pokere Paewai, RNZ Māori issues reporter

As 2025 ticked over into 2026, New Zealand’s popular Parakai Springs near Helensville officially became Kaipātiki Hot Springs, the traditional indigenous name for the area which reflects the whakapapa of tangata whenua Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara.

The change comes as Te Poari o Kaipātiki ki Kaipara assumes management of the hot springs. The governors of Te Poari are appointed by Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara and Auckland Council in equal numbers.

Te Poari chairperson Mihi Blair said Kaipātiki literally translates to the abundance of pātiki, flounder, which the Kaipara area is quite famous for.

The area was prized by Ngāti Whātua tūpuna for its abundance of healing, thermal waters, she said.

“The wai was always used for recovery for all our wounded warriors during cold and warm days, and also the abundance across the wetlands and the swamps and tidal areas was always rich with kai, manu, eel tuna, and lots of kuharu and, you know pātiki, of course.”

Te Poari o Kaipātiki ki Kaipara chairperson Mihi Blair . . . her whānau have a close history with Kaipātiki. Image: Te Poari o Kaipātiki ki Kaipara/RNZ

How Kaipātiki became Parakai
 Blair said her whānau have a close history with Kaipātiki. In the early 1900s there was some confusion because there were two places called Kaipātiki in Auckland, one in Kaipara and one in Birkenhead, she said.

“So the mail used to get misdelivered quite a bit.”

“There was a community meeting held in the rohe of Kaipara and it was actually my great, great grandmother, Annie Emma Hamilton from Ngāti Maniapoto, who rightly got up and said, why don’t we just change Kaipara and switch it over and turn it to Parakai.

“So that decision itself has had a massive historical impact. It was a decision made on practicality, quite solutions focused she was, but it changed history. So from a whānau point of view, it’s something that we held dearly.”

It was a natural decision to return the name Kaipātiki to the area, she said.

“I was born and raised in the Kaipara area in Helensville and so from Ngāti Whātua, there was no stories being told in our rohe, within our playgrounds, within our schools and that.

“So we’re really taking this kōrero really seriously for the Kaipara area and we want to ensure that we bring not only our own uri along, but we also want to bring the community along that journey.”

Sharing the history
Blair said since 2011 when Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara and the Crown agreed to a settlement, the iwi has been focused on sharing the history of the area.

The Parakai Recreation Reserve, which surrounds the springs, had already been renamed Kaipātiki Reserve so it was a natural decision to rename the springs at the conclusion of the previous lease on 31 December 2025, she said.

Blair thanked the previous lease holders Parakai Springs Limited for their contribution to the economic growth of the area over the past three decades.

Te Poari o Kaipātiki ki Kaipara will now assume management of the springs in partnership with Belgravia Leisure, who also work in partnership with Rotorua iwi Ngāti Whakaue running the Wai Ariki Hot Springs, she said.

“[Belgravia] will bring in their expertise and they’ve done a really amazing job of supporting and ensuring that all our kaimahi there have been onboarded successfully and that actually the pools have remained open over this busy summer period.

“We had a very high, high influx of those who attended in the new year. So, you know, whānau going there to use the pools, having BBQs. So the only difference that actually happened was the name change.”

Blair said Te Poari are looking forward to seeing what could be developed and making sure the community was well involved in the design and the future of the pools.

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

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Tennis: China’s Xinyu Wang advances to ASB Classic women’s final

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Xinyu Wang celebrates her ASB Classic semifinal win. Alan Lee/Photosport

Chinese seventh seed Xinyu Wang has booked a spot in the ASB Classic women’s final with an enthralling three-set win over fourth-seeded Filipino Alex Eala in Auckland.

Eala, 23, served for the match at 5-3 in the second set, but was unable to deliver the decisive blow and allowed her rival to creep back into contention.

Wang, 24, seemed to be cruising in the first set, when she broke her opponent’s serve twice for a 5-2 lead. Incredibly, Eala broke back, then broke again… and again, winning six straight games to take the set 7-6.

The Filipino again fell behind in the second with an early break, but went on another run, taking four straight games to serve for the match at 5-3.

This time, the Chinese fought back, breaking to stave off defeat and breaking again to take the set 7-5.

The match crept past two hours, as Wang took her momentum into the third and deciding set, breaking serve for an early 4-0 advantage. Eala began to labour and needed a medical timeout, as her back seized up, but she was able to return to the court and promptly held serve to stem the bleeding.

Wang held serve to close within a game of victory, but Eala overcame a double fault to hold, broke to stay in the contest and held to love, as Wang began to flag.

Eala could not complete the comeback though, as Wang took full toll of her first matchpoint to advance to the championship round with a 5-7 7-5 6-4 win in 2h 48m.

“It was a crazy battle from the start to the end,” Wang told Sky Sport. “She’s an absolute fighter and, to be honest, I feel more pressure when I’m 5-0 up.

“Really happy that I got through this one today and through to my first-ever final.”

Wang has played in one previous WTA final, losing to Czech Marketa Vondrousova at Berlin last June. She has made two previous appearances at Auckland, losing to compatriot Xiyu Wang in the second round two years ago.

She will now face the winner of the second semifinal between top seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine and American Iva Jovic.

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

NGOs warn of catastrophic impact in Gaza – Penny Wong doesn’t care

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The Australian government remains silent on Israel banning 37 international aid organisations in Gaza, despite warnings from humanitarian groups. Stephanie Tran reports.

By Stephanie Tran of Michael West Media

Under new registration requirements introduced by Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, NGOs have been required to submit lists of their Palestinian employees for review and to refrain from criticism of Israel.

A number of NGOs did not comply with the requirement to disclose the identities of their Palestinian staff, citing safety concerns amid reports that Israel has deliberately targeted and killed aid workers in Gaza.

As a result, the registrations of 37 international NGOs lapsed on 31 December 2025. The organisations will be required to withdraw by 1 March 2026 if their registrations are not renewed.

Journalist Stephanie Tran . . . “More than 500 humanitarian workers have been killed in Gaza since 7 October 2023.” Image: Michael West Media

The aid ban comes as Israel has passed laws prohibiting the supply of water and electricity to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

Michael West Media wrote to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Penny Wong, and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) seeking clarification on Australia’s position regarding Israel’s suspension of humanitarian organisations operating in Gaza.

The questions included whether Australia intended to publicly condemn Israel’s decision to ban aid organisations; how the government assessed the move’s compatibility with international humanitarian law, including Israel’s obligations under the Geneva Conventions; and whether Australia would join or support diplomatic statements or measures alongside other countries calling for the ban to be lifted.

DFAT declined to provide a comment on the record, while Minister Wong did not respond to the request for comment.

In correspondence with MWM, DFAT instead provided a statement “for use in reporting, not for attribution”. In their response, the Department referred to a previous joint statement signed by Minister Wong calling on Israel to allow aid into Gaza.

International condemnation rises
 The refusal to comment comes as the UN Secretary-General, multiple governments and at least 53 international NGOs have publicly condemned Israel’s suspension of 37 aid organisations from operating in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, warning it will severely restrict humanitarian access to Gaza and breach Israel’s obligations under international law.

The foreign ministers of Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement condemning  the aid ban, warning that

One in three healthcare facilities in Gaza will close if INGOs operations are stopped.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called on Israel to reverse the measures, warning it “will further exacerbate the humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians”.

On Monday, seven European countries denounced Israel’s policies as incompatible with humanitarian principles and obligations under international law.

In a joint letter, 53 international aid organisations called the ban “a deliberate policy choice with foreseeable consequences”.

“More than 500 humanitarian workers have been killed since 7 October 2023. INGOs cannot transfer sensitive personal data to a party to the conflict since this would breach humanitarian principles, duty of care and data protection obligations,” the letter stated.

NGOs in limbo
 Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), one of the largest medical providers operating in Gaza, said it remained in a state of uncertainty.

“Our registration expired as of the 31st of December,” said Ashley Killeen, director of engagement at Médecins Sans Frontières Australia and New Zealand. “We are still trying to have dialogue with Israeli authorities to try and maintain some type of access.”

“At this point in time, we are still continuing to try and negotiate and stay in Gaza. It’s a fragile moment.”

Killeen said claims that MSF had failed to comply with the new registration process were inaccurate.

“We’ve fully engaged in the process announced in July, we submitted the majority of the required information,” she said.

However, Killeen said MSF was unwilling to comply with the requirement to provide the identities of its Palestinian staff due to safety concerns. She stated that

Providing the names of our staff is an ethical red line that we’re not willing to cross.

“Fifteen of our colleagues have been killed since the start of this war by Israeli forces. We have an obligation to safeguard the rights of our staff, and that is why we’re not willing to provide the staff list of our Palestinian colleagues in Gaza.”

Delivering 1 in 3 babies
MSF has operated in Gaza since 1989 and supports six hospitals and two field hospitals.

“We deliver one in three babies in Gaza. I don’t know what their solution would be if MSF were not allowed to operate,” Killeen said.

“The entire health system is decimated. Banning the little aid and services that’s available for those people in there is horrific.”

ActionAid Australia has also warned that deregistration would severely undermine its ability to operate.

“Being de-registered will severely restrict our ability to bring food, medical supplies and other relief into Gaza, scale operations, and respond at the huge level of humanitarian need,” said Michelle Higelin, ActionAid Australia’s executive director.

“This action by the government of Israel undermines not just ActionAid,

but the entire humanitarian response architecture.

ActionAid has delivered humanitarian assistance and medical support to more than 650,000 displaced people over the past two years.

Impact ‘not abstract’
“The impact is not abstract — it is borne by families already surviving day to day,” Higelin said. “For people in Gaza, this decision will mean less water and food, little or no sanitation, reduced shelter and medical support and increasing exposure to health risks.”

Higelin warned that pregnant women would be particularly affected by the aid ban.

“As we support one of the only functioning maternity hospitals in Gaza, we are particularly concerned about the impacts on pregnant women who are already giving birth in unsterile conditions”

ActionAid reiterated MSF’s concerns regarding the disclosure of the identities of their Palestinian staff.

“We cannot comply with requirements that compel us to hand over sensitive personal data of Palestinian staff and their families or accept political and ideological conditions unrelated to humanitarian work,” Higelin said.

“No humanitarian organisation should be forced to choose between protecting its staff and continuing lifesaving assistance.”

Violation of international humanitarian law
 Under international humanitarian law, occupying powers are obliged to ensure the provision of life saving aid to civilians in conflict zones. The 4th Geneva Convention and customary international law require that humanitarian assistance be allowed to reach civilians without undue obstruction.

The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute has warned that deliberate obstruction of humanitarian assistance, resulting in hunger and widespread suffering, constitutes a grave violation of international humanitarian law and may amount to war crimes.

Amnesty International Australia has characterised Israel’s broader blockade and systematic obstruction of aid as not only a violation of humanitarian law but as potentially amounting to crimes against humanity, citing provisions of the Geneva Conventions that require occupying powers to ensure the food and medical supplies of the population are met unconditionally. 

“It’s an obligation under international law to provide humanitarian aid. Israel has an obligation to allow aid into Gaza,” said Killeen.

Killeen said MSF was urging the Australian government to do more than reiterate general support for aid access.

International law?
 “What we would hope for from our government is that they continue to uphold the principles of international humanitarian law, and in doing so, they would advocate for the rights of organisations like MSF to continue providing aid to people in Gaza,” she said.

Higelin said the moment demanded decisive action from the Australian government.

“This is a watershed moment: one that will make or break the future of civic space and humanitarian assistance in Palestine, which Israel has been occupying unlawfully for decades.

“We urge UN agencies and donor governments, including Australia, to use all available leverage to secure the reversal of this decision. Independent, principled humanitarian operations must be protected to ensure civilians can receive the assistance they urgently need.

“Lives depend upon it.”

Stephanie Tran is a journalist with a passion for uncovering stories that hold power to account. With a background in both law and journalism, she has worked at The Guardian and as a paralegal, where she assisted Crikey’s defence team in the high-profile defamation case brought by Lachlan Murdoch. Her reporting has been recognised nationally, earning her the 2021 Democracy’s Watchdogs Award for Student Investigative Reporting and a nomination for the 2021 Walkley Student Journalist of the Year Award.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Athletics star Sam Ruthe guides young Tamahau Hicks to Colgate Games victory

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Sam Ruthe and Tamahau Hicks celebrate their 1500m performane at Tauranga. Facebook/Emily Kay

Disappointment turned to delight for a 12-year-old visually impaired athlete Tamahau Hicks, when running sensation Sam Ruthe came to his rescue at the Colgate Games in Tauranga on Saturday.

The disappointment came when Tamahau’s regular running guide contacted his family to say he was ill and couldn’t accompany Tamahau over the 1500 metres at the event, which has attracted thousands of North Island youngsters for the three-day meeting.

Tamahau, who runs for the Te Aroha Athletics Club and Achilles Tauranga Moana, suffered a traumatic brain injury in an accident, when he was three-and-a-half, affecting his vision and spatial awareness.

Because of that, he needs a guide to run alongside him in races.

“We rushed around trying to find someone and when I couldn’t, I stuck out a post on Run Aotearoa,” Tamahau’s mum, Emily Kay, said.

Andrea Neal from Tauranga Athletics saw the Facebook post and got in touch.

Initially, an official was to guide Tamahau, but 30 minutes before the race, there was another development.

“Andrea came and found us, and said, ‘Hey, Sam Ruthe has volunteered to become a host guide for the race’.

“We were very excited. I know Tamahau was, when he found out Sam was going to be his guide.

“All the other kids were excited they would be in the same race as Sam Ruthe too.”

Ruthe is the rising track star of New Zealand athletics. He was 15, when he became [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/sport/545352/watch-teen-runner-sam-ruthe-breaks-record-sub-four-minute-mile the youngest runner to break four minutes for the mile last March.

Since turning 16, he has shattered the long-standing secondary schools 1500 metre record and claimed new U20 and U19 national marks over 1000 metres last weekend, with his time being the world’s best for his age.

Emily Kay couldn’t speak highly enough of Ruthe.

“It was really incredible,” she said. “He was really good, he told Tamahau, ‘Don’t go out too hard, we’ll go hard in the last lap’, and that is exactly what they did.

“They just stuck to the same pace right throughout the race until right at the end. It was amazing and the whole crowd was cheering.”

They proved a winning combination.

“He broke his personal best by about 40 seconds and he came first in the para race. It was pretty awesome.”

Ruthe was also great with the other kids in the race, posing for photos with them for ages after the race.

There was one funny moment in the race, as Ruthe, in his enthusiasm, went ahead of Tamahau and had to be reminded that his partner had to cross the finish-line first.

Emily Kay said Tamahau would have had to withdraw, if he hadn’t found a guide.

“Not only did he get a guide, he got Sam Ruthe.

“It was an epic day.”

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

The psychology behind New Year’s resolutions

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Source: Radio New Zealand

What is the science behind setting a New Year’s resolution? SIRA JANTARARUNGSAN / 123RF

New Year’s resolutions may trigger mixed feelings, but when done correctly, they can improve our motivation and have an overall positive impact.

UK science writer David Robson has looked into the psychology behind a successful New Year’s resolution.

It’s something he takes seriously and believes it’s a positive way to start the year.

He told Summer Weekends that, like many he had a “checkered history” with keeping his resolutions, but over the years, he had become better.

“In general, I’m pretty good at keeping my resolutions, and I think that’s partly now because I do know about the psychology of, you know, self control and willpower”

It’s OK to fall off the wagon

Robson said one of the most important steps was to not “catastrophise” the times when we fell off the wagon.

He said occasionally stepping out of line did not have to undo days of hard work

“This is something that psychologists call the ‘what the hell effect’.

“It’s this quite toxic tendency that we have that, once we break a resolution, we just give up entirely.”

He said this happened because people felt they had proven to themselves that they lacked the willpower to commit to a goal, therefore losing all hope and giving up entirely.

Do we set ourselves up to fail?

There was also a tendency to set goals that were easy to give up on, a habit that stemmed from a very self-critical culture.

Robson said the amount of pressure manufactured by media, lifestyle magazines, social media and television could encourage people to feel poorly about themselves.

“It’s kind of setting these standards for what it means to be beautiful or what it means to be successful.”

This meant resolutions could then become a product of the surrounding culture.

“A lot of the time, we’re not really thinking about what we want in life, but we’re doing these things because we have those goals kind of imposed on us.”

He said psychological research had shown goals that stem from societal pressure were not only bad for our mental health, but made it harder to keep a resolution, whereas goals chosen purely using our own autonomy were easier to keep, as they mattered more to us.

The magic of the new year

Although some may feel there was no need to wait for the new year to set a resolution, Robson agreed there was some magic in setting them during this time.

He said this desire was based on the psychological phenomenon of how we processed our autobiographical memories.

“What psychologists have found is that we actually do tend to look at our life as a series of chapters that are very often based around big life events.”

Significant life events, like graduating or getting married, acted as landmarks of a life journey, but Robson said research had shown that, within the bigger chapters, people also created smaller “chapter headings” and the new year was one of them.

“Research shows us that, when people do make new goals on those key moments, like the first of the year, they do tend to have more motivation.

“The brain is always looking for this organisational principle, a way to chunk that data into meaningful sections.”

Bigger or smaller scale resolutions?

Overall balance was key, but Robson said it all came down to personal preference and knowing how to manage your resolutions

“I think there is this kind of sweetspot between something that’s so mundane, you quickly forget about it and something that’s so ambitious, it feels unmanageable.”

With bigger goals, it was better to break it down into smaller ‘sub goals’.

“If you do want to write your novel over the course of 2026, I think it’s essential that you make a plan for how you’re going to go about that, because you’re really then creating these little stepping stones that feel far less daunting to achieve.”

Should resolutions be a secret?

Robson said telling people could be helpful, as it created a sense of accountability that made sticking to goals easier.

“I know some people are going to be quite pessimistic and gloomy, and they’re just going to sap some of that excitement away from it, but I think, if you do have people who can be your cheerleaders, then it’s great to share it with them.”

Psychological tricks to achieving resolutions

Robson said his own resolution for the year was to run a marathon and he had prepared some tricks to make sure it happened. One of them was what he referred to as ‘temptation bundling”.

“That is just making sure that, when something starts to feel like a grind, you have some kind of pleasure that you experience alongside that. In my case, it’ll be listening to really great audio books, as I go about my training.”

He also said the more specific the goal, the easier it would be to stick to it.

For example, with a popular resolution like losing weight or getting fit, it was better to set a target weight and have a workout plan, so the task did not feel vague and daunting..

“Just make it measurable, because that way, it’s easier to keep track of your progress and, when you do meet that goal, you get that dopamine kick that leaves you feeling motivated.”

‘Monetising insecurities’

Robson said one things to be wary of was the tendency to commercialise people’s insecurities during this time of year.

“You’ll always read in a new magazine about a particular kind of exercise that’s going to have these magic properties for you or you’ll start seeing new photos of a particular muscle group that you’re meant to be developing.”

He said it was important to protect ourselves from this kind of targeted marketing, and make goals that were based on our personal improvement and journey.

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

Two dead, one missing in water incidents across New Zealand

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Akaroa is a town located south-east of Christchurch. supplied

Two people have died in the water on Saturday afternoon.

Emergency services in the Bay of Plenty were called to an area off Poripori Road in Lower Kaimai, where a person had been taken out of the water.

CPR was carried out, but they couldn’t be revived.

In the South Island, the Akaroa harbourmaster pulled a person from the water, but they also died.

Drummond Wharf was cordoned off, while emergency services worked at the scene and the death will be referred to the coroner.

Meanwhile, a swimmer is missing in the Waikato River.

Police say they were called to the area near Graham Island at Hamilton at about 3,30pm Saturday, after reports of a struggling swimmer being swept downstream.

Emergency services were searching the area.

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

Many Manage My Health security breach victims in Northland

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Source: Radio New Zealand

*This story has been updated to reflect that funding was available for general practitioners to provide consultation.

Many of those impacted by the Manage My Health breach are based in Northland, according to Health New Zealand.

Hackers, known as ‘Kazu’, took hundreds of thousands of files from the country’s largest patient health information portal at the end of last year.

So far, Manage My Health has notified about half of the 125,000 whose data has been stolen.

Health New Zealand said it would ensure support was available for those in Northland.

*Alex Pimm, group director of operations for Northland, said funding was available for general practitioners to provide consultation.

He said those impacted should discuss their clinical information, as well as for mental wellbeing support.

Those impacted by the data breach would also be provided with an 0800 number to call.

The cyber incident was limited to 6-7 percent of 1.8 million registered users, within the ‘My Health Documents’ module only, according to Manage My Health.

The data relates to a range of medical practices, including approximately 45 Northland-based GP practices out of approximately 355 GP practices across New Zealand.

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

Person drowns in Akaroa

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Akaroa is a town located south-east of Christchurch. supplied

A person has drowned in Akaroa, south-east of Christchurch, this afternoon.

Police said staff were notified at about 1.15pm Saturday that a person had been pulled from the water by the harbourmaster.

A police spokesperson said CPR was administered, but the person could not be revived.

Drummond Wharf is currently cordoned off, while emergency services work at the scene.

The death will be referred to the coroner.

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

ER Report: A Roundup of Significant Articles on EveningReport.nz for January 10, 2026

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ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on January 10, 2026.

Ian Powell: The Nicolás Maduro kidnapping, US imperialist expansion and implications for New Zealand
ANALYSIS: By Ian Powell There is much to understand from the dramatic kidnapping — abduction is perhaps a better word — of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores last weekend by the United States armed forces, combined with the military attack on the country’s capital Caracas. This understanding is greatly helped by

As the Arctic warms up, the race to control the region is growing ever hotter
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Klaus Dodds, Interim Dean, Faculty of Science & Technology, Middlesex University Donald Trump and his senior officials insist that Greenland must become part of the US. This is for national security purposes, they say, maintaining that Denmark, of which Greenland is a constituent part, is not investing

Four ways to understand what’s going on with the US, Denmark and Greenland
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Manners, Professor, Department of Political Science, Lund University Shutterstock/Michal Balada European countries, and Denmark in particular, are scrambling to respond to threats from US officials over the future of Greenland. Having successfully taken out the leadership of Venezuela in a raid on January 3, an emboldened

As authors abandon Adelaide Writers’ Week after cancelling of Randa Abdel-Fattah, is free speech in tatters?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of Melbourne The decision by the Adelaide Festival Board to exclude Palestinian Australian author and academic Randa Abdel-Fattah from Adelaide Writers’ Week on the grounds of “cultural sensitivity” is based on a dangerously broad and vague

Albanese bows to relentless pressure for Bondi royal commission but scepticism remains
SPECIAL REPORT: By David Robie Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has finally bowed to pressure from the Murdoch News Corp’s relentless media campaign and advocacy by political critics and victim’s families to announce a royal commission of inquiry into “antisemitism and social cohesion”. The commission advocates were seeking his political downfall over last month’s Bondi

Former French Foreign Legion soldier key suspect in Vanuatu VT49m heist
By Doddy Morris in Port Vila The Vanuatu Police Force (VPF) has confirmed that the prime suspect in a Port Vila armed robbery is a former member of the French Foreign Legion, who served around 2019. Allegations had circulated on social media for the past four days, but yesterday it was officially confirmed that the

Former NZ mayoral hopeful arrested at Venezuela solidarity protest
RNZ News Three people, including former Wellington mayoral hopeful Graham Bloxham, have been arrested at a Venezuela solidarity protest in New Zealand’s capital. Around 100 people were rallying against the US military action earlier this week outside New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) on Lambton Quay. During the event Bloxham, who was

View from The Hill: Albanese’s backflip on royal commission is a humiliating own goal
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Prime Minister Anthony Albanese prides himself with being in tune with the public mood. But in holding out for weeks against a royal commission into antisemitism he misjudged that mood, making Thursday’s backdown on his hardline opposition a humiliation for

How to protect yourself from bushfire smoke
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brian Oliver, Professor, School of Life Sciences, University of Technology Sydney The distinctive smell of smoke in summer is often all you need to know there is a bushfire burning. Even if the fire is many kilometres away, the drop in air quality can be harmful for

The battle over sharing Wellington’s bike trails

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Mountain-bikers say Wellington’s Matairangi/Mount Victoria trails provide a unique environment of “world class” riding just a stone’s throw from the central city, but a recent spate of vandalism has underlined community discontent over the growing network of trails on the hill.

The local residents’ association president said some people avoided the area, because of concerns over safety.

On almost any clear day in the Wellington suburb, mountain-bikers thread their way through a network of trails in the green belt that stands just a short climb from the central city’s party district of Courtenay Place.

The hill is criss-crossed by a maze of some 25.5km of trails and paths, used by walkers, runners, mountain-bikers and sightseers.

The trails have been designated as either walker-priority shared trails, walker-only or bike-only trails.

The green belt tracks were damaged and blocked off in December. Wellington City Council

[H] Trails range from beginner to highly technical riding

Mountain-bike racer Iley Nunns, 18, started riding in Matairangi as a part of Wellington Off-Road Department (WORD) youth rides, when she was 10 years old.

In 2025, she represented New Zealand at the UCI Enduro World Champs in Switzerland.

She said the riding on the hill was “world class”.

“Mt Vic can get very challenging, because of the roots and the clay,” she said. “It can get very slippery in the wet, but it’s so good, because you just learn those really good technical skills, which have helped me a lot in races around the world, because I have a unique set of skills that people from [other parts of the country] might not have.”

“It’s good for my own training – as well as the WORD kids – because of the progression the trails offer. There’s jump tracks and there’s tech tracks, and they all progress, so you can start off on the easiest track, move your way up and have lots of fun.”

Mountain-biking in the area began almost as soon as the first wave of off-road bicycles hit the country’s stores in the late 1980s and early ’90s.

The early bike trails formed almost organically – albeit with a little help from the spades and saws of early devotees – but as the sport grew, trail-building groups became more active in the area, forming bermed corners, drops and jumps, and working with the council to keep their handiwork and fun intact.

Mountain-bike racer Iley Nunns competing at the 2025 UCI Enduro World Championships in Switzerland. Supplied

Man formally warned by police following trail vandalism

Not everyone was happy with mountain-bikers’ presence in the area.

In early December, locals reported mountain-bike trail-marking signs torn down, holes dug out in riding lines, and logs and stumps strewn across tracks.

Later in the month, police confirmed a man had been formally warned “for endangering life or safety by criminal nuisance”, after admitting to vandalising the mountain-bike trails.

Residents fearful of ‘people crashing around on bikes’

Mount Victoria Residents Association president Ellen Blake said her group had heard concerns from locals and walkers in the area as far back as the early 2000s.

She said residents worried about close shaves with riders and the impact of bike trails on the area’s ecology.

“A lot of different people use the park in a different way, but we were hearing quite a lot of concerns from people who walked up there, and felt threatened or frightened by mountain-bike activity,” she said.

Mount Victoria Residents’ Association president Ellen Blake says some residents feel threatened by the presence of riders among walking tracks on Mount Victoria. Supplied

“Some of it was about the damage that was done to the tracks [and] just from people walking up there being frightened by people whooshing out of tracks.”

Blake said some members avoided the area because of it.

“Who should be giving way is what I want to know. Is it the people on the bike or the people walking?

“Normally, in traffic situations, it’s the person in charge of the vehicle that needs to be in control of it, and to manage their speed there and how they behave. We’ve flipped the presumptions up there, I think.

“We’re not on the road. We go to the park to get away from that.

“People go up there because it’s all nice green and bushy, and they like to hear the birds and see the sights. It shouldn’t be that people have to watch out for people crashing around on bikes.”

She said her group had asked the council to ensure that mountain-bike-only trails were equally matched by trails designated for walkers.

“We’ve got the mountain bikers fighting their corner and everybody else on the other side. We haven’t got a solution.

“What we’ve got is 12 mountain-bike-only tracks and no other option for other people.”

Vicky Robertson flanked by volunteers, as they plant native trees along the Hatatai side of Mt Victoria. Supplied

Room for everyone

Matairangi Trail Group’s Vicky Robertson said the group co-ordinated their volunteers with the council’s input to maintain mountain-bike trails – and cross over points with other tracks – as well as picking up rubbish and planting native trees in the area.

She said GPS measurements of the area showed nearly 15km of the 25.5km trail network were designated walker-priority, with another 2.5km of tracks as walking-only.

“I would say there’s room for everyone up there,” she said. “There is a small group of dog-walkers up there, who are off-leash.

“There’s a small group of walkers who are aggressive, there’s a small group of teenage mountain-bikers who aren’t respectful to others, so I think – on our part – there’s a part of an education and respect piece that needs to be done, particularly with our younger people.”

“WORD does a fantastic job of this and I think, if we can build on what we’re doing with the young people up there, that would really help,” Robertson said.

Vicky Robertson says volunteers have planted up to 8700 native trees in the area over the last five years. Supplied

Young riders learning trail etiquette

WORD national operations manager Nicola Johnson said the charity’s instructors taught more than 1000 young riders each year and often used the Mount Victoria trails for their group classes.

She said they encouraged their young riders to participate in maintaining local trails and to learn proper trail etiquette.

“If you’re standing still or walking, and someone’s coming towards you at high speed, it can be terrifying and I completely get how walkers can feel in that space.

“It has got better in terms of how the mountain-bike trails are a little bit more directed away from the walking trails. The signage has got better.

“I think there might be a little bit more work to do in that space, just to make sure that walkers are safe and also riders are safe. You want everyone to have a good time up there, it’s such a special place.”

“I don’t think it’s unmanageable, [but] I think there are some pinch points for sure – at entrances and exits of trails – and that’s something that we encourage our instructors and our kids to move to the side of the trail, and let people get by,” Johnson said.

Sixteen-year-old mountain-bike racer Kiera Vlaar started out doing WORD courses. This year, she took out three victories in the U17s of this year’s IXS downhill cup series in Europe.

She said she loved the accessibility of riding so close to the city, and how she and her friends could get “loads of laps” riding in the compact area.

She said she did encounter people – often tourists looking for Lord of the Rings filming locations – walking on the mountain-bike tracks.

“It does get quite busy at times,” Vlaar said. “You get on the brakes really quickly and tell them that riders are coming down these tracks, and it’s going to put you in a bit of a difficult situation, if they don’t see you and you don’t see them.”

Wellington City Council told RNZ it kept track of how many people used the hill’s 12 bike-priority trails with track counters.

It said major improvements had been made in the past decade, but there were still opportunities for improvement, and the council liaised with locals, restoration groups, trail runners and bike riders – along with the council’s own accessibility focus group – on this.

In recent years, tracks had been widened or – in the case of the Hataitai to City Walkway – resurfaced to improve safety, and signage improved to signal whether a track was walker or bike-priority.

Intersection alignments had been improved to remove crossing points, slow riders and improve sight-lines, it said.

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

Stan Wawrinka gets Melbourne wildcard but Kyrgios to play doubles only

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Stan Wawrinka has withdrawn from the ASB Classic. PHOTOSPORT

Three-time Grand Slam tennis champion Stan Wawrinka has pulled out of the ASB Classic men’s tournament.

The veteran has told organisers he can’t play now that his Switzerland team have made the semifinals of the United Cup in Sydney.

The Swiss team play Belgium today, while the United States face Poland in the other semi.

The final will be on Sunday, with the Auckland men’s tournament starting Monday.

Wawrinka, who has played in the Auckland tournament twice, was one of the big drawcards this year.

The 40-year-old announced last year that he would hang up his racquet at the end of 2026, ending a 24-year pro career.

His withdrawal means changes to the schedule, with two former Auckland champions elevated to the main draw.

2024 winner Alejandro Tabilo from Chile was meant to play New Zealand wildcard Isaac Becroft in qualifying on Saturday, but has now gained a wildcard into the main draw.

Alejandro Tabilo celebrates his win at the 2024 ASB Classic. Andrew Cornaga/Photosport

Roberto Bautista Agut, who won in 2016 and 2018, also enters the main draw. Like Wawrinka and defending champion Gael Monfils, Spaniard Bautista Agut is likely in his final year of top level competition.

French veteran Adrian Mannarino, a former Auckland finalist, has also been promoted to the main draw.

“These things happen, unfortunately,” ASB Classic tournament director Nicolas Lamperin said. “It is good that Stan has been playing so strongly, but on the other side of things, it can come with unexpected clashes with schedules, if they progress through build-up tournaments.

“We lose Stan, which is disappointing, but now we have two former champions guaranteed of being in the first round.”

Wawrinka beat Rafa Nadal to win the 2014 Australian Open, and also won the 2015 French Open and 2016 US Open, beating Novak Djokovic both times.

Wawrinka has also been granted a wildcard to play in the Australian Open, with other wildcards going to Australians Jordan Thompson and Chris O’Connell, AFP reported.

The wildcard decisions followed Nick Kyrgios’ advice that he was not ready to play singles after injury, but he would feature in the doubles draw.

2022 Wimbledon finalist Kyrgios made his comeback after an injury-ravaged three years in Brisbane this week, but lost in the opening round to American Aleksandar Kovacevic.

Despite being in the running for a wildcard at his home Grand Slam starting on 18 January, the Australian showman said he was not ready.

“After some good conversations with TA [Tennis Australia], I’ve made the call to focus on doubles for this year’s Australian Open,” he said on Instagram.

“I’m fit and back on court, but five-setters are a different beast and I’m not quite ready to go the distance yet.”

Australian Nick Kyrgios has withdrawn from the Australian Open singles. GLYN KIRK

The defeat to Kovacevic was his first singles ATP Tour match since last March and he conceded afterwards that he would never be the player he once was.

Kyrgios, who has tumbled to 670 in the rankings, after reaching a high of 13 in 2016, said he was happy to give the opportunity to someone else.

“This tournament means everything to me, but I’d rather give my spot to someone who’s ready to make their moment count,” Kyrgios said.

While giving singles a miss, Kyrgios will play doubles with fellow Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis.

He previously committed to playing singles at the Kooyong Classic in Melbourne, which begins on Tuesday.

– RNZ/AFP

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

Hamilton mum-and-daughter busking duo delights TikTok

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Source: Radio New Zealand

After deciding to take a road trip to their ancestral land in Whangārei this summer, Jessie and Ally (aka Miss Ally) had the “bright idea” of busking along the way.

They kicked off at the Ngāruawāhia markets on 20 December, and on Ally’s suggestion, posted a clip of the performance on the TikTok account @mumandmebusking, waking up the next day to over 2,000 followers.

“It feels really heartwarming to see someone enjoy my singing,” Ally tells Morning Report.

On Christmas Eve in Huntly, Jessie and Ally sang ‘No Scrubs’ and were given some caramel corn. Their covers of Chappel Roan’s ‘Pink Pony Club’, Alanis Morrissette’s ‘Ironic’, Connie Francis’s ‘Pretty Little Baby’ and ‘Have You Ever Seen The Rain?’ (House of Shem version) have also proved popular.

Although Ally has been singing her whole life, she only became a busker about a month ago. Now the chatty eight-year-old is educating her international TikTok followers on this “really nice” way of performing as she learns what it’s like to be famous.

“Usually [people] come up to me and they’ll be like, ‘Oh my gosh, are you guys mumandmebusking? We’re like ‘yes’, and they’re like, ‘Oh, can we have a selfie?!’

“It feels really heartwarming to see someone enjoy my singing.”

Ally says she really loved visiting her great-grandparents’ resting place in Whangārei recently, and it’s been “very special to have time with my mum and do something we both enjoy”.

After visiting Whangārei, the pair have now hit the road again and in the next few weeks, will busk around Hamilton, Tauranga and Mount Maunganui.

In the hope of reaching 10,000 TikTok followers, Ally and Jessie are now posting daily videos of their summer singing adventure.

Funds raised will mostly go towards overseas travel, Jesse says, but Ally is also “paying forward” some of it – this week delivering a gift to a Whangārei woman who’d served them breakfast – and enjoying a little spending money.

“She loves skincare. She’s a normal eight-year-old. She’ll buy herself a lip gloss.”

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

Ian Powell: The Nicolás Maduro kidnapping, US imperialist expansion and implications for New Zealand

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ANALYSIS: By Ian Powell

There is much to understand from the dramatic kidnapping — abduction is perhaps a better word — of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores last weekend by the United States armed forces, combined with the military attack on the country’s capital Caracas.

This understanding is greatly helped by the comments of the US’s first elected insurrectionist and convicted felon (fraud and sexual assault) President, Donald Trump, at and following his inauguration for his second term nearly 12 months ago.

Trump singled out the 25th US president, William McKinley, who was first elected 1896 but assassinated early into his second term, for praise. Some of this praise was because of his promotion of tariffs.

But it was also because McKinley is regarded as the first imperialist American president. He went to war with Spain and China to claim colonial spoils. Annexations included Puerto Rico and the Philippines (where more than 200,000 Filipinos were killed).

Far and hard right politics, fascism and narcissism
 For context, the current US government under Trump’s leadership is a mix of far and hard right politics.

I have discussed this in a previous article (November 3) describing how the far right is successfully cannibalising the mainstream rightwing internationally (including its implications for Aotearoa New Zealand).

Residing within the far right is fascism. Considering Trump and some of his cabinet members and key staff to be fascists is a very reasonable conclusion to draw.

One of the characteristics of many fascists is narcissism; a personality disorder recognised as a mental health condition; an excessive preoccupation with oneself and one’s own needs, often at the expense of others.

Blend narcissism and fascism (or even wider far right beliefs) together and you have an absence of empathy and indifference to harmful consequences of their actions on others.

Even intelligent people within this subset find their narrow paradigms shut out to consideration of the tactical and strategic errors (“own goals”) that might arise out of their decision-making.

Recommended reading and watching
 There has been much public commentary on the violent assault on Venezuela and the kidnapping/abduction of its president and First Lady. Three have stood out for me.

British journalist Owen Jones . . . lively empirically based passion on Trump’s chaos. Image: Battlelines

One is British leftwing journalist, commentator, author and activist Owen Jones. He speaks with lively empirically based passion. In his Battlelines publication (Substack, January 4) he didn’t pull his punches about global anarchy.

The second commentary digs deep. It is a 31-minute interview by Venezuelanalysis (January 4) with Caracas based analysts Steve Ellner and Ricardo Vaz: Venezuela: Trump’s war for oil and domination is a war crime.

I strongly recommend watching it. In addition to the military violence and abduction, they address Trump’s declaration that Washington will take control of Venezuela’s oil and effectively run the country, warning that the operation constitutes an unlawful use of force.


Venezuela: Trump’s war for oil.

They also refer to the extrajudicial killings on Venezuelan fishing boats at sea as violations of international law and Venezuelan sovereignty.

The third is a recommended read of an online article (January 6) by Helen Yaffe, professor of Latin American political economy (Glasgow University): What is the US doing in Venezuela.

As well as describing the dramatic events, Dr Yaffe puts them in both their historical and current political contexts.

The absurd: Maduro’s machine gun
 Trump’s justifications range from the absurd to the manufactured to the overstated. But one justification is absolutely on the mark. His narcissism is ironically beneficial at least from the perspective of analysis.

In openly exposing that that this is all about naked power Trump and his coterie don’t care that he can be easily caught out over fabrication and inconsistencies. If one believes that they are all-powerful, why should they care.

The absurd justification for the legal case against Nicolás Maduro is that he had a machine gun in his possession.

Putting aside the fact that the risk of what might happen (foreign military abduction) did actually occur, arguing this in a country where machine guns are easily and lawfully accessible — really.

The manufactured: narcotrafficking
 The biggest fabrication, arguably exceeded the US government’s false “weapons of mass destruction” claim used to justify the disastrous invasion of Iraq over two decades ago, was to blame Venezuela, Maduro in particular, for the US fentanyl epidemic.

It even called it a “weapon of mass destruction”.

Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores . . . victims of fabricated accusations. Image: Wikimedia Commons

Consider the following facts that completely discredit Trump’s fabrication:

  • In its March 2025 report the US State Department identified Mexico as the sole source of fentanyl entering the United States. United Nations investigations into fentanyl distribution also don’t identify Venezuela as a producer, let alone a supplier.
  • Trump claims that Maduro leads a so-called Venezuelan “Cartel of the Suns” that traffics narcotics, including fentanyl, into the US. In fact, this is a politically manufactured fantasy. There is no such organisation as has just been acknowledged in the last few days by the US Department of Justice.
  • In 2024, Honduran ex-president Juan Orlando Hernández was convicted in a US court and sentenced to 45 years for conspiring to smuggle over 400 tons of cocaine into the US. Last November, Trump pardoned this narcotrafficker.

The overstated: oil
 Many believe that the US invasion is all or primarily about oil. Certainly Trump’s own words and actions encourage this belief. After all, Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves.

However, since Trump’s sanctions targeting its oil sector back in 2017, Venezuela’s exports to the US have plummeted. Instead, China has become its biggest importer.

Last November, Trump released a US National Security Strategy for Latin America. It declared that “Restoring American energy dominance (in oil, gas, coal, and nuclear) and reshoring the necessary key energy components is a top strategic priority”.

However, while important, oil profiteering is not the prime driver of the US assault on Venezuelan sovereignty. Although Venezuela has huge oil reserves, it is heavy oil which is more difficult to fully process.

Instead, its oil reserves are a consequence of a wider geopolitical agenda sometimes called “spheres of influence”. While intricately linked, US oil sanctions are more a weapon than a driver of the imperialist assault on Venezuela.

(Original Caption) 1912-Painting by Clyde De Land of the birth of the Monroe Doctrine, (1823). (L TO R): John Irving Adams; William Harris Crawford; William Wirt; President James Monroe; John Caldwell Calhoun; Daniel D. Tompkins; and John McLean.

” data-medium-file=”https://politicalbytes.blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/james-munroe-and-munroe-doctrince-getty-images.jpg?w=300″ data-large-file=”https://politicalbytes.blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/james-munroe-and-munroe-doctrince-getty-images.jpg?w=612″/>

President James Munroe and Munroe Doctrine . . . Trump is reinventing the Doctrine to extend US colonial power throughout the Americas. Image: politicalbytes.blog

The on the mark justification
 Where the United States’  justification was on the mark comes from Donald Trump’s above-mentioned praise for the first “American imperialist president” William McKinley.

Consistent with this praise, through misrepresentation, Trump has drawn upon what is known as the “Munroe Doctrine”.

This Doctrine was named after President James Monroe who was the fifth US president (1817-1825). Munroe was both an original Founding Father of US independence and the last Founding Father to serve as president.

The Munroe Doctrine was issued in 1823, less than 50 years after US independence was declared and 34 years before its constitution was approved. It was a young developing country; not that long ago itself comprising 13 different British colonies.

The Doctrine was a policy of limiting European colonialism in the Americas but not to replace it with American colonialisation because it lacked both the inclination and means to achieve this. It was more aligned in principle with non-colonial states in the region.

However, Trump is reinventing the Doctrine to extend US colonial power throughout the Americas. This is what the National Security Strategy is all about.

The attack on Venezuela is an endeavour — among other things —  to:

  • impose US hegemony in Latin America;
  • exploit Venezuela’s natural resources (oil, gas, critical minerals, and rare earth elements) as part of an attempt to build a new supply chain in the Western Hemisphere;
  • cut off Latin America’s ties with other countries, particularly its biggest competitor China;
  • threaten other leftwing or progressive governments in the continent;
  • destroy the project of regional integration in Latin America and the Caribbean; and
  • sabotage “Global South” unity over supporting Palestine and other liberation struggles.

Where to next?
 I have deliberately not discussed related issues such as the nature of the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela along with the longstanding United States hostility towards it beginning in the latter part of Bill Clinton’s presidency, and the entrenched and violent far right opposition to it.

I have also not discussed the impact of the sudden drop in oil prices in 2014, the impact of accelerating US economic warfare (sanctions) since 2015, and the controversy over last year’s presidential elections.

As an aside these elections in my view were imperfect but legitimate. Further, Trump has been explicit — he isn’t interested in “restoring democracy” or “democratic transition”; nor does he rate the alternative Venezuelan far right led by Maria Corina Machado stating that she didn’t have the support to run the country.

These exclusions are because I don’t want to distract from the greater priority being regional and global seriousness of the US’s military aggression (including abductions) towards the sovereignty of Venezuela and its people.

The US aggression is part of a wider plan to extend US domination across the Americas and beyond, consistent with its above-mentioned National Security Strategy which, in turn, is based on a misrepresentation of the anti-colonial 1823 Munroe Doctrine.

Even Greenland is on Trump’s takeover list. Image: politicalbytes.blog/The Guardian

Trump has explicitly signalled Cuba, Mexico, and Columbia as the next likely targets. Brazil and Uruguay can’t be ignored either. Even Greenland is expressly on his list.

Quite simply, the sovereignty of most Latin American and other more vulnerable countries that don’t comply with the US’s narcissistic far right — including fascist — leadership’s agenda are at risk.

What about New Zealand?
 New Zealand is in a difficult position. The government’s public response has been underwhelming although not as bad as the sycophantic United Kingdom government.

Prime Minister Luxon’s response to US Venezuelan invasion and illegal abductions. Image: politicalbytes.blog/Hubbard,/The Post)

Luxon’s government, with Winston Peters as foreign minister, has been slowly weaning New Zealand away from its international neutrality position to one increasingly closer to that of the United States.

The extensive exposure of this blatant and violent US display of power-grabbing makes public justifying this policy shift much more difficult.

Robert Patman, professor of international relations at Otago University discusses this in The Conversation (January 5): NZ faces a foreign policy reckoning.

Much more direct is Bryce Edwards’ piece published by the Democracy Project  and Asia Pacific Report (January 7): NZ’s craven stance on the US invasion of Venezuela.

As the narcissism of fascism and the far right continues to push the parameters of their power, an already unsafe world is becoming increasingly more dangerous and our government’s response suggests increasing sycophantic timidity.

Ian Powell is a progressive health, labour market and political “no-frills” forensic commentator in New Zealand. A former senior doctors union leader for more than 30 years, he blogs at Second Opinion and Political Bytes, where this article was first published. Republished with the author’s permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

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