A leaked State Department memo said the Government is targeting nationalities more likely to require public assistance while living in the US. They are there without authority and must be dealt with according to the law of the United States,” Rabuka said. Other Pacific countries include Samoa at 63.4%, Federated States of Micronesia at 58.1%, Tonga at 54.4%, and Fiji at 40.8%. All the same, it’s not as though the US isn’t guilty of sweeping up Pacific states on to migrant ban lists that ought not be there. Take Tuvalu for instance: in July it was included on a list of countries where visa bans were being strongly considered... by accident.

Last night I had the beautiful privilege of going to a remarkable concert at Vector Arena in Auckland. My beautiful wife and I drove in from Dairy Flat with only minor delays, near the port, due to the ASB Classic Tennis – which was clearly pumping. Vector Arena was almost sold out for the great David Byrne of Talking Heads – and solo career – fame. When we left we had choices of how we drove back to beautiful Dairy Flat and the traffic management was superb. Auckland may just be on the way … and just wait until the CRL opens.

The subpoenas suggest the Justice Department is examining whether Walz’s and Frey’s public statements disparaging the surge of officers and federal actions have amounted to criminal interference in law enforcement work. The law under which they are investigating the two officials, a federal statute on conspiracy to impede a federal investigation, is similar to the charges filed against protesters whom federal officials allege have attempted to block immigration officers as they do their work. On Wednesday, a man was shot in the leg by an Ice officer in Minneapolis. “Minnesota insurrection is a direct result of a FAILED governor and a TERRIBLE mayor encouraging violence against law enforcement. “Weaponising the justice system and threatening political opponents is a dangerous, authoritarian tactic,” Walz said in a statement Saturday.

What a crazy couple of days for New Zealand rugby. That was the year the Tall Blacks stunned the basketball world by finishing fourth at the world championships in Indianapolis. Indiana University’s football (as in American football) team have qualified for the college national championship final. What you may not know is that this is basically like the Buller rugby team playing the Crusaders, and some are calling it the most unexpected rise in the history of American sport. Eins, zwei, dreiImagine being a fan of the VfL Wolfsburg football team in Germany’s Bundesliga.

One woman said she and her family decided to take advantage of the free services and caught the bus to and from the concert. However, when they arrived at Britomart in the CBD they found themselves among swarms of people trying to catch a bus to the North Shore. Fans faced a long wait for connecting buses from Britomart to the North Shore after the Ed Sheeran concert last night. After the concert, some concertgoers arrived at Britomart in Auckland's CBD to find swarms of people trying to catch a bus to the North Shore. Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

The man was stuck on a pontoon as the two orcas circled. Video / FacebookA casual late-night swim at Oriental Bay turned into a jaw-dropping encounter when Joel Crampton was flanked by two orca. The encounter was caught on camera by a group watching from shore, who had been keeping an eye on the man as he relaxed on a pontoon in the middle of the bay. In the footage, someone whistles to Crampton before jokingly calling out for him to jump into the water. As the video draws to a close, a child asks what would happen if the figure on the pontoon did jump in, prompting a dry reply from another voice: “He’ll probably get eaten, Tom.”An onlooker can be heard in the video pointing out an “oblivious man — just lying on his back”, moments before the presence of two orca becomes clear.

A neighbour who lives across the road said he was jolted awake by a loud bang at about 12.25am. His wife said the crash scene was not cleared until about 3am, leaving residents shaken and sleepless. Photo / Tom EleyTe Rapa Rd was closed between Forest Lake Rd and Vardon Rd for several hours while the Serious Crash Unit carried out a scene examination. Parmar said Singh had been living in New Zealand for two years with his wife Manpreet Kaur and their children. A Givealittle page has been set up to help support Singh’s wife as she navigates her grief and the financial strain left behind by the tragedy.

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But since moving to London, I’ve stopped waiting to see if someone will be around long enough to be worth the effort. For example, a couple of weeks ago, a friend, Zoe, sat me down and told me she’d booked her flight home. In the almost two years I’ve lived in London, I’ve said goodbye, usually disguised as “See you soon”, more times than I can count. Lillie Rohan's friend Zoe (left) is leaving London to return to New Zealand. A friend told me recently that, in the past three months, six of her closest friends have packed up and gone home.

He claimed the water flowing through the Waikato River is different. Tiotia’s friend on the other side was only about “six feet away” from Tiotia, so he tried to reach him. Missing Hamilton man Aydan Brown was found during the search for Tiotia after five months. While searching for Tiotia, police also found the body of Aydan Brown, who had gone missing from a Chartwell address five months ago. Brown’s family invited Moote’s to the site yesterday on River Rd, where Brown was pulled out of the water, for a karakia.

Class solidarity can gain 51%, Identity Politics risks pure temple over broad-church and you get endless schisms and little to show for it. Identity Politics activists suffering the narcism of petty difference and subjective triggering who put their identity above all else. The problem is the Right keep using woke to provoke culture war over reaction that the Right points to and says, ‘I told you so’. The Political Left responds to rising populism in NZ by leaning into that populism with Broadchurch Politics rather than alienating pure temple middle class Identity Politics woke dogma! Woke middle class activism has made our movement an alienating unfunny joke that the Right have weaponised.

The system means the current National Government is actually still operating with the multi-year health budget set by Labour. This means Budget 2026 could feature far more proscriptive budgeting for health, and a return to the old year-by-year funding model. Willis said the Government would still increase health funding every year. “They are a tool that puts the focus on medium-term sustainability, rather than on annual Budget initiatives,” Willis said in her Budget Policy Statement in December. “We will, at Budget, have an energy package which demonstrates our fiscal and regulatory commitment to affordable energy and electricity,” Willis said.

After months of unemployment, Tattersall was relying heavily on his savings and had signed up for temporary work. He also started posting about his job hunt on social media, to give himself something creative to focus on. However, other London job seekers have not been as lucky. She secured a marketing job when she first moved to London in 2024 but was later made redundant. She said London companies are struggling and cutting back on recruiting to save money.

The new five-star Sheraton Christchurch on Oxford Tce, formerly known as Noah’s Hotel in the 1970s and more recently as Rydges, is slowly being rebuilt. After being badly damaged in the February 22, 2011 earthquake, the new five-star Sheraton Christchurch on Oxford Tce, formerly known as Noah’s Hotel in the 1970s and more recently as Rydges, is slowly being rebuilt. The quake-strengthening work has almost been completed and work is now under way on the interior design of the $150 million hotel transformation. The hotel will also feature the city’s highest rooftop bar and a top-floor presidential suite. The Sheraton Christchurch is scheduled to open in mid-2027.

“We looked at each other and said: ‘That’s it, that’ll do’,” Trotter recalled during a special 40th anniversary Country Calendar show, 20 years ago. Kate Broadbent on Nikau Coopworth farm in Waikato - she was the focus of a Country Calendar episode in late 2025. Broadbent talks of agriculture’s place as the backbone of New Zealand and the importance of Country Calendar in showcasing that. Photo / Annaleise ShortlandWellington-based Henry has been connected to Country Calendar since 2008 and has been its producer since 2023. “There’s not a Country Calendar I’ve done that I haven’t enjoyed in some way.