An expansion of cancer infusion services will allow “thousands” more New Zealanders to access “life-saving cancer treatment closer to home”, says Health Minister Simeon Brown.

Brown at Waitākere Hospital on Monday morning announced 14 new infusion centres and expansions at 14 existing sites, enabling “hundreds” more treatments every week.

“Infusion services are essential for delivering a wide range of treatments, particularly for cancer,” Brown said. “Our record $604 million investment in Pharmac through Budget 2024 delivered 66 new medicines, including 33 cancer treatments. That’s life‑changing for many thousands of people, but it also requires increased infusion capacity to ensure patients can access these medicines when they need them.”

He said about 13,000 more infusions were expected to be needed in 2025/6, up 12 percent.

“Once fully implemented, the expansion will deliver 218 more chair-days of treatment space each week. This will allow hundreds more patients to be treated weekly across the country, with each chair typically used by three to five patients per day.”

New services had already been set up in Bay of Islands, Buller, and Waitākere, he said, and existing services expanded in Whangārei, South Auckland, Taupō, Wairoa, Napier, Whanganui, Wellington, Christchurch, and Timaru.

By 2028, there will be additional new services in Dargaville, Henderson, Greenlane, South Auckland, Te Kūiti, Hāwera, Waipukurau, Horowhenua, Golden Bay, Christchurch, and Rolleston, and expanded services in Kaitaia, North Shore, Taranaki, Kāpiti, and Ashburton.

“As part of this investment, a nationwide programme is underway to meet rising demand and ensure more consistent access to care, no matter where people live.

“This includes actively recruiting for additional staff to deliver infusion services, including senior medical officers, specialist nurses, pharmacists, and other allied health professionals.”

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Rural retailers are reporting the supply chain crunch due to impacts of war in the Middle East is flowing down to key agricultural goods.

Farming customers at major rural retailers Farmlands and PGG Wrightson are being warned that the firms were dealing with price increases being passed down to them by suppliers and manufacturers.

Farmer-owned co-operative Farmlands said prices were escalating for imported products like imported palm kernel expeller (PKE), fertiliser and animal feeds, as well as for plastic products and resins.

General manager of strategy Scott Brown said it had increased its orders and inventory to get ahead of further price rises, but assured supply levels were not an issue at present.

“We’re starting to see price increases coming through from our supply areas.”

Brown said there were obvious fuel and fertiliser price increases, but also second-order impacts and further flow-ons.

“Anything that uses especially fuel to be manufactured, shipped, transported. So if you look at plastics, resins, those areas we’re starting to see those price increases coming through.

“And that then will flow on probably to other general goods, as price inflation comes through in those other areas.”

He said manufacturers too were passing down the extra costs.

“We’re seeing it on our own product that we get manufactured coming through, that price escalation, whether that be shipping costs, whether it be manufacturing costs, through to end delivery costs.

“So we’re minimising as much as we can, but obviously we need to pass on those costs as they come through.”

Brown said it was pushing back as much as it could with suppliers to try to get the best deal for its farmers and growers, but expected the impact to be ongoing.

“The earlier we work with our farmers and growers in terms of what they need and locking that in, the better we can manage those price increases and give us certainty.

“We’re hoping that this will be short-lived, but we know even if there was resolution on Monday, the impact on the supply chain is going to last for quite some time.”

Brown encouraged farmers to talk with their representatives and plan what they might need over the coming months to try to get ahead of further price increases.

Meanwhile, agricultural service provider and rival retailer PGG Wrightson said it was also facing price increases passed onto them.

“Off the back of the significant increase in crude oil cost, we are seeing an increase in global shipping costs and local freight/distribution costs which are being passed onto us,” it said on its website.

“The increase in crude oil also applies to products or packaging made from plastic. Where able, we will continue to try to minimise price increases wherever possible.”

It said it was not experiencing supply delays at present, and was working with suppliers to find alternatives to countries that were restricting exports of commodities.

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Wild weather has once again brought flooding, damage and destruction to parts of the country, and uncertainty and stress over a far greater region – particularly those hit before.

There have been four red weather warnings – reserved for the most extreme events – and at least six extreme weather events so far this year, by RNZ’s count – and it’s only April.

Cyclone Vaianu over the weekend brought flooding and damage across much of the North Island, forcing evacuations, shutting roads and leaving many without power.

The prime minister says the response to Cyclone Vaianu has been far better than previous emergencies.

Christopher Luxon told Morning Report on Monday the system responded well – between local and central government as well as civil defence, iwi and hapū.

“This is the sad reality as we’ve dealt with more and more of these events, you know,” he said.

“Whether it’s the mayors, the Civil Defence, NEMA, you know, our first responders, the rural support, you know, there’s just been great collaboration and we’ve had a series of events that have often been similar size and we’re just so much more joined up and sorted.

“But I think I’m also very grateful, particularly in this event, the message went out very strongly and Kiwi families and households also took responsibility.”

Key roads in the eastern part of the North Island, State Highways 2 and 35, were frequently closed during and after major weather events, often by slips and flooding.

Luxon said iwi were having “conversations” about relocating from areas prone to bad weather and flooding due to climate change.

“They’re having those conversations with the elders who have been very connected to those areas, and that’s been a really positive thing.”

As for the 14 percent – around 675,000 – New Zealanders who currently live in areas prone to flooding, Luxon said it was time to “confront the brutal facts of the reality that actually they are going to be areas of New Zealand that we’re going to have to rethink over time how we manage that”.

“That’s why we’ve got to work on a national flood plan, national adaptation framework… make sure we’re not doing dumb stuff, for example, building back into flood plains.

“And we’ve seen a lot of that over multiple decades, you know, over the last 40, 50 years. Knowledge that existed in the ’50s and the ’60s about where not to build ends up getting built on the ’70s and ’80s, and lo and behold, we have a problem.

“So, we’ve just got to be much more strategic about how we deal with it and then embed resilience into everything that we’re doing.”

As an example, Luxon cited a new four-lane road proposed between Napier and Hastings with “a higher level of resilience and flood protection than we’ve seen”.

“We’ve put $200 million into stop banks and flood protection… that had huge benefits for many different communities.

“We’re working really hard on – we’re going to have a national flood plan for the first time ever by the end of this year. I know this stuff sounds like we should have had it for years, but we didn’t do the practical stuff.”

A response from the Ministry for the Environment released under the Official Information Act detailed that of the government’s claim of “over $1 billion since 2020” in flood protection spending, nearly all of it was committed by the previous government; this government’s contribution has been $200m through the Regional Infrastructure Fund.

Setting aside the $647.5m in one-off disaster recovery funding, the previous government committed $340m over three years to flood resilience.

The present government has also cancelled or scaled back a number of climate measures, including resuming oil and gas exploration, and in December rejected all of the Climate Change Commission’s recommendations to strengthen New Zealand’s emissions targets.

Luxon said New Zealand was not alone in facing climate challenges.

“In fact, many other countries are in the same boat. And you’ve got to think about it. There’s banks, there’s insurers, there’s councils, there’s central government, there’s homeowners and landowners. And there’s going to be multiple generations, they’re going to be dealing with these issues.

“So over time, how do we get much more knowledge data so that we can actually strengthen New Zealand and make it more resilient and not doing it? So for example, last flood I was up in Hicks Bay Way, State Highway 35… and it was interesting talking to the young Wahine leaders who are doing an amazing job and other emergency response leaders of iwi and hapu.

Treasury has warned of an 80 percent chance of another Gabrielle-scale event in the next 50 years.

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Hungary’s veteran nationalist leader Viktor Orban conceded defeat after a landslide election victory by the upstart opposition Tisza party, in a setback for his allies in Russia and US President Donald Trump’s White House.

Results based on 46 percent of votes counted showed the centre-right, pro-EU Tisza party of Peter Magyar winning 135 seats – or a crucial two-thirds majority – in the 199-member parliament, ahead of Orban’s Fidesz party.

“The election results are not final yet, but the situation is understandable and clear,” Orban said at the Fidesz campaign offices. “The election result is painful for us, but clear.”

Pollsters predicted a record voter turnout, with Hungarian television showing long queues outside some voting stations in Budapest. Data at 1630 GMT, half an hour before polls were due to close, showed 77.8 percent of voters casting their ballots, up from 67.8 percent four years earlier.

If the final results confirm the early readings, an end to Orban’s period in government after 16 years in power would have significant implications not only for Hungary, but for the European Union, Ukraine and beyond.

It would likely spell an end to Hungary’s adversarial role inside the EU, possibly opening the way for a 90 billion euro loan to war-battered Ukraine blocked by Orban.

Defeat for Orban could also mean the eventual release of EU funds to Hungary that the bloc had suspended due to what Brussels said was Orban’s erosion of democratic standards.

Orban’s exit would also deprive Russian President Vladimir Putin of his main ally in the EU and send shockwaves through Western right-wing circles, including the White House.

In Hungary, a Tisza victory could open the way for reforms that the party says would aim to combat corruption and restore the independence of the judiciary and other institutions.

However, the extent of such reforms will depend on whether Tisza can secure the two-thirds constitutional majority it would need to reverse much of Orban’s legacy.

Economic stagnation hurt Orban’s support

Orban, a eurosceptic, carved out a model of an “illiberal democracy” seen as a blueprint by Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement and its admirers in Europe.

But many Hungarians have grown increasingly weary of Orban, 62, after three years of economic stagnation and soaring living costs as well as reports of oligarchs close to the government amassing more wealth.

Tisza’s leader Magyar appears to have successfully tapped into this frustration.

Casting his vote for Tisza in the Hungarian capital, Mihaly Bacsi, 27, said the country needed change.

“We need an improvement in public mood, there is too much tension in many areas and the current government only fuels these sentiments,” he said.

Another voter, who gave her name as Zsuzsa, said she wanted continuity.

“I would really like if all the results that have been achieved in recent years remain – and I am terribly afraid of the war,” she said, referring to the conflict raging in Ukraine, Hungary’s eastern neighbour.

Orban sought to cast Sunday’s election as a choice between “war and peace”. During campaigning, the government blanketed the country with signs warning that Magyar would drag Hungary into Russia’s war with Ukraine, something he strongly denies

– Reuters

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Teenage running phenomenon Sam Ruthe has cast doubt over his immediate racing future after suffering a stress fracture to his lower leg.

Ruthe, who turned 17 on Sunday, posted that he’ll be “off the radar for a while”, although there was no indication whether time out will affect his preparation or availability for the Commonwealth Games in July.

On the running app Strava, he indicated the injury caught him by surprise.

“It wasn’t a running related injury and was caused by lateral movement activity like football, so I will be off the radar for a bit while it heals,” Ruthe said.

A fibula stress fracture might typically take six to 12 weeks of recovery time but, crucially, requires rest and low-impact activity.

That could affect Ruthe’s buildup for the Games in Glasgow, starting on 23 July, followed by the world under-20 championships in the United States in early August.

He was also scheduled to contest the mile at a Diamond League event in early July – the Prefontaine Classic.

Ruthe has stunned the athletics community with a series of blistering performances over the past year, knocking off numerous national and world age group records.

In January, he broke Sir John Walker’s long-standing national mile record when he clocked 3min 48.88sec at an indoor meet in Boston.

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

A Wellington woman, murdered by her son in 2023, died from a blow to the head with a heavy dolphin ornament, a coroner’s report has revealed.

Irene Katsougiannis, 62, was killed in her Miramar home by 23-year-old son Soterios Katsougiannis, who died days later in Hong Kong.

Released on Monday, a report by coroner Andrew Schirnack said Irene Katsougiannis had feared her son, who could be violent, and was addicted to alcohol, drugs and gambling.

It said Irene Katsougiannis suffered severe blunt force trauma to her head, as well as minor injuries on her torso and arms.

The pathologist found a bloody ornamental dolphin at the scene was the probable weapon, adding “the fins of the dolphin may explain the puncture wounds and other injuries”.

Son killed mother, spent thousands at Hong Kong bars

Irene Katsougiannis’ body was found on 16 October, 2023, by a concerned friend, who hadn’t heard from her for two days.

The report said Irene Katsougiannis had been teaching music until 4.30pm on 13 October.

Her son had been at a casino in Auckland and arrived in Wellington that evening, buying alcohol, then catching a bus to her house.

A ranchslider at the property was smashed, and glass was scattered inside and outside.

The next afternoon, he transferred more than $12,000 to his bank account from one she had control over and booked a flight to Hong Kong, leaving the next day.

He arrived, and spent $8000 at a night club and bars. By 9pm NZT, Hong Kong authorities reported he’d fallen from a 14-storey building to his death. He had Irene Katsougiannis’ phone.

“Approximately 30 minutes before Soterios’ fall, a message was received on that phone from a contact of Ms Katsougiannis, checking on her wellbeing and referring to a homicide investigation.”

On that phone, the internet search history included “tourist visa Hong Kong” and “highest peaks” in various locations.

The report said he had no suspicious wounds on his body, and local police did not identify any “suspicious or criminal elements”.

Irene Katsougiannis ‘fearful’ of son

Soterios Katsougiannis lived a transient lifestyle and his mental health declined, after the sudden death of his father in 2017, the report said. Handwritten notes found in his mother’s bedroom revealed the nature of their relationship.

“They disclose that Ms Katsougiannis experienced Soterios engaging in violent behaviours, including throwing and breaking items in her home, throwing eggs and spitting at her.

“Ms Katsougiannis recorded incidents where Soterios swore at a ‘demon’, appeared to believe he was communicating with God and believed he was responding to his mother’s ‘telepathic thoughts’.”

Soterios Katsougiannis would regularly request money from his mother and she would agree, despite it causing her financial strain.

“It appears Ms Katsougiannis felt intimidated by his behaviours,” the report said.

Coroner Schirnack said her death was a tragedy.

Irene Katsougiannis ‘a dear friend’

Soon after Irene Katsougiannis’ death, family friend Katy told RNZ she was a valued friend, netball coach and member of the Greek community.

“Her loss will be felt far and wide,” she said. “I am in shock, and my heart and sincere condolences go out to her family and all who love her.”

Greek community group Odysseus Brotherhood paid tribute to her on Facebook, saying it was saddened by the tragic news of the passing of “our dear friend”.

Irene Katsougiannis was a piano tutor at Queen Margaret College, and principal Jayne-Ann Young also described her as a “very dear colleague and friend”.

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Hayden Paddon has turned back the clock, climbing a World Rally Championship (WRC) podium for the first time in eight years following a carnage-filled round in Croatia.

The 38-year-old and his long-time co-driver John Kennard combined to produce the best finish for Hyundai on the three-day rally, but only after teammate and rally leader Thierry Neuville dramatically crashed on the 20th and final stage.

Belgian Neuville, who had been leading, skidded and veered off course kilometres from the finish and smashed into a concrete block, damaging his suspension.

Japan’s Takamoto Katsuta was promoted to first, 20.7 seconds ahead of fellow Toyota driver Sami Pajari, with Paddon a further 1min 47sec back in third.

Katsuta goes top of the WRC standings after four rounds, having won the previous leg in Kenya.

Paddon, a part-time driver for Hyundai in his return to the WRC, is 11th overall after two drives.

He placed 11th in his other appearance this season, the Monte Carlo Rally in January, before rotating out of the team’s third car for other drivers in Sweden and Kenya.

The 38-year-old was as much relieved as he was pleased to return to the podium for the first time since Rally Australia in 2018, having negotiated challenging conditions in Croatia.

“A result is a result. We have done it by being a bit technical and having wisdom and being smart. We have made a good step up from Monte,” Paddon said in immediate post-race comments, having recorded his best-ever finish in a WRC tarmac rally.

Paddon and Kennard found themselves fourth early in the 20-stage rally and held firm in that position before climbing one spot due to Neuville’s dramatic late misfortune.

The 20-stage Croatia Rally is widely considered one of the most challenging tarmac events in the WRC due to its low-grip, inconsistent surfaces and narrow roads.

The podium trio were the only top-category drivers in the leading 10, with in-form Toyota pair Elfyn Evans and Oliver Solberg both crashing out on day one of the three-day rally.

Paddon, whose lone WRC rally win came in Argentina in 2016, is likely to be rotated out of Hyundai’s lineup for the next event, in Spain’s Canary Islands later this month.

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The North Island has taken yet another hammering, with Cyclone Vaianu’s wrath lashing the north and east.

Hundreds of households were evacuated, while thousands more went without power as fallen trees took down lines.

It also caused storm surges and massive ocean swells.

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Senior climate scientists say the major funding for extreme weather research is drying up just as the country needs it the most.

In a joint comment provided to RNZ, three leading New Zealand researchers said there was little upcoming investment into understanding severe storms, even though that was how most New Zealanders were experiencing climate change at the moment.

Their perspective was supported by the New Zealand Association of Scientists, which warned that changes to science investment announced by the government this month could see even more funding diverted away from New Zealand-specific climate research.

The government said it invested around $170 million into climate-related research every year and “there will always be some who are disappointed at funding decisions”.

University of Canterbury professor Dave Frame, University of Waikato senior lecturer Luke Harrington, and Earth Sciences New Zealand researcher Suzanne Rosier wrote that the vast majority of New Zealand’s extreme rainfall was driven by “atmospheric rivers” arriving from the tropics.

Recent research had made good progress in trying to understand how climate change was influencing that, but major projects were now ending, with little to follow them.

“Just as the costs of extreme weather are becoming more and more apparent, our ability to understand and inform adaptation actions has diminished.”

While rain events had been striking the country for “millenia”, things were now changing as Earth warmed, they wrote.

“As the atmosphere warms, it can hold more water vapour. When those atmospheric rivers come out of the tropics, they contain more moisture than they did, providing the potential for more rain when they strike.”

Speaking to RNZ on the trio’s behalf, Dave Frame said researchers knew that storm behaviour was also changing, with total rainfall squeezed into a shorter timeframe.

“So that’s an amplification of those very wet events when they actually occur, often on quite short timescales of a few hours.”

Both ends of that rainfall distribution were changing, meaning longer dry and drought periods too, he said.

‘Large investments’ have ended

There were “large investments” in previous years to learn more about those atmospheric phenomena, he said, including two major Endeavour Fund research programmes totalling $25m, and the Deep South National Science Challenge, which Frame directed in its first year.

But all three of those programmes have now ended, with many outstanding questions.

“There’s quite a few questions about compound events, where you’ve got different sorts of events combining with each other in a way that really makes risks go up quite fast that we’re really still pretty uncertain about,” Frame said.

“Things like the particular timings of events, whether or not you get an atmospheric river at the end of a drought, what the interactions between things like snowpacks in spring, the melting snowpacks and an extreme rainfall event are like, the interaction between sea level rise and extreme rainfall.”

He and his colleagues worried there was little funding on the horizon to continue that work.

“I think a lot of people around the country would find [it] a bit crazy, actually, that just as… people are really feeling the sharp end of climate change through these extreme events, there’s been a bit of a walking back from investing in the science.”

In a statement, new Science, Innovation and Technology minister Penny Simmonds said $170m was invested in climate-related research each year, alongside another $70m committed to the Natural Hazards and Resilience Platform between 2024 and 2031.

RNZ searched some of the major researcher-led contestable funds for climate-related projects.

Endeavour Fund grants for all projects with a major climate change element to them totalled $463m since 2010, with just under half of that to be spent between now and 2030.

However, only a fraction of that funding ($67m) went to research programmes or smaller projects looking at extreme weather patterns and modelling, or using that information to manage and plan community responses.

Of that, there is $46.5m still to be spent – about $9m a year until 2030.

A similar search of Marsden grants – another major public source of research funding – found $54 million awarded to 86 climate change-related projects.

That represented 4.5 percent of all Marsden funding since 2008.

Again, only six appeared to be projects looking specifically at climate extremes in New Zealand or the southern hemisphere, receiving $4.9m of funding between them.

In contrast, $29m was given to climate change projects looking at Antarctica, glaciers and oceans.

All of that work was also important, Frame said.

“Some nerd sitting in an office, you know, doing some advanced Python while a computer blinks at them doesn’t seem quite so cool.

“But all the things like extreme rainfall and other things which go on top of that, which usually really do the damage, storm surges and things like that – that stuff is much closer in time than the effects of the West Antarctic ice sheet in a couple of hundred years,” he said.

“The way that most New Zealanders are feeling climate change at the moment, which is through a stream of events, really isn’t part of those [other research] platforms at all.”

Research capability has been lost

Association of Scientists co-president Lucy Stewart said the loss of a funding pipeline had been compounded by job cuts at Earth Sciences New Zealand and some universities.

A small team of specialist climate modellers – who translated global climate models into New Zealand-specific ones – were among 90 roles disestablished at ESNZ last year, following budget cuts.

“A lot of those climate modellers have gone, they’ve moved overseas, because they were disestablished.”

The government had also ended Marsden funding for humanities and social science research, which would have an effect on climate research too.

“A lot of climate response work is social science. Things like, if you think about managed retreat, understanding how people think about it, communicating it to them, working with communities on what just transitions look like – all of that is social science.”

At the start of April, the government announced it would back the recommendations in an advisory report to shift science funding to four priorities.

That included shifting $122m of current funding to a new “advancing technologies” priority over the next two to three years, which would include AI, quantum computing and advanced manufacturing.

That funding would be reallocated from other areas, including environmental science, Stewart said.

“If the government wants to fund advanced tech, sure, they should do that, but they are robbing Peter to pay Paul and it will result in less climate research getting done.”

The result would be researchers lost to jobs overseas or other careers.

“We’ve lost about 700 people across the science system in the last couple of years in terms of cuts,” she said.

“We’re losing institutional knowledge, we’re losing connectivity, we’re losing networks of researchers… once it’s gone, it takes years and decades to get it back.”

Researchers were unlikely to come back into the system “because there’s nothing to come back to”.

Finding funding from alternative sources, such as philanthropy, was difficult, Stewart said.

“There are so many things on fire in New Zealand right now, if you look at the health system and education and the cost of living – competition for dollars is very high.

“You have to make a bloody good argument that people who want to do philanthropy are better off putting that money into research than making sure people can eat.”

The same argument could be made by the government, “but they’re not doing much to make sure people can eat, either”, Stewart said.

Ministerial response

Penny Simmonds said the new advanced technology research area was “critical to weather and climate research”.

The advisory report provided a clear path forward, she said.

“It will inform the development of the Science Investment Plan, which will set New Zealand’s long-term research priorities and align public investment with national missions.”

The plan will be released later this year.

One of the aims of the government’s science reforms was to improve the training and retention of scientists, Simmonds said.

In addition, the Weather Forecasting Bill before Parliament would enable ESNZ to acquire MetService, which would “create efficiencies to reinvest in improvements to our climate science and weather forecasting capabilities”.

“That is already delivering real-world results, including direct support to emergency management during recent severe weather,” she said.

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Follow the latest with RNZ’s live blog.

Whakatāne acting mayor Julie Jukes says Cyclone Vaianu caused significant amount of damage, and the full extent is not yet known.

Vaianu is tracking south-east away from mainland New Zealand, after causing power cuts, flooding and road closures across the east coast of the North Island.

Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell is to visit Whakatāne region on Monday.

The Chatham Islands are under a strong wind watch until 9am.

A strong wind warning remains in place for the Tararua District, and strong wind watch is also in place for Wairarapa until 7am.

Evacuated Hawkes Bay residents are still to find out when they can return to their homes, while Bay of Plenty evacuees were allowed to go back on Sunday evening.

Most of the 10,000 households whose power was cut have been reconnected, but First Light Network’s website shows 870 homes in Wairoa remain without power, while 440 homes in Gisborne are disconnected. Horizon Networks is reporting a handful of outages and PowerCo had just over 500 still off the grid on Monday.

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A Wellington woman, murdered by her son in 2023, died from a blow to the head with a heavy dolphin ornament, a coroner’s report has revealed.

Irene Katsougiannis, 62, was killed in her Miramar home by 23-year-old son Soterios Katsougiannis, who died days later in Hong Kong.

Released on Monday, a report by coroner Andrew Schirnack said Irene Katsougiannis had feared her son, who could be violent, and was addicted to alcohol, drugs and gambling.

It said Irene Katsougiannis suffered severe blunt force trauma to her head, as well as minor injuries on her torso and arms.

The pathologist found a bloody ornamental dolphin at the scene was the probable weapon, adding “the fins of the dolphin may explain the puncture wounds and other injuries”.

Son killed mother, spent thousands at Hong Kong bars

Irene Katsougiannis’ body was found on 16 October, 2023, by a concerned friend, who hadn’t heard from her for two days.

The report said Irene Katsougiannis had been teaching music until 4.30pm on 13 October.

Her son had been at a casino in Auckland and arrived in Wellington that evening, buying alcohol, then catching a bus to her house.

A ranchslider at the property was smashed, and glass was scattered inside and outside.

The next afternoon, he transferred more than $12,000 to his bank account from one she had control over and booked a flight to Hong Kong, leaving the next day.

He arrived, and spent $8000 at a night club and bars. By 9pm NZT, Hong Kong authorities reported he’d fallen from a 14-storey building to his death. He had Irene Katsougiannis’ phone.

“Approximately 30 minutes before Soterios’ fall, a message was received on that phone from a contact of Ms Katsougiannis, checking on her wellbeing and referring to a homicide investigation.”

On that phone, the internet search history included “tourist visa Hong Kong” and “highest peaks” in various locations.

The report said he had no suspicious wounds on his body, and local police did not identify any “suspicious or criminal elements”.

Irene Katsougiannis ‘fearful’ of son

Soterios Katsougiannis lived a transient lifestyle and his mental health declined, after the sudden death of his father in 2017, the report said. Handwritten notes found in his mother’s bedroom revealed the nature of their relationship.

“They disclose that Ms Katsougiannis experienced Soterios engaging in violent behaviours, including throwing and breaking items in her home, throwing eggs and spitting at her.

“Ms Katsougiannis recorded incidents where Soterios swore at a ‘demon’, appeared to believe he was communicating with God and believed he was responding to his mother’s ‘telepathic thoughts’.”

Soterios Katsougiannis would regularly request money from his mother and she would agree, despite it causing her financial strain.

“It appears Ms Katsougiannis felt intimidated by his behaviours,” the report said.

Coroner Schirnack said her death was a tragedy.

Irene Katsougiannis ‘a dear friend’

Soon after Irene Katsougiannis’ death, family friend Katy told RNZ she was a valued friend, netball coach and member of the Greek community.

“Her loss will be felt far and wide,” she said. “I am in shock, and my heart and sincere condolences go out to her family and all who love her.”

Greek community group Odysseus Brotherhood paid tribute to her on Facebook, saying it was saddened by the tragic news of the passing of “our dear friend”.

Irene Katsougiannis was a piano tutor at Queen Margaret College, and principal Jayne-Ann Young also described her as a “very dear colleague and friend”.

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

A Coromandel weather station recorded more than 200mm of rain as Cyclone Vaianu swept over the North Island.

The cyclone, which caused power outages, flooding and road closures across the east coast of the North Island, tracked away from mainland New Zealand overnight.

Some residents reported it was not as severe as the storms earlier this year.

MetService meteorologist John Law said although Vaianu had veered east, the cyclone track was still within the forecast “cone of uncertainty”.

Wind gusts of up to 126km/h were recorded at Māhia, with even higher speeds recorded at offshore stations, he said.

Very heavy rain was also recorded in some places in the 24-hour period to Sunday night.

“The base of the Coromandel, we’ve seen as much as 220mm of rainfall through there, and, similarly, in towards parts of the Bay of Plenty and the higher ground there, as much as 140 to 150mm of rain.”

New Zealanders did an “amazing job” of preparing in the days before the cyclone arrived, Law said.

“People working together to make sure that everyone’s up to date with the latest forecasts and watches and warnings.

“It’s always unfortunate to see impacts like the flooding and those power outages, but I think people have done very well to be prepared.”

Bay of Plenty evacuees return home

Those who have been evacuated in the Bay of Plenty are now able to return home, as long as it is safe for them to do so.

Whakatāne acting mayor Julie Jukes said the evacuation order was no longer in place.

A total of 270 households in Ōhope and Thornton were forced to evacuate, while an unknown number had chosen to.

Jukes said the weather had died down as of 9pm on Sunday.

Hawke’s Bay warnings lift

MetService lifted the heavy rain warning for Hawke’s Bay, but a strong wind warning remained in place overnight until 5am on Monday.

Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence group controller Shane Briggs said on Sunday the eye of the storm had moved offshore.

“We’re not out of everything yet, but actually it’s been surprisingly less than expected and at this stage, it looks like we’ve come off pretty lightly.”

Briggs said people should still avoid unnecessary travel if they could as there may be fallen trees and damaged powerlines.

In its 8pm Sunday update, Hastings District Council said evacuation zones remained in place for parts of Haumoana, Te Awanga, Waimārama and Ocean Beach, and security was in place overnight, along with road cordons.

There remained a risk of high winds, which could cause falling trees, power outages, road closures and coastal swells in exposed areas. Rainfall in the ranges is causing rivers to rise, but not to dangerous levels.

People were advised to stay away from rivers for the following 24 hours due to the potential for flooding as this water makes its way down to low-lying areas.

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

The Salvation Army says prisoners deserve more help planning for their release to ensure they’re not out on the streets.

An Auditor-General’s report revealed Corrections did not know how many people leave prison with nowhere to live.

Corrections said it did not need to know – aside from those released on parole or with conditions – and prisoners weren’t obliged to tell them, but the report said that information was crucial to informing social services who could help those people, preventing homelessness and reducing the risk of re-offending.

It also found remand prisoners, often released at short notice, were more at risk of leaving prison without a plan.

Salvation Army supportive accommodation and re-integration services manager Glen Buckner said many factors made housing former prisoners difficult, but more could be done to help them prepare.

“Everybody who’s in prison… at some stage is going to be released,” he said. “Very, very few people will be in prison forever, so we do have the opportunity, while they’re inside, to be making really, really clear plans with the individuals around what might be available.”

Corrections contracts the Salvation Army and others to help prisoners into housing.

The department and social service agencies had a shared responsibility to transition people from prison into stable housing, Buckner said. That was particularly difficult for remand prisoners.

“For you to be able to secure a property before you leave prison, you have to also have a date that you’re leaving prison.

“Landlords won’t keep property, if there’s no guarantees if somebody’s being released.”

Prisoners also need to wait until they’re out of prison to get help from the Ministry of Social Development, like applying for emergency housing or money for a bond, Buckner said.

‘I didn’t have any plan’ – former prisoner

A former Hawke’s Bay prisoner, whom RNZ agreed not to name, said he could have been on the street, if not for Salvation Army helping him find a home.

The man was released on parole last month, after serving just under three years in prison.

He was denied parole previously, because he didn’t have anywhere to live, but his Corrections case manager referred him to Salvation Army, which it contracts to help prisoners into housing.

The man said, otherwise, he would have been “winging it”.

“I didn’t have any plan, I kind of just… I wouldn’t… I don’t even know,” he said.

He needed to stay locally to reconnect with his kids as part of his re-integration plan and he now sees them every couple of days.

“You can’t beat it,” he said. “I feel like I’m on a nice positive pathway now.”

The simple two-bedroom flat was a safe space away from his pre-prison friendships, which were centred around drug use, the man said.

“I’ve been able to just stay in my own lane. I haven’t caught up with any of them, because I don’t need to.

“I’m either at home with my kids or at the gym, and it’s just allowed me just to do my own thing. It’s made it a lot easier having somewhere to go, a safe space, somewhere that’s a good little foundation… so I can rebuild my life.”

The man will live there for 13 weeks, while he and Salvation Army look for somewhere more permanent.

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The cost of housing is making it difficult for people to pay their bills, with one-in-four delaying medical care and/or skipping meals in the past year.

“The sacrifices revealed in this data are not a cost-of-living story,” The Urban Advisory (TUA) co-founder and director Dr Natalie Allen said.

“They are an ongoing story about housing system failure.

“We are now two years into this survey and the patterns are not changing. They are hardening.”

The second annual Housing Survey by TUA drew on the experiences of 5232 New Zealanders surveyed between August 2024-January 2026.

Dr Allen said the data could help inform commercial decision-making, as the country looked to invest more into infrastructure.

The issues

She said making ends meet was something faced by ordinary households – renters, moderate-income families and first-home aspirants – and wasn’t limited to people living in extreme poverty.

However, there was a gap in sentiment between those who owned and those that rented.

While 90 percent of homeowners felt stable and secure in their housing, only 57 percent of renters said the same.

Renters also reported colder and damper homes, lower energy efficiency and less control over their living conditions.

What the survey found

• 50 percent of respondents worry they cannot pay for housing in the future.
• 45 percent are dissatisfied with the housing options available to them.
• 28 percent delayed medical appointments because of housing costs.
• 91 percent say housing costs too much relative to income.
• 25 percent skipped meals
• 76 percent rank safety from natural hazards as the most important property feature, above price and outdoor space.

What people want

The survey indicated New Zealanders weren’t dissatisfied with renting as a way of living, but were dissatisfied with the quality and insecurity of the rental homes available to them.

Allen said renting was a viable tenure option, but only if the product improved.

“Renters are paying more for less,” she said. “That is a structural failure with nationwide implications, not a set of unfortunate individual circumstances.”

Housing for an ageing population

Nearly half (49 percent) of people planning to retire in the next 10 years expected to downsize.

Most plan to stay in the region where they currently live, yet the market offered very few well-located, accessible, compact homes at the quality and price required.

Allen said it was not a niche problem, describing it as one of the strongest signals of future housing demand.

The commercial opportunity

The market wasn’t responding at scale to the demand for secure, long-term rental options by 52 percent of respondents.

TUA co-founder and director Greer O’Donnell said internationally proven models such as build-to-rent, shared equity, co-operative housing, community land trusts, progressive ownership and new-generation retirement living remained undersupplied in New Zealand.

“There is a large and growing segment of demand that the current market is not serving,” O’Donnell said.

“Diversifying New Zealand’s housing stock is now both a social necessity and a commercial imperative.”

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

New Zealand’s recent building boom has changed the make-up of some suburbs around the country.

Census data shows the number of households who do not own their own homes has dropped in the past decade.

Some suburbs have experienced even more dramatic changes.

Auckland’s Penrose, for example, was 56.7 percent renters in 2013 and 52.5 percent in 2018, but had dropped to 27.8 percent by 2023. It has a relatively small number of homes, but the number more than doubled from 201 in 2013 to 453 in 2023.

Ruakura in Hamilton had a similarly large increase in owners. In 2013, it was 50 percent renting households, but that dropped to 27.6 percent by 2023. It went from 84 homes in 2013 to 729 in 2023.

Wharewaka in Taupo also featured, with renting population dropped over 10 years from 32 percent to 12.2 percent, as the number of homes increased from 309 to 639.

Hobsonville, Auckland, had a renting population drop from 43.8 percent in 2013 to 24.8 percent, as the number of homes ballooned from 576 to 4956.

Simplicity chief economist Shamubeel Eaqub said new developments had changed the character of suburbs around the city.

“All the people living in those places tend to be owner-occupiers,” he said. “We’re building more homes and more people are getting into homeownership – I think that’s a good thing.

“[Places like Penrose] have gentrified… the wealthy suburbs are pushing further and further out.

“Mangere Bridge, people used to look down on it. Now, it’s a perfectly desirable suburb, great location right next to the water.”

He said the opposite seemed to be happening in places like Queenstown, where the renting population was growing. Stonefields in Auckland, Lake Hayes Queenstown, and Goodwood Heights and Sunnynook in Auckland had strong increases in the renting population.

Stonefields went from 12.5 percent to 28.9 percent renters.

Cotality chief economist Kelvin Davidson said loan-to-value rules, which had an exemption that meant people buying new properties did not have to meet the same deposit requirements, had pushed buyers to new builds.

“Those sorts of properties have been in demand from buyers, because – for example – they can get around the LVR rules.

“Particularly when Auckland housing affordability was really stretched, a way to buy a house in Auckland was to get a townhouse, because they’re exempt from LVRs. They’re cheaper, anyway, than standalone houses.”

He said places like Marshland in Christchurch, where renters dropped from more than 27 percent to 11.3 percent, had seen the same effect.

Davidson said people who bought the new houses may have vacated other rental properties that tenants could move into.

“All else equal, the owner-occupier rate has gone up in Penrose,” he said. “It’s potentially because people used to be renting there and then they’ve been able to buy.

“The houses don’t disappear. Possibly there’s been some people ‘pushed out’, but those people who pushed them out had to come from somewhere and that’s a house that’s freed up somewhere else.

“Kiwi society, the home ownership dream, all of that, a lot of people would probably view these stats as pretty positive in these suburbs.

“The owner-occupier rate has improved and that’s seen as desirable in New Zealand.”

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

Children are missing weeks and even months of vital schooling because of stand-offs between their parents and their schools.

Youth advocates say the problem happens repeatedly and highlights the need for a free service that resolves disputes between schools and families.

RNZ was recently contacted by two families that took their children out of school in early February because of what they said was lack of support for their children’s special needs.

One returned to class on a part-time basis after seven weeks of being absent, while the other was still at home when the April school holidays began.

Both agreed an independent dispute resolution service would have helped.

Children’s commissioner Claire Achmad said in the first instance it was up to schools to solve disputes and ensure children were returned to class.

But she said when that didn’t happen there was a gap.

“There does seem to be a bit of a gap here in terms of being able to have a clear pathway to be able to resolve these disagreements or disputes at the lowest level as quickly as possible,” she said.

Dr Achmad said the Education and Training Act allowed for the creation of a dispute resolution organisation for schools and families, but no government had yet set it up.

“I know it’s something that my predecessor Children’s Commissioners have advocated for, and I support and build on those calls because it’s crucial that there’s timely, child-focused and practical holistic resolutions in these kinds of situations,” she said.

Achmad said calls to the Children’s Commission/Mana Mokopuna’s children’s’ rights line indicated disputes between schools and families were not uncommon.

“This is a common theme that we are hearing about, and it shows that there is a need for more focus on finding that clear mechanism, implementing it, so that there can be timely child-focused resolution in these kinds of situations.”

Youth Law senior solicitor Velda Chan said families could go to the Human Rights Commission or seek a judicial review of school decisions, but neither were easy options.

“If they’ve come to a situation where they can’t resolve things, then there isn’t a lot of places they can go to try and work things out,” she said.

Chan said an independent and free disputes panel would be helpful.

Principals Federation president Jason Miles said disagreements between schools and families were fairly regular, but it was unusual for children to be out of school for more than a couple of weeks.

He said the ministry did not usually get involved and if schools and families could not agree on an issue, there was no organisation to step in and mediate.

Miles said an independent body would help.

“I don’t think there’d ever be a process where everyone would be happy with an outcome, but that would be another step,” he said.

“The focus would need to be on a resolution process that uses restorative and culturally appropriate processes and procedures, and be done in a timely manner so that disputes could be resolved and children won’t miss out on being in education.”

Autism New Zealand chief executive Dane Dougan said two months was too long for children to be out of school.

He said the Education Ministry was usually able to mediate disputes and if that didn’t work, some families turned to the Human Rights Commission.

Dougan said autistic children were much less likely to have problems in schools where staff had specific training in working with neuro-diverse pupils.

The Education Ministry said schools were resourced to provide learning support to children who needed it and families should try to resolve disputes with their school’s board in the first instance.

But if that didn’t work the ministry could become involved.

“Where concerns are escalated to the ministry, we can review the situation and work with the school and board as needed to support a safe and inclusive learning environment. If parents remain dissatisfied with the board’s response, they can also raise their concerns with the Ombudsman.”

The ministry said all children had the same right to attend their local school.

“When concerns arise about a child’s support, supervision, or safety, and this affects their ability to attend school, the Ministry of Education’s role is to help uphold that right and support schools and families to work through what is needed.

“These situations can be challenging for everyone involved, particularly when a child has been unable to attend school for a period of time.”

A parent who contacted RNZ said her son was out of school for seven weeks while the family tried to persuade the school to provide better support for him.

She said the ministry became involved when she contacted it about two or three weeks into the disagreement, but the family still had to make a lot of effort to get the support it wanted.

“The initial response was ‘there is nothing we can do here’,” she said.

“It was only the fact that I got through to a capable, competent person through the incident line that I believe this even got moving.”

The woman said an independent body would have helped a lot.

“There has not been a single accountable person who has said ‘it is my responsibility to resolve this’,” she said.

Another parent who contacted RNZ said a dispute resolution body needed to be independent.

“An independent body would provide a much fairer path than a ministry that effectively assists schools in managing parents who speak up,” she said.

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A Coromandel weather station recorded more than 200mm of rain as Cyclone Vaianu swept over the North Island.

The cyclone, which caused power outages, flooding and road closures across the east coast of the North Island, tracked away from mainland New Zealand overnight.

Some residents reported it was not as severe as the storms earlier this year.

MetService meteorologist John Law said although Vaianu had veered east, the cyclone track was still within the forecast “cone of uncertainty”.

Wind gusts of up to 126km/h were recorded at Māhia, with even higher speeds recorded at offshore stations, he said.

Very heavy rain was also recorded in some places in the 24-hour period to Sunday night.

“The base of the Coromandel, we’ve seen as much as 220mm of rainfall through there, and, similarly, in towards parts of the Bay of Plenty and the higher ground there, as much as 140 to 150mm of rain.”

New Zealanders did an “amazing job” of preparing in the days before the cyclone arrived, Law said.

“People working together to make sure that everyone’s up to date with the latest forecasts and watches and warnings.

“It’s always unfortunate to see impacts like the flooding and those power outages, but I think people have done very well to be prepared.”

Bay of Plenty evacuees return home

Those who have been evacuated in the Bay of Plenty are now able to return home, as long as it is safe for them to do so.

Whakatāne acting mayor Julie Jukes said the evacuation order was no longer in place.

A total of 270 households in Ōhope and Thornton were forced to evacuate, while an unknown number had chosen to.

Jukes said the weather had died down as of 9pm on Sunday.

Hawke’s Bay warnings lift

MetService lifted the heavy rain warning for Hawke’s Bay, but a strong wind warning remained in place overnight until 5am on Monday.

Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence group controller Shane Briggs said on Sunday the eye of the storm had moved offshore.

“We’re not out of everything yet, but actually it’s been surprisingly less than expected and at this stage, it looks like we’ve come off pretty lightly.”

Briggs said people should still avoid unnecessary travel if they could as there may be fallen trees and damaged powerlines.

In its 8pm Sunday update, Hastings District Council said evacuation zones remained in place for parts of Haumoana, Te Awanga, Waimārama and Ocean Beach, and security was in place overnight, along with road cordons.

There remained a risk of high winds, which could cause falling trees, power outages, road closures and coastal swells in exposed areas. Rainfall in the ranges is causing rivers to rise, but not to dangerous levels.

People were advised to stay away from rivers for the following 24 hours due to the potential for flooding as this water makes its way down to low-lying areas.

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QUANG NINH, VIETNAM – Media OutReach Newswire – 12 April 2026 – The People’s Committee of Quang Ninh Province, in coordination with Vingroup and the People’s Committees of Hanoi, Hai Phong, and Bac Ninh, today officially launches the Hanoi– Quang Ninh high-speed railway project, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2028. With a maximum design speed of up to 350 km/h, the project will shorten travel time between the two localities by five to seven times, to approximately 23 minutes.

The launch ceremony for the Hanoi – Quang Ninh high-speed railway project is part of a series of activities celebrating the successful election of deputies to the 16th National Assembly and People’s Councils at all levels for the 2026-2031 term, aimed at creating momentum for a new phase of development.

The event was attended by Mr. Le Minh Hung, Politburo Member and Prime Minister; Mr. Pham Minh Chinh, former Politburo Member and former Prime Minister; Mr. Pham Gia Tuc, Politburo Member and Standing Deputy Prime Minister; Mr. Nguyen Hoa Binh, former Politburo Member and former Standing Deputy Prime Minister; Mr. Luong Tam Quang, Politburo Member and Minister of Public Security; along with leaders of central ministries, agencies, and localities.

The Hanoi – Quang Ninh high-speed railway project is developed by VinSpeed High-Speed Railway Investment and Development Joint Stock Company, a member of Vingroup, with a total investment of over VND 147 trillion, equivalent to more than USD 5.6 billion, excluding land clearance costs.

The project spans four localities: Hanoi, Bac Ninh, Hai Phong, and Quang Ninh, with a total length of 120.2 km. It is designed as a double-track, standard-gauge (1,435 mm), fully electrified railway, with a maximum operating speed of up to 350 km/h. The section passing through Hanoi will operate at a maximum speed of 120 km/h. The project is expected to deploy the latest generation of high-speed trains, alongside world-class signaling, communications, and equipment systems supplied by Siemens Mobility (Germany), with a roadmap for technology transfer to VinSpeed during operations.

The starting point of the line will be at Co Loa Station, located within the Vietnam National Exhibition Center, Vinhomes Global Gate Hanoi urban area. The terminal station will be Ha Long Station, located within Globe Forest Park, Vinhomes Global Gate Ha Long, Quang Ninh. The route will include three intermediate stations at Gia Binh (Bac Ninh), Ninh Xa (Hai Phong), and Yen Tu (Quang Ninh), as well as one depot located at the Ha Long terminal station.

According to plan, the project is expected to be completed and enter commercial operation in 2028, reducing travel time from Hanoi to Quang Ninh by five to seven times, from over two hours to approximately 23 minutes.

Speaking at the ceremony, Mr. Bui Van Khang, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and Chairman of the People’s Committee of Quang Ninh Province, stated: “The Hanoi – Quang Ninh high-speed railway is a mega-project that carries significant expectations. It demonstrates the capacity and strong commitment of the investor, and stands as clear evidence of the increasingly deep participation of the private sector in critical national infrastructure. We are committed to continuing close coordination with central ministries and the investor throughout project implementation; proactively addressing any arising challenges; and ensuring land clearance, resettlement, and all necessary conditions are in place for the project to be delivered on schedule and to the highest quality standards.”

As the first inter-regional high-speed railway project to be implemented in Vietnam, the Hanoi –Quang Ninh line is expected to create strong momentum for the Northern Key Economic Region, while marking a significant step toward a new era of accelerated development, contributing to the realization of the Party’s and Government’s determination to enhance national competitiveness.

Representing the investor, Mr. Nguyen Viet Quang, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Vingroup, shared: “Today’s launch ceremony for the Hanoi – Quang Ninh high-speed railway affirms Vingroup’s strong commitment to contributing to infrastructure development, steadily building a modern, internationally-standardized transport infrastructure system, thereby supporting socio-economic growth and improving the quality of life for the Vietnamese people.”

Mr. Michael Peter, Global CEO of Siemens Mobility, shared: “We are committed to bring to Vietnam the world’s most advanced, safest, and most efficient high-speed rail system with proven track record across the globe. Every day, our trains run around one million kilometers, three times the distance to the moon, with an unbeaten safety record. Each train is developed fully digitally, delivering maximum energy efficiency and a superior passenger experience. Siemens is committed to deliver a close and sustainable partnership with Vingroup, where we envision a true win-win partnership, including an extensive technology transfer program. We will build and service these trains together, creating a new railway ecosystem in Vietnam.”

The Hanoi – Quang Ninh high-speed railway is the second project undertaken by VinSpeed. In December 2025, VinSpeed officially broke ground of the Ben Thanh – Can Gio railway line in Ho Chi Minh City, which is also expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2028.

The consecutive rollout of two high-speed railway projects in both the northern and southern regions not only affirms VinSpeed’s strong execution capabilities, but also lays the foundation for the development of a multi-billion-dollar railway and supporting industries ecosystem, contributing to elevating Vietnam’s position and competitiveness on the global stage.

Hashtag: #Vingroup #VinSpeed

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

– Published and distributed with permission of Media-Outreach.com.

Wellington Phoenix’s chances of making the A-League playoffs have nosedived, with a 2-0 away loss to Melbourne City.

The result is good news for City, who improve their chances of sealing a top-six spot, but the Phoenix have a huge mountain ahead of them, with only two matches left in the regular season.

They are now five points off sixth-placed City and would need to win both matches – against Western Sydney Wanderers in Christchurch on Saturday and away to Macarthur the following Friday – and hope for City and Macarthur to lose their final two matches, if they are to make the playoffs.

The Melbourne side looked more assured at AAMI Park, where the Phoenix hoped to pull off a repeat victory, after surprising Melbourne Victory there last weekend.

They didn’t lack for intensity, but the cohesion wasn’t there and they couldn’t nail a goal against tight City defence and extend their winning run to four matches.

Aziz Behich put City ahead in the 27th minute, with a low kick deflecting off a diving Isaac Hughes into the corner.

Corban Piper, who led the Phoenix attack with a spirited performance, had his side’s best chance of scoring in the first half, snapping a low left-footed shot just wide of the left corner in the 38th minute, after strong lead-up work by Paulo Retre.

Marcus Younis scored in the 76th minute, with his deflected shot beating Phoenix goalie Josh Oluwayemi.

Even 2-0 down, the Phoenix tried hard to fight back, but City held firm.

Auckland FC drew their match 2-2 with Melbourne Victory on Saturday night and remain second on the table, three points behind Newcastle Jets.

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

King Carlos has his crown.

Kiwi Carlos Ulberg is the new UFC light-heavyweight champion, after knocking out Jiří Procházka in round one, while on one leg.

Ulberg blew out his knee, after stepping back and landing awkwardly, and was clearly compromised, as he hobbled around the Octagon.

Procházka did not attack the knee, but instead opted to enter a firefight, a decision he said he regretted in his post-fight interview.

The Czech implied he showed mercy on Ulberg before the finish, but none was shown in return, as Ulberg swung for the fences and stunned the world.

With one final desperation shot, Ulberg landed a picture-perfect check left hook, landing flush on the jaw of Procházka.

The lights were instantly shut off, Ulberg’s follow-up barrage academic, as his miracle killshot had already done the damage.

Ulberg becomes the first fighter from Aotearoa to claim the light-heavyweight title.

See how the event unfolded below.

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

What if a group of randomly selected people were put in a room and asked to hammer out national policy, or co-opted onto select committees?

It sounds like a social experiment, but was raised repeatedly at last month’s Democracy Forum at Parliament, hosted by Labour’s Duncan Webb and National’s Vanessa Weenink.

The concept even has a name – a citizens’ assembly. It sits under a broader political science idea known as deliberative democracy (our current system is a representative democracy).

Randomly selected people would make decisions as a group. The issue could be very local or take on more precarious national questions, like the superannuation age.

One panelist at the forum was Mika Hervel, a winner of the Rod Oram Memorial Essay Prize. He envisaged the process playing out a bit like a jury.

“A group of randomly selected people, demographically representative of the population as a whole, are brought together, typically to discuss a particular issue,” Hervel explained.

“This group of people is then provided with experts who they can question, stakeholders who they can hear from. They’re provided with information about budgets and costs and benefits, scientific information, modelling… and given time to deliberate.

“This then leads to recommendations often, or decisions that are passed on to be implemented by officials or to be operationalised.”

Of course, Parliament already has built-in ways for people to participate between elections – through petitions, select committees, through contacting MPs – even via protest.

Hervel says these form a solid foundation for public engagement, but deliberative democracy could help address some of the limitations critics often point to in the select-committee process.

He argues that the current engagement is self-selecting, which can mean hearing from the usual suspects again and again, and that MPs rejecting one’s ideas can be disenfranchising.

Others might respond that the current system of self-selected feedback to select committees ensures that subject experts and those most likely to be impacted are also the most likely to feed into the issue.

“Deliberative democracy seeks to engage ordinary people, including those often forgotten by politics and decision-making, which I would suggest energises and connects people to the issues happening that directly affect them,” says Hervel. “[It] helps them see how they are affected and empowers them to be involved in looking for solutions.”

Fellow panelist Max Rashbrooke suggests that 100 people, representative of New Zealand demographically, would likely reach similar conclusions to the whole country, if everyone could fit in a room together.

Constitutional law expert Andrew Butler sees it as an innovative way to improve participation. He described a democratic fatigue – that political parties are not functioning as forums for deliberation in the way they might have in the past, when membership was larger.

“Most people get into politics through political parties – good people who go and put [their] heads above the parapet – because they actually want to make a difference,” says Butler. “They want to help debates, but there is something about the way in which the ecosystem works, which makes that difficult to achieve.”

Butler sees deliberative democracy as complementing select committees.

“Supplementing the work that is done [in Parliament would draw] people in to want to participate on issues that are important.

“What all of the studies emphasise is the importance of framing the issue, getting the right people in the room facilitating the conversation – probably the hardest aspect of the exercise – but well-facilitated deliberative democracy adds to the sense of democracy and… to democracy’s legitimacy.

“One of the points about our democracy is to try and achieve a level of acceptance of decisions, not the ones you agree with – that’s easy. The point of democracy is to find acceptance of those very things you do not agree with.”

While the idea of citizens’ assemblies raised its head repeatedly at the forum and most agreed it could be very useful for local issues, not everyone saw it as a solution for national decision-making, with criticism coming from other speakers, in Q&As and informally.

While proponents argued that democratic engagement is flagging, public submissions to select committees have grown by orders of magnitude over recent Parliaments, repeatedly breaking records and showing participation is in fact improving.

Some participants and attendees pointed out constitutional and process issues, while others saw citizens assemblies as hopelessly naïve – and that disagreement is not a product of politics but exists in any group of people facing a significant issue.

Some argued that the idea discounted the value of expertise and experience, factors they believed were crucial for solving complex national issues. Arguing that assemblies were not a salve to discord, one attendee noted that, in international experience, the randomly chosen participants had received threats (as politicians also do), which mirrored, rather than removed the emotion and discord of traditional politics.

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Far North Mayor Moko Tepania says he’s breathing a huge sigh of relief after his district escaped serious damage from Cyclone Vaianu.

The district was the first to feel the effects of the cyclone on Saturday night, but the storm took a path further to the east than initially predicted, limiting its impact on Northland.

However, some areas, such as Whangārei’s central city, were lashed by more than 130mm of rain in a 24-hour period, and winds of 110km/h were recorded at Cape Reinga.

A buoy off the Bay of Islands recorded a maximum wave height of 10.8m on Saturday afternoon.

Tepania said the outcome was a huge relief.

“All of the reports that are coming in – and not just through our Emergency Operations Centre intelligence lines, but also the good old kūmara vine and our Kaitiaki Response Network on the ground – are showing us that the effects of Cyclone Vaianu have been very limited,” he said.

“Power outages, a few roofs that have blown off, but all in all, our roading networks made it through and rivers never breached warning levels. So I’m very grateful.”

However, it was too soon to relax entirely.

Emergency responders had learned from Cyclone Gabrielle that the tail end of a cyclone, when the wind abruptly switched direction, could still cause damage such as downed trees and power lines, especially the soil was sodden.

“But all indications are that we have dodged a bullet this time around,” Tepania said.

Tepania urged anyone who had been affected by the cyclone but had not yet contacted the council or Civil Defence should call 0800 920 029 so staff could respond.

An estimated 50 families opted to evacuate their homes before the storm hit, with most spending the night at marae or community centres.

In some cases, entire settlements, such as Taemaro Bay, near Mangonui, self-evacuated and sought shelter at Kenana Marae.

Only six homes were evacuated on council orders, all on Wendywood Lane in Kerikeri.

Tepania said the homes were near a stand of large redwood trees, one of which had fallen in a previous storm.

Those residents were able to go home on Sunday afternoon.

Tepania said he was hugely grateful to the district’s Kaitiaki Response Network, community response groups, Te Rūnanga-ā-Iwi o Ngāpuhi and others for setting up evacuation centres in town halls and marae across Northland.

The mayor said having to endure three major storms since the start of the year had been tough on Northlanders, despite their often-touted resilience.

Just two weeks ago many people had been badly affected by floods in Kaitāia, Awanui and the Hokianga settlements of Panguru, Pawarenga, Whirinaki, Wekaweka Valley and Waimamaku.

Since then, Tepania said he and some councillors had met many affected people.

“We’ve been out and about in relief hubs talking to whānau and they’re crying in front of you because they’ve lost everything. There’s a heck of a lot of anxiety from them, and from community leaders as well – and then you get a tropical cyclone heading towards us,” he said.

“So the anxiety levels were incredibly high even as we went into this and that’s why it’s been so important to make sure whānau are informed, they know how ready all of the agencies are, and that they listen to the official advice.”

“There’s a huge sense of relief across there today, but also a lot of weariness because it has been really hard. We always say we’re resilient as Northlanders and we know our taiao [environment], we know our awa [rivers], we know our communities, but it does get you down because it takes a heck of a lot of adrenaline, waking hours and anxiety.

“I’m praying to the weather gods that they give us a little bit of respite, so we can have a breather and a rest and recharge.”

Tepania said he believed Northlanders were getting better at preparing for storms and heeding advice about staying safe.

In the March floods, firefighters had been frustrated about the number of rescues they had to carry out after people tried to drive through floodwaters.

This time, however, emergency services told him far fewer people had risked their lives trying to take on flooded roads.

“People are taking things seriously and that’s what we want,” he said.

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

King Carlos has his crown.

Kiwi Carlos Ulberg is the new UFC light-heavyweight champion, after knocking out Jiří Procházka in round one, while on one leg.

Ulberg blew out his knee, after stepping back and landing awkwardly, and was clearly compromised, as he hobbled around the Octagon.

Procházka did not attack the knee, but instead opted to enter a firefight, a decision he said he regretted in his post-fight interview.

The Czech implied he showed mercy on Ulberg before the finish, but none was shown in return, as Ulberg swung for the fences and stunned the world.

With one final desperation shot, Ulberg landed a picture-perfect check left hook, landing flush on the jaw of Procházka.

The lights were instantly shut off, Ulberg’s follow-up barrage academic, as his miracle killshot had already done the damage.

Ulberg becomes the first fighter from Aotearoa to claim the light-heavyweight title.

See how the event unfolded below.

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