Don’t have time to read the headlines? Watch the Focus Morning Bulletin presented by Chereè Kinnear above.
Auckland Council is expected to approve a buyout package for about 700 properties damaged in extreme weather events.
Our newsroom understands the measure will cost well in excess of $1 billion and could be paid for by extra borrowing and rates rises.
Mayor Wayne Brown and Finance Minister Grant Robertson sealed the deal on Tuesday and it is understood it will see Auckland Council and the Government paying half each in a similar fashion to a deal struck for Hawke’s Bay owners.
The Mama Hooch rapists - Danny and Roberto Jaz - will today be sentenced for their years of prolific and predatory abuse of women at their family bar.
The brothers were convicted of 69 charges between them including rape, sexual violation, indecent assault, making intimate recordings of women without their knowledge or consent and supplying illicit drugs.
They both face up to 20 years in prison for their crimes.
The leader of the Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin has reportedly been killed in a private jet crash in Russia.
The jet, which was flying from Moscow to St Petersburg, was carrying seven passengers and three crew.
Prigozhin was on the passenger list for the flight.
Wagner-linked Telegram channels have claimed that the plane was shot down by Russian air defences.
History has been made after India became the first nation to land on the south pole of the moon.
India now joins an elite club of countries to achieve a soft landing on the moon, after the US, the former Soviet Union and China.
Celebrations have broken out across the country.
One of the mission’s major goals is to hunt for water-based ice which, scientists say, could support human habitation on the moon in future.
The Prime Minister will miss a few engagements over the next few days while his daughter is in hospital.
Chris Hipkins revealed both his children have Von Willebrand disease, a condition that causes heavier bleeding and bigger bruises.
He says all going well he will be back at work soon.
Hipkins says he wants his children to grow up out of the public spotlight, but sometimes it is unavoidable that they are mentioned.
Mark Brown says NZ wants too much oversight of a new joint action plan.