Category: Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

By Madleine CarrWhite, Massey Journalism Student

A United States Coast Guard icebreaker has sailed into Wellington harbour after working with New Zealand in Antarctica.

The USGC Polar Star, celebrating its 50th year of service, has operated in Antarctica for the past 55 days resupplying New Zealand’s Scott Base, among other duties.

Two New Zealand sailors joined the American crew to participate in this year’s Polar Star’s deployment, Operation Deep Freeze.

Polar Star cuts channels through thick ice, creating access for ships to reach Antarctic research stations and bases.

David Gehrenbeck, the US Charge d’Affaires, said the arrival of the ship highlights the relationship between the United States and New Zealand.

“Each time Polar Star arrives in Wellington, it’s a reminder of the strong partnership and shared commitment between the United States and New Zealand in Antarctica,” he said.

“Royal New Zealand Navy sea riders have become an integral part of these missions. Their expertise and upbeat approach are always appreciated by everyone on board.”

Earlier this year marked the end of a multi-year effort between New Zealand and the United States, with the Polar Star delivering a new pier for scientific research at McMurdo Station.

Gehrenbeck said that the ship’s mission involves more than supporting scientific research.

“It’s about making sure people and supplies can move safely, so our hard-working teams are supported and research at the bottom of the world never stops.”

In January, the Polar Star crew performed a six-hour rescue operation for the cruise ship Scenic Eclipse II, which was trapped in ice near McMurdo Sound.

Over the past decade, the ship has regularly docked in New Zealand when sailing to and from Antarctica.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Police are investigating following a serious assault on Thursday night in Amberley, in the Hurunui District in North Canterbury.

Detective Senior Sergeant Karen Simmons said officers responded around 10.25pm after being told a person had been seriously assaulted at a rural property on Racecourse Road.

The victim was taken to hospital with critical injuries and was due to undergo surgery on Friday, she said.

Police are speaking with a person in relation to the incident and are not seeking anyone else at this time.

A scene examination is underway at the address, and enquiries into the circumstances of the incident are continuing.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

An Auckland homeowner disputes her property is flood-prone, despite it being designated as such on Auckland Council’s online maps.

The council publishes multiple different flood maps, which provide broad information about flood risks across the city.

Stephanie Burgess said the council’s flood modelling used a “broad brush model”, but it had a real impact on value of her Glendowie property and other properties in those areas.

Auckland Council’s flood mapping was based off aerial Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) from 2016, which did not accurately reflect the real risk on her land, she said.

“There’s never been any flooding at my property. It requires a pipe to block and a 100-year flood to both happen together.”

The flood-prone marking from the Auckland council maps she had seen was not yet on her Land Information Memorandum (LIM) report, but she was concerned it would be, she added.

Looking to sell her house, she was worried by the impact this flood-prone designation would have.

“I’m fearful that our property will be devalued because a lot of buyers will not be interested, because they see this notation.”

She was also concerned that people did not understand the difference between a flood-prone area and a flood plane, and the different risk levels between them.

Working in real estate, she said some people would not even enter the open home if there was flood notation on the LIM.

She was calling for the council to factor in site-specific information to more accurately represent the flood risk at properties in designated flood-prone areas.

“I’d like a letter that I can give to buyers that explains the real risk.”

‘Literally within centimetres’

Auckland Council head of planning networks Nick Vigar said the councils across the country were working to provide better information about flood risks, but contested the claim that LiDAR was not an accurate measurement.

“Modern LiDAR is getting within centimetres on your property. Yes, it makes some assumptions where there’s trees and where there’s buildings, but it’s literally within centimetres.”

It was, to an extent, “broad brush”, he conceded, but it was the best information the council had.

“If you want to go and develop your house you should absolutely get someone to come in and survey it accurately,” he said.

The council assessment was only based on the land, so flood mitigation work would generally not be acknowledged in its data, Vigar said.

“If there’s some mitigation in which the landform is changed then, next time we run the LiDAR, that will get brought into the model. But I think the important thing here is: its triggering an assessment of the house on the property.”

The flood-prone designation would need to appear on the LIM report, he said.

“If you get a LIM on that property then you have to understand if there’s one of these triggers across you property … because you need to understand that if you’re developing, the presence of one of those will trigger a flood risk assessment.”

He acknowledged that using decade-old LiDAR was not necessarily fair, but said new data had been gathered in 2024 and would soon be available.

That data was already being applied to landowners who had contested their designation, he said.

“Where we have more accurate information in the new LiDAR, we have inserted it for customers already.”

But getting a property survey would not remove the flood-prone overlay from Burgess’s property, Vigar said.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Fought inside a bulletproof cage, a battle between combat robots is not for the faint-hearted.

It’s the grand final of Robot Rampage World Cup, a four day competition between teams from New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, and the United States.

Unfolding on a quiet Sunday evening at Auckland’s shopping suburb Onehunga, the venue is packed with enthusiasts.

Ten-year-old Elon Jacobs secured a front row seat to catch the sparks, the clashes, and sometimes even a small fire.

“It’s really loud and there’s a lot of robots fighting today. So far there’s been a lot of action and it’s been very fun.”

He had been sketching robots since he was four years old, and thinks robotics will definitely be a big part of his future.

On Sunday, the battle was between Brazil and USA.

Thirteen-year-old Josephine Estevez gave her predictions.

“Brazil looks like it’s winning. I do enjoy watching different robots. I really like Touro. That was a great design. Displaying blade and it being a mostly defense robot, it’s very locked in on all sides and very sturdy looking.”

Her mom, Kira Matevie, the bigger robotic fan among the two, has her eyes laid on other robots.

“For tonight, I’ll have to say my favorite is Jump Rope because he’s a showboat, I like that. But my favorite robot to date is Black Rose. It reminds me of a vacuum cleaner.”

The matches are livestreamed for free, but that didn’t stop Ashley and Bryan Pierre booking a trip from USA to watch in person.

“It’s a neat format that they have here. You have five robots and basically until all your robots are out, you keep going. So, they kind of need a little bit of strategy to play. Do they want to fix a robot after the match if they win? They only got eight minutes to fix it. Not a lot of time if they got a lot of damage.”

After Bryan introduced Ashley to battlebots, robots quickly infiltrated every part of the couple’s life.

“Our wedding rings are made of a battle bot. We’re from Wisconsin and Team Wyachi is from Wisconsin. One of their main bot, Son of Wyachi, they sent us a signed part of Son of Wyachi.”

Ashley said turning the signed part into rings is another miracle.

“We randomly met someone who could work titanium and they were able to save the signature and make 4 rings out of it.”

Back inside the cage, the decisive moment arrives.

As Brazil’s Touro Feather defeated USA’s last standing bot, they were declared champions!

Team Captain Matheus Freitas said the victory means a lot.

“It’s such an amazing fight. We are from 4 different teams from Brazil, we designed two new robots that we put to test here. It did such a great job, and we are very excited for the results. It’s our first time here on New Zealand. I hope that we come on more times in the future.”

His family had been up early to watch him fight.

“When the live stream started, it’s 3am in Brazil and they [stayed up] just to watch and send good energies to us.”

The team brings together members from Brazil’s top robot combat teams, and Freitas said their strategy paid off.

“We won the first fight with Dark Khaos and then we unfortunately got some damage and then we swapped that, very strategically, and then we brought Jublieu. Jublieu did such a good damage on Synthesis 30, and then we put Touro, Touro did the rest of the job.”

Getting to New Zealand was a battle in itself.

Together, the Brazilians travelled with more than 180 kilograms of gear.

Team member João Marcos Cavalheiro recounted his journey.

“From Brazil to Miami, Miami to Atlanta, Atlanta to Austin, then we drove to Dallas, and Dallas to Houston, and Houston to New Zealand, six flights.”

Meanwhile, runnerup Team USA is looking on the bright side.

Captain Sam Hanson is proud the team is made up entirely of members with no engineering background, and encourages anyone to give robot building a go.

“One of them is a student. One is a nurse. I managed a farmer’s market. I’ve been building fighting robots since the early 2000s. All the information is on the internet. You don’t have to be an engineer. You just have to want to do it.”

Hosting the event was Robot Rampage, a venue founded by friends Jack Barker and Nick Mabey.

Barker said the venue has 90 seats, but there were more people standing.

“I’m really stoked with the turnout. We’ve had six shows and every single seat has been sold out.”

He said there is a special appeal to the format.

“Normally it’s a 1v1 fight, but this is a 5v5 fight format. It’s more exciting because instead of supporting one robot for one fight, you get to support your country between five to nine matches.”

Barker said it took them two years to build the venue with a bulletproof cage, and now they intend to fully utilise it.

Their next event – Kings Crown – is scheduled for May at Robot Rampage in Onehunga.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Finland has once again been named the happiest country in the world, a title it has now held a record nine times.

New Zealand often ranks in the top 10, but it has just dipped outside to 11th in the most recent World Happiness Report. It’s the third year in a row New Zealand has ranked outside the top 10.

It’s mostly Nordic countries ahead of New Zealand, but Israel is in 8th. Our friends across the ditch, Australia, were ranked 15th.

Finnish philosopher Frank Martela, the go-to expert on Nordic happiness, told First Up that Finnish people were relatively sceptical of the results.

“I guess the Finnish people think of themselves as this slightly introverted, even melancholic, bunch of people. So, being the happiest people in the world doesn’t really fit into Finnish self-image,” he said.

Martela said rather than Finnish people being happier, there are fewer extremely unhappy people in Finland, which drives up the average.

“When you say that Finland is the happiest country, it’s one way of putting it, [but] another way of putting it would be saying Finland is the country where there are the least amount of people who are actively unhappy about their lives – that would be, in a way, a more accurate description.”

In other words, if New Zealand wants to boost its ranking, Kiwis should complain less.

“That’s the Finnish way of doing this – not complaining too much, just minding one’s own business and being happy about it,” Martela said.

To determine the ranking, the Gallup World Poll asks respondents in 147 countries to evaluate their lives using the image of a ladder, with the best possible life as a 10 and the worst possible as a 0. Each respondent provides a numerical response on this scale, referred to as the Cantril Ladder.

Researchers look at six factors, including GDP per capita, life expectancy, generosity and perceptions of freedom and corruption to help account for variations among countries. The rankings are based on a three-year average, which smoothes out spikes and dips occasioned by big events such as war or financial downturns.

The Finns reported an average score of 7.764 to evaluate their life satisfaction.

Martela said universal healthcare, low corruption, high-quality free education, unemployment benefits and good maternity leave are some of the factors behind the score.

Finland’s deep commitment to cooperation helps explain its staying power at the top of the ranking, John F. Helliwell, professor emeritus of economics at the University of British Columbia and a founding editor of the World Happiness Report, said in an interview.

“Successful societies cooperate in the face of adversity,” he said. “The Finns know this. And once you have the sense that you are in this together, there’s no end to what you can do.”

Youth crisis

The report’s writers have begun to pay attention to what they consider a crisis in youth happiness, first mentioned in the 2024 ranking.

In the latest edition, the survey found life evaluations among respondents under age 25 in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have dropped by almost one full point on the scale of 0 to 10 over the last decade, a dramatic slide especially since the average satisfaction for young people in the rest of the world has increased, according to Gallup World Poll data.

A key factor in the sharp drop in youth happiness, researchers said, is the number of hours young people spend consuming social media or gaming. And while experts say it’s important to limit time spent with the Internet overall, some ways of spending time online are healthier than others, including communicating with loved ones, and learning new skills.

A certain amount of Internet and social media consumption wasn’t necessarily negative, he said, saying, “There seems to be a sweet spot.”

“You don’t want to be unconnected but you don’t want to be too connected,” he said. “With the Internet, too much is a bad thing.”

The world’s top happiest countries in 2026

1. Finland

2. Iceland

3. Denmark

4. Costa Rica

5. Sweden

6. Norway

7. Netherlands

8. Israel

9. Luxembourg

10. Switzerland

11. New Zealand

You can read the report here.

– RNZ with additional reporting by CNN

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Police are investigating after a woman was found with serious injuries in Christchurch on Thursday night.

Detective Sergeant Ben Rolton, Christchurch Metro CIB said officers were called to Worcester Street, between Latimer Square and Barbadoes Street, around 10pm.

There were reports that a person had been stabbed.

The woman was taken to Christchurch Hospital by ambulance where she underwent surgery.

A scene guard was put in place overnight, and a scene examination is taking place today.

Police are making enquiries into the circumstances of the incident and working to identify who is responsible, Detective Sergeant Rolton said.

St John Ambulance told RNZ two people were taken to hospital.

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