NZ Engine

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Airbus A320 is a “very good aircraft to fly” and has been safely flying for more than 40 years, an aviation expert says.

It comes after more than 6000 of its fleet were grounded at the weekend to repair a critical software issue, causing significant chaos for travellers.

The upgrade followed an investigation into a incident back in October where an Airbus aircraft experienced a brief loss of altitude, Ashok Poduval from Massey University’s school of aviation told Morning Report.

That flight was a JetBlue flight from Cancun, Mexico, to Newark, New Jersey in the United States, on 30 October.

The upgrade followed a report by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency into the incident.

Poduval said the delay in grounding the fleet following the incident was because of the time it took to do the investigation.

“They have to do an investigation because it could be so many factors and once the incident is reported, it takes some time to investigate it,” Poduval said.

“You can’t ground a fleet of over 11,000 aircraft based on something that happened. We all have read about turbulence incidents that have caused sudden drop in altitude etcetera, so once an investigation is done and if there is a cause that is determined to be related to the aircraft, then that’s when the action is taken immediately.”

As a result, more than 6000 aircraft went through a software upgrade, but Poduval was not aware of the technical details of what the upgrade was.

Air New Zealand said all A320 updates would be completed by Sunday evening, with the flight schedule expected to return to normal on Monday.

Poduval said he was no aware if such upgrades would become more necessary as the use of technology on planes continued to increase.

But he said the aircraft were very good.

“This is probably the first event where they’ve had to ground half the fleet and do a software upgrade. Nearly 40 years the aircraft has flown very safely, I’ve flown the aircraft,” he said.

“It’s a very good aircraft to fly.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

When rising teenage ballet star Tamison Soppet found out she had been selected as candidate for Switzerland’s prestigious Prix de Lausanne she jumped for joy.

Waiting with her parents to join a two-hour ballet class in Paris, the shocked but smiling Christchurch 15-year-old was bursting with excitement when her mother called her over to break the news.

“Mum told me and I just jumped in excitement, I just had so much excitement inside me. For the rest of the class I had the biggest smile on my face. It was such a dream,” she said.

Tamison is the only New Zealander and one of just two dancers from Australasia chosen to compete at what is often regarded as the “ballet Olympics” in Lausanne in February.

As part of the application process, Tamison supplied a 15-minute video audition featuring barre, centre and pointe work, as well as a contemporary dance, demonstrating her artistic versatility and technical precision.

The selection jury of nine dance professionals viewed videos from 444 dancers from 43 countries, choosing just 81 to participate in the 2026 competition.

During competition week, dancers are marked on contemporary and classical classes and one classical and one contemporary variation.

While she would be up against the “best of the best”, Tamison said she was grateful for the opportunity to perform on the world stage.

“It’s going to be pretty tough but I’m just going to go there and enjoy myself and do my best. We’ve worked so hard to get to this point so I need to let it all go and show everybody how much I love it,” she said.

“Just getting over there and getting seen by all of these incredible schools is definitely going to be something big. I’m hoping that something can come out of it.”

Tamison’s journey to Switzerland began long before she stepped into a studio or tied the ribbons on her first pair of ballet shoes.

Her mother Toni Soppet said Tamison danced from the time she could walk, in the living room, down the hallway, anywhere music could reach her, “flying around with butterfly wings and cuteness”.

Her childhood passion had developed into a dream that demanded discipline, resilience and countless hours of sacrifice, Soppet said.

Tamison trained at Convergence Dance Studios four days per week, all while managing studies at the correspondence school, Te Kura.

“She’s very determined. She works really hard. She’s not a typical teenager. She’s literally up at 7am, into the studio by 8am, and she’s training all day,” Soppet said.

“She comes home and she is exhausted – ice baths on the feet while having the computer on the lap to do school work – but she just has so much joy for it, she has so much love for it, that I can’t imagine her doing anything else.”

Soppet said it was always a moving, emotion-filled experience watching her daughter dance.

“Tears are in my eyes, she’s just breathtaking,” she said.

“I’m usually the side stage mum or in the dressing room or those kind of things but the moments that I do get to sit in the audience and actually watch her, it’s those awe moments. She’s a beautiful dancer and the expressiveness that comes from her is breathtaking.”

Tamison won the junior women’s title at the prestigious Youth America Grand Prix in New York last year at the age of 14, cementing her reputation as one of the most promising talents of her generation.

She has earned high distinctions in RAD and NZAMD exams, top placements in international competitions, gold medals, scholarships from elite institutions and is part of The Royal Ballet School’s international scholars programme.

Tamison has trained at Convergence under artistic director Olivia Russell since the age of 10.

Russell said the Prix de Lausanne was an extraordinary opportunity to make connections with elite ballet schools and companies.

“The Prix de Lausanne is an exceptional platform for dancers to launch their careers, to be seen by international directors, to really have their dreams come true and extend themselves as artists,” she said.

“I’m over the moon, obviously very excited for her, and it’s very deserving. I feel like it’s the perfect step for her to move forward in her career and see her on the international stage.”

Russell likened the audition process to training for the Olympics. The Prix de Lausanne jury would assess dancers out of 100, with 25 marks each for the classical and contemporary classes and classical and contemporary variations.

“It’s very well-rounded. The emphasis is on a versatile dancer so everything is even. It’s not just a ballet competition, everything is looked at,” she said.

At the end of the competition week, a networking forum would give candidates who were not selected for the finals another chance to be seen by international schools and company directors interested in offering further training or job opportunities.

Russell said Tamison was a beautiful dancer with a strong work ethic and huge potential.

“She has exceptional turn-out and exceptional leg line and feet. Ballet is very aesthetic and so is dance. Her natural sense of line is quite innate. It’s kind of like architecture,” she said.

“She can make shapes when she’s dancing that leave lasting images to the person viewing them, so when you close your eyes after she’s danced you can still see that image. It’s a beautiful gift to be able to make your dancing extend past the stage into someone’s memory.

“She is like another daughter to me, so it has been a beautiful relationship with her family and the journey that we’ve gone on together. I feel very lucky.”

Tamison’s pursuit of her dancing dream has also come at a significant financial cost, so the Soppet family has set up a Givealittle page to help with contributions to pointe shoes, custom-made costumes, private coaching, strength and conditioning sessions, physio appointments and international travel.

She will next perform as Cinderella at Convergence Dance Studios’ end-of-year production on 7 December.

Tamison dreams of one day joining The Royal Ballet in London or Paris Opera Ballet and becoming a principal dancer.

“I love it so much, it just brings so much joy, even on hard days. I just love coming to the studio and getting to express my feelings through dance,” she said.

“I try to put everything I’ve worked on in the studio and rehearsals all on stage at the same time and make it my best.”

The Prix de Lausanne 2026 will take place from 1 to 8 February at the Beaulieu Theatre in Lausanne.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

More than four decades after the first New Zealander was diagnosed with HIV, medical advances have completely changed the face of the once-fatal virus, but one man living with it says he doesn’t “think that the HIV stigma has changed radically”

Rodrigo Olin German was barely out of his teens when a blood test result threw his life into turmoil, and he faced what he thought was a death sentence.

“It was horrible, I have to say, it was very shocking and devastating for me at that time because I was just a child. I was 20 years old.”

He had just tested positive for HIV.

“I sat down and they said to me, ‘well, your results have come back positive, and this means you have got to make some changes in your life. We cannot really tell you how long you are going to live. You need to stop having sex, you really need to avoid crowded places, and you need to constantly be seeing your doctor’.”

He tells The Detail, there was no compassion, no support, and no hope. He felt like an inconvenience, with staff making it known they were having to delay their lunch break to tell him the devastating news.

He left the medical clinic in tears, fearing he would die.

That was in Mexico, 22 years ago. Today, Olin German is living in New Zealand and working at the Burnett Foundation Aotearoa (formerly the New Zealand AIDS Foundation), helping Kiwis who have been diagnosed with HIV.

“People with HIV, we work, we live, we love, we travel, we are active members of society,” he says.

Olin German is sharing his personal experience on World AIDS Day. This year also marks 40 years since the Burnett Foundation opened its doors.

What began as a grassroots network of volunteers has grown into a national force for education, health, and human rights.

Over the decades, the Foundation has led memorable high-impact campaigns: including Get It On!, Love Cover Protect, Love Your Condom, and Ending HIV, which have helped educate and support both patients and families.

“Information is power, and we need to give that to people because that can really change the reality for people living with HIV,” Olin German says.

But it should be remembered that 40 years ago, people living with HIV and AIDS in New Zealand faced intense fear, discrimination, and isolation. Early activists risked their lives simply by speaking out.

Today, things are very different – but the stigma hasn’t vanished.

“To be honest, I don’t think that the HIV stigma has changed radically,” says Olin German, who has been verbally abused by people he knows after speaking publicly about his diagnosis or when disclosing it before entering a relationship.

“The times when people have reacted negatively, it has been pretty bad, like ‘why are you having sex?’, ‘you should die’, ‘you are spreading the disease around’. They are calling me very despicable names.”

He says fear and misunderstanding remain powerful barriers: to testing, to treatment, and to honest conversations about HIV.

He wants people to know that with the right medication and education, HIV becomes undetectable, then untransmittable, which is known as U=U.

“The amount of virus is so low in the bloodstream that we can’t pass HIV to our sexual partners, even if we don’t use condoms … so, we are not a risk to anyone.”

And he says prevention has come a long way over the past 40 years. Condom campaigns, testing programs, and the availability of PrEP, an HIV prevention pill, have all contributed to fewer new local infections.

Last year, 95 people were newly diagnosed with HIV here, and that number is tracking to be even lower this year.

In total, about 3500 people live with HIV in New Zealand today, that’s mainly gay men, but also straight men and women.

Rodrigo says what would help those who have tested positive is a better range of HIV medication, like an injection given every two months, which is available in Australia but not here. In New Zealand, people take daily pills.

Burnett Foundation CEO Liz Gibbs agrees. She’s also campaigning for better funding, community engagement, and equitable access to testing and prevention.

The Foundation has, today, also announced an innovation challenge for entrepreneurs and innovators to come up with AI and med-tech solutions to help New Zealand eliminate local HIV transmission by 2030.

“We have made amazing progress over the last 40 years, since the Burnett Foundation was established,” Gibbs tells The Detail. “However, we have still got quite a bit of work to do to achieve the HIV action plan aspiration of getting to zero transmissions by 2030 and eradicating stigma and discrimination.”

On this World AIDS Day, she says the Burnett Foundation Aotearoa is both celebrating 40 years of activism, advocacy, and impact, and challenging New Zealanders not to become complacent.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Weeks after a 1200-cubic-metre wastewater spill into the Mahurangi River, Auckland oyster farmers are dealing with the effects of another overflow, which they say has stuffed their Christmas season.

Watercare confirmed to RNZ that on 19 November, Warkworth experienced more than half the town’s average rainfall for the entire month, a total of 53mm overnight.

An estimated 86 cubic metres of wastewater mixed with stormwater overflowed into the river from a Warkworth pipeline, the engineered overflow point on Elizabeth Street.

The Ministry of Primary Industries instructed growers to suspend harvesting while it carried out testing, with results expected this week.

But Matakana Oysters’ Tom Walters said the spill had already ruined their plans for December, their busiest period of the year.

“It’s been pretty difficult the whole year, but this is our peak time. We’ve missed Christmas parties now and celebrations, we’ve got people who wanted to order for Christmas itself, and now we’re not even getting any orders from people because they know about the sewage situation. So they’ll be going elsewhere.

“My business relies on the Christmas-New Year period, and that’s what gets us through the months where we’re quiet. We’re basically stuffed.”

Matakana Oysters were set to begin harvesting on 20 November, before the rain derailed their plans.

“We’re hoping to be potentially back open early December at best, but that’s all going to be weather and and test results dependent,” Walters said.

He said that while farmers received compensation for the wastewater overflow in October, which Watercare admitted was caused by a technical failure, the agency was not required to compensate them for spills caused by rainfall.

“That money has all gone on debts that have occurred from all the spills over this year and the last couple of years.

“It’s not enough to keep us surviving, and Watercare won’t compensate us for wet weather spills.

“I can’t buy enough oysters from up north or other areas to cater to this time of the year, and I don’t have enough money for that either.”

Mahurangi Oyster Farmers Association president Lynette Dunn said farmers there would likely not be able to harvest until after Christmas.

“This is one of our biggest, most important times of the year prior to Christmas, getting a lot of product out before start spawning out, and we won’t be able to do that.

“All our customers are ringing up, and we can’t supply them.

“And when the Ministry of Primary Industries opens the harbour, there’s going to be scepticism about, you know, are they [the oysters] safe and everything like that.”

“It’s disheartening. It’s eating away at every farmer, and it’s devastating for each and every one of us.”

In a statement to RNZ, Watercare chief operations officer Mark Bourne said it had upgrades planned to prevent more wet weather overflows from occurring, but they would not be completed until the end of 2026.

“Earlier this year, we completed network upgrades to reduce the frequency of overflows at this location while we deliver the final stage of a $450 million programme of work: a growth-servicing pipeline. These measures are performing well, but they were never intended to prevent overflows during severe weather events like last week’s.

“We really feel for the oyster growers, who have faced many challenges this year and are now in their peak harvest season.

“To put a stop to these wet weather overflows as soon as possible, we have accelerated the first stage of the growth-servicing pipeline, bringing it forward by two years to have it in service by the end of next year. This comes at an additional cost of $2.5m. When it is in service, this pipeline will prevent an overflow in similar weather to what we experienced last week.”

Walters and Dunn said affected businesses needed more financial assistance to get them through until upgrades were done.

“This problem isn’t going to stop with wet weather spills and we’ve still got another year of it before the pipeline is ready,” said Walters.

“They’ve [Watercare] made a few little fixes which have helped with small amounts of rain, but anything over 30ml plus is going to affect us.”

Dunn said that even when the infrastructure improved, it would take a lot of work to re-build public trust.

“We need funding to keep us going. Our reputational damage is just going down the drain. Everyone associates Mahurangai Oysers with sewage. So, to try and sell our product, we’re going to have a huge battle.”

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