The mysterious foundation bankrolling the New Zealand First Party has been receiving donations from entities connected with some of the country’s wealthiest business people in amounts just under the threshold at which the donors’ names would normally be made public; and there is concern over the safety of 100 people still trapped in hutts and walking tracks in Fiordland.
1.A Government-chartered Air New Zealand plane is set to arrive in Auckland from the novel coronavirus-stricken Wuhan about 4pm on Wednesday with 70 New Zealanders on board. Air New Zealand’s chief pilot David Morgan said the total of 250 passengers on board would be a mix of New Zealanders, Australians and Pacific Islanders.
2.The mysterious foundation bankrolling the New Zealand First Party has been receiving donations from entities connected with some of the country’s wealthiest business people in amounts just under the threshold at which the donors’ names would normally be made public.
3.There is concern over the safety of 100 people still trapped in hutts and walking tracks in Fiordland. A landslide has hit a hut on the Routeburn Track in Fiordland with 31 people inside as torrential rain battered Fiordland overnight. He slipped and hit the Howden Hut at 1.30am, leaving two people with minor injuries. A state of emergency was declared in the area yesterday afternoon as heavy rain and slips closed State Highway 94, the only road into Milford Sound.
4.Heavy rains overnight flooded parts of the Clutha District and closed a number of roads. More rain forecast today with the Met service expecting upto 90mm to fall in the 24 hours to tonight.
5.A record breaking heat wave is putting pressure on Hawke’s Bay Hospital staff, sweltering in 30 degree heat without air conditioning. The Resident Doctors’ Association says its members are working in unsafe temperatures and air conditioning is urgently needed.
6.A Whanganui cycle retailer says it is imperative people getting onto an e-bike get some training first. ACC figures show active claims involving e-bikes have grown 13 folds since 2015.
7.Democrates have been making their last achievement to convince US Senators to remove President Donald Trump from office. The Opposition lawmakers case suffered a significant blow when they couldn’t call the numbers to force witnesses to be called in the Senate impeachment trial.
