News in 90 Seconds August 20
Teachers are striking for a day today, as they reject a 1% pay offer from the Government.
US President Donald Trump has confirmed American troops won't be on the ground in Ukraine as part of any security guarantee.
A dramatic explosion at a North Carolina vet clinic has been caught on camera.
The upcoming Women's Rugby World Cup final is already setting records.
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Dubai police foiled an elaborate heist, as three thieves attempted to steal a huge pink diamond.
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NZ Herald
2 hours ago
- NZ Herald
The Great NZ Road Trip: A small-town double act - Kiwi photographer caught up in Prince Andrew scandal and a legendary band's music man
He's taken thousands and thousands of images and covered major events such as the Olympics and Rugby World Cup. But despite his prowess, he readily admits he will be remembered for just one photograph – the grainy print of Prince Andrew with his arm around then 17-year-old Virginia Roberts (later Virginia Giuffre) in 2001. You'll know the photograph – it's been used on countless news websites and in newspapers and television reports across the globe since it came to public attention, thanks in large part to Thomas, 14 years ago. Prince Andrew with Virginia Roberts, later to become Virginia Giuffre, and Ghislaine Maxwell. Photo / Handout: US District Court The photo – believed to have been taken at Ghislaine Maxwell's house in London – was the leading exhibit in a firestorm of allegations against the prince and Maxwell's then boyfriend, US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Giuffre claimed that Epstein trafficked her for sex with Prince Andrew, an allegation the prince has always denied. Thomas photographed the original print for the Mail on Sunday, during an exclusive interview with Giuffre in Australia – where she lived – in 2011. She had it among a pile of images; Thomas picked it out, photographing it more than 30 times (just to be safe) for the newspaper. Some years later, Prince Andrew tried to cast doubt on the authenticity of the image, saying it was a copy of a copy and that he had no recollection of being photographed. Those comments threw an unwitting Thomas into a media frenzy. 'I was holding the original photo in my hand. It was a normal 6x4-inch print that you would have got from any developer at the time,' he told his former newspaper in 2023. He was able to produce further evidence – he had also taken a photograph of the back of the photo, showing it had been processed and developed in London. It has a stamp: '000 #15 13Mar01 Walgreens One Hour Photo'. 'I used to get mad emails from people telling me they were from camera clubs and it was a fake photo and it was this, and it was that,' Thomas tells the Herald. Michael Thomas has been a professional photographer for decades and everyone knows his most famous photograph of all. Photo / George Heard 'I flew over there [to the UK] and did an interview because I had the picture of the back. The reporter was able to trace where it was developed and get everything like that… to put to bed the whole argument about Photoshopping.' Thomas and the Mail on Sunday worked closely with Giuffre in 2011, putting her in hiding and shielding her from rival media as the newspaper broke its exclusive interview. 'She was quite damaged - she was a very gentle sort of woman,' recalls Thomas. 'Gently spoken, quite nervy, but sweet, you know. When I met her, she had her three kids, and she was a great mum. 'It was a really difficult time for her, and she was very frightened at the time of how powerful he [Epstein] was. 'I think it was disgusting, the stuff that she had to go through. Her story was true. There is no doubt her story was true. The photo was true.' Giuffre died in April this year – her family has said she committed suicide. Thomas is saddened by her entire ordeal and said he had always been careful about talking about the photograph. 'I didn't do any of the TV stuff… I was always a bit wary, and especially wary about what she'd think. I was really careful. 'I always tried to be nice about her and to tell my truth about it all. 'She wrote me an email about a year ago and actually wrote in it, 'thanks very much, you've always supported me…', which I was absolutely delighted about because it was one of the things that had really worried me.' Thomas reflects on his own involvement in the saga with some bemusement. The Kiwi news photographer found himself at the centre of one of the biggest scandals of the last few decades. Photo / George Heard 'I always think I'm Michael from South Dunedin, who lives in Arrowtown, and I see this photo published everywhere. 'It's all quite surreal, really. I basically copied a photo on a kitchen table in Australia. And this is what it's turned into.' A friendship forged over pints At a corner table in one of Arrowtown's most iconic pubs and eateries, The Fork and Tap, Thomas and Dave Gent are holding court, ribbing each other about their own colourful back stories. 'Were you in a band?' pokes Thomas to Gent, who happens to be Kiwi music royalty, as a founding member and bass guitarist for The Exponents. Thomas pushes further: 'Does the bass count as a member?'. Gent more than holds his own, taking a swipe at Thomas' skills as a professional photographer: 'I get this from a guy who just [presses a button] on a digital thing that does it all now. To be fair, with AI, I can take photos better than him now – I just need to type in what it is'. The pair are great mates, a friendship forged after they fell into business together, almost by accident, as co-directors of Arrowtown Brewing eight years ago. The concept was dreamed up by Gent, Thomas and late businessman Tim Hemingway over a few pints in the very pub we're sitting in today – Gent had just returned from the US and seen the growing interest in craft beer. Founding member and bass guitarist for The Exponents Dave Gent. Photo / George Heard Gent tells a funny story of how they had an early party to launch the new company, but no actual product at that point: 'We didn't even know how to make beer.' So he and Thomas sat with a bath-tub full of bottles from another brewery, peeling off labels and putting on their own. 'Everyone was going, 'Oh, we really like your beer - you guys know what you're doing',' laughs Gent. These days, the beer is well and truly their own. The company now has a small brewery, out the back of the nearby Slow Cuts eatery, and a young brewer, Conor McCloskey. Their website lists five different beers, including an IPA, Sawpit Pilsner, a lager and Lake Haze IPA. Thomas says the venture – Navman founder Sir Peter Maire and Xero co-founder Hamish Edwards are also shareholders – is a 'bit of fun'. 'I always describe it as David and I being two unemployable people that just needed something to feel relevant again,' he laughs. In reality, the venture is more of a love story for Arrowtown – the pair are focused on the local area they firmly now call home. They are wary of expansion and introducing additional costs, such as freight, when margins are already tight. 'I think there was this glory thing of everyone thinking 'I'll start a brewery, and then the big brewery's going to come in and buy us',' says Gent. 'But those days are gone now.' Music lives on Another well-known local described the pair to me as 'the unofficial mayors of Arrowtown'. Thomas wasn't keen on that description; Gent laughingly lapped it up. The music legend has been in town for the past 25 years. Shayne Currie meets two 'unofficial mayors of Arrowtown'. Photo / George Heard While The Exponents disbanded some years ago, they regularly reunite for special gigs or short tours. Gent reveals they'll be at Synthony in Auckland next year. 'It's fun playing with the guys,' says Gent. 'Jordan [lead singer Jordan Luck] plays all the time. He's got his own band. He played down at Ayrburn [in Arrowtown] so I just jumped up and played some songs with him. 'We're all really good friends – it's the same four guys since 1981.' It's clear he holds the band close to his heart, and still gets a buzz when he hears some of their anthems – think, Why Does Love Do This To Me, Victoria or Who Loves Who the Most – playing at sports events. Life in Arrowtown, the 'quirky little village' that everyone wants to live in With Arrowtown's population sitting at just under 3000, I was reliably informed that these two know most people in town. 'There's a proper mix of people. If you go to Auckland and you go to a bar, everyone in that bar is the same sort of person,' says Gent. 'They work in similar industries and earn the same amount of income, they do the same thing. Whereas as soon as you get into a place like this, you've got normal people, plumbers, people that actually work for a living. 'You've got billionaires and then you've got tourists, and it's all in a big mix. And everyone does mix.' The Fork and Tap pub in Arrowtown. Photo / George Heard The pair tell of A-list stars such as Jason Momoa and Ed Sheeran mixing with locals. Thomas says of the town: 'Everyone knows each other, right through from the farmers to the billionaires. New millionaires come in here - you get all sorts and nobody's treated any better or any worse. 'It's a really good mixing pot. Everybody gets treated with the same disrespect! I actually mean that.' Gent and Thomas had a laugh the other night, when Gent donned a NZ First pin that a mate had given him - the pair say they are about the only two in town who vote Labour - and hammed it up as they spoke to two actual members of the NZ First party. 'We're sitting there, and these two guys then drag Shane Jones over. He said, 'The boys tell me there are two supporters over here'.' Gent didn't let on. 'To be fair, he was nice.' Arrowtown property prices Arrowtown has certainly seen more than a fair share of hospitality developments. There's the Ayrburn hospitality precinct, Swiftsure by Man o War, and even the expansion of Queenstown's famous Fergburger, with its Fergbutcher in town. The pair have no shortage of opinions on the pressures facing the small town – and their concerns about basic infrastructure not keeping pace with housing development. The iconic Arrowtown pub is recognised by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust as a classified building. Photo / George Heard Property prices – and interest from foreign buyers – are soaring. The median price of a house is now well over $2 million, but there are more dramatic trends at play at the higher end of the market. 'Everything's going to go up to $5 million,' says Thomas. 'Those $4 million houses are $5 million because there's a market for them. 'My friend's a property buyer's agent. She's getting people from America and Australia [who] just come in and say we've got $10 million to spend. So all these houses that were $7 million are just going up to 10. It's quite incredible. 'If you buy a knockdown shack - not even a great section in the sun or anything like that – you won't pay less than $1.7 million. And that's knocked down. These are old Southland farmers' cribs. There's no insulation, but they still get a lot of foreigners, a lot of Aucklanders, a lot of Australians.' He says some locals are being forced out by the rising prices, with the school roll falling. Gent's own kids went to the school. He says Arrowtown still has a village vibe – a community where 'you know everyone' – but nearby Queenstown's growth has been massive. He says he used to always go into Queenstown; now he might be there only twice a year. Thomas – who has been here since 2005, after returning from the UK - agrees Arrowtown still has a community spirit. 'It's a quirky little village.' That means he'll often be asked by those in the know about his most famous assignment. 'I was getting an operation the other week on an eye, and I'm lying there… the woman's operating on the eye, and all she could do was talk about Prince Andrew.' And his own views on the prince? 'Oh, I think everybody knows what he's like - he's just very entitled. From what I know, he's not a very nice person.' Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand's most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor.
Newsroom
3 hours ago
- Newsroom
Innocent until proven guilty often means 22 hours locked in a cell
Comment: Innocent until proven guilty is a fundamental premise of our justice system – but what does it mean? The Prison Inspectorate's just released report on Mount Eden Corrections Facility answers this question because it's where most of our remand prisoners reside. When the facility was inspected in October 2024, 70 percent of people were 'remand accused' prisoners – those yet to be determined guilty (or not) of any crime. A quarter were 'remand convicted'. Though found guilty of a crime, these people were yet to be sentenced and might not be given a prison sentence. Most were locked in their cells for 22 hours a day. The United Nations' Mandela Rules define solitary as 'the confinement of prisoners for 22 hours or more a day without meaningful human contact'. Fifteen consecutive days of solitary confinement is defined as 'prolonged', and prohibited under these rules. Spending such long hours in a cell each day severely limits a prisoner's ability to participate in activities such as training, education, and cultural activities – though at Mount Eden most programmes that ceased during Covid-19 have not been reinstated. This is despite the Government's commitment to provide remand prisoners with reintegration and rehabilitation support to 'turn their lives around'. Consequently, the prisoners were 'bored, stressed and frustrated' and had 'little to do except watch television'. This caused tension among prisoners, some of whom also experienced feelings of isolation and struggled with depression, anxiety, and poor mental health. When prisoners were unlocked, they understandably prioritised phoning their families and exercising, despite the exercise yards having limited equipment and 'no green spaces or views of grass or trees due to the design of the site'. This meant that case managers, education tutors, programme facilitators, and mental health staff found it difficult to access them during the two hours prisoners had outside of their cells. Cell hygiene was another problem in some units because prisoners had no cleaning products for several weeks, including a limited availability of toilet brushes, paper towels, and disinfectant. Disabled prisoners found cleaning their cells difficult, so 'rubbish remained in their cells leading to unclean living conditions'. Showering could also be a problem. The report records two prisoners unable to shower for weeks – one because staff would not provide the plastic he needed to cover his legs while showering, and the other 'could not stand up for long enough'. Some units had no disability cells, and there was a lack of mobility equipment. Two older prisoners told the inspectors: 'They received little in the way of care and support. […] they spent most of their time in their cells because every time they wanted to leave, staff had to find a wheelchair as there were none in the unit. […] this meant they were unable to leave their cells during unlock and were therefore unable to make telephone calls to their lawyers or family/whānau.' When the matter was raised with the facility's assistant health centre manager, the inspectors were shown six brand-new wheelchairs, still in their packaging, in the health storage room. It is not clear from the report how many prisoners were double-bunked and how many were in single cells and alone for 22 hours a day. Of those who shared a cell, some found this positive, but most 'found it stressful or exhausting'. A reason for this is likely the difficulty of contacting staff when problems arose because help was not guaranteed. One awful instance illustrates the point. A new prisoner tried to contact staff numerous times via his cell's intercom because his cellmate was threatening him. He asked prison staff to be moved, but instead they said they would deal with it in the morning, leaving the prisoner to be sexually assaulted and attacked several times overnight. To exacerbate matters, the prison is short of its full complement of custodial staff, with only 85 percent of positions filled. This means the prison is down 76.8 full-time equivalent custodial officers. Some 63 percent of staff have less than two years' experience at the prison. Staff shortages can encourage high lock-ups (restricting inmates to their cells) as a way to manage prisoners. As most staff will not have worked in a pre-Covid prison (when prisoners spent less time locked up), there is a danger that a culture of high lock-up becomes entrenched. This is important to confront because, as the inspectorate report so thoroughly documents, there are multiple adverse consequences when prisoners are locked in a cell 22 hours a day. Its apparent normalisation in a New Zealand prison is alarming. That we allow this as the practice for those presumed innocent is additionally heartbreaking.
RNZ News
4 hours ago
- RNZ News
Trump administration imposes new sanctions on four ICC judges, prosecutors
By Humeyra Pamuk and Anthony Deutsch , Reuters Trump's dislike of the International Criminal Court goes back to his first term. Photo: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP President Donald Trump's administration has imposed sanctions on two judges and two prosecutors at the International Criminal Court, as Washington ramped up its pressure on the war tribunal over its targeting of Israeli leaders and a past decision to investigate United States officials. In a statement, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the court "a national security threat that has been an instrument for lawfare" against the United States and Israel. Washington designated Nicolas Yann Guillou of France, Nazhat Shameem Khan of Fiji, Mame Mandiaye Niang of Senegal, and Kimberly Prost of Canada, according to the US Treasury and State Department. All officials have been involved in cases linked to Israel and the United States. "United States has been clear and steadfast in our opposition to the ICC's politicisation, abuse of power, disregard for our national sovereignty, and illegitimate judicial overreach," Rubio said. The second round of sanctions comes less than three months after the administration took the unprecedented step of slapping sanctions on four separate ICC judges. It represents a serious escalation that will likely impede the functioning of the court and the prosecutor's office as they deal with major cases, including war crime allegations against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. ICC, which had slammed the move in June as an attempt to undermine the independence of the judicial institution, and the office of the prosecutor, did not have immediate comment. ICC judges issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli defense chief Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Ibrahim al-Masri last November for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Gaza conflict. In March 2020, prosecutors opened an investigation in Afghanistan that included looking into possible crimes by US troops, but since 2021, it has deprioritised the role of the US and focused on alleged crimes committed by the Afghan government and the Taliban forces. The ICC, which was established in 2002, has international jurisdiction to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in member states or if a situation is referred by the United Nations Security Council. The International Criminal Court ICC signage and buildings in The Hague, Netherlands. Photo: NICOLAS ECONOMOU / NurPhoto via AFP Although the ICC has jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in its 125 member countries, some nations, including the US, China, Russia, and Israel, do not recognise its authority. It has high-profile war crimes investigations under way into the Israel-Hamas conflict and Russia's war in Ukraine, as well as in Sudan, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Venezuela. The sanctions freeze any US assets the individuals may have and essentially cut them off from the US financial system. Guillou is an ICC judge who presided over a pre-trial panel that issued the arrest warrant for Netanyahu. Khan and Niang are the court's two deputy prosecutors. Netanyahu's office issued a statement welcoming the US sanctions. Canadian Judge Kimberly Prost served on an ICC appeals chamber that, in March 2020, unanimously authorised the ICC prosecutor to investigate alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Afghanistan since 2003, including examining the role of US service members. Global Affairs Canada and the office of Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the ICC sanctions, including against Prost. The Trump administration's dislike of the court goes back to his first term. In 2020, Washington imposed sanctions on then-prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and one of her top aides over the court's work on Afghanistan. - Reuters
