Midday Report Essentials for Thursday 5 June 2025
In today's episode, the Prime Minister has expressed what he says is his absolute shock over revelations about one of his senior press secretaries, the worst of the wild weather which has been lashing the country appears to be over - for now, three people have been charged with manslaughter over the 2023 Loafers Lodge fire in Wellington, and it's that time of year again-when young kekeno or fur seals start turning up in all sorts of odd places, from footpaths and paddocks to busy roads.
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RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
Gang shootings spark escalated police presence in Levin
Police won't need a search warrant to inspect cars or houses. Photo: RNZ / REECE BAKER Levin will see a tripling of police numbers this week, after four gang shootings in three days. A Gang Conflict Warrant has been put in place for Ōtaki, Shannon, Foxton and Levin. Inspector Ross Grantham, the Manawatū area commander, said normally search warrants would be needed for individual cars or addresses. "This warrant allows us to stop vehicles which we believe, on reasonable grounds, have links to the groups involved, so we can stop them and we can search them." Grantham said extra officers were coming from around the central district - Taranaki, Whanganui, Ruapehu and Palmerston North - tripling the number of officers patrolling the streets and investigating the crimes. About 11.20am Monday, a man turned up to a Liverpool Street healthcare centre with a gunshot wound to his thigh. He was taken to Palmerston North Hospital in a serious condition. Then, about 8.55pm Monday, police were called, after a firearm was discharged from a vehicle on Hinemoa Street, hitting a house. Grantham said no occupants were injured, but they and neighbours were shaken. Shortly after 6am Tuesday, five shots were heard on Mabel Street and police found a shed that appeared to have been shot. At 12pm Wednesday, a person was found on Bartholomew Road with serious injuries from a gunshot wound and was taken to hospital. While the conflict appeared to be between members of the same gang, Grantham was concerned the public or gang member's families could be caught in the crossfire. The Mongrel Mob and the Nomads both had a presence in Horowhenua, he said. Horowhenua District Mayor Bernie Wanden told RNZ he understood the shootings were linked and gang related, involving the disgruntled member of one gang. "From what I understand, [it's] an internal gang-related issue, where someone is not happy with whatever is going on within their organisation." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
Attempted spying conviction for soldier who was less Bond, more bumbling
Photo: ADELE RYCROFT At first glance, it reads like a Tom Clancy spy thriller. A disloyal, far-right soldier, an undercover officer posing as a foreign agent, and the passing on of secret army information, which could put the safety and defence of the country at risk But this time, it isn't fiction. It's real life, in New Zealand. For the first time, a serving soldier has been convicted of attempted espionage , sent to a military prison, and dismissed from service for attempting to spy on the Defence Force. At his long-awaited trial, in front of a court martial at Linton Military Camp, the man - whose name is currently suppressed - pleaded guilty to three charges of attempted espionage, dishonestly accessing a computer system, and possessing an objectionable publication. Newsroom journalist Marc Daalder broke the story six years ago, and attended the court case this week, and tells The Detail , that "this isn't James Bond, it's not the Hunt for Red October either ... what we have here is maybe more like a bumbling wannabe-spy". "As the judge put it in his sentencing decision, 'How could you be so naive as to think this is the way forward, this is the right thing to do?'" Daalder says that the soldier did have ties to far-right groups and "it's a serious, serious issue, but you don't want to overstate it either". So how and why did a Kiwi kid grow up to be a would-be spy? Daalder says the soldier had a troubled childhood; he was a loner and didn't make friends easily. "Even once he joined the NZDF, he was not particularly well-liked, and that's part of what drove him, he says, to these far-right groups." Daalder says in social media posts the soldier would boast that he "joined a Nazi organisation and [he said that] it's the best thing that ever happened to me, I used to be a loser, no job, no fitness or social skills. Now I'm working a decent job, have plenty of friends and a half-decent life, all thanks to the mentoring I got from older Nazis, and I have no regrets". Before the 15 March terror attacks, the soldier founded a far-right group, 'The Dominion Movement', which meant that after the attacks he was on the radar of police and was pulled in for questioning several times. In an affidavit presented at his court-martial hearing this week, the soldier said, "The investigators were incredibly aggressive towards me, often getting in my face and shouting. To me, their approach was actually violent." The soldier said he was terrified, and felt he had to leave New Zealand and get to another country where he thought he would be safe. "He frames himself as a victim of political persecution," Daalder says. The soldier then contacted a third party, indicating that he wanted to defect. "Following the New Zealand government learning of the contact with that third party, an undercover officer, posing as an agent of the foreign country, reached out to him and asked to meet ... and the soldier was asked to provide a letter, asking what he could provide that would assist that foreign country," Daalder tells The Detail . "From there, it's a mixture of spy thriller and maybe a bumbling spy version." Among the items the soldier provided were documents, including maps and aerial photographs of various defence force bases, along with passcodes, access codes, login details to its IT system, and telephone directories. He also passed on handwritten assessments of the vulnerabilities of the Linton Military Camp, where he was stationed. The soldier was eventually arrested at the Linton Military Camp in 2019, and put under open arrest, living in defence-subsidised housing and receiving full pay. He initially faced 17 charges, including espionage. This week, he pleaded guilty to attempted espionage, accessing a computer for a dishonest purpose, and knowingly possessing an objectionable publication, and was sentenced to two years in military detention - the longest possible sentence of detention available under the law. Otago University law lecturer Sean Whittaker, who moved to New Zealand from Scotland a year ago, told The Detail he was "very surprised" by the spying conviction. "New Zealand has a reputation of being a safe place to live, to work, and not being vulnerable to such action - either by external forces or by people within the country itself. "I think that it's important to mention that the limited number of instances of espionage being detected and prosecuted is not indicative of the lack of quality of New Zealand's security intelligence services. "Ultimately, I think they are doing a good job; they have detected espionage in this particular instance, and I think that's overall because New Zealand isn't exceptionally vulnerable to espionage," he says. But does New Zealand really have anything worth spying on or information worth selling to foreign countries? "Despite New Zealand's small size, it is a decent-sized player in the international community ... we do have things that are worth [spying on], as it were, things that are valuable, both intrinsic to us and to the global system as well." Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here . You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook
RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
Kiwis in the dark over Instagram, Facebook account suspensions
Auckland based dancer Assryia Brady, who mainly posts dance videos, said Meta's claims about her account were baseless and had harmed her reputation. Photo: Supplied A dancer, a dumpling restaurant owner and a makeup-artist are among New Zealanders whose Instagram and Facebook accounts have been suspended, as thousands globally call for Meta to be held accountable for what they say are wrongful bans based on false accusations. More than 37,000 people around the world have signed an online petition advocating for ordinary users impacted - who they said were being silenced by Meta's "broken AI enforcement systems". Meanwhile, Meta said it was using a combination of humans and technology to take down accounts that break its rules - with content such as child sexual abuse material. In June it admitted to a glitch in the system that resulted in Facebook groups being wrongly taken down - however, it said that had been fixed. Auckland dancer Assryia Brady said her Instagram account was suspended in June, after Meta told her she had breached community standards with child exploitation material. Brady, who mainly posts dance videos, said the claim was baseless and had harmed her reputation. She said despite being a Meta Verified user, paying $30 a month, she received no support from the company to get her account back. Auckland based dancer Assryia Brady, who still has no access to her Instagram account, said job opportunities have been taken away from her as a result. Photo: Supplied Freelance make-up artist Tallulah McLean had her Instagram account suspended earlier this month on the grounds of breaching community standards relating to child exploitation, abuse and nudity. She said the only child photos she had on her account was of her doing make up for her brother when she was a child. McLean said the ban was devastating for her livelihood. "I do all my work as it comes through Instagram, it's my online portfolio, it's where I can meet people, like clients, and form connections with other make up brands, PR brands. It's everything, so this has impacted every form of income for me, like my business, my livelihood, it's shattered it," she said. McLean said her efforts to contact Meta to appeal the ban were met with chat bots and automated responses. She received two calls from overseas call centres after telling Meta she would be sending legal letters to them. She said the callers told her there was nothing they could do, and she needed to wait. Auckland based freelance make-up artist Tallulah McLean, who relies on Instagram to reach her clients, said her income was hit after her Instagram account was wrongly suspended. Photo: Supplied Meta reinstated McLean's account within hours after RNZ sent queries about her complaint, but it refused to explain why McLean's account was suspended. Auckland dumpling restaurant Sumthin Dumplin also had its business Instagram account suspended for breaching community standards about two months ago despite only posting photos and videos of food and its staff. Its owner Shane Liu said the response from Meta was almost "non-existent" other than chat bot stock responses, even though he was paying about $2000 for his Meta-verified account. "I didn't know what to do, what do you do? Did the sales dip? Of course it did. Thank God I built a brand that was beyond just an Instagram page, and it didn't dip that much, but I was definitely affected." Liu said he paid thousands of dollars to a marketing company in Dubai, who eventually helped him reinstate his account. Sumthin Dumplin's Instagram account - with nearly 30,000 followers - was only reinstated after its owner Shane Liu paid thousands of dollars to a Dubai based marketing company to help communicate with Meta. Photo: Screenshot Meta said it took action on accounts that violated its policies, and people could appeal if they thought it had made a mistake. "We use a combination of people and technology to find and remove accounts that break our rules," it said in a statement. "We're always working to improve the enforcement of all our policies - including our child nudity and exploitation policy - to help keep our community safe. No system is perfect, which is why we give people the opportunity to appeal decisions if they think we've got it wrong," it added. The tech giant did not answer RNZ's questions about how many accounts had been wrongly cut off, and insisted that it had not seen evidence of a significant increase in incorrect enforcement of its rules. In July, Meta said it was expanding on teen account protections and child safety features, and cracking down on accounts breaking rules. The BBC reported that Meta was removing 635,000 Instagram and Facebook accounts over sexualised comments and imagery in relation to children. Artificial intelligence expert from Victoria University Dr Andrew Lensen said the recent shift was surprising, as he thought Meta had in the past taken a conservative approach to suspensions - often not taking down violent and sexual content. Now they had gone too far in the other direction, he said. Dr Lensen said while social media platforms had been using automated systems to moderate accounts for a decade, they continued to be increasingly reliant on automated tools. He said the increasing sophistication of AI powered moderation tools could be a double-edged sword. "It's really hard to increase your detection of the really bad stuff, without also accidentally increasing your mis-detection of accounts that are actually legitimate," he said. Dr Lensen said it was hard to know what the motives behind Meta's recent shift were. 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