Midday Report Essentials for Wednesday 16th July 2025
In today's episode, the Waikato District Council is investigating a road that locals call the "rollercoaster" after a woman and two children were killed in a crash on Tuesday; New Zealanders are once again among TV's most famous, with two nominations in the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards - television's top honour; The government has put a stop to open plan classrooms - after more than a year of signalling it wasn't interested in this style of build; And A pair of Kiwi singing in the night led to confirmation the Kiwi pukupuku is living in the bush on the West Coast.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
9 hours ago
- RNZ News
South Indian communities celebrate Bonalu in Auckland
Bonalu celebrations in Auckland. Photo: Supplied/New Zealand Telangana Central Association The New Zealand Telangana Central Association and Telangana Association of New Zealand celebrated the annual Bonalu festival on 20 July in Auckland, with hundreds of devotees attending. The festival, which is popular in the southern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, celebrates Hindu goddess Mahakali. On this day, women dressed in traditional clothes carry bonalu (offerings made of rice, jaggery, yoghurt and water that are kept in a pot decorated with turmeric and neem leaves) on their heads and perform a parikrama ritual, moving clockwise around a temple in an act of devotion. The bonalu are then offered to the goddess as devotees seek her blessing. According to the Indian government, the origins of the festival date back to the 19th century when a military battalion in the Indian city of Hyderabad prayed to the goddess to eradicate a plague that was devastating the city. Devotees believe the goddess eradicated the disease, and the battalion installed an idol of her in the city in honour of her actions. In Auckland, the bonalu ritual was performed at the Shri Ganesha Temple in Papakura and Mt Eden War Memorial Hall, with a communal meal featuring sacred offerings in the form of food to the gods called mahaprasadam highlighting the celebrations. "Apart from the traditional bonalu procession, we also performed other rituals including dravya abhishekam (bathing the deity with milk, water or honey), shakambari alankaranam (decorating the goddess with vegetables) and thrishathi archana (chanting the goddess' 300 names)," said Kalyan Rao Kasuganti, president of New Zealand Telangana Central Association. "Bonalu this year stood as a true symbol of devotion, cultural pride and community spirit."
RNZ News
a day ago
- RNZ News
Supermarket sign catches fire while customers were in store
File photo. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon A supermarket on Auckland's North Shore has had to be evacuated after a fire this evening. Fire and Emergency were alerted to the blaze about 7.45pm, after the New World sign at the Brown's Bay supermarket ignited. The building, which was open at the time, was evacuated with smoke entering the store. A video posted on a Brown's Bay community group on social media showed flames coming from the building. Four fire appliances including a high reach truck were deployed. The fire has since been extinguished with two trucks remaining on scene. Last month a massive blaze broke out at the New World Victoria Park supermarket in central Auckland in June, taking more than 10 hours to extinguish.
RNZ News
a day ago
- RNZ News
Homeless situation in Auckland now at 'crisis' point
More than 800 rough sleepers are now being helped in Auckland. File photo. Photo: RNZ / Finn Blackwell The government needs to do more to combat homelessness, says an Auckland council committee, after outreach teams recorded a 90 percent increase in people sleeping rough since September. Outreach providers in the city say they are now dealing with 809 rough sleepers. The Community Committee voted this afternoon to write to the government, asking it to engage with frontline agencies to understand and respond to the drivers for all homeless people. This included using data provided by sector organisations working on the ground, alongside the 2023 census data. Committee chair and councillor Angela Dalton told Checkpoint that homelessness has reached crisis point in the city and is likely still rising. "It is a crisis in Auckland and if it has risen by 90 from September till May 2025, we're in July, I doubt very much those numbers would have decreased, they would have increased," Dalton said. "We need a shift in policy change, we need understanding and a bit of compassion would help, to understand why our people are homeless and how we can provide them with a roof over their heads." Dalton said the policy changes that made it harder for people to access emergency housing, and declining those that have contributed to their lack of housing, has been problematic. "I think there's some policies that have been changed that shows a lack of compassion because they are making assumptions that people are not trying hard enough." A government report released last week found 14 percent of people leaving emergency housing may be homeless. Auckland City Missioner Helen Robinson talked to the committee, as a representative of the Coalition to End Women's Homelessness. The coalition's research late last year found 46 percent of homeless women lived in Auckland. "The Auckland City Mission is asking for the council to do everything in its power to communicate to government the reality of homelessness that we see here in the central city Auckland and to advocate for a system that genuinely responds to those people's needs." Robinson said that included house houses and appropriate support. "There is a real call to change the current emergency housing policies and then to work with organisations like the mission so we can provide the services people need when they truly are at that point of homelessness." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
