Guilty verdicts have been reached in France's mass rape trial.  

Dominique Pelicot's been jailed for 20 years after drugging and raping his wife Gisele and inviting dozens of strangers to do the same for over nearly a decade.  

He was also found guilty of taking indecent images of his daughter and his two daughters-in-law.  

Of the other 50 men on trial, 46 were found guilty of rape, two of attempted rape, and two of sexual assault. 

Europe Correspondent Vincent McAviney told Andrew Dickens that there’s been some disappointment around the sentences for the other men, as they received sentences of between 5 and 8 years.  

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The Government's teaming up with the private sector to get on top of text scams. 

When people report scam texts as junk on some phones, text messages will soon go directly to the Department of Internal Affairs. 

It can then share the info with telcos so they can be blocked. 

Rush Digital founder and chief executive Danu Abeysuriya told Andrew Dickens we have to work together to solve this problem. 

He sees it as a good approach because if you get a few reports of spam, thousands of further texts can be blocked. 

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Stabilising the economy is not as simple as investing more. 

Stats NZ figures out yesterday show GDP fell 1% in the three months to September. 

They also revised the preceding quarter down to 1.1% contraction, with both figures putting us in deep recession. 

ANZ Economist Henry Russell told Andrew Dickens the Government should be investing more, if it weren't dealing with its own deficits. 

He says there is going to be another shock on the horizon and the country needs to be prepared to respond to that. 

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The government has announced changes to free speech rules for universities, saying it's concerned that they are currently taking a risk based approach and need more diverse opinions.

The new rules will set out expectations for universities on how to approach freedom of speech issues and each one will have to adopt a free speech statement.

They will also be prohibited from taking positions on issues that don't relate to their core functions.

Tertiary Education Union President Sandra Grey says there isn't a problem here that needs to be fixed.

"It feels like we've got a heavy-handed approach from a government that apparently is anti-regulation but is now going to put in place the whole lot of requirements on a community that just doesn't need it."

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This is my last editorial for the year. 

What a year it’s been, we started in January with Golriz shoplifting, we watched 10,000 jobs go from the public sector and the private sector follow suit as cash stopped bouncing around the economy.

National blamed Labour for everything and Labour blamed National.

We watched Scott Robertson fail to be the second coming but when the All Blacks were good they were very good.

The Treaty Principles Bill debate came, saw and divided. The hikoi invaded parliament, but didn’t set up camp.

The entire Newshub newsroom disappeared and others seem vulnerable so that’s less eyes on the game.  

Construction crashed, power surged in price, mills closed and towns pondered what their citizens will do next.

The snow fell late, a football team landed on the ground running, we found out state care was not caring.

A war in Ukraine rolled on, a war in Gaza started, a country finally expelled it’s dictator, Iran bombed Israel and Israel bombed Iran and world war 3 seemed closer than ever.

China eyed Taiwan, China eyed the pacific, the States eyed China and we were asked to choose sides more and more. 

Then Donald Trump won America by saying we’ll keep it simple and keep America first, and tariffs are back. 

We’ll never forget you 2024, but frankly we’re sick of the sight of you. 

It’s time to go to your family, go to your favourite place, watch another sunrise, rest and recuperate because in 2025 we’ve got a big job fixing all this shit up.

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Many Americans could be in trouble this Christmas. 

Amazon workers across a number of facilities in New York, Illinois, and Southern California are gearing up to strike later this week. 

The strike would take place the week before and during Christmas and Hanukkah, the two biggest gift giving holidays in the US. 

US Correspondent Toni Waterman told Andrew Dickens the workers are calling for better wages, benefits, and working conditions.  

She says they’re currently at a bit of a stalemate, as Amazon is refusing to recognise the union representing the workers. 

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Infrastructure investment is being held up as being paramount to keeping New Zealand's economy on the right track. 

Stats NZ will release GDP data for the third quarter just before 11am today. 

The major banks are all predicting between a 0.2% and 0.4% contraction, meaning our third technical recession in two years. 

Kiwibank Senior Economist Mary Jo Vergara told Andrew Dickens a lack of infrastructure investment has made the last few years particularly volatile.  

She says in a time of recession, building roads, hospitals and schools will help the economy. 

Vergara says cuts to the US Federal Reserve also impact our economy and exporters. 

She says our small economy is heavily reliant on the performance of the global economy. 

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A Lake Alice survivor understands the frustration at the Government's torture redress. 

Eligible people tortured at the psychiatric hospital in the 1970s can take an expedited payment of $150 thousand or apply for independently assessed redress. 

Payments will be made between March and December next year. 

But survivor Jim Goodwin told Andrew Dickens these people have spent their lives being fobbed off and may feel it's not good enough. 

He says this is also being determined by government ministers and heads of government departments – the very people who have fobbed them off. 

Goodwin says it seems to him that this won't be the full and final settlement, but rather the $150 thousand is just the start.  

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Listen to the Early Edition with Ryan Bridge Full Show Podcast for Thursday 19 December.
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