Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

A New York Times piece explored the age-old conundrum- should children be excluded from dinner parties?

A child-free couple were eager to spend time with friends, but weren't keen on including their kids on the guest list, sparking debate as to what the most ethical solution could be.

NZ Listener food columnist Lauraine Jacobs is in favour of leaving kids out of the equation.

"If my son and his wife want to see another couple, they often go out. People are prepared to get baby-sitters, aren't they?"

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A wave of business failings is expected on the horizon.

BWA Insolvency's latest report shows 20 percent more business fell in the third quarter of 2023, than in the same time last year.

Their managing director says more are inevitable, with the central Government attempting to drive down discretionary spending.

Bryan Williams says there are also an increase in costs and labour shortages.

"And there is a worldwide downturn of commercial activity. Add all those together, and the end of the rainbow doesn't look like gold."

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A New Zealand-made drink company has been forced to publish a notice saying it's made some 'unsubstantiated' claims.

Ārepa calls its product a 'brain drink', but the scientific community has questioned the assertion it boosts mental and athletic performance.

The Ministry for Primary Industries has confirmed the notice the company had put online was compulsory, after an investigation into its labelling and advertising.

Co-founder and co-chief executive Angus Brown says it's tough to balance complex, emerging science with health codes.

"The issue with MPI is in relation to our use of the pre-approved health plans for vitamin C."

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An Australian media contingent's waiting outside a police station in a small Victorian town - hoping a woman at the centre of a fatal mushroom lunch will emerge.

Erin Patterson's being questioned and her Leongatha home is being searched after her arrest this morning.

Three people died in July after eating a meal she prepared in July.

Australian correspondent Andrew McFarlane says Patterson's previously said she bought mushrooms for the dish at a store.

"She says she actually ate the beef wellington in this case and she felt sick and went to hospital- but she also says her two kids, who were at the movie theatre when this meal took place, ate the meal the next day, but they scraped the mushrooms off and they were fine."

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The mother of baby Ruthless-Empire - whose death is being investigated by police - has spoken out.

Storm Angel Wall has told our newsroom after being told the toddler was choking, she rushed him to hospital, where he died.

Police are treating the death as a homicide.

Herald reporter Sam Sherwood, says Wall told him she denies being involved in the death.

"She described him as the happiest little baby you'd ever see, she said that he was a happy, chappy baby. In her words, she said she was more than sad about what had happened."

Our newsroom understands the mother was one of three staying at the Lower Hutt property at the time.

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The Black Caps deny their fielding standards are slipping after slumping to a third straight defeat at the Cricket World Cup.

They've been trounced by 190 runs by South Africa in Pune - New Zealand was rolled for 167 after allowing the Proteas to reach 357 for four.

Sportstalk host D'Arcy Waldegrave explains further.

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Extra students are pressuring the roll, resources and planning at New Zealand's biggest school.

Education Ministry data shows student rolls grew by nearly 16,000 pupils in the past year, and it says immigration is largely the reason.

Rangitoto College Principal Patrick Gale says the school zone has had a lot of infill housing in the past few years.

"And that's leading to higher population density, but the families that are choosing to move into those homes are often immigrants- so those two are inter-connected."

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This time tomorrow, we will know exactly what we voted for on the 14th of October.

The release of the final voting figures will indicate exactly how many seats each party has, and how they can then be part of a coalition, and what the proportion is- and whether they can govern the country or not.

To be honest, I had to ask my co-workers what date the election was on, because it felt so long ago. And the reason for that is because it's been over three weeks since October 14th.

The length between the election and the counting of the votes has upset many people, including Christopher Luxon. Yesterday, he spoke to Mike Hosking, today he was talking about it in his stand-up.

Yesterday, he said he needs to review the electoral law to find out why it takes so long- and perhaps make some changes.

That electorate law, by the way? It's had a lot of changes that have been proposed, he's going to also have to look at the independent electoral review, which suggests all sorts of other changes- like a four year term and a lowering of the electoral threshold. There's a bit of work there.

Those two ideas sound good to me- but you know what? I actually don't have a problem with how long it has taken to confirm this election result.

I know roughly who's going to be leading the Government, I know what their policies are, I know what they're going to have to do to make them happen, I know what they want to do within the first 100 days.

Do I need to know what the exact number is today, or yesterday, or a week ago- or on Friday afternoon? Not really.

I know other places are quicker, and I know we're a small country. But as we learnt from the last election in America, this is not a thing that can be done wrong or have the implication that it might be done wrong.

In New Zealand, we don't do elections wrong. 

And I actually think we've also enjoyed the three-week break from all the sniping and belly-aching and name-calling that oppositional politics delivers.

But here's the thing, in this vacuum we have had, all sorts of rumours spring up. And I think I've seen this all over social media.

Some hard-lefties are positive that the half-million special votes are going to the left bloc, which will change the shape of the election. Some people's loyalties strike them blind.

I've seen some people reckon that New Zealand First's vote will go up, meaning that Winston will be Luxon's right-hand man- not David Seymour.

They reckon that Luxon would enjoy the easier ride with Winston, because - be sure of it - Seymour's going to be tough on Luxon's inherent centrism, which he can't hide no matter how much he protests.

Whatever, we don't know. We will know, for certain, without debate- at 2pm tomorrow.

Tomorrow is going to be great, we're going to start forming a Government after all.

And given that Christopher Luxon, over the last two days, has been so impatient about the result of this election- I think it's obvious he must be willing to wheel and deal at pace.

And then we can start working and moving forward, rather than standing still.

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The ongoing inquiry into the UK's response to the Covid-19 pandemic is still underway, and damning allegations have surfaced.

Records kept by former chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance state that former Prime Minister Boris Johnson believed Covid was 'nature's way of dealing with old people'.

UK correspondent Gavin Grey says Johnson's pandemic response has been wildly criticised, as he kept flip-flopping as the crisis unfolded.

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Tonight on The Huddle, Nick Mills from ZB's Wellington Mornings and Trish Sherson from Sherson Willis PR joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day- and more!

A school in Ōamaru is under fire after students were banned from contacting their parents on a school camp when a group of pupils and staff went missing. Do you think the kids should have been allowed their phones back?

Chris Luxon says he's had a chat with Chris Bishop after he compared the Hamas attack to the Holocaust in an email to a member of the public. Is this an example of how difficult it is to tread the line when it comes to this issue?

The Labour caucus is set to vote to decide whether or not they want to keep Chris Hipkins around to lead Labour. How do we rate his chances?

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