Holiday Breakfast

Damage assessments will be done this morning following a tornado in East Auckland last night.

It caused roofs to be blown off houses and damage to cars, but there are no reported injuries.

Fire and Emergency Incident Controller David McKeown told Tim Dower that the damage covered a decent residential area, stretching about four kilometres.

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Concerns are rising about how an off-shore gambling platform is targeting New Zealanders.

England cricket coach Brendon McCullum is an ambassador for 22Bet: a Cyprus-based bookie which has been heavily advertised on YouTube for the past month.

The Problem Gambling Foundation is worried the former Black Cap's role legitimises and endorses them for audiences here.

Spokesperson Andree Froude says that New Zealanders using the sites aren't protected under our law.

She says our Gambling Act is now 20 years old, and so we're largely unregulated when it comes to online gambling.

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The Democrats are calling for an ethics inquiry amid a storm of controversy surrounding US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

It has emerged that for more than 20 years he's been taking luxury holidays paid for by Republican mega donor, Harlan Crow.

US Correspondent Richard Arnold told Tim Dower that details are continuing to emerge.

He says that for instance, Crow gave half a million to a group started by Thomas' wife, which then paid her 190-thousand New Zealand dollars.

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Russia is seeking to expand its sphere of influence as it struggles with the war in Ukraine.

It's moved nuclear weapons into neighbouring Belarus, despite public statements against the practice of shifting weapons past borders.

Strategic Analyst Paul Buchanan says Russia is critiquing the US storage of nuclear weapons in Guam and Turkey.

He told Tim Dower that it's part of an effort to court anti-US interests around the world.

Buchanan says Russia is calling on South American and Sub-Saharan African nations to ignore sanctions.

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A shearer from the Tararua District has smashed a shearing world record in Southland.

Sacha Bond shore 601 lambs to set a solo women’s eight hours strongwool lambshearing record on Saturday afternoon.

It's 91 more than the previous record of 510 lambs, set by Canadian shearer Pauline Boly in 2019.

The 29-year-old mother-of-one says the day couldn't have gone any better.

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Kiwi UFC Featherweight Shane Young has given Auckland's City Kickboxing gym an extra boost.

The MMA fighter famously trained with Israel Adesanya, Dan Hooker and Kai Kara-France.

Shane Young says he got into the sport in order to improve his skills in self defence, and learned the value of discipline and self-discovery through training.

Shane Young is scheduled to take part in UFC 284 on February 12th, 2023.

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National's Chris Luxon has come under fire for the language used during his speech in Waitangi yesterday.

During his parliamentary Powhiri speech, Luxon called the Treaty a "little experiment", as he hoped to finalise all historic iwi settlements by 2030.

Luxon said these comments weren't meant to belittle the significance of the Treaty, as every country started as an experiment.

Chris Luxon today clarified that formation of the Treaty 183 years ago was a brave decision made by all sides, and that unity gave New Zealand a foundation of tolerance and open-mindedness. 

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A review into the immediate response to the Auckland floods is set to answer some crucial questions.

The probe will consider how well emergency management responded, and whether the state of emergency should have been approved earlier.

Former Police Commissioner Mike Bush is leading the review, which is due to report back in a month's time.

He says the review team will be getting copies of all communications, and talking to everyone involved.

He says what they want to know is who knew key information when, and what they did with that information.

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The truth about a suspected Chinese spy balloon shot down by the United States could be somewhere in the middle.

China claims the balloon was an unmanned civilian airship that had blown off course, and says it now reserves the right to deal with similar situations.

Strategic analyst Paul Buchanan says he believes two things can happen simultaneously.

He says the balloon is probably a surveillance platform used by China that got blown off course by an unusual Arctic weather event.

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Australian Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has questions regarding the proposed Voice To Parliament before he offers support.

Peter Dutton wrote to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese a month ago with several questions regarding Albanese's Voice to Parliament referendum.

Professor Megan Davis, one of the leading authors of the Uluru Statement of the Heart has since confirmed it would be difficult to answer everything before a referendum is held.

Australian correspondent Murray Olds says the Oppsition's questions concerned who would be chosen to lead this, how much they would be paid, and where the location of this representative body would be.

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