Midday Report

Algerian New Zealand activist Ahmed Zaoui, has been charged with subversion and moved to a jail in his homeland, following his arrest there three weeks ago.

Zaoui was arrested after holding a political meeting at his home and releasing a statement calling for peaceful political dialogue.

His New Zealand lawyer, Deborah Manning, says his family are very concerned for his welfare.

Manning spoke to Ben Strang.

Tropical Cyclone Lola has been upgraded to a category five storm as it begins to batter residents on Vanuatu's north-eastern islands.

Winds are expected to reach about 200 kilometres per hour, with the worst impacts expected on Wednesday.

RNZ Pacific reporter, Caleb Fotheringham, spoke to Ben Strang.

Petrol prices have dropped ahead of a long weekend for Aotearoa.

This will come as a relief to drivers after the cost to fill the tank got to around $3 a litre.

Gaspy is an app that tracks prices around the motu - it's spokesperson Mike Newton spoke to Charlotte Cook.

A class action lawsuit has been filed, alleging thousands of Toyota cars sold in New Zealand since 2015 are faulty and that owners deserve compensation.

The lawsuit estimates 35,000 Hilux, Fortuner and Prado models were fitted with a defective engine part.

Hamish Davies is a senior associate at Shine Lawyers and told me the defect reduced the performance of vehicles and therefore lowered their value.

Davies spoke to Charlotte Cook.

The best of the best were crowned at the Beef and Lamb New Zealand awards on Thursday night.

Hundreds gathered at Christchurch's Te Pae convention centre to celebrate.

Monique Steele has the rural news.

Argentina coach Michael Cheika says they're recalling their previous wins over the All Blacks to help them in tomorrow morning's World Cup semi-final in Paris.

Stephen Hewson has sports.

Genesis Energy is looking to axe up to 200 jobs as it looks to revamp its retail business.

Gyles Beckford has the business news.

The Disinformation Project is warning of a stark increase in violent and extremist content on New Zealand-based social media targeting Muslim and Jewish communities.

Kate Hannah, director of the Disinformation Project, is warning that not all the imagery circulating online from Israel and Gaza can be trusted

A line of trucks is still queued at Egypt's border with Gaza, waiting for permission to enter to provide much-needed aid to Palestinian civilians.

The US President brokered a deal with Israeli leaders to allow aid workers to take water, food and medical supplies in to the territory.

For almost two weeks, Israel has cut off all water, food, medicine, fuel and electricity to the region.

It's hoped aid vehicles will be allowed through today, but it's not yet clear when that may happen.

The UN's humanitarian agency has warned the initial group of trucks set to be allowed in won't be nearly enough.

Washington correspondent Caroline Malone spoke to Charlotte Cook about the plans for aid.

Anyone in New Zealand creating a new account and wanting to post on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, is going to have to pay a fee from now on.

The platform announced it's trialling it's "Not a Bot" programme in New Zealand and the Philippines, which will charge users around $1.50 per year to have the ability to post.

Vaughn Davis is a social media expert and prolific poster on X, he spoke to Charlotte Cook.