Morning Report

As the nation considers a move to level one, spare a thought for those who shopped online during lockdown and still haven't received what they ordered.

That's been the experience of hundreds of people who have vented their frustration online about large local retailers who often dispatch orders one-by-one, or not at all.

Amy Williams filed this report.

Bars and restaurants still having to turn people away under level two are crossing their fingers for a loosening of restrictions.

Cabinet will decide today if the country moves to level one, which would return life to "very very normal", in the prime minister's words.

As Jordan Bond found out, there's no two ways about it for Aucklanders.

It's been another weekend of unrest across the US, with thousands of people in cities across the country turning out to protest racism.

As the two week anniversary of the death of George Floyd nears, fundamental questions about the integrity of President Trump and his administration are being asked, by both opposition politicians, and former members of his staff.

It comes as the Black Lives Matter movement continues to spread, not just in the US, but across the world.

Now, they are making clear their goals - with many calling for political institutions to defund the police.

Washington correspondent Simon Marks speaks to Corin Dann.

Locals are today rallying around a family devastated by a triple fatality on a Raetihi farm in the Central North Island. Three people from one family died yesterday after their car plunged into a pond.

The bodies were found trapped in the vehicle when it was pulled from the water.

An elderly man understood to be the husband of one of the dead and the grandfather of the two others was flown to Whanganui Hospital with moderate injuries.

Ruapehu mayor Don Cameron speaks to Kim Hill.

Māori mothers of newborns dealing with Oranga Tamariki say the child welfare system is dangerous, brutal and racist. 

Their experiences have been detailed in a report from the Children's Commissioner, which was released today. 

Judge Andrew Becroft is calling for fundamental change at the Children's Ministry, saying the system is racist and marred by some poor social workers. 

RNZ Māori news correspondent Leigh-Marama McLachlan reports.

Sergei and Yulia Skripal, the former Russian double agent spy and his daughter who were poisoned with the deadly nerve agent Novichok, are now reportedly living in New Zealand.

Two years ago the pair were found unconscious on a park bench in the English city of Salisbury after Russian agents smeared the deadly chemical on the door-handle of the former spy's home.

Senior UK government sources have told The Sunday Times the Skripals have been given new identities to start a life here after a year in an MI6 safe house.

However, according to Sputnik news, the niece of Sergei Skripal, Viktoria, says she doesn't have any information to corroborate the story.

We asked the Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway for a reponse, but he declined to comment saying he can't comment on individual cases.

His department is working on getting a response, but that has not yet reached us. Sir Tony Brenton, a former UK Ambassador to Russia speaks to Corin Dann.

Viktoria Skripal, niece of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal, says she does not have any information to corroborate the story that her uncle and cousin Yulia have left the UK for New Zealand, or any reason to believe media reporting on the matter.

"I don't know anything about this. But I don't believe it. Their participation in a witness protection programme and relocation is something that has been discussed for a long time.

"New Zealand, the USA and Australia were previously mentioned. But I think that they're still in Porton Down. It's cheaper for the British government to support them there than in New Zealand, and they don't have so much money to support themselves there," Viktoria Skripal said.

The relative believes the Skripals require medical supervision that can be provided to them only in Porton Down, the Wiltshire, England science park which contains some of Britain's most advanced military biodefence facilities.

"I think the information in the media about them moving is just a distraction," she insisted.

New Zealand's security intelligence agency, the SIS, carried out multiple clandestine raids, breaking into foreign embassies in Wellington in the latter part of the 1980s, in breach of the Vienna convention.

An RNZ podcast, The Service, launched today, reveals that one of the raids was on the Czechoslovakian Embassy in Wellington in 1986 and was a joint operation with Britain's MI6 to steal the Warsaw Pact codes.

At the time Czechoslovakia was an ally of the USSR and the code books would have allowed the Five Eyes partners to break the encrypted communications of the communist-aligned countries.

RNZ investigative journalist Guyon Espiner produced the podcast with John Daniell, and filed this story.

News from the business sector, including a market report.

People with disabilities are hoping flexible working conditions adopted under Covid-19 will make it easier for them to get work.

Tanya Harrison who lives in Kapiti north of Wellington has been on the hunt for a new job since January.

She's blind and would like work in the area of mental health.

Harrison told RNZ reporter Eleisha Foon she's much more confident this can happen post Covid-19.

Mental health workers are expecting a surge in anxiety cases as people return to a more hectic lifestyle.

Cabinet will decide on Monday whether to move down to Alert Level 1 which has no restrictions on physical distancing and the size of gatherings.

A Victoria University clinical psychologist Dougal Sutherland told RNZ's Hamish Cardwell that for many the hardest times are when the lockdown levels relax.