Morning Report

A brief update of movements in the financial sector.

Whakatāne media organisations plan to give $750 vouchers to about 1000 local business next week to try to bring the town back to life and get them spending again.

Radio 1XX and the family-owned Whakatane Beacon are both working on ways to get through winter as they grapple with the impact of Covid-19 crisis and the Whakaari/White Island disaster.

The owners say their incomes have plummeted and the worst is yet to come.

Sharon Brettkelly reports.

Where is North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un?

Is he seriously ill? Has he maybe died? Or is he just out of public view for a while?

Rumours are swirling, but no one seems to know anything definite.

Anna Fifield is the Washington Post's China correspondent, author of The Great Successor: The Perfectly Divine Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un and is in lockdown in New Zealand.

She speaks to Susie Ferguson.

Offering visas to high-value overseas investors could be a good way to quickly inject capital into the economy.

The Times in London suggests rich Americans are turning to New Zealand for sanctuary during the coronavirus pandemic. A lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Strategic Management at Otago University,

Tadhg Ryan-Charleton, told RNZ reporter Gill Bonnett that could be turned to our advantage.

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced consumers to think about what they need, what they can get, and due to the lockdown, what they really can live without.

So while retailers are of course thinking short term about what their business will look like, and how they can keep customers coming, experts are warning the long term planning is equally as important because the sector will never be the same.

Online shopping will get bigger and better, but it won't just be fast fashion being added to the cart, and yes there will be a place for a town's Main Street - but only if done right.

RNZ business reporter Emma Hatton with the story.

Calls and texts to the government's free national mental health helpline have risen sharply since the start of Alert Level 4.

In recent days, the number of calls to 'Need To Talk 1737' is up by 40 percent as people seek counselling over issues such as financial anxiety or worries about children.

Eleisha Foon reports.

Of the multitude of stunning images from space, one of the most memorable is a photo - taken in 1968 by astronaut William Anders - of a radiant blue-and-white sphere slowly appearing above the horizon of the Moon.

This image of Earth's rise inspired the creation of Earth Day, which - 50 years on - is being celebrated by NASA.

Corin Dann spoke earlier to NASA scientist Dr Annmarie Eldering and asked if we'd successfully done anything to protect our fragile planet.

The number of food grants made by the Ministry of Social Development has skyrocketed under Alert Level 4, hitting close to 70,000 a week.

At the same time the demand of food banks has increased nine-fold in parts of Auckland.

Yesterday Government has pledged $30 million to go towards welfare and food for those in need, it will go towards food and welfare assistance run by local authorities and Civil Defence, and to local food banks and community organisations.

But those people running food banks are worried the funding isn't going to reach them.

Darryl Evans is the chief executive of the Māngere Budgeting Services Trust.

Health fears and lack of demand are likely to keep many early childhood centres shut when schools partially reopen next week.

Sector leaders say many centre owners and teachers are still not convinced it is safe to reopen, despite Government assurances the chance of a Covid-19 outbreak in an early learning service is extremely low.

Most kindergartens and schools, however, look set to partially reopen on 29 April.

Here's RNZ education correspondent, John Gerritsen.

It would be anyone's worst nightmare: being stuck on a cruise ship, confined to your cabin, because more than half of the people on board have Covid-19.

But a mere two weeks ago, that was the situation Hawke's Bay-based Jeffrey Green was facing on the Greg Mortimer, as the expedition doctor for the cruise around South Georgia and the Antarctic.

Everything seemed fine for the first week, but as he told RNZ reporter Sarah Robson, it all changed when one of the passengers developed a fever.

Three of the 13 New Zealanders who were evacuated from the ship were among the six new Covid-19 cases confirmed yesterday.