Morning Report

Samoan officials have been going door to door in an attempt to immunise the whole population.

Most government services have shut down and private vehicles banned from the roads so the vaccination teams can get around.

The death toll from the virus has reached 60 people - mostly children - and there are over 4000 cases of it across the country. 

RNZ's reporter in Samoa, Logan Church, speaks to Kim Hill.

The World Health Organisation says the number of new cases of measles in Samoa is starting to plateau thanks to the aggressive response by the government.

But that urgent action comes after ten months of inaction when MMR immunisations were stopped after two babies died from a MMR vaccination mixup in July last year.

The vaccination programme only restarted in April - by which time the measles outbreak had started to take off in New Zealand.

Kim HIll spoke to the WHO spokesperson for measles in the Pacific, Jose Hagan, and began by asking how much Samoa's moratorium on immunisation had to do with the current epidemic.

The New Zealand women's sevens team are priming themselves for their first back-to-back World Series events.

Round two of the Impeachment hearings have kicked off today.

Yesterday the House Intelligence Committee released a 300-page impeachment report which accuses President Trump of trying to enlist Ukraine to help him in the 2020 presidential election and obstructing the congressional inquiry by trying to cover it up.

Today the action moved to the House Judiciary committee, where historically, the articles of impeachment originate. The stakes are now considerably higher.

RNZ's correspondent in Washington is Harry Horton.

The Commerce Commission will release its final report into the retail fuel market at 8:30am on Thursday.

Its preliminary findings in September found the market is not as competitive as it could be.

It said many fuel companies were highly profitable and getting better returns than might be considered reasonable.

RNZ business reporter Kim Savage has the details.

Two multi-billion dollar government investment funds say they have no plans to scrap their investments in fossil fuel companies, despite pressure from the Green Party.

Combined, the National Provident Fund and the Government Superannuation Fund Authority have almost $150 million invested in fossil fuels.

Max Towle from the In Depth team has been following this story.

Christmas time will now be a time of mourning for Auckland's Samoan community as the measles epidemic back homes claims more lives.

Dozens of Samoans gathered together in Māngere last night to pray and to collect medical supplies to send back home.

RNZ's Jessie Chiang was there.

Former Australia fullback Israel Folau has settled his unfair dismissal case with Rugby Australia - after he took the organisation to court for firing him over homophobic comments he made on social media.

After 14 hours of negotiation Rugby Australia apologised to Folau for any hurt and harm caused to him.

The terms of the settlement were not made public.

Folau and his wife Maria made this pre-recorded statement following the settlement.

Sports writer for the Sydney Morning Herald Peter Fitzsimons told Kim Hill Rugby Australia did what was best for the sport.

The Department of Internal Affairs is defending the Hepatitis Foundation and says publicly shaming it does nothing to help the charity sector.

It's also defended its decision not to proactively publish a critical report, which revealed the foundation had spent more than $128,000 on travel over two years for its board chairperson, and paid for lavish dinners at top restaurants.

After more than a week of refusing to be interviewed, the deputy chief executive of Internal Affairs, Maria Robertson, sat down with RNZ political reporter Jo Moir, and told her the foundation had done the right thing in response to an investigation.

The New Zealand Nurses Organisation has lodged a complaint with the HDC over informed consent.

It alleges very junior doctors, midwives and paramedics are observing or participating in the patients' obstetric or gynaecological procedures at North Shore Hospital.

A nurse says she intervened to stop an internal examination taking place without consent in December 2018, and five years after another case first rang alarm bells.

Phil Pennington reports.