Morning Report

A food fight has broken out on the streets of Auckland between vegans and meat eaters who are each vying to display their campaign messages on road signs, before they're sabotaged by the opposition, or painted over by the council.

Reporter Matthew Theunissen joined vegan activist Deno Stock on one of his missions to try and win the hearts and minds of the meat-loving public.

National's Alfred Ngaro is calling for the Hepatitis Foundation's board chairperson to resign.

As RNZ revealed this week, a two-year investigation into the charity has found the foundation splashed out on lavish dinners, flights and hotels, and could not account for thousands of dollars of credit card expenses.

The board chairperson, Chris Cunningham, spent more than $128,000 on international travel over two years - all at the cost of the Foundation, which receives millions of dollars of funding from the Ministry of Health.

Mr Cunningham hasn't responded to requests for interviews and the Minister-in-charge of charities, Peeni Henare, declined RNZ's invitation.

National's spokesperson for the community and voluntary sector, Alfred Ngaro, was the minister-in-charge while the investigation into the Foundation was underway but he had no knowledge of it at the time.

He told RNZ political reporter Jo Moir that now the report is public Mr Cunningham needs to rethink his position.

The temperatures are warming up and many Aucklanders are digging their togs out of the cupboard to hit the city's beaches.

But over on the North Shore, an e-coli contamination at Brown's Bay has been keeping people out of the water.

Auckland Council and Watercare have spent weeks trying to get to the bottom of the problem and making repairs - and locals hope the latest fix works, so they can make the most of the summer.

RNZ reporter Chen Liu headed over the Harbour Bridge to find out what's going on.

Another Samoan child has died from measles, bringing the death toll to 33.

Another 249 people have been infected with the disease in the past 24 hours. Dozens of New Zealand nurses are in Samoa to help with the epidemic.

Karen Page is a New Zealand Red Cross nurse and speaks to RNZ from Apia, where she arrived on Sunday.

Christian leaders want climate change to be seen as more of a religious issue.

Last week, former Australian rugby player Israel Folau said droughts and bush fires were punishments from God.

But most Christian leaders here say the science is irrefutable, and as the state of the climate reaches apocalyptic proportions, they want more of a say in saving the world.

Max Towle from the In Depth team filed this report.

Transpower doesn't know how long it will take until they learn what caused yesterday's three-hour-long blackout across Northland.

A high-voltage circuit breaker tripped yesterday morning, leaving 90,000 people without power until midday.

It affected water supply, sewer systems and traffic lights.

The Marsden Point Oil Refinery also had to completely power down for safety reasons.

Alison Andrew is the Chief Executive of Transpower.

It was 40 years ago today 257 people left on an Air New Zealand sightseeing flight to Antarctica.

The plane never came home, instead crashing into Mt Erebus and killing everyone on board.

The RNZ/Stuff podcast, White Silence, has followed the path of devastation left by Flight TE901.

Katy Gosset reports.

A jury took just three hours to find former Dunedin doctor Venod Skantha guilty of murdering 16-year-old Amber-Rose Rush.

The teenager was found by her mother in her bed in a pool of blood on February the 3rd last year.

The jury returned a unanimous verdict, as well as finding him guilty of four counts of threatening to kill. .

Miss Rush's mother, Lisa, died of a suspected suicide in June last year, a few months after her daughter's murder.

During the trial the Crown called 69 witnesses and put more than 1000 pages of evidence before the jury.

RNZ Otago-Southland reporter Timothy Brown sat through much of the evidence and speaks to Susie Ferguson.

England have rallied around fast bowler Jofra Archer who was racially taunted during the first cricket test against New Zealand in Mount Maunganui says teamate Ben Stokes.

News from the business sector, including a market report.