Morning Report

Two Kākāpō are being flown home to Whenua Hou Island on Wednesday morning, having survived the threat of a deadly fungal disease.

The birds have been at Auckland zoo after a rampant aspergillosis outbreak in April.

More than 50 were brought from their island sanctuaries to the mainland for treatment - a quarter of the total population.

Dr Lydia Uddstrom, a vet at Auckland Zoo, speaks to Corin Dann.

A special character school in Christchurch that gives Māori students a second chance wants a bigger school - but also wants it to be the heart of a new community.

Te Pā o Rākaihautū, a pā wānanga in Linwood is having to turn away students, so it wants to expand but also to make the school the heart of a new village.

It's been waiting four years to see if the Ministry of Education will agree.

Meriana Johnsen has more.

The chair of the Tūpuna Maunga o Tāmaki Makaurau Authority says repeated efforts to meet with the protesters occupying Ōwairaka have been rebuffed.

Those objecting to plans to remove 345 exotic trees and plant 13,000 native trees have been camped out at the maunga for two weeks now.

Paul Majurey who chairs the Tūpuna Maunga o Tāmaki Makaurau Authority told Te Manu Korihi's Māni Dunlop the authority hopes to clear the air at the hui - and is inviting anyone who would like to attend to come along.

The Crown has set out its final argument against murder-accused Dunedin doctor Venod Skantha.

The 32-year-old denies killing 16-year-old Amber-Rose Rush in February last year.

RNZ Otago-Southland reporter Timothy Brown has been following the case in the High Court and filed this report.

Academics and the vaping industry say the Government urgently needs to bring in e-cigarette regulations.

The Government says the process is taking longer than it would like but it has to get it right.

Gill Bonnett reports.

A brief update on the movements in the financial sector.

The mistral, the sirocco, the Fremantle doctor, all names for winds that evoke the places where they blow.

But in one of the windiest cities in the world, Wellington, it's just the wind.

Historian Redmer Yska thinks that should change.

Russia is complaining that a recommendation to ban them from the Olympics is part of a wider campaign to 'undermine Russia'.

The country could be banned from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics - having also been excluded from the 2018 Winter Games - and other major competitions.

The World Anti-Doping Agency committee has also recommended Russia be banned from hosting sports events for four years.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov says Russia is always accused of violating something, somewhere.

RNZ's correspondent in Russia is Ross Cullen.

The $155 million bill to decommission an oil field off the coast of Taranaki may end up being covered by taxpayers.

Tamarind Taranaki, which owns the Tui Field, went into voluntary receivership earlier this month, meaning the government could be responsible for plugging and abandoning its wells.

Environmentalist Taranaki Climate Justice say they warned regulators about just such an eventuality last year.

RNZ Taranaki Whanganui reporter Robin Martin has more.

Just how the over $11 million of donations that have been given to the Christchurch Foundation will be shared out among the victims of the mosque shootings has now been decided.

Donations ranged from 50 cents to the largest single payment of $1.5 million.

Amy Carter is the chief executive of the Christchurch Foundation.