Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

You may be surprised to learn Year 13 girls still think being pretty and popular on social media is more important than intelligence and academic achievements. This is our 16-18 year-olds, and perhaps most surprisingly, the information comes from interviews with the top achievers at four high schools. Dr. Eunice Price at Auckland University's faculty of Education and Social Work told Tim Dower par...

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak will self-isolate for 10 days, after initially saying they would not despite coming in contact with someone who contracted Covid-19. Johnson and Sunak came in contact with Health Secretary Sajid Javid who tested positive. The two initially claimed they didn't need to isolate as they were taking part in a pilot scheme that involves dai...

Two athletes living in the Olympic Village have tested positive for Covid-19, the first to do so with the Tokyo Games opening on Friday. Organisers confirmed the positive tests on Sunday and both were listed as "non-Japanese". No names or other details were provided. Organisers on Sunday also said another athlete had tested positive but this person was not residing in the Olympic Village. This ath...

Even before the Olympics are officially open, things are looking decidedly dicey in Tokyo. As of this morning, there are now 55 covid cases among people linked to the Games. This includes various contractors and suppliers, as well as the smattering of cases among the athletes themselves. Most recently, members of the South African football team have been told to isolate, after cases in their conti...

The more I see of this Three Waters legislation, the more it smacks of a dictatorship bent on centralisation, and the less I like it. This is a massive change in the way we live our lives, everyone needs water. But it's being hammered through with indecent haste, and the strategy seems to be to swamp us with very dodgy data and immensely complex legislation. The Prime Minister tried to win over lo...

The quarterly inflation figures are out today. If it's anything near one percent for the three months, it will take the annual rate into territory we haven't seen for a long time. There are concerns that the first digit on that annual figure could come out to a 3. And if so, is it a blip, or a sign the economy is overheating? Infometrics chief forecaster Gareth Kiernan told Tim Dower there are a s...

It’s no secret social media giants are constantly looking for ways to get your attention, or better yet, your interaction. It's how they make their money. The granddaddy of them all, Facebook, is set to spend one billion US dollars getting influencers to create content on their platform. It's theorised this has come due to pressure from upstarts like Tik Tok. Tech commentator Paul Spain told Tim D...

Trucks, utes and even dogs will descend on city centres around the country today, as farmers take part in a huge protest. The Howl of a Protest event, organised by Groundswell New Zealand, will see thousands of farm vehicles rumbling through cities in protest against what farmers say is increasing interference from the Government, unworkable regulations and unjustified costs. The protests are taki...

One of the England football players targeted with online racist abuse after his team's loss in the final of the European championship condemned social media companies Thursday for doing too little to block "hateful and hurtful" messages on their platforms. In comments directed at Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, Bukayo Saka said he didn't want anyone else to be targeted by the kind of messages he...

I was holding my breath for a moment listening to our 2 o'clock news yesterday. In the end, the interest rate didn't go up, but the flag's been raised and the printing of money is coming to an end; the party's almost over. You've probably noticed signs of inflation in your supermarket shop, a couple of things I buy regularly have sneaked up all of a sudden. That big pack of toilet roll jumped by a...

The Senate's top Democrat is backing a bill that would strike down a longstanding federal prohibition on marijuana, embracing a proposal that has slim chance of becoming law yet demonstrates growing public support  for decriminalizing the drug. Proposals to legalize marijuana are nothing new. But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is a sponsor of the effort unveiled Wednesday, underscoring how a...

Declaring Venice's waterways a "national monument," Italy is banning mammoth cruise liners from sailing into the lagoon city, which risked being declared an imperiled world heritage site by the United Nations later this month. Culture Minister Dario Franceschini said the ban was urgently adopted at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday and will take effect Aug. 1. It applies to the lagoon basin near St. Mark'...

For those who have entered into the housing market in the past seven years, the prospect of a rising interest rate will be new. ASN and Kiwibank have moved already, hiking fixed mortgage rates. ASB expects the Official Cash Rate will rise half a percent next month, and it's not the only big bank thinking that way. For your average property prospector, the question remains as to whether these proje...

A mass vaccination event in South Auckland needs to address the failure so far to vaccinate vulnerable groups including Māori, Pasifika, and those in south Auckland, health experts say. Five months into the vaccine rollout and nearly 1.4 million doses having been administered, the rate of Māori fully vaccinated is more than 40 per cent behind Pākehā per capita. Pasifika are also about 20 per cent...

Would it surprise you to find out that the requirement for pre-departure COVID tests is only being checked on a random basis? It surprised me. As I'm sure you know, under the travel bubble, anyone coming from Australia is meant to have negative test in the 72 hours before flying. Now, you might have thought this was being checked before people get on the plane, but as we've reported earlier this w...

The Ministry of Education's being urged to stump up enough funding to help children with autism and other learning needs. An Auckland mother's been told she can't keep paying 10-thousand dollars a year for a teacher aide for her eight-year-old son. It followed her email to Education Minister Chris Hipkins, arguing there's not enough support for all learners at existing state schools, and suggestin...

The Government is being told it has a great opportunity to take advantage of cryptocurrency. Parliament's Finance and Expenditure select committee has launched an inquiry into the risks and benefits of cryptocurrency. Environmental impact and criminal use will be probed. Cryptocurrency advocate Matthew Griffin told Tim Dower the inquiry is essential. “They really do have to have a deep understandi...

According to figures, as a nation, we're feeling a lot better about our finances than we did 12 months ago. Investment house Kiwi Wealth says more than a quarter of us feel wealthier. 70 percent are confident about the economy, and the number struggling to make ends meet has halved, to 4 percent of the population. Kiwi Wealth acting CEO Rhiannon McKinnon told Tim Dower there are a few reasons for...

Australia’s approach to tackling the Delta Covid-19 variant has come under fire, with multiple experts warning the current strategy is putting the nation at risk of fresh outbreaks. The current strategy of letting states and territories deal with outbreaks in their own ways has attracted criticism, with infectious disease experts saying not having a national approach is putting the country at risk...

Listen up, this is important, a stern message from the Prime Minister. This is directed at people travelling here from Australia, who think it's OK to ignore the requirement about a pre-departure test. Jacinda Ardern is not amused. If we catch you in future she says you run the risk, mark that, run the risk of two weeks in managed isolation. And you know what, we might even make you pay for it. Yo...

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced current Covid restrictions will end on the 19th of July. The move is hugely political, with it having already been delayed, and half of people still wanting to keep current restrictions in place. UK correspondent Vincent McAviney told Tim Dower this isn't the big release that many people were hoping for. "Whilst there are legal obligations lifting for...

Getting vaccine doses into the arms of 1800-odd unvaccinated border workers is a top priority and should be done as quickly as possible, a leading public health expert says. But port bosses say the 11-week lead-in time for workers to get a single jab is necessary to limit workplace disruption, and even then exceptions may be needed to keep operations afloat if key workers - such as maritime pilots...

One small trip for Sir Richard Branson, one giant leap for space tourism. The 70-year-old billionaire has successfully reached the edge of space, on board his Virgin Galactic space plane. The aircraft has been in development for 17 years. US space expert Wendy Whitman Cobb told Tim Dower the achievement will ease people's concerns about safety. "They really have a strong incentive to ensure safety...

Some of the script for the film about the Christchurch mosque shootings has been leaked out. Newshub says it's seen the draft document, it runs to 120-odd pages...and there's a graphic reconstruction of the attack itself. We have shown the version of the script obtained by Newshub to some of the victims, who describe it as worse than the terrorist's livestream of the 2019 atrocity. Now this is bei...

National says the Government needs to consider the long-term impacts of Covid-19. Documents released under the Official Information Act show officials have been looking into long-term MIQ facilities since July last year. But they say a shortage of health workers would make it difficult to staff them. National Covid-19 Spokesman Chris Bishop told Tim Dower a way needs to be found to establish purpo...