Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

Football fans reportedly breached the Wembley gates hours before the start of the Euro 2020 final between hosts England and Italy. The Telegraph is reporting that a number of fans broke past stewards at Wembley as the thirst for entry reaches desperation for those who don't have tickets to the game. Daily Mail reporter Mike Keegan on the scene described it as "carnage". Can only describe scenes ou...

Richard Branson became the first person to ride into space aboard a rocket he helped fund. The supersonic space plane developed by his company, Virgin Galactic, roared into the sky over New Mexico early Sunday, carrying Branson and three fellow crewmembers. Branson -— along with Virgin Galactic employees Beth Moses, Colin Bennett, and Sirisha Bandla and pilots Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci — boa...

Air New Zealand is preparing for its busiest July school holiday period ever. That's very welcome news to tourism operators and hotel owners, who are now dealing with the news that the Queensland and New South Wales bubble pause is indefinite. Paul Anderson, from NZ Ski in Queenstown, who operate Coronet Peak and the Remarkables, and Paul Button, from Rotorua Canopy Tours joined Kate Hawkesby to d...

I’ve received the best news ever this week, another sleep study. I love sleep studies because no one gets less sleep than shift workers. We sleep at weird hours; we wake at weird hours, those of us who are up early for other reasons like kids sport, or gym classes or being woken by babies. I mean, we all want to know the deal on sleep don’t we? So according to a new study by an international psych...

There are no doubt a few hangovers across England on Thursday after a night of wild celebrations in the wake of the national football team's victory over Denmark in the European Championship semifinals. There will likely be many, many more on Monday morning if England manages to beat Italy in the final, its first in a major tournament since winning the 1966 World Cup. The worry is that beyond the...

Forget Facebook and Twitter, even Instagram should be worried. Tik Tok is where all the kids are these days. But it seems the popular app is encouraging more young people to read books. Book Tok has become a trend, where people post videos reviewing and recommending books. This has boomed in popularity, so much so that book sales have greatly increased. Joining us now from New York is director of...

As you may know, for the first time ever, skateboarding is going to be included in the Tokyo Olympics. But this has caused some division in the skateboarding community. While some say it's good for the sport, others say it could harm the industry. Others argue whether it's actually a sport? Ian Michna is the publisher of skateboarding magazine Jenkem and he joined Kate Hawkesby from New York. LIST...

I see Chris Hipkins is saying we won't, in this country, aim to be like the UK and take the approach that we just have to learn to live with Covid. Hipkins says lifting restrictions like the UK is about to is not a realistic option for us long term. So it seems the eradication strategy is still NZ's goal. And if this is true, then are we in for a life of lockdowns and closed borders? As of the 19t...

Richard Branson will take a rocket-powered space plane on a 2,400 mile-per-hour ride to the edge of space this weekend. That's if everything goes according to plan. And there's plenty that could go wrong. The rocket motor could fail to light up. The cabin could lose pressure and threaten the passengers' lives. And the intense physics involved when hurtling out of — and back into — the Earth's atmo...

A Bill stating marriages and civil unions should be allowed to be dissolved immediately in domestic violence situations has been submitted by a Labour list MP. Angie Warren-Clark said Labour was committed to protecting survivors of domestic violence and submitted her Family Proceedings (Dissolution for Family Violence) Amendment Bill to the members' bill ballot. "The current law requires a couple...

Folic acid will be put in bread making flour to prevent devastating birth defects that can result in death or lifelong disability, it can be revealed. Fortifying bread and other food staples with folic acid has significantly reduced birth defects of the brain, spine, or spinal cord in other countries including the United States, Canada and Australia. The move comes after an investigation by the He...

Do you obsessively read the grading ratings on eateries like I do, or are you normal? You know how the kitchens and backrooms of restaurants and cafes get inspected and graded based on hygiene and cleanliness? More ratings came out this week and I’m obsessed with them. Because I’m a hygiene freak and if I see anything other than an A rating I want to run for the hills. How the system works is that...

There are calls for Police to up their game in the enforcement of seatbelt rules. Figures released to Newstalk ZB show the number of fines being handed out for failing to wear a seatbelt, have almost halved in the past decade. That's despite the number of serious injuries and crashes where a driver or passenger wasn't wearing a seatbelt, have either increased, or remained unchanged, over the same...

Nurses say striking is a last resort and not something they do lightly. Members of the Nurses Organisation have voted to walk off the job another three times this year, in July, August and September. Some strikes will be as long as 24 hours. Nurses Organisation industrial advisor, David Waite, told Kate Hawkesby it's the most significant strike action nurses have ever voted on, and will ever take....

Generation Z, the generation after Millennials, want to make their mark on the world. This includes in fashion. It seems more of our younger generation want to buy gender-fluid clothing. In 2019, 56 percent of Gen Z consumers shopped outside their assigned gendered area. There are suggestions that it is time some of our local retail brands, Farmers, The Warehouse, Kmart, got more with the programm...

Trying to get a Covid-19 vaccination is a bit like the “Hunger Games”, according to the NSW Health Minister. Brad Hazzard offered the scathing review of the vaccine rollout while standing alongside the NSW Premier and chief health officer to deliver the latest Covid update. There have been 35 new cases of Covid in NSW, a huge spike on the 16 infections revealed on Sunday. While addressing the medi...

I wonder, with school holidays starting at the end of this week, how many people are put off by the bubble given the mess Australia’s in currently. Quarantine free travel to South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and the A.C.T is back open, but it comes with a warning. Epidemiologist Rod Jackson said go at your own risk, basically. Be prepared to be stuck there for weeks or even months, he says. That...

The hospitality industry is uniting for a collective ‘lights out’ moment and they hope it'll help avoid them going dark for good. Businesses will switch their lights off for two minutes to express concerns about immigration policies. They say there's a desperate need for overseas workers and visa extensions. Pre-Covid, about 30 per cent of the industry was made up of migrant workers. Owner of Mons...

It's fair to say this year's Olympics, which start this month, will be different to others. Athletes will feel increased stresses and pressures, travelling and competing in an event during a worldwide pandemic. But another factor will be the spectators. The smaller than usual crowds are not allowed to cheer, sing, chant, give handshakes or hug but must sit quietly. Sports psychologist Sara Chatwin...

Regular saliva testing for staff at New Zealand's managed isolation and quarantine facilities could be underway in weeks, which aims to strengthen the country's border against Covid-19. Asia Pacific Health Group (APHG) was awarded a Ministry of Health contract in May to provide virus surveillance testing through saliva samples from staff at New Zealand's MIQ sites. Testing at the border has been a...

A snapshot of the scale, lays bare the geographic spread of New Zealand's meth problem. The New Zealand Herald's obtained two years of wastewater test results that police have used to monitor consumption of illegal drugs around the country since late 2018. Analysis shows small towns with high levels of deprivation - including Kaitaia, Opotiki and Wairoa - have been saturated - recording weekly per...

If I had a dollar for every parent contacting me about the state of things at Starship, I could make a large donation to the Hospital. It's dire in there at the moment. There’s a severe lack of funding, staff, beds, you name it, they’re screaming out for it. I just can’t fathom how the country’s only specialist children’s hospital can be so over run and in such dire need… and yet the government do...

Text by Danica Kirka, AP England may soon abandon legal requirements for wearing masks, a government minister said Sunday as the nation waits for U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson to announce plans for easing COVID-19 measures. Johnson is expected in the next few days to update England on “freedom day’’ — the plan to scrap the remaining restrictions on business and social interaction on July 19. B...

National's Simeon Brown is fuming over a Human Rights Commission donation to the Mongrel Mob. Newstalk ZB has revealed the commission gave the Waikato chapter $200 as koha, after Chief Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt spoke at the Mob's hui in May. Brown says its unacceptable any amount of taxpayer money is being donated to a gang. "It's absolutely outrageous the Human Rights Commission is givi...

I feel bad for Mike King, not just him actually, but for every family he’s tried or is still trying to help and can’t get funding for. Yesterday the government told him they’re not funding Gumboot Friday to provide free counselling for young people struggling with mental health. I find this ironic given the government’s talked a big game on mental health, handed out 1.9 billion for it, acknowledge...