DEFENCE, FOREIGN AFFAIRS, NATIONAL SECURITY
RNZ: Judith Collins and Winston Peters reveal new $2.7b planes and helicopters
Jamie Ensor (Herald): Government buying helicopters with Hellfire missiles, ‘precision kill system’ as global tensions ramp up
1News: New planes, helicopters for Defence Force
Glenn McConnell and Lloyd Burr (Stuff): Blades of glory: Ministers take model helicopter for a spin after $2 billion spend up
Eva Corlett (Guardian): New Zealand to spend $3bn upgrading helicopters and ‘embarrassing’ defence planes
Thomas Manch (Post): Government to replace Air Force 757s and buy Seahawk choppers from US (paywalled)
Gregor Thompson (BusinessDesk): US helicopter purchases 'not connected' to tariffs, Peters says (paywalled)
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Israeli-made drones not ruled out by NZ Defence Force
RNZ: NZ joins calls for urgent, independent foreign media access to Gaza
Thomas Manch (Post): SIS boss says meeting Kash Patel useful as FBI changes (paywalled)
Amanda Gillies (RNZ): The Detail: Attempted spying conviction for soldier who was less Bond, more bumbling
ECONOMY, OCR, COST OF LIVING
Verity Johnson (Stuff): We’re broke, exhausted, doing everything right - yet still called ‘merchants of misery’
Matthew Hooton (Herald): Reserve Bank and polls give Luxon a reprieve (paywalled)
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Post): Reserve Bank boss: Larger rate cut could have made market think it was panicking
Rob Stock (Post): Two CEOs, two disappointing profits and a message for the Reserve Bank (paywalled)
Susan Edmunds (RNZ): Typical new home loan borrower now about $270 a month better off - economist
Susan Edmunds (RNZ): Which region has the highest KiwiSaver balance?
EMPLOYMENT
Dileepa Fonseka (BusinessDesk): PSA calls for retraction of Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden's ERA comments (paywalled)
Jenni McManus (Law News): Ditch the bill and start again, TLANZ Employment Law Committee tells government
Rob Campbell (Post): The right - and the necessity - to strike (paywalled)
Gordon Campbell: On Teachers, Ferries And The Really Wasteful Spending
CLIMATE CHANGE, ENVIRONMENT, CONSERVATION
Eloise Gibson (RNZ): Officials warn of damage to diplomatic relations in secret climate change memo
Greg Hurrell (BusinessDesk): Think like a forest and save billions of dollars (paywalled)
Mary Williams (ODT): Blasting 'massive hole' in conservation area 'not the done thing
ODT: Opposition as 1080 drop proceeds
RNZ: Calls for ban on taking seafood from Whangaparāoa coastline as rock pools pillaged
FAST-TRACK, INFRASTRUCTURE
Russell Palmer (RNZ): Port of Auckland works first project to get consent under fast-track regime
Peter Dunne (Newsroom): Snags to making NZ great again at infrastructure
Natalia Albert: What the National Infrastructure Plan Tells Us About New Zealand’s Politics
Sam Stubbs (Sunday Star Times): Why we should vote every five years, not three (paywalled)
Dita De Boni (Post): ComCom decides Chorus can relinquish the copper network (paywalled)
LOCAL GOVERNMENT, WATER
Brent Edwards (NBR): Rates well below level considered sustainable, Treasury says (paywalled)
Diane McCarthy (Local Democracy Reporting): Govt’s list of council core services 'bizarre' says Nándor Tánczos
Matthew Martin (Waikato Times): Council big boss pay packet gets even bigger (paywalled)
John MacDonald (Newstalk ZB): Regional council's tone deaf $40k pay increase
Tina Law (Press): Christchurch council secretly approves $6.8m budget blowout for new Hornby pool (paywalled)
Kate Green (RNZ): Wellington Water's responses to information requests unlawful - Ombudsman
RNZ: Council's housing density plan will bring more people to inner Auckland, architect says
Hayden Donnell (Spinoff): Fear and zoning at Auckland Council
Scott Caldwell (Greater Auckland): Is Auckland Council planning to raze the inner suburbs?
RNZ: Auckland Council to consult iwi, government ministries and local boards on intensification plan
RNZ: Auckland Council meets to decide if it will support new intensification plan
Jessica Hopkins (RNZ): Auckland mayoral candidate Kerrin Leoni unveils transport policy plan
Post: Milestone for Wellington’s library ahead of 2026 reopening
Linda Hall (Local Democracy Reporting): CBD brothel plan abandoned after mayoral candidate's condemnation
Ruby Shaw (ODT): Simms confident after latest departure (paywalled)
HEALTH
Kevin Hague (Newsroom): To fix health, minister advised he must fix climate, tax and Treaty
Ian Powell: Grog’s own country or Grog’s own health system?
Mariné Lourens (Press/Post): Nurses’ union claims last-minute strike cancellation due to Health NZ (paywalled)
Mariné Lourens (Press/Post): Dumbing down fears linger as new psychology assistant role gets green light (paywalled)
EDUCATION, CHILDREN
Leah Watkins and Louise Signal (The Conversation): Commodifying childhood: NZ children see marketing for unhealthy products 76 times a day
John Lewis (ODT): Study shows children ‘saturated’ with harmful messages
Emma Ricketts (Stuff): Fact-checked: The claims and counterclaims around teacher pay
John Gerritsen (RNZ): Term two school attendance reaches three-year high
Felix Walton (RNZ): Sickness, reliever shortage forces schools across country to close
Hanna McCallum and Cate Macintosh (Post): ‘Significant sickness’ at schools but attendance up on 2024 (paywalled)
RNZ: Te Wānanga o Aotearoa announces 'redesign' that will see around 60 roles cut
Paora Manuel (Waikato Times/Post): The heart doctor who is now the uni’s med school boss (paywalled)
Matthew Littlewood (ODT): OUSA meeting reinstates Israel boycott policy (paywalled)
PARLIAMENT, TĀMAKI MAKAURAU BY-ELECTION
Lillian Hanly (RNZ): Labour candidate Peeni Henare stands by gang-patch law repeal claim
Adam Pearse (Herald): Labour’s Peeni Henare ‘mistaken’ to claim party would repeal gang patch ban, says deputy leader
Lillian Hanly (RNZ): Peeni Henare 'mistaken', Labour won't repeal gang patch ban
Lloyd Burr (Stuff): Labour MP says the party will revoke the ‘gang patch’ law
Cherie Howie (Herald): Tāmaki Makaurau byelection: Karl Mokaraka kicked out of debate over Hannah Tamaki exclusion
Phil Smith (RNZ): The House: Opposition's backbench overtakes National's on bills passed
Lillian Hanly (RNZ): Two Labour bills pass into law
JUSTICE
Laura Walters (Newsroom): Spending on addiction reports increases after cultural reports scrapped
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Why this simple idea to protect politicians isn’t popular with all MPs
Giles Dexter (RNZ): Bill to ban protesting outside private homes passes first reading
Paula Penfold (Stuff): He said he’d resign. He hasn’t. And did he pose as an MFAT official too?
Katie Harris (Herald): Rich-lister wrongly linked by AI to child abuse case demands real culprit be identified
Katie Harris & Lane Nichols (Herald): Law expert urges Clean Slate Act review after teacher hid convictions, abused girls (paywalled)
Samira Taghavi (Law News): Eroding fairness, expanding powers: why every lawyer must speak out on NZLS’ proposed changes
BUSINESS
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Post): Steven Joyce suggested break-up of Foodstuffs; now he’s joined its board (paywalled)
RNZ: Steven Joyce appointed to Foodstuffs North Island board
Ripu Bhatia (Stuff): Steven Joyce joins Foodstuffs board of directors
Donal Curtin: It's a start
Kate Green (RNZ): Timber industry braces for more mill closures in troubled times
Anneke Smith (RNZ): Coalition accepts Consumer NZ's 'Price it Right' supermarket petition
Susan Edmunds (RNZ): Who pays when a supermarket price tag is wrong?
RNZ: Commerce commission warning for Kmart over greenwashing
Rob Stock (Post): Companies that fail to hand over GST and PAYE in the spotlight (paywalled)
Aziz Al Saafin (1New): Could a four-day week be the future of work for more businesses?
Aimee Shaw (Post): What's happening to big box retail? Industry hangs tight on rate cut relief (paywalled)
TE REO, TIKANGA
Amanda Gillies (RNZ): The Detail: From taonga to target: the assault on te reo Māori
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Govt continues campaign for English agency names
Lloyd Burr (Stuff): Does Winston Peters want HMNZS Aotearoa re-named?
Metiria Stanton Turei (ODT): Te reo Maori is ‘normal’; stop treating it like it is not (paywalled)
Deborah Coddington: What’s in a name?
Andrew Bevin (Newsroom): Rebuff to Free Speech Union intervention in estate agent’s tikanga court battle
HOUSING, RETIREMENT VILLAGES, BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION
Amy Williams (RNZ): Hundreds of otherwise homeless turning to unsafe boarding houses, social services warn
Brian Peat (ODT): Mad as hell and not taking it any more
Michelle Palmer (ODT): Villages are a home, not a trap
Alka Prasad (Post): Construction sector challenges government’s green stance
Brent Melville (NBR): Building risk cover not an ‘optional extra’, says industry (paywalled)
TRANSPORT
Ian Powell: When the privatising rubber hits the climate change denial roads
ODT Editorial: Sailing off into the sunset (paywalled)
Felix Walton (RNZ): Budget airline Jetstar apologises for misleading New Zealand customers as hefty fine looms
Rob Stock (Post): Commerce Commission seeks ‘substantial’ fine for Jetstar (paywalled)
Tom Hunt (Post): No appetite for another 'lasagne of failures' in Wellington bus lanes (paywalled)
Justin Wong (Post): Goodbye Waterloo station subway, hello new bridge? (paywalled)
Katie Stevenson (1News): Rural road rules for farm vehicles 'null and void’
Shilpy Arora Gaikwad (Stuff): Pedestrians vs cyclists: New cycleway plan could spark ‘footpath fight’
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Transport agency disputes 'systemic failure' led to Johnathon Walters' death