PARLIAMENT, GOVERNMENT, YEAR AHEAD
Matthew Hooton (Herald): NZ First plans to gut ‘woke’ Labour’s vote (paywalled)
Laura Walters (Newsroom): Political pollsters’ picks for 2026
The Post: The year that might be: Our political team’s predictions for 2026 political team (paywalled)
Richard Prebble: Election 2026 a toss-up as Luxon India deal, AI revolution reshape economy
Grant Duncan: 2026: the political minefield ahead
Ben Thomas (Post): How imported hoaxes and opinions could impact this year’s election (paywalled)
Spinoff: A bunch of wild political predictions for 2026
Greg Presland (The Standard): Some random predictions for 2026 …
Brent Edwards (NBR): The PM’s push to have people feel the economic recovery (paywalled)
James Nokise (Post): If there’s really a crisis, Chris, you need to move like there is one (paywalled)
Steve Braunias (Newsroom): The secret diary of .. New Year’s Resolutions
Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): David Seymour on Act’s life as a lightning rod
Steven Cowan: David Seymour praises Argentina’s extremist economic policies
Mountain Tui: Who funded David Seymour’s trip to Argentina?
Greg Presland (The Standard): What David Seymour did during the holidays
Chris Trotter (ODT): Hard year for many but New Zealand is not yet broken (paywalled)
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Pledging ‘real action’ on cost of living crisis
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Staying on the right track essential for change
K Gurunathan (Post): Māori economic power becoming the face of practical self-determination (paywalled)
Tina Ngata: Decolonising power and the mirage of Kotahitanga
Rob Campbell: The More Things Stay The Same
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Those getting stuff done, or needing to get more stuff done (paywalled)
Tina Law (Press): Former ECan chair to contest Banks Peninsula (paywalled)
Luke Malpass (Post): Summer off politics: Shane Jones on Bacardi and Coke and growing dahlias (paywalled)
Luke Malpass (Post): Summer off politics: Erica Stanford on not camping, not reading (paywalled)
Anna Whyte (Post): Summer off politics: Andrew Bayly’s summer of sons and scones (paywalled)
VENEZUELA, FOREIGN AFFAIRS, TRADE
Matthew Littlewood (ODT): Stronger NZ stance urged over Venezuela
RNZ: Kiwi expert on Venezuela attack: ‘Time that we made our voice clear’
RNZ: Venezuela attack: New Zealand ‘concerned’, expects everyone to follow international law - Winston Peters
Herald: Winston Peters says NZ ‘concerned’ by US strike on Venezuela as Maduro lands in US
Steven Cowan: New Zealand: A vassal state of the American empire
Shilpy Arora Gaikwad (Stuff): US military action in Venezuela and what it could mean for NZ fuel prices
RNZ: ‘The mood is of happiness and hope’ - Venezuelans in NZ
Lochlan Lineham (Herald): Venezuelan in New Zealand hopes Maduro capture will help free missing cousin
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RNZ: New quotas on beef exports to China unlikely to have impact on exporters - minister
Charles Finny (Newsroom): Stop downplaying NZ success
CYBER SECURITY
Ruth Hill (RNZ): ManageMyHealth breach: Patients at risk of identity theft, extortion - experts
Tom Hunt (Post): Health data hacker claims Manage My Health had time to act (paywalled)
Stuff: Hackers drastically shorten deadline for Manage My Health to pay ransom
Tom Hunt (Post): 48 hours to pay: Manage My Health quiet as deadline brought forward to Tuesday (paywalled)
RNZ: Manage My Health cybersecurity hack: GPs whose patients’ data was stolen identified
RNZ: ManageMyHealth says code fixed, security tightened after hack
RNZ: Health NZ says systems unaffected by ManageMyHealth app breach
RNZ: PSA says the privacy breach exposes risk of cutting IT experts in public health
Vera Alves (Herald): ManageMyHealth privacy breach: Government ‘blundered’ by cutting IT expert jobs - PSA
Virginia Fallon and Tom Hunt (Stuff): Private health records surface on dark web after Manage My Health hack
Anna Leask (Herald): ManageMyHealth data breach: What we know as up to 126,000 possible users affected
RNZ: ManageMyHealth reveals scope of data breach
Tom Hunt (Post): $100,000 Manage My Health breach: Two days to tell police, users (paywalled)
RNZ: ‘Be very, very suspicious’: Neighbourly breach makes users vulnerable - expert
Carly Gooch (Press): Neighbourly users’ private information for sale on dark web (paywalled)
Herald: Neighbourly data breach: User names, emails and messages accessed
Kevin Norquay (Post): False sense of security: Inside NZ’s under-reported cyber war
HEALTH, DISABILITY
Ellen O’Dwyer (RNZ): Woman waited 11 hours at Wellington Hospital’s emergency department, was not seen by doctor
Nikki Macdonald (Post): Health NZ paying thousands to fly gynae cancer patients south (paywalled)
Pretoria Gordon (RNZ): Abortion numbers rise since decriminalisation and launch of telehealth services
Megan Wilson (Rotorua Daily Post/Herald): Health NZ data reveals hundreds of assaults on Bay of Plenty, Lakes hospital staff (paywalled)
Felix Walton (RNZ): Blood donation rules are changing in 2026 - but why has it taken so long?
Ripu Bhatia (Stuff): Out of desperation, a man hid his visual impairment to get a job interview. It didn’t go well
Pretoria Gordon and Rachel Graham (RNZ): Dame Karen Poutasi, first female director-general of health, dies aged 76
WATER, ENVIRONMENT
Maxine Jacobs (Press): The many solutions to the nitrate problem (paywalled)
Maxine Jacobs (Press): Danish drinking water nitrate reforms could reduce cancer rates (paywalled)
Maxine Jacobs (Press): Nitrogen on the land, nitrates in the water (paywalled)
Terry Thomas (ODT): Is the Bendigo mine a disaster in the making for the region?
Allan Brent: Farce Track
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Grant Miller and Ruby Shaw (ODT): ‘Shocked and deeply saddened’: Tributes flow for Jules Radich
Grant Miller, Tim Scott, Matthew Littlewood and Ruby Shaw (ODT): Praise, appreciation for Radich (paywalled)
Grant Miller and Ruby Shaw (ODT): Time, effort for city remembered (paywalled)
1News: Former Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich dies
RNZ: Former Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich dies
Stuff: Former mayor of Dunedin dies after heart attack
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Joe Hendren: The great Papatoetoe vote heist: A view from a South Auckland local
RNZ: Nominations open for new election in Papatoetoe subdivision
Ruby Shaw (ODT): Campaign spending returns highlight role of donations (paywalled)
Ethan Manera (Herald): Wellington’s population set to be outstripped by Tauranga and Hamilton’s within 25 years (paywalled)
Tina Law (Press): Reforms, funding battles and leadership change in store for Christchurch council (paywalled)
Julie Jacobson (Post): Capital comeback: Is Wellington starting to find its spark? (paywalled)
Frances Chin (Post): New plan aims to divert hospitality’s food waste from landfill (paywalled)
Sue Teodoro (Local Democracy Reporting): Carterton council focusing on what’s best for residents: Cretney
Sue Teodoro (Local Democracy Reporting): ‘For Wairarapa an amalgamation proposal will help’: Wilde
CARTOONS