Checkpoint for Friday 23 April 2021

5:08 PM.New, tougher border restrictions are expected to slash the number of Covid-19-positive returnees from India alone, by 75 percent.

The government has classified India as a "very high risk country"… Read more Video, Audio

5:18 PM.Traffic is busy heading out of Auckland on Friday afternoon, as the long weekend begins.

Checkpoint reporter Louise Ternouth is on a motorway overbridge in central Auckland with the latest details. Read more Video, Audio

5:21 PM.The government has made drastic changes to the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care's inquiry, meaning abuse that's happened over the last 22 years can no longer be investigated.

The inquiry is… Read more Audio

5:25 PM.New figures show the rate of antidepressants being prescribed over the past four years is at an all time high and there's a huge disparity between ethnic groups.

Data released to Checkpoint under the… Read more Audio

5:35 PM.News from the business sector, including a market report. [embed] https://players.brightcove.net/6093072280001/default_default/index.html?videoId=6249968995001 Video, Audio

5:48 PM.UK politicians have slammed New Zealand's response to China's policies and alleged human rights abuses against the Uighur minority.

It comes as the UK declares it genocide and crimes against… Read more Audio

5:52 PM.It was a noisy wake-up call for some Wellington residents this morning, as bus drivers on strike started the picket line well before sunrise in one of the capital's suburbs.

Chants, car horns, and a… Read more Video, Audio

5:56 PM.Auckland Council is giving thousands of kauri trees in the Waitākere Ranges a full health check.

The forest is being surveyed to monitor trees for years to come - tracking how kauri dieback disease… Read more Video, Audio

6:07 PM.New Zealand residents in four Covid-19-ravaged countries will be barred from coming home under a new regime at the border. Only citizens from those countries will be able to return.

The rules are a… Read more Audio

6:15 PM.The government is planning to give local Government the biggest overhaul in decades.

The Minister Nanaia Mahuta today announced an independent review which will determine the future of the sector for… Read more Audio

6:18 PM.In another change announced today, people returning to New Zealand at about the same time will now all be taken to the same managed- isolation hotel.

The government is changing the way it handles… Read more Video, Audio

6:39 PM.Non-New Zealand citizens trying to get back to Aotearoa from very high-risk Covid-19 countries are basically out of runway under the government's new rules.

It's created a category for countries with… Read more Video, Audio