Midday Report for Friday 27 August 2021

12:55 PM.Parts of New South Wales and Victoria have been in lockdown for weeks, yet continue to grapple with rising cases. New South Wales set a new record yesterday - with more than 1,000 daily cases - but… Read more Audio

12:45 PM.For the first time in 26 years a bilingual song has been included in the APRA Silver Scrolls top 5 finalists - in fact, there are two! The award recognises excellence in song writing and is seen as… Read more Audio

12:40 PM.Staff and residents at a Warkworth rest home are being tested for Covid-19, after a worker returned a positive result. They had been at the CHT Amberlea facility while potentially infectious, and it's… Read more Audio

12:35 PM.News from the rural and farming sector with Maja Burry. Audio

12:31 PM.Pace bowler Matt Henry has been called into the Black Caps squad in Bangladesh as a replacement for batsman Finn Allen. Audio

12:26 PM.The country's biggest port, in Tauranga, has reported a better-than-expected profit. RNZ's business editor Gyles Beckford reports on news from the business sector, including a market update.  Read more Audio

12:25 PM.Cabinet is meeting this afternoon to decide whether Aotearoa -- with the exception of Auckland -- will stay in a Level 4 lockdown beyond midnight tonight. So far, there are 277 cases in the community… Read more Audio

12:09 PM.Two decades of a US-led war in Afghanistan appears to have left the country, and its security, in tatters. Explosions rocked the capital Kabul this morning killing more than 60 people, including 13 US… Read more Audio

12:00 PM.The United States is vowing to hunt down the killers whose attack on Kabul airport early today left at least 60 people dead. It's not yet known how many people with New Zealand connections have been… Read more Audio