Midday Report Podcast Options

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

12:46 PM.The New Zealand Bar Association says Afghanistan's 250 women judges in Afghanistan are at risk under Taliban rule. That comes as the New Zealand Government has stopped accepting visa applications for… Read more Audio

12:43 PM.Heavy rain's expected for some central and southern parts of the country from this evening. MetService has issued orange warnings for heavy northerly rain around Nelson, Westland, and Mt Taranaki -… Read more Audio

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

12:26 PM.Canoe Racing New Zealand says Aimee Fisher has an international future. Audio

12:20 PM.News from the business sector, including a market report. Audio

12:15 PM.Rents around the country have leapt 10 percent over the past year. That's according to Trade Me's latest Rental Price Index. The national median weekly rent reached a new high of $550 last month… Read more Audio

12:14 PM.The government has tightened rules around tangihanga and funerals this lockdown due to the increased threat of the Delta variant. Family members in the same isolation bubble of a deceased person can… Read more Audio

12:11 PM.The number of locations of interest, and close contacts, continue to grow in the Delta outbreak. There are now 210 active cases in the community. But the good news is, Google's latest Community… Read more Audio

12:00 PM.The list of Covid-19 locations of interest could reach 500 today. The police minister has been given a grilling by the National Party this morning over why the police haven't been given priority… Read more Audio

12:53 PM.Human rights advocates in Indonesia are demanding the release of the West Papuan political prisoner Victor Yeimo. He is the foreign spokesperson for the pro-independence West Papua National Committee… Read more Audio

12:46 PM.The Paralympics are finally underway, with the Opening Ceremony taking place in Tokyo last night and New Zealand's first athletes in action today. Just like the Tokyo Olympics, there was major concern… Read more Audio

12:43 PM.Kahungunu Whanau Services is running mobile vaccinations to reach those in emergency and transitional housing and in Housing First properties across the region. Māni Dunlop checks in with the… Read more Audio

12:36 PM.The poultry industry feeling the impact of staff shortages during Alert Level Four. Some processors are having to significantly adapt their operations to try and keep supermarkets stocked during the… Read more Audio

12:28 PM.The New Zealand wheelchair rugby team know they have a tough assignment to qualify for the semi-finals of their event at the Paralympics, but feel the tight-knit team can cause a couple of upsets. Audio

12:17 PM.The Ministry of Health has had to tell people to be kind and to stop making racist comments about the Pacific Community. The Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said more than half of the… Read more Audio