Morning Report for Tuesday 29 December 2020

8:58 AM.A massive storm in the Tasman Region threw down hail stones that tore through crop protection structures, shattered glasshouses and shredded fruit and vegetable crops. It lay a metre-deep in places… Read more Audio

8:56 AM.A long-time fruit grower in the Moutere and Motueka area says the devastating Boxing Day hail storm was the worst he's ever experienced. The storm threw down hail stones that tore through crop… Read more Audio

8:52 AM.One country perhaps more keen to see the back of 2020 than any other is Lebanon, which still reels from the blast that devastated its capital city. The explosion that rocked Beirut in August killed… Read more Audio

8:47 AM.Can you imagine using you garage - to build a rocket to send satellies into space? That's what Rocket Lab staff had to do in New Zealand when the country went into lockdown and production had to stop… Read more Audio

8:43 AM.A mid-pandemic government shut down has been staved off in the United States after President Donald Trump signed both a $900 billion coronavirus relief bill and a $1.4 trillion government funding… Read more Audio

8:40 AM.Europe has embarked on a mammoth effort to immunize an entire continent. Health authorities across the continent have begun administering the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine following full approval for its… Read more Audio

8:28 AM.Beef and Lamb says the Brexit deal will have an impact on the local economy. New Zealand had meat import quotas agreed with the European Union but now they've been split, roughly 50-50 between the UK… Read more Audio

8:22 AM.Farmers and growers are counting the cost - thought to be in the tens of millions of dollars - of the Boxing Day freak hail storm in Tasman. A cloudburst shredded vineyards, smashing greenhouses… Read more Audio

8:18 AM.Farmers and growers are counting the cost - thought to be in the tens of millions of dollars - of the Boxing Day freak hail storm in Tasman. A cloudburst shredded vineyards, smashing greenhouses… Read more Audio

8:12 AM.National has welcomed the introduction of the new pre-departure testing regime - but it also says it doesn't go far enough. Initially, only travellers from the United Kingdom and the United States… Read more Audio

8:09 AM.The Government's being warned against introducing a pre-departure Covid-19 test for desperate New Zealanders attempting to get home from high-risk countries. Yesterday, the Government announced an… Read more Audio