Morning Edition: 20 February 2025

The Morning Edition of News Fix for 20 February 2025, straight from the Newstalk ZB newsroom - bringing you everything you need to know in news, politics, business, entertainment and sport.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Good morning, I never Readymranu and this is your morning
news fix for Thursday, twentieth of February. In this update,
Donald Trump has taken a swipe at Ukrainian President Vonidama
Zelensky in a post on a social media network, Truth Social.
The President is accusing Zelensky of playing Joe Biden like
a fiddle. It comes hours after Zelensky accused him of

(00:25):
repeating Russian disinformation the BBC's Anita mcveigh's as Trump goes
on to assert the US was duped into spending billions
to help Ukraine defend itself following Russia's twenty twenty two invasion.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
He then calls President Zelensky a dictator without elections. Zelensky
better move fast or he is not going to have
a country left.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Hope on the horizon for those about to reprice or
refinance their mortgage, all major banks have started lowering rates
following yesterday's double cut to the official cash rate. The
Reserve Bank is signaling two more single cuts at its
next reviews in April and May Assistant Governor Karen Silk
says that will be good news for hundreds of thousands
of households whose fixed terms are due to expire in

(01:06):
the months aheair average stock rate for mortgages today I
think is around six point two. Over the next twelve months,
we'd see that dropped to about five point seven. Whenston
Peters wants to move the New Zealand Cook Islands relationship forward,
the Foreign Minister's given a speech about the Pacific where
he spoke on the Cook Islands newly signed partnership with China.
Is is that we need to reset the government to

(01:26):
government relationship with the Cooks and restate parts of the
free association model. The Order to General's officeer is shining
a light on the authorities regulating most of the one
hundred and forty thousand person health workforce. The report covers
the Dental Council, Medical Council, Nursing Council, Pharmacy Council and
Physiotherapy Board. It recommends more consistent reporting and seeks better transparency.

(01:50):
Assistant Order to General Russell Bates says that the authorities
it looked at regulate the types of health practitioners that
effect all New Zealanders. This is an area of health
that we haven't looked at really closely in the past
or in the recent past, so it felt like it
was necessary. Fostering a sense of community at work could
serve both employers and their workers. Ranstad's new Work Monitor

(02:11):
research reveals high worker expectations despite the tough labor market.
It finds relationships or a strong priority, with eighty six
percent of employees regarding a sense of community important to
their mental health. A major shift in road safety trends
analysis from Road Safety Education shows twenty twenty four had
the lowest road toll in a decade. Adjusted for population.

(02:33):
It was the safest year since nineteen twenty three. It
found road fatalities among young people in New Zealand have
halved over the past twenty five years. General manager Maria
Lovelock says, for the first time, older drivers have the
highest fatality rate on the roads.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Commissions things that are happening, Your eyesight and gets poorer.
Your reaction times aren't necessarily as quick as when you
were younger, but also your ability to survive a crash
is not as great either.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
In sport, New Zealand have defeated Pakistan by sixty runs
in the opening Champions Trophy One Day Cricket International at Karachi.
The host struggled to two hundred and sixty, chasing three
twenty one. Emma Ratikanu has broken down in tears during
her second round defeat to Carolina Mukva in Dubai as
she dealt with a stalker who had appeared at the
match a few rows back in the stand. Finally, Crusader's

(03:22):
first five, Tahakimra has thanked family and friends for helping
him deal with the emergency surgery which ended his NPC
campaign last year. I'm never Rettimanu. Then Chilanda's news Fix.
We'll be back with the next update at midday from
the newstalk ZB news room