Midday Edition: 19 May 2025

The Midday Edition of News Fix for 19 May 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 afternoon. I'm Malcolm Jordan and this is your midday
news fixed for Monday, the nineteenth of May. Former US
President Joe Biden's reviewing treatment options after he was diagnosed
with aggressive prostate cancer. The eighty two year olds announced
it's also spread to his bones. CNN medical analyst at
doctor Jonathan Reiner says about one in eight American men

(00:25):
will get prostate cancer in their lifetime. He says Biden's
Gleason score, which measures how likely it is to spread,
is high. The Cleaston scorrecos from one to ten, one
being the best, ten being the worst, and his tumor
was graded as a nine, so a very aggressive form.
Caution over whether funding for urgent and after ours clinics
will help rural families. Budget twenty twenty five, being released

(00:49):
on Thursday, will include one hundred and sixty four million
dollars over four years, Hoping to relieve ed pressures. The
government says it'll mean ninety eight percent of key will
have in person urgent care within an hour's drive. Rural
GP Network head Grant Davidson says details aren't clear so.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Far, no idea how much of that forty one million
A year will go to rural compared to the urgent
care clinics in urban areas.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
West bac A and z and ASB have relaxed their
flatmate rules for first home buyers. They're letting applicants sign
a declaration of intent on planning to get a flatmate,
not requiring their name, address and signature. A mortgage financial
advisors told our newsroom having one flatmate could help a
first home buyer borrow an extra up to one hundred

(01:36):
and fifty thousand dollars. Opuh's partner's economist Ed McKnight says
banks already apply plenty of stress testing. It is quite
a bit of fat in the bank's mortgage application, So
just tell you a few of the rules around flatmates.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
I don't think it's going to make any of the
banks fall over.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
The Ministry of Education says New Zealand's distance learning funding
model allows for fluctuating growth. Enrollment. Takura, formerly the Correspondence School,
has risen thirty two percent in six years to about
thirty one thousand last year. Jamie Cunningham has.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
More Tikura says more students with mental health issues all
social anxiety are studying at the school. Central's Deputy Secretary
of Education, Jocelyn Michaido, says Tikura receives bulk grant funding
for operational costs and teacher salaries. She says this is
based on the number of students enrolled and allows for

(02:28):
growth throughout the year.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
A National MP's proposing Kiwisaver eligibility changes rang a TKMP
sues Redmains member's bill would let people access Kiwisaver under
a company to buy their first home. She says farmers
often own assets under a company and this will help
them get on the property ladder. Sir Elton John says
he feels incredibly betrayed by the British government over plans

(02:54):
to exempt technology firms from copyright laws. He's told the
BBC if ministers go ahead with plans to allow AI
firms to use artists' content without paying, they would be
committing fevery on a high scale. To sport, Scotty Scheffler
has won his made in PGA Championship Golf Major by
five shots on the Quail Hollow course, finishing at eleven

(03:18):
under PA. That was a five shot win. Ryan Fox
was in a share of twenty eight at one under
Oklahoma City Thunder are into NBA Basketball's Western Conference Finals
against the Minnesota Timberwolves. They've beaten the Denver Nuggets one
hundred and twenty five to ninety three in the deciding
Game seven of the semifinals, and IndyCar driver Scott McLaughlin

(03:40):
has crashed during the Indy five hundred practice session, but
walked away unscathed. I'm Malcolm Jordan. That's your latest news fix.
We'll be back with the next update at five pm
from the News Talk zb newsroom.