Midday Edition: 16 December 2025

The Midday Edition of News Fix for 16 December 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 fix for Tuesday, the sixteenth of December. The father
and son Bondie terrorists family dynamic is likely to go
under the microscope. They gunned down and killed fifteen beach
goers celebrating the Jewish holiday Haneker on Sunday and injured
dozens more. The father was shot dead, His twenty four

(00:24):
year old son is in custody and hospital. Australia's Security
agency had investigated his peripheral ties to Islamic State in
twenty nineteen, but hadn't considered him a threat. National University
Terrorism studies lecturer Michael Zaculin says there are questions about
exposure to extremist ideas and where the one radicalized the other.

(00:45):
If you think about the relationship between our father and sons,
just like sort of any relationship, there's a power dynamic
there and we have seen that previously in other cases. Meanwhile,
Prime Minister Chris Luxen met with members of Auckland's Jewish
community last night. He says they feel vulnerable. I just
want us to actually to really get them behind the
Jewish community and celebrate them because we've got no space

(01:08):
for any symptism in this country whatsoever. The US is
offering Ukraine platinum security guarantees, which officials warn won't be
on the table forever. The White House suggests there's been
significant progress in the past two days of talks in
Berlin on ending the war between Russia and Ukraine. CNN's
Fred Pleiitkin says most headway seems related to Ukraine's security

(01:31):
rather than Russia's demands for territory. He says there's talk
of a europe led multinational force and a ceasefire monitoring
mechanism set up by the US. Specifically say this may
include armed force, intelligence and logistics assistance, so almost like
needle guarantees. A year into the job, Health Minister Simeon
Brown is celebrating early signs of success on reducing wait times.

(01:54):
Brown told Kerry Woodham he attributes reinstated health targets as
one aspect that made a difference. We know for too
many people are still waiting too long, and our focuses
reduced those weightless. Two people overdue back from a climb
on Auraki Mount Cook appear to be in the same
general area where two people died last month. Consumer spending

(02:16):
has been down for the first fourteen days of December,
zero point three percent lower than last year. World Line
data shows the slides affected most of the country, led
by Wellington where people spent four percent less. Rising winds
and predicted rain could plague efforts to tackle a large
fire still raging in rural Huanganui. Since Sunday. The blaze

(02:39):
near Padiqino has burned about one hundred hectares of pine,
including forest floor slash and a vegetation fire in South
Taranaki has ripped through more than one hundred hectares overnight.
Two fire crews with two helicopters and heavy machinery are
working on the blaze in Waiu Beach. No one has
had to evacuate. With the wind currently blowing smoke out

(03:01):
to sea. House prices are up across the country year
on year. The latest ARII n Z report shows a
two point three percent increase compared to last November. The
median price now sits just above eight hundred thousand dollars.
To sport, Manchester United and Bournemouth have played out a
thrilling four all draw in the English Premier League at

(03:22):
Old Trafford. Swimmer Lewis Clearbert has met the qualifying standard
for next year's Commonwealth Games. He's won the four hundred
meter individual medley at the Queensland Championships in a time
of four minutes twelve point one five seconds. 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.