Checkpoint for Thursday 24 February 2022

5:11 PM.Air NZ is bracing for full year losses in excess of $800 million.

Negligible international travel and a 107-day Auckland lockdown meant the national carrier saw pre-tax losses dive to $376 million… Read more Video, Audio

5:17 PM.Returning now to the evolving situation in Europe where Russian President Vladimir Putin has in the past hour declared war - giving the go ahead for a military operation in eastern Ukraine.

There… Read more Video, Audio

5:23 PM.Aotearoa moves to Omicron Phase 3 at 11.59pm tonight after daily cases cracked more than 6000 today.

That means only Covid cases and their household contacts have to isolate and RATs are rampant.

… Read more Video, Audio

5:29 PM.A person in a wheelchair has died after waiting six hours for an ambulance to get to them.

The tragic case has been passed on to the coroner by St John, which says its slow response time may have… Read more Video, Audio

5:35 PM.News from the business sector, including a market report. Read more Audio

5:41 PM.The protest site at Parliament has now been classified as a high risk location of interest.

The occupation area was flagged as an area of concern this afternoon - but relating to last weekend, when… Read more Video, Audio

5:43 PM.This year's Orientation Week at Otago University is like no other, with hundreds of students stuck isolating due to Covid.

The southern city recorded its first community case of the latest outbreak… Read more Audio

5:48 PM.Homelessness should be a measure of child poverty, according to advocates.

The latest data from Stats NZ shows all nine child poverty measures in New Zealand have trended downwards over the three… Read more Audio

5:51 PM.German tennis player Alexander Zverev has found himself in hot water, over his hot headed behaviour.

The world number three has been kicked out of the Mexican Open in Acapulco after attacking the… Read more Audio

5:52 PM.A sheep found wombling aimlessly around Porirua will soon go on auction due to an old law which dictates he can’t be rehomed.

Shaun the sheep has been in Porirua City Council’s pound for a week after… Read more Video, Audio

6:06 PM.The greatest fears for eastern Europe are coming true. Russia appears to be in the midst of a full-scale attack on Ukraine.

In a televised address, Russian leader Vladimir Putin declared what he… Read more Video, Audio

6:10 PM.With daily Covid cases setting new daily records, from midnight tonight, New Zealand moves to phase 3 of the traffic light system. With more than 6000 cases, and one more death, we now have 205 people… Read more Audio

6:14 PM.GPs and pharmacists are bracing for huge demand for RAT tests as the country prepares to go into phase three.

But they say it'll be impossible to meet it. The Government's announced a move to phase… Read more Video, Audio

6:18 PM.Explosions have rocked several Ukraine cities after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a special military operation in the country's east.

It appears to be much more than that with Ukrainian… Read more Video, Audio