Morning Report for Thursday 9 February 2017

7:20 AM.The city's deputy mayor Dave Donaldson visited and says the intensity of the fire has been quite severe and the fire fighters did well to stop it spreading. Audio

6:00 AM.Washington Correspondent Simon Marks says President Trump is expressing unprecedented disdain for the courts. A fire at St John's Presbyterian Church in Rotorua has left the building little more than… Read more Audio

6:06 AM.An update from the team at RNZ Sport. Audio

6:14 AM.Members of Parliament returned to the fray - with the first Question Time of the year. Audio

6:20 AM.A brief update of movements in the financial sector. Audio

6:22 AM.News from the rural and farming sector. Audio

6:22 AM.New figures from TradeMe show a 70% drop in the number of rentals on the market in Wellington. Matt Watson from Quinovic talked to RNZ"s Jacob McSweeny about the factors at play in the Wellington… Read more Audio

6:40 AM.Discussions around medicinal cannabis are not likely to be a springboard for reforming the laws around recreational cannabis use. Audio

6:47 AM.News from the business sector, including a market report. Audio

7:06 AM.An update from the team at RNZ Sport. Audio

7:10 AM.Labour MPs are closing ranks over the Willie Jackson controversy as the party leader Andrew Little demands an outward display of unity. RNZ political editor Jane Patterson says Mr Little's problems… Read more Audio

7:35 AM.Russia's main opposition leader vows to overturn a conviction for embezzlement, saying he's a victim of dirty politics Audio

7:40 AM.Analysts are unanimously picking the central bank governor Graeme Wheeler will keep the official cash rate at 1 point 75 percent The economy is growing robustly, and inflation has rebounded to the… Read more Audio

7:45 AM.Edward Gay is at the High Court in Auckland for the trial of Michael Waipouri and Steve Gundbie over the death of Lance Murphy. Yesterday the court heard the victim was apparently a professional… Read more Audio

8:06 AM.An update from the team at RNZ Sport. Audio

8:25 AM.Teachers and parents opposed to online schools outlined their concerns to the Education and Science Select Committee conisdering the bill. Audio

8:25 AM.Next week the Trade Minister, Todd McClay, travels to Mexico, the world's 14th largest economy. He'll be there to discuss the TPP but Mexico's fractious relationship with the new US president could… Read more Audio

8:30 AM.Cathederal Square has remained largely untouched by developers since the 2011 earthquake. That is about to change, with work beginning on a series of hotels. Audio

8:35 AM.Labour MPs are closing ranks over the Willie Jackson controversy as the party leader Andrew Little demands an outward display of unity. Audio

8:35 AM.Housing New Zealand's leadership have appeared before a Select Committee where denyied they were misusing guidelines designed for cleaning up meth labs to evict tenants, and blaming the media for… Read more Audio

8:45 AM.It's been raining for most of the night - the first significant downpour since late last year. Audio

8:45 AM.Social work students at Western Institute of Technology in Taranaki are concerned their degrees are in peril after a number of tutors were made redundancy. Audio

8:55 AM."Dear Future Mum" that played on European TVs to mark World Down Syndrome Day in 2014, was banned on French networks by the media regulator, who thought it might upset women who had terminated their… Read more Audio