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19 Jul 2025

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Car crash cuts power to hundreds in West Auckland overnight
Roads were closed as emergency services investigated the crash.

Eight everyday bacterial hotspots - and how to clean them
Bacteria are lurking on your sponge, your pet's toys and your tea towels. Here's what the research says - and how to protect yourself.

Norsewear’s ‘cheeky’ open letter to New Zealand Rugby Union pushes for wool beanies over synthetic materials
Norsewear is keen to protect 'cauliflower ears from the cold'.

Microsoft stops selling movies and TV shows, but prior purchases remain
Microsoft said today that it’s shutting down its Movies & TV storefront on Windows and Xbox, though you’ll still be able to play the movies and TV shows you’ve previously purchased. Microsoft’s newly published support document (found by Windows Central) is significant in that Microsoft is no longer selling video content via the Microsoft Store. It follows Microsoft’s decision to stop selling music as part of its Groove Music services, which was shuttered in 2017. But Microsoft’s decision to stop providing movies and TV shows to rent or buy probably should be met with a shrug. Several streaming movie services already show movies just weeks after they’re released in the box office, with rumors that the recent Superman release might be opened to streaming services just 45 days after first appearing in movie theaters. Microsoft doesn’t offer a streaming service; instead, it provides direct sales and rentals to consumers. Plenty of services already do that. So what will happen to movies and TV shows that you’ve already purchased? For now, they’ll remain on Microsoft’s servers. Microsoft’s support document indicates that you’ll be able to continue playing them via the Movies & TV app on either Xbox or Windows PC, and they’ll play back in high resolution. Microsoft’s “Entertainment” page on the Microsoft Store is still technically active, although if you try to buy a movie you’ll see an error message. If you don’t feel like launching a dedicated app for all this, services like Movies Anywhere (which is like GOG Galaxy 2.0 but for movies) can aggregate all the titles you’ve purchased elsewhere. If you’re still suspicious, I can’t really blame you. Previously, Microsoft pushed consumers to Spotify and eventually shifted all of the licensed music purchased by consumers on to that streaming platform. Unfortunately, you can’t download the movies you’ve already purchased from Microsoft, so they’ll be left hanging for the time being.

Tasman's rural resilience tested by back-to-back storms
As a second weather bomb lashed the Tasman region, Cosmo Kentish-Barnes was on the ground with rural residents staring down the barrel of another deluge.

Former shock jock Iain Stables faces sentencing for Auckland ute assault
He asked that his name remain secret, citing cancel culture. But two judges declined.

The 2.2% rates rise dream: Mayoral candidates on what they’d need to cut to get the lowest rate rise in NZ
The biggest battleground at Hawke’s Bay’s local elections will be rates.

Napier: Praise for restaurant response after much-loved former deputy mayor dies at family dinner
His family say he will leave a legacy of kindness, and he was surrounded by it to the end.