They’ve been described as “gamechangers” in the fight against Covid-19 – new therapeutic medicines that could become available through pharmacies that in some cases reduce the risk of death by close to 90 per cent. Today director…

A former Napier city councillor who spent time behind bars for the 2010 murder of his wife before successfully appealing the conviction is headed to court again — this time suing in Canada for the return of a motorhome he says was…

An Auckland rental ad showing a bed in a garage has been slammed by a New Zealand MP and a renters union.

Posted to a West Auckland Facebook group looking for flatmates, images showed a bed directly next to a silver sedan in a garage.

Also in the room was a small table, with a plant and chair.

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It was unclear what price the landlord was seeking. When approached by Stuff for comment, the landlord immediately hung up. They have since posted another listing for NZ$225 ($213.98) a week, showing different images of the inside of what appears to be the same property.

Renters United spokesman Geordie Rogers said the Te Atatū listing was an "unfortunate reality" of the rental market. He said there were many people across Aotearoa living in similar circumstances.

"It is pretty likely that a property like this would be rented out if it was under a flatmate situation," Mr Rogers said.

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The advertisement was a clear "symptom of the market", he said.

"It comes down to the fact that there aren't enough homes for people and when there aren't enough homes for people those who have access to those homes gets to decide where and how people can live."

Adverts for unsuitable accommodation were becoming more common, with listings cropping up "every two weeks", he said.

Auckland Central and Green Party MP Chloe Swarbrick described the advertisement as "cooked".

"Most young Aucklanders, strangely, wouldn't be particularly shocked, given the state of housing that many of us have lived in," Ms Swarbrick said.

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Living situations like this would not be fixed unless there was a "seismic shift" around the renting rules and standards, she said.

Mr Rogers said it would depend on the specific rental agreement as to whether the garage constituted a legal dwelling.

It was very unlikely the garage would meet the building code laws and be considered a bedroom if it were signed under an obligated tenancy contract, he said.

However, the case would be different if it were a private agreement between flatmates.

"That's where we see a lot of abuse in the market around that flatmate situation and that's where people get away with properties like this," Mr Rogers said.

"That's where we see the most overcrowding and properties as well. We have people who wouldn't normally be living in a room together, sharing bunk beds or something to make the rent more affordable."

Ms Swarbrick said a landlord register and rental warrant of fitness system were urgently needed.

"We're so frequently putting the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, [despite] all of this is being obviously messed up.

"And that's why it's really important to actually start reversing some of these trends," she said.

This story first appeared on Stuff.co.nz and is republished here with permission.

Oklahoma executed a man Thursday for the 1985 shooting death of an Oklahoma City-area schoolteacher after courts rejected his claim that the state's lethal injection method would result in unconstitutional pain and suffering.

Bigler Stouffer II, 79, received a three-drug lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.

Stouffer was the first person executed in Oklahoma since John Grant convulsed on the gurney and vomited during his lethal injection in October as the state ended a six-year execution moratorium brought on by concerns over its protocols.

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Thursday's execution process that began at 10 am appeared to go more smoothly. After receiving lethal drugs, Stouffer was declared unconscious at 10.07 am, and his breaths became shallower at 10.09 am. He was declared dead at 10.16 am.

Oklahoma Attorney General John O'Connor said in statement that the execution "was carried out with zero complications." The Reverend Howard Potts, who was in the death chamber with Stouffer, said Stouffer "was totally at peace."

Stouffer's last words were: "My request is that my father forgive them. Thank you."

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Stouffer has maintained his innocence in the attack that left Linda Reaves dead and her boyfriend, Doug Ivens, seriously injured.

He and his attorneys argued in court filings that the state's three-drug execution method poses a risk of unconstitutional pain and suffering and that Stouffer should be included among other death row plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit challenging the protocols.

But his request for a stay of execution was denied by a federal district judge and the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

A final appeal with the US Supreme Court was denied Thursday morning, less than two hours before the scheduled execution

Stouffer was convicted and sentenced to death in 2003 after his first conviction and death sentence were overturned. At a parole board hearing last month, he said Mr Ivens was shot as the two men fought over a gun at Mr Ivens' home, and that Ms Reaves was dead when he arrived.

"I am totally innocent of the murder of Linda Reaves and my heart goes out to the family of Linda Reaves that have suffered as a result of her murder," Stouffer told the board during a video appearance from prison.

Prosecutors said Stouffer went to the home to borrow the gun from Mr Ivens, then fatally shot Reaves and wounded Mr Ivens to gain access to Mr Ivens' $2.80 million life insurance policy. At the time, Stouffer was dating Mr Ivens' ex-wife.

Despite being shot three times with a .38-caliber pistol, including once in the face, Mr Ivens survived and testified against Stouffer. Mr Ivens has since died.

"Stouffer's heinous actions against Doug and Linda, his lies and manipulations in the years to follow, and his complete lack of sorrow and remorse for the hurt he caused should dictate one conclusion — the jury's death sentence must be carried out," attorneys for the state wrote in asking the Pardon and Parole Board to reject Stouffer's request for clemency.

Several members of the board voiced concerns about the state's ability to humanely execute people. But Republican Governor Kevin Stitt ultimately rejected the board's recommendation that Mr Stitt commute Stouffer's sentence to life in prison without parole.

Ms Reaves' cousin, Rodney Thomson, spoke to reporters after Stouffer's execution, saying the killing had consumed his family members. He thanked the attorney general and staff and other prosecutors and investigators who worked on the case.

"Today we witnessed the law of the land carried out on behalf of my cousin," Mr Thomson read from a statement. "Although long in coming, justice has prevailed."

Mr Stitt did grant clemency to another man on death row, Julius Jones, last month just hours before his scheduled execution, commuting his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. That case had drawn outcry and protests over doubts about his guilt in the slaying of a businessman more than 20 years ago.

Executions in Oklahoma have typically been held in the evenings, but prison officials moved Stouffer's execution to 10am to make it easier for the prison to return to normal operations, said Department of Corrections spokesman Josh Ward.

Oklahoma had one of the nation's busiest death chambers until problems in 2014 and 2015 led to a de facto moratorium. Richard Glossip was just hours away from being executed in September 2015 when prison officials realised they received the wrong lethal drug. It was later learned the same wrong drug had been used to execute another man in January 2015.

The drug mix-ups followed a botched execution in April 2014 in which inmate Clayton Lockett struggled on a gurney before dying 43 minutes into his lethal injection — and after the state's prisons chief ordered executioners to stop.

Defence Minister Peter Dutton has confirmed today the ADF will ditch its fleet of troubled Taipan helicopters a decade earlier than scheduled, and replace them with new Black Hawks from the US.

Mr Dutton has told Today it was a necessary move to replace the Australian Army's fleet of European produced Airbus MRH-90 Taipans.

He said the US produced Black Hawk helicopters would would be an "incredible platform" for the Australian military.

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"There are about 1000 of those in operation around the world. Obviously the Americans use it very heavily.

"For the interoperability with the US and Australia which is increasingly important for us given the instability in our region, the Black Hawk made perfect sense."

The decision will reportedly cost Australian taxpayers $7 billion

Mr Dutton said the ADF's 41 Taipan helicopters had not lived up to expectations.

"The Taipans have been very unreliable. They haven't lived up to the expectations."

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Prime Minister Scott Morrison agreed this morning, saying the Taipans "weren't doing their job".

"If something isn't working, we will go out and find something that does," he said.

But Deputy Labor Leader Richard Marles said the decision raised big questions over the Federal Government's major defence programmes.

He said defence procurement was in a "shocking state" following the scrapping of the $90 billion Future Submarines programme earlier this year.

"We are seeing a whole lot of defence programs being scrapped," Mr Marles said

"When we see defence programs being turned over like this, it is billions of dollars wasted."

Earlier, Labor front bencher Bill Shorten said hard decisions "had to be taken" by the Federal Government over the decision to scrap an entire fleet of helicopters.

"Maybe you do get points for making the hard decision to go back to something that is more reliable," Mr Shorten said.

"You have to ask how did we get ourselves into this situation in the first place."

China has dismissed a multinational diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games as "farce", warning the US and Australia will "pay a price" for the stance.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin has repeatedly attacked the boycott at his daily press conferences this week, while claiming the host isn't concerned about more nations following suit.

Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom have all followed the United State's pledge to not send any politicians or diplomats to the games, although athletes will still compete.

READ MORE: Australia to follow US with diplomatic boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics 

On Wednesday, Mr Wang said the move "gravely violates" the political neutrality enshrined in the Olympic charter and accused Australia of "blindly following" the US.

"The US and Australia will pay a price for their erroneous actions," he said, according to an English transcript of his press conference on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.

"You may wait and see."

Rights groups have called for a total boycott of the Beijing Winter Games, citing Chinese human rights abuses against its Uyghur minority in the northwest Xinjiang region, which some have called genocide. 

They also point to Beijing's suppression of democratic protests in Hong Kong and a sweeping crackdown on dissent in the semi-autonomous territory.

On Thursday Mr Wang said the Games still had support from the "overwhelming majority" of the international community, with several heads of state, government leaders and members of royal families registered to attend.

He said officials from the boycotting nations — which along with New Zealand make up the Five Eyes intelligence alliance —  had not been invited by China.

But the spokesman also said national leaders attended the Games "at the invitation of their National Olympic Committee".

New Zealand said it informed Beijing earlier that it wouldn't be sending any officials due to pandemic travel restrictions but had also communicated its human rights concerns.

"Sports have nothing to do with politics," Mr Wang said.

"The Olympic Games is a grand gathering of athletes and sports lovers, not a stage for the posturing and grandstanding of politicians.

"A handful of countries including the US, Australia, the UK and Canada refused to co-sponsor the UN resolution on Olympic Truce for the Beijing Winter Games, and now put on a self-staged farce of 'not sending officials', pitting themselves against the big Olympic family."

Major European powers have reportedly opened the door to a European Union-wide boycott but been unwilling to go it alone.

In justifying Australia's stance, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the country's support for the boycott was "not surprising", citing rising tensions with China and its human rights record.

Canada's support was similarly predictable in the context of the sharp deterioration in bilateral ties since China arrested two Canadians in December 2018.

The arrests came shortly after Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, Huawei Technologies' chief financial officer and the daughter of the company's founder, on a US extradition request.

Canada and others condemned what they called "hostage politics," while China described the charges against Huawei and Meng as a politically motivated attempt to hold back China's economic and technological development.

China, the US and Canada completed what was essentially a high-stakes prisoner swap earlier this year, but the Chinese government's reputation has been severely tarnished in Canada.

Not everyone is up for being insulted by their iPhone — but its snarkiest weather app has just been named Apple's Watch app of the year.

Carrot Weather happily hurls insults at its users, designed by Brian Mueller to be a "combination of [his] mum, sister and wife".

"My family likes to make fun of each other a lot, which is where Carrot gets a lot of her personality from," Mueller told 9News.com.au.

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"She'll say things like, 'it's a perfect day outside but you'll probably spend all day inside watching cat videos'."

Mueller has spent six years improving his app, which launched on the iPhone in 2015 before squeezing its soul onto the much smaller screen of an Apple Watch.

"I couldn't rely on the jokes and the funny imagery I did on the iPhone app," Mueller said.

"That's what really drove the development of the professional side of the app."

He says he quickly realised a major problem with other apps designed for Apple Watch.

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"The same interface is made to work for everyone in the world. That's just not the case."

Mueller said people in London or Melbourne "need a completely different weather app than people living in California".

"Everybody needs, based on where they live or their hobbies or their job, completely different interfaces and configurations and that's what Carrot has really become well known for.

"Now you can have a completely weather focused watch face.

"You can actually have a short and long term forecast on a single watchface."

Mueller says he doesn't pay much attention to how many people are using Carrot Weather because he doesn't want to be distracted or driven by its million-plus users.

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"I don't want that to determine features or focus on daily revenue or anything like that. That stuff just bores me."

What excites him are the little differences like making use of long-look notifications.

"You can show radar imagery of a storm approaching your location and it's just something other weather apps haven't really taken advantage of," he said.

"I love finding ways of making boring and complicated things fun."

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Here's the full list of Apple's 2021 App Award winners:

• iPhone App of the Year: Toca Life World, from Toca Boca.

• iPad App of the Year: LumaFusion, from LumaTouch.

• Mac App of the Year: Craft, from Luki Labs Limited.

• Apple TV App of the Year: DAZN, from DAZN Group.

• Apple Watch App of the Year: Carrot Weather, from Grailr.

Australia's top free iPhone apps were dominated by COVID-19:

1. Express Plus Medicare

2. Check In Qld

3. Service NSW

4. Service Victoria

5. myGovID

6. Instagram

7. TikTok

8. YouTube: Watch, Listen, Stream

9. Snapchat

10. Facebook

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Meanwhile the country's top paid iPhone apps were:

1. WikiCamps Australia

2. The Wonder Weeks

3. Monash University FODMAP diet

4. TripView – Sydney & Melbourne

5. Forest – Your Focus Motivation

6. Procreate Pocket

7. Rain Parrot

8. TouchRetouch

9. AutoSleep Track Sleep on Watch

10. 75 Hard