A former department store owner is said to have raped and sexually assaulted a string of women who worked for the chain.

More than 20 women have claimed they were sexually assaulted by former Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed, five of whom have said they were raped.

The women say the assaults were carried out at the company’s offices, in Al-Fayed’s apartment in London, or on trips overseas.

UK Correspondent Gavin Grey told Ryan Bridge that Harrods not only failed to intervene, but also helped cover up abuse allegations when Al-Fayed was in charge.

The department store’s current owners say they’re “utterly appalled” by the allegations, and the store sincerely apologises.

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The All Blacks are coming up to a big test this weekend, facing off against Australia in the first match of the Bledisloe Cup.

It’s been almost two weeks since their back-to-back losses against South Africa, so what went wrong and do they have the time to fix it?

Former All Blacks captain Ian Fitzpatrick told Ryan Bridge that if the All Blacks can start like they did against the Springboks in Johannesburg, then they’ve got a good chance.

He said you can say what you like about the previous games, but this is a different beast altogether.

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There are expectations that cuts to the Official Cash Rate are now going to keep on coming.

Yesterday's Stats NZ figures show our GDP contracted 0.2% in the three months to June.

In the March quarter, 0.1% growth was recorded.

ASB Chief Economist Nick Tuffley says the numbers show inflation's falling within the Reserve Banks expectations.

He told Ryan Bridge they're now going to continue cutting the OCR to get it from 5.25% to around 3%.

Tuffley says if they cut a quarter every meeting, we'll reach that target by October next year.

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A barrister has doubts about increasing the threshold for the right to a jury trial.

Currently a defendant can choose between a jury or a judge-alone trial in cases where the maximum penalty is two or more years in jail.

The Government's seeking feedback on increasing this to three, five, or seven years, in a bid to address court delays.

Philip Morgan KC told Ryan Bridge he questions the number of jury trials that will drop because of the threshold change.

He says that's because he thinks the number of jury trials where the maximum penalty of the offence is two or three years in jail, is very small.

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I've not seen Luxon this tetchy and brassed off before.

"Guys, no disrespect, but it's not about the frickin targets, it's actually about the outcomes, and the outcomes here are actually reducing violent crime."

He was being asked about the national gang list which the cops have been sanitising. Hygienically cleaning it apparently to remove the dead and those who've said goodbye to thug life.

The reason he's worked up is the targets: they're off track and he's being peppered, or assaulted, depending on how you look at it, with questions.

This morning in the Herald, beneficiary numbers are projected up, not down. The Jobseeker target is a reduction of 50,000 people, but the forecast is an extra 11,000, which is set to peak in January 2025.

So the question for the government, and all of us, is whether the targets are worth it?

Politically for Luxon they're clearly causing some frustration. Is the political cost of constant updates and inquisition worth the end result? The answer is of course yes.

Ask anyone who's successful how they got there and they'll usually say small, intentional planned steps in a particular direction.

Things don't just happen in life - you make them happen.

We all have targets in our own lives. Where do you want to be in ten years? I want to run a marathon by the time I'm 40, I want to retire at 55, whatever. If you don't set a target, it'll likely never happen – that's what happened with the last lot.

Make no mistake, these targets will be the making or breaking of Luxon. The key issue that will unseat him 2029.

He's set the goals, now he needs to meet them, and perhaps be a little more relaxed about the questions along the way.

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Technology is at the forefront of priorities for the new Retail Crime Advisory Group.

The group will offer the Government ideas on law and order legislation.

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has appointed four sector leaders alongside dairy and business owner group leader, Sunny Kaushal.

They include Retail NZ CEO Carolyn Young.

She says enabling facial recognition technology is of particular interest to the sector.

She hopes it can be implemented with robust privacy safeguards.

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An economist says another GDP contraction today would be in-line with the idea we've been in a rolling recession for almost two years.

The March 2024 quarter showed just 0.2% growth.

BNZ is picking a 0.4% contraction in the second quarter.

Chief Economist Mike Jones told Ryan Bridge the Reserve Bank's anticipating a 0.5% contraction, so it would take a real clanger to throw it off course.

He says the bigger piece of news for interest rates in New Zealand and the Reserve Bank might be what the US Federal reserve does with interest rates.

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