Midday Report Essentials for 25 August 2026

Welcome to Midday Report essentials with Guyon Espiner. Today, we heard from our reporter Luxy Xia who was in court this morning as the leader of a fringe religious group was sentenced to more than 10 years for the manslaughter and kidnapping of his 70-year-old follower: found wrapped in black rubbish bags in Auckland's Gulf Harbour in 2024. We looked at the 3 options for time-of-use charging for Auckland motorists that are under consideration, with councillor Shane Henderson. Finally, we spoke to a legal expert who studies online abuse, as National's proposes a social media ban for under-16s.