An airline group is casting doubt on demand for sending long-haul flights into Wellington Airport.

The Airport's announced a $500 million five-year upgrade plan – which includes extending its runway.

It will let bigger planes land – with hopes it'll attract non-stop flights from Asia and Los Angeles.

Board of Airline Representatives chair Cath O'Brien told Heather du Plessis-Allan it costs a lot to fly to New Zealand.

“If I look at air services demand for New Zealand in total, I don’t see any real growth at the moment. So, Auckland Airport is looking at pretty much a flat scenario.”

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Tell you what, it’s a tough time to be the UN.

I can’t help but feel that the UN’s credibility is increasingly on the line at the moment with how often it’s being ignored.

Take for example what’s just happened overnight: the UN’s principal judicial body – the International Criminal Court – has issued an arrest warrant for the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.

That's ballsy. That's the first time they’ve gone after a world leader who is democratically elected.

Trouble is, it doesn’t sound like at least three significant international powers are necessarily going to respect this.

The US: they won’t arrest Netanyahu, they’re not a member of the ICC.

The UK: they won’t commit publicly to arresting him.

And nor will France. They say it’s legally complex.

That's awkward, isn’t it? If three permanent security members won’t say they'll arrest him, doesn't that undermine the ICC and its parent the UN?

Then what about the other big UN event at the moment: COP29?

That is a bigger joke than COP28 last year which was already a joke.

The big names haven’t turned up: Xi Jinping, Joe Biden, Narendra Modi.

For the second year in a row, the host nation has been busted using the climate conference to strike secret fossil fuel deals on the side.

And it looks like they’re going to have to extend the conference by maybe a day to try to stitch together a final deal and stop this becoming a complete flop.

And that’s without even mentioning the fact that the incoming leader of the free world is preparing to pull out of the UN’s Paris Agreement.

So, tough time to be the UN because we are increasingly, by the looks of things, starting to tire of its overreach and ridiculous targets.

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European allies of Ukraine are bracing for a response from Russia.

Ukraine has fired US, and now UK-made missiles into Russian territory.

UK correspondent Enda Brady says all eyes are on Putin's possible response.

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