The Front Page podcast: Czech extradition request, surviving an avalanche

Jan Antolik, also known as Karel Sroubek. Photo / Steven McNicholl

Each weekday The Front Page keeps you up to date with the biggest news in New Zealand. Today it's an extradition request for drug dealer Karel Sroubek, a tense standoff between National and Jami-Lee Ross, and more help to buy a house. Hosted by Frances Cook.

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The Czech Republic wants convicted drug dealer Karel Sroubek extradited from New Zealand.

It comes after the New Zealand Government controversially cancelled Sroubek's deportation order - for reasons it has not yet revealed.

In a statement to Watchdog, a Czech website, the Republic's Justice Ministry says an international search for Sroubek was launched in 2013, over outstanding criminal matters.

For more on this story, click here.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has now openly criticised the case for the first time, saying she expects answers about the case before the inquiry's three-week deadline.

She is still standing by Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway, who has said there is new information to investigate, which may contradict the reasons for granting Sroubek residence in the first place.

For more on this story click here.

The National Party appears to be trying to trigger the waka jumping law to get Jami-Lee Ross out of Parliament - without doing it themselves.

Ross wrote to his former party this week offering his proxy vote and framing it in a way to counter any use of the waka-jumping law, which aims to preserve parliamentary proportionality.

But National turned him down, saying he had resigned, and been ejected from caucus.

A spokesperson for National said it was a matter for the Speaker and Jami-Lee Ross, as Ross was no longer a National MP.

In order to trigger the rule, Ross would have to deliver a signed letter to the Speaker saying he had resigned from National, or wished to be an independent MP.

The only other way to invoke the law would be for National leader Simon Bridges to write to the Speaker and claim that Ross had acted in a way to distort parliamentary proportionality.

For more on this story click here.

If you were wondering what the former Prime Minister and National Party leader Sir John Key thinks of all this - you'll have to keep wondering.

Key was at a business event in Auckland when he was asked if National would survive the Jami-Lee Ross furore.

For more on this story, click here.

More importantly, Sir John Key is now ANZ chairman, and is pushing for stricter banking regulations.

A conduct and culture review into New Zealand's banking sector is due to be released next week.

It comes after shocking issues were discovered in Australia's banking sector.

The Reserve Bank and Financial Markets Authority joined forces for a review here, inviting local banks to show they weren't doing anything similar.

Sir John says whatever the findings are, there still needs to be changes in the New Zealand banking sector.

For more on this story click here.

Jo Morgan has described the terrifying moment a deadly avalanche struck her and two climbing guides, saying it was like a "big fluffy wave" coming towards her.

The wife of businessman and philanthropist Gareth Morgan set out early Wednesday to summit Mt Hicks in Mt Cook National Park, when the avalanche came flowing out of the darkness above.

She was roped to experienced German mountaineers Wolfgang Maier and Martin Hess when she heard an alert from them calling to her to hurry up.

Then the earth under her feet began moving and through the light of her head torch she could just make out a "huge wave" sweeping towards her.

For more on this story tune in to NewstalkZB, or click here.

Injuries from electric scooter crashes are coming in "fast and furious" as emergency rooms experience a wave of injuries.

Fractures, lacerations and abrasions, broken teeth, head injuries and even collapsed lungs are some of the injuries seen by nurses and doctors.

Australasian College for Emergency Medicine chair Dr John Bonning says the wave of injuries are a concern, and the public needs to understand the scooters aren't toys.

The problem is the high speeds, and the way they are ridden on footpaths alongside pedestrians.

For more on this story click here.

Spare a thought for animals today, as fireworks go on sale.

The SPCA has long been against the public sale of fireworks, due to the stress they cause to animals.

Chief scientific officer Arnja Dale says some dogs have been so spooked by fireworks they've run through glass.

Horses have also been put down after running into fences and injuring themselves.

For more on this story, tune in to NewstalkZB.

Foreign buyers have dominated 2018's commercial property deals, which are predicted to tip over $10 billion by the end of the year.

Chris Dibble from Colliers International says latest analysis shows total sales on track through 2018 could reach a new record.

Nine of this year's top 10 commercial deals had buyers with strong overseas ties.

Dibble says that's partly because New Zealand's cheap.

For more on this story click here.

Severe weather left thousands of Aucklanders without power overnight, and there's a warning this weekend is also looking turbulent.

MetService forecaster Hannah Mose says the gusts through Auckland last night reached 110 km/h in some places.

The forecast is showing much of the country will be hampered by wet and windy weather this weekend, with significant weather warnings likely.

Strong winds are expected to create the biggest and most widespread risks for damage.

For more on this story click here.

The Housing Minister's being applauded for his latest move to help people own their own home.

Phil Twyford's confirmed he's working on a shared equity scheme where the Government, or private investors, will start buying homes in partnership with lower income New Zealanders.

It's aimed at targeting the missing middle; those who can't afford KiwiBuild homes, but earn too much for social housing.

New Zealand Property Institute chief executive Ashley Church says he's welcoming the initiative.

For more on this story click here.

If you've ever wondered whether you should skip the real estate agent, and sell your home yourself, some new data claims to have the answer; you'll get more with an agent.

Research on agent versus private sale has come from OneRoof.co.nz: in conjunction with the Real Estate Institute.

Sellers may already suspect this is the case, as the research shows private sales are becoming less popular.

In 2014, private sales made up 17 per cent of all residential real estate sales in New Zealand. That figure dropped to just 10 percent in the year to July 2018.

For more on this story click here.

National and New Zealand First are joining forces for harsher drug penalties.

If the parties get their way, up to 14 years in prison for synthetic drug-dealers would become reality.

It's a bill from National MP Simeon Brown, which New Zealand First will now support.

Labour and the Greens aren't fans, saying tougher penalties are the least effective approach.

But Brown is adamant the stricter penalties will take suppliers off the street.

It's not the first time an unlikely alliance has been formed between National in opposition and government partner New Zealand First.

New Zealand First's stance against scrapping the three strikes law blocked one of Labour's election campaign promises.

For more on this story, click here.

Food poverty in New Zealand stands to worsen as we move closer to Christmas.

KiwiHarvest, which redistributes rescued food, provides up to 60,000 meals a month.

Chief executive, Deborah Manning, says the charity is approaching a particularly busy period.

The charity has teamed up with Subway today, raising money as part of World Sandwich Day.

Subway has a buy-one-get-one-free deal, and will make a donation to KiwiHarvest with every meal bought.

For more, tune in to Newstalk ZB.

Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage has announced plans for a 310-thousand hectare predator-free "mainland island" in the centre of the South Island.

The area lies between Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park, and the upper drylands of the Mackenzie Basin.

As well as traps and fences, the mountain ranges and waterways will act as barriers for predators.

Sage says our dryland ecosystems have been under-recognised.

For more on this story, click here.

A Dunedin Agritech company is helping save the lives of children on the other side of the world.

In 1992, Techion developed technology to measure livestock parasites, which is now being used to monitor drugs used to control parasites in humans.

It's part of the STARWORMS project - funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Techion chief executive, Greg Mirams, says images of samples taken in the field are uploaded and analysed by technicians around the world - including Techion's Dunedin lab.

For more on this story, tune in to Newstalk ZB.

That's the Front Page for today, Friday November 2, making sure you're across the biggest news of the day. For more on these stories, check out The New Zealand Herald, or tune in to Newstalk ZB.

You can subscribe to this podcast onApple podcasts here, and iHeartRadio here.

If you like to stay up to date on social media, you can find host Frances Cook on Facebook here, Instagram here and Twitter here.