A select committee report has recommended pushing ahead with a four-year-term referendum, but stripping out some of the requirements the ACT Party had proposed.

The man accused of murdering five people by setting Wellington's Loafers Lodge hostel alight started the blaze because he did not want to live there, a Crown lawyer has argued.

France has summoned American ambassador Charles Kushner after he wrote a letter to President Emmanuel Macron alleging the nation had failed to do enough to stem antisemitic violence, an official says.

The Education Ministry suspects some schools have been opening for fewer days than legally required, documents obtained under the Official Information Act show.