Nine To Noon

A new internet service provider that offers fast fibre internet, but blocks harmful digital content, is being launched today. The Good Source is a family friendly internet service, and will allow parents to block any device in the home from accessing content like pornography and violence. It aims to protect young and vulnerable internet users from viewing harmful content. The Good Source has partnered with local tech company, Safe Surfer, which builds online safety and security products. The new web-crawling technology uses smart AI tools to categorise content on the internet, and also allows user to choose their own filters for what sites to block and when. Kathryn speaks with Rory Birkbeck, founder of Safe Surfer, and Steve Turner, one of the co-founders of The Good Source, along with Darryl McConnell and Ryan Kilfoil.

Film and TV correspondent Tamar Munch joins Kathryn to look at a new series on TVNZ+ which stars David Tennant as Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian spy and Kremlin critic who was poisoned by polonium; I Hate Suzie's second season is streaming on Neon and amid the controversy about it...is Harry&Meghan's documentary series (Netflix) any good?

The National Survey of Schools' latest findings show teachers are happiest working in schools that support their growth and development. It also highlights the importance of continuing to improve digital resources and facilities in schools. It's all part of the New Zealand Council for Educational Research's Te Pae Tawhiti programme of research. Kathryn is joined by senior researcher Mohamed Alansari.

Cyber security expert Tony Grasso joins Kathryn to look at how government agencies have been affected by a cyber attack on an external company, Mercury IT. He says it's likely the company will be an ongoing target. In the race to keep ahead of hackers, researchers from cybersecurity company Claroty developed a generic method for bypassing web application firewalls of some big manufacturers - what are the lessons for companies? And Apple has killed its plans to scan customers' photos for images of child sexual abuse after an outcry - but what's it launching instead?

Paul Diamond reviews Matangireia: a Space for Maori in Parliament by Ellen Andersen, published by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga

A case of too many books. About half of the 500,000 items in Wellington's central library on-site collection will be kept in storage when the building reopens to make way for a play space, events room and service centre. Georgina also talks to Kathryn about the 445 million dollar, 13 kilometre road forming part of Wellington's northern corridor. Will the new Peka Peka to Otaki expressway open before Christmas?

Imagine travelling, largely without stepping on a plane. Just boats, trains and thumbing a ride. There's no WIFI, mobile phones or Instagram for bragging rights to friends and family stuck back home. Steve Lowndes has written a memoir called Travelling Light about the journeys he took with his former wife, Lisa Potts, through the 1970s. It was a time when travel was truly intrepid - through a world polarised by the Cold War - but free of the madding crowds mass tourism would bring in later decades. As well as South America, they did the "hippie trail" of Iran, Afghanistan and Nepal, as well as a trip behind the Iron Curtain to parts of the Soviet Union - including Russia itself. Writing is just one facet of Steve's life - he's had a number of roles in local government and retired in 2019 as the chair of the Canterbury Regional Council. He's also passionate about the arts - he's an avid painter and Chair of the Arts on Tour board.

UK correspondent Hugo Gye joins Kathryn to look at the deaths of four people who were travelling the English Channel in a small boat to claim asylum. More than 40,000 have made the journey this year despite the dangers and PM Rishi Sunak is determined to stem the flow. Strikes continue to plague the UK, but the government refuses to give pay rises - will their gamble in holding firm wear down unions and a strike-weary public? Freezing weather brought snow in December to the south of England for the first time in a decade. It might look nice, but isn't fun for those struggling to pay power bills amid the high cost of energy. And now England is out of the Football World Cup it's a case of supporting 'anyone-but-France'.

In June, the US Supreme Court made the widely expected, but still seismic decision to overturn Roe versus Wade - ending the nearly 50-year-old constitutional right to abortion. The ruling had an immediate chilling effect on reproductive healthcare around the country, as individual states were handed the power to set their own abortion laws. A dozen states, mainly in the South and Midwest, have since banned abortion, while several others have enforced restrictions on procedures after 6 or 15 weeks. The ruling came despite 61 percent of American adults believing that abortion should be legal in all or most circumstances. November's midterm elections were the first opportunity for voters to put abortion rights to the test. In every state where an abortion-related measure was on the ballot, voters chose either to enshrine protections or reject new anti abortion measures. But for states where there are abortion bans, the impact is very real, with poor women, young women and women of colour most significantly affected. Kathryn speaks to Elizabeth Nash, who tracks state policy for the Guttmacher Institute, an advocacy research group for sexual and reproductive rights in the US.

Russia has launched a fresh round of airstrikes on Ukraine, targeting the capital Kyiv, and damaging several buildings. President Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukrainian air defence forces shot down 13 drones. Russia has been repeatedly targeting the country's energy infrastructure in recent months, in what Ukraine says is a bid to demoralise its population. Ukrainians are now hunkering down for a cold winter with patchy or limited access to electricity, heat, and water. Vladimir Putin's "special military operation", which was meant to seize Kyiv within 3 days, has now become bogged down in a 10 month-long war of attrition. Ukraine has reclaimed about half of the territory Russia captured since the start of the war, but four Ukrainian provinces remain illegally annexed by Putin. The outcome of the war still remains highly uncertain as Ukraine struggles to maintain its independence from the Kremlin. Kathryn speaks to Lesia Vasylenko, a Ukrainian Member of Parliament, with the opposition Holos Party. She's an outspoken critic of the Russian invasion and meets regularly with world leaders to share the plight of Ukraine and to rally support for her home nation.