Nine To Noon

According to the World Health Organisation, children under 5 need 180 minutes of physical activity every day. To help early childhood teachers give pre-schoolers the physical activity they need to succeed, health science researcher Wendy Pirie has developed a programme called MAPP – Movement Active Physical Play.

Tech correspondent Tony Grasso joins Kathryn to look at what's happened to Symantec - it was one of the first IT security companies to develop commercial anti-virus software, but is anti-virus "dead" like the company's senior VP says? GCHQ in the UK has raised security concerns about Chinese technology - with some experts citing smartmeters made in China as a specific risk. And Blackbyte ransomware is managing to get around signed drives - which were supposed to be the ultimate in security authentication. Tony Grasso is Principal Consultant at cybersecurity firm TitaniumDefence. He worked at GCHQ in the UK and is a former Intelligence Officer in New Zealand.

Melanie O'Loughlin from Lamplight Books in Auckland reviews A Fortunate Woman, by Polly Morland, published by Picador.

Aucklander Albert Cho posts hilarious and extremely honest food reviews –  with beautiful photos – on the Instagram account @eatlitfood. In the new memoir I Love My Stupid Life he shares his life story through food stories, including recovery from an eating disorder and becoming the target of "bland Kiwi racism" after a bagel shop review.

UK correspondent Matt Dathan joins Kathryn to talk about how new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak may have to abandon his flagship Conservative leadership campaign pledges, amid a worsening economic backdrop. He's clashed with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer over the asylum system and former Health Secretary Matt Hancock who resigned under a cloud is kicked out of the Tory party for appearing on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here.

The queue for mourners to pay their respects to Queen Elizabeth II was one of the biggest in history, with 250,000 people waiting up to 24 hours, in a queue 16km long. A team of experts had been planning for this expected queue for many years in a project codenamed 'Operation Feather'. Professor Keith Still advised on the project, as well as 'Operation Marquee' and 'Operation Unicorn'. His expertise in queueing theory blends mathematics with behavioral psychology and is used around the world; at sports games, religious festivals and theme parks. Kathryn speaks with Professor Keith Still, a visiting professor in crowd science at the University of Suffolk, who has taught and advised on crowd science for 30 years and has lectured at the Cabinet Office Emergency Planning College.

More heavy rain is hitting the West Coast this morning putting residents on alert. The Coast is among 12 regions identified in a government report where some communities are at the most risk of flooding. The report names 44 communities nationwide which are considered vulnerable because they're unprepared - with no plans to build protection such as flood walls, and because of low average incomes, their local authorities cannot raise rates to fund the work needed. The report excludes large urban areas that might have pockets of vulnerable communities at high risk of flooding. So far this year, extreme weather events have cost $298 million to insurers. The massive storm in August in Nelson and Marlborough alone resulted in just over 3000 general insurance claims, with a provisional value of nearly $48 million. So what does this report - naming individual communities - mean for the abilities of those homeowners to get insurance cover? Kathryn talks with the Insurance Council Chief Executive Tim Grafton.

Science commentator Dr Siouxsie Wiles joins Kathryn to talk about new research that has found bumblebees will play with tiny wooden balls - despite there being no reason to do so. The aye-aye, a primate in Madagascar, has a particularly bad habit of picking and eating what they find up their nose, and information on how we walk can help a smartphone calculate our five-year risk of dying. Associate Professor Dr Siouxsie Wiles is the head of Bioluminescent Superbugs Lab at the University of Auckland.

A number of countries around the world are experiencing population decline, or depopulation. Japan, for example saw a population loss of 644,000 in 2020 and 2021, and it's population is expected to decline by 30% in the next 40 years, and then halve by the end of the century. It is estimated that 23 countries will see a halving of the population between now and 2100, while others experience growing populations. Demographer and Distinguished Professor Emeritus Paul Spoonley of Massey University says countries need to be ready for the change.

Unemployment has remained unchanged at 3.3 percent in the three months ended September. Average wages have risen strongly, growing 2.6 per cent in the three months ending on September 30. What does this mean in terms of potential for further aggressive rate rises by the Reserve Bank? Kathryn speaks to RNZ Business Editor Gyles Beckford.