Nine To Noon

Prosecutors have charged a Canadian citizen in a hammer-attack on the husband of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. And as Elon Musk's Twitter takeover is complete, Ron says Elon Musk has already begun to abuse it, retweeting a link to a scabrous and false report about the attack on Paul Pelosi. Meanwhile the Democrats are bearing the brunt of bad feelings over inflation and other economic issues. Ron also ponders whether Joe Biden will pull the the plug on his own re-election campaign relatively soon. Ron Elving is Senior Editor and Correspondent on the Washington Desk for NPR News.

Wilderlab took out the Supreme Award at MPI's annual Biosecurity Awards last night. Wilderlab monitors thousands of kilometers of our waterways for tens of thousands of species every week. Thanks to powerful and portable new e-DNA testing kits, early detections of rare and invasive organisms have lead to successful eradications. All from just a cup or two of water. Community scientists, Regional Councils and DOC are among those using the tech to combat biodiversity and biosecurity challenges. Kathryn speaks with Shaun Wilkinson, principal scientist and founder of the Wellington-based environmental DNA testing lab, who is calling for a national conservation and biosecurity pest-monitoring programme.

It's nearly three weeks since administrators were called in to oversee Ruapehu Alpine Lifts, so what's happening now? RAL which runs the Whakapapa and Turoa skifields on the mountain, put itself into voluntary administration owing tens of millions of dollars. It blames the pandemic, coupled with this winter's terrible ski season. The government has knocked back any suggestion of a further bailout -beyond the $15m in loans made to RAL since 2018. John Fisk of PWC is one of two administrators tasked with trying to salvage the business.

Kennedy Warne highlights the efforts of a young Australian attempting to row solo across the Pacific. Tom Robinson has been rowing for 4 months, having left Peru on 1 July. The 23 year old is almost half way, about 400 km north of the Marquesas, but it's a tense time. The current keeps pushing him north, and there are very few islands, inhabited or uninhabited, in those latitudes. He will run short of food in another month or so, and the cyclone season is about to begin. Kennedy has been tracking his progress, reading his blog and listening to a satellite phone conversation he made in mid-October with a boating website in Maine, only the third conversation he's had with anyone since the voyage began.

Christall Lowe is a photojournalist with a love of food who's used her skills to create a visually stunning book celebrating kai, whakapapa and whanau. She begins by sharing her first food memory - of her nana feeding her kamokamo mashed with butter - and writes about how her family shaped her experiences with food...particularly her grandad's "master hangi".She describes herself as a home cook and the book - Kai: Food stories and recipes from my family table - as 20 years in the making. She shares two recipes: Feijoa icecream and Honey-roasted yams with feta whip.

Kathryn, Lamia and Trish discuss the marathon debate that has marked the passage of the Fair Pay Agreement law. It's a fundamental shift in employment relations, but could it be first on the chopping block if National gets into power and what else would National scrap? Also they take a look at some interesting candidate selections within National and touch on the size of the economic challenge ahead for the government.

Harry Ricketts reviews The Romantic by William Boyd, published by Penguin.

What's the future of our galaxy? How did we come to be? What does it mean to live a small, finite life in a vast, eternal universe? Rock-star English professor of particle physics at the University of Manchester, Brian Cox CBE is bringing his new show Horizons: A 21st Century Space Odyssey, to New Zealand in December. Backgrounded by this year's Nobel Prize in Physics going to Alain Aspect, John Clauser and Anton Zeilinger for their research into Entangled States, essentially their experiments in quantum mechanics that lay the groundwork for Space computation, Kathryn spoke with Brian Cox to discuss the latest advances in our understanding of black holes, quantum theory, planetary science, biology, astronomy and cosmology, and how he covers these off in his new show.

Can the European Union expect a reset with Britain under new PM Rishi Sunak? Hopes that Northern Ireland would finally get a power-sharing government after months of political deadlock appear to have been dashed and why is there a growing list of differences between the French and German governments?

Environmental Toxicologist warns the risk to Aotearoa's marine life from chemical contaminants in the sea, river and streams are intensifying. Local and global research has found an unprecedented number of diverse chemicals in waterways which threaten the health of New Zealand's unique ecosystems. University of Auckland and Cawthron Institute ecotoxicologist, Louis Tremblay says on top of 100 million registered chemical compounds, a large number of new ones are added daily. Dr Tremblay is looking into the risk such chemicals pose on the health of eco-systems in Aotearoa.