Nine To Noon

It's been a year since the fall of Afghanistan's government, and the return to power of the Taliban. The lightning advance on Kabul prompted scenes of chaos at the airport as people tried to flee - over 120,000 were airlifted out of the country in the days that followed. In the year since, the UN has warned the combination of conflict, pandemic, drought and restriction of foreign aid has left 23 million people at risk of hunger and starvation. As feared, the Taliban's restrictions on women were quickly reinstated - including a ban on girls being able to go to secondary school. One person determined not to let the world forget that is BBC journalist Yalda Hakim, who puts out a daily tweet with the number of days since teenage girls were allowed in the classroom. Her foundation, set up in 2018 to help get young Afghans into higher education, helped evacuate over 2-hundred students and other at-risk people from the country.

With the All Blacks breaking their losing streak and winning against the Springboks in Johannesburg, what is the future of beleagured All Black coach Ian Foster?. NZ Rugby boss Mark Robinson held an unusual media conference yesterday saying Ian Foster's coaching future would be announced later this week and he repeatedly apologised to journalists for not divulging any information. Sports Commentator, Sam Ackerman with his take on what's going on.

Environmental advocates say the government's plan to introduce biofuel into petrol and diesel is greenwashing and will actually contribute to an increase in global emissions. From next April, all petrol and diesel will be legally required to contain a percentage of biofuel, made from renewable sources such as used vegetable oils or animal fats. The government announced the mandate late last year promising that over the next three years, it would prevent around one million tonnes of emissions from cars, trucks, trains and ships, rising to 10 million tonners by 2035. Legislation is expected to be introduced to the house in the coming months. The environmental advocacy group Don't Burn Our Future says New Zealand doesn't have the right kind of waste to make the amount of biofuel that will be required to meet the mandate, and importing biofuel will be damaging to the global environment. Kathryn speaks with two members of the group: Climate Change consultant Jake Roos and David Keat, who worked in the oil industry for many years in the Middle East, Europe, Asia and New Zealand, including a senior role at the Marsden Point refinery.

Comedians Irene Pink and Pinky Agnew with some of the lighter stories of the week.

Sam talks to Susie about whether we about to witness the end of the Ian Foster era with the All Blacks? Trent Boult's decision to hand back his NZ Cricket contract and what it means and the impact Ross Taylor's honesty will have on the Black Caps.

Adrian Hardingham from Unity Books Wellington reviews The Twilight World by Werner Herzog, published by Penguin Random House.

Scroll through any community social media page in New Zealand and you're bound to find a post about a lost cat. And so it was on the Birkenhead community Facebook page this this week - with a picture of Carpark Cat, who'd taken to hanging around the local New World. But the post about the stray, but seemingly well-fed cat, appears to have sparked a custody battle. And with no microchip - it's hard to know for sure where her home is. Frustrated with seeing repeat messages about the same "lost" kitty, local resident Hilary took the cat by the tail - as it were. She joins Susie to explain - along with Christine Sumner, the SPCA's science officer, with a plea for people to microchip their cats.

Twice named British Press Photographer of the Year, Simon Townsley was at Tiananmen Square and the fall of the Berlin Wall. He's covered many conflicts, including the Gulf war, the siege of Sarajevo and most recently, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, capturing images of people whose lives have been devastated. The award winning photojournalist is a Kiwi, who left for London in 1987, where he spent 14 years as Senior Photographer at the Sunday Times. In recent years he's focussed on highlighting global health issues by creating compelling images of distressing situations. Simon says he wants to open the eyes of people who've become desensitised to the plight of others, and perspectives. There's a gallery of his photographs on our webpage, rnz.co.nz/ninetonoon. He started his career in Wellington as a photographer for the Dom Post...

Koroi is just back from Solomon Islands where commemoration ceremonies took place across the capital Honiara. He talks to Susie about the activities marking the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Guadalcanal. Also, the Covid outbreak in the Marshall Islands is getting worse with the first death just recorded. And the Tongan deputy Prime Minister is one of three Tongan ministers who have lost their seats in parliament due to corruption.

Volunteers around the world are taking part in a citizen science research project into bee biodiversity and decline. The researchers involved in the Zooniverse Big-Bee Bonanza project are checking specimen labels for information on measurements and bees' locations to figure out how bees are responding to human impacts on climate, flora and other aspects of their lives. On the research team is Rob Guralnick who's the Curator of Biodiversity Informatics at the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida. He tells Susie about the honey bee population in America, which is rapidly declining, reflected in declining crop yields for produce including apples, cherries and blueberries.