Nine To Noon

The national scandal and mourning in Canada as the inquiry intensifies with potentially thousands of children from Canadian schools for indigenous communities buried in unmarked graves. The first forensic evidence of unmarked graves has been located at the Kamloops Indian Residential School.

An early intervention specialist believes the number of students excluded from schools is higher than official statistics. The Ministry of Education says it is working with 171 students who have been officially excluded from school as at the start of July. Frian Wadia is an early intervention specialist with Autism New Zealand, a board member of the Parent to Parent advocacy group and is mum to three differently-abled children. She believes the exclusion figures fail to take into account the myriad ways schools can ask parents to keep their child at home - and in some cases, families are being bullied into thinking they have no power to challenge those decisions. Meanwhile, demand from teachers for neurodiversity workshops delivered by the organisation Mind Over Manner, have risen 400 per cent, and the complexity of needs within classrooms grow. Frian and Susan Haldane, founder of Mind Over Manner, join Kathryn.

The extent of damage from the weekend's flooding is now being assessed at homes, farms and vineyards in the Buller and Marlborough districts which have been swamped by torrential rains and overflowing waterways. On the West Coast, the Westport community is rallying around hundreds of people forced from their homes, some have spent three nights in evacuation centres, or stayed with family and friends. Many homes are inhabitable, amd boil water notices remain in place for a number of communities on the West Coast. To discuss the gravity of the situation and the clean-up, Kathryn speaks to Buller District Emergency Management controller Sean Judd and Marlborough Civil Defence Controller, Emergency Management Richard McNamara.

Comedians Te Radar and Gemma Gracewood bring a few laughs.

Sam highlights the volatility and vulnerability of sport, particularly with the Tokyo Olympics being questioned daily and a range of contingency plans in place. Also, just this week, all the NRL clubs have had to relocate to Queensland to keep the competition afloat with COVID spikes and lockdowns in Sydney and Victoria - and next month's long awaited return to Mt Smart has been cancelled for the Warriors and fans.

The Consumer Price Index numbers have just come out from Stats NZ for the June Quarter of 2021. Consumer prices rose 1.3 percent in the June quarter pushing the annual inflation hit to 3.3 percent, its highest level since late 2011. Gyles Beckford, RNZ's Business editor has the details.

Toyah Webb from Unity books in Auckland reviews We Run the Tides by Vendela Vida, published by Atlantic Books

Acclaimed British author Esther Freud's new novel I Couldn't Love You More is, like much of her writing, deeply autobiographical. It tells the stories of three generations of women, lighting upon what could have been Esther's own fate, narrowly escaping Ireland's cruel mother and baby homes, had her mother not taken great pains to avoid them.

There are now more than 11,000 active Covid cases in Fiji, with 1220 new cases recorded in the 24 hour period to yesteray morning. The death toll has reached 74.

A pilot study from scientists at the University of Auckland and NIWA has found surprising amounts of microplastic particles in marine sediments within the protected parts of the Queen Charlotte Sounds / Tōtaranui. Researcher at the University of Auckland's School of Environment, Dr Marta Ribo speaks with Kathryn Ryan about this research, which could go wider in NZ, and which has measured microplastics up to 50 cm below the seabed both near coastal populations and within marine protected areas.