Auckland councillors head into a second day of debate in their efforts to finalise Mayor Wayne Brown's budget, The proposed share sale of airport shares is expected to dominate proceedings and several amendments have been tabled in a bid to break the impasse. his includes looking at alternatives to the contentious selling off of the city's airport shares. During a a nine hour meeting yesterday, the Mayor backed down on selling all 18 percent of the council's Auckland Airport shares - settling now for just eight percent..This scenario would achieve savings of $28 million next year. Mr Brown has proposed a general rates increase of 7.7 percent for residential households, which is one percent higher than the previous figure. Simon Wilson is a Senior Writer NZ Herald based in Auckland and he is keeping watch on proceedings.

Film and TV reviewer Chris Schulz joins Kathryn to talk about Deadloch (Prime Video), an Australian comedy thriller starring New Zealand's own Madeleine Sami, who was interviewed on Nine to Noon two weeks ago. He'll also look at the New Zealand debut of its own version of Couples Therapy (ThreeNow) and Platonic starring Seth Rogan and Rose Byrne.

Angela Pedersen is the founder of Oh Baby, pregnancy and parenting magazine and the mother of three teenagers. She says in the face of challenging behaviour, ensuring children have clearly set boundaries in their early years can pay dividends for parenting adolescents.

Technology journalist Peter Griffin is along to talk about how China has gained the edge in key technologies and how a central part of the AUKUS pact between Australia, the UK and US looks at how to counter that. Peter will talk about what those critical technologies are, and argue the case that New Zealand would benefit from joining the non-nuclear part of AUKUS. He'll also discuss Infratil's move to buy up a remaining stake in One New Zealand - formerly Vodafone and give his take on Apple's new Vision Pro headset.

A memorial service will be held in Wellington for the Loafers Lodge residents who died in last month's fire and Georgina has details about what the money raised by the mayoral relief fund is going towards. Meanwhile a man appeared in court this week on five counts of murder related to the fatal fire. Also Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has had a tough week and she has commented that criticism of her meeting attendance is gendered. And seven city councillors have lost confidence in the Let's Get Wellington Moving.

David Hill reviews Under the Weather by James Renwick, published by HarperCollins Publishers NZ.

What’s the mid-life Gen X woman to do: accept the invisibility inherent in getting older, or speak up and risk being labelled an entitled Karen? Neither are great choices says British writer Victoria Smith, who says women are pitted against each other when they should be banding together.

UK correspondent Matt Dathan joins Kathryn to discuss Prince Harry becoming the first royal in more than 130 years to give evidence in court this week. He's there over claims of phone hacking by the Daily Mirror, but he struggled through his evidence. Another story dominating news in Britain is the explosion of a strategically important dam in southern Ukraine, Rishi Sunak's visit to the White House and trouble in the world of golf.

An immune boosting vaccine substance developed by two Wellington academics is now being commercialised. Victoria University Associate Professors Mattie Timmer and Bridget Stocker made the initial discovery five years ago, and have been developing the ingredient, known as an adjuvant. Adjuvants are added to some vaccines to improve their efficacy and reduce side-effects. Now, along with Victoria University's commercialisation office - Wellington UniVentures, the academics have licensed some of their adjuvants to a US biotech company that will see them used in human clinical trials across a wide range of diseases. They're also preparing to spin-out a new company that will produce adjuvants and sell them onto companies that make vaccines for animals.

It's crunch time for Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown as he attempts to get his final budget signed off by city Councillors. The main sticking point is the sale of the Council's $2.2 billion worth of shares in Auckland Airport. The council has a $375m dollar Budget hole and Mayor Brown maintains privatising the airport shares is the only way to keep household rates rises to 6.7 per cent (in line with inflation) and to avoid cuts to social services and the arts. However it's not clear whether he has the numbers to get his budget passed. One of those firmly behind the Mayor is Howick Ward Councillor Maurice Williamson, who joins Kathryn to talk about the process today and Manurewa-Papakura Ward Councillor Angela Dalton who's against the airport share sale.