Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa has resigned, abruptly departing the country this week after his presidential palace was stormed by thousands of protesters.

The most transmissible variant yet of the coronavirus is threatening a fresh wave of infections in New Zealand. The subvariant of Omicron known as BA.5 is reported as now dominant in the United States, and is likely to make up the majority of community cases here within a couple of weeks.

Kim reads listeners' feedback

Floris Niu is an organic cacao grower and chocolate producer in Samoa. She grew up in New Zealand, but after a series of illnesses left her corporate life for native Upolu, where her family have farmed cacao for four generations.

One of New Zealand's most celebrated authors, Kate De Goldi's short fiction, novels and picture books engage children, teenagers and adults alike. Novel The 10pm Question was published to critical acclaim, quickly becoming an iconic piece of New Zealand literature. Her latest, Eddy, Eddy is being met with similar excitement.

Jackie Flynn Mogensen is a reporter with the American magazine, Mother Jones. Her recent article 'A Plane of Monkeys, a Pandemic, and a Botched Deal: Inside the Science Crisis You've Never Heard Of' takes a look into the famously secretive trade in research monkeys in the midst of a pandemic and a primate shortage.

A piece of doggerel composed on the event of the July freefall of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Colombia's Truth Commission has presented its final report on the country's civil conflict, announcing that at least 450,664 people were killed over nearly six decades. Meanwhile, for the first time in 200 years the country has moved to the left with the election of Gustavo Petro as president.

It's been a phenomenal week in UK politics with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in a humiliating defeat, resigning as leader of the conservative party on Thursday following 59 government ministers - at last count - handing in their notice.

Organic gardener Kath Irvine returns to share some winter gardening tips and to answer your questions.