09:05 Rod Oram at COP26 summit

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Photo: United Nations

The critical COP26 climate change summit is underway in Glasgow, bringing countries together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. All countries are being asked to come forward with ambitious 2030 emissions reductions targets that align with reaching net zero by the middle of the century. On the eve of the summit, New Zealand has updated its pledge - to cut the country's net emissions to 50 percent below gross 2005 levels, by 2030. However, already it's been pointed out that much of that is planned to be reached by paying other countries to offset New Zealand's emissions with things like rainforest planting, rather than cuts to actual greenhouse gas emissions happening here. Journalist Rod Oram joins Kathryn from Glasgow. 

09:30 How our busiest ICU is adapting to Covid

Middlemore Hospital emergency department.

Photo: LDR

Intensive Care Specialist at Middlemore Hospital, Dr Carl Horsley talks to Kathryn about how one of the country's busiest intensive care units is adapting and changing to prepare for the spread of Covid. Dr Horsley has a Masters in Human Factors and System Safety from Lund University, Sweden. He is also the clinical lead for patient safety for the Health Quality and Safety Commission.  New Zealand has the second lowest number of ICU beds per capita among developed countries. Dr Horsley says this is well known, but his team is constantly improving and refining the way it operates to optimise patient care and keep staff safe.

09:45 Europe correspondent Seamus Kearney

ROME, ITALY - OCTOBER 30: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (C) and other participants pose for a family photograph within the G20 Leaders' Summit at Roma Convention Center La Nuvola in Rome, Italy on October 30, 2021.

Photo: AFP

Europe hosts 'last chance' climate talks at G20 & COP26, Paris & London clash over post-Brexit fishing rights, the EU Parliament takes EU Commission to court and the Netherlands breaks record of having no government.

10:05 Jess Quinn: Still standing

At just eight years old, an aggressive bone cancer threatened Jess Quinn's life. When endless rounds of chemotherapy failed to shrink the tumour, she was put forward for rotationplasty, a pioneering surgery which involved removing the top of her right leg, rotating the lower section 180 degrees, and reattaching everything from the calf downwards at her upper thigh. At the time she was only the second patient in the country to have had the surgery. Now 28, Jess Quinn is an advocate for normalising different bodies. She shares the ups and downs of life with what she describes as "a backwards foot for a knee" with her massive Instagram following. Jess is also on a mission to bring awareness to image retouching and the harmful repercussions on people's body image. On top of a modelling career, and a stint on Dancing with the Stars, she's also just released a book, Still Standing. Kathryn speaks to Jess Quinn from her home in Auckland.

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Photo: Supplied

10:35 Book review: A Luminous Republic by Andrés Barba

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Photo: Granta

Melanie O'Loughlin from Lamplight Books in Auckland reviews A Luminous Republic by Andrés Barba, published by Granta    

Thirty-two feral children trickle out of the jungle and with their begging and their insolence, they soon upend a quiet South American town.  Part exploration of the magic of childhood, part, Heart of Darkness, neither adult nor child is left unscathed in this slender allegorical tale. Psychological fiction at its finest.  

 

10:45 The Reading

11:05 Political commentators Mills & Morten

Jacinda Ardern speaking at the Traffic Light System announcement

Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver

Cabinet meets today to decide whether to move the two regions out of alert level 3, step 1, as retailers plead with the government to ease alert level restrictions in Auckland and Waikato, to allow shops to open, this as two Auckland high schools have Covid scares. Also an assessment of the Government's draft emissions reduction plan, and a critical moment for Greens co-leader and Climate Change Minister, James Shaw attending COP 26 in Glasgow.

 

Stephen Mills is an executive director at Talbot Mills research limited which is the polling firm used by Labour. He is a former political adviser to two Labour governments.

Brigitte Morten is a director with public and commercial law firm Franks & Ogilvie and a former senior ministerial advisor for the previous National-led government. 

 

11:30 Food: Pierogi - Polish dumplings adopted by Canadians, made in Christchurch

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Photo: The Pierogi Joint

Pierogi dumplings are a delicious Polish staple which some Canadians have adopted as their national dish.  Kate Grater, who hails from Vancouver makes and sells them in Christchurch, at The Pierogi Joint on the fringe of the CBD, in Waltham.

11:45 Three, three-storey townhouses on many urban and suburban sites

Urban issues correspondent Bill McKay join Kathryn to talk about the further RMA reforms announced last week, which aim to improve housing supply by speeding up National Policy Statement on Urban Development (NPS-UD), enabling more medium density homes.

Bill McKay is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of Auckland.
 

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Photo: Bill McKay

Music played in this show

Artist: Yola Tingo
Track: My heart's not in it
Time played: 9:35

Artist: Smashing Pumpkins
Track: Cupid de Locke
Time played: 10:35

Artist: The Kinks
Track: Louie Louie
Time played: 10:45

Artist: The Zutons
Track: Confusion
Time played: 11:35