Nine To Noon for Thursday 20 July 2023

 

 

09:05 Reports of active shooter in downtown Auckland 

Police are responding to a serious incident on Auckland's Quay Street. RNZ understands the situation involves an active shooter.  The police say the serious incident is contained to a building in lower Queen Street which is under construction. RNZ reporters at the scene have heard about 8 gunshots at the scene on Quay and Lower Albert street. Police have asked members of the public to avoid the lower Queen Street area and those already in the area to stay inside. For the latest, Kathryn speaks with Mayor Wayne Brown, RNZ's Jeremy Rees, and Heart of the City's Viv Beck. 

09:20 Flawed Hero: Reporting on Ben Roberts-Smith

It's been labelled the "trial of the century" in Australia. Ben Roberts-Smith was the country's most decorated living soldier, a recipient of the Victoria Cross, and even named Father of the Year. But in 2018 he was accused of murdering multiple unarmed civilians while on deployment with the SAS in Afghanistan. Veteran investigative journalist Chris Masters, together with colleagues Nick McKenzie and David Wroe, broke the story in 2018. Ben Roberts-Smith sued the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age and the Canberra Times for defamation. But in June this year, after a lengthy and expensive trial, a federal court judge ruled that on the balance of probabilities, Roberts-Smith was complicit in four murders. The judgement is being celebrated as a win for investigative journalism and for the soldiers who stood up and gave evidence against their former colleague. Journalist Chris Masters has now released a book about his investigation, Flawed Hero: Truth, Lies and War Crimes. The story is not over though. Last week Ben Roberts-Smith said he will appeal the federal court decision, alleging the judge "cherry-picked" evidence in his judgement. 

09:45 UK: Triple by-elections, inflation drop, MI-6 invitation to Russian spies

UK correspondent Lara Spirit joins Kathryn to talk about the three by-elections all happening this weekend and what it could mean for the Conservatives. Inflation has made an unexpected drop - and that puts pressure on the Bank of England, and MI6's boss has revealed its recruited a number of Russians disaffected by the Ukraine war.

Lara Spirit is a reporter for The Times Red Box, where she covers politics from Westminster.

10:05 Auckland shooting: Update from the scene

Police have now confirmed three people have died in a shooting at a construction site in downtown Auckland this morning. That includes the male offender. Police say multiple injuries have also been reported. Kathryn speaks with RNZ reporter Felix Walton, Auckland Transport's Executive General Manager Public Transport Services Stacey van der Putten, and Auckland Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Simon Bridges . 

10:35 Riceboy Sleeps: settling in a new land

Vancouver-based filmmaker Anthony Shim whose new feature Riceboy Sleeps is gaining critical acclaim and winning awards. His South Korean family moved to Canada when he was a child and their experiences have helped to inspire Riceboy Sleeps which is featuring at the NZ International Film Festival . Anthony Shim has written and directed the film which is his second feature, he also has a background in acting. Riceboy Sleeps is about a single mother So-young who is bringing up her son Dong-hyun in a Vancouver suburb, and canvases their cultural challenges and the common immigrant struggles to provide a better life in a new country. The film's awards include this year's Canadian Screen Awards' nod for Best Original Screenplay.

10:35 Book review: Forgotten Warriors by Sarah Percy 

Quentin Johnson reviews Forgotten Warriors by Sarah Percy published by Hachette

10:45 Around the motu: Tim Brown in Dunedin

The Mosgiel Taieri's Community Board chair is horrified by a suspected arson on the property of a family of former refugees from Syria. The family say they are the victims of hate crimes, and have experienced a spate of attacks, police are investigating. Tim also talks to Kathryn about power price hikes in Rakiura stemming from Stewart Island’s power grid being entirely dependent on diesel generation.

Tim Brown is a based in Dunedin covering Otago and Southland for RNZ.

11:05 Auckland shooting: hotel guests heard gunshots

An Auckland hotel guest says she heard five or six loud, quick gunshots and watched armed police clearing people away from the active shooting. Tracy Ayton is staying in a hotel overlooking the building, and said she went to the window after hearing a commotion outside. She speaks to Kathryn. 

11:10 Technology: Why did Meta free up its ChatGPT rival? Microsoft's costly AI features

Tech journalist Peter Griffin looks at the decision by Meta to release Llama 2  - a direct rival to ChatGPT - and make it open source for research and commercial use. What's in it for Meta? Meanwhile Microsoft has released the pricing for its AI-powered features it's bringing to its suite of products like Word, Excel and Powerpoint - and it'll cost you. And why are so many Silicon Valley leaders excited about anti-vaxxer Robert Kennedy Jr running for president?

11:25 Growing teen boys into happy, healthy men

Growing teen boys into happy, healthy men with Australian parenting expert, the so called Commonsense Queen, Maggie Dent. She's a former high school teacher, counsellor, mother of four sons, grandmother of seven, author of numeous books and the host of the ABC podcast Parental as Anything. She says adolescence is a confusing time for teens and their parents and carers - and our boys have some particular challenges that we need to understand if we are to guide them safely to healthy manhood.Maggie will be in Wellington next month giving a seminar on this topic.

11:45 Screentime: Taking Care of Maya, Totally Completely Fine, Gray Matter

Film and TV reviewer Laumata Lauano joins Kathryn to talk about the new documentary Taking Care of Maya (Netflix), which focuses on the case of 10-year-old Maya Kowalski who was taken from her parents after medical experts disputed her illness. Totally Completely Fine (TVNZ+) is a new Australian series starring Kiwi actress Thomasin McKenzie and Gray Matter (Netflix), about a mother and daughter with superhuman - and dangerous - abilities.

Music played in this show

Track: Eucalyptus 
Artist: The National 
Time played: 10:30am