On the 18th of October voting for Forest and Bird’s ‘Bird of the Year’ opens across the country. It’s an extremely popular competition where Aotearoa’s native birds are set against each other in a race to the finish. The competition gained 55,000 votes last year with the Kakapo taking the win. It’s always a bit of fun, but it has a serious side too. Climate change and habitat loss are huge threats to Aotearoa with about 80% of native birds threatened or at risk of extinction. The competition helps to raise awareness about native birds and what the changes in their habitats mean. On the Wire this week, Frances Wright talked with Lissy Fehnker-Heather who is Forest and Bird’s regional manager for Auckland and Coromandel and Spokesperson for Bird of the Year about the history of the competition and what it means for conservation in Aotearoa.
Facebook has said it will stop using facial recognition technology and delete its database of one billion faceprints in the coming weeks.
Meta, the company that owns the site and formerly known as Facebook, has recently came under scrutiny for privacy issues and the potential real harm its platforms causes in the real world.
Its Vice President of Artificial Intelligence Jerome Pesenti said in a blog post that the decision is part of a company-wide move to limit the use of facial recognition in their products.
He said while facial recognition technology is a powerful tool to verify identity, it needs strong privacy and transparency controls to let people limit how their faces are used.
Mr Pesenti also said because there are many concerns surrounding privacy and regulators are playing catchup, the company believes that limiting the use of facial recognition to a narrow set of use cases is appropriate.
Dr Andrew Chen is a Research Fellow at the University of Auckland’s Koi Tū - Centre for Informed Futures. He spoke to Justin Wong.
Today, World Vision New Zealand is set to present a strong Modern Slavery Act to the Petition Committee. This comes following a petition which garnered thirty seven thousand signatures and support from over one hundred businesses. Joe speaks to Rebekah Armstrong, the Head of Advocacy and Justice for World Vision New Zealand about the Act and why transparency on the issue of Modern Slavery is so important.
Psychologists have suggested that entering the new traffic light system may cause some uncertainty for people around Aotearoa as we determine our own comfort levels with mingling with others, travelling and using public spaces
Jessica Hopkins spoke to Gaynor Parkin, Registered Clinical Psychologist and CE at Umbrella Wellbeing about navigating the new normal.
Parkin encourages people to set their own boundaries for social interactions and to have conversations with whanau about what they are comfortable with.
Today on the Tuesday Wire, Emily Bell interviews New Zealand Disarmament and Arms Control Minister Phil Twyford about the government's commitment to an international ban of killer robots in war.
Jemima Huston speaks to Anna Madarasz-Smith from LAWA about an online tool called Can I Swim Here? that can help you decide where to swim safely this summer.
Emily talks to campaign organiser Tessa Guest about the Free Fares initiative, which is calling for all students and people under twenty-five to have zero transport fares in New Zealand.
Jemima speaks to Stacey van der Putten from Auckland Transport about how lockdown has impacted public transport and how AT is working to keep people safe under the red setting
This week on the Wire we're recapping some of the best news pieces the 95bFM news team has produced this year with our Best of 2021 shows. So, today Jemima Huston and Emily Bell bring you the best of the Tuesday Wire.
Jemima recaps her pieces on the government's $100 million plus deal with tech giant Amazon to film The Lord of the Rings television series and Apple's child exploitation material scanning technology set to be rolled out on US Apple devices.
We play Trishil Dahya's piece on experiencing the autism spectrum.
Emily runs through 10 of the most significant events this year to round up the news cycle for 2021.
Finally, we replay Isla Christensen and Stella Huggins' Tomorrow's World episode on memory recall and the true ability of humans to remember events.
This morning on RNZ's Morning Report, Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said that Aotearoa’s traffic light system is less suited to the Omicron variant than the Delta variant and will need to be adjusted. News and Editorial Director Jemima Huston speaks to Dr David Welch, a virus mutation expert at the University of Auckland, about what these adjustments may be and why they are necessary. Also, as the government is set to announce any changes to the public health repsonse in the coming weeks Jemima asks Dr Welch whether "weeks" is too long to wait to prepare for a major community outbreak of Omicron in Aotearoa.
Today on the Wednesday Wire, Christina Huang brings us Dear Science with Allan Blackman. They chat about the surprising magnitude of the Tonga eruption, a generational link between smoking and body fat, and a 150 year old maths problem that might have finally been solved!
Jemima Huston speaks to ACT Party Deputy Leader Brooke van Velden about the government’s new mask regulations under the red setting and the upcoming news about rapid antigen testing for Covid-19.
Christina talks to Dr Arindam Basu about rapid antigen testing and Aotearoa’s Omicron response.
Finally, Christina speaks to Carlos Calderon from Oxfam Aotearoa about their work with a Kiwi company to turn seawater into drinking water in Tonga.
Denzel takes over the late morning hours to liven up your Thursdays with an eclectic set of tunes accompanied by some stellar chat and good nostalgic vibrations as he delves into video game soundtrack history to bring everyone’s favorite radio spot ‘video game soundtrack gems’
Tonight at 11:59pm New Zealand will move to Phase Two of the government’s response to the Omicron outbreak. This does not make any difference to the red setting rules regarding access to public spaces, wearing masks in public, and contact tracing. Instead, this new phase will reduce isolation periods and narrow the meaning of a close contact.
News and Editorial Director Jemima Huston speaks to Lesley Gray from the University of Otago Wellington and Dr Dion O’Neale who is the Project Lead for Covid Modelling Aotearoa about what Phase Two actually means. They also discuss how New Zealanders should be responding to the increase in daily Covid-19 cases and whether the country is prepared for a shift to Phase Two.
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