The Wire with Joel

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has recently published its sixth review into how Aotearoa New Zealand is implementing its obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989.

Joe spoke to Claire Breen Professor of Law at the University of Waikato on this matter.

Robert Bartholomew is a sociologist specialised in social panics. He predicted already after the first shooting down of a ‘chinese spy balloon’ there would be a wave of UFO sightings in the US. Daniel spoke with him about the history and psychology of such UFO scares and outbreaks of UFO sightings.

As whale numbers recovered from near extinction, humpback whales off Australia's east coast may have shifted their mating tactics from singing to fighting with other males, in order to win over the ladies. The study looked at data collected between 1997 and 2015, a period in which the population increased from around 3,700 to 27,000 whales.

Joe spoke to Rebecca Dunlop from the University of Queensland on the subject.

E whai ake nei, on the Thursday Wire today...

Liam had bFM’s first chat with defence minister Andrew Little for 2023, where they talked about his first couple weeks in the role and the extreme weather events in Te Ika-Ā-Maui, the North Island. 
Continuing on with the cyclone reporting, Liam spoke to Daithi Stone from NIWA about the links between Cyclone Gabrielle and the climate crisis.
We also have bFM European Correspondent Cameron Adams back on for EuroVision, chatting about the war in Ukraine, Scotland first minister NIcola Sturgeon's resignation, and more. 
Liam also spoke to Sophie Lund Ramussen, an Oxford University researcher at the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit in Denmark. We had a chat about her discovery of the world's oldest hedgehog named Thorvald, and what it means for species conservation.
And producer Hanna Thompson spoke to Professor Euan Mason from the NZ school of forestry at the University of Canterbury about erosion in the cyclones.