The Wire with Caeden

While fish and chip shop customers in South Australia are eating threatened and endangered shark species labelled as “flake”, sharks are facing the risk of being extinct. As a 2020 study concluded sharks were “functionally extinct” on 20% of the world’s coral reefs. A new study building on this research from the journal Nature Communications shows that now 2 in 3 of the worlds sharks are being driven to extinction. The cause is clear and simple: overfishing. What will be the effects on the ocean ecosystem? What consequenses will this have for humans? And why do sharks have such a bad image? 

Western nations have begun to donate battlefield tanks to the Ukrainian army in their war against Russia.

The US has announced it will send M1 Abrams, Germany will send  Leopard 2 and the UK Challenger 2 tanks.

Experts anticipate this will give Ukraine an offensive boost in offensive moves.

David spoke to University of Waikato Professor Alexander Gillespie about the subject.

This week on The Wire for Rāmere Friday!

David brings us City Counselling with Mike Lee as they talk about Auckland Transport problems, and trying to create a marine reserve on Waiheke Island. He also spoke to Alexander Gillespie about Western nations donating tanks to the Ukrainian war effort, as well as Richard Easther from the University of Auckland about light pollution.

Joe looks at the New Zealand Government failing to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility. He speaks to Lisa Woods, the Campaigns Director for Amnesty International Aotearoa.

Daniel speaks to Shark Researcher Dr Samantha Sherman, a post-doctoral research fellow at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver about sharks that depend on coral reefs being driven to extinction. Daniel also chats with Chris Button about how we can improve water safety.

That's us for the Friday Wire!

New data from Stats NZ has recently shown the rate of annual inflation in Aotearoa has remained stagnant at 7.2 percent. 

Food, construction and airfare prices have gone up, however the dropping prices of fuel have led the mean to being balanced where it was.

The news came in conjunction with the swearing in of Chris Hipkins as the new prime minister, who has stated his biggest priority is the cost of living crisis for lower and middle income New Zealanders. 

To learn more about what the numbers mean, Liam spoke to UoA economist Robert MaCulloch.