The Wire with Manny

Scotland First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, has proposed a referendum date for Scots to vote on their independence from the United Kingdom - the 19th of October, 2023.

However despite UK PM Boris Johnson saying now is not the time, Sturgeon says they will run the referendum regardless by having her party run on the sole issue of independence. 

The last referendum vote on this issue took place in 2014, but commentators have pointed out the major shift in the UK landscape since due to Brexit. 

To learn more, Liam spoke to the University of Otago’s Liam Mcllvanney ,first asking why some Scots are pushing for independence and what's getting in their way.

The Government must move faster to close gender and ethnic pay gaps if it wants to help people who are struggling with low wages due to discrimination, says MindTheGap.

On Tuesday in Parliament, the Government published its response to the Education and Workforce Select Committee inquiry into pay transparency.

The national pay gap is 9.1% but it is a lot higher in many companies. On average it means for every dollar a Pākehā man earns, a Pākehā woman earns 89 cents, a Māori woman 81 cents and a Pasifika woman 75 cents

Emilia Sullivan spoke to Jo Cribb, founder of MindTheGap.

The hearings into the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol are set to resume in mid-July, however yesterday the committee reconvened for an unplanned, surprise hearing.

Emilia Sullivan spoke to Dr. Maria Armoudian, a senior politics lecturer at the University of Auckland.

Data collected by the Helen Clark Foundation has shown fast food and takeaway businesses make over $1 billion dollars a year on average or three million dollars a day.

So why is this industry so lucrative? Host Christina Huang asked Dr Michael Hale, a public health doctor at the Auckland Regional Public Health Service. 

Earlier this year, Associate Professor Leah Watkins, from the Marketing department at the University of Otago, ran a study using bodycams on children and found they were exposed to nearly a brand per minute. Christina asked her about the impact of kids seeing so much marketing.