Early Edition with Kate Hawkesby

One small trip for Sir Richard Branson, one giant leap for space tourism.The 70-year-old billionaire has successfully reached the edge of space, on board his Virgin Galactic space plane.The aircraft has been in development for 17 years.US space expert Wendy Whitman Cobb told Tim Dower the achievement will ease people's concerns about safety."They really have a strong incentive to ensure safety, to make sure what they're doing is 100 percent safe, especially when you have somebody like Richard Branson or Jeff Bezos going up."Whitman Cobb says for the ordinary person, the possibility of space tourism is now in reach.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Some of the script for the film about the Christchurch mosque shootings has been leaked out.Newshub says it's seen the draft document, it runs to 120-odd pages...and there's a graphic reconstruction of the attack itself.We have shown the version of the script obtained by Newshub to some of the victims, who describe it as worse than the terrorist's livestream of the 2019 atrocity.Now this is being circulated around the film industry, looking for a potential buyer.Working title 'They Are Us'...it's being pitched as not so much the story of the attack, but the response to the attack.But Newshub says the draft shows the attack taking place over 17 pages, and that would come out at around 17 minutes of film.More than a dozen of the murders are depicted in graphic detail.One woman who lost both her husband and her son says the movie sounds worse than the livestream.And she thinks it would encourage others to commit similar atrocities.I dunno about that.I can't for a minute imagine why anyone would want to see it...

National says the Government needs to consider the long-term impacts of Covid-19.Documents released under the Official Information Act show officials have been looking into long-term MIQ facilities since July last year.But they say a shortage of health workers would make it difficult to staff them.National Covid-19 Spokesman Chris Bishop told Tim Dower a way needs to be found to establish purpose-built facilities, as the pandemic isn't going to be over anytime soon."I think we will need MIQ in some shape or form for the foreseeable future for some years to come."LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Football fans reportedly breached the Wembley gates hours before the start of the Euro 2020 final between hosts England and Italy.The Telegraph is reporting that a number of fans broke past stewards at Wembley as the thirst for entry reaches desperation for those who don't have tickets to the game.Daily Mail reporter Mike Keegan on the scene described it as "carnage". Can only describe scenes outside Wembley as carnage and not in a good way. First line of security clearly breached. Dozens hanging around outside turnstiles offering operators cash to let them in and trying to barge in behind punters with tickets. Police nowhere to be seen.— Mike Keegan (@MikeKeegan_DM) July 11, 2021 Febrile atmosphere at Wembley. This is near the main entrance to Club Wembley a few minutes ago where it looked like a group of fans broke through the security cordon. Stewards currently chasing people around. Not sure they’ll get all the way to the wine and canapés pic.twitter.com/YTIx8eQLz2— Sam Wallace (@SamWallaceTel) Jul

Richard Branson became the first person to ride into space aboard a rocket he helped fund. The supersonic space plane developed by his company, Virgin Galactic, roared into the sky over New Mexico early Sunday, carrying Branson and three fellow crewmembers.Branson -— along with Virgin Galactic employees Beth Moses, Colin Bennett, and Sirisha Bandla and pilots Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci — boarded the SpaceShipTwo, a winged plane with a single rocket motor that the company has spent nearly two decades developing, before the crack of dawn. Attached beneath its massive, twin-fuselaged mothership, dubbed WhiteKnightTwo, the vehicle took to the skies at 8:30 am MT and climbed to about 50,000 feet in the air.Just after 9:15 in the morning, the SpaceShipTwo detached from its mothership and dropped momentarily before its engine screamed to life and the vehicle swooped upward. On board, the passengers experienced up to three Gs of force from the burst of extreme acceleration and watched the blue sky fade into the

Air New Zealand is preparing for its busiest July school holiday period ever.That's very welcome news to tourism operators and hotel owners, who are now dealing with the news that the Queensland and New South Wales bubble pause is indefinite.Paul Anderson, from NZ Ski in Queenstown, who operate Coronet Peak and the Remarkables, and Paul Button, from Rotorua Canopy Tours joined Kate Hawkesby to discuss the news.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I’ve received the best news ever this week, another sleep study. I love sleep studies because no one gets less sleep than shift workers.We sleep at weird hours; we wake at weird hours, those of us who are up early for other reasons like kids sport, or gym classes or being woken by babies.I mean, we all want to know the deal on sleep don’t we?So according to a new study by an international psychiatry journal, scientists now say getting to bed earlier, and getting up earlier, can dramatically reduce your risk of depression.  The study investigated the relationship between sleep timing and mood and found that ‘even one hour earlier sleep timing is associated with significantly lower risk of depression,’ according to one report.So, no more late nights.To delve into this they needed to look at which came first; ‘whether staying up late led to depressive symptoms or whether depressive symptoms led to staying up late.’  According to this report, they “found ‘firm’ evidence it's the time that people go to bed that in

There are no doubt a few hangovers across England on Thursday after a night of wild celebrations in the wake of the national football team's victory over Denmark in the European Championship semifinals.There will likely be many, many more on Monday morning if England manages to beat Italy in the final, its first in a major tournament since winning the 1966 World Cup.The worry is that beyond the headaches and the grouchiness, the outpouring of joy will worsen rising coronavirus infection rates, particularly among younger men, many of whom have yet to receive a vaccine against COVID-19.“Whilst association does not necessarily mean causation it is difficult to escape the conclusion that celebrations around the Euros have been an important factor in driving up the epidemic in the U.K.,” said Paul Hunter, a professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia.It's clearly difficult to rein in the enthusiasm associated with England's march to Sunday's final.There's a lot of pent-up frustration out there that has

Forget Facebook and Twitter, even Instagram should be worried.Tik Tok is where all the kids are these days.But it seems the popular app is encouraging more young people to read books.Book Tok has become a trend, where people post videos reviewing and recommending books.This has boomed in popularity, so much so that book sales have greatly increased.Joining us now from New York is director of books at Barnes and Noble Shannon DeVito it’s not just books that have been released in the same era as Tik Tok.“So many new readers are discovering or rediscovering books that in some cases have been on shelves for over a decade and it’s really heartening.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As you may know, for the first time ever, skateboarding is going to be included in the Tokyo Olympics.But this has caused some division in the skateboarding community.While some say it's good for the sport, others say it could harm the industry.Others argue whether it's actually a sport?Ian Michna is the publisher of skateboarding magazine Jenkem and he joined Kate Hawkesby from New York.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I see Chris Hipkins is saying we won't, in this country, aim to be like the UK and take the approach that we just have to learn to live with Covid. Hipkins says lifting restrictions like the UK is about to is not a realistic option for us long term.So it seems the eradication strategy is still NZ's goal. And if this is true, then are we in for a life of lockdowns and closed borders?As of the 19th of July the UK, rightly or wrongly, is ditching all restrictions and opening the place back up, normal life can resume. They are desperate for it, let's be honest they've been locked down a very long time, but the new Health Minister's approach is – learn to live with Covid, take some personal responsibility, this is what it is.That may sound terrifying to some of us. There'll be a lot of people in the ‘too soon’ brigade who will freak out at that freedom.But if not now, when? When is it ever going to be ok to lift restrictions and how long can you keep a country locked down for?One thing is for sure, schools need to

Richard Branson will take a rocket-powered space plane on a 2,400 mile-per-hour ride to the edge of space this weekend. That's if everything goes according to plan. And there's plenty that could go wrong.The rocket motor could fail to light up. The cabin could lose pressure and threaten the passengers' lives. And the intense physics involved when hurtling out of — and back into — the Earth's atmosphere could tear the vehicle apart.But Branson is ready to follow in the footsteps of the test pilots and Virgin Galactic employees who have already flown on VSS Unity, the vehicle Branson's company, Virgin Galactic, has spent nearly two decades working to develop. If all goes as planned, Branson will also be the first billionaire ever to travel to space aboard a vehicle he helped fund the development of, beating fellow space baron Jeff Bezos by just nine days.Any time humans are on an airborne vehicle, there's risk involved. Here's a breakdown of just how much danger Branson -— and the three people going with him —

A Bill stating marriages and civil unions should be allowed to be dissolved immediately in domestic violence situations has been submitted by a Labour list MP.Angie Warren-Clark said Labour was committed to protecting survivors of domestic violence and submitted her Family Proceedings (Dissolution for Family Violence) Amendment Bill to the members' bill ballot."The current law requires a couple to be separated for two years before a divorce can occur. This means people must remain married to the person that is abusing or has abused them, even if a protection order is in place," Warren-Clark said."This Bill allows a person to apply for an order dissolving a marriage or civil union if they have been the victim of family violence inflicted by the other party in the relationship."Many people are surprised that survivors of domestic violence are required to stay married to their abuser for two years before being able to finalise their divorce. This change is overdue and I'm calling on my parliamentary colleagues t

Folic acid will be put in bread making flour to prevent devastating birth defects that can result in death or lifelong disability, it can be revealed.Fortifying bread and other food staples with folic acid has significantly reduced birth defects of the brain, spine, or spinal cord in other countries including the United States, Canada and Australia.The move comes after an investigation by the Herald exposed the heartbreaking stories of parents who have been pushing for years for New Zealand to match other countries by fortifying bread."This is about protecting babies. Low folate levels in mothers cause neural tube defects that result in the death of babies, or lifelong disability," said Food Safety Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall."This B vitamin is safe and essential for health, particularly for development of babies early in pregnancy. Folate is naturally present in food - folic acid fortification restores what is lost during processing such as flour milling."A little over half of pregnancies in New Zealand are u

Do you obsessively read the grading ratings on eateries like I do, or are you normal?You know how the kitchens and backrooms of restaurants and cafes get inspected and graded based on hygiene and cleanliness? More ratings came out this week and I’m obsessed with them.Because I’m a hygiene freak and if I see anything other than an A rating I want to run for the hills. How the system works is that a D or E rating basically means the situation is pretty revolting. Uncovered uncooked food left out, cockroaches, filth or flies look, it’s gross. This has all come about due to Food Safety checks, for which we should be eternally grateful. So MPI wanders round with inspectors, checks out the state of eateries and slaps a grading on them.Auckland Council took it further and adopted the measure that these gradings have to be displayed publicly; we have to know what we’re dealing with. And that’s why I have now become obsessed with looking for that little food safety certificate every time I walk into a takeaway outlet.

There are calls for Police to up their game in the enforcement of seatbelt rules.Figures released to Newstalk ZB show the number of fines being handed out for failing to wear a seatbelt, have almost halved in the past decade.That's despite the number of serious injuries and crashes where a driver or passenger wasn't wearing a seatbelt, have either increased, or remained unchanged, over the same period.Independent crash investigator Hamish Piercy told Kate Hawkesby the importance of such fines shouldn't be underestimated.“They do have an effect, and it’s not necessarily the amount either it’s actually the sting for an indiscretion or wrongdoing that tends to wake people up.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nurses say striking is a last resort and not something they do lightly.Members of the Nurses Organisation have voted to walk off the job another three times this year, in July, August and September.Some strikes will be as long as 24 hours.Nurses Organisation industrial advisor, David Waite, told Kate Hawkesby it's the most significant strike action nurses have ever voted on, and will ever take.“And I guess it really goes to the frustration that members have felt after a year of negotiations and these tow issues around pay and staffing are still unresolved."LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Generation Z, the generation after Millennials, want to make their mark on the world.This includes in fashion.It seems more of our younger generation want to buy gender-fluid clothing.In 2019, 56 percent of Gen Z consumers shopped outside their assigned gendered area.There are suggestions that it is time some of our local retail brands, Farmers, The Warehouse, Kmart, got more with the programme.Senior analyst at World Global Style Network Nick Paget told Kate Hawkesby there is more than one barrier to inclusive clothing.“I think to do something that’s really truly inclusive; it’s about making all clothing inclusive to everyone, which is both a technical challenge and a challenge to society’s perception to clothing and gender as well.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Trying to get a Covid-19 vaccination is a bit like the “Hunger Games”, according to the NSW Health Minister.Brad Hazzard offered the scathing review of the vaccine rollout while standing alongside the NSW Premier and chief health officer to deliver the latest Covid update.There have been 35 new cases of Covid in NSW, a huge spike on the 16 infections revealed on Sunday.While addressing the media, Mr Hazzard was probed about the commonwealth rollout.“It is almost a sense now of the ‘Hunger Games’, of people chasing the vaccine,” he said.“Until we get enough vaccine (doses) and enough GPs actually at the frontline able to provide that vaccine into arms, we will continue to have effectively the Hunger Games going on here in NSW.”Brad Hazzard has described getting the jab as a bit like the Hunger Games. (Photo / NCA)He was quick to defend the federal government though.“It is easy to be critical in hindsight but the federal government did their best to try and get the vaccine when we didn’t know what vaccines woul

I wonder, with school holidays starting at the end of this week, how many people are put off by the bubble given the mess Australia’s in currently.Quarantine free travel to South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and the A.C.T is back open, but it comes with a warning. Epidemiologist Rod Jackson said go at your own risk, basically. Be prepared to be stuck there for weeks or even months, he says.That’s harsh. But is it true?How many people are still prepared to risk it?I think a lot of us have acclimatised to the new reality of no international travelling at the moment.Well not all of us. My sister hasn’t. Having lived in Europe for 10 years and travelled extensively she’s a wanderer with itchy feet. She’s hated not being able to travel. She’d booked the Gold Coast for the school holidays for her family but that’s obviously off now. So she’s booked the Cook Islands.She said basically because it’s the only place she feels she can safely and easily go with her kids and she’s sick of not going anywhere. The second we