Nine To Noon for Friday 2 June 2023

 

09:05 Temu could become "significant player" in NZ online shopping landscape 

Warnings for retailers as Chinese eCommerce giant Temu expands to target the New Zealand and Australian market. The new online marketplace launched here in March, after a staggeringly successful open in the US in September last year. Temu sells everything from fashion and homewares, to electronics and car parts - at very low prices, and offers free delivery, and returns. It's also gamifying how people shop; shoppers can earn credit or win prizes if they refer friends to sign up for the app. Chinese company PDD Holdings owns Temu, plus another site called Pinduoduo - currenty the fourth largest eCommerce site in China. Using Pinduoduo's established supply chains and infrastructure, Temu is being launched as a "western" version of that site, localising for each market. Kathryn speaks with Tony Hou, a digital eCommerce expert who has been looking into the rise of Temu and also Chris Wilkinson from First Retail Group about what impact it might have on retailers here. 

09:25 Decorated Australian soldier in disgrace

We head across the Tasman to Australia correspondent Karen Middleton, where the country's most decorated living soldier Ben Roberts-Smith VC has lost his defamation case, and a federal court judge has found that the former SAS soldier committed war crimes - murdering unarmed civilians while serving in Afghanistan. Kathryn talks to Canberra journalist and chief political correspondent for The Saturday Paper Karen Middleton - who has reported from Afghanistan, whilst embedded with Australia's troops there, and authored the book, An Unwinnable War, on Australia's participation in the war.

 

09:35 Online tool to stem accidental deaths at crowd gatherings globally

 Researchers in Sydney and Tokyo have created a database of more than 280 crowd accidents, including multiple fatalities at religious festivals and sporting events. Their findings have been published in the Safety Science journal with the hope of reducing future mass casualties at large events. In the most recent deadly gathering, 12 people died and 500 were injured last month during a stampede at a football match in San Salvador. Last year a Halloween crowd crush in Seoul resulted in more than 150 deaths. And 24 years ago 97 British football fans at the Hillsborough Stadium disaster. University of New South Wales senior lecturer and crowd safety researcher Dr Milad Haghani says there are many ways that such tragedies could be averted. 

09:45 Pacific correspondent Lydia Lewis

Tokelau is experiencing its first Covid-19 community outbreak, it is now officially the second to last country in the world to experience community transmission. Immigration New Zealand says it is not dragging the chain in processing refugees from Nauru under the New Zealand - Australia Resettlement Arrangement. 31 of the 150 people meant to be resettled by 30 June have arrived so far. Fiji's 2000 coup leader George Speight is seeking a pardon. And Tonga is mourning the loss of her Royal Highness Princess Mele Siu'ilikutapu. She passed away at Auckland Hospital on 28 May.

RNZ Pacific journalist, Lydia Lewis

10:05 The therapeutic benefits of forest bathing

Shinrin yoku is the Japanese practice of 'forest bathing', which is growing in popularity around the world for its therapeutic benefits, both physiological and psychological. Forest bathing engages the parasympathetic nervous system, known as the 'rest-and-digest' system. It's the opposite to our 'fight-or-flight' sympathetic nervous system. It's also called forest therapy and has been shown to lower blood pressure, pulse rate and levels of the stress hormone, cortisol, as well as having mental health benefits. Kathryn speaks with Geoffrey Handsfield, a certified forest guide who teaches others how to make the most of their time in the forest. He's also a senior research fellow with the Auckland Bioengineering Institute at the University of Auckland, working with the Musculoskeletal Modelling Group, looking into cerebral palsy, and its effect on the muscles. 

 

10:35 Book review: Project Nought by Chelsey Furedi

Louise Ward of Wardinins Books in Havelock North reviews Project Nought by Chelsey Furedi, published by HarperCollins

10:45 Around the motu : John Freer in Coromandel

 

Rates are on the rise with the Thames Coromandel District Council rate increase up to 14 percent in some areas which John says contrasts unfavourably with the neighbouring Hauraki District Council. He also talks to Kathryn about the recovery from this year's weather events, the cost of the cancellation of summer concert which was scheduled for Whitianga and what's being done about a group of people rough sleeping in mangroves. 

John Freer is a reporter at Coromandel FM 

11:05 Music reviewer Jeremy Taylor

28 Little Bangers compiled by UK singer songwriter Richard Hawley, the return of musical mavericks Sparks and a set of 'shoegaze' faves

11:30 Sports commentator Sam Ackerman

Sam looks ahead to the long weekend sporting highlights - including what to look out for in the final round of Super Rugby and some budding rivalries worth keeping an eye on.
 

11:45 The week that was

Comedians Te Radar and Irene Pink have a few laughs including an explanation about the essence of the scent of Auckland's K'Rd, but would you buy the perfume?.