1. Politics: Opponents see New Zealand’s closer ties with the United States as endangering trade with China, but talk of joining Aukus, the trilateral strategic security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the US, could be nothing more than hot air. Why? Because we haven’t been asked to join, and Canada and Japan seem ahead of us in the queue, writes Danyl McLauchlan.
2. Opinion: Even if the Aukus discussions are nothing more than hot air, China’s ambassador to New Zealand Dr Wang Xiaolong told RNZ’s Guyon Espiner that it would have a “negative impact” on his country’s relationship with New Zealand. In his fortnightly Listener column, Espiner writes that the interview left him feeling anxious.
3. Business: In the last 35 years, Bendigo, about 10km south of Tarras in Central Otago, has become home to around 15 vineyards. But locals fear fast-track consenting for a large opencast goldmine could do more than tarnish the landscape. You can read more about their concerns, and the response from the mining industry, here.
4. Health: Stimulating the vagus nerve can help sufferers of epilepsy, stroke and migraines, but the devices needed to so are unfunded. That’s prompted Epilepsy Waikato Charitable Trust to lobby for full funding of vegas nerve stimulation. You can find out more here.
5. Health: Fat provides important sensory properties in food products, including colour, taste, texture and odour. So, developing foods with lower fat levels is not a simple case of removing fat, writes nutritionist Jennifer Bowden.
6. New Zealand: Human-induced evolution has led to a native insect changing colour. Jon Waters, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Otago, and his team discovered this by studying the forest-dwelling stonefly. Find out more here.
7. World: The Church of England still has 26 bishops and archbishops in the House of Lords. In a secular, multicultural society and amid an abuse scandal, the CoE’s constitutional privilege is not easy to defend, writes Andrew Anthony.
8. Entertainment: Record company tinkering with the Beatles’ early sound distorted it for US audiences. Capitol Records – distributing music from EMI, the band’s British parent company – turned down their British hits, meaning their first US albums bore scant resemblance to their British catalogue, explains Graham Reid.
9. Culture: Artist Gretchen Albrecht knew when she was 12 years old that she wanted to be an artist but now aged 81, she no longer goes art openings – except her own – as they’re on at the time when she quite likes to be sitting on her sofa having a gin and tonic, she told Michele Hewitson for The Hewitson Profile.
10. Books: Led by books editor Mark Broatch, our reviewers have made your Christmas shopping far easier with their picks of the top 100 fiction, crime & thrillers, history, life stories, art, music, science, philosophy, politics and nature books of 2024. You can see the full list here.
