[ad_1]
Supplied
Phillip Mehrtens has been held hostage by separatist forces in Western Papua for six months
Listen to Newsable to find out what’s worth talking about today:
Kia ora team, it’s Thursday! One day left to go before you’re allowed to get up to some proper shenanigans, I believe in you, push on through.
We were chatting about people’s favourite children’s movies on Wednesday’s pod and a delightful email came through from a listener called Kathryn extolling the virtues of 1984 cult classic Gremlins.
“Specifically the scene where the Mom discovers evil greenies eating her gingerbread men. She doesn’t run. She doesn’t scream. She picks up a knife – two knives!! – and picks them off. One in a blender. One in hand-to-hand combat. One in the microwave. Man she was tough. She was awesome.”
A great shout from Kathryn, although I do question whether Gremlins is a kids’ movie? Big kids, I suppose. The Guardian list we drew on for that chat did include Labyrinth, after all.
Anyway! On with today’s show: and, unbelievably, it’s been six months since the Kiwi pilot Phillip Mehrtens was kidnapped in the Indonesian province of Papua by the separatist West Papua National Liberation Army. Since then negotiations to secure his release have been ongoing, but there’s been no conclusion so far, despite a plea from Chris Hipkins yesterday morning. Stuff’s Nadine Roberts has been reporting on this story since the very beginning – indeed, she spoke with a representative from the National Liberation Army earlier this week – and joins us with the latest.
Imogen Wells and Emile Donovan will cover what’s worth talking about in the Newsable podcast, out at 6am each weekday morning.
After that, we leap headfirst into some hip-hop drama in the USA: the Canadian rapper Tory Lanez has been sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for shooting at fellow rapper Megan Thee Stallion after a party at Kylie Jenner’s house in 2020. Yep, that’s a real sentence, I triple-checked it. It’s the culmination of a long-running saga which throws up some really interesting themes about American society in 2023 – we take you through what happened, and why it’s worth talking about.
Then, with the FIFA World Cup nearing fever pitch, our man with the numbers Mike Jones from BNZ is in with The Pulse – this week he’s chatting all about the economics of football.
And finally, Imo and I yarn amongst ourselves about a proposal to ban cellphones in high schools.
That’s your lot today – we’ll catch you tomorrow. ‘Til then, be good,
Emile
Newsable is Stuff’s daily news podcast, wrapping up what’s worth talking about in a short package every weekday morning. You can find new episodes and more detail on our stories here or in our newsletter. Make sure to like and follow us wherever you get your podcasts and across Instagram and TikTok.
[ad_2]