The Wire with Joel

Following the arrest of Freedom Flotilla activists last week including New Zealanders Rana Hamida, Youssef Sammour and Sam Leason, the families of these activists alongside the Green Party coleaders held a press conference yesterday where they called for the New Zealand government to fulfil its obligations to international humanitarian law and answered questions from the media.

First, Wire Host Sara shares some recordings from the press conference. 
As political leaders appear conflicted in their response to the situation in Gaza, especially in light of the attempts of citizens to put pressure on politicians as well as by-pass blockades themselves with the Freedom Flotilla, I was interested in the legal frameworks that exist for responding to this conflict.

To discuss this topic, Sara spoke with both Victoria University of Wellington legal professor Marnie Lloydd and University of Waikato law expert Alexander Gillespie about the obligations of other nations including New Zealand to act. 
Her first interview was with Marnie Lloydd.
Then, further to this topic international law expert Alexander Gillespie speaks to New Zealand’s capacity to respond to the Israel/Palestine conflict.

Today, Professor Allan Blackman joins Sara and Jasmine in the studio to commemorate Dame Jane Goodall, reveal the hidden treasures of Bearded Vulture nests, and discuss new developments in discovering 'Planet Y'.

Recently, the University of Auckland, Massey University, and the Victoria University of Wellington, have announced they will not be using software to check over student’s work for AI plagiarism. 

This has left concerns over what the future of checking for AI will mean in these universities, and whether other universities, and tertiary institutions as a whole, will follow suit.

On Friday, News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to the National President of the Tertiary Education Union, or TEU, Julie Douglas, about this announcement and the union’s thoughts on it.

Following on from my chat with Douglas, Joel spoke to Shahper Richter, a Senior Marketing Lecturer at the University of Auckland about using “interactive oral assessments” or IOA’s, as a way to combat AI in testing students.

She has been testing IOA’s over the past couple of years. In a piece on the Conversation which she co-authors with the University of Auckland’s Patrick Dodd, she says this method of testing is “one of the most effective and authentic ways to see what students really know in the age of AI.”

Joel spoke to her about this method of testing, and what it entails.

Over the last few months, concerns have been raised over the hosting of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the United States. Particularly, concerns over human rights in the country, VISA worries, and accusations of sportswashing have been increasingly levied towards the country.

The relative lack of coverage of these concerns, comparatively to concerns over the previous tournament in Qatar, or those in the future in countries like Saudi Arabia, complicate the history that Football and FIFA have with questionable regimes and funding. Despite Trump Administration policies that seem to threaten the tournament, there continues to be a lack of noise around whether or not the three host countries should be reduced to two, removing the US.

Monday Wire Producer Alex spoke to a Doctoral Candidate in the Faculty of Arts and Education at the University of Auckland, Luke Bird, about this Sportwashing, its background, and why the US and countries like Qatar are treated differently.