The Wire with Jessica

The findings of the Understanding Policy Delivery report have recently been released, which has shown that the NZ Police found “bias” and “structural racism,” targeting Māori individuals.

The report says that Māori are ELEVEN percent more likely to be persecuted compared to Pākeha, despite the same variables, and Māori are disproportionately more likely to be stopped and tasered by officers.

News and Editorial Director, and Wire Host, Joel, spoke to Criminology Lecturer and the University of Auckland, and spokesperson for People Against Prison Aotearoa, Emmy Rākete (Ngāpuhi), about these findings, and what can be done to mitigate these statistics.

The Democratic National Convention is taking place in Chicago this week. The event is where Minnesota Governor Tim Walz officialy accepts the nomination for Vice President. 

Former Aotearoa Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern spoke on a side panel at the convention, organised by progressive think tank the Center for American Progress Action Fund. The panel also featured former prime minister of Sweden Magdalena Andersson, MPs from Germany and the Netherlands as well as some US political figures, including prominent Democratic strategist Patrick Gaspard.

Republican candidate Donald Trump is under fire for posting AI generated images of pop star Taylor Swift on his social media platform “Truth Socials.” The images were of Taylor Swift wearing American red, white and blue while endorsing Trump for president. He captioned these photos “I accept.”

Wire Host Caeden spoke to Andre Fa’aoso from the Yale Daily News about the DNC and Trump sharing AI images.

Trigger warning: The following story deals with sexual violence.

Earlier this month Moumita Debnath, a trainee doctor in Kolkata in India, was raped and murdered on her campus. Evidence suggested she was violently assaulted by several men after completing a 36 hour shift. 

The murder has sparked protests across India. 

The University of Auckland branch of Thursdays in Black, a student-led grassroots campaign against rape and sexual violence, are hosting a vigil for Dr Debnath.

The candlelight vigil is being hosted at 5pm today, Thursday 22nd of August, outside the University of Auckland General Library.

Wire Host Caeden spoke to organiser Layba Zubair about why they’re hosting the vigil.

A council-proposed alcohol ban after nine-pee-em will be voted on and most likely go through in December. The idea behind the ban is to prevent preloading of alcohol before events, and further reduce drunkenness on Auckland streets. Supermarket corporation Foodstuffs and Woolworths have been lobbying against the proposed ban for several years, spending millions of dollars to be able to continue to sell alcohol after nine-pee-em, however the council will be voting on this decision in December. Sasha spoke to professor of population health Peter Adams from the University of Auckland about the implications of the council-proposed alcohol sale ban.