The Wire with Caeden

Advance voting is currently open for the Tāmaki Makaurau by-election, with the official election day on Saturday.

A Newsroom investigation has questioned the accuracy of Amazon’s claim that it will open several Amazon data centres in Auckland, boosting our economy.

And a new exemption has been announced to the 2018 ban on foreign buyers.

For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden asked Shanan Halbert about all of these topics.

Earlier this week, The Washington Post published a leaked prospectus for a ‘Gaza Riviera’ plan that had reportedly been circulating the White House. 

Named the “Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Trust” or ‘GREAT’, the plan includes the forced displacement of Gaza’s entire population of 2 million people, as well as the territory being placed into a US trusteeship for at least a decade. Although it’s not yet clear whether the plan reflects US policy, it seems to match US President Donald Trump’s previously stated ambitions to “clean out” Gaza and redevelop it.

Critics of the plan identify it as a blueprint for mass deportation and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people disguised as a marketing development, and that if the plan were to be executed it would include international crimes on an unimaginable scale.

To discuss what the leaked plan says about US foreign policy under Trump and how Aotearoa, as well as other countries, should respond to this, Producer Max spoke with John Minto, Co-Chair of the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa.

For our weekly catchup w/ the Green Party Oto spoke with MP Ricardo Menendez-March about the new laws allowing Foreign Investors to buy homes in Aotearoa, the ongoing nurse strikes happening this week and the Greens members bill to change laws regarding overdose responses.

He then spoke to New Zealand Nurse Organisation Kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku for a follow-up conversation about the current nurse strikes.

Max spoke to John Minto, Co-Chair of the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa, to discuss the ‘Gaza Riviera’ plan that was leaked to the Washington Post earlier this week.

And he also spoke to Dr. Ritesh Shah from the University of Auckland, to discuss why Universities in New Zealand choose to stay neutral on topics such as Gaza and whether a neutral stance is right

For Dear Science this week, our expert, Dr Daniel Thomas all about ‘interactions’: strangers who have the same reactions to movies are more likely to become friends, a study has found that apes do have object permanence, and spiders use trapped fireflies to catch more prey. 

Thanks to MOTAT, the museum inspiring the innovators of tomorrow!