The Wire with Caeden

The Trump administration’s crackdown on both tertiary education and immigration is creating an uncertain environment for students in the United States, particularly international students. 

It also comes as the administration has slashed research funding, rolled back protections for disadvantaged student groups, threatened lawsuits against colleges, dismantled the education department and more.

For International Desk, Wire Host Caeden spoke to Yale Daily News’ Andre Fa’aoso, about what it’s like to be an international student in the United States right now. 

For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, regular Wire Host Caeden spoke to MP Shanan Halbert about four-year parliament terms, the High Court challenge against the disestablishment of Te Aka Whai Ora, and the Public Services Commissioner investigating potential changes to several lived experience ministries.

For International Desk, they spoke to Andre Fa’aoso from the Yale Daily News about the current experiences of international students in the United States, especially as the Trump administration targets Universities for funding cuts.

For City Counselling this week, Producer Sanat spoke with Councillor Julie Fairey about a new plan up for limited consultation to build higher-density housing within the city. 

He also spoke to the University of Auckland’s Associate Professor of Pacific Studies Gordon Nanau about the upcoming Pacific Islands Forum and the surrounding geopolitical tensions between Pacific Island nations.

Following on from our previous chat, recent events have led to Türkiye potentially pursuing a vote to suspend Israel from the United Nations.

Türkiye foreign minister Hakan Fidan has told the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Riyadh that Israel should be suspended from the crucial meeting of the general assembly next month due to its ‘genocidal aggression’. In response to this, Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa co-chair John Minto has urged New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters to take a stand on this issue.

To discuss a potential vote to suspend Israel from next month’s United Nations general assembly meeting, as well as New Zealand’s current stance on Israel and Gaza, Producer Max spoke with John Minto.

Late last week The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification or IPC, declared a famine in Gaza, warning that 41,000 children are at a heightened risk of death. The report said that the number of people facing – what they referred to as ‘emergency’ conditions – is expected to rise to 1.14 million people, or around half of the total population of Gaza, which is currently about 2.1 million people. 

Under IPC criteria, a famine can only be formally declared when three conditions are met: at least 20% of households face extreme food shortages, at least 30% are acutely malnourished, and two or more people per 10,000 die each day from hunger or hunger-related diseases.

To talk about what is only the fifth declared famine in the last 15 years, Producer Max spoke with ChildFund CEO Josie Pagani, to discuss what New Zealand can do to immediately help the situation.