The Wire with Sara

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.

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.

On Wednesday, the government announced new energy reforms in its Energy Package.

This follows a review into the sector being undertaken by Frontier Economics. Despite this, the government has decided not to follow a significant amount of recommendations within the review.

For our weekly catchup with the ACT Party’s Simon Court, News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to Court about this package, and some of the backlash the government has received from the sector regarding it.

They also discussed Samuel Leason, Rana Hamida, and Youssef Sammour, being detained in Israel by attempting to deliver aid to Gaza.

The interception of these vessels is illegal under international law, as the interceptions took place in the Mediterranean Sea between 70-80 nautical miles off of the Gazan coast.

This comes a month after over a hundred humanitarian groups have signed an open letter calling for Israel to allow essential aid into the besieged Gaza Strip. They say they are “not authorised” to deliver aid, unless they comply with tough Israeli measures.

Joel also spoke to Court about the three New Zealand detainees, and what the government is doing to get them home.

But first, they discussed energy reforms.

For Oto's final wire 😢 he spoke with Green Party MP Ricardo Menendez-March for our weekly catchup with the Green Party. They discussed: Winston Peters' refusal to recognise Palestine at the UN General Assembly and The government’s decision to reopen applications for oil and gas exploration across New Zealand.

And he spoke with Heba Mortaja from Aotearoa for Palestine for a follow up conversation about Winston Peters’ decision not to recognise Palestine, and the upcoming march for humanity on the Auckland harbour bridge they’ve announced in response.

Max spoke with co-chair of the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa John Minto, to discuss the Gaza peace proposal suggested by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu yesterday at the White House and he spoke to retired professor in international relations Stephen Hoadley on this topic as well.

And Manny spoke to Associate Professor George Laking on the government's amendments to change the purpose, objectives, and functions of Pae ora legislation of Health New Zealand.