The Wire with Sara

Last week, Christopher Luxon declined to join the ‘Board of Peace’ being championed by Donald Trump on behalf of New Zealand. The Board is supposedly aimed to restore and maintain stability, particularly looking at Gaza, which would involve this board working together to form a transitionary power structure in the region.

However, this board is facing a great deal of criticism; for starters, some see it as a way for Donald Trump to enforce structures that he sees as beneficial for himself. Importantly, also, there is a concern over the absence of any Palestinian voice from a board that claims to want to move the region forward, undermining their self-determination.

Monday Wire Producer Alex spoke to Professor of Law at the University of Auckland, Treasa Dunworth, about this rejection and the invite, and what it means for Palestinian self-determination and New Zealand’s stance.

This past week, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters posted on X, formerly Twitter, about the United States’ departure from the World Health Organisation. Peters criticised the WHO, calling them a “bunch of unelected globalist bureaucrats” who “are not accountable or responsible with worldwide taxpayers money”. 

Peters then questioned whether New Zealand taxpayer money is being well spent on our WHO membership.

News Director Castor spoke to the University of Otago’s Professor Nick Wilson about what the WHO does and why New Zealand’s membership is important. Wilson has previously done contract work for the WHO around polio eradication. They began by asking about what the WHO is and what it spends money on.

Current US foreign policy under the Trump administration has significantly broken with long-term partnerships and traditional structures of the so-called international rules based order. With the US being at odds with its long-term strategic partners Canada and Europe, the future of NATO as well as security in the pacific have become contentious issues. Trump’s actions have revealed contradictions within the previous dominant functioning of International Relations with his administration’s foreign policy radically utilising the power position asserted and given to the US on the world stage.

Flo spoke to Dr John Battersby, senior fellow for the center for defence and security studies at Massey University about current global security, the practical absence of an international rule based order and implications of US foreign policy on New Zealand.

Many movements have been motivated by the climate crisis to take action to attempt to effect change. Extinction Rebellion is one such group. It says it aims to apply non-violent civil disobedience to push for action. 

In the wake of the floods last week, they released a strongly worded statement placing culpability for the disaster upon both major political parties for their lack of action.
Wire host Manny talked to the Co-ordinator of Extinction Rebellion Tamaki Makaurau Caril Cowan on their organisation's position on the floods and climate crisis,