Everything you need to know about the world today, curated by 95bFM and VICE NZ.
LOCAL NEWS
Discussion Opens Over Rights of Migrant Sex Workers
The national coordinator for the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective (NZPC), Dame Catherine Healy, has defended claims the NZPC wants to decriminalise sex trafficking for its own gain. The claims come from well-known stripper Lisa Lewis, who attacked the NZPC’s position on sex workers with illegal immigration status. Lewis’ primary concern is that migrant sex workers could potentially take money back home with them. Dame Catherine believes Lewis has a misconception of what the organisation represents. “We are concerned that the law as it stands isn’t hostile to any particular group of sex workers and doesn’t enhance anyone’s public health.” Speaking to 95bFM she says the situation is complex, and that turning away sex workers in such a vulnerable position is inherently wrong.
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Sir Bob Jones Accused of Racially-Motivated Legal Action
Community group Action Station is accusing Sir Bob Jones of unfairly targeting minorities with defamation lawsuits. Action Station’s claim comes after Sir Bob served a cease and desist-type letter to Waikato University Professor Leonie Pihama. Sir Bob has also announced that he will be taking filmmaker Renae Maihi to court over a petition to strip him of his knighthood. Action Station director Laura O’Connell Rapira told 95bFM Māori women have been unfairly targeted by Jones. “When we look at the facts of what has happened, which is that the targets of both of his threats have been wahine Māori, and when you look around for the number of people who have called Sir Bob Jones a racist, it certainly hasn’t just been these two wahine Māori.” In response, Action Station has created a Give-a-Little page to help provide Renae Maihi with legal funds to defend herself.
Foreign Home Ownership Laws Set to Change
The government is loosening its ban on foreign ownership of homes. The shift comes as new figures reveal that nationally only three percent of people who bought residential property didn’t hold New Zealand residency, sparking protest from property developers. In the most recent draft of the Overseas Investment Amendment Bill, overseas buyers can buy up to 60 percent of spaces in an apartment building off plans with no requirement to sell within a year. The bill will now head to its second reading in Parliament.
Case of Swamp Kauri Sent Overseas Exported to the Courtroom
The Supreme Court is set to hear a case against the export of swamp kauri to overseas markets. The Northland Environmental Protection Society (NEPS) has previously argued in the High Court and Court of Appeal that the sale of kauri table tops and slabs overseas is unlawful, but they were rejected by the courts who said the law as it stands allows it. NEPS president Fiona Furrell says she is hopeful the Supreme Court will see things differently and that they have some exceptionally good lawyers who believe the case is important for New Zealand as a whole.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Trump Threatens Further Trade Tariffs on China
Donald Trump has threatened the Chinese Government with tariffs on a further $288 billion worth of Chinese goods currently being imported into the US. Trump has justified the proposal by saying, “The trade relationship between the United States and China must be much more equitable.” After announcing that the US would impose 25 percent tariffs on $73 billion worth of Chinese imports last week, China responded by proposing a similar tax of equal worth. As a result of falls in both markets, China announced further tariffs on $34 billion of US goods, including agricultural and consumer products, which will take effect from July 6. The falls and the uncertainty created by the exchanges has only further escalated what is amounting to a trade war.
Sessions Denies Nazi Comparisons
US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has denied claims that detention centres for migrant children are similar to Nazi concentration camps. The US lawmaker was asked on Fox News about a tweet from former CIA Director Michael Hayden comparing the holding centres to Nazi concentration camps, claiming the tweets were exaggerated and stating that in Nazi Germany, the government was keeping the Jewish people from leaving the country. Under the “zero tolerance” crackdown, migrant children are being incarcerated separately from their their parents in facilities run by the Department of Health and Human Services. Sessions added that the policy is about enforcing the law and that he hopes people will get the message about the consequences of crossing the border illegally.
A Machine Convincingly Argues with Humans
An IBM debating machine has successfully spoken, listened to, and rebutted a human’s arguments while not connected to the internet. In an impressive display of artificial intelligence, the machine, dubbed “Project Debater” drew from a library of hundreds of millions of documents to respond to two topics it was not prepared for: subsidising space and telemedicine. The group watching the debate recognised that while the human debater gave a better delivery, the computer had more substance in its arguments. Project Debater cited sources, pandered to the audience’s affinity for children and veterans, and even managed to crack a relevant joke or two in the process.
Hard Right Rhetoric on the Rise in Italy
Italian interior minister Matteo Salvini has made calls for a census of the nomadic Roma people and for all non-Italian Roma to be expelled as part of his proposed “Italians First” policy. It comes after Italy refused entry to the 629 migrants on board the Aquarius. Carlo Stasolla, president of a Roma advocacy group, points out that the proposed register would be technically illegal, stating that, “The interior minister does not seem to be aware that in Italy, the law does not allow a census based on ethnicity.” Critics say that the minister’s aims of deporting 500,000 migrants and policies surrounding the aim are reminiscent of Italy’s fascist past. Salvini has actively spoken out against the Roma, including suggesting that razing their camps would be hugely beneficial. Salvini and his Lega Nord party came to power in a coalition with the Five Star party earlier this month.
US Out of the UN Human Rights Council
The United States has pulled out of the UN human rights council, calling it a “cesspool of political bias”. Last year, US UN envoy Nikki Haley accused the council of an “anti-Israel bias”. The move comes amid intense criticism over the US policy of separating child migrants from their parents at the US-Mexico border.
South Sudan Peace Talks to be Held this Week
President of South Sudan Salva Kiir and opposition rebel leader Riek Machar are set to meet for the first time in two years on Wednesday. The meeting is part of efforts to end the South Sudan civil war, which has killed tens of thousands and displaced four million, the largest African displacement since 1994’s Rwandan Genocide. Kiir and Machar have not met since Machar fled South Sudan in 2016 after fighting erupted in the capital, Juba. This came after ending a brief attempt at peace in which he returned to his role as Kiir’s vice president. The meeting will take place in neutral Ethiopia as it was arranged on the invitation Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. It will be mediated by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, which has led the past several rounds of failed peace talks.
Additional reporting by: Harry Willis, Tuwhenuaroa Natanahira and Oscar Perress
