Prime Minister of New Zealand Chris Hipkins speaks to the media after meeting Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, in Downing Street, London, on May, 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)
The United States has Air Force One, a plane that can refuel in midair and act as a presidential command center.
New Zealand has Betty, an aging Boeing 757 that officials on Monday acknowledged was so prone to breakdowns they had sent an empty backup to ensure Prime Minister Chris Hipkins didn't get stranded in China, where he is leading a trade delegation.
Officials were quick to point out they had sent the plane's twin only as far as Manila, about 80% of the distance from Wellington to Beijing.
Back in New Zealand, acting Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni was left to explain.
“If we didn’t have a backup plan and something did happen, and of course we hope it won’t, then not only would they be stranded in China, but the cost that that would incur — in terms of accommodation and trying to, at the last minute, organize some kind of plan to get them back — would outweigh having a backup aircraft waiting somewhere just in case,” she said.
The twin Royal New Zealand Air Force planes that transport the prime minister are about 30 years old and are due to be replaced by 2030. Over the years, they have regularly broken down. In 2016, then Prime Minister John Key was on his way to India with a delegation when they got stuck in Australia until a backup plane was sent from New Zealand. Key was forced to cancel the Mumbai leg of his trip, a situation he described as “suboptimal.”
Sepuloni said she didn't think the plane, which is sometimes affectionately called Betty, posed a physical danger to Hipkins and the 80 people traveling with him.
“My understanding is there hasn’t been any event midair, or whilst in transit, that should cause any concern,” she said.
Political rivals were quick to jump on the situation.
“This government declared a climate emergency and says we need to deal seriously with China,” said David Seymour, leader of the opposition ACT party. “This one gesture has made a joke of both the government's climate emergency and its will to be taken seriously by a country that has an expanding blue-water navy in our backyard.”
Sepuloni acknowledged the situation wasn't OK.
“We recognize, yes, our kit needs to be updated," Sepuloni said. "And so there’s a plan in place for doing that. We’re just not at the point where that’s happening right now.”
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A legislative package to end the government shutdown appears on track. A handful of Senate Democrats joined with Republicans to advance the bill after what's become a deepening disruption of federal programs and services. But hurdles remain. Senators are hopeful they can pass the package as soon as Monday and send it to the House. What’s in and out of the bipartisan deal has drawn criticism and leaves few senators fully satisfied. The legislation includes funding for SNAP food aid and other programs while ensuring backpay for furloughed federal workers. But it fails to fund expiring health care subsidies Democrats have been fighting for, pushing that debate off for a vote next month.
Sabrina Siddiqui, National Politics Reporter at The Wall Street Journal, joins to break down the SNAP funding delays and the human cost of the ongoing shutdown.
Arguments at the Supreme Court have concluded for the day as the justices consider President Donald Trump's sweeping unilateral tariffs in a trillion-dollar test of executive power.
President Donald Trump said he has decided to lower his combined tariff rates on imports of Chinese goods to 47% after talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on curbing fentanyl trafficking.
The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate Wednesday for a second time this year as it seeks to shore up economic growth and hiring even as inflation stays elevated. The move comes amid a fraught time for the central bank, with hiring sluggish and yet inflation stuck above the Fed’s 2% target. Compounding its challenges, the central bank is navigating without much of the economic data it typically relies on from the government. The Fed has signaled it may reduce its key rate again in December but the data drought raises the uncertainty around its next moves. Fed Chair Jerome Powell told reporters that there were “strongly differing views” at the central bank's policy meeting about to proceed going forward.
U.S. and Chinese officials say a trade deal between the world’s two largest economies is drawing closer. The sides have reached an initial consensus for President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to aim to finalize during their high-stakes meeting Thursday in South Korea. Any agreement would be a relief to international markets. Trump's treasury secretary says discussions with China yielded preliminary agreements to stop the precursor chemicals for fentanyl from coming into the United States. Scott Bessent also says Beijing would make “substantial” purchases of soybean and other agricultural products while putting off export controls on rare earth elements needed for advanced technologies.
The White House budget office says mass firings of federal workers have started in an attempt to exert more pressure on Democratic lawmakers as the government shutdown continues.
