Written By: - Date published: 10:21 am, May 1st, 2022 - 10 comments
Why is India such a world player right now?
Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, April 25th, 2022 - 13 comments
A more sombre and quieter Anzac Day today with planned ceremonies being pared back in this post Covid world.
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, March 29th, 2022 - 60 comments
New Zealand does not have to settle for being small, quiet, and weak.
Written By: - Date published: 7:21 pm, March 25th, 2022 - 65 comments
Morning Report today interviewed ex MI6 chemical weapons false flag specialist Hamish de Bretton-Gordon saying because Russia has lost in Ukraine it will likely resort using to chemical weapons. FiveEyes hawks want NATO to intervene, so we get World War 3, Hurrah!
Written By: - Date published: 4:32 pm, March 20th, 2022 - 194 comments
New Zealand’s sanctions on Russia have not stopped the war in Ukraine. They may have made our parliamentarians feel better, and Tony Blinken was quick to congratulate us on falling into line with the US “high-impact sanctions.” The language is combative, but the evidence shows sanctions do not work. They can have significant blow-back effects, particularly if not combined with effective diplomacy.
Written By: - Date published: 8:27 am, February 28th, 2022 - 254 comments
Vladimir Putin, obviously hurting because some of his personal ill gotten wealth has been frozen has upped the ante by raising the spectre of the use of Nuclear Weapons.
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, February 25th, 2022 - 47 comments
Russia hasn’t lost an intervention in quite some time.
Written By: - Date published: 8:03 pm, February 24th, 2022 - 61 comments
Why should we in New Zealand give a damn about Ukraine? My answer is: China.
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 pm, February 16th, 2022 - 4 comments
Today February 15th is the 80th anniversary of the fall of Singapore in 1942, described by many as Britain’s worst military disaster. It was a massive strategic fail, and its effect is still powerful today, most notably with Australia’s lockstep with the US. Current British strategists don’t seem to have learnt a thing.
Written By: - Date published: 2:54 pm, January 16th, 2022 - 17 comments
Russian peacekeepers are already leaving Kazakhstan having nipped the ‘colour revolution’ in the bud. Blinken clearly didn’t have a clue when he said Russians never leave the house. Russian intelligence was superb. Now we wait for Russia’s response to US likely refusal to pull back from its borders. One thing I’d bet on – no invasion of Ukraine.
Written By: - Date published: 10:40 pm, January 8th, 2022 - 22 comments
When I heard US Secretary of State Blinken’s take-away line from his D.C. press conference on RNZ’s news bulletin today on events in Kazakhstan ‘I think one lesson in recent history is that once Russians are in your house, it’s sometimes very difficult to get them to leave’ I wondered what the Iraqis would think.
Written By: - Date published: 9:57 pm, November 29th, 2021 - Comments Off on The US withdraws from Afghanistan and the inevitable happened
The withdrawal in August of US and allied troops from Afghanistan saw the return of the Taliban in control of that country. This sadly was always going to be the outcome once the US and its allies withdrew.
Written By: - Date published: 6:16 pm, November 20th, 2021 - 41 comments
Saw an inspiring premiere of this NZ -made movie about the amazing women of Greenham Common at the Wellington Film Festival today. Their years-long protest led to the INF treaty, a major advance in nuclear safety, now abandoned. Well worth seeing – a timely reminder in light of today’s news about NATO moving nuclear missiles around Eastern European nations on Russia’s borders.
Written By: - Date published: 12:51 pm, September 29th, 2021 - 25 comments
I never thought I would see the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of the United States military essentially being a witness against the previous President of the United States. Yet here we are.
Written By: - Date published: 10:10 am, September 17th, 2021 - 148 comments
Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom have publicly announced they have formed a new security grouping that will assist Australia in the construction of nuclear powered submarines.
Written By: - Date published: 10:39 am, August 31st, 2021 - 76 comments
With the last flights coming out of Kabul, it’s time to review whether this US attitude to the world is a good idea.
Written By: - Date published: 10:38 am, August 16th, 2021 - 66 comments
What is being done to women in Afghanistan by the Taliban is sex-based oppression.
Written By: - Date published: 6:30 am, August 16th, 2021 - 140 comments
President Biden is about to get a Jimmy Carter-scale shellacking with tv footage coming of Afghani Taleban going through Kabul and in short days rifling through the U.S. Embassy as they finally take over the entire country. You don’t win re-election with defeats and withdrawals, and you won’t be thanked for it in the mid-term Senatorial races either.
Written By: - Date published: 11:44 am, August 10th, 2021 - 23 comments
There’s so many of them here – Guyon Espiner, Anna Fifield, Lucy Craymer, Sam Sachdeva, Laura Walters, John Daniell, Emile Donovan, Paula Penfold, reef fish with the same few sources. Australian Paul Strutynski provides the textbook in his “Guide for budding foreign policy journalists wanting to work for the Nine Network or Newscorp.”
Written By: - Date published: 6:47 pm, July 29th, 2021 - 38 comments
“What will the role of New Zealand be should China invade Taiwan?” was by far the most popular question for Jacinda Ardern after she spoke at a NZIIA seminar last week. Promising to be benign, Ardern said we are “very predictable,” cited alleged human rights abuses in Hong Kong, and went on to say we […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:32 pm, June 8th, 2021 - 3 comments
June 8 is the anniversary of Aotearoa’s 1987 nuclear-free legislation. NZOnScreen is running a retrospective of our proud history, the Nuclear-free Collection. It is well worth a watch. I particularly liked the movie “Nuclear Reaction,” with Big Norm seeing off the French, Big Dave seeing off the Americans, and Kiwi Keith also clear about where we stood. The nuclear risk is worse now than it has ever been.
Written By: - Date published: 4:04 pm, May 18th, 2021 - 12 comments
The war in Gaza has continued with 197 Palestinians including 58 children being killed and with significant damage to infrastructure including hospitals and
Written By: - Date published: 12:20 pm, May 16th, 2021 - 50 comments
The state of Israel has committed a war crime by deliberately targeting and blowing up a Gaza tower that housed civilian residents and the Aljazeera Middle East office.
Written By: - Date published: 4:26 pm, May 4th, 2021 - 72 comments
On Morning Report today ‘High Court lawyer’ Sam Vincent called for Parliament to resolve to condemn alleged Uyghur genocide in Xinjiang. He said he spoke on behalf of Uyghur Solidarity Aotearoa committed to taking action on Xinjiang “or as they call it East Turkestan.” If they call it East Turkestan they are likely separatists, with possible links to terrorists. That explains a lot.
Written By: - Date published: 2:57 pm, May 3rd, 2021 - 16 comments
This from SCMP columnist Alex Lo “If they look, swim and quack like US influence operations, they probably are US influence operations, especially when they come with an annual price tag of US$300 million to be authorised by law by the US Congress, of which US10 million has been earmarked especially for Hong Kong.” Lo […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:25 pm, April 20th, 2021 - 19 comments
Following her speech to the NZ China Council, Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta wanted to be very clear that in speaking out about issues with other countries, New Zealand would not be doing it in concert with Five Eyes partners. She expressed a view that New Zealand did not agree with Five Eyes remit encroaching beyond intelligence, and that this had been communicated to Five Eyes partners. Good.
Written By: - Date published: 8:05 am, March 19th, 2021 - 50 comments
Boris Johnson has announced that the United Kingdom will increase its stockpile of nuclear weapons and open up the possibility of using weapons against non nuclear nations, despite being a signatory to various treaties that prohibit both actions being taken.
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, March 17th, 2021 - 44 comments
Did New Zealand military forces do good in Afghanistan?
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 pm, February 20th, 2021 - 41 comments
In February 2002 I was at a union-NDP conference in Ottawa watching US television in my hotel room. Back home I reported on the conference to the Labour Party caucus and stated as an aside that the US was going to war with Iraq. Helen Clark stood up straightaway and said “we won’t be going with them.” Jacinda Ardern needs to do the same now.
Written By: - Date published: 7:40 am, February 9th, 2021 - 57 comments
One News has reported that a subsidy of Air New Zealand has been providing assistance to Saudi Navy boats accused of committing atrocities against the people of Yemen.
Written By: - Date published: 12:27 am, January 5th, 2021 - 104 comments
Great news. While unexpected, Nicky Hager who was an expert witness for Assange at the trial, thought this might be a possibility when he spoke to the Fabian Society in November. More details tomorrow.
Update: Bail application to be heard on Wednesday London time.
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