Written By: - Date published: 3:17 am, June 8th, 2024 - 26 comments
The destruction on 23 May of a key part of Russia’s nuclear defence means the Doomsday clock is ticking closer to midnight. A Ukrainian/NATO drone attack on the Armavir radar station north of Georgia attcked a Voronezh-DM radar which is designed to detect incoming intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Written By: - Date published: 8:21 pm, March 3rd, 2024 - 32 comments
US Undersecretary of State Bonnie Jenkins is in Wellington this week with a hard sell for us on AUKUS Pillar 2 wunderwaffen maybes. We should say tai hoa.
Written By: - Date published: 8:49 pm, January 7th, 2024 - 57 comments
South Africa has taken a case that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza to the International Court of Justice. A group of prominent New Zealand lawyers have asked the New Zealand Government to join South Africa in support of their application. I think we should.
Written By: - Date published: 10:18 pm, December 23rd, 2023 - 118 comments
Unlike Mike Smith and other noisy members of the imperialist cohort, I applaud that NZ foreign policy has remained consistent in upholding UN and ICC policies against invasions and forced annexations. Ardern, Hipkins and now Luxon have all said the same thing.Supporting the UN charter has massively reduced war casualties over the last 70 years. Clearly the Russian Federation finds this constraining.
Written By: - Date published: 9:35 pm, December 22nd, 2023 - 32 comments
It is not clear exactly who persuaded Luxon to put Zelensky on his Xmas calling list. It might have been Albo or MFAT, no doubt on orders from the US, who are desperate to keep the illusion of victory alive until after the US Presidential election.
Written By: - Date published: 7:29 am, November 16th, 2023 - 12 comments
We are further away from peace in parts of the world than a decade ago. But pessimism about peace isn’t a foregone conclusion.
Written By: - Date published: 8:31 am, October 5th, 2023 - 7 comments
Alexander Gillespie complains that kiwis are not being given answers on foreign policy in the election. Given the state of flux in the world, and the questions he poses, it is probably just as well. The answers might all be dangerous.
Written By: - Date published: 10:49 am, July 22nd, 2023 - 26 comments
There will be no respite for any of us this year and National has no cure for it.
Written By: - Date published: 10:50 pm, July 9th, 2023 - 52 comments
The prime minister stated in his speech last week our objective in the war in Ukraine was to aid Ukraine “to defeat Russia.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing – that’s a declaration of nuclear World War III! Even the US neocons think its time to back off.
Written By: - Date published: 4:57 pm, March 13th, 2023 - 14 comments
Veteran Indian diplomat MK Bhadrakumar describes the resumption of diplomatic relations between Shi’ite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia brokered by China as a “Suez moment” in the history of the Middle East. Peace in Yemen is only one of the possible benefits.
Written By: - Date published: 8:08 am, February 27th, 2023 - 86 comments
China has proposed a 12 point peace plan to start discussions towards ending the war by Russia against Ukraine. And Ukraine’s leader wants to meet Xi Jinping to hear more.
Written By: - Date published: 6:28 pm, February 26th, 2023 - 76 comments
Historian Malcolm McKinnon in Thursday’s DominionPost states that “caution is needed when crafting victory over Russia as the primary war aim in Ukraine.” Truer words were never spoken, as western hysteria rejects calls for peace and escalates to wider war.
Written By: - Date published: 1:39 am, January 14th, 2023 - 4 comments
As the world currently goes through a post-pandemic and Russian invasion of Ukraine fuelled economic crisis, it is interesting to reflect on the economic crisis of over a decade ago and how the public responded at that time.
Written By: - Date published: 3:27 pm, December 13th, 2022 - 311 comments
Vladimir Zelensky’s message to the New Zealand Parliament will be delivered in the last week before Christmas, in the bury-it time-slot. That seems appropriate, for much has changed since the heady days when our Parliament went straight for sanctions on Russia without discussion.
Written By: - Date published: 3:32 pm, November 3rd, 2022 - 39 comments
82-year old polymath Michael Hudson is my favourite economist. He currently lectures in China to million-strong audiences. His latest book is The Destiny of Civilisation: Finance Capitalism, Industrial Capitalism or Socialism. His latest article is well worth a read.
Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, September 11th, 2022 - 177 comments
If we fail to support Ukraine’s struggle we all lose far more than self rule for 44 million people.
Written By: - Date published: 7:40 pm, September 4th, 2022 - 99 comments
We’re sending 120 troops to Britain to ‘train’ raw recruits for the Ukraine killing grounds. For the Defence Generals, it’s an overseas trip to aid retention. For the Ukrainian conscripts, it’s a prelude to early death. It is cynical and criminal: we should be arguing for the war to stop, not keep it going ”to the death of the last Ukrainian.”
Written By: - Date published: 9:35 am, July 1st, 2022 - 38 comments
Yesterday Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern gave a speech/comments to NATO outlining our position on NATO, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, multilateral diplomacy, our region, and nuclear proliferation. Plus of course she helped to finally get the EU trade treaty over the line. Her ‘comments’ are worth reading and commenting on because I suspect that they align pretty well to our societies general position.
Written By: - Date published: 3:23 pm, June 21st, 2022 - 62 comments
Not content to stay in the North Atlantic, NATO is shortly about to reveal in Madrid its next ten-year plan to contain China. Jacinda Ardern will be there, who knows why. Are we nailing our colours to a flag at half-mast?
Written By: - Date published: 6:41 pm, June 18th, 2022 - 45 comments
RNZ’s “The Detail” asked are New Zealand’s sanctions against Russia working? They aren’t, but one detail we learnt that MFAT has 100 staff members assigned to sorting out their complications!! What a waste.
Written By: - Date published: 10:10 am, June 12th, 2022 - 121 comments
Guest with a life of anti-fascist and anti-war activism in their rear-view mirror, alarmingly finds at fifty that they are staring at the green shoots of fascism in their headlights.This is not where any progressive expected to be. But for the left, there is also no discounting fascist action by offering up the reasoning of the aggressor.
Written By: - Date published: 4:44 pm, May 21st, 2022 - 128 comments
The mass surrender of over 2000 members of the extreme nationalist AZOV battalion in Mariupol is a major win in the fight against global race-based terrorism. These extreme nationalists share the same ideology as the Christchurch and Buffalo assassins. Efforts to combat extremism have focused on the influence of social media on individuals. Insufficient attention is paid to organising centres such as AZOV.
Written By: - Date published: 10:46 am, May 19th, 2022 - 13 comments
It is clear that we will continue to face these economic challenges with tools that are ill-equipped to face the problems. Only a truly international response can create an economy that delivers for all.
Written By: - Date published: 8:44 pm, May 3rd, 2022 - 140 comments
The invasion that began just over two months ago will have a profound impact on global politics for many years. The conflict is unlikely to end quickly and will take a toll on everyone involved.
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: 11:35 am, March 2nd, 2022 - 230 comments
The Russian armed forces obviously didn’t expect much resistance. I get the distinct impression that they had believed their own ridiculous propaganda (always a characteristic of dumb-arse dictatorships) and expected the Ukrainians to fall weeping in gratitude at their liberation. That clearly didn’t happen. What next…
Written By: - Date published: 7:56 am, February 25th, 2022 - 266 comments
Russia has invaded a neighbouring state with no more justification than an vague appeals to the same arguments that underpinned 19th century gunboat diplomacy. It was unacceptable in 1938, and is just even more unacceptable now. We should hep deal with this now without trying to appease an aggressor before we wind up with a future conflict that kills, maims, and displaces people in job lots of millions.
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