Written By: notices and features - Date published: 6:05 am, May 24th, 2023 - 153 comments
“I am deeply concerned at the escalation of intimidation and threats against women and girls for expressing their opinions and beliefs regarding their needs and rights based on their sex and/or sexual orientation”
– Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls
Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:00 am, November 13th, 2022 - 19 comments
If 2020 was the worst year in my lifetime how does 2022 compare?
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:53 am, September 23rd, 2022 - 277 comments
Vladimir Putin has effectively conceded that the Ukraine war is not going well for Russia by seeking to conscript 300,000 new soldiers, planning for referenda in Russian held areas and threatening the use of Nuclear weapons if Russia’s modified territorial integrity is threatened.
Written By: advantage - 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: Mike Smith - 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: advantage - Date published: 7:30 am, March 7th, 2022 - 107 comments
However much infighting there was on the Spanish Republican side between leftists, Communists, anarchists and others, you could be confident that the Nazis were on the other side. In the Ukraine it is not so simple.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:30 am, March 1st, 2022 - 18 comments
We will probably never get over the feeling that somehow, if enough people just banded together, it would all get better again, like we did when the United Nations charter was struck.
Written By: Mike Smith - Date published: 4:44 pm, February 7th, 2022 - 31 comments
The meeting between Putin and Xi Jinping is likely to set the geopolitical direction for the 21st century. If ‘divide and rule’ was the mantra for the US’s hegemonic rule in the 20th century, ‘unite and share’ looks like setting the tone for the 21st. Co-operation rather than competition is the mantra, and “friendship between the two states has no limits.” A truly remarkable turnaround.
Written By: Mike Smith - 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: advantage - 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: mickysavage - Date published: 12:06 pm, July 6th, 2021 - 94 comments
The debate about the Government’s consultation on proposed changes to hate speech laws continues, with the level of heat increasing, but the level of actual understanding of what is being proposed in critical shortage.
Written By: Guest post - Date published: 11:13 am, June 30th, 2021 - 111 comments
A guest post by Clint Smith who has actually analysed the effect of the proposed changes and makes comment on the detail of what is proposed.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 9:43 am, June 26th, 2021 - 206 comments
Hate speech is about to get a lot more criminalised with much stronger penalties. It’s worth going back to what the Royal Commission actually considered, since that’s the basis of proposing this law. The Royal Commission in fact found that trying to protect religion from very strong opinions is simply not a good idea: … we acknowledge that there […]
Written By: mickysavage - 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: advantage - Date published: 7:34 am, May 17th, 2021 - 36 comments
There’s a question Covid19 allows us to ask that we haven’t been able to ask since the end of World War 2: can we all just co-operate to get along – as a species?
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:22 am, May 10th, 2021 - 52 comments
Judith Collins has applied the dog whistle to the He Puapua report and suggested that it is evidence of the Government wanting to radically change New Zealand society. But a check through history shows that the report is based on an International Treaty that National signed up to.
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:28 am, October 28th, 2020 - 43 comments
Trump deputy chief of staff Chris Liddell, who is also a Kiwi, has announced his candidacy to be head of the OECD. The Greens have announced their opposition because he has been part of inhumane decisions and also decisions that undermine international institutions. The right back him because he is a kiwi. What should Labour do?
Written By: advantage - Date published: 8:03 am, June 4th, 2020 - 16 comments
Ok so this is the worst year I can think of in my lifetime. But apocalyptopia it ain’t.
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 12:25 pm, May 27th, 2020 - 14 comments
Ramaphosa has no doubt learnt from his predecessor Thabo Mbeki’s abysmal response to the HIV crisis in South Africa where inaction by the government caused the virus to spread quickly. Sadly it’s through these sort of deadly mistakes that politicians learn the importance of prevention in public health.
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 4:37 am, April 9th, 2020 - 41 comments
Originally posted on Nick Kelly’s Blog
Trump is focused on the November US Presidential Election. His anti-Chinese, nationalist, America First rhetoric is his go-to response to keep his political base onside. He is placing his political ambition ahead of millions of lives both in the US and globally. Trump has placed electoral politics ahead of leadership that could save millions of lives.
Written By: Bill - Date published: 10:41 am, February 8th, 2020 - 20 comments
Mainstream media yet again aiding and abetting the character assassination of whistle blowers.
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:26 am, January 17th, 2020 - 51 comments
Freedom House has criticised National MP Todd McClay for reinforcing Chinese descriptions of the mass imprisonment of Muslim minorities as vocational training centres.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 9:07 am, January 7th, 2020 - 36 comments
What if the American assassination of General Soleimani results in the complete withdrawal of US troops from the Middle East?
Written By: Bill - Date published: 11:14 am, January 3rd, 2020 - 40 comments
There was no chemical attack in Douma.
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 11:19 am, September 26th, 2019 - 29 comments
National has chosen to attack Jacinda Ardern on her trip to New York for doing too much and not enough at the same time. It seems to be a pattern.
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:13 am, September 24th, 2019 - 67 comments
Greta Thunberg has spoken at the UN Climate Change summit and has warned the world that it is stealing the dreams and hopes of young people through its failure to address climate change.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:44 am, September 18th, 2019 - 4 comments
At the United Nations Climate Action Summit next weekend the question may be asked what would happen if China stopped buying Australian coal?
Written By: Mike Smith - Date published: 4:43 pm, August 27th, 2019 - 9 comments
US’s recent test of an intermediate range missile shows that the reasons given for its withdrawal from the INF treaty were spurious. It also shows up the gullibility of our MFAT, who voted against a Russian proposal for dialogue late last year in the UN on the grounds that it was a “sidestep.”
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:37 am, April 26th, 2019 - 34 comments
David Moffett, a Former board member of the New Conservative Party has announced the launch of a new new conservative party.
Written By: Mike Smith - Date published: 5:05 pm, February 3rd, 2019 - 56 comments
Polymath economist Professor Michael Hudson’s latest article is a geopolitical panoramic masterpiece, sparked by outrage at a series of concurrent events on January 31 which he predicts means that 2019 will be the “year of global fracture.” Definitely worth a read.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 8:59 am, December 17th, 2018 - 23 comments
Nearly 200 nations agreed to the accord in Poland over the weekend. And the goal is to seek to limit global temperature rises to below two degrees Celsius.
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