Just now watched the live interview with Andrea Vance and Luke Malpass and found her much better than her previous Q&A effort. Kinda interesting, that National Party dirty-laundry airing, but we've moved on…
Bryan Gould alerts us to Luxon's potential for harm:
"For Luxon to demonstrate his lack of judgment and probity in this way is bad enough for a Leader of the Opposition – the only ones to suffer are his party and supporters. But for a Prime Minister to show similar weaknesses is worrying for all of us. Mistakes such as these could have a major impact on the lives of all of us and on our country as a whole.
The only comfort is that he has demonstrated his deficiencies in time for us to take the action needed to avoid being affected by them."
A federal judge has dismissed libel lawsuits against five media companies that a Kentucky student filed over an incident at the Lincoln Memorial in January 2019 in Washington D.C. which generated national news coverage.
Nick Sandmann, who was a 16-year old student at Covington Catholic in Northern Kentucky at the time of the incident, was the center of videos that went viral which showed Sandmann and Nathan Phillips, a Native American man, standing face to face as Phillips beat a drum and sang a traditional song while Sandmann smiled.
The five lawsuits were thrown out by United States District Eastern Kentucky Court Judge William O. Bertelsman, according to documents filed on Tuesday. The complaints were against media outlets The New York Times, CBS, ABC, Gannett Co. Inc, and Rolling Stone. Sandmann filed the lawsuits in federal court in Kentucky.
What they say,and do are very different.This morning electricity generation in Germany is close to 60% fossil due to low offshore wind,and solar.Gas generation is 15% of total generation.
Read a piece the other day, and of course I can't find it, saying winter is coming and Russia's gas industry is unlikely to be equipped to stop pressure and flow restrictions causing plant to freeze solid. And if not, because re-starting frozen well heads and pipelines is no easy thing production has to continue and the gas has to go somewhere.
That would make sense over winter,though there is some discussion also that Russian internal gas use is down due to sanctions on Russian industry exports,so there should be some site closures.
Just reading that Germany has no mechanism to throttle back gas supplies, either to companies or to individual households, so they only control they have is pricing.
Plans to shield households from shocking price hikes are quietly being shelved in an effort to protect energy companies from absorbing the costs themselves and going bust.
'We can't say yet how much gas will cost in November, but the bitter news is it's definitely a few hundred euros per household,' said Economy Minister Robert Habeck.
Even this number might be optimistic, with some fearing that German bill payers could see an extra €500 (£420) added a year by the Russian gas squeeze.
Also other EU countries are unlikely (in practice) to bail out Germany from their position with over-reliance on Russian gas. (quote from article above)
Spain and Greece – whose economies were strangled by Germany after they were given bailouts following the 2008 financial crash – are strongly opposed, sarcastically telling Berlin to 'live within its means'.
More widely, many of the EU countries are likely to protect their own population/industries, rather than penalizing them to help Germany – which is seen has having dug this hole for itself.
Spain is known to have been particularly irked by demands for a gas cut, with diplomats saying ahead of talks that the country had 'done its homework' by building infrastructure that was not linked to Russian supply lines.
That is widely seen as a slap-down to Germany, which ignored at least 15 years-worth of warnings to become over-reliant on Russian gas – and has now been pushing for reductions as a result.
And, lots of pressure from the US for Germany to reverse the mothballing of the nuclear plants – which is seen as ideologically driven, rather than pragmatic.
Among the goals will be persuading Germany to delay the shuttering of its three remaining nuclear power-plants, which are due to come offline at the end of this year, to help ease the transition.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has so-far ruled out the move – brainchild of predecessor Angela Merkel – and is instead firing up old coal power stations, flying in the face of carbon emissions targets.
British households face being told shortly before Christmas to brace for annual energy bills of £3,850, three times what they were paying at the start of 2022, after Russia further squeezed Europe’s gas supplies.
Consumers have also been warned that annual charges of more than £3,500 a year, or £300 a month, could become the norm “well into 2024”.
French Government to continue to freeze Energy prices.
As energy prices have spiralled across Europe following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and ensuing sanctions, French households have largely been protected from increasing bills.
The government’s bouclier tarifaire (price shield) has frozen gas prices and capped and electricity price rises at four percent.
Despite the announced decline in the second quarter of 2022, the average electricity bill for a typical household will be 83% higher in the 1 July 2021-30 June 2022 year, compared with the same period of 2020-2021, at €948; the average residential gas bill will be 71% higher, at €1,652.
The government is therefore raising the one-off energy allowance (energietoeslag) for people on incomes around the level of social assistance benefit to € 800. It is also lowering the rate of value-added tax (VAT) on energy from 21% to 9%, and the excise duty on petrol and diesel will be cut by 21%. Finally, the government is bringing forward spending of € 150 million, originally earmarked for 2026, to help low-income households take energy-saving measures.
there is not a single country in the EU or in Europe for that matter that will not feel the pinch.
The good news is however that a lot of housing – private and public housing – is insulated, double glazed etc. What may be an issue to some households is the electricity costs to charge that EVcar, the gadgetry that needs charging, and of course the cost of working from home if hte companies balk at the prices that the end consumer pays and thus calls its force back to work in offices were electricity costs are generally cheaper as commercial rates are better then residential.
Good luck for us that we have had this good rain over the last few weeks and our dams are full – yei!
Never mind though that if we are wanting to have E cars for all, we really need to invest in Electricty generation, and i have yet to hear smart words from anyone with access to power and decision making.
Germany and a few others in Europe will have to ask themselves if a war in Ukraine on behalf of the US hiding behind Nato against Russia really was such a good idea, and if a different solution might not needed to be found. In the meantime the Russians will be warm this winter.
The Germans are still struggling to accept that their much vaunted Energiewende has been a catastrophic mistake. Over the past two decades the Germans have almost doubled their installed nameplate generation capacity – mostly wind and solar – for a miserable 5% increase in net generation. All the while doubling electricity prices, dramatically increasing their carbon emissions and leaving Europe geopolitically vulnerable to Russian warmongering.
Trillions have been spent on green energy over the past 20 years, notes energy entrepreneur and investor Brian Gitt, but the percentage of global power generated by fossil fuels has barely declined from 85.54 to 82.28 percent; the bulk of reductions have come from replacing coal with natural gas.
And i hope this failure serves to remind people that what we have right now is about the best we will ever have.
Ditto, Sri Lanka.
and is it not nice that we here are importing cheap coal from elsewhere so that we can pretend to be green, and have a renewable 'energy supply'.
Lol, can you see all the E cars charging on that overseas coal that we import by the boat load, or would that be to rude to mention?
Germany will do alright, not because of the politics but because of the people. Ask yourself if you can confidently state this in regards to us here or in OZ?
Never mind that pesky war that the US wages till the last Ukrainian (who has not yet fled) has been fed into the meat grinder.
Nah, there is but one country who can stop that war. That would be the warmongering nation of the US and its idea of posting nuclear warheads on the Ukrainian / Russian border and insisting that it is nothing to worry or fret about.
So Russia has to do absolutly nothing, it can continue to do what it does now, fight a bit, keep them busy, take over one little town after the other until soon enough they have re-occupied the country, keep that gas and oil and grain to themselves or sell it to the BRICS countries and wait for the west to freeze to death in winter. Cause with Russia comes General Frost and whilst we might want to fear ourselfs silly with 'global' warming – more people will die this winter in Europe/UK for lack of heating and food then this summer.
But its ok, these 'unfortunates' are collateral damage – that is people like you and me – and that is a completely acceptable price to pay for the wankers in high offices – what ever clown is selected in the UK, the old man from the US, the pretend wanna be's from the rest of Europe and also OZ and NZ.
Russia has time. All the time. They have the grain, the oil, the gas, now trade in rubels only, and well it seems that there are quite a few countries that will trade with them, cause they actually have goods that people want/need/.
Nek Minute, China………doing its own thing. LOL
If Germany has any brains left, and considering the current configuration of the German Government they don't have any brain cells to them, they will find a way to tell the US to get the fuck back to the US (unless that country implodes on its on before that) and Germany will try with the rest of the European Union to come to the understanding that Russia will always be a neighbourgh that is not even that far away, whilst the US and its vassal states are far far away.
It will come soon enough. Chances are after this winter and a few thousand dead people in central Europe and the UK.
there are still enough nukes in the west to kill all of europe several times over.
neither one of them – russia or europe or the us or the uk comes out of this looking good. They are all wankers, and we – he tangata – the world over will pay the price. The ukrainians as refugees and war dead. The africans/Egyptians and others because they will not get the grain they need. The russians cause Russia. The poor in Europe who have a good chance freezing to death. And so on and so forth.
You want to blame russia? Lol. Seriously. Lol. Again. Lol. It ain't Russia who is in talks with Canada to put nukes pointing at Washington on the Canadian / US American border in the name of safety. And for some reason the old dude in the US thought that Putin would not call Natos bluff. As of today still, i am waiting for Nato to put boots on the ground and fight the russians in the defense of the Ukraine.
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
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Graham Adams writes about the $55m media fund — When Patrick Gower was asked by Mike Hosking last week what he would say to the many Newstalk ZB callers who allege the Labour government bribed media with $55 million of taxpayers’ money via the Public Interest Journalism Fund — and ...
Note: this blog post has been put together over the course of the week I followed the happenings at the conference virtually. Should recordings of the Great Debates and possibly Union Symposia mentioned below, be released sometime after the conference ends, I'll include links to the ones I participated in. ...
The following was my submission made on the “Fast Track Approvals Bill”. This potential law will give three Ministers unchecked powers, un-paralled since the days of Robert Muldoon’s “Think Big” projects.The submission is written a bit tongue-in-cheek. But it’s irreverent because the FTAB is in itself not worthy of respect. ...
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Jack Vowles writes – New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. ...
Chris Trotter writes – MELISSA LEE should be deprived of her ministerial warrant. Her handling – or non-handling – of the crisis engulfing the New Zealand news media has been woeful. The fate of New Zealand’s two linear television networks, a question which the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications ...
TL;DR: The podcast above features co-hosts and , along with regular guests Robert Patman on Gaza and AUKUS II, and on climate change.The six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the ...
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TL;DR: The global economy will be one fifth smaller than it would have otherwise been in 2050 as a result of climate damage, according to a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and published in the journal Nature. (See more detail and analysis below, and ...
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Foreign Minister Winston Peters is understood to be planning a major speech within the next fortnight to clear up the confusion over whether or not New Zealand might join the AUKUS submarine project. So far, there have been conflicting signals from the Government. RNZ reported the Prime Minister yesterday in ...
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Buzz from the Beehive Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones relishes spatting and eagerly takes issue with environmentalists who criticise his enthusiasm for resource development. He relishes helping the fishing industry too. And so today, while the media are making much of the latest culling in the public service to ...
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Eric Crampton writes – Kainga Ora is the government’s house building agency. It’s been building a lot of social housing. Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium. It’s a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora ...
Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to “defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.” To achieve this, they have pledged they “will not advance ...
Chris Trotter writes – The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
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Hi,A friend had their 40th over the weekend and decided to theme it after Curb Your Enthusiasm fashion icon Susie Greene. Captured in my tiny kitchen before I left the house, I ending up evoking a mix of old lesbian and Hillary Clinton — both unintentional.Me vs Hillary ClintonIf you’re ...
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Turning what Labour called the “holiday highway” into a four-lane expressway from Auckland to Whangarei could bring at least an economic benefit of nearly two billion a year for Northland each year. And it could help bring an end to poverty in one of New Zealand’s most deprived regions. The ...
Tonight’s six-stack includes: launching his substack with a bunch of his previous documentaries, including this 1992 interview with Dame Whina Cooper. and here crew give climate activists plenty to do, including this call to submit against the Fast Track Approvals bill. writes brilliantly here on his substack ...
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Karl du Fresne writes – There’s a crisis in the news media and the media are blaming it on everyone except themselves. Culpability is being deflected elsewhere – mainly to the hapless Minister of Communications, Melissa Lee, and the big social media platforms that are accused of hoovering ...
I don’t normally send out two newsletters in a day but I figured I’d say something about… the news. If two newsletters is a bit much then maybe just skip one, I don’t want to overload people. Alternatively if you’d be interested in sometimes receiving multiple, smaller updates from me, ...
Buzz from the Beehive David Seymour and Winston Peters today signalled that at least two ministers of the Crown might be in Wellington today. Seymour (as Associate Minister of Education) announced the removal of more red tape, this time to make it easier for new early learning services to be ...
Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. Our political system is suffering from the ...
David Farrar writes – The Broadcasting Standards Authority ruled: Comments by radio host Kate Hawkesby suggesting Māori and Pacific patients were being prioritised for surgery due to their ethnicity were misleading and discriminatory, the Broadcasting Standards Authority has found. It is a fact such patients are prioritised. ...
PRC and its proxies in Solomons have been preparing for these elections for a long time.A lot of money, effort and intelligence have gone into ensuring an outcome that won’t compromise Beijing’s plans. Cleo Paskall writes – On April 17th the Solomon Islands, a country of ...
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The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Changes to minimum wage and benefit indexation means many New Zealanders will get less this year, as the Government gives a big tax break to landlords instead. ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced further New Zealand cooperation with the United States in the Pacific Islands region through $16.4 million in funding for initiatives in digital connectivity and oceans and fisheries research. “New Zealand can achieve more in the Pacific if we work together more urgently and ...
Māori representation brings a perspective that encompasses not only the interests of Māori communities but also a broader, holistic approach to environmental stewardship and community well-being, principles deeply embedded in Te Ao Māori (the Māori ...
When Thomas James was on his solo camp as part of Outward Bound, the keen outdoorsman didn’t find it too challenging, as others often do. In what might just be the perfect illustration of his character, he saw it as a great opportunity to solve a few problems. “I thought, ...
This week in Auckland, a group of young people took over the microphone at a ministerial press conference, to explain why they oppose the Fast-Track Approvals Bill. One young woman said, ‘We’re here because we love Aotearoa New Zealand. We want to raise our children in an environment that’s thriving, ...
The summer was wonderful. Evie was wonderful, too; finally a teenager, finally worthy of long, hot days. She shaved her legs for the first time and bought cut-off shorts from the op-shop that made them look long. She got a Warehouse singlet so tight on her new shape that her ...
From the unstable and drippy to the hi-tech and pretty, here’s our ranking of all the tunnels you can drive through in this country. The first tunnel seems to have been built in 2200BC in Babylonia, kicking off a global phenomenon for digging holes in order to get places more ...
Lucinda Bennett on the art of being greedy but resourceful. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. When I picture the market, it is always this time of year. Crisp air, dripping nose, counting coins with cold fingers. Sunlight pale, filtered through specks of dew still ...
Zoë Colling’s favourite piece in the ‘That’s So Last Century’ collection is a lubrication chart for a sewing machine from the ’60s. It’s about the size of a postcard, and carefully maintained. “I like it that this piece of ephemera highlights that manual and technical side of the skill involved ...
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
The new ‘Fast-track Approvals Bill’ would give just three Ministers the power to approve or deny development projects. They would avoid the usual checks and balances that are in place to protect rivers, land, the ocean, and communities. ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
The Mental Health Foundation provides support and resources for those facing the loss of their job, so it’s wrong in the very week the Government adds another 1000 jobs to its tally of cuts, that this is happening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President. The Austrian is one of the greatest ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says threats by ministers Shane Jones and David Seymour to reform or close down the Waitangi Tribunal were “ill-considered”, as legal experts say the ministers may have breached Cabinet Manual conventions. “I think those comments are ill-considered and we expect all ministers to actually exercise good ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ye In (Jane) Hwang, Postdoctoral Research Associate at School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back ten ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University Pexels/RDNE stock project You’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore and you know regular health checks are important. So you go to your GP. During the appointment they measure your waist. ...
A new poem by Evangeline Riddiford Graham. Mitochondrial Problem I. It was long drive to Kansas for the man and his dog but you have to understand he said She doesn’t fly. Which calls to mind not carsick shitting barking or whining but a dog who chooses not to as ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)Hot off the press, this debut ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Wajnryb McDonald, PhD candidate in Criminology, University of Sydney Less than 24 hours after Ashlee Good was murdered in Bondi Junction, her family released a statement requesting the media take down photographs they had reproduced of Ashlee and her family without ...
Chief executive Shaun Robinson said it has not had any government funding cut, but government-funded contracts have not kept pace with rising costs. ...
The Ministry of Health has delayed the release of its evidence brief on the safety, reversibility and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for puberty blockers. While we wait, Julia de Bres speaks to those with firsthand experience. Best practice gender-affirming healthcare is based on trans people’s self-determination and agency. The ...
Barcelona’s city streets have gone from traffic-clogged to pedestrian-friendly. How? Superblocks. Ellen Rykers explains. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week I read a great interview with renowned urbanist Janette Sadik-Khan by The Spinoff’s Wellington editor Joel MacManus: “You can reimagine streets, ...
Student groups ‘Climate Action VUW’, Schools Strike 4 Climate and VUWSA will be on the street in Wellington today, the last day for submissions on the Fast-track Approvals Bill, with a message that the fight against the Government’s ‘War on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sofia Ammassari, Research Fellow, Griffith University Since 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity has grown exponentially – and so has the formidable organisational machine of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These two factors will be key to delivering the BJP a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendon Hyndman, Associate Professor of Education (Adjunct) & Senior Manager (BCE), Charles Sturt University During COVID almost all Australian students and their families experienced online learning. But while schools have long since gone back to in-person teaching, online learning has not gone ...
Yes, they’re better for the environment. No, that’s not a good enough reason for me to use them. Once every 26 days or so, my period arrives, and if struck by an act of God, I am caught red-crotched without products. How, after 17 years of this, do I still ...
“It will cause significant harm to our environment and communities. It is completely at odds with New Zealanders’ relationship with nature and our need for a low-carbon, sustainable economic future." ...
The Chair of the National Maori Authority, Matthew Tukaki, has warned a Parliamentary Select Committee that fast-tracking legislation is a perilous practice that undermines the core tenets of democracy, transparency, and accountability. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Tenbensel, Associate Professor, Health Policy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Since coming into power, the coalition government has adopted a simple but shrewd see-how-fast-we-can-move political strategy. However, in the health sector this need for speed entails ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Hronis, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney Darya Sannikova/Pexels Whether you’re watching TV, attending a footy game, or eating a meal at your local pub, gambling is hard to escape. Although the rise of gambling is not unique to Australia, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Wong, Forrest Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia Have you ever wondered if there are more insects out at night than during the day? We set out to answer this question by combing through the scientific ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carol T Kulik, Research Professor, University of South Australia IR Stone/Shutterstock In Australia, it’s not the done thing to know – let alone ask – what our colleagues are paid. Yet, it’s easy to see how pay transparency can make pay ...
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is sounding a warning to migrants, that running foul of the law may see them leaving the country prematurely. ...
The government’s plan to get 50,000 people off jobseeker support by 2030 has had a rocky start, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Beneficiary numbers are up – and so are ...
Raglan Roast is a staple of Wellington coffee culture. But with five branches across the capital, which one is the best? I am a die-hard Raglan Roast fan. It’s consistently the most affordable cafe in Wellington, and one of the only places you can get a coffee after 3pm. So, ...
Residents of University of Auckland halls are being urged to withhold their accommodation fees from May 1, in a bid to force the university to take student concerns over rent hikes seriously.The University of Auckland is facing a strike from students over the cost of on-campus accommodation. The Students ...
New Zealand and the Philippines have signed a new maritime security agreement and stated their concerns over activity in the South China Sea, as Chinese vessels continue to flout international law. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Philippines President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos committed to signing a Mutual Logistics Supporting Arrangement by ...
The thousands of government “back-office” job cuts are causing widespread pain in the capital city. In today’s episode of The Detail, we speak to three journalists and a think tank researcher, looking at the larger picture around the cuts and what effect it will have on Wellington, a city that’s ...
Opinion: The famed American architect and urban designer Daniel Burnham once said, “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood!” Burnham wouldn’t have been referring to the transport plans in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past five years; projects so big they hadn’t the credibility to ...
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Opinion: With maths understanding at 42 percent for Year 8 students, there’s no doubt something has to be done. But how? The post Financial literacy should be on all of us appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Hineaupounamu ‘Missy’ Nuku has been scaling mountains in Canada for her college basketball team, the Lakeland Rustlers. Alberta is currently home for the 20-year-old point guard, who is in her first year of a scholarship at Lakeland College, where she is studying for a business degree. She has certainly made ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra When ASIO boss Mike Burgess delivered his annual threat assessment earlier this year, he stressed the rising danger posed by espionage and foreign interference. “In 2024, threats to our way of life have surpassed ...
The Tribunal had called on Minister for Children Karen Chhour to provide evidence at an urgent inquiry into the repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By T.J. Thomson, Senior Lecturer in Visual Communication & Digital Media, RMIT University Midjourney image by T.J. Thomson As more than half of Australian office workers report using generative artificial intelligence (AI) for work, we’re starting to see this technology affect every ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Nicole Sharwood, Injury epidemiologist | Expert Witness, UNSW Sydney Sergey Novikov/Shutterstock Injuries are the leading cause of disability and death among Australian children and adolescents. At least a quarter of all emergency department presentations during childhood are injury-related. Injuries can ...
Just now watched the live interview with Andrea Vance and Luke Malpass and found her much better than her previous Q&A effort. Kinda interesting, that National Party dirty-laundry airing, but we've moved on…
Bryan Gould alerts us to Luxon's potential for harm:
"For Luxon to demonstrate his lack of judgment and probity in this way is bad enough for a Leader of the Opposition – the only ones to suffer are his party and supporters. But for a Prime Minister to show similar weaknesses is worrying for all of us. Mistakes such as these could have a major impact on the lives of all of us and on our country as a whole.
The only comfort is that he has demonstrated his deficiencies in time for us to take the action needed to avoid being affected by them."
https://bryangould.com/luxons-undoing/
Watch this, or we all die 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaoGlkrxyvE&t=334s
Oh dear, how sad, never mind.
/
A federal judge has dismissed libel lawsuits against five media companies that a Kentucky student filed over an incident at the Lincoln Memorial in January 2019 in Washington D.C. which generated national news coverage.
Nick Sandmann, who was a 16-year old student at Covington Catholic in Northern Kentucky at the time of the incident, was the center of videos that went viral which showed Sandmann and Nathan Phillips, a Native American man, standing face to face as Phillips beat a drum and sang a traditional song while Sandmann smiled.
The five lawsuits were thrown out by United States District Eastern Kentucky Court Judge William O. Bertelsman, according to documents filed on Tuesday. The complaints were against media outlets The New York Times, CBS, ABC, Gannett Co. Inc, and Rolling Stone. Sandmann filed the lawsuits in federal court in Kentucky.
https://www.kentucky.com/news/state/kentucky/article263868652.html
On gas substitution by German companies who discovered they could make do with a lot less when faced with mandatory cuts.
https://twitter.com/ben_moll/status/1548004141049425920
[…]
https://twitter.com/ben_moll/status/1552206045539360770
What they say,and do are very different.This morning electricity generation in Germany is close to 60% fossil due to low offshore wind,and solar.Gas generation is 15% of total generation.
Read a piece the other day, and of course I can't find it, saying winter is coming and Russia's gas industry is unlikely to be equipped to stop pressure and flow restrictions causing plant to freeze solid. And if not, because re-starting frozen well heads and pipelines is no easy thing production has to continue and the gas has to go somewhere.
That would make sense over winter,though there is some discussion also that Russian internal gas use is down due to sanctions on Russian industry exports,so there should be some site closures.
Just reading that Germany has no mechanism to throttle back gas supplies, either to companies or to individual households, so they only control they have is pricing.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11058375/Germany-turns-hot-water-Hanover-ban-hot-water-response-Russian-gas-crisis.html
Also other EU countries are unlikely (in practice) to bail out Germany from their position with over-reliance on Russian gas. (quote from article above)
More widely, many of the EU countries are likely to protect their own population/industries, rather than penalizing them to help Germany – which is seen has having dug this hole for itself.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11053097/EU-diplomats-admit-gas-cut-deal-holes-Emmental-cheese.html
And, lots of pressure from the US for Germany to reverse the mothballing of the nuclear plants – which is seen as ideologically driven, rather than pragmatic.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/jul/27/uk-energy-bills-forecast-to-hit-3850-pounds-russia-cuts-gas-supply-further-europe-pipeline
'
French Government to continue to freeze Energy prices.
https://www.thelocal.fr/20220530/french-government-to-continue-energy-price-freeze-until-at-least-2023/
Italy:
there is not a single country in the EU or in Europe for that matter that will not feel the pinch.
The good news is however that a lot of housing – private and public housing – is insulated, double glazed etc. What may be an issue to some households is the electricity costs to charge that EVcar, the gadgetry that needs charging, and of course the cost of working from home if hte companies balk at the prices that the end consumer pays and thus calls its force back to work in offices were electricity costs are generally cheaper as commercial rates are better then residential.
Good luck for us that we have had this good rain over the last few weeks and our dams are full – yei!
Never mind though that if we are wanting to have E cars for all, we really need to invest in Electricty generation, and i have yet to hear smart words from anyone with access to power and decision making.
Germany and a few others in Europe will have to ask themselves if a war in Ukraine on behalf of the US hiding behind Nato against Russia really was such a good idea, and if a different solution might not needed to be found. In the meantime the Russians will be warm this winter.
The Germans are still struggling to accept that their much vaunted Energiewende has been a catastrophic mistake. Over the past two decades the Germans have almost doubled their installed nameplate generation capacity – mostly wind and solar – for a miserable 5% increase in net generation. All the while doubling electricity prices, dramatically increasing their carbon emissions and leaving Europe geopolitically vulnerable to Russian warmongering.
At every single point – failure.
And i hope this failure serves to remind people that what we have right now is about the best we will ever have.
Ditto, Sri Lanka.
and is it not nice that we here are importing cheap coal from elsewhere so that we can pretend to be green, and have a renewable 'energy supply'.
Lol, can you see all the E cars charging on that overseas coal that we import by the boat load, or would that be to rude to mention?
Germany will do alright, not because of the politics but because of the people. Ask yourself if you can confidently state this in regards to us here or in OZ?
Never mind that pesky war that the US wages till the last Ukrainian (who has not yet fled) has been fed into the meat grinder.
There is but one person who can stop this war tomorrow. That is Putin.
Nah, there is but one country who can stop that war. That would be the warmongering nation of the US and its idea of posting nuclear warheads on the Ukrainian / Russian border and insisting that it is nothing to worry or fret about.
So Russia has to do absolutly nothing, it can continue to do what it does now, fight a bit, keep them busy, take over one little town after the other until soon enough they have re-occupied the country, keep that gas and oil and grain to themselves or sell it to the BRICS countries and wait for the west to freeze to death in winter. Cause with Russia comes General Frost and whilst we might want to fear ourselfs silly with 'global' warming – more people will die this winter in Europe/UK for lack of heating and food then this summer.
But its ok, these 'unfortunates' are collateral damage – that is people like you and me – and that is a completely acceptable price to pay for the wankers in high offices – what ever clown is selected in the UK, the old man from the US, the pretend wanna be's from the rest of Europe and also OZ and NZ.
Russia has time. All the time. They have the grain, the oil, the gas, now trade in rubels only, and well it seems that there are quite a few countries that will trade with them, cause they actually have goods that people want/need/.
Nek Minute, China………doing its own thing. LOL
If Germany has any brains left, and considering the current configuration of the German Government they don't have any brain cells to them, they will find a way to tell the US to get the fuck back to the US (unless that country implodes on its on before that) and Germany will try with the rest of the European Union to come to the understanding that Russia will always be a neighbourgh that is not even that far away, whilst the US and its vassal states are far far away.
It will come soon enough. Chances are after this winter and a few thousand dead people in central Europe and the UK.
and its idea of posting nuclear warheads on the Ukrainian / Russian border and insisting that it is nothing to worry or fret about.
While the Russian weapons that have been pointed towards the West for decades were just harmless nothings?
It is all very well for Lavrov to demand Europe disarm itself and remove all their nuclear capacity like Ukraine did in the 1990s – but then some might think this would be a silly thing to do.
there are still enough nukes in the west to kill all of europe several times over.
neither one of them – russia or europe or the us or the uk comes out of this looking good. They are all wankers, and we – he tangata – the world over will pay the price. The ukrainians as refugees and war dead. The africans/Egyptians and others because they will not get the grain they need. The russians cause Russia. The poor in Europe who have a good chance freezing to death. And so on and so forth.
You want to blame russia? Lol. Seriously. Lol. Again. Lol. It ain't Russia who is in talks with Canada to put nukes pointing at Washington on the Canadian / US American border in the name of safety. And for some reason the old dude in the US thought that Putin would not call Natos bluff. As of today still, i am waiting for Nato to put boots on the ground and fight the russians in the defense of the Ukraine.
It ain't Russia who is in talks with Canada to put nukes pointing at Washington on the Canadian / US American border in the name of safety.
It is not the US who has invaded Canada, brutally grinding it's way through Ottawa with artillery. Nor has it ever seriously posed such a threat.