Open mike 08/03/2025
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- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #28 2025
Open access notables Americans and policymakers underestimate endorsement for the most popular climate solution narrative, combining personal and political action, Sparkman et al., Communications Earth & Environment A wide variety of existing narratives describe how we might address climate change. Which of these approaches is popular among the American public? ...9 hours ago - Trump’s tariff war risks undermining US alliances in East Asia
New York Times columnist David Brooks once remarked that Donald Trump is the wrong answer to the right questions—a sentiment that captures the core challenge facing US policy in East Asia. Trump correctly identified the ...9 hours ago - Dealing to the evidence
Rob Campbell recently wrote a piece for Newsroom entitled “Government continues its blunt refusal to acquire knowledge”.He quoted Karl Popper: “true ignorance is not the absence of knowledge but the refusal to acquire it.”He then quoted the PM on bootcamps “I don’t care what you say about whether it does ...10 hours ago - Australia’s freedom-of-navigation activities raise more questions than answers
A freedom-of-navigation activity that the Australian and British navies jointly conducted near the Spratly Islands last month was notable. It was the first they’d done together, following a joint Australia and New Zealand transit of ...11 hours ago
- “Can you have a peaceful revolution?”
“Trump’s win was the triumph of capitalism and neoliberalism, and he’s going to wreak havoc. There’s nothing we can do about that, except maybe incremental changes. That’s not what we need. We need revolution. Can you have a peaceful revolution? I don’t know.”David SuzukiWell, David Suzuki has called it, and ...11 hours ago - Gas is still dead
The National regime, with its outdated fossil thinking, is desperately trying to revive the fossil fuel industry. Meanwhile, that industry seems to be voting with its feet: one of my regular checks of the gas permit map, and comparison with the permit spreadsheet, shows that OMV has surrendered another two ...13 hours ago - India’s water treaty power play signals regional shift
As India renegotiates the Ganges Water Treaty with Bangladesh following the suspension of the Indus Water Treaty, it is adopting a new posture in its water diplomacy. India appears to be charting a China-like path ...14 hours ago
- The Dust of Israel’s Genocide Settles Across the World
In the annals of human cruelty, the Holocaust stands as a grotesque monument to industrialised slaughter. Hitler’s regime exterminated six million Jews, alongside Romani people, disabled individuals, political dissidents, LGBTQ+ communities, and intellectuals, a genocide shrouded in secrecy, its full horrors only grasped after the German's were defeated.Fast forward to ...15 hours ago - Wednesday 9 July
CTU president Richard Wagstaff warned the “light touch” approach in the Government’s new AI strategy would do nothing to protect workers from the serious risks from AI. Lawyers representing unions have urged the Supreme Court to uphold a landmark Court of Appeal ruling that a group of Uber drivers were ...15 hours ago - Good enough to win: rethinking risk in innovation
Innovation policy is often built around optimism. But in a world of live contest across the economy, the environment and the broader geostrategic landscape, progress cannot afford to wait for perfection. The scale of technology ...16 hours ago
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This marks A Phuulish Fellow’s thousandth blog post. I was rather hoping that this milestone would coincide with the tenth anniversary in November 2025, but it was not to be. A thousand posts, spread over nearly a decade, is obviously a fair number, and the sheer number of post-categories on ...17 hours ago - Rainbow Warriors
Where the Banshees cryAnd the bells they soundWhen you lift me highWhen you pull me downWhen you pull me downWhen you pull me downSongwriter: Donald Bain Mcglashan.Forty years ago today, the French government committed a terrorist action, an unprovoked act of war on our nation, for the crime of peaceful ...17 hours ago - A criminal nation
The European Court of Human Rights has found Russia guilty of horrific human rights violations during its unlawful invasions of Ukraine: Russia has committed flagrant and unprecedented abuses of human rights since it invaded Ukraine in 2014, including extrajudicial killings, sexual violence and forced labour, the European court of ...17 hours ago
- Winning on economics means losing on national security
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese needs to make a formal statement to the Australian Parliament addressing Australia’s place in a changing world and unambiguously asking the Australian public to pay a price to defend the nation’s ...19 hours ago
- Trump just gave a huge gift to China’s economy
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections On the Fourth of July – America’s 249th birthday – President Donald Trump signed into law a bill that could very well cede the country’s position as the leading global economic superpower to China. As the nonpartisan energy think tank RMI has argued, the ...19 hours ago
- Kāinga Ora selling Wellington land it once planned to build 320 homes on
Briefly for paying subscribers at 7am on Wednesday, July 91, the key scoops, breaking news, deep-dives, Op-Eds, analysis and other news links in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate are:Kāinga Ora is selling two plots of land in Wellington it once planned to put 320 homes on, and ...20 hours ago - Gordon Campbell On Why The Regulatory Standards Bill Is A Hot Mess
When the politician pushing a controversial piece of legislation starts accusing his critics of “derangement syndrome” – as David Seymour has done this week – then any chance of a rational debate on the Regulatory Standards Bill has gone out the window. Seymour’s tantrum confirms the fears held by constitutional ...1 day ago - GCSB & NZSIS warn ACT Bill risks NZ’s National Security
As outlined earlier in the week, RNZ has a charter to “serve the public interest” - not pretend it is centrist, shy, or bipartisan.This week, during the Regulatory Standards Bill select committee, the dominance of corporate media and RNZ government inteference could not be clearer.As heavy hitter after heavy hitter, ...1 day ago - The RBNZ just held the OCR at 3.25%. Is that it? Does it matter?
Get more from Bernard Hickey in the Substack appAvailable for iOS and AndroidGet the app ...1 day ago
- ‘Catastrophic failures’: Defence budget squeeze hits navy maintenance
The Defence budget squeeze has starved the Royal Australian Navy of sustainment funding. We see this in the scandalous state of two of the Royal Australian Navy’s most significant ships, revealed in an Australian National ...1 day ago
- Reimagining Democracy for a new era – Auckland
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- Politicised COVID Inquiry Targets Labour
In the grand theatre of New Zealand politics, the Coalition of Chaos has turned the second phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons Learned into a stage for partisan point-scoring, rather than a genuine pursuit of truth. This expanded inquiry, set to conclude by February 2026, is ...1 day ago
- Why our housing-market-with-bits-tacked-on is stalled
Rate cuts aren’t working this time to fire up our economy, which is now even more of a housing-market-with-bits-tacked-on. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāBriefly in the news from Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Wednesday, July 9:The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has paused1 its rate ...2 days ago - When a RNZ Host gets it terribly wrong
..With perhaps one (or maybe two) exception(s), the journalists, producers, technicians, and hosts at RNZ are folks I hold in high regard. They have tough jobs to do - especially when trying to elicit some semblance of comprehensible answers from our robotic Prime Minister, programmed to give automated responses to ...2 days ago - Don’t let Beijing’s AI charm offensive fool us
There’s one thing China’s ambassador to Australia got right in a call to add artificial intelligence to the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA): ‘China has always viewed Australia and China-Australia relations from a strategic and ...2 days ago
- Workers absent from government’s AI “strategy”
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi is concerned that the artificial intelligence (AI) “strategy” document released today by the Government ignores impacts on working people and replicates the corporate hype of Microsoft and other tech giants. “It is crucial that no workers are left behind as ...2 days ago
- China’s ‘Taiwanese separatist’ hotline shows expanding lawfare strategy
Beijing’s coercion campaign against Taiwan is entering a more litigious phase. While military drills and cognitive warfare remain staples of its coercive playbook, China is now intensifying the systematic use of law to target Taiwan’s ...2 days ago
- “There is no corruption in New Zealand…”
A government lavishes corporate welfare on a project managed by one of its donors, then appoints him as a director of a government body. The USA? No, its National's New Zealand: A newly-appointed KiwiRail board director is associated with a company which donated to NZ First. Scott O'Donnell is ...2 days ago
- Pacific maritime policy could mend fragmentation, increase resilience
The Pacific’s patchwork of national policies and voluntary regional frameworks often falls short of delivering unified, timely and effective responses. A comprehensive and legally binding regional maritime policy could build a more cohesive and resilient ...2 days ago
- Unbelievable
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- Think about defence spending like this: when risks rise, so do insurance premiums
Australia’s strategic risk has increased significantly, and the government needs to increase its defence spending to match it. Defence spending is the premium for Australia’s defence insurance policy—it underwrites Australia’s protection from external threats, with ...2 days ago
- In their dreams
Order of Ceremony for the Jacinda Ardern Show Trial and Ritual HumiliationMs HDPB-Allen will rise to say:I want to hear you apologise for showing empathy during a crisis. She may, if she chooses, add: This made me feel very uncomfortable.Mr M Hosking, wearing Armani and looking as though he has ...2 days ago - Enter a title40 years on, the Rainbow Warrior, the bombing and French colonial culture in the Pacifi...
Provide a desJournalist and former university professor Dr David Robie reflects on the 1985 Rainbow Warrior mission to Rongelap atoll to help US nuclear refugees and the bombing of the Greenpeace campaign ship by French secret agents. His analysis is that far from the sabotage being an isolated incident, it ...2 days ago
- ASPI Defence Conference: Putting the ‘national’ in national preparedness and resilience
The ASPI Defence Conference in June highlighted the critical importance of national preparedness and resilience to Australia’s national security. Chief of the Defence Force, Admiral David Johnston, set the stage by emphasising a pivotal shift ...2 days ago
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A cyberattack on a Qantas call centre, revealed last week, put cyber risk back in the headlines, as did similar attacks on Medibank and Optus. But these are not one-off shocks: they represent a new ...2 days ago
- Prison for One: Accepted
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- Tuesday 8 July
The Supreme Court has begun hearing arguments on whether it should uphold or overturn previous court rulings that four Uber drivers were entitled to be treated as employees of the firm, rather than as contractors. Hospital workers are pushing back against a trial to reduce the number of maternity beds ...3 days ago
- Uber drivers taking a stand on behalf of all platform workers
As the Uber drivers have their case heard in the Supreme Court today, the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi believes that the outcome of the case will have lasting implications for people working the in the platform economy and workers who have been misclassified as contractors. ...3 days ago
- Capital gaps and complacency: investment imbalance undermines sovereignty
Australia’s ability to generate breakthrough ideas has never been in doubt. But despite increasing recognition of the need for national resilience, the country still lacks a capital system built to serve strategic purpose. The failure ...3 days ago
- NZ economy sliding back into recession
There are clear signs from leading indicators that the economy is sliding back into recessionary territory in a third consecutive winter of economic discontent. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāBriefly in the news from Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Tuesday, July 8:On the eve of an ...3 days ago - The great acceleration debate
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- How to fill a 155 mm hole in Australian defence strategy
In Canberra, it’s called taking out the trash. Late on Friday, 27 June, the Department of Defence quietly issued a media release with news it must have hoped would get little media attention: it had ...3 days ago
- Gordon Campbell On Using The Tax System To Boost Funding For The Arts
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- Horses for courses: where quantum computing is, and isn’t, the answer
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- People Linked to Jeffrey Epstein Who Have Died
The web of Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal network and its ties to powerful figures continues to unravel, revealing a chilling pattern of suspicious deaths, allegations of intelligence connections, and unanswered questions. From Epstein’s own mysterious death in 2019 to the unsolved murders of Barry and Honey Sherman, the apparent suicide of ...3 days ago
- Don’t kid yourself, Australia: a Taiwan war would spread across the Indo-Pacific
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s second visit to China—pencilled in for this month—will come weeks before the People’s Liberation Army’s 98th anniversary on 1 August 2025, a date laden with symbolism as Beijing approaches the military modernisation ...3 days ago
- A good way to say goodbye
It can feel as though I'm often saying goodbye here. Friends who have gone; and I remember when.I’m at an age where I have more years behind me than ahead, and I'm writing for many people in the same position. But it's not always or ever just goodbye, I hope. ...3 days ago - The psychosocial imperative of food security preparedness
The dust has barely settled on the 2025 federal election and the returning government has already reaffirmed its commitment to delivering a national food security strategy. That’s a welcome and long-overdue step forward. But unless ...3 days ago
- Submission on the Public Finance Amendment Bill
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- Legislating For Liberty.
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- Whose cloud is it, anyway? Rethinking sovereignty in the shift to cloud infrastructure
Cloud infrastructure is now the backbone of everything from social services and emergency response to critical industry operations and defence. The shift has been fast, and often invisible to users. What began as a convenience ...4 days ago
- Another attack on the rule of law
Over the past few years New Zealand fisheries ministers have been repeatedly found to have acted illegally in their quota decisions, ignoring the Fisheries Act's environmental and information principles and setting quota at unlawfully high levels to pander to the fishing industry. But current fisheries minister Shame Jones has a ...4 days ago
- Monday 7 July
The PSA are saying that months after commissioning a report into sexual harassment, Corrections has not moved fast enough to address its “old boys club” culture that has impacted a quarter of their staff. A survey of student nurses has found almost 62 percent are considering a job overseas if one ...4 days ago
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Then raise the scarlet standard highBeneath its folds, we'll live and dieThough cowards flinch and traitors sneerWe'll keep the red flag flying hereLyrics: Billy Bragg / Traditional.On this day in 1916, smaller socialist parties and trade unions came together to form our New Zealand Labour Party. So, congratulations to all ...4 days ago - Australia urgently needs a national security strategy
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Hi,Four years ago on Webworm, my friend Kate wrote an essay about having aphantasia. In her words, “Aphantasia is the inability to visualise mental images. Most people who have aphantasia are also unable to recall sounds, smell or sensations of touch. That’s me. I can’t do any of it. Never ...4 days ago - FamilyBoost changes will exacerbate inequity of ECE access
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi is warning that the FamilyBoost changes announced today by Finance Minister Nicola Willis will fail to make early childhood education more affordable for the families who need it most and will instead widen inequities. “The Government has missed an opportunity ...4 days ago
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- 2025 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #27
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- Mountain Tūī’s 1 & Taking A Break
5 days ago - Common People
You will never understandHow it feels to live your lifeWith no meaning or controlAnd with nowhere left to goYou are amazed that they existAnd they burn so bright whilst you can only wonder whySongwriters: Jarvis Cocker, Russell Senior, Steve Mackey, Nick Banks, Candida Doyle.Under every government, there are winners and ...6 days ago - The Dangerous Lie That Homelessness is a Choice
The callous rhetoric emerging from this Government's housing ministers reveals a profound disconnect from the harsh realities facing thousands of New Zealanders. When politicians like Mark Mitchell and Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell suggest that homelessness is somehow a matter of personal choice, they perpetuate a dangerous myth that absolves the ...6 days ago
- The Dangerous Lie That Homelessness is a Choice
The callous rhetoric emerging from this Government's housing ministers reveals a profound disconnect from the harsh realities facing thousands of New Zealanders. When politicians like Mark Mitchell and Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell suggest that homelessness is somehow a matter of personal choice, they perpetuate a dangerous myth that absolves the ...6 days ago
- Investing in the Public Health System
What can you do when you have hit your borrowing limit and still want to spend? One option is to cut back on maintenance of your capital – say, to delay repainting the house or keeping the car in tip-top condition. The government does the same. Hence our three water ...6 days ago - The case for boosting defence spending is compelling—we shouldn’t need US prodding
The Australian government’s dispute with the United States over the level of defence spending has distracted our media and public from the core issue. The main driver of increased defence spending should not be requests ...6 days ago
- A reminder that music lifts you out of everything
Questions 1. What were participants in this year’s Youth Parliament effectively prohibited from saying?a. Death, death to the IDFb. There’s some hoes in this housec. Freddie Starr ate my hamsterd. Anything critical of the government2. About what does this government like to flex like a gym bro?a. Being tough on ...6 days ago - British public backs defence and security partnership with Australia
Australia was high on the list for Britain’s revamp of its alliances after Brexit, and the stormy geopolitical climate that followed has only reinforced the need for a more ambitious partnership. Looking ahead, public demonstrations ...6 days ago
- Qantas data breach shows compliance doesn’t always mean protection and resilience
Cybersecurity requires more than legal compliance; it demands constant vigilance and adaptation. A cyberattack on a third-party platform used by a Qantas customer contact centre in Manila, discovered on 30 June, made this clear. Six ...6 days ago
- Te Pāti Māori Announces Award-Winning Broadcaster Oriini Kaipara to Contest Tāmaki Makaurau By-El...
Te Pāti Māori have confirmed the selection of celebrated broadcaster and longtime West Auckland advocate Oriini Kaipara (Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Awa, Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Rangitihi) as its candidate for the Tāmaki Makaurau by-election. Oriini’s deep whakapapa to Tāmaki Makaurau is grounded in her upbringing at Hoani Waititi Marae, where she was ...4 hours ago
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As the Government pulls out of global climate commitments, a significant new report shows that sea ice around Antarctica is melting at unprecedented speed. ...3 days ago - Family Boost announcement does little to boost families
Today’s announcement on the Family Boost scheme is little more than tinkering around the edges while real issues in the ECE system are ignored, says the Green Party. ...4 days ago
- Serious Response to Serious Problems
As New Zealand has positively responded to the crack down on gang patches there has been a growing recognition of the influence of organized crime on our communities. New Zealand First continues to be focused on all aspects that undermine the safety and security in our neighbourhoods, businesses, and ...1 week ago
- NZ First Bill: Only Official New Zealand Flag to Fly on Government Buildings
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- Healthy Homes standards need more teeth
With mandatory Healthy Homes standards coming into effect for all tenancies tomorrow, the Green Party is calling for a new Rental Warrant of Fitness system to give the new standards true effect. ...1 week ago
- Green Party pays tribute to Takutai Tarsh Kemp
The Green Party has paid tribute to Te Pāti Māori MP Takutai Tarsh Kemp who sadly passed away early this morning. ...2 weeks ago
- Government Sabotages Settlement: Te Pāti Māori Backs Te Whānau-Ā-Apanui
Te Pāti Māori stands in solidarity with Te Whānau-ā-Apanui after revelations the Government is looking to derail their almost completed Treaty settlement. Minister Goldsmith has stated that the Government will not budge on its position that the Crown is sovereign. They are seeking to remove the ‘sovereignty clause’ agreed to ...2 weeks ago
- Govt abandons Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance
Christopher Luxon’s Government pulling out of the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance is just the latest sign they care little for the climate crisis or cost of living it’ll exacerbate, says the Green Party. ...2 weeks ago
- Govt’s $200mill fossil fuel handout in breach of trade agreement
Legal advice commissioned by the Green Party shows the coalition Government’s $200 million “investment” in new gas fields is a clear breach of the Agreement on Climate Change, Trade and Sustainability (ACCTS). ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Minister should fess up on cuts
Simeon Brown needs to be honest about how much more money he expects Health New Zealand to cut from its budget to get back in the black. ...3 weeks ago - Greens call on Govt to condemn US for attack on Iran
The Green Party is calling on the Government to condemn the United States for its illegal bombing of Iran and inflaming tensions across the Middle East. ...3 weeks ago
- Luxon’s Complicity Puts Aotearoa at Risk: Te Pāti Māori Stands Against Global Military Aggressio...
Te Pāti Māori stands firmly against the rising tide of global military aggression. While the Luxon scrambles to appease Trump and Israel, we choose peace, sovereignty, and an independent foreign policy grounded in justice and truth. More than 56,000 Palestinians have been murdered by Israel over the past 20 months. ...3 weeks ago
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- Grattan on Friday: childcare is a ‘canary in mine’ warning for wider problems in policy deliver...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra It’s such a familiar pattern. When a big scandal breaks publicly, governments jump into action, ministers rush out to say they’ll “do something” instantly. But how come they hadn’t seen problems that had been ...3 hours ago - Former broadcaster Oriini Kaipara to contest Tāmaki Makaurau by-election for Te Pāti Māori
Kaipara was selected at a hui at Hoani Waititi Marae on Thursday evening. ...6 hours ago - The special envoy’s antisemitism plan is ambitious, but fails to reckon with the hardest questions
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matteo Vergani, Associate Professor, Deakin University On July 6, an arson attack targeted the East Melbourne Synagogue. It was the latest in a series of antisemitic incidents recorded across Australia since October 7 2023, when Hamas carried out a horrific terrorist attack, ...7 hours ago
- Homeowners warned weather-event buyouts may cease in 20 years
An independent reference group has delivered guidelines to help the government shape climate adaptation legislation. ...8 hours ago
- Queensland’s horrific lion attack shows wild animals should not be kept for our amusement
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Georgette Leah Burns, Associate Professor, Griffith School of Environment and Science, Griffith University Luciano Gonzalez/Anadolu via Getty Images Last weekend, a woman was mauled by a lioness at Darling Downs Zoo in Queensland, and lost her arm. The zoo, which keeps ...9 hours ago
- Does Donald Trump deserve the Nobel Peace Prize? We asked 5 experts
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Shortis, Adjunct Senior Fellow, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has formally nominated United States President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. He says the president is “forging peace as we speak, ...9 hours ago
- Does Australia really take too long to approve medicines, as the US says?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nial Wheate, Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Australia’s drug approval system is under fire, with critics in the United States claiming it is too slow to approve life-saving medicines. Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration balances speed with a rigorous assessment ...9 hours ago
- Sovereignty ‘red line’ in any future Ngāpuhi settlement message at Whangārei hapū hui
Much of hapū hui agenda taken up by discussions of sovereignty and bill which aims to impose a single settlement on Ngāpuhi. ...9 hours ago
- Skorts revolutionised how women and girls play sport. But in 2025, are they regressive?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jennifer E. Cheng, Researcher and Lecturer in Sociology, Western Sydney University If you watched any of the 2025 Wimbledon womens’ matches, you’ll have noticed many players donning a skort: a garment in which shorts are concealed under a skirt, or a front ...10 hours ago
- First the dire wolf, now NZ’s giant moa: why real ‘de-extinction’ is unlikely to fly
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nic Rawlence, Associate Professor in Ancient DNA, University of Otago Colossal Biosciences, CC BY-SA The announcement that New Zealand’s moa nunui (giant moa) is the next “de-extinction” target for Colossal Biosciences, in partnership with Canterbury Museum, the Ngāi Tahu Research Centre ...10 hours ago
- Politics with Michelle Grattan: Larissa Waters on why we deserve more than a government that just ti...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Greens had a poor election. They lost three of their four lower house seats including that of their leader Adam Bandt. This despite their overall vote remaining mostly steady. But they did ...10 hours ago
- Envoy’s plan to fight antisemitism would put universities on notice over funding
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Get ready for a week of white male suited squillionaires gabbing about the state highways and schools they want to build, operate, and rent back to us.
Guarantee not so much as half a sentence devoted to a common good for our people and our land.
How often do PPP's need to be proven to be a disaster for taxpayers and a licence to print money for the rich list before they are ditched?
Re the Deloitte NZ Health report.
New Health Minister Simeon Brown, possibly near wetting himself over the perceived justification for NAct1's slash/burn….
Having personally worked in a Hospital..and other large Companies, I could well see so called some Managers as being inept arse coverers.
Any of them now looking for jobs? (Of course they are adept at looking out for Number 1)
Well…thats his take on it. Anyone else with input views on the Deloitte Report?
is it a NAct1 friendly paid policy promotion? For justification?
There will always be some sort of 'justification' for the enacting of one's ideological views, which can apply across the political spectrum. Although some parties more than others.
It still comes back to both priorities in spending (eg tax cuts) vs the good of society at large.
I continue to hold the voters who wanted a RW government- and non-voters- responsible for this. They cannot say they weren't warned.
Hi thanks for input. And yea same re those voters. What were they thinking? Or just not…..
NZers (Not the 1%, who will gain $millions) are going to suffer from all of this.
We all knew they have a problem with IT, faxes in from the HB's during COVID.
But who knew they did their accounts on excel spreadsheets.
"Lost control of spending' … what does that mean?
Not rationing demand/health need within budget?
That might be because they have seriously run down primary health, no new patients, wait weeks … have hospitals take in people when they are at the health emergency stage.
Thanks for input. And yea that "excel spreadsheets" ?!
Anyway, I certainly see Simeons smirking about the justification as precursor for major privatisation ….(which IMO was always the plan)
The reality..Onya Fleur !
And the Vested Interest….$$$$$
Had a wry smile at this…
Also had a wee look at Mr Roxborough's Health experience and/or Medical background.
Unsurprisingly its Money Health he majors in…..
It was all about Covid of course.
Other public health services, such as the one in the UK, have been under major stress since Covid. It takes a few years to recover from a global pandemic.
And of course Labour's sensible reforms of the health service will save money and improve delivery but that too will be down the track.
Thanks for input. Yep. A little thing like a….Global Pandemic. Fuck knows where we would have been with NAct1 in control then….
And…as links show, slash/burn and privatisation is where they want to go. American style Health Insurance to follow $$$$$.
Fark.
This is another of those things that restores your faith in the goodness of Americans. Plain, hard-working, decent Americans that is, as distinct from the political class, which ignores them. The Californian movement Taxpayers Against Genocide is going after those politicians…
Yes most of the Americans I know are great people. I do know a Trump supporter too, who is slightly crazy. The US propaganda environment is making many of them insane and divorced from reality.
Well, I'm sure it makes them feel very virtuous, if nothing else. Here's the problem, though: Israelis don't care what you or some horseshoe-theory leftists in California or the UN or various media companies or pretty much anyone else think of them, they're not going to cease to exist and they're also not going to quietly co-exist with neighbours who want to kill them. So, unless you and the Taxpayers Against Genocide have some solution to offer that doesn't involve hand-waving those things away, you're wasting your time and effort huffing and puffing about it.
Well, I'm sure it makes them feel very virtuous, if nothing else.
Virtuous? Yes, they are of course but I don't think they feel especially virtuous. I'd say they feel motivated by deep anger at the corrupt and anti-democratic American political scene. They're just decent citizens who are opposed to politicians illegally funding and supporting a genocidal state.
Here's the problem, though: Israelis don't care what you or some horseshoe-theory leftists
"Horseshoe-theory"? Oh yes, that's the brilliant insight that people who fight against Nazis are themselves Nazis. It was a frequent taunt flung at anti-police protestors after the murder of George Floyd. Do you employ it as often as you employ the equally insightful terms "whataboutism" and "woke"?
in California or the UN or various media companies or pretty much anyone else think of them
If they don't care, why is their government and its apologists trying to intimidate protestors and shut down any criticism of its crimes? Even wearing a keffiyeh is a threat to these fanatics.
The state of Prussia was formally disestablished after World War II. The Southern Confederacy is no more. The apartheid state of South Africa is no more. The Soviet Union is no more.
What makes you think that this particular pariah state, which only exists as long as the U.S. political class continues to support it, can last forever? How long do you give it? A thousand years?
David Cumin is a New Zealander living in New Zealand just like you or me. Jewish New Zealanders care about expressions of Jew-hatred in New Zealand because of-course-they-fucking-do-what-the-fuck-is-wrong-with-you? And the video you posted includes Cumin explaining that no it was not about someone wearing a keffiyeh.
The fact that you call a country a pariah state or falsely claim that it can only exist as long as the US supports it (read some history if you're going to pontificate about this, ffs) doesn't mean it's going to disappear anytime soon. Jews have lived there for thousands of years, don't expect that to change, however hard you wish for it.
Jews have lived there, but their political structures have often been conquered or demolished over the ages
You can tell them they have no claim to the land if you like, but they won't pay any more attention than the Arabs would if you told them they have no claim to the land (their political structures having been conquered/demolished).
The Syrians seem pretty happy to be rid of Assad. I view Netanyahu as a similar breed of violent thug
You can view elected officials in liberal democracies any way you like, but it doesn't make them remotely similar to Bashir al Assad.
Israel is a "liberal democracy" in the way that Franco's Spain, apartheid South Africa, Jim Crow Alabama, and Pinochet's Chile were liberal democracies.
https://therealnews.com/mblumenthal1023raipt1
Yeah, well, that also is just like, your opinion, man.
To most of the world Israel is a state within its 1949 borders, yet to make peace with those seeking to form a state in the rest of the area west of the Jordan.
As a somewhat flawed democracy (as are all).
The occupation (and since 1977 settlement), since 1967 of land beyond its recognised borders is by Israel, but is not within Israel and its state.
David Cumin is a New Zealander living in New Zealand just like you or me.
He's an apologist for Israeli genocide. He's not like me: I don't support the Israeli Occupation Force murder squads in Gaza or the illegal settlers that daily—actually, nightly—carry out pogroms in the Occupied Territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The rest of your incoherent, angry tirade is noteworthy only because of your continued insistence on equating that outlaw pariah state with Jewish people.
https://mondoweiss.net/2023/06/israelism-documentary-focuses-on-young-jews-change-of-heart/
True. Great movie, made by the Coen Brothers, a couple of outstanding Americans…
I'm sorry, am I supposed to give a shit what Hollywood celebrities think about something?
They're not just "Hollywood celebrities." They're Jewish film-makers speaking out in support of another Jewish film-maker who dared to speak out against the genocide in Gaza.
They're people who share your opinion. Well, fair enough, no doubt such people exist. I'm not sure what conclusion anyone's meant to draw from it though.
Particularly enjoyed Plunkett first referring to the keffiyeh as a 'Hamas Tea Towel', bringing on Cumin to say that's entirely correct and raise the specter of map iconography, and then questioning the apparent amount of connivance involved in council photography.
I don't expect Plunkett or anyone else to show any respect for symbols of terrorism. Any Arabs who want to complain that the keffiyeh isn't actually a symbol of the PLO should take it up with the estate of Yassir Arafat.
The Muslim belief that Israel must be destroyed and replaced with an Arab Muslim state is anything but "map iconography." Multiple wars have been fought over it and tens of thousands of people have been killed for it.
Very good. I don't expect Plunkett to express respect for any kind of symbols either actually, I'm pretty sure he doesn't respect any kind of symbols when it suites his purposes to denigrate them. He was there however attempting to connive with his guest an accusation levelled at Dunedin council which he later raises over 'map iconography'.
Important though 'map iconography' may be, apparently Plunkett didn't notice the problem to begin with, or raise any problem which Cumin was actually sensitive to before the discussion. This places him in exactly the same position as most of the public and probably the people creating the images for the Dunedin council.
I have no doubt whatsoever that Cumin is a lot more sensitive than Plunket is to NZ city councils using ratepayers' money to promote symbols of Jew-hatred, for fairly obvious reasons.
Enough already with your mulish "Jew-hatred" canard. Are the thousands of New York Jewish protestors who shut down Grand Central Station in protest against Israel's continued mass murder in Gaza guilty of "Jew-hatred"?
Is Ken Roth guilty of "Jew-hatred"? Is Amy Goodman?
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/3/gaza_ethnic_cleansing_trump_palestine_israel
Israel better stop annexing Palestine or they are going to end up with an antisemitic symbol for their countries geography quite soon. Will the remaining
PalestiniansArabs be allowed to wear a representation of their country at that point?Typical, Plunkett does not know the PLO origins of it.
Hamas has yet to join the PLO.
Plunkett's lack of knowing anything is not actually relevant. Keffiyeh were worn and already symbols of Palestinian resistance, well before the existence of a PLO. Unsurprising that Yassir Arafat would style himself that way, though he was far from original in this style. Psycho just thinks Israel should be entitled to decide what Palestinian's are allowed to wear.
AI seems to get their info on this from here
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/06/1216150515/keffiyeh-hamas-palestinians-israel-gaza
Maybe the AI should read the whole link then, it says just as I said.
If you think AI said otherwise, you did not check.
I haven't and wouldn't claim that. You can dispute what I'm saying without being dishonest with it. And it was the PLO that made the keffiyeh famous as a symbol of murderous Jew-hatred and is the reason people wear it.
We can add to wanting to control what Palestinians wear, also wanting to control who the leaders of Palestine are allowed to be.
made the keffiyeh famous as a symbol of murderous Jew-hatred and is the reason people wear it.
You know of course that every time you, or someone like you, posts a flagrant falsehood like that, it subtracts even further from any authority you might have had. You make a fool of yourself almost every time you say anything.
Time to stop for a while and recharge the old Psycho Miltonian batteries, methinks. Maybe do some reading—serious reading, not listening to Sean Plunket—for a while?
There’s a good fellow.
Thanks for that post Morrissey….restores one's faith in human nature…..the COC is complicit by saying nothing about this.
I still think the Dems could have won the election with a principled stand on Gaza but Biden was way too old and stuck in his "Jews vote democrat" rut. Harris should have but failed to dump this pro genocide policy.
Russia is ready for peace.
/
Russia fired 67 missiles from air, land and sea, and launched 194 strike and decoy drones, Ukraine's air force said, adding the target was the country's natural gas extraction facilities.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-08/russia-attacks-ukrainian-energy-facilities-in-missile-attacks/105026324
Russia was ready for peace three years ago. That's why the U.S., in a panic, sent its envoy of death Boris Johnson to Istanbul to threaten and cajole Zelensky into pulling out of negotiations with Russia.
"Russia was ready for
peaceUkraine's surrender three years ago"FIFY
Your snide attempt at a quip can't change the fact that Ukraine was in peace talks with Russia, and that Boris Johnson sabotaged those talks by threatening and cajoling President Zelenskyy.
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have paid the ultimate price for Johnson's anti-diplomacy.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/kremlin-2022-ukrainian-law-bans-zelenskyy-talks-putin-119468131
Yes, it took time, and of course Russia, like any state, is fond of obstruction and game-playing. But the fact remains: Zelenskyy was holding peace talks a few weeks after the Special Military Operation began. Boris Johnson, at the behest of the U.S., was flown urgently to Istanbul in order to sabotage those talks.
The issue is covered here.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/12/zelenskyy-rejects-claim-boris-johnson-talked-him-out-of-2022-peace-deal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_negotiations_in_the_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine
Post the failure of talks, Putin's and Ukrainian positions were far apart (2024).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_negotiations_in_the_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine
So what we witnessed with our own eyes three years ago didn't happen? Boris Johnson did not fly urgently to Istanbul? He didn't threaten and cajole President Zelenskyy into sticking with his "protectors" in Washington and Whitehall?
No surprise to see that such a lame attempt to spin this story appeared in the Guardian, which is effectively an organ of the British state. Its anti-Russian bias is notorious. You are no doubt aware the paper was a relentless purveyor, with the New York Times and the BBC, of the ridiculous Russiagate conspiracy theory.
Are you really still calling Russia's Invasion a special military operation?
That was the original Russian term for it. But I agree with you that it's now developed into a real war. A proxy war, of course. As that brave South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham said: "when we said we wanted to fight Russia down to the last Ukrainian, we meant it."
https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1769956089183846548
please fix your username.
That is rather good, at the same time terribly sad.
The USA was happy to fight Hitler down to the last European. At least they are consistent.
FDR only won re-election in 1940 by promising not to enter the war in Europe (neither the Irish, nor WASP Republicans wanted it).
Japan attacked Pearl Harbour and then Germany declared war on the USA first.
Then you can dive into the questions around did the president know about the attack on pearl harbour before it happened..?
..and allowed it to happen..because he knew it would drag america into the war…which is what he wanted…?
What is known is he wanted to be on the right side of history, regardless of popular opinion.
1.while Japan was occupying Korea and parts of China – sanctions
2.while Germany was occupying other nations in Europe and parts of Russia – lend lease to the UK to pass onto Russia.
Then, merely means another baseless attack option is then available.
That is not what Senator “Gramm” said, it was how someone else phrased his position – Arnaud Bertrand.
Arnaud Bertrand was not paraphrasing him or reconstructing his ugly words from memory. He quoted him.
The flabby old chickenhawk had the gall to travel to Kiev and admonish young Ukrainians who do not want to sacrifice themselves for people like him:
https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1769956089183846548
https://x.com/JPfaff1028/status/1871675750593794513?lang=pt
Where is the quote from then? Neither Bertrand nor Pfaff gave a source.
I have found this.
https://www.reuters.com/world/russia-condemns-us-senator-grahams-comments-death-russians-2023-05-28/
Sorry, SPC, I can't find a smoking gun in this case. I concede your point. What does stay beyond any doubt, however, is that Lindsey Graham is an absolutely despicable individual.
Glenn Greenwald sums him up perfectly in May last year: "Lindsey Graham is the single most sociopathic, deranged, weak war-monger in all of Washington, constantly telling not only Americans but also Ukrainians to go and fight and die more in wars that he himself won't get near."
https://x.com/ggreenwald/status/1794388020910825575
https://x.com/ggreenwald/status/1794388020910825575/photo/1
Gramm is known for
1.opposing Trump and then surrendering to his capture of the GOP.
2.being a strong advocate of Ukrainian resistance to Russian annexation of Ukrainian land and then saying Yelensky should resign and that Ukraine does not deserve American support while he is leader – all because he spoke truth in the White House.
That he poses all of this (in turn) as America first is how he sends up himself.
Zelenskyy always insisted that the Russians return to their own borders as a condition of any peace, and been rejected. Putin was unwilling to accept such terms evidently. His terms were that Russia be permitted to hold Crimea, and annex the Donbas oblast and Southern Ukraine.
This would be the substance, I think, of Zelenskyy's claim to have offered to engage in peace talks. Still, I could be wrong..
Remembering international Women's day, https://archive.is/wDUer
Because nothing says respect quite like the continuing exploitation of a vulnerable child.
/
When the photograph was first published in 1985 and the magazine circulated to millions of readers worldwide, it had only one sentence about her (besides the original caption, ‘Haunted eyes tell of an Afghan refugee’s fears’). It said her eyes were “reflecting the fear of war”.
This is false, Northrup says. The fear in her eyes is that of a student interrupted at school by a male stranger invading her space, her personal boundaries and her culture and leaving without even having learned her name.
McCurry and National Geographic would sell the picture for enormous amounts. Steve McCurry Studios prices their open edition 20″ x 24″ print of Sharbat Gula for $18,000 (Rs 12.8 lakh). Larger prints have been sold for as much as $178,900 at auctions.
Until their return for the follow-up story in 2002, Sharbat Gula received nothing.
https://thewire.in/media/afghan-girl-steve-mccurry-national-geographic
It's a powerful image of the difficult lives of women around the world.
Nice attempt at distraction and shooting the messenger though.
There are millions of images portraying the difficult lives of women around the world yet you chose one that's been shown to have exploited a young woman.
And your reaction to being called on your poor choice is to have a sook?
ffs
/
If you delve into anything deep enough you'll find moral quandaries.
shallow
/
https://www.vladsokhin.com/work/crying-meri/
Well said joe90. I remember the fuss when the true story behind the picture came out.
But surely journalists should never let truth come in the way of a good story and a pretty picture? (sarc)
For the TS commentator who loves to link articles from The Centrist, here's information about the owner of this site, the Canadian billionaire James Grenon, living in Takapuna for the last decade. He has now on sold it to another billionaire, because he's busy trying to roll the board of NZME for his own appointees, after he picked up a 10% stake in it recently.
“Centrists” are always a waste of space. The title should have raised immediate suspicions.
The TOP party comes to mind.
The cancellation of this UN conference (on the rights of Palestinians under Israeli military occupation) might relate to this
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/michael-f-brown/republicans-trumpet-judea-and-samaria
It might only be a "Gulf of America" renaming the WB, Judea and Samaria, but it could also be an end to recognition of a Palestinian state.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/neutral-switzerland-cancels-un-conference-after-israeli-pressure
Preparing the way for something more … the land of free speech is cutting funds to universities that allowed protests at the collective punishment of Gaza civilians.
Would it be to ensure no protests at renaming the WB Judea and Samaria, or ending recognition of a Palestinian state (so the USA gets Gaza … once a land without a people and Israel gets … once a land without non Jewish voters).
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/donald-trump-cuts-millions-in-grants-from-columbia-university-over-anti-semitism-claims/OVOJF6T6ZFETZLJVYVDB245564/
I'd phrase it more like "cutting funds to universities that allow the Muslim diaspora to promote its virulent antisemitism within the university."
So when thousands of people, Jewish and non-Jewish, protest against an American-sponsored genocide, it's "virulent antisemitism" is it?
You need to explain a little more convincingly than you have managed so far.
Bollocks psycho.
Let's see some truth of that from genuine links.
Who is as appalled as I am about the huge waste of 400k of rate-payers money being tipped on the toilet on Restoring fhe fugly Chalice in Cathedral square.
Not much more is being done than giving it a sand-blast, a lick of paint and a bit of LED lighting. How that could cost 400k is hard to see.
From a left wing perspective, imagine how much could have been done with that money to help the needy. And I would have preferred that as well. And, even more, sell the thing for scrap metal and use that for the needy as well.
You will have to tell us precisely how appalled you are before we can find out any equally or more appalled parties. If you want some unsolicited advice, go for I'm so appalled I could not care less, and then literally everyone is at least as appalled as you.
let it tarnish and corrode as a symbol of the polycrisis.
The problem with selling and using the money for the needy is that it's a bottomless pit, with the government currently shooing people to the edge of the hole who will eventually fall in. We need system change not crumbs of charity.
$400K is a lot of money, but it's not that much. Maybe use it to kickstart some social housing that is collectively owned and never sold.
the purpose of modern art is to troll people
From a left wing perspective, public art confirms and enriches public spaces ..
… and like anything else public they need maintenance $$$ spend in them.
FIFY
I'd completely agree with this if we lived in a society that was leftist. The dilemma is how to prioritise art in a neoliberal society that is making people poor by design.
Your language is always demeaning and disrespectful. I, like a lot of other people on this site, work hard at crafting serious and coherent messages. You dismissingly call me a "troll"? What a joke.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Phil made a comment about Peters and Luxon and Trump. You replied saying,
and then the thread derailed.
Sorry, I was too impulsive. Not for the first time, I must regretfully note.
if you are commenting from a phone, the name field retains the typos. Please edit the last 2 comments within the editing window, then fix for your next comment.
Thanks for that weka!
I haven’t mastered the pseudo-intellectual and passive-aggressive fob-offs that are your MO.
A troll is what a troll does.
Stop diverting and stop with the belligerence, it’s self-demeaning and disrespectful to the others here, particularly to Authors who make an effort to raise an issue that you simply hijack and trample all over with your cringey snobbery.
Possible redrawn electorates boundaries coming out soon. The irony would be delicious if Epsom disappeared.
Are ACT “guaranteed” to get over 5%?
IMO, sadly yes National's psychopathic offspring will be able to survive even if fate removes it's birthing box.
And so it begins.
The slowing of the northerly current in the Atlantic, the Gulf Stream, the AMOC system and then us.
https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/03/08/scientists-predict-nz-will-get-drier-northern-australia-wetter/
Peters should employ a special envoy to WTA and play a round of golf with DJT and let him win, of course. That should appease the King.
She is too good for this petty nation we have become
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1RJrWneD78/
Three generations of Poles have an axe to grind.