They killed a couple of senior Iranian military personal. Its a bit unclear to me what discussions they were having in Syria however though this might have been the motivation. It may also have been a provocation due to US politics turning rhetorically on Israel at the time.
Don't think Israel has explained their thinking to that degree. They said it was to kill these military personal and that they were known to be in the embassy.
Stupid??! You may not realise the sanctity that embassies have always been blessed with. In international law (rather than the "rules based order") embassies are regarded as that countries territory. Historically, even during conflicts and war. Israel knows this and trashes yet another norm of international relations and we think its a bit stupid?? Straight after this, Ecuador invaded Mexico's embassy in Quito causing Mexico to break off diplomatic relations.
Israel is now bent on breaking every international norm with the full and absolute support of Joe Biden.
1.supply arms to non state groups (Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthi in Yemen and Shia militias in Iraq) to attack another nation state of the UN
2.it is not normal for a nation state to form a military unit (Quds) for the specific purpose of war with another nation state and network with non state fronts armed to assist.
Have to ask SPC, were you living under a rock for the 20th Century? Both the U.S.S.R and the USA regularly suppled arms to non state groups. It came back and bit the USA on the ass that one. On, if I got the date right – Sep 11 2001.
Going back in time, the carving up of Africa was a great time for many western nations to play that game.
As for states forming extra military units, and networking with other actors – I suggest reading a history of the British in India or the expansion of Russia East.
How many cases, pre Iran, of a nation arming "fronts" to war on another nation?
During the Cold War, groups within nations were armed to create favoured governments in those nations (overthrow existing governments in those nations).
Iran is engaged in an international crime, even the existence of a group in Iran for the purpose of ending another nation is an international crime.
The "sanctity" in International law you talk about applies only to how the Syrian Government treats the Iranian Embassy in Syria, not what the Israeli Government might do.
This phrase is in reference to a global scale nuclear war of course. Unfortunately its a fact that, if the US launched a full scale nuclear attack on Russia and the Russian's didn't respond the resulting climate change (nuclear winter) would be devastating for both the US and the rest of the surviving world.
It'll take hours for the drones to arrive.Can't help think this is a diversionary tactic, as the damage will be pretty well zero (unless the Iron Dome is not what it's cracked up to be)
Possibly its an attack structured to demonstrate to Israeli's the gravity of what their government did on 1st April, rather than to escalate. We should hope so anyway but I expect there will also be rockets fired to coincide with the drones arriving.
Unfortunately the attack on the 1st of April showed a clear desire to escalate the conflict by the Israeli government.
Is it out of the realms of possibility that the IDF let a few drones through? Few civilians killled, excuse to retaliate against Iran who then fire back which pulls USA into a wider war in the middle east?
Probably not, from a military perspective it’s not a good idea to “allow” your enemy to succeed in an attack. Once an attack like this starts, the military will do what it needs to do to stop the attack. I believe the US is shooting the down anyway.
Someone would have to give an order to let the (some) drone through. In between that person and the guys who shoot the drones will be a strict chain of command, and allowing some drones through would not be a legal order.
Iran is showing that they have teeth, but I doubt that they would want a direct confrontation with Israel, besides the US would get involved.
I could be wrong, but hopefully this is saber rattling.
If the Russian tactics against Ukraine are any guide these missile attacks are designed to be a staggered launch to all arrive at once and overwhelm the defenses. Suicide drones, cruise missiles and MRBMs (Medium Range Ballistic Missiles) are will be launched sequentially. At least some of the cruise missiles and drones will contain anti-radar warheads to target active AD radar, clearing the way for subsequent waves.
If this is indeed what iran is doing – rather than sending a wave of drones to satisfy honour or whatever and then leaving the ball in Israel's – court then I would pop down and fill up the car because the energy/price inflation spike caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine will look like the good times in six months.
There are enough psychos in the Knesset, and butchers in the IDF, to not care as long as US Imperialism has their hideous backs and keeps the guns’n’money flow happening.
The goal for these zionists is to raze Gaza, eliminate as many Palestinians as possible and then coin it from fossil fuel reserves sitting under and offshore near Gaza.
It is up to the rest of us to never forget this slaughter, BDS hard, and ban Israeli businesses from our lives and shut down their filthy embassy.
Which would be hammass, whose avowed intention is to destroy Israel and kill Jews.
[lprent: Presuming you mean hammas == Hamas. If you want to troll do it elsewhere. Adding this troll wankery variant to the blacklist.
Furthermore, if you want to make an assertion of fact, then link to it. In this case that would require a link to their current principles as at 2017 or a speech by a current leader.
I still think Putin got Iran to instigate the Palestinian attack to divert attention from Ukraine. On the face of it, the Palestinian attack looks like idiocy until you look at it while thinking about who is allied to who.
The problem is that Hammas doesn't give a fig about the lives of Palestinians either – Hammas are quite happy to kill off their countrymen/women/children by proxy with unreasonable demands in persuing a ceasefire.
If the goal of the "Zionists" were to raze Gaza and kill as many Palestinians as possible, forcibly removing Israeli settlers, leaving it to self-rule and enduring continual rocket attacks while watching Gaza's population double was a very odd way of going about it. In fact, it's almost like an Israeli intent to raze Gaza and kill as many Palestinians as possible is just some bullshit story you're telling yourself.
The government of Israeli is full of far right fuckwits. Who have openly stated they want the Palestinians gone. Convicted terrorist Itamar Ben-Gvir and the rest of his gaggle of murders have been on record to say “time to return home to Gush Katif”. You do the drawing of conclusions on that one.
And whilst the bombing of civilians continues in Gaza, these far right fuckwits have enabled the stripping of land, and wholesale murder on the west bank.
So what the "plan" again, who knows. What I do know, and what is happening with the help of the west, is murder and theft on a grand scale.
New Zealanders, of all people, should understand that minor parties in a coalition aren't running the government. But sure, far-right fuckwits have a minor role in the Israeli govt. Now consider that far-right fuckwits are the entirety of the Gazan govt. And if you have to redirect attention to what's happening on the West Bank, which has a completely different govt, you're admitting there's no basis for the claims about Gaza.
New Zealanders, of all people, should understand that minor parties in a coalition aren't running the government.
What the… dude look up the make of the government – minor parties make up the bulk of the Thirty-seventh government of Israel. They are nothing like the make up of the government here and the role minor parties play. Your statement is just out right wrong.
Go learn about the politics of Israel before you respond in future – because you're looking like an ignorant tool who just spews forth propaganda.
On that note, the West Bank is and will always be part of the same issue. To try and separate it off as you have, is disingenuous.
Perhaps, before describing me as "an ignorant tool who just spews forth propaganda," you could consider that a greater number of minor parties involved in a coalition government only further dilutes the power of those individual parties, rather than increasing it?
As for the West Bank, it cost Hamas a lot of money, time, effort, torture and murders to establish themselves as a government of Gaza completely independent of the Palestinian Authority. At least give them some credit for it.
“The numbers carry a clear message: we can choose to pay less now or pay more later. Our tax dollars can support poor families while their children are growing and developing. Or we can pay for their lack of education, obesity, alcohol abuse, and crime down the road in our healthcare and criminal justice systems.
The statistics speak for themselves.”
Is the next Labour government going to be brave enough?
"At the heart of Hilary Cass’s review of gender identity services in the NHS is a concern for the welfare of “children and young people” (doi:10.1136/bmj.q820).1 Her stated ambition is to ensure that those experiencing gender dysphoria receive a high standard of care. This will be disputed, of course, by people and lobbying groups angered by her recommendations, but it is a theme running through the review. Cass, a past president of the UK’s Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, seeks to provide better care for children and adolescents on one of the defining issues of our age. Her conclusion is alarming for anybody who genuinely cares for child welfare: gender medicine is “built on shaky foundations” (doi:10.1136/bmj.q814).2"
We aren't on the brink of war Robert, but our country is conducting on children the same experiments described in the Cass report, and with the same appalling lack of evidence for any benefit for the recipients. It's a lot more significant to us than whatever the latest lunacy is going on in the Middle East.
The issue being puberty blockers were for temporary use to delay (birth sex growth) puberty.
The use in partnership with later supply of hormones of the other birth sex in support of "gender difference" would have physiological consequences (Swedish study).
The do no harm aspect of health care intervention of one school and the Big Pharma (drugs) aspect in conflict to manage peoples "minds" for their well-being.
In the DSM world – there are fashions. Criminal psychology and gay men in prison and lesbian women in mental health care, then post this time came the DSM 1980.
1.After the female gender is equal and we can do anything cause of feminists, came acceptance of "gender identity" different to birth sex (the two are not in fact related).
2.In the acceptance of private homosexuality but no public consorting there came an expansion of the transvestite sex worker world (a job men identifying as women, affirmation as women from hetero sexual men, that gay men could also do) and "amateurs" – partners in dresses and the developing gay club world.
3.A new category of mental health, affirmation – to both those who wanted aversion therapy for their homosexuality and those that wanted help accepting it. And this also applied to gender identity different to birth sex. Thus assistance to sex workers as well as the issue of younger people with body dysmorphia (body not idealised male and female form – and hormone/drug use in gyms – eating disorders etc/breast enhancements – plastic surgery) and gender dysphoria.
4.Social media and body dysmorphia (mental health support) and access to narratives about gender dysphoria and affirmation care. And growing rates of neurodiversity (autism etc) and helicopter parenting.
Public acceptance of identity choices, as per sexuality and gender and supportive health care treatments.
What health care is provided – to whom and when.
Women have problems with endometriosis (often requires surgery to discover it and manage) and post natal well-being.
Puberty blockers were introduced to manage early onset of puberty, to ensure a delay so that the child could be helped via other means when they still went through it before their peers.
Ending it in all cases, except research, ignores that.
Afaik the ban on PBs is for off label use with gender dysphoric children and won’t affect prescribing for early puberty. But agree it is worth marking that distinction clear in this debate. It raises some issues about off label prescribing and low medical literacy in the general population about puberty.
Well Joe90, we all know 9 year olds can get hot under the collar (so to speak) and go off topic… maybe too much honey in that trap creates impulsive behaviour. Concentrate dear boy
Back to the real issue (if true this is a big deal)
according to some sources
Iran officially joins hypersonic club
The Kheibar Shekan hypersonic missile is the weapon which was used to strike Israel's premier Ramon airbase in the Negev just a few hours ago. Until now, Iranian claims of its capabilities have been impossible to verify, however we can now say the Islamic Republic has clearly joined the very small list of nations with such advanced weapons.
Kheibar Shekan is a 3rd generation medium-range ballistic missile of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. the weapon's name means 'Fortress Breaker', 'Kheibar' being the Jewish fortress that was conquered by the Muslims in the beginning of Islam, during the battle of Khaybar.
The Kheibar shekan is the world's longest-range solid-fuel tactical ballistic missile, able to deliver a 500kg warhead to targets 1450km away. It can operate from a variety of Iranian launch platforms, and has interchangeable warheads.
In the terminal phase, the HGV (Hypersonic Glide Vehicle) warhead separates from the main missile body and is able to accelerate and manuever in order to bypass ABM systems. Once separated, the warhead accelerates to mach 7-10. It uses both a thrust vectoring motor as well as actuating fins to maneuver. The distinctive triconic shape of the warhead provides stability whilst maneuvering at hypersonic speeds in the lower atmosphere.
Iran's state TV has been continuously running this video tonight as evidence of its missiles making impact on the ground and hitting targets in Israel. But it's old footage of farm fire in Texas and completely unrelated to tonight's attack.
Ghoncheh Habibiazad | غنچه
@GhonchehAzad
·
8h
A video broadcast by Iran's state TV tonight claiming to show the impact of Iran's retaliatory attack on Israel “minutes ago” is old. In fact, it shows fire in Texas and was published in March. https://twitter.com/GhonchehAzad/status/1779307601295036862
Correction: The video is even older than that, and it's from Chile, not Texas. Accordong to @cazamosfakenews, the clip shows fire "in Achupallas (Viña del Mar) in Chile and has been circulating on social networks since February".
#Engañoso | Un vídeo difundido esta noche por la TV estatal iraní HispanTV y algunos medios de propaganda venezolanos, que asegura mostrar el impacto del ataque de represalia de Irán contra Israel "hace minutos" NO es reciente. Se corresponde con un incendio en Achupallas (Viña del Mar), en Chile y circula en redes sociales desde febrero. Nota: Corregimos desmentido anterior donde mencionábamos erróneamente que se trataba de un video grabado en Texas. Algunos verificadores internacionales están citando un video publicado en marzo y aseguran de forma errónea que fue grabado en Texas. En realidad, el video es anterior y fue grabado en Chile.
Canadian president Justin Trudeau says his country stands with Israel. " Canada unequivocally condemns Iran’s airborne attacks against Israel," Trudeau said. "We stand with Israel. After supporting Hamas’ brutal October 7 attack, the Iranian regime’s latest actions will further destabilise the region and make lasting peace more difficult.". AP
I've done a quick check and I can't any reaction from Trudeau to Israel's attack on the Iranian embassy in Damascus.
So he condemns Iran's response but not the fatal attack that prompted it. BAU for most Western countries regarding Israel, the only player I can see in the Middle East committed to apartheid and genocide.
The dead Quds generals were part of a military unit whose mission is to conquer Israel militarily – not diplomats.
MMMmmm not quite a true statement.
Quds serve as an intelligence gathering force, and one who engages in unconventional warfare. We have in our military, units which preform these duties as well.
Please tell me your statement is not part of the spin that has come with their name translated into English "Jerusalem Force".
I'm of the school of thought that the Quds helped us defeat the head choppers in Syria and Iraq. Which personally was a very good thing.
And just as a side note – if the British and the Yanks had staged a coup here in 1954, I'd be pissed about it to this day too.
I never said they were diplomats. I'm fully aware that it was military people Israel was after. My point you're not responding to is the hypocrisy that says nothing about an Israeli attack on an Iranian embassy, regardless of who they wanted to eliminate, but condemns the response.
Iran obliged Israel with the response they wanted – a flashy whizz-bang military action with little or no damage of consequence, Western sympathies, more promises of arms and with another war to fight, Netanyahu stays out of gaol.
A classic – a nation isolated over dahiya in Gaza – gets to point out Iran is opposed to its existence, is arming Houthi to attack world shipping and is supplying weapons to Russia to attack Ukraine.
And looking deeper, note Iran is arming Hezbollah and Shia militias in Iraq to make them more powerful than the armies of Lebanon and Iraq and thus undermine the sovereignty of the two nation states – to make them bases for Iran’s war on Israel.
It’s aid to the secular Baath regime in Syria predicated on being allowed to organise bases for Shia militias to partner with Quds.
At the direction of US President Donald Trump the US military killed Soleimani, head of Iran’s Quds Force, the foreign arm of the IRGC, in the early hours of Friday, January 3, 2020, in an air raid near the cargo area of Baghdad International Airport.
Generally Quds military are regarded as fair game because they are of a unit formed for war on a member state of the UN.
You claim Israel is the only state committed to genocide and fail to note the purpose of Quds is to end the existence of a Jewish state. One cannot conclude that a nation that agreed to the 1947 partition plan and Oslo Accords is the same – though one suspect BN (Likud and coalition partners) is opposed to that two state outcome and observe that dahiya doctrine does not work.
The attack on the embassy compound – including consulate was condemned by the UNSG. In international law the site is regarded as part of a nations territory.
The "imperative for Iran" to retaliate for the attack on its embassy compound in Damascus might have been avoided had the UN Security Council condemned the strike, Tehran's mission to the United Nations has said.
"Had the UN Security Council condemned the Zionist regime’s reprehensible act of aggression on our diplomatic premises in Damascus and subsequently brought to justice its perpetrators, the imperative for Iran to punish this rogue regime might have been obviated," the mission said on the social media platform X on Thursday.
No one did, it's at the court to answer the case of genocide.
Because there is prima facie evidence, to proceed to trial or judgment on the case of genocide.
Which does mean people can call it a case of genocide, at this point with at least 40 thousand dead. I say the case has a good chance to prove that the IDF, and the government of Israel have been committing genocide.
It’s a time for choosing [23 Oct 2023] The humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza requires each of us to make a choice.
Which leads me, finally, to the choice the mostly unrepentant keyboard cavalry who are happily saddling up once more – in derivative columns and hyperbolic appearances on TV – made to side with their home team’s, by now, familiar mantra: Kill first, think later.
Israel-Gaza: The triumph of hatred [6 April 2024]
Six months into the war in Gaza, the most extremist government in Israel's history is reoccupying the narrow territory after having asphyxiated it for sixteen years.
A foretaste of the resource and security-driven conflicts to come, as tempers flare and patience wears thin on overshoot spaceship Earth.
40000 dead according to hammass, who lie as soon as breathe.
[lprent: It appears that you are simply lying with this false assertion of fact.
I don’t know of any death estimates from ‘hammas’ nor from Hamas.
The estimates you are probably referring to are by the Gazan Ministry of Health which at present are over 33k deaths. The methods used and the political position of the Ministry are detailed here in a easy to understand article that appears to be especially designed for stupid trolls like you.
I believe that the other 7k deaths comes from guesstimates from US intelligence sources (not ‘hammas’) about unreported bodies in collapsed buildings. No one actually knows because the numbers are bound to be quite inaccurate under the current fog of war conditions and that the Israelis appear to be targeting medical and aid workers. However what is clear is that the MoH figures are low.
The Israelis appear to have similar problems estimating the number of Hamas deaths despite holding the ground on which and above which most of those should have happened. Their estimates vary wildly. Similarly they haven’t ventured any estimates of the massacres that they have inflicted even in the areas where they now control and where they could dig them out from the blast effects. Also they seem to count an inordinate number of non-militant civilians as being hard-core Hamas militants based on non-military reports. It would appear in my opinion that the IDF routinely lies about the effectiveness of their intelligence and targeting. Hardly an ethical or moral position for a army to take.
If you are too stupid a troll to understand the difference between fiction, fact, opinion, or inherent inaccuracies, then simply don’t bother commenting here. I’ll happily keep pointing out just how stupid you appear. ]
The Palestinian Authority (PA) pays for it and is the direct employer of all HA staff in Gaza apart from a few Hamas political appointees. This isn’t exactly hard to find out. Most of the funding for the salaries, plant and consumables comes via the PA including from donors.
Hamas as a local authority, militia and political party may influence some people in the Gazan branches of the PA Ministry of Health. But so do many other organisation such organisations as the World Health Organisation, the Israeli Ministry of Health (diseases being no respecter of borders), the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) who have maintained a blockade of Gaza for decades and recently a ready supply of injured Gazan children, and the aid organisations who try to maintain a level of health in the area.
The Israeli government has limited influence apart from its instincts to kill and maim civilians using the IDF. Most of its influence has come from its untrustworthy habits of violating agreements to pay the taxes that it collects on behalf of the PA which are used to partially for the Gazan health system.
As the occupying force of Gaza, the Israeli government is responsible for the well being of the population under their occupation. They are most notable for doing the opposite and using dumb bombs to level civilian buildings and the civilians within.
I know this from doing a minimal level of reading and research.
Just as I know that you are a lazy foolish troll who makes little to no effort to ever do any research. Your comments over time on this site display all of the intelligence of parrot – blindly repeating the propaganda of whoever made up the latest round of misinformation designed for dumbarse parrots.
If you want links to all of this, then I suggest you provide your sources of information first, so I can inspect them for veracity and answer them with more accurate ones. In other words show some minimal effort.
Have to admit that was my reaction to the latest development too. Israel attacks an Iranian embassy with missiles – or something along those lines – and then loses it when Iran responds in kind.
Ya know, if someone came along and punched me in the eye, I would probably try to punch them back. I sure would respond. 🙄
Shocking DG wants cheaper housing, more home ownership etc.
ML is known for two things hounding Clare Curran for wanting better funded and organised state media (boo) and standing alongside Chris Penk and Simeon Brown (to make him look more significant) in photos.
Libertarians (DG) are wannabe feudal lords in liberal clothing – using the tools of capitalism and power to oppress workers & pillage resources, and using the language of freedom to act illegally & spread lies.
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed a New Zealand Government plane will head to riot-torn New Caledonia in the next hour in the first in a series of proposed flights to begin bringing New Zealanders home. Today’s flight will carry around 50 passengers with the most ...
Precious declaration saysYours is yours and mine you leave alone nowPrecious declaration saysI believe all hope is dead no longerTick tick tick Boom!Unexploded ordnance. A veritable minefield. A National caucus with a large number of unknowns, candidates who perhaps received little in the way of vetting as the party jumped ...
Rex Ahdar writes – The Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, likes to trace his political lineage back to the pioneers of parliamentary Maoridom. I will refer to these as the ‘big four’ or better still, the Four Knights. Just as ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Willie Jackson will participate in the prestigious Oxford Union debate on Thursday, following in David Lange’s footsteps. Coincidentally, Jackson has also followed Lange’s footsteps by living in his old home in South Auckland. And like Lange, Jackson might be the sort of loud-mouth scrapper ...
That is the only way to describe an MP "forgetting" to declare $178,000 in donations. The amount of money involved - more than five times the candidate spending cap, and two and a half times the median income - is boggling. How do you just "forget" that amount of money? ...
In this week’s “A View from Afar” podcast Selwyn Manning and spoke about the upcoming US elections and what the possibility of another Trump presidency means for the US role in world affairs. We also spoke about the problems Joe … Continue reading → ...
Hi,Two years ago I briefly featured in Justin Pemberton’s Web of Chaos documentary, which touched on things like QAnon during the pandemic.I mostly prattled on about how intertwined conspiracy narratives are with Evangelical Christian thinking, something Webworm’s explored in the past.(The doc is available on TVNZ+, if you’re not in ...
The Government is leaving the entire construction sector and the community housing sector in limbo. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government released the long-awaited Bill English-led review of Kāinga Ora yesterday, but delayed key decisions on its build plan and how to help community housing providers (CHPs) build ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Daisy Simmons Farmers who can’t sleep, worrying they’ll lose everything amid increasing drought. Youth struggling with depression over a future that feels hopeless. Indigenous people grief-stricken over devastated ecosystems. For all these people and more, climate change is taking a clear toll ...
New Zealand’s relationship with China is becoming harder to define, and with that comes a worry that a deteriorating political relationship could spill over into the economic relationship. It is about more than whether New Zealand will join Pillar Two of Aukus, though the Chinese Ambassador, more or less, suggested ...
Been hoping we would see something like this from Sir Geoffrey Palmer. This is excellent.The present Bill goes further than the National Development Act 1979 in stripping away procedures designed to ensure that environmental issues are properly considered. The 1979 approach was not acceptable then and this present approach is ...
He’s Got The Moxie: Only Willie Jackson possesses the credentials to meld together a new Labour message that is, at one and the same moment, staunchly working-class, union-friendly, and which speaks to the hundreds-of-thousands of urban Māori untethered to the neo-tribal capitalist elites of the Iwi Leaders Forum.IT’S ONE OF THE ...
Tree-huggers may well accuse the Government of giving them the fingers, after Energy Minister Simeon Brown announced new measures to protect powerlines from trees, rather than measures to protect trees from powerlines. It can be no coincidence, surely, that this has been announced at the same as Fisheries Minister Shane Jones ...
Willie Jackson will participate in the prestigious Oxford Union debate on Thursday, following in David Lange’s footsteps. Coincidentally, Jackson has also followed Lange’s footsteps by living in his old home in South Auckland. And like Lange, Jackson might be the sort of loud-mouth scrapper who could take over the Labour ...
Barrister Gary Judd KC’s complaint to the Regulatory Review Committee has sparked a fierce debate about the place of tikanga Māori – or Māori customs, values and spiritual beliefs – in the law.Judd opposes the New Zealand Council of Legal Education’s plans to make teaching tikanga compulsory in the legal curriculum.AUT ...
Alwyn Poole writes – In New Zealand we have approximately 460 high schools. The gaps between the schools that produce the best results for students and those at the other end of the spectrum are enormous.In terms of the data for their leavers, the top 30 schools have ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand First Cabinet Minister Shane Jones has become the best advertisement against the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill. In selling the radical new resource consenting processes, in which ministers can green light any mine, dam, or other major development, Jones seems to be ...
Brian Eastonwrites – The Fast-Track Approvals Bill enables cabinet ministers to circumvent key environmental planning and protection processes for infrastructure projects. Its difficulties have been well canvassed. This column suggests a different way of thinking about the proposal. I am ...
The split opening up in Israel’s “War Cabinet” is not just between PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his long-term rival Benny Gantz. It is actually a three-way split, set in motion by Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. It was Gallant’s open criticism of Netanyahu that finally flushed Gantz out into the open. ...
On Thursday 17 May, the Mayoral Proposal for Auckland’s Long Term Plan 2024-2034 was passed by Auckland Council, 20 to 1. It is set to be formally adopted by the Governing Body at its June 27th meeting. The entire process took 8 hours, with the vast majority of that time ...
Pakanga o muaTukua, ka ngaroPuritia taku ringaNgaro ana te ara ki pae rauThere's a battle aheadMany battles are lostBut you'll never see the end of the roadWhile you're travelling with meLate yesterday morning I headed to Wynyard Quarter to see Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick give their pre-budget State of ...
Maybe the Prime Minister and his Finance Minister expected the worst, so they mounted a stout defence of the Budget tax cuts to their party faithful at a party conference over the weekend. In turn, they were greeted with applause, which, though it may have been less than wildly enthusiastic, ...
A listing of 34 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, May 12, 2024 thru Sat, May 18, 2024. Story of the week “The legislation I signed today [will] keep windmills off our beaches, gas in our tanks, and ...
TL;DR: Here’s six links that stood out to me in the last day in Aotearoa’s political economy to 6:06am on Sunday, May 19:Aotearoa-NZ is the seventh worst in the OECD’s homelessness rankings, just behind the United States and just ahead of Australia. BlackRock thinks rate hikes actually worsen inflation because ...
Halfway up a historic tower in York, we are neither up nor down. At the top you will have views of a city steeped in antiquity, made and remade by Romans, Normans, Vikings, Tescos. Below, you will find a retired minister happy to tell you all about this most astonishing ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Does breathing contribute to CO2 ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: KiwiRail’s seemingly endless requests for more money is damning. At one point, KiwiRail assured Robertson when he was the Finance Minister that the worst-case scenario would be an extra $300 million before requesting $1.2 billion a few months later. Not what most people ...
No one knows what it's likeTo be the bad manTo be the sad manBehind blue eyesNo one knows what it's likeTo be hatedTo be fatedTo telling only liesHave you ever wondered what life must be like for Mike Hosking? Seeing things in black and white through blue tinted specs? In ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past two week’s editions.Share More Than A FeildingBike bling, London Read more ...
Hi,I think we all made it through another week — congratulations. I’ve been digesting the new Arab Strap record, which is astonishing. In other news, I’m going to be doing a Webworm popup in Auckland, New Zealand on Saturday July 13. I’ll bring a bunch of merch, and some other ...
The Fast-Track Approvals Bill enables cabinet ministers to circumvent key environmental planning and protection processes for infrastructure projects. Its difficulties have been well canvassed. This column suggests a different way of thinking about the proposal. I am going to explore the Bill from the perspective of its proponents with their ...
New Zealand First Cabinet Minister Shane Jones has become the best advertisement against the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill. In selling the radical new resource consenting processes, in which ministers can green light any mine, dam, or other major development, Jones seems to be shooting the proposal in the foot. ...
Buzz from the Beehive Associate Education Minister David Seymour is urging the PostPrimary Teachers Association to put learning ahead of ideology. He wants the union leaders to call off their teachers meetings around the country where they hope to muster the strength to undo the government’s plans to establish several ...
What are police for? "Fighting crime" is the obvious answer. If there's a burglary, they should show up and investigate. Ditto if there's a murder or sexual assault. Speeding or drunk or dangerous driving is a crime, so obviously they should respond to that. And obviously, they should respond to ...
Michael Reddell writes – I got curious yesterday about how the Australia/New Zealand real exchange rate had changed over the last decade, and so dug out the data on the changes in the two countries’ CPIs. Over the 10 years from March 2014 to March 2024, New Zealand’s ...
Graham Adams writes that 20 years after the land march, judges are quietly awarding a swathe of coastal rights to iwi. Early this month, an hour-long documentary was released by TVNZ to mark the 20th anniversary of the land-rights march to oppose Helen Clark’s Foreshore and Seabed Act. The account ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: Suspended Green MP Darleen Tana has passed an unpleasant milestone: she has now been absent for as many parliamentary sitting days as she has been present for this year. Tana is on full pay while she is suspended, and will benefit from a ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is no coincidence that two Labour should-have-been MPs are making the most noise about public sector cuts. As assistant general secretary of the Public Service Association, Fleur Fitzsimons has been at the forefront of revealing where the next round of state sector job ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s becoming a classic case study for why lobbying deals with politicians need greater scrutiny. Former National Minister Steven Joyce runs a lobbying company with a major client – the University of Waikato. The University desperately wants $300m+ of taxpayer funding to establish a ...
This is one of the (extra) weekly columns on music or movies. Plenty of solid analyses of Possession exist online and most of them – inevitably – contain spoilers. This column is more in the way of a first-timer’s aid to getting your initial bearings. You don’t need to have ...
I am painting in oil, a portrait of a manWho has taken all the heart aches,And all the pain he can stand.I am using all the colors of blue,I have here on my stand.I am painting in oil, a portrait of a man.This has been an interesting week for me. ...
Helen Clark joins the Hoon as a special guest talking whether Aotearoa should join Aukus II, and her views on the fast track legislation and how Luxon and the new Government are performing. File Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts ...
With an election due in less than nine months, Britain’s embattled PM, Rishi Sunak, gave a useful speech earlier this week. He made a substantial case for his government, perhaps as compelling as is possible in the current environment. Quite an achievement. His overall theme was security, first pulling ...
Open access notablesPublicly expressed climate scepticism is greatest in regions with high CO2 emissions, Pearson et al., Climatic Change:We analysed a recently released corpus of climate-related tweets to examine the macro-level factors associated with public declarations of climate change scepticism. Analyses of over 2 million geo-located tweets in the U.S. showed that climate ...
You can be all negative about these charter schools if you want, but I’m here to accentuate the positive. You can get all worked up, if you want to, by the contradiction of Luxon saying We’re going to make sure that every school in the country is teaching exactly the same ...
Losing The Room: One can only speculate about what has persuaded the Coalition Government that it will pay no electoral price for unreasonably pushing ahead with policies that are so clearly against the national interest. They seem quite oblivious to the risk that by doing so they will convince an increasing ...
Name suppression decisions can be tough sometimes. No matter your views on free speech, you have to be hard-hearted not to be torn by the tug of the competing arguments. I think you can feel the Supreme Court wrestling with that in M v The King. The case for ...
The Merchants of Menace: The Coalition Government has convinced itself that the “Brahmins’” emollient functions have become much too irksome and expensive. Those who see themselves as the best hope of rebuilding New Zealand’s ailing capitalist system, appear to have convinced themselves that a little bit of blunt trauma is what their mollycoddled ...
When National first proposed its Muldoonist "fast-track" law, they were warned that it would inevitably lead to corruption. And that is exactly what has happened, with Resources Minister Shane Jones taking secret meetings with potential applicants:On Tuesday, in a Newsroom story, questions were raised about a dinner Jones ...
Buzz from the Beehive One day – hopefully – we will push that Russian rascal, Vladimir Putin, beyond breaking point. Perhaps it will happen today, when he learns that Foreign Minister Winston Peters is again tightening the thumbscrews. Peters announced further sanctions, this time on 28 individuals and 14 entities ...
How Labour’s and National’s failure to move beyond neoliberalism has brought New Zealand to the brink of economic and cultural chaos.TO START LOSING, so soon after you won, requires a special kind of political incompetence. At the heart of this Coalition Government’s failure to retain, and build upon, the public ...
“Members of Parliament don’t work for us, they represent us, an entirely different thing. As with so much that has turned out badly, the re-organising of MPs’ responsibilities began with the Fourth Labour Government. That’s when they began to be treated like employees – public servants – whose diaries had ...
It’s becoming a classic case study for why lobbying deals with politicians need greater scrutiny. Former National Minister Steven Joyce runs a lobbying company with a major client – the University of Waikato. The University desperately wants $300m+ of taxpayer funding to establish a third medical school in New Zealand, ...
Time To Choose: Like it or not, the Kiwis are either going into AUKUS’s “Pillar 2” – or they are going to China.HAD ZHENG HE’S FLEET sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks ...
Henry Ergas writes – When in Randall Jarrell’s Pictures from an Institution, a college president is accused of being a hypocrite, the novel’s narrator retorts that the description is grossly unfair. After all, the man is still far from the stage of moral development at which the charge ...
David Farrar writes – Radio NZ reports: The Education Review Office says too many new teachers feel poorly prepared for their jobs. In a report published on Monday, the review office said 60 percent of the principals it interviewed said their new teachers were not ready. ...
New Zealand’s economic performance and the PM’s vision Michael Reddell writes – When I wrote yesterday morning’s post, highlighting how poorly both New Zealand and its Anglo peer countries have been doing in respect of productivity in recent times (ie, in the case of New ...
Hi all,Firstly - thank you! You guys are awesome. The response I’ve received to last night’s mail has been quite overwhelming. It’s a ghastly day outside, but there are no clouds in here.In case you didn’t read my email and are wondering what on earth I’m talking about you can ...
If there was still any doubt as to who is actually running this government – and it isn’t the buffoon from Botany – then this week’s announcement of a huge spend up on charter schools has settled the matter. While jobs and public services continue to be cut in the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gaye Taylor As widespread drought raises expectations for a repeat of last year’s ferocious wildfire season, response teams across Canada are grappling with the rapidly changing face of fire in a warming climate. No longer quenched by winter, nor quelled by the ...
Half of Christchurch City Holdings Ltd’s directors and its chair resigned en masse last night in protest at Christchurch City Council’s demand to front-load dividends File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The chair of Christchurch City Council’s investment company and four of its independent directors resigned in protest last ...
The University of Waikato has reworded an advertisement that begins the tender process for its new $300 million-plus medical school even though the Government still needs to approve it. However, even the reworded ad contains an architect’s visualisations of what the school might look like. ACT leader David Seymour told ...
As a follow-up to the Rings of Power trailer discussion, I thought I needed to add something. There has been some online mockery about the use of the same actor for both the Halbrand and Annatar incarnations of Sauron. The reasoning is that Halbrand with a shave and a new ...
This isn’t quite as dramatic as the title might suggest. I’m not going anywhere, but there is something I wanted to talk to you about.Let’s start with a typical day.Most days I send out a newsletter in the morning. If I’ve written a lot the previous evening it might be ...
Buzz from the Beehive The promise of tax relief loomed large in his considerations when the PM delivered a pre-Budget speech to the Auckland Business Chamber. The job back in Wellington is getting government spending back under control, he said, bandying figures which show that in per capita terms, the ...
Yesterday de facto Prime Minister David Seymour announced that his glove puppet government would be re-introducing charter schools, throwing $150 million at his pet quacks, donors and cronies and introducing an entire new government agency to oversee them (the existing Education Review Office, which actually knows how to review schools, ...
Seeing that, in order to discredit the figures and achieve moral superiority while attempting to deflect attention away from the military assault on Rafa, Israel supporters in NZ have seized on reports that casualty numbers in Gaza may be inflated … Continue reading → ...
David Farrar writes – Newstalk ZB report: The man responsible for a horror hit and run in central Wellington last year was on a suspended licence and was so drunk he later asked police, “Did I kill someone?” Jason Tuitama injured two women when he ran a red ...
Muriel Newman writes – Former US President Ronald Reagan once said, “Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation.” The fight for ...
Why Courts should have said Waitangi Tribunal could not summons Karen Chhour Gary Judd writes – In the High Court, Justice Isacs declined to uphold the witness summons issued by the Waitangi Tribunal to compel Minister for Children, Karen Chhour, to appear before it to be ...
The Government has yet again failed to do the one thing that needs to happen to ensure houses can be built – commit to ongoing funding, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Treasury officials have outlined many ways in which the Fast Track Approvals Bill is deeply flawed, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking says. ...
Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick used this year's State of the Planet to call on the Government to prioritise people and planet as the delivery of the Budget approaches. A full transcript of their speeches can be found below. ...
Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick have used their State of the Planet speeches to challenge the Government to prioritise people and planet over profit as the delivery of the Budget approaches. ...
The Government’s introduction of legislation that would enable landlords to end tenancies with no reason marks a dark day for the 1.4 million people who rent their home in Aotearoa. ...
The Minister for Mental Health has found the Suicide Prevention Office and mental health support for 111 calls slipping through his fingers, says Labour spokesperson for Mental Health Ingrid Leary. ...
Today’s justification from the Minister for Children for scrapping protections for our tamariki was either a case of ignorance or deliberate deception. ...
The Green Party says the Government’s misguided policy on gangs will fail, following the announcement of the establishment of a national gang unit and district gang disruption units to target gang activities. ...
“With Police pay negotiations still unresolved after six months in Government, Mark Mitchell has today rolled the Commissioner out for a rebrand of their approach to gang crime,” Labour police spokesperson Ginny Andersen said. ...
The Government bringing back 50 charter schools will not increase achievement and is a distraction from the core mission of the education system, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Te Pāti Māori is showing extreme concern over the Environment Select Committees adoption of a lucky dip draw to determine hearings for the Fast Track Approvals bill. Of the 27,000 submissions, 2,900 requested to present. All organisations will be heard; however, the remaining 2,350 submitters will be subject to a ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Member’s Bill that will protect women’s spaces. The ‘Fair Access to Bathrooms Bill’ will require, primarily in the interest and safety of women and girls, that all new non-domestic publicly accessible buildings provide separate, clearly demarcated, unisex and single sex bathrooms. This Bill ...
The Green Party is welcoming Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ continuation of Hon. James Shaw’s cross-party work on climate adaptation, now in the form of a Finance and Expenditure Committee Inquiry. ...
The National Government plans to cut 390 jobs at ACC, including roles in the areas of prevention of sexual violence, road safety and workplace safety. ...
The Government has been caught in opposition to evidence once again as it looks to usher in tried, tested and failed work seminar obligations for job-seeking beneficiaries. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed a New Zealand Government plane will head to New Caledonia in the next hour in the first in a series of proposed flights to begin bringing New Zealanders home. “New Zealanders in New Caledonia have faced a challenging few days - and bringing ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed a New Zealand Government plane will head to New Caledonia in the next hour in the first in a series of proposed flights to begin bringing New Zealanders home. “New Zealanders in New Caledonia have faced a challenging few days - and bringing them ...
The Coalition Government will introduce legislation this year that will enable roadside drug testing as part of our commitment to improve road safety and restore law and order, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Alcohol and drugs are the number one contributing factor in fatal road crashes in New Zealand. In ...
The Government has announced a series of immediate actions in response to the independent review of Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “Kāinga Ora is a large and important Crown entity, with assets of $45 billion and over $2.5 billion of expenditure each year. It ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour is pleased that Pseudoephedrine can now be purchased by the general public to protect them from winter illness, after the coalition government worked swiftly to change the law and oversaw a fast approval process by Medsafe. “Pharmacies are now putting the medicines back on their ...
Tēnā koutou katoa. Da jia hao. Good morning everyone. Prime Minister Luxon, your excellency, a great friend of New Zealand and my friend Ambassador Wang, Mayor of what he tells me is the best city in New Zealand, Wayne Brown, the highly respected Fran O’Sullivan, Champion of the Auckland business ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced that the Government will make it easier for lines firms to take action to remove vegetation from obstructing local powerlines. The change will ensure greater security of electricity supply in local communities, particularly during severe weather events. “Trees or parts of trees falling on ...
Wairarapa Moana ki Pouakani were the top winners at this year’s Ahuwhenua Trophy awards recognising the best in Māori dairy farming. Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka announced the winners and congratulated runners-up, Whakatōhea Māori Trust Board, at an awards celebration also attended by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Finance Minister ...
"On the 27th of March, I sought assurances from the Chief Executive, Department of Internal Affairs, that the Department’s correct processes and policies had been followed in regards to a passport application which received media attention,” says Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden. “I raised my concerns after being ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins has announced the appointment of three new District Court Judges, to replace Judges who have recently retired. Peter James Davey of Auckland has been appointed a District Court Judge with a jury jurisdiction to be based at Whangarei. Mr Davey initially started work as a law clerk/solicitor with ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour is calling on the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) to put ideology to the side and focus on students’ learning, in reaction to the union holding paid teacher meetings across New Zealand about charter schools. “The PPTA is disrupting schools up and down the ...
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly today announced the appointment of Craig Stobo as the new chair of the Financial Markets Authority (FMA). Mr Stobo takes over from Mark Todd, whose term expired at the end of April. Mr Stobo’s appointment is for a five-year term. “The FMA plays ...
Surf Life Saving New Zealand and Coastguard New Zealand will continue to be able to keep people safe in, on, and around the water following a funding boost of $63.644 million over four years, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Associate Transport Minister Matt Doocey say. “Heading to the beach for ...
New Zealand and Tuvalu have reaffirmed their close relationship, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand is committed to working with Tuvalu on a shared vision of resilience, prosperity and security, in close concert with Australia,” says Mr Peters, who last visited Tuvalu in 2019. “It is my pleasure ...
New Zealand is gravely concerned about the situation in New Caledonia, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The escalating situation and violent protests in Nouméa are of serious concern across the Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “The immediate priority must be for all sides to take steps to de-escalate the ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon met today with Samoa’s O le Ao o le Malo, Afioga Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II, who is making a State Visit to New Zealand. “His Highness and I reflected on our two countries’ extensive community links, with Samoan–New Zealanders contributing to all areas of our national ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has announced that he has approved Waiheke Island ferry operator Island Direct to be eligible for SuperGold Card funding, paving the way for a commercial agreement to bring the operator into the scheme. “Island Direct started operating in November 2023, offering an additional option for people ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters today announced further sanctions on 28 individuals and 14 entities providing military and strategic support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Russia is directly supported by its military-industrial complex in its illegal aggression against Ukraine, attacking its sovereignty and territorial integrity. New Zealand condemns all entities and ...
A year on from the tragedy at Loafers Lodge, the Government is working hard to improve building fire safety, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “I want to share my sincere condolences with the families and friends of the victims on the anniversary of the tragic fire at Loafers ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for having me here in the lead up to my Government’s first Budget. Before I get started can I acknowledge: Simon Bridges – Auckland Business Chamber CEO. Steve Jurkovich – Kiwibank CEO. Kids born ...
New Zealand and Vanuatu will enhance collaboration on issues of mutual interest, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “It is important to return to Port Vila this week with a broad, high-level political delegation which demonstrates our deep commitment to New Zealand’s relationship with Vanuatu,” Mr Peters says. “This ...
Minister for Land Information, Chris Penk will travel to Peru this week to represent New Zealand at a meeting of trade ministers from the Asia-Pacific region on behalf of Trade Minister Todd McClay. The annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers Responsible for Trade meeting will be held on 17-18 May ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford will head to the United Kingdom this week to participate in the 22nd Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (CCEM) and the 2024 Education World Forum (EWF). “I am looking forward to sharing this Government’s education priorities, such as introducing a knowledge-rich curriculum, implementing an evidence-based ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford has today thanked outgoing New Zealand Qualifications Authority Chair, Hon Tracey Martin. “Tracey Martin tendered her resignation late last month in order to take up a new role,” Ms Stanford says. Ms Martin will relinquish the role of Chair on 10 May and current Deputy ...
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and President Emmanuel Macron of France today announced a new non-governmental organisation, the Christchurch Call Foundation, to coordinate the Christchurch Call’s work to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. This change gives effect to the outcomes of the November 2023 Call Leaders’ Summit, ...
Distinguished public servant and former diplomat Sir Maarten Wevers will lead the independent review into the disability support services administered by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. The review was announced by Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston a fortnight ago to examine what could be done to strengthen the ...
Today’s announcement by Police Commissioner Andrew Coster of a National Gang Unit and district Gang Disruption Units will help deliver on the coalition Government’s pledge to restore law and order and crack down on criminal gangs, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. “The National Gang Unit and Gang Disruption Units will ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today expressed regret at North Korea’s aggressive rhetoric towards New Zealand and its international partners. “New Zealand proudly stands with the international community in upholding the rules-based order through its monitoring and surveillance deployments, which it has been regularly doing alongside partners since 2018,” Mr ...
Air Vice-Marshal Tony Davies MNZM is the new Chief of Defence Force, Defence Minister Judith Collins announced today. The Chief of Defence Force commands the Navy, Army and Air Force and is the principal military advisor to the Defence Minister and other Ministers with relevant portfolio responsibilities in the defence ...
Legislation to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act has been introduced to Parliament. The Bill’s introduction reaffirms the Coalition Government’s commitment to the safety of children in care, says Minister for Children, Karen Chhour. “While section 7AA was introduced with good intentions, it creates a conflict for Oranga ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins will this week travel to the UK and Italy to meet with her defence counterparts, and to attend Battles of Cassino commemorations. “I am humbled to be able to represent the New Zealand Government in Italy at the commemorations for the 80th anniversary of what was ...
The upcoming Budget will include funding for up to 50 charter schools to help lift declining educational performance, Associate Education Minister David Seymour announced today. $153 million in new funding will be provided over four years to establish and operate up to 15 new charter schools and convert 35 state ...
“The results of the public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has now been received, with results indicating over 13,000 submissions were made from members of the public,” Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “We heard feedback about the extended lockdowns in ...
Foreign Minister, Defence Minister, other Members of Parliament Acting Chief of Defence Force, Secretary of Defence Distinguished Guests Defence and Diplomatic Colleagues Ladies and Gentlemen, Good afternoon, tēna koutou, apinun tru It’s a pleasure to be back in Port Moresby today, and to speak here at the Kumul Leadership ...
Health, infrastructure, renewable energy, and stability are among the themes of the current visit to Papua New Guinea by a New Zealand political delegation, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Papua New Guinea carries serious weight in the Pacific, and New Zealand deeply values our relationship with it,” Mr Peters ...
The coalition Government is launching Roads of Regional Significance to sit alongside Roads of National Significance as part of its plan to deliver priority roading projects across the country, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The Roads of National Significance (RoNS) built by the previous National Government are some of New Zealand’s ...
A high-level New Zealand political delegation in Honiara today congratulated the new Government of Solomon Islands, led by Jeremiah Manele, on taking office. “We are privileged to meet the new Prime Minister and members of his Cabinet during his government’s first ten days in office,” Deputy Prime Minister and ...
New Zealand voted in favour of a resolution broadening Palestine’s participation at the United Nations General Assembly overnight, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The resolution enhances the rights of Palestine to participate in the work of the UN General Assembly while stopping short of admitting Palestine as a full ...
Introduction Good morning. It’s a great privilege to be here at the 2024 Infrastructure Symposium. I was extremely happy when the Prime Minister asked me to be his Minister for Infrastructure. It is one of the great barriers holding the New Zealand economy back from achieving its potential. Building high ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced the upcoming Budget will include new funding of $571 million for Defence Force pay and projects. “Our servicemen and women do New Zealand proud throughout the world and this funding will help ensure we retain their services and expertise as we navigate an increasingly ...
The PSA is taking action to force the Ministry of Education to comply with its legal obligations to do everything it can to find other roles for staff it is laying off because of the Government’s spending cuts. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrea Waling, Senior Lecturer & Research Fellow, Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University Netflix There has been much excitement in the lead up to the first four episodes of Bridgerton’s season three, featuring leading couple Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa De Bortoli, Senior Research Fellow, Australian Council for Educational Research Taylor Flowe/Unsplash, CC BY Australian teenagers have more disruptive maths classrooms and experience bullying at greater levels than the OECD average, a new report shows. But in better news, Australian ...
Poet, editor and former bookseller Jane Arthur’s debut children’s novel Brown Bird is the story of a shy, self-conscious 11-year-old – partly based on her childhood self – venturing out of her quiet comfort zone. Children’s books are close to my heart because mostly I believe that adults are rings ...
Peter Jackson is bringing Lord of the Rings back to Wellington, producing two new Gollum films in Wellington. Madeleine Chapman (Gollum) argues with Madeleine Chapman (Smeagol) about it. First of all, I can’t believe we’re even having this conversation. Of course it’s great news!I don’t know, it gives me ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a part-time media librarian and superannuitant explains how he spends and saves. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Male Age: 65 Ethnicity: EuropeanRole: Media librarian ...
The Government’s Environmental Select Committee is refusing to engage meaningfully when it matters the most over new fast tracking environmental legislation, says Ngāti Ruanui. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samantha Marsh, Senior Research Fellow in Public Health, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Christoph Soeder/dpa New Zealand’s decision to no longer offer free influenza vaccines for all children under 12 will likely wipe out recent gains in uptake. And it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexis Anja Kallio, Deputy Director (Research), Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University Many young people in contact with the justice system come from backgrounds of extreme poverty, parental abuse or neglect, parental incarceration and disrupted education. These complex traumas often manifest as addictions ...
The agency was found to be underperforming and ‘not financially viable’, explains Stewart Sowman-Lund in this extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. A damning report A government-ordered ...
Asia Pacific Report For more than 76 years, Palestinians have resisted occupation, dispossession and ethnic cleansing, culminating in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. Yet in the midst of this catastrophic seven months of “hell on earth”, it is a paradox that there exists an extraordinary oasis of peace and nature. ...
You’ll never set foot in one. But its emissions still effect you. Shanti Mathias reports on a campaign to make private jet owners pay for their emissions in some way. The private jet passengers saunter down the red carpet, wearing sunglasses and heels; paparazzi cameras flash. The sky is blue, ...
Quality teachers back on the front line can only be a good thing. One of the difficult things we teach in senior English classes at secondary school is the development of an idea. This involves deepening your argument, without instead “going sideways” and merely adding examples while repeating the same ...
It’s 2011 and I am 43 years old. My partner, Christine, and I got together when I was 36. We had been friends for about 10 years before that. One of the first things I asked Christine was whether she wanted to have kids. I had just come out of ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 21 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: As an indication of the eye-watering sums involved for the mega-prison plans announced two weeks ago by Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell, consider that $932 million has already been spent on a separate facility due to open at Waikeria next year – that’s about $1.5 million for each of the ...
Opinion: People with certain types of health conditions are more likely than others to have their symptoms dismissed, minimised or disbelieved. These conditions are diagnosed based on the patient self-report of symptoms, where there is no definitive diagnostic test that can prove the existence of disease or demonstrate structural or ...
The intensity of it, ironically, can feel like bullying. Social media activism is reaching something of a peak with the war in Gaza, using the hashtag Blockout2024. It started at this year’s MetGala when influencer and model Haley Kalil was caught on video muttering ‘let them eat cake’ – suddenly ...
New Caledonia’s Tontouta International Airport remains closed, and Air New Zealand’s next scheduled flight is on Saturday — although it is not ruling out adding extra services. Air NZ’s Captain David Morgan said on Monday evening flights would only resume when they were assured of the security of the airport ...
Asia Pacific Report As Israel drives the Palestinians deeper into another Nakba in Gaza with its assault on Rafah, the Palestine Youth Aotearoa (PYA) and solidarity supporters in Aotearoa New Zealand tonight commemorated the original Nakba — “the Catastrophe” — of 1948. The 1948 Nakba . . . more than ...
Young people on the streets in New Caledonia are saying they will “never give up” pushing back against France’s hold on the Pacific territory, a Kanak journalist in Nouméa says. Pro-independence Radio Djiido’s Andre Qaeze told RNZ Pacific young people had said that “Paris must respect us” and what had ...
This episode of A View from Afar podcast was recorded live from 12:45pm May 20, 2024 (NZST). Political scientist Paul Buchanan and Selwyn Manning examine: The United States and how the world is engaging with it geopolitically.Specifically, Paul and Selwyn analyse what has changed in this regard in ...
Analysis - Power is not being abused, but it is not being well managed either. New Zealand democracy, unique and currently brittle, should be handled with greater care, Alexander Gillespie writes. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Lindenmayer, Professor, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University Forest Conservation Victoria, CC BY-NC-ND Victoria’s native forest logging industry ended on January 1 this year. The news was met with jubilation from conservationists. But did logging really ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Crosby, Professor, Monash University Rose Marinelli/ShutterstockThis article is part two of The Conversation’s “Business Basics” series where we ask leading experts to discuss key concepts in business, economics and finance. How governments should manage their budgets, and how ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicole George, Associate Professor in Peace and Conflict Studies, The University of Queensland On Sunday afternoon, Australian citizens who have been trapped in New Caledonia were called to a meeting at one of the large hotels in the capital, Noumea. The ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hannah Soong, Senior Lecturer and Socio-cultural researcher, UniSA Education Futures, University of South Australia International students have come under fire from both sides of federal politics in the past week. The Albanese government introduced legislation to parliament last Thursday to put ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jake Renzella, Lecturer, Director of Studies (Computer Science), UNSW Sydney An example of shrimp Jesus.Shutterstock AI Generator If you search “shrimp Jesus” on Facebook, you might encounter dozens of images of artificial intelligence (AI) generated crustaceans meshed in various forms with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua McLeod, Lecturer in Sport Management, Deakin University Being a sport administrator comes with many perks, so it’s no surprise many want to stay in their positions as long as possible. Recently, a trend has emerged whereby leaders in sport are seeking ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lauren Ball, Professor of Community Health and Wellbeing, The University of Queensland Joyisjoyful/Shutterstock If you buy your olive oil in bulk, you’ve likely been in for a shock in recent weeks. Major supermarkets have been selling olive oil for up to ...
A conversation with artist and home cook Prairie Hatchard-McGill, aka @cacioeprairie. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. A few weeks ago, I spotted Prairie strolling down Ponsonby Road at sunset, a bunch of celery tucked under her arm. She was too far away for me ...
The Haka Challenge invites anyone to learn and record the Ka Mate haka as performed by the All Blacks, to show their support for "the South Pacific's greatest truth teller". ...
At the Christchurch rally in support of Palestine, he started his hunger strike and vowed to continue until the government stops supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza. ...
With Nouméa reeling as mainly young, politically active Kanak people take to the streets and protest, a spirit that has been dormant since the 1980s has awoken. Tāmaki Makaurau-based Kanak Joseph Xulué provides some context.As reports continue to emphasise the fires burning through the streets of Nouméa (the capital ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Newspoll, conducted after the May 14 budget from a sample of over 1,200 people, gave Labor a 52–48% lead over ...
A New Zealander studying at the University of New Caledonia says students have been taught to use fire extinguishers as firefighters are unlikely to come help if there is an emergency. It comes as days of unrest followed a controversial proposed constitutional amendment which would allow more French residents of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of Waikato Getty Images There have been so many submissions on the government’s proposed Fast-track Approvals Bill – 27,000 written, with 2,900 wanting to appear before the select committee in person – that a ballot ...
We round up everything coming to streaming services this week, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, ThreeNow, Neon and TVNZ+. If you love feral robots: Atlas (Netflix, May 24)Look, if you thought This is Me…Now: A Love Story was Jennifer Lopez at her most intense, then ...
The LIVE Recording of A View from Afar podcast will begin today at 12:45pm May 20, 2024 (NZST) which is Sunday evening, 8:30pm (USEST). Today, political scientist Paul Buchanan and Selwyn Manning will examine: The United States and how the world is engaging with it geopolitically.Specifically, we will ...
After falling victim to a scam over the phone, Russell Brown spent the day with One NZ’s cyber defence and fraud prevention teams to see the work they do to stop millions of scam attempts every year.The only windows in the Cyber Defence Centre at One NZ’s Auckland headquarters ...
Treasury officials have outlined many ways in which the Fast Track Approvals Bill is deeply flawed, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking says. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marika Sosnowski, Postdoctoral research fellow, The University of Melbourne Ever since armed conflict has existed, ceasefires have been thought of as a bridge between war and peace. Consequently, their success has been measured by their ability to stop violence between warring parties ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antonia Shand, Research Fellow, Obstetrician, University of Sydney Backgroundy/Shutterstock Oral retinoids are a type of medicine used to treat severe acne. They’re sold under the brand name Roaccutane, among others. While oral retinoids are very effective, they can have harmful effects ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Renwick, Professor of Agricultural Economics, Lincoln University, New Zealand This month the federal government announced a plan to ban live sheep exports, set to come into effect from May 1 2028. The announcement coincided with the release of a highly ...
Iran attacking Israel… start of WW3?
This really is scary. WTF is wrong with people???
Preceded on April the 1st, when Israel bombed the Iranian embassy in Damascus.
why did Israel bomb the Iranian embassy?
To provoke this response?
They killed a couple of senior Iranian military personal. Its a bit unclear to me what discussions they were having in Syria however though this might have been the motivation. It may also have been a provocation due to US politics turning rhetorically on Israel at the time.
the bombing was more to kill the military personal rather than being an attack on the embassy?
Don't think Israel has explained their thinking to that degree. They said it was to kill these military personal and that they were known to be in the embassy.
ok, that makes sense though.
I mean, still stupid, but at least coherent.
Stupid??! You may not realise the sanctity that embassies have always been blessed with. In international law (rather than the "rules based order") embassies are regarded as that countries territory. Historically, even during conflicts and war. Israel knows this and trashes yet another norm of international relations and we think its a bit stupid?? Straight after this, Ecuador invaded Mexico's embassy in Quito causing Mexico to break off diplomatic relations.
Israel is now bent on breaking every international norm with the full and absolute support of Joe Biden.
https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-and-us-deliberately-gutting-international-law-gaza/45696
Iran has shown extreme restraint.
I didn't say 'a bit stupid'. Don't put words in my mouth.
It is not a norm of international behaviour to
1.supply arms to non state groups (Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthi in Yemen and Shia militias in Iraq) to attack another nation state of the UN
2.it is not normal for a nation state to form a military unit (Quds) for the specific purpose of war with another nation state and network with non state fronts armed to assist.
Have to ask SPC, were you living under a rock for the 20th Century? Both the U.S.S.R and the USA regularly suppled arms to non state groups. It came back and bit the USA on the ass that one. On, if I got the date right – Sep 11 2001.
Going back in time, the carving up of Africa was a great time for many western nations to play that game.
And lets not forget THE GREAT GAME.
As for states forming extra military units, and networking with other actors – I suggest reading a history of the British in India or the expansion of Russia East.
It's all quite normal I'm afraid.
How many cases, pre Iran, of a nation arming "fronts" to war on another nation?
During the Cold War, groups within nations were armed to create favoured governments in those nations (overthrow existing governments in those nations).
Iran is engaged in an international crime, even the existence of a group in Iran for the purpose of ending another nation is an international crime.
The "sanctity" in International law you talk about applies only to how the Syrian Government treats the Iranian Embassy in Syria, not what the Israeli Government might do.
Two Quds generals were in Damascus located at the consulate by the embassy.
Quds mission is to conquer Israel, liberate Jerusalem.
I forget where I heard it/who said it but something along the lines of 'The world war after the next will be fought with sticks and stones'.
Once again I give thanks for being born in this country.
This phrase is in reference to a global scale nuclear war of course. Unfortunately its a fact that, if the US launched a full scale nuclear attack on Russia and the Russian's didn't respond the resulting climate change (nuclear winter) would be devastating for both the US and the rest of the surviving world.
Einstein said that.
End of the Reign of the Mullahs?
Guardian reporting a statement has been delivered to the u.n…
..stating that this is retaliation for the embassy attack by Israel ..
And that as long as Israel doesn't escalate..that the matter is 'concluded'..
It'll take hours for the drones to arrive.Can't help think this is a diversionary tactic, as the damage will be pretty well zero (unless the Iron Dome is not what it's cracked up to be)
Possibly its an attack structured to demonstrate to Israeli's the gravity of what their government did on 1st April, rather than to escalate. We should hope so anyway but I expect there will also be rockets fired to coincide with the drones arriving.
Unfortunately the attack on the 1st of April showed a clear desire to escalate the conflict by the Israeli government.
Is it out of the realms of possibility that the IDF let a few drones through? Few civilians killled, excuse to retaliate against Iran who then fire back which pulls USA into a wider war in the middle east?
It is unlikely. The attack is grounds for retaliation, whether it was successful or not.
Probably not, from a military perspective it’s not a good idea to “allow” your enemy to succeed in an attack. Once an attack like this starts, the military will do what it needs to do to stop the attack. I believe the US is shooting the down anyway.
Someone would have to give an order to let the (some) drone through. In between that person and the guys who shoot the drones will be a strict chain of command, and allowing some drones through would not be a legal order.
Iran is showing that they have teeth, but I doubt that they would want a direct confrontation with Israel, besides the US would get involved.
I could be wrong, but hopefully this is saber rattling.
If the Russian tactics against Ukraine are any guide these missile attacks are designed to be a staggered launch to all arrive at once and overwhelm the defenses. Suicide drones, cruise missiles and MRBMs (Medium Range Ballistic Missiles) are will be launched sequentially. At least some of the cruise missiles and drones will contain anti-radar warheads to target active AD radar, clearing the way for subsequent waves.
If this is indeed what iran is doing – rather than sending a wave of drones to satisfy honour or whatever and then leaving the ball in Israel's – court then I would pop down and fill up the car because the energy/price inflation spike caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine will look like the good times in six months.
Iran has said that 'this is what they are doing'..
There are enough psychos in the Knesset, and butchers in the IDF, to not care as long as US Imperialism has their hideous backs and keeps the guns’n’money flow happening.
The goal for these zionists is to raze Gaza, eliminate as many Palestinians as possible and then coin it from fossil fuel reserves sitting under and offshore near Gaza.
It is up to the rest of us to never forget this slaughter, BDS hard, and ban Israeli businesses from our lives and shut down their filthy embassy.
Odd that hammass played into their hands with their psychopathic cowardly behaviour isn't it.
Hmm.. Thats an interesting take that would put you in the minority. Most people would place the perpetrators of genocide as the psychopathic cowards
Which would be hammass, whose avowed intention
is to destroy Israel and kill Jews.[lprent: Presuming you mean hammas == Hamas. If you want to troll do it elsewhere. Adding this troll wankery variant to the blacklist.
Furthermore, if you want to make an assertion of fact, then link to it. In this case that would require a link to their current principles as at 2017 or a speech by a current leader.
I’d suggest you don’t do this again. ]
I still think Putin got Iran to instigate the Palestinian attack to divert attention from Ukraine. On the face of it, the Palestinian attack looks like idiocy until you look at it while thinking about who is allied to who.
The problem is that Hammas doesn't give a fig about the lives of Palestinians either – Hammas are quite happy to kill off their countrymen/women/children by proxy with unreasonable demands in persuing a ceasefire.
If the goal of the "Zionists" were to raze Gaza and kill as many Palestinians as possible, forcibly removing Israeli settlers, leaving it to self-rule and enduring continual rocket attacks while watching Gaza's population double was a very odd way of going about it. In fact, it's almost like an Israeli intent to raze Gaza and kill as many Palestinians as possible is just some bullshit story you're telling yourself.
The government of Israeli is full of far right fuckwits. Who have openly stated they want the Palestinians gone. Convicted terrorist Itamar Ben-Gvir and the rest of his gaggle of murders have been on record to say “time to return home to Gush Katif”. You do the drawing of conclusions on that one.
And whilst the bombing of civilians continues in Gaza, these far right fuckwits have enabled the stripping of land, and wholesale murder on the west bank.
So what the "plan" again, who knows. What I do know, and what is happening with the help of the west, is murder and theft on a grand scale.
New Zealanders, of all people, should understand that minor parties in a coalition aren't running the government. But sure, far-right fuckwits have a minor role in the Israeli govt. Now consider that far-right fuckwits are the entirety of the Gazan govt. And if you have to redirect attention to what's happening on the West Bank, which has a completely different govt, you're admitting there's no basis for the claims about Gaza.
What the… dude look up the make of the government – minor parties make up the bulk of the Thirty-seventh government of Israel. They are nothing like the make up of the government here and the role minor parties play. Your statement is just out right wrong.
Go learn about the politics of Israel before you respond in future – because you're looking like an ignorant tool who just spews forth propaganda.
On that note, the West Bank is and will always be part of the same issue. To try and separate it off as you have, is disingenuous.
Perhaps, before describing me as "an ignorant tool who just spews forth propaganda," you could consider that a greater number of minor parties involved in a coalition government only further dilutes the power of those individual parties, rather than increasing it?
As for the West Bank, it cost Hamas a lot of money, time, effort, torture and murders to establish themselves as a government of Gaza completely independent of the Palestinian Authority. At least give them some credit for it.
Iran has launched a wave of ballistic missiles towards Israel. A significant rise in tension for the entire Middle East?
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-middle-east-68737710?src_origin=BBCS_BBC
To take our minds of the Middle East.
Some proof that a UBI does work.
https://academicminute.org/2014/06/jane-costello-duke-university-sharing-the-wealth/
“The numbers carry a clear message: we can choose to pay less now or pay more later. Our tax dollars can support poor families while their children are growing and developing. Or we can pay for their lack of education, obesity, alcohol abuse, and crime down the road in our healthcare and criminal justice systems.
The statistics speak for themselves.”
Is the next Labour government going to be brave enough?
The British Medical Journal on the Cass Report.
https://www.bmj.com/content/385/bmj.q837
"At the heart of Hilary Cass’s review of gender identity services in the NHS is a concern for the welfare of “children and young people” (doi:10.1136/bmj.q820).1 Her stated ambition is to ensure that those experiencing gender dysphoria receive a high standard of care. This will be disputed, of course, by people and lobbying groups angered by her recommendations, but it is a theme running through the review. Cass, a past president of the UK’s Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, seeks to provide better care for children and adolescents on one of the defining issues of our age. Her conclusion is alarming for anybody who genuinely cares for child welfare: gender medicine is “built on shaky foundations” (doi:10.1136/bmj.q814).2"
On the brink of WWIII so, READ THE CASS REPORT!!!!!
Yes this place is a little bit weird sometimes.
We have to do something in the mean time, may as well be well-read rather than ignorant.
We aren't on the brink of war Robert, but our country is conducting on children the same experiments described in the Cass report, and with the same appalling lack of evidence for any benefit for the recipients. It's a lot more significant to us than whatever the latest lunacy is going on in the Middle East.
The issue being puberty blockers were for temporary use to delay (birth sex growth) puberty.
The use in partnership with later supply of hormones of the other birth sex in support of "gender difference" would have physiological consequences (Swedish study).
The do no harm aspect of health care intervention of one school and the Big Pharma (drugs) aspect in conflict to manage peoples "minds" for their well-being.
In the DSM world – there are fashions. Criminal psychology and gay men in prison and lesbian women in mental health care, then post this time came the DSM 1980.
1.After the female gender is equal and we can do anything cause of feminists, came acceptance of "gender identity" different to birth sex (the two are not in fact related).
2.In the acceptance of private homosexuality but no public consorting there came an expansion of the transvestite sex worker world (a job men identifying as women, affirmation as women from hetero sexual men, that gay men could also do) and "amateurs" – partners in dresses and the developing gay club world.
3.A new category of mental health, affirmation – to both those who wanted aversion therapy for their homosexuality and those that wanted help accepting it. And this also applied to gender identity different to birth sex. Thus assistance to sex workers as well as the issue of younger people with body dysmorphia (body not idealised male and female form – and hormone/drug use in gyms – eating disorders etc/breast enhancements – plastic surgery) and gender dysphoria.
4.Social media and body dysmorphia (mental health support) and access to narratives about gender dysphoria and affirmation care. And growing rates of neurodiversity (autism etc) and helicopter parenting.
Public acceptance of identity choices, as per sexuality and gender and supportive health care treatments.
What health care is provided – to whom and when.
Women have problems with endometriosis (often requires surgery to discover it and manage) and post natal well-being.
Puberty blockers were introduced to manage early onset of puberty, to ensure a delay so that the child could be helped via other means when they still went through it before their peers.
Ending it in all cases, except research, ignores that.
Afaik the ban on PBs is for off label use with gender dysphoric children and won’t affect prescribing for early puberty. But agree it is worth marking that distinction clear in this debate. It raises some issues about off label prescribing and low medical literacy in the general population about puberty.
The final paragraph has a different take/tone than what your excerpt would indicate..
After noting the paucity of research on this
It urges "advocates and activists' not to campaign 'using substandard evidence'..
And calls for this report to be the stimulus for more quality research/evidence..
The above comment is addressed to visub…way back in the thread..
Iran hit the Nevatim airbase in Israel with HYPERSONIC SONIC MISSILES (mach5-10)
IF TRUE…. This is a big f$&&ing deal
Unipolar world here we come
https://x.com/realscottritter/status/1779304880139559275?s=46&t=Mb3vWtlQ9iVITzFN3xvWAQ
Meant to say multi-polar not unipolar
opps
If wannabe kid fucker Scotty Groomer says so….
Criticism coming from a grown up that calls himself Joe90 (A fictional nine-year-old schoolboy spy)
Hmmmm….
You might have issues yourself …
Just saying
ohh… and many decent well known political commentators still talk to Scott Ritter to this day.
I mean he wasn’t ever set up by the CIA for speaking out against the military industrial complex was he.
Still Joe90…. You know best
Idiot.
Nope, no projection there…
Care to name these decent well known political commentators
Of course, Scotty Groomer was set up… twice….
Better I suspect, than a blow-in….
/
Well Joe90, we all know 9 year olds can get hot under the collar (so to speak) and go off topic… maybe too much honey in that trap creates impulsive behaviour. Concentrate dear boy
Back to the real issue (if true this is a big deal)
according to some sources
Iran officially joins hypersonic club
The Kheibar Shekan hypersonic missile is the weapon which was used to strike Israel's premier Ramon airbase in the Negev just a few hours ago. Until now, Iranian claims of its capabilities have been impossible to verify, however we can now say the Islamic Republic has clearly joined the very small list of nations with such advanced weapons.
Kheibar Shekan is a 3rd generation medium-range ballistic missile of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. the weapon's name means 'Fortress Breaker', 'Kheibar' being the Jewish fortress that was conquered by the Muslims in the beginning of Islam, during the battle of Khaybar.
The Kheibar shekan is the world's longest-range solid-fuel tactical ballistic missile, able to deliver a 500kg warhead to targets 1450km away. It can operate from a variety of Iranian launch platforms, and has interchangeable warheads.
In the terminal phase, the HGV (Hypersonic Glide Vehicle) warhead separates from the main missile body and is able to accelerate and manuever in order to bypass ABM systems. Once separated, the warhead accelerates to mach 7-10. It uses both a thrust vectoring motor as well as actuating fins to maneuver. The distinctive triconic shape of the warhead provides stability whilst maneuvering at hypersonic speeds in the lower atmosphere.
The interwebs are awash with mis/disinfo, outright lies, and dim-wit wishcasting but sure, according to some sources….
/
Sources, huh…
//
Shayan Sardarizadeh
@Shayan86
Iran's state TV has been continuously running this video tonight as evidence of its missiles making impact on the ground and hitting targets in Israel. But it's old footage of farm fire in Texas and completely unrelated to tonight's attack.
https://twitter.com/Shayan86/status/1779312359195984093
@Shayan86
Correction: The video is even older than that, and it's from Chile, not Texas. Accordong to @cazamosfakenews, the clip shows fire "in Achupallas (Viña del Mar) in Chile and has been circulating on social networks since February".
https://twitter.com/Shayan86/status/1779327757714960865
They fired missiles at the base.
Not the same thing as hit, had any impact, caused any significant damage etc.
1) The attack included ballistic missiles that achieve hypersonic speeds, nothing that new there. Here is some real information about it.
2) Scott Ritter is a russian propagandist
3) "multipolar" is code for a world ruled by fascists and/or brutal authoritarians
Anyone else notice the new green to go and fast load up of comments?
One example of what I see as Western hypocrisy.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/350245033/live-explosions-heard-after-iran-launches-attack-israel-drones-shot-down
Canadian president Justin Trudeau says his country stands with Israel. " Canada unequivocally condemns Iran’s airborne attacks against Israel," Trudeau said. "We stand with Israel. After supporting Hamas’ brutal October 7 attack, the Iranian regime’s latest actions will further destabilise the region and make lasting peace more difficult.". AP
I've done a quick check and I can't any reaction from Trudeau to Israel's attack on the Iranian embassy in Damascus.
So he condemns Iran's response but not the fatal attack that prompted it. BAU for most Western countries regarding Israel, the only player I can see in the Middle East committed to apartheid and genocide.
The dead Quds generals were part of a military unit whose mission is to conquer Israel militarily – not diplomats.
MMMmmm not quite a true statement.
Quds serve as an intelligence gathering force, and one who engages in unconventional warfare. We have in our military, units which preform these duties as well.
Please tell me your statement is not part of the spin that has come with their name translated into English "Jerusalem Force".
I'm of the school of thought that the Quds helped us defeat the head choppers in Syria and Iraq. Which personally was a very good thing.
And just as a side note – if the British and the Yanks had staged a coup here in 1954, I'd be pissed about it to this day too.
I never said they were diplomats. I'm fully aware that it was military people Israel was after. My point you're not responding to is the hypocrisy that says nothing about an Israeli attack on an Iranian embassy, regardless of who they wanted to eliminate, but condemns the response.
Iran obliged Israel with the response they wanted – a flashy whizz-bang military action with little or no damage of consequence, Western sympathies, more promises of arms and with another war to fight, Netanyahu stays out of gaol.
A classic – a nation isolated over dahiya in Gaza – gets to point out Iran is opposed to its existence, is arming Houthi to attack world shipping and is supplying weapons to Russia to attack Ukraine.
And looking deeper, note Iran is arming Hezbollah and Shia militias in Iraq to make them more powerful than the armies of Lebanon and Iraq and thus undermine the sovereignty of the two nation states – to make them bases for Iran’s war on Israel.
It’s aid to the secular Baath regime in Syria predicated on being allowed to organise bases for Shia militias to partner with Quds.
Generally Quds military are regarded as fair game because they are of a unit formed for war on a member state of the UN.
You claim Israel is the only state committed to genocide and fail to note the purpose of Quds is to end the existence of a Jewish state. One cannot conclude that a nation that agreed to the 1947 partition plan and Oslo Accords is the same – though one suspect BN (Likud and coalition partners) is opposed to that two state outcome and observe that dahiya doctrine does not work.
The attack on the embassy compound – including consulate was condemned by the UNSG. In international law the site is regarded as part of a nations territory.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/un-chief-criticizes-strike-on-iranian-consulate-warns-against-further-escalation/
However this
https://www.trtworld.com/middle-east/iran-urges-un-to-condemn-israel-to-prevent-retaliation-after-embassy-attack-17739908
Currently only one country is committing genocide and having to answer a case brought to the International Court of Justice over its actions.
Who concluded it is committing genocide?
No one did, it's at the court to answer the case of genocide.
Because there is prima facie evidence, to proceed to trial or judgment on the case of genocide.
Which does mean people can call it a case of genocide, at this point with at least 40 thousand dead. I say the case has a good chance to prove that the IDF, and the government of Israel have been committing genocide.
The Israeli judge agreed on two points – incitement (comments by those in government) and enabling delivery of aid to civilians.
40,000 with the missing.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2023/10/9/israel-hamas-war-in-maps-and-charts-live-tracker
Death numbers in war do not determine genocide – bombing of civilian areas has occurred in Syria and Ukraine.
By numbers, Syria has been and Ukraine is being depopulated.
Tell that to the dead.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/20/world/middleeast/gaza-rafah-strike-children.html
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/4/22/israels-war-on-gaza-live-baby-born-after-mother-killed-in-strike-stable
The collateral damage and/or 'removal' of 'human shields' by the IDF, in pursuit of eradication, will grow support for (fanatical) Hamas ideology.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamas#Political_and_religious_positions
A foretaste of the resource and security-driven conflicts to come, as tempers flare and patience wears thin on overshoot spaceship Earth.
40000 dead according to hammass, who lie as soon as breathe.[lprent: It appears that you are simply lying with this false assertion of fact.
I don’t know of any death estimates from ‘hammas’ nor from Hamas.
The estimates you are probably referring to are by the Gazan Ministry of Health which at present are over 33k deaths. The methods used and the political position of the Ministry are detailed here in a easy to understand article that appears to be especially designed for stupid trolls like you.
I believe that the other 7k deaths comes from guesstimates from US intelligence sources (not ‘hammas’) about unreported bodies in collapsed buildings. No one actually knows because the numbers are bound to be quite inaccurate under the current fog of war conditions and that the Israelis appear to be targeting medical and aid workers. However what is clear is that the MoH figures are low.
The Israelis appear to have similar problems estimating the number of Hamas deaths despite holding the ground on which and above which most of those should have happened. Their estimates vary wildly. Similarly they haven’t ventured any estimates of the massacres that they have inflicted even in the areas where they now control and where they could dig them out from the blast effects. Also they seem to count an inordinate number of non-militant civilians as being hard-core Hamas militants based on non-military reports. It would appear in my opinion that the IDF routinely lies about the effectiveness of their intelligence and targeting. Hardly an ethical or moral position for a army to take.
If you are too stupid a troll to understand the difference between fiction, fact, opinion, or inherent inaccuracies, then simply don’t bother commenting here. I’ll happily keep pointing out just how stupid you appear. ]
Who runs the Gazan ministry of health?
The Palestinian Authority (PA) pays for it and is the direct employer of all HA staff in Gaza apart from a few Hamas political appointees. This isn’t exactly hard to find out. Most of the funding for the salaries, plant and consumables comes via the PA including from donors.
Hamas as a local authority, militia and political party may influence some people in the Gazan branches of the PA Ministry of Health. But so do many other organisation such organisations as the World Health Organisation, the Israeli Ministry of Health (diseases being no respecter of borders), the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) who have maintained a blockade of Gaza for decades and recently a ready supply of injured Gazan children, and the aid organisations who try to maintain a level of health in the area.
The Israeli government has limited influence apart from its instincts to kill and maim civilians using the IDF. Most of its influence has come from its untrustworthy habits of violating agreements to pay the taxes that it collects on behalf of the PA which are used to partially for the Gazan health system.
As the occupying force of Gaza, the Israeli government is responsible for the well being of the population under their occupation. They are most notable for doing the opposite and using dumb bombs to level civilian buildings and the civilians within.
I know this from doing a minimal level of reading and research.
Just as I know that you are a lazy foolish troll who makes little to no effort to ever do any research. Your comments over time on this site display all of the intelligence of parrot – blindly repeating the propaganda of whoever made up the latest round of misinformation designed for dumbarse parrots.
If you want links to all of this, then I suggest you provide your sources of information first, so I can inspect them for veracity and answer them with more accurate ones. In other words show some minimal effort.
So has any head of the Gaza Health Ministry since 2007 not been a member of Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya?
Grey Area @10
Have to admit that was my reaction to the latest development too. Israel attacks an Iranian embassy with missiles – or something along those lines – and then loses it when Iran responds in kind.
Ya know, if someone came along and punched me in the eye, I would probably try to punch them back. I sure would respond. 🙄
Bloody Hell. Mass killing in Sydney – thank goodness he did not have an automatic rifle.
Hobart, gun laws etc.
Port Arthur not Hobart.
Also we have similar laws this government want to repeal.
Exactly – repealing those laws is a dumb idea indeed.
Shocking DG wants cheaper housing, more home ownership etc.
ML is known for two things hounding Clare Curran for wanting better funded and organised state media (boo) and standing alongside Chris Penk and Simeon Brown (to make him look more significant) in photos.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350244337/damien-grant-housing-market-so-tightly-regulated-weve-created-landed-gentry
Libertarians (DG) are wannabe feudal lords in liberal clothing – using the tools of capitalism and power to oppress workers & pillage resources, and using the language of freedom to act illegally & spread lies.
They are the religious fanatics of capitalism
One of the scariest things about today..is wondering what would have happened had Trump been in the white house…
https://youtu.be/Jji3mPSWoew?si=66sm8JPETuyC2R4y
It's a great day today