Heart of Glass is a New Wave/Disco crossover. Blondie got lots of shit for doing Disco but hey it's a great song. The original demo version had reggae influence:
Man, that’s certainly a different version from their more well-known hit version. Debbie Harry’s got the voice & the superb timing to carry it off, tho.
I like Reggae as well as Blues; in fact I learned how to combine them in one original song “Blues Done In Reggae”.
I especially like Bob & The Wailers, as well as a few UB40 songs.
My favourite UB40 song (apart from “Ivory Madonna” – not the correct name but YouTube finds it) is this one – after I witnessed it performed live by Porirua’s Whitireia University Music Class Band during their concert at the Cozzie Club in Upper Hutt. They did a fantastic job of it:
A global push for sharp cuts in methane emissions will be a major feature of the UN’s COP26 climate negotiations beginning in Glasgow in three weeks’ time. This will put a harsh spotlight on New Zealand
Rod Oram anticipates an increasing focus on methane – a political shift consequent of perceptions of increasing urgency. BAU advocates will feel even more paranoid. Having pointed out here a couple of years ago that methane breaks down into CO2, I've been mystified by the long-standing tendency to discount it, but I suppose that's just another symptom of climate change inducing mass irrationality & hysteria.
Kennedy Graham, a former NZ diplomat, UN official and Green Party MP, notes in his recent research paper for Victoria University’s Institute for Governance and Policy Studies…
“There is no valid reason to avoid identifying New Zealand’s 2050 Target in terms of carbon dioxide equivalent. There is an associated lack of clarity over the 2050 Target, discernible in the media and even in official statements by government leaders. A ‘transparency gap’ is developing between the domestic presentation of climate policy (the 2019 legislation and the 2021 Commission Report) and the international requirements of New Zealand’s reporting of the Target and progress towards it.”
Reminds us why there's a huge pakeha male deficit in the Greens & their voter base. "Huh?? What are you trying to say?" would be their typical response. Can't get political support for policy shifts without communicating in language folks are familiar with. Duh!
“Methane is a potent greenhouse gas with a warming potential more than 28 times that of carbon dioxide (CO2). But when it comes to livestock and climate change, there are many other characteristics that set biogenic methane (methane from cattle) apart from CO2. Here are an important four:
* It stays in our atmosphere for about 12 years
* It’s derived from atmospheric carbon, such as CO2
* It’s part of the biogenic carbon cycle
* It eventually returns to the atmosphere as CO2, making it recycled carbon
…
Methane has a relatively short life of 12 years compared to the hundreds or even thousands of years that CO2 hangs around. After about 12 years, 80 to 89 percent of methane is removed by oxidation with tropical hydroxyl radicals (OH), a process referred to as hydroxyl oxidation. As a result of its short lifespan, methane is only significantly warming our atmosphere for those 12 years, which is why it is considered a short-lived climate pollutant (SLCP).
Its short lifespan is further relevant in regard to warming, because it means that as methane is being emitted it is also being destroyed in the atmosphere, making it a flow gas.
This illustrates that methane’s warming impact isn’t determined by how much is being emitted – since it’s destroyed relatively quickly – but by how much more or less methane is being emitted over a period of time. This is a change in the rate of emission.
What is notable about methane, is that it’s possible the amount being emitted can equal the amount being destroyed. For example, if a herd of cattle emits the same amount of methane over 12 years, they are contributing to warming for those 12 years. But afterward the same amount being emitted is the same that is being destroyed through oxidation, and thus warming is neutral.”
But afterward the same amount being emitted is the same that is being destroyed through oxidation, and thus warming is neutral.
Yeah, this neutrality thesis is what's in question. Well, that's the impression I get anyway. We await any new consensus of experts! I'll just restate my point about oxidation by pointing out that CO2 is the product. How anyone in academia can spin that into neutrality is a bit beyond me. Do they use an equation?
If it’s not shown in that article, there are others around on the web that proponents have posted to us on other blogs.
It was hard enuf to find that one, because so many “experts” who dispute or refuse to accept this methane > CO2 cycle thesis have ensured that articles talking up the methane contribution to global warming (as opposed to it being a self-neutralising process) predominate in Google searches.
Oh well, let's hope that the winds of change blown up by the climate summit dispell the fog. Disclosure of interest: I graduated BSc in physics. But that was in a bygone era. I got good at feeding back to the profs whatever line of bullshit they fished for in the design of exam questions. Worked like a charm.
Ever since, I tend to just scan stuff to get the gist of it. Going any further means taking the author seriously – usually a waste of one's valuable time!
If the farmer keeps producing the same amount each year as gets neutralised by the 12th year, that means the farmer is providing a permanent store of Methane heating the atmosphere over 28 times worse than CO2 – the whole bloody time. Bring back lynch mobs!
Well, the time for being critical of farmers is long gone really. Political focus ought to be shifting to solutions and implementation. Farmer's reps have been in the media rating farmer compliance at more than 80% during the past year. I'd like to get a reality check procedure adopted for that compliant majority, plus an enforcement procedure to apply to the remainder.
That means Lab/Nat leaders have to pull finger, eh? Laziness from politicians ought not to be tolerated further by the public. Effective politics is still possible via the use of intelligent design of decision-making processes to extend consensus on solutions & implementation method. Dumb & dumber is institutionalised by democracy, true, but we can get around that with goodwill & serious intent.
That's related. The zero-sum thinkers will do trad reductionism: "Forget about climate-fixing, we must fix BAU!" Holists will go "Please extract your head from the 19th century, we need you to help the transition to sustainability. There Is No Alternative. If humanity is to survive…"
Energy is so hard to come by right now that some provinces in China are rationing electricity, Europeans are paying sky-high prices for liquefied natural gas, power plants in India are on the verge of running out of coal, and the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in the United States stood at $3.25 on Friday — up from $1.72 in April.
As the global economy recovers and global leaders prepare to gather for a landmark conference on climate change, the sudden energy crunch hitting the world is threatening already stressed supply chains, stirring geopolitical tensions and raising questions about whether the world is ready for the green energy revolution when it’s having trouble powering itself right now.
Our failing response to the covid pandemic, reminds me of our response to climate change.
We are told, "Well we must open up eventually, don't we?"
Well what if we didn't?
What if instead of jetting off to the Gold Coast for the weekend, at the cost of one old person catching the infection and dying, we holidayed at home at one of this country's many attractions?
Before the 60's and even into the 70's mass air travel wasn't even a thing. Air travel was a rare luxury for the wealthy, or something you saved up for that once in a lifetime vacation.
I think we need to personalise the experience of air travel in the age of covid. Before you are allowed to fly overseas for that weekend on the beach at Surfers or Bondi, you have to agree to go into an old folks home and personally euthanise one old person.
And if you think Covid is bad, the climate crisis is going to be worse.
While your high emissions lifestyle is more likely to kill someone in the Third World and not you, again I think we need to personalise the experience of air travel in the age of climate change.
Alighting at that exotic tropical holdiday destination, before you get to relax on the beach with that maitai in your hand, you have to agree to drown one local child in the nearest river.
I'll go with the principle of moral responsibility. It tends to operate as sub-text for political activists. Make it explicit & folks immediately start complaining that thinking about it makes their brain hurt.
What if it were to be incorporated into a code of ethics for economists and accountants? Then you'd get the real costs of business & policies impacting onto political decisions. Both left- and right-wingers would hate that! Since democracy was designed to privilege both tribes of wrongdoers, gonna be real hard to make progress on an ethical basis.
Yes, millions of individuals acting selfishly don't seem able to solve the big problems. Who would have thought (except 99% of mainstream economists and politicians)?
It don’t make no never mind (as US southerners might say) to the planet.
If we human apes don’t get our act together, the ecosytem & our social settings will change to make survival of the current huge numbers of our arrogant & untthinking species more difficult.
There will be other species which will likely survive better in a hotter workd, & / or new ones might arise or evolve to take advantage of the new niches, as always.
The most special thing about human apes is the danger they present to all other life forms, as well as their own.
Kim Hill uncharacteristically letting Chris Bishop, world authority on epidemiology, vaccination and nurse ICU training off the hook this morning , apparently there are 3000 nurses in the MIQ queue desperate to get home to work in ICU. Really? Just how many are only coming home to see mum and dad for a while, how many are ICU trained, a process that can take years or months just to be bought up to speed if with previous ICU experience, because techniques and equipment and drugs are constantly being upgraded. Or coming home to get the fuck away from nursing because of burnout?
Oh, and they can home isolate even if symptomatic because of an app on their phone with say, aged parents with compromised function or a sister with young, unvaxxed children, in fact all 30,000 can come home. Fuck off Bishop and take your vax avoider mate Goudie with you.
John Carter Northland Mayor?, another ex Nat railing about the two women sex workers, how about naming and shaming the Northland residents who aided and abetted the two to go to Northland in the first place? But hang on, they may be National Party donors or “ prominent in the community” , can’t have that eh. Arseholes.
Calm down, Adrian. One you got to John Carter you lost me, I’m afraid. Arseholes, I understood but the rest of it’s a bit too convoluted for me to follow, tbh. I am a bear of small brain. 🐼
There are going to be cases of people self isolating at home so they do not catch Covid. Some people are spending a lot of time in their home under level 2 even now and they are restructuring their interests.
The likes of mayors or opposition politicians do not need to tell me how to personally manage a Covid outbreak.
The urgency is in Auckland and the basics need to be provided, food, counselling, laptops and phone connections for school education, rental housing assistance, survival income and free sound business advice.
I was illustrating how easy it is to give grandstanders like Bishop and Carter room to put up straw theories that can fall apart at the first challenge. But first they must be challenged.
When Kim Hill wants to challenge or question someone’s statements, she’s usually very good at it – quite dogged & determined.
Perhaps she’s feeling off colour, or just not in the mood this morning? I’ll see if I can find the audio track when RNZ post it, & have a listen later.
How long is the Delta Covid wave likely to last in NZ?
Bishop and Carter can spit tacks all they like about individual rule breakers, once the rules are broken they cannot be reversed. The situation can only be contained and everyone is affected when rules are broken and infection control is not followed properly.
O Virus, look upon your mortal legions and despair.
1. You haven't risen beyond any other social ill. The mortality and morbidity effects are far less that car crashes per year. You're over-hyped.
2. Each crisis has made us stronger. Some of our more recent crises have rapidly accelerated human progress. Such as in global co-operation, medicine, mechanisation, and communications and information. You helped us kill you, again and again.
3. You told us nothing about the poor. Covid is eventually a disease of deprivation, but pretty much everything else is already.
4. We know better than you. Covid has been a strong positive axial point for human knowledge. It has confirmed the epistemic truth of science against social media, and simultaneously supported accelerated successful drug trials faster than we've seen in decades..
5. Our unity overcomes you. Social cohesion has remained remarkably strong – even in the United States. There is no underground lava flow of human anomie to reveal from Covid.
6. Our state is stronger than ever. Covid, even more than the GFC, has confirmed the necessity for strong and coherent government.
7. Our dominion continues to strengthen. Compared to the Spanish 'Flu a century ago, human hygiene and public health measures are vastly superior. Humans have gained power not weakened in that time. If this is one of the worst viral powers in modern operation, it's been dealt to very fast and with remarkable lack of fuss.
8 Capitalism, medicine, and government are united. Researchers invested and tested at speed. Regulators acted with appropriate speed. Few governments are afraid of debt anymore to achieve public health goals.
9. The world is re-opening and re-born. Your lessons such as they are have already been absorbed and the height of your doom has passed. You haven't had the longevity of human interest of two seasons of Days Of Our Lives.
10. You were the last of your kind, and you're done. Even Polio was stronger, Malaria more powerful and across more lives, and they too are being vaccined away. You were more than SARS, but less than most. Would you like a gold plated One Ring or something to make you feel better?
“Labour on 46 per cent (up one point from September), National on 22 per cent (down four points), Act up three points to 16 and the Greens up one at 7 per cent.”
Collins will survive until 2022 when parliament resumes. She will continue to be a liability as leader. National and Act could be neck and neck in the next Colmar Brunton poll.
All the National whingers and the ACT gossippers are not out trolling today.
After many claims that ACT was taking votes directly from labour.
Both Greens and Labour on steady ground National in more trouble those National MP's with slim majorities and lower on the list will want a new leader Pronto as business leaders say Collins is the best promoter for Labour.
How long can National keep bleeding votes to every other party.
Judith Collins is like a vulture sitting on a tree branch patiently waiting for the beautiful antelope to stumble.
Already she is preparing to swoop down on the wounded gazelle.
After health experts were sidelined in the decision to lower the Auckland Alert Level, with the resulting rise in cases they warned the government of. Some of these health experts demanded to see who's advice the government had been taking.
Despite the fact that lowering the level is what she had been demanding all along, Judith Collins has swooped down to peck at the fallen carcase of the Government's covid response. And is also now (belatedly) demanding that this policy advice be released.
Judith Collins wants advice on Auckland alert level drop released as Jacinda Ardern foreshadows 'doubling in cases'
12/10/2021
Zane Small
Auckland was shifted down from alert level 4 last month despite 22 new community cases reported the day before and against the advice of several experts. Ultimately, the Government had to consider the mental wellbeing of Aucklanders and the financial strain on businesses.
With more businesses able to operate at alert level 3, the virus has been able to transmit via food delivery, taxi services and construction workers.
"Case numbers were trending down but are now clearly on a steady rise since Auckland left level 4. When will the Prime Minister release the health advice relied on to make the decision to reduce restrictions?" Collins said on Tuesday.
I knew the picnic bubble was a bad idea. It gave people a licience to entertain inside the home. Having a nominated visitor like in L4 needed to be maintained and allowing 2 nominated visitors in L3.
As I mentioned Judith Collins was very late coming to the realisation that the government's decision to go out of Level 4 was a mistake, especially as this is just what she had been calling for.
In demanding the government release the advice they received before going down a level, Judith Collins is only echoing the Health experts' query.
New Zealand government’s pivot from Covid elimination ‘surprised’ top health experts
A number of epidemiologists and public health experts who have been central to helping chart and communicate New Zealand’s Covid response thus far say they were taken by surprise by its new direction, and not consulted by the government as it pivoted away from elimination and outlined a controversial set of “steps” out of level 3 restrictions last week.
The announcement was a shift in tack for New Zealand’s government, which has spent most of the pandemic in close to lock-step with public health professionals….
…..“I don’t know what their consultation schedule was like – I certainly was not involved,” Pacific health expert and associate professor Collin Tukuitonga, of University of Auckland. Tukuitonga is a past director of public health at the Ministry of Health, and was on the ministry’s Covid-19 Technical Advisory Group.
“A number of us were surprised at the announcement last Monday, the change that happened,” he said. “I personally thought it was premature to have gone to level 3, given the fact that we had all those new cases and unlinked cases as well, and low vaccination coverage in Auckland – so no, I was not involved and I don’t know who they consulted with.”
He said further loosening of restrictions that were previewed on Monday, including the announcement – since rolled back – that schools would be reopening on 18 October – were also out of step with the realities of a growing outbreak.
“I thought it was a fairly risky strategy – and time has proven that,” he said. “On Sunday there were 60 cases. In other words, there’s still transmission going on and I would have thought that we would have held the line with our original plan and elimination, until we had vaccination rates up, [given] the risks would be borne by Māori and Pasifika people.”
Lab/Grn a smidgeon over 50; Nat/ACT a smidgeon under 40. A 10-15% gap between the blocs – pretty much what we have been seeing for a while. The Key years in reverse.
What will be the catalyst for that advantage flipping the other way – and what can be done to pre-empt it?
"You can be really hard on them [rule breakers], but you're probably not going to ever stop them.
"We have to make sure that our cars' brakes work, we need to make sure that we're doing everything and we're following all the rules because the more we do that, the more we can slow it down."
“I think we need to take our mandatory vaccination rules much further. I think it has to be the police, it has to be supermarkets.
Chris T houses they can't build properly you mean when National threw out building quality control and put in private building inspectors in 1991 allowing the leaky building catastrophe.
The Canterbury rebuild which is costing tax payers billions because of dodgy repairs and insurance underpayment.
Kiwibuild was worth a try but because of shortages of Labour Land and materials it failed,But the number of govt funded new state houses has seen more built since the 1970's. National said it was a mistake to sell off 7,000 state houses.
Kiwibuild was a joke. A flat out bribe that they knew perfectly well was impossible, because at the time they were under 30 in the polls.
Fair play to Shearer though. To his credit he managed to not burst out laughing when he announced it. Not a lot of parties politicians would have had the ability to do that.
Kiwibuild has delivered 1500 extra homes to the market while National had a massive deficit over 9 years Nicola Willis saying it was a mistake selling off 7,000 state houses .
Labour has built nearly 4,000 state houses plus funding for nearly 1,000 NGO houses.
When you add that all up its not enough but it's way better than National.If you take the Canterbury rebuild out of Nationals figures of state houses built. you will find Nationals housing efforts even worse but not as bad as the leaky building disasters like brand new hospitals and schools etc that still need fixing and demolition in many cases.
"Kiwibuild has delivered 1500 extra homes to the market while National had a massive deficit over 9 years Nicola Willis saying it was a mistake selling off 7,000 state houses ."
"Labour has built nearly 4,000 state houses plus funding for nearly 1,000 NGO houses."
All I can say is that you're being more honest than Megan Woods. As at 27th July, the number Labour have actually built is Kainga Ora 1952 + CHP's 1009 + Transitional Housing 755. So the total permanent additions are only 2961 as at 27/7.
This was a major policy platform of Labour's, and instead of fixing the problem they have made it worse.
Might be a case of Mike H picking the expert that fits the narrative. An official from the MoH said on RNZ today that the site had been security-audited by a third party consultancy.
Did Mike try being an actual journalist and get the contending experts together in a balanced way without any pre-conceptions? Presumably not, as he has a particular ideological function to fulfill.
And God knows what's actually true – IT is the wild west and it's best to doubt everyone involved in it.
71 cases today….I heard the expert interviewed by Kim hill just before 9am who said there really needs to be a vaccine that steralises covid, like the measles vaccine. Current covid vaccines allow transmission.
I think we should eliminate covid for another year until such a vaccine becomes available. Level 4 in akl till Xmas. That is my opinion
See what comes out of the serious Covid management discussion at the Beehive today. Top scientists and medical minds will be attending. No matter how good the plan is, even under level 4 their were rule breakers.
Not happening mate. Grant made that reasonably clear at 1pm. His comment that these are rule breakers, [so therefore it would be spreading at level 4 also] means Auckland is not going to bounce back up to 4.
The time has come for us all to prepare for this virus to rip. We are now very much on the Melbourne trajectory. Numbers will double week on week from here.
Its going to be a grim few weeks heading into Christmas.
I agree, I cant see them putting Auckland back to level 4 as they know there would be a public outcry. There is enough rule breakers already. One positive is it may speed up people getting the vaccine.
Maybe not Enough is.. but if your job is getting hot and sweaty while naked with multiple clients you would have to go a long way to find a better transmission enviroment than that. And it will only get down to the South via a non- compliant arsehole from guess where?.
Seems like half the country wants them all named & shamed, and the other half doesn’t want them & their families to have to face abuse from the public.
Might have to bring back public stocks for lockdown runners, but let them wear a bag over their heads?
We seem to be getting into situations where some lockdown runners’ names are publicly known & others aren’t.
Really great to hear of Littles optimism. So we will cut off the country at the Bombays ? No schooling , shops etc open this year and potentially April 22??, no holidays, Auckland north closed for what 6 months ???
Perhaps some govt ministers should get out to Auckland, There is plenty of evidence that the public are not adhering to the level 3 rules( just look at the spread of cases), remember what Coster said in Feb 21 regarding "policing by consent". IMO this outbreak is hanging on the consent of the public, and evidence that this consent is diminishing.
"Next year, even with a 90 per cent of the eligible population vaccinated, Covid cases in the area covering Auckland and Northland could hit 5300 a week for six weeks.The Government is not worried about this. In fact, it thinks it is entirely manageable."
Even though it's rule-breaking rather than workplaces that seem to be the main source of spread, this calls for serious consideration about pushing everyone up a covid level – and explicitly blaming rulebreakers for it. This is why we can't have nice things.
Unless they can guarantee cases will plateau in a fortnight (which they can't), this is going to get very ugly indeed.
You think areseholes breaking lockdown rules care about other people, or what they may think?
Teenagers (or some of then) who haven't seen their boyfriend or mates in 60 days won't care.
People who's livlihood rely on working in the black market won't care.
Short sharp lockdows are effective. But once you get to this point (as has been shown everywhere else in the world) universal compliance becomes the issue.
Of the unvaccinated I know, they also didn't pay much attention to the rules for level 4 either. They've been quite boastful about what they got up in level 4 and still doing in level 3.
The only thing I can see that might move them are "no jab, no job" and "no jab, no entry" policies. And that's only going to affect whether they get vaccinated, not whether they comply with level 3 or 4 rules.
Worth noting that this is the most recent, with polling until Monday. The commentators interviewed their keyboards and decided last week was terrible for Ardern instead, but the voters disagreed. How dare they.
"The Greens dropped 3.2 points to 6.4 per cent." Looks like their strategy of keeping a low profile is working well. Disclosure of non-interest: I allowed my GP membership to lapse last December. Their messaging has been too underwhelming for too long. I will never abandon my support for the Green movement, of course!
Be interesting to know how many households are fracturing because of anti-vaxxers. The worry that they will get very sick if they contract covid and that families won't be able to help them. Christmas day will be fraught with angst with family members not being invited into the usual noisy rowdy train ride of a day. The simmering resentment which never goes away knowing that a loved one refuses to have the vaccine and is endangering their life and others around them.
Our PM has said often that we all need to "encourage" our loved ones who are "hesitant". In my opinion the lady hasn't got a clue what she is on about. Trying to get an anti-vaxxer to take one for the team is like painfully pulling teeth. The bloody mindedness is boundless when they have made their minds up. One can say well, you only sow what you reap but try telling that to parents who love their kids. Its heartbreaking.
Yeah, of the half-dozen unvaccinated I know, only one is showing any signs of considering getting vaxed. He's aware that there's a lot of shit on the internet, and that he may not have been getting his ideas from reliable sources.
But jeez, it's a lot of work going through every anti-vax talking point that he's bought into one by one and showing exactly how it's disinformation, and how to better interpret the actual facts of the actual situation the disinfo is built on. Something I find interesting is even after I've shown that a particular disinformation source is completely full of shit on several different topics, he still takes further ideas from that source as reliable.
"try telling that to parents who love their kids. Its heartbreaking."
Of the four there's only one.
She's joined a cluster and it's as though her whole being depends on not breaking out. Every illogical, un-founded bullshit claim or theory has been refuted with proof and still….
Oh, Ok. The headline and article have both now been updated. The guts of it is:
………………………………
"Police have taken three people into custody following a stolen-car incident where people fled the scene before a car was spiked.
Just after 2pm police said they were called to an incident after a person had their vehicle stolen in Massey.
The Eagle police helicopter located the stolen vehicle and tracked it to Westgate. A police spokesperson confirmed the offender got away in a waiting vehicle, with two others in the car.
"Eagle has continued to monitor the situation and police have been able to spike the car," the spokesperson said."
“A New Zealand journalist who has been reporting in Afghanistan’s capital since July for television network Al Jazeera has left the country amid growing concerns over safety.
Charlotte Bellis, a television reporter from Christchurch now based in Doha, Qatar, had been in Kabul covering the withdrawal of international forces as the country came under Taliban control.
Her father, Bruce Bellis, said he was unsure exactly when his daughter returned to Doha but it was “not long after the Americans left” at the end of August, marking the end of America’s involvement in the Afghanistan war.
“I believe she is now in Doha because of the Taliban’s attitude towards women … so it was safer for Al Jazeera to take her back to Doha … I understand that’s where she is,” he said.”
This is a bit strange. As the Stuff article goes on to note, Bellis had remained in Kabul & prided herself on having established good working relationships with Kabul’s Taliban leadership, which made her feel quite safe there to continue reporting.
I have noticed recently that one of Al Jazeera’s older hands, Stephanie Dekker, has taken over reporting from Kabul recently, instead of Charlotte, & wondered where she had gone to. Al Jazeera hasn’t said anything about her departure, as far as I know, on their tv news reporting.
It would not take more than a few cases of people one knows (contacts/Afghan journalists) being taken out to unnerve. Then she might have been warned to leave – her Taliban contacts were of the Doha diplomatic talks variety and there was a confrontation within the Taliban (over governing arrangements) around the time she left.
Hmmm. The Taliban has been having major problems with ISK bombings as well, this past week – in several cities, including Kabul. Altho the Taliban Security Services Interim Minister was featured on Aljaz tv news last night saying that their security services have made great progress tracking down IS fighters, given the number of bombings & people killed (mainly Shia/Hazaris) he wasn’t very convincing.
The Taliban are facing not just Islamic State attacks, but also the possible beginnings of an insurgency from other ethnic groups not represented in their government, including Masoud’s. They are discovering it’s not going to be just like the 1990s when they took control last time.
But the situation over there is now in really dire straits. There’s no funding for anything, gov’t workers have no salaries being paid (& they already hadn’t been paid for months, before the Taliban took over), there’s no work, people are selling what little they have left to buy food, over 90% of the population is on the brink of starvation.
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Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
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 Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
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While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellsford, Onehunga, Westhaven marina – Gavin Strawhan walks the meanish streets of New Zealand in his entertaining debut novel The Call, almost sure to roar into the number 1 position on the Nielsen bestseller chart, its front cover bearing a rave from somebody: “A really good and genuinely ...
11th March 2018, 7.20 am.
Thump, thump, thump, on my roof. What the hell?
Oh. “Morning Aspen. God, you’re a character!” 😀
https://i.imgur.com/nQbokDe.gif
.
Giving a free Blues concert for the stream’s waterbirds:
https://i.imgur.com/c0hbO8E.gif
"I'd rather drink muddy water or sleep in a hollow log."
"If the river ran whisky and I was a diving duck"
"Good morning blues, blues how do you do? x2 well I feel alright good morning how are you?"
I wouldn't suggest any Howlin' Wolf, though.
the wolf is always worth the listen.
Oh yes. Yes indeed❗️ 👍🏼
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3gXpqpcnfIQ
Alan Lomax's archive.
https://archive.culturalequity.org/solr-search/content/grid?search_api_fulltext=Chester%20Burnett
https://archive.culturalequity.org/collections
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCInpAOuv6nqdf6EheU4Wfjg
You might like this then: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOYZaiDZ7BM
Nah, that’s not Da Blues. That’s … I dunno …. White Boy Punk Country, or something.
I prefer the minimalist style of Ravi Shankar’s little girl & her lead guitarist on this:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBseZ6y7hDQ
Heart of Glass is a New Wave/Disco crossover. Blondie got lots of shit for doing Disco but hey it's a great song. The original demo version had reggae influence:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkjeAt0KrL8
My dog always sings along to both versions.
Blondie was also the first Rock band to do Rap.
Man, that’s certainly a different version from their more well-known hit version. Debbie Harry’s got the voice & the superb timing to carry it off, tho.
She certainly has, my dog not so much.
.
😄
Might just be the wrong song for your doggie:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=k3u5E8XKPjg
My favorite Floyd album. But no that one doesn't do anything for her.
This one however:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jShX2lBwWfM
I like Reggae as well as Blues; in fact I learned how to combine them in one original song “Blues Done In Reggae”.
I especially like Bob & The Wailers, as well as a few UB40 songs.
My favourite UB40 song (apart from “Ivory Madonna” – not the correct name but YouTube finds it) is this one – after I witnessed it performed live by Porirua’s Whitireia University Music Class Band during their concert at the Cozzie Club in Upper Hutt. They did a fantastic job of it:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hgwr6eyLDlI
In a past life I had a small town pub.
We had Ronnie Taylor play on a Saturday night. His backing band Tainui Funk had finished setting up when Ronnie arrived.
He walked straight up to the bar and asked for a double Jack Daniels. I asked if he wanted ice in it. He replied "Don't start a fire then put it out".
😀 👍🏼 ☘ 🍺
Rod Oram anticipates an increasing focus on methane – a political shift consequent of perceptions of increasing urgency. BAU advocates will feel even more paranoid. Having pointed out here a couple of years ago that methane breaks down into CO2, I've been mystified by the long-standing tendency to discount it, but I suppose that's just another symptom of climate change inducing mass irrationality & hysteria.
Reminds us why there's a huge pakeha male deficit in the Greens & their voter base. "Huh?? What are you trying to say?" would be their typical response. Can't get political support for policy shifts without communicating in language folks are familiar with. Duh!
“Methane is a potent greenhouse gas with a warming potential more than 28 times that of carbon dioxide (CO2). But when it comes to livestock and climate change, there are many other characteristics that set biogenic methane (methane from cattle) apart from CO2. Here are an important four:
* It stays in our atmosphere for about 12 years
* It’s derived from atmospheric carbon, such as CO2
* It’s part of the biogenic carbon cycle
* It eventually returns to the atmosphere as CO2, making it recycled carbon
…
Methane has a relatively short life of 12 years compared to the hundreds or even thousands of years that CO2 hangs around. After about 12 years, 80 to 89 percent of methane is removed by oxidation with tropical hydroxyl radicals (OH), a process referred to as hydroxyl oxidation. As a result of its short lifespan, methane is only significantly warming our atmosphere for those 12 years, which is why it is considered a short-lived climate pollutant (SLCP).
Its short lifespan is further relevant in regard to warming, because it means that as methane is being emitted it is also being destroyed in the atmosphere, making it a flow gas.
This illustrates that methane’s warming impact isn’t determined by how much is being emitted – since it’s destroyed relatively quickly – but by how much more or less methane is being emitted over a period of time. This is a change in the rate of emission.
What is notable about methane, is that it’s possible the amount being emitted can equal the amount being destroyed. For example, if a herd of cattle emits the same amount of methane over 12 years, they are contributing to warming for those 12 years. But afterward the same amount being emitted is the same that is being destroyed through oxidation, and thus warming is neutral.”
https://clear.ucdavis.edu/explainers/why-methane-cattle-warms-climate-differently-co2-fossil-fuels
Yeah, this neutrality thesis is what's in question. Well, that's the impression I get anyway. We await any new consensus of experts! I'll just restate my point about oxidation by pointing out that CO2 is the product. How anyone in academia can spin that into neutrality is a bit beyond me. Do they use an equation?
It’s physics, so I imagine they do, Dennis.
If it’s not shown in that article, there are others around on the web that proponents have posted to us on other blogs.
It was hard enuf to find that one, because so many “experts” who dispute or refuse to accept this methane > CO2 cycle thesis have ensured that articles talking up the methane contribution to global warming (as opposed to it being a self-neutralising process) predominate in Google searches.
Oh well, let's hope that the winds of change blown up by the climate summit dispell the fog. Disclosure of interest: I graduated BSc in physics. But that was in a bygone era. I got good at feeding back to the profs whatever line of bullshit they fished for in the design of exam questions. Worked like a charm.
Ever since, I tend to just scan stuff to get the gist of it. Going any further means taking the author seriously – usually a waste of one's valuable time!
If the farmer keeps producing the same amount each year as gets neutralised by the 12th year, that means the farmer is providing a permanent store of Methane heating the atmosphere over 28 times worse than CO2 – the whole bloody time. Bring back lynch mobs!
Well, the time for being critical of farmers is long gone really. Political focus ought to be shifting to solutions and implementation. Farmer's reps have been in the media rating farmer compliance at more than 80% during the past year. I'd like to get a reality check procedure adopted for that compliant majority, plus an enforcement procedure to apply to the remainder.
That means Lab/Nat leaders have to pull finger, eh? Laziness from politicians ought not to be tolerated further by the public. Effective politics is still possible via the use of intelligent design of decision-making processes to extend consensus on solutions & implementation method. Dumb & dumber is institutionalised by democracy, true, but we can get around that with goodwill & serious intent.
The climate summit is being pushed into the corner by the reality of the global energy crisis.
Europe has a significant energy crisis going into winter,due to high prices and supply shortages (due to under investment).
interim measures such as subsidies are being implemented and discussion are underway to remove taxation on FF generators.
https://twitter.com/JavierBlas/status/1448243868072386564?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1448243868072386564%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpublish.twitter.com%2F%3Fquery%3Dhttps3A2F2Ftwitter.com2FJavierBlas2Fstatus2F1448243868072386564widget%3DTweet
https://www.dw.com/en/eu-unveils-toolbox-against-high-energy-prices/a-59488520
https://www.dw.com/en/europeans-brace-for-hard-winter-as-energy-price-surge-hits-households/a-59246714
That's related. The zero-sum thinkers will do trad reductionism: "Forget about climate-fixing, we must fix BAU!" Holists will go "Please extract your head from the 19th century, we need you to help the transition to sustainability. There Is No Alternative. If humanity is to survive…"
Flunk the challenge or engage it? Suit-wearers of the left & right would cope better if they stop wearing their 19th century uniform.
Our failing response to the covid pandemic, reminds me of our response to climate change.
We are told, "Well we must open up eventually, don't we?"
Well what if we didn't?
What if instead of jetting off to the Gold Coast for the weekend, at the cost of one old person catching the infection and dying, we holidayed at home at one of this country's many attractions?
Before the 60's and even into the 70's mass air travel wasn't even a thing. Air travel was a rare luxury for the wealthy, or something you saved up for that once in a lifetime vacation.
I think we need to personalise the experience of air travel in the age of covid. Before you are allowed to fly overseas for that weekend on the beach at Surfers or Bondi, you have to agree to go into an old folks home and personally euthanise one old person.
And if you think Covid is bad, the climate crisis is going to be worse.
While your high emissions lifestyle is more likely to kill someone in the Third World and not you, again I think we need to personalise the experience of air travel in the age of climate change.
Alighting at that exotic tropical holdiday destination, before you get to relax on the beach with that maitai in your hand, you have to agree to drown one local child in the nearest river.
I'll go with the principle of moral responsibility. It tends to operate as sub-text for political activists. Make it explicit & folks immediately start complaining that thinking about it makes their brain hurt.
What if it were to be incorporated into a code of ethics for economists and accountants? Then you'd get the real costs of business & policies impacting onto political decisions. Both left- and right-wingers would hate that! Since democracy was designed to privilege both tribes of wrongdoers, gonna be real hard to make progress on an ethical basis.
Yes, millions of individuals acting selfishly don't seem able to solve the big problems. Who would have thought (except 99% of mainstream economists and politicians)?
It don’t make no never mind (as US southerners might say) to the planet.
If we human apes don’t get our act together, the ecosytem & our social settings will change to make survival of the current huge numbers of our arrogant & untthinking species more difficult.
There will be other species which will likely survive better in a hotter workd, & / or new ones might arise or evolve to take advantage of the new niches, as always.
The most special thing about human apes is the danger they present to all other life forms, as well as their own.
Kim Hill uncharacteristically letting Chris Bishop, world authority on epidemiology, vaccination and nurse ICU training off the hook this morning , apparently there are 3000 nurses in the MIQ queue desperate to get home to work in ICU. Really? Just how many are only coming home to see mum and dad for a while, how many are ICU trained, a process that can take years or months just to be bought up to speed if with previous ICU experience, because techniques and equipment and drugs are constantly being upgraded. Or coming home to get the fuck away from nursing because of burnout?
Oh, and they can home isolate even if symptomatic because of an app on their phone with say, aged parents with compromised function or a sister with young, unvaxxed children, in fact all 30,000 can come home. Fuck off Bishop and take your vax avoider mate Goudie with you.
John Carter Northland Mayor?, another ex Nat railing about the two women sex workers, how about naming and shaming the Northland residents who aided and abetted the two to go to Northland in the first place? But hang on, they may be National Party donors or “ prominent in the community” , can’t have that eh. Arseholes.
It's alright Adrian, I'll get Chris Faafoi to look into it for you.
Calm down, Adrian. One you got to John Carter you lost me, I’m afraid. Arseholes, I understood but the rest of it’s a bit too convoluted for me to follow, tbh. I am a bear of small brain. 🐼
🙄 *Once you got to John Carter…
There are going to be cases of people self isolating at home so they do not catch Covid. Some people are spending a lot of time in their home under level 2 even now and they are restructuring their interests.
The likes of mayors or opposition politicians do not need to tell me how to personally manage a Covid outbreak.
The urgency is in Auckland and the basics need to be provided, food, counselling, laptops and phone connections for school education, rental housing assistance, survival income and free sound business advice.
That's not fair on John Carter. He is genuinely angry about this.
He is not like Goudie.
In regards to Bisflap, it could be an example of 'Give 'em enough rope…'
I was illustrating how easy it is to give grandstanders like Bishop and Carter room to put up straw theories that can fall apart at the first challenge. But first they must be challenged.
As good as Kim can be she does operate within the RNZ ecosystem which got hobbled long ago by….3 guesses no prizes.
When Kim Hill wants to challenge or question someone’s statements, she’s usually very good at it – quite dogged & determined.
Perhaps she’s feeling off colour, or just not in the mood this morning? I’ll see if I can find the audio track when RNZ post it, & have a listen later.
How long is the Delta Covid wave likely to last in NZ?
Bishop and Carter can spit tacks all they like about individual rule breakers, once the rules are broken they cannot be reversed. The situation can only be contained and everyone is affected when rules are broken and infection control is not followed properly.
Two of them are Richard Griffin and Paul Thompson. The name of the newest rightie on the board escapes me.
Difficult reading over breakfast.
https://twitter.com/normanswan/status/1447891570934444033
Interesting tho. 👍🏼
O Virus, look upon your mortal legions and despair.
1. You haven't risen beyond any other social ill. The mortality and morbidity effects are far less that car crashes per year. You're over-hyped.
2. Each crisis has made us stronger. Some of our more recent crises have rapidly accelerated human progress. Such as in global co-operation, medicine, mechanisation, and communications and information. You helped us kill you, again and again.
3. You told us nothing about the poor. Covid is eventually a disease of deprivation, but pretty much everything else is already.
4. We know better than you. Covid has been a strong positive axial point for human knowledge. It has confirmed the epistemic truth of science against social media, and simultaneously supported accelerated successful drug trials faster than we've seen in decades..
5. Our unity overcomes you. Social cohesion has remained remarkably strong – even in the United States. There is no underground lava flow of human anomie to reveal from Covid.
6. Our state is stronger than ever. Covid, even more than the GFC, has confirmed the necessity for strong and coherent government.
7. Our dominion continues to strengthen. Compared to the Spanish 'Flu a century ago, human hygiene and public health measures are vastly superior. Humans have gained power not weakened in that time. If this is one of the worst viral powers in modern operation, it's been dealt to very fast and with remarkable lack of fuss.
8 Capitalism, medicine, and government are united. Researchers invested and tested at speed. Regulators acted with appropriate speed. Few governments are afraid of debt anymore to achieve public health goals.
9. The world is re-opening and re-born. Your lessons such as they are have already been absorbed and the height of your doom has passed. You haven't had the longevity of human interest of two seasons of Days Of Our Lives.
10. You were the last of your kind, and you're done. Even Polio was stronger, Malaria more powerful and across more lives, and they too are being vaccined away. You were more than SARS, but less than most. Would you like a gold plated One Ring or something to make you feel better?
Nothing can stop us.
For some reason my computer isn't copying, but here's the latest Talbot Mills (UMR) polling:
Labour 46
National 22
Act 16
Greens 7
What were the previous results?
Some details in the Herald:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/new-political-poll-act-six-points-behind-national-while-david-seymours-popularity-climbs-talbot-mills-research/
“Labour on 46 per cent (up one point from September), National on 22 per cent (down four points), Act up three points to 16 and the Greens up one at 7 per cent.”
That’s what I wanted. Thank you. 👍🏼
Collins will survive until 2022 when parliament resumes. She will continue to be a liability as leader. National and Act could be neck and neck in the next Colmar Brunton poll.
All the National whingers and the ACT gossippers are not out trolling today.
After many claims that ACT was taking votes directly from labour.
Both Greens and Labour on steady ground National in more trouble those National MP's with slim majorities and lower on the list will want a new leader Pronto as business leaders say Collins is the best promoter for Labour.
How long can National keep bleeding votes to every other party.
National is in limbo until 2022.
Judith Collins is not going anywhere.
Judith Collins is like a vulture sitting on a tree branch patiently waiting for the beautiful antelope to stumble.
Already she is preparing to swoop down on the wounded gazelle.
After health experts were sidelined in the decision to lower the Auckland Alert Level, with the resulting rise in cases they warned the government of. Some of these health experts demanded to see who's advice the government had been taking.
Despite the fact that lowering the level is what she had been demanding all along, Judith Collins has swooped down to peck at the fallen carcase of the Government's covid response. And is also now (belatedly) demanding that this policy advice be released.
I knew the picnic bubble was a bad idea. It gave people a licience to entertain inside the home. Having a nominated visitor like in L4 needed to be maintained and allowing 2 nominated visitors in L3.
Contact tracing would have been much easier.
John Key would be happy with labour opening the economy.
As I mentioned Judith Collins was very late coming to the realisation that the government's decision to go out of Level 4 was a mistake, especially as this is just what she had been calling for.
In demanding the government release the advice they received before going down a level, Judith Collins is only echoing the Health experts' query.
With the Auckand Nat MPs not returning to Wellington until the new year how long will they hold off?
Judith must be quietly hoping the lockdown lasts 2 years
Right track: 63
Wrong track: 30
As usual, the people disagree with those who are paid to tell the people what the people think.
Lab/Grn a smidgeon over 50; Nat/ACT a smidgeon under 40. A 10-15% gap between the blocs – pretty much what we have been seeing for a while. The Key years in reverse.
What will be the catalyst for that advantage flipping the other way – and what can be done to pre-empt it?
I'll be surprised in Labour still hold up their vote after the abandonment of elimination and the imminent overwhelming of our hospital services.
Rod Jackson speaking sense.
"You can be really hard on them [rule breakers], but you're probably not going to ever stop them.
"We have to make sure that our cars' brakes work, we need to make sure that we're doing everything and we're following all the rules because the more we do that, the more we can slow it down."
“I think we need to take our mandatory vaccination rules much further. I think it has to be the police, it has to be supermarkets.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018816323
Meanwhile from anti-vaxxer land:
'Despite having brakes, some cars still crash. Therefore I choose not to have any brakes'
Brakes make it less likely to cause serious harm, that is why cars need brakes.
Scroll down for the kicker.
https://twitter.com/Te_Taipo/status/1448223319161860097
Labour again showing it is not just houses that they can't build properly
New My Covid website full of security holes.
Link has the interview with the ITguy
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/audio/daniel-ayers-it-security-expert-finds-issues-with-my-covid-website-within-a-few-minutes/
"IT expert finds issues with My Covid website 'within a few minutes'
A Christchurch IT expert has found security issues with the Government's My Covid website.
The My Covid Record website is now accessible to the public, initially just allowing people to view their vaccination record.
However, members of the public have reported the new site seems overloaded.
IT security expert Daniel Ayers told Mike Hoskin a brand new website shouldn't have….." issues like these.
Chris T houses they can't build properly you mean when National threw out building quality control and put in private building inspectors in 1991 allowing the leaky building catastrophe.
The Canterbury rebuild which is costing tax payers billions because of dodgy repairs and insurance underpayment.
Kiwibuild was worth a try but because of shortages of Labour Land and materials it failed,But the number of govt funded new state houses has seen more built since the 1970's. National said it was a mistake to sell off 7,000 state houses.
Are you wearing your whataboutism t-shirt today?
Kiwibuild was a joke. A flat out bribe that they knew perfectly well was impossible, because at the time they were under 30 in the polls.
Fair play to Shearer though. To his credit he managed to not burst out laughing when he announced it. Not a lot of parties politicians would have had the ability to do that.
Kiwibuild has delivered 1500 extra homes to the market while National had a massive deficit over 9 years Nicola Willis saying it was a mistake selling off 7,000 state houses .
Labour has built nearly 4,000 state houses plus funding for nearly 1,000 NGO houses.
When you add that all up its not enough but it's way better than National.If you take the Canterbury rebuild out of Nationals figures of state houses built. you will find Nationals housing efforts even worse but not as bad as the leaky building disasters like brand new hospitals and schools etc that still need fixing and demolition in many cases.
"Kiwibuild has delivered 1500 extra homes to the market while National had a massive deficit over 9 years Nicola Willis saying it was a mistake selling off 7,000 state houses ."
Kiwibuild is arguably the greatest policy failure in the history of NZ politics.
"Labour has built nearly 4,000 state houses plus funding for nearly 1,000 NGO houses."
All I can say is that you're being more honest than Megan Woods. As at 27th July, the number Labour have actually built is Kainga Ora 1952 + CHP's 1009 + Transitional Housing 755. So the total permanent additions are only 2961 as at 27/7.
This was a major policy platform of Labour's, and instead of fixing the problem they have made it worse.
Might be a case of Mike H picking the expert that fits the narrative. An official from the MoH said on RNZ today that the site had been security-audited by a third party consultancy.
Did Mike try being an actual journalist and get the contending experts together in a balanced way without any pre-conceptions? Presumably not, as he has a particular ideological function to fulfill.
And God knows what's actually true – IT is the wild west and it's best to doubt everyone involved in it.
2021 is…
Updating the security photo on your cell phone to one where you are wearing a mask.
Haha, I just tried that, and phone says "no face identified".
National has moderated its criticism trying to look mature. A bit late in the day a lot of work to do.
Unfortunately Collins has taken herself well beyond mature & is now ripe for cropping.
71 cases today….I heard the expert interviewed by Kim hill just before 9am who said there really needs to be a vaccine that steralises covid, like the measles vaccine. Current covid vaccines allow transmission.
I think we should eliminate covid for another year until such a vaccine becomes available. Level 4 in akl till Xmas. That is my opinion
See what comes out of the serious Covid management discussion at the Beehive today. Top scientists and medical minds will be attending. No matter how good the plan is, even under level 4 their were rule breakers.
The rule breakers are harming the community.
Not happening mate. Grant made that reasonably clear at 1pm. His comment that these are rule breakers, [so therefore it would be spreading at level 4 also] means Auckland is not going to bounce back up to 4.
The time has come for us all to prepare for this virus to rip. We are now very much on the Melbourne trajectory. Numbers will double week on week from here.
Its going to be a grim few weeks heading into Christmas.
I agree, I cant see them putting Auckland back to level 4 as they know there would be a public outcry. There is enough rule breakers already. One positive is it may speed up people getting the vaccine.
Oh great. Sounds like this was a lucky escape for the South Island.
Women who travelled to Blenheim have returned negative Covid results | Stuff.co.nz
Not surprising though. Just because someone is from Auckland, it doesn't mean they have COVID.
Problem being there seems to be more and more rule breakers!
True, still a tiny number of Aucklanders have the disease though, so the South would be very unlucky if one of the very few peole travelling had it.
But its going to get down there at some stage over the coming week.s Numbers are about to explode which will means its heading south before Christmas.
Maybe not Enough is.. but if your job is getting hot and sweaty while naked with multiple clients you would have to go a long way to find a better transmission enviroment than that. And it will only get down to the South via a non- compliant arsehole from guess where?.
Seems like half the country wants them all named & shamed, and the other half doesn’t want them & their families to have to face abuse from the public.
Might have to bring back public stocks for lockdown runners, but let them wear a bag over their heads?
We seem to be getting into situations where some lockdown runners’ names are publicly known & others aren’t.
The odds are still very low.
Working person first needs to have got hot and sweaty with someone who had covid to then start spreading it. Thats about a 1 in 1000 chance.
Good to hear Minister Little so optimistic about New Zealand getting to the 90% vaccinated rate nationwide.
At 71 cases and rising, there aren't many more reasons to be optimistic.
Let’s hope he’s right. Little has never inspired optimism in me.
Really great to hear of Littles optimism. So we will cut off the country at the Bombays ? No schooling , shops etc open this year and potentially April 22??, no holidays, Auckland north closed for what 6 months ???
Perhaps some govt ministers should get out to Auckland, There is plenty of evidence that the public are not adhering to the level 3 rules( just look at the spread of cases), remember what Coster said in Feb 21 regarding "policing by consent". IMO this outbreak is hanging on the consent of the public, and evidence that this consent is diminishing.
"Next year, even with a 90 per cent of the eligible population vaccinated, Covid cases in the area covering Auckland and Northland could hit 5300 a week for six weeks.The Government is not worried about this. In fact, it thinks it is entirely manageable."
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/covid-19-delta-outbreak-next-year-thousands-of-people-will-get-covid-most-will-stay-at-home/LQZ3WPSZD5WQKTQNOZ4YHHQZXE/
For a lifetime, not a person of good character.
Reckon the Aussies will deport him? Brown people who own motorbikes have been sent back for less than his "hoarding disorder".
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/126675998/ron-brierley-sentenced-to-14-months-in-jail-over-childabuse-images
$200 million buys him an easy seven months in the kid-fuckers wing and someone to fold the sheets down when he arrives home in Wunulla Rd.
A slow moving nightmare comin' down the track.
https://twitter.com/radionz/status/1448440481642266629
https://twitter.com/RawiriTaonui/status/1448440496674652163
Why did she say the numbers were not unexpected?
I am trying to look back and can't find where they said they were expecting these numbers
Well, they've said today they expect numbers to double in a couple of weeks.
Even though it's rule-breaking rather than workplaces that seem to be the main source of spread, this calls for serious consideration about pushing everyone up a covid level – and explicitly blaming rulebreakers for it. This is why we can't have nice things.
Unless they can guarantee cases will plateau in a fortnight (which they can't), this is going to get very ugly indeed.
I do not want NZ crematoria running overtime.
I think the point being made is rule breakers don't care what level we are at. If they don't stay home at 3 why would they stay home at 4.
Because even most rule breakers would care about what someone thinks.
And those someones getting pissed at rulebreakers because they're the ones responsible for the lockdown, that might work.
You think areseholes breaking lockdown rules care about other people, or what they may think?
Teenagers (or some of then) who haven't seen their boyfriend or mates in 60 days won't care.
People who's livlihood rely on working in the black market won't care.
Short sharp lockdows are effective. But once you get to this point (as has been shown everywhere else in the world) universal compliance becomes the issue.
Most people have someone – flatmate, family member, friend.
And most people have neighbours, flatmates or exes who might be fucked off about rulebreaking keeping them in L4.
What's your solution – abandon levels and watch the cases rise?
Of the unvaccinated I know, they also didn't pay much attention to the rules for level 4 either. They've been quite boastful about what they got up in level 4 and still doing in level 3.
The only thing I can see that might move them are "no jab, no job" and "no jab, no entry" policies. And that's only going to affect whether they get vaccinated, not whether they comply with level 3 or 4 rules.
Cases are going to rise. That's inevitible. We can't put the genie back in the bottle now.
My solution, encourage everyone I know, friends, family collegues, neighbours to get the jab, because the virus is coming.
It is simply wishful thinking that we can have a COVID free New Zealand agian. That is a waste of energy as it will never be the case again.
By that logic, it was always a waste of energy.
But I'd rather live in Auckland than Melbourne or Sydney right now.
Not really – Delta is a new beast. We gave it a good crack, which was the right thing to do, but we are now onto the next stage of this fight.
No, really. I have family over there. fuck that.
There will be a few weeks of more initial doses of vaccine, but then there's a few more weeks before the second dose.
The next stage of this fight can be overloaded hospitals, or if folks can stick it out for a few more weeks we might be able to avoid that.
The main marathon's end is in sight, but don't fall over before we get there.
The latest poll only confirms the terrible results for National:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/new-taxpayers-union-poll-has-national-just-six-points-ahead-of-act/
Worth noting that this is the most recent, with polling until Monday. The commentators interviewed their keyboards and decided last week was terrible for Ardern instead, but the voters disagreed. How dare they.
"The Greens dropped 3.2 points to 6.4 per cent." Looks like their strategy of keeping a low profile is working well. Disclosure of non-interest: I allowed my GP membership to lapse last December. Their messaging has been too underwhelming for too long. I will never abandon my support for the Green movement, of course!
Be interesting to know how many households are fracturing because of anti-vaxxers. The worry that they will get very sick if they contract covid and that families won't be able to help them. Christmas day will be fraught with angst with family members not being invited into the usual noisy rowdy train ride of a day. The simmering resentment which never goes away knowing that a loved one refuses to have the vaccine and is endangering their life and others around them.
Our PM has said often that we all need to "encourage" our loved ones who are "hesitant". In my opinion the lady hasn't got a clue what she is on about. Trying to get an anti-vaxxer to take one for the team is like painfully pulling teeth. The bloody mindedness is boundless when they have made their minds up. One can say well, you only sow what you reap but try telling that to parents who love their kids. Its heartbreaking.
Yeah, of the half-dozen unvaccinated I know, only one is showing any signs of considering getting vaxed. He's aware that there's a lot of shit on the internet, and that he may not have been getting his ideas from reliable sources.
But jeez, it's a lot of work going through every anti-vax talking point that he's bought into one by one and showing exactly how it's disinformation, and how to better interpret the actual facts of the actual situation the disinfo is built on. Something I find interesting is even after I've shown that a particular disinformation source is completely full of shit on several different topics, he still takes further ideas from that source as reliable.
"try telling that to parents who love their kids. Its heartbreaking."
Of the four there's only one.
She's joined a cluster and it's as though her whole being depends on not breaking out. Every illogical, un-founded bullshit claim or theory has been refuted with proof and still….
I just don't know how to fix it.
Oh Brigid, my heart goes out to you. Keep loving and talking with, but decide on your rules. All the best to you both. xx
Christ. More sht goin' down in Tamaki Makaurau?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/armed-police-chase-man-at-western-springs/GHHL4OW2XCUF3HRWJPM623GM34/
Looking foward to an update…
Oh, Ok. The headline and article have both now been updated. The guts of it is:
………………………………
"Police have taken three people into custody following a stolen-car incident where people fled the scene before a car was spiked.
Just after 2pm police said they were called to an incident after a person had their vehicle stolen in Massey.
The Eagle police helicopter located the stolen vehicle and tracked it to Westgate. A police spokesperson confirmed the offender got away in a waiting vehicle, with two others in the car.
"Eagle has continued to monitor the situation and police have been able to spike the car," the spokesperson said."
“A New Zealand journalist who has been reporting in Afghanistan’s capital since July for television network Al Jazeera has left the country amid growing concerns over safety.
Charlotte Bellis, a television reporter from Christchurch now based in Doha, Qatar, had been in Kabul covering the withdrawal of international forces as the country came under Taliban control.
Her father, Bruce Bellis, said he was unsure exactly when his daughter returned to Doha but it was “not long after the Americans left” at the end of August, marking the end of America’s involvement in the Afghanistan war.
“I believe she is now in Doha because of the Taliban’s attitude towards women … so it was safer for Al Jazeera to take her back to Doha … I understand that’s where she is,” he said.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/126677293/kiwi-journalist-charlotte-bellis-leaves-afghanistan-amid-heightened-taliban-tension
…………………………………
This is a bit strange. As the Stuff article goes on to note, Bellis had remained in Kabul & prided herself on having established good working relationships with Kabul’s Taliban leadership, which made her feel quite safe there to continue reporting.
I have noticed recently that one of Al Jazeera’s older hands, Stephanie Dekker, has taken over reporting from Kabul recently, instead of Charlotte, & wondered where she had gone to. Al Jazeera hasn’t said anything about her departure, as far as I know, on their tv news reporting.
It would not take more than a few cases of people one knows (contacts/Afghan journalists) being taken out to unnerve. Then she might have been warned to leave – her Taliban contacts were of the Doha diplomatic talks variety and there was a confrontation within the Taliban (over governing arrangements) around the time she left.
Hmmm. The Taliban has been having major problems with ISK bombings as well, this past week – in several cities, including Kabul. Altho the Taliban Security Services Interim Minister was featured on Aljaz tv news last night saying that their security services have made great progress tracking down IS fighters, given the number of bombings & people killed (mainly Shia/Hazaris) he wasn’t very convincing.
The Taliban are facing not just Islamic State attacks, but also the possible beginnings of an insurgency from other ethnic groups not represented in their government, including Masoud’s. They are discovering it’s not going to be just like the 1990s when they took control last time.
But the situation over there is now in really dire straits. There’s no funding for anything, gov’t workers have no salaries being paid (& they already hadn’t been paid for months, before the Taliban took over), there’s no work, people are selling what little they have left to buy food, over 90% of the population is on the brink of starvation.