In a move likely to trigger Putin pacifiers here, I see that Germany is now sending Leopard tanks to Ukraine and is allowing other European nations to send theirs. Also, the US is sending US is sending 31 Abrams tanks. Along with all the Bradleys, Strykers, and other high-end APCs, Ukraine is soon going to have some serious kick-arse weaponry that will cause the Russians a lot of problems.
And Britain is considering giving Ukraine long range missiles that will enable them to hit military targets inside Russia, and potentially do a proper job of taking out the Kerch bridge
I think that it has now been recognised that the quickest path to peace is for the Russians to be totally defeated in Ukraine, and Ukraine is now getting the tools that will enable them to do that.
Yes, I agree with you. It is a pity that Russia has been escalating this conflict.
But Russia has set more red lines than a first-year uni assignment which the west has ignored and Russia has done nothing about.
And, Putin and his regime will be freaked out about the spooky US intelligence. At the start of the war, the US was releasing emails from Russian military commanders etc complaining about how the US was reading their emails. So, Putin and his regime will know that the US likely knows exactly where they are at any time, and will likely be the first target of any retalatory strike.
NATO, the West & the US abandoned the 1st Strike action/ Policy in the late 60's or in 70's, at pretty much at the request of Germany & couple of other European countries when it was realised MÀD was completely pointless.
Now NATO has a Political & Defence Posture of gradual response.
The use of WMD's when I did my CBRND Cse's, pretty much said that WMD Response is last on the list when we look at the employment & use of such Weapons to understand why you would use them in the 1st place.
If Tsar Poot's goes down to this path, it's all over Red Rover for him.
The biggest concern would be holding be holding back the Poles & the Baltic States as they still want revenge after 80 odd years for what Russia did in 1939!
Which btw, I think could the biggest concern atm if Russia does launch another Armoured Assualt/s from Belarus again. The Poles may very well go fuck this EU & NATO Bullshit & charge head first into Belarus or down the Lviv corridor to support the Ukrainian's?
The reckoning is that Poland (note there is a right wing Polish Government in Power atm, which isn't as bad as the one in the 30's which was a shocker) isn't exactly comfortable of Russia being on its door step again. No matter what old mate from Belarus says atm & quite frankly I don't trust a word coming out of his mouth either atm.
If the Ukrainians get a weapon with the range and accuracy to destroy the Crimean bridge then the chances are they'll regain Crimea. The war is poised at the moment. The attritional battles around Bakhmut have caused heavy losses to both sides – the Ukrainians appear to have lost heavily in Soledar in particular.
Russian losses however appear to be catastrophic. There is so much video evidence online showing very heavy losses being inflicted on Russian forces who seem to be using a variation of human wave tactics.
"…Our data shows that, as of late December, 42,000–43,000 inmates had been recruited. By now, this is probably upwards of 50,000. Out of that number, 10,000 are now fighting at the front, because the rest have either been killed or wounded, or went AWOL, or deserted, or surrendered…"
So 80% effective loss rate in a few months.
Other reports indicate the Russian manpower wastage across the entire front can get as high as 1000 a day. As I have said, the Ukrainians are also losing heavily, but nothing like the Russians.
A unseasonably warm winter seems to have denied the Ukrainians a chance to attack before the mass of Russia's new conscripts enter the fray. Looking at the force composition of both sides in these winter battles they seem to largely be territorial and local defense units. I would guess the best and most professional units are being rested and rebuilt for what is going to be the decisive phase of the war this coming Northern spring/summer.
These modern tanks will come with fire control systems and thermal optics far superior to anything the Russians have, and will be significant force multipliers. However, weapon systems alone seldom if ever have a strategic impact. The Tiger tank made no difference in WW2. Superior tactics and a sound strategy is more important.
There has been little strategic value for the Russians in attacking the likes of Bakhmut and Soledar, and the Ukrainains have been using these pointless attacks as an opportunity to wear down the Russian forces.
There is a clear pattern to the ebb and flow of this conflict. At the moment we are in the first phase where the Ukrainians wear down Russian forces by conducting fighting withdrawals from inconsequential areas.
When they have worn down the Russians enough, they will go to the second phase, and back on the attack and regain huge swathes of territory.
But, they are not entirely on defensive, and are getting close to capturing Kreminna.
This is much more strategically important than the nonsense the Russians are engaged with at the moment. That is because taking Kremmina will enable the Ukrainians to flank the Russian defence lines, and force the Russians to cede a lot more territory in order to reestablish sound defence lines..
I would be careful assuming these attritional battles are necessarily all in Ukraines favour. We don't know for sure how heavy the losses are on either side, and while common sense tells us the Russians must be suffering heavier losses, the first world war also informs us that in big artillery siege battles the losses are often more even than you'd think. One thing that has astonished me has been how poor the Ukrainian field works are, or at least the ones I have seen in videos. They lack overhead cover, proper fire steps, parapets/parados, duckboards – all stuff that indicates that this is still an army of amateur volunteers. However, it may just be that these are all we get to see on the telly – the best fortifications may be unfilmed for obvious reasons, but still it is a worry.
Even if the Russians are suffering very heavy manpower attrition, it doesn't necessarily follow that the Ukraine can outlast the Russians in straight Verdun style slogging match since Russia has a much bigger population and in very Panem style it is sacrificing it's convicts and ethnic minorities to protect the urban ethnic Russian middle class whilst the Ukraine is sacrificing it's volunteers – their graphic designers, IT startup owners, patriotic students etc etc in defense of their homeland.
The Russian command remains hopelessly fragmented and whilst Putin can call up any number of mobiks it is an open question as to if his generals can equip them properly to be anything more than straw for the furnace.
The war remains in the balance, lets all hope and pray (and donate money) for a Ukrainian victory this year.
My understanding is they withdraw when the costs start getting too high. And I understand Russia can outlast Ukraine in a war of attrition if the Ukrainain losses are too high, even if they are less than Russian losses. So, the Bradleys et al will allow the Ukrainians a lot more protection, which will be a good thing.
Some of the defences are very good. Look at what they are doing at the Belarusian border, for instance. I guess it is a factor of how much time they have available to prepare defences.
Part of what they are doing in some of these areas is to withdraw, and force the Russians to advance across open fields, which ends up often being a slaughter.
The nature of the Ukrainian defeat at Soledar is hard to work out since reliable information is so thin on the ground.
However, there is about enough information to suppose the attack there came as a surprise to the Ukrainians who had the area weakly held with territorial units. They reinforced the position to late and were forced to commit mobile reserves to a hasty counter-attack, suffered a repulse, and were forced to retreat from the town. But the thing is it was a defeat, not a voluntary withdrawal.
These guys here seems reasonably up to date and accurate for AFU deployments, and you can see from this map the Ukrainians have been forced to deploy significant armoured reserves to stabilise the situation around Soledar.
From what my close associates have told me, the Ukrainian's were caught off guard by the shear numbers of mass infantry thrown at them around the Solader Area.
Only the Local Armour/ Mobile Reserves have been committed, ie at Divisional Level & below.
Solader & the surrounding area is becoming an old fashioned WW1 style Defensive Battle.
The Ukrainian Artillery/ Missile Artillery & UAV's units are doing all the talking in the Solader Area.
The bulk of the Ukrainian Armoured Corp & it's Panzer Grenadiers (Mech Infantry) have gone to ground. So watch this space once the ground starts firming up.
The Russian attack in Zaporizhzhia appears to have been planned by general Cecilski Hogmanayi Melchettovich with a clumsily telegraphed unsupported frontal attack resulting in very heavy casualties.
It is going to be interesting to see how long it is before even Putin's police state gets significant popular blowback.
This video shows why the Ukrainians would not have wanted to withdraw from Soledar. The Ukrainian earthworks lack cover and are exposed to accurate artillery fire. The slightly elevated position they are dug to hold is the dominant terrain feature west of Soledar for some distance. Should they lose control of this feature – here or anywhere between Silj and Paraskoviivka – the Russian could bring the E50 supply route under fire. This road, along with the T0504 road which now apparently already under observed fire, are the main all weather supply routes into Bakhmut. Orientation – Silj is visible at 1:16, Soledar at 1:40.
Yeah. I see a lot of that UAV survellience from the Ukrainians as well.
The takeaway for me is that I would hate to be stuck in a trench in one of those conflicts when a UAV might drop a bomb on me at any moment, or might give my coordinates so artillery can drop a shell exactly on my position.
A lot of the Russian fortifications don't look much different though. I guess it is just the haste of the situation. As I said, have a look at the Ukrainian fortifications on the Belarusian border that they have been working on for months, or what the Russians are doing at the border between Kherson Oblast and Crimea. It is on a completely different scale.
Putin pacifiers, wow! did you make that name up all by yourself you ignorant shrill, send 200 tanks and it won't make any difference to the outcome of this conflict, have you got air cover for the few measly tanks etc the West can send, answer is NO, they will become sitting ducks and turned into glass, You and the foul mouthed joe90 and the sanctimonious sanctuary and the cog in the wheel have been bleating on since the beginning of the conflict that Russia is on the ropes, Putin is all but done and the nazi infested Ukraine is whopping Russia, absolutely no evidence of that unless you only read western propaganda which you swallow and spit out without critical analysis. All the sanctions have backfired, Europe is turning into a financial backwater and 85% of the Planet is doing business with Russia, you are on the wrong side of history on this issue.
You say this "But Russia has set more red lines than a first-year uni assignment which the west has ignored and Russia has done nothing about". care to confirm this rubbish with facts?
Too late it's already been done .. Metals and glass don't seem to have anything in common. Glass is generally transparent and fragile while metals are opaque and extremely strong; but under the right conditions, metals can form glass, and when they do, what results is an opaque, durable, scratch- and corrosion-resistant material that is often stronger than steel. Metallic glass is so versatile it can be used in iPhone cases, the lubricant-free gears of Moon rovers, and electrical transformers. Recently, experiments on the International Space Station that NASA’s Space Life and Physical Sciences Research and Applications (SLPSRA) division funded have revealed aspects of metallic glass formation that could open the door to even greater possibilities
Putin is all but done and the nazi infested Ukraine is whopping Russia
This is enough for me to know that you are likely a toxic Russian troll. Get acquainted with some facts instead of spouting nonsense. Russia has its own nazis who Putin has used for his own ends. So, if he is really worried about Nazis, he needs to stop using them, and clean up his own country. From the link:
The origins of this relationship date to the late 1990s, when Russia was shaken by a wave of racist violence committed by neo-Nazi skinhead gangs. After Putin’s accession to the presidency in 2000, his regime exploited this development in two ways…..
Second, the Kremlin launched “managed nationalism”, an attempt to co-opt and mobilise radical nationalist militants, including neo-Nazis, as a counterweight to an emerging anti-Putin coalition of democrats and leftist radicals.
Overall, we rate BitChute extreme right and Questionable based on the promotion of conspiracy theories, propaganda, hate speech, poor sourcing, fake news, and a lack of transparency. This source is not credible for accurate information and may be offensive to some (most).
No-one will take much notice of you if you can't enter into sensible discussion and back up what you say with evidence. Just saying something doesn't make it true no matter how often or obnoxiously you say it.
In WW2 Ukraine collaborator militia willingly massacred many Jews horribly during German occupation, which would have been taught to children under Russian rule postwar. More recently, an ultranationalist movement ran paramilitary militia in the Donbras conflict between Ukraine and Russian-funded separatists, and attracted allegations of rape and torture
…allegations of rape and torture from Amnesty and the UN.
The ultranationalists, by a violent terror campaign, stymied Ukraine government efforts to implement the internationally-supported Minsk accord, which aimed to reduce the Donbas conflict. One of the accord conditions was to retain Russian as an official language. They also had a couple of top members in high positions in the government.
The ultranationalists were also white supremicists with a penchant for Nazi memes, and they spread their ideas online. Our very own mosque shooter was a fan, and even went to visit.
In 2019, Ukranians voted in a Jew from the Russian-speaking east, standing on an anti-corruption platform as President, and the ultranationalists got very few votes in the legislature. Therefore, the vast majority of Ukrainians pre-invasion did not support the ultranationalists.
The ultranationalist paramilitary were rolled up at some stage into the general Ukraine army and overt Nazi ideas were discouraged. Zelenskyy knew that any hint of Nazism would sink Western support, specifically from Germany.
Ukraine has been open to outside observation of their army's behaviour, and prosecuted its own soldiers when they acted badly. Western support and the support of their own civilian poulation is critical, so no point in atrocities. To be fair, the Azov Battalion, the flagship ultranationalist paramilitary unit in 2016, has fought in the worse areas, and suffered heavy losses.
You don't need, bucket loads of Airpower, the Ukrainian's just need to obtain Air Parity of a number of Sectors like they did in the Autumn Offensive using a mixture fixed, Rotary & UAV aircraft.
Then throw in GBAD (Ground Base Air Defence), EW, SF Strategic OPs on top of your usual SEAD Ops & Ground Base Recc'e Ops.
There is more than 90% chance of the next Ukrainian Offensive being a success again depending on where they hit the Russians again.
The Head of the Ukrainian's Theatre Reserve Forces is a former Senior Officer of the Russia Armoured Corp & he is also the head of the Ukrainian Armoured Corp. He is no mug to Armoured Warfare, also was the lead planner & Commander of the Autumn Offensive.
If the Yanks get really annoyed they'll lend Zelensky a Spirit with a full bomb load. The Russians wouldn't like it – but they wouldn't be able to see it – making complaining about it difficult.
The Spirit is a curious beast – very low radar profile. Chances are Russian radar systems can't identify it, much less target it, and its bomb load is huge, about 18 tonnes – enough to one-shot the Kerch Bridge for example.
One flyby by something Russia can't see ought to be fairly deniable – and the faster the war wraps up the better.
Summer arrival of about 105 tanks, remind me how many tanks Russia has? the pesky Ruskies ain't going to sit around waiting for them, come Summer it will be over or we will be in WW111 and guess what, Russia will win that war because the idiot west is draining their armaments into the corrupt Ukraine where already weapons are turning up in other Countries ..
And the Javelins have done a fantastic job in wiping out most of Russias more advanced tanks, so now they tend to use a lot of old T62s and T72s which aren’t exactly great against more modern technology.
And what difference have those few HIMARS made? Totally stuffed up the Russian logistics because they have had to move a lot of their storage out of range, which complicates things for them a lot.
What Ukraine will likely do is focus those Western tanks on a specific point where they can create a breakthrough. The western tanks are much better than the Soviet equivalents. That, and a squad of Bradleys and Strykers focused on a weak point will prove a huge problem for the Russians.
The combined GDP of the west is multitudes bigger than Russia. So the west can afford to keep this going a lot longer than Russia can.
That was a load of Bollocks, the Muppets still had road pads on the tracks & thence they couldn't climb the hill without a decent run up nor negotiate the corner safety!
Shit, if I did that in the old M113 APC as a driver! I would be wearing a size 9 to my Kidneys but an imprint of a .50cal or Gollock on my helmet & Scorpion Driver would've probably been Charged or had his daylights punch out of him!!!
lol at the pro-Putin copium. You just keep believing that.
Just like HIMARS would make no difference, western artillery like the Pz2000 would make no difference, NLAW would make no difference, so western tanks will obviously make no difference. Why, they can't even get up an icy slope! Silly western tank!
Honestly if western gear is so awful, surely then it would make no difference if the west gave the Ukrainians ATACMS, F-16s and JDAMS?
The M1 tank isn't a Wunderwaffe, it is just a tank. But it is way better tank than those 1950s and 1960s designed tincans the Ruskies are driving around in and it is a lot more mobile than your wishful thinking hopes.
It's a weird irony that while humans pump out billions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every day there is a shortage of the stuff for the brewing industry.
Part of what we do is supply equipment for extracting Nitrogen from the atmosphere. Nitrogen is easy because it is by far the largest proportion of gas in the atmosphere.
Although C02 is a greenhouse gas, in proportionate terms, it is a very small proportion of the atmosphere, which makes it much more difficult to extract economically.
Get used to flat beer as the amount of CO2 released in to the atmosphere by beery burps and fizzy farts must be enormous. Surely that is another human source of the dread gas that can be stopped entering the atmosphere …… How humans are prevented from breathing it out is a bit more problematic!
What did Adrian Orr say? We need about 70.000 people unemployed in order to get inflation under control? Well i guess they have to start somewhere on that number.
When did he say that Sabine? I'm not aware of any time at which he was so specific and the closest I am aware of is ""Returning to low inflation will, in the near-term, constrain employment growth and lead to a rise in unemployment,".
I think Warehouse Group's problems go back before interest rates started rising where they were coming out the wrong side of intense competition in all their categories. Big box retail hasn't been a happy place for a couple of years with too many players and companies are having to cut back.
From RNZ this morning – Hipkins meeting the Auckland Chamber of Commerce
It's music to the ears of former political rival Simon Bridges, now Auckland Business Chamber CEO, who said it'll give business "some confidence", and that Hipkins was "off to a good start". "I think it's incredibly refreshing to see from a new PM that he gets it."
Hidden barbs there from one of the several former National leaders who Jacinda Ardern saw off … and remind me – just what is Bridges background in commerce given that the right's commentariat go on about Labour and the running of businesses?
National might just be a tad nervous in case Hipkins and the Auckland C of C actually find some common ground which will make National's whinging less relevant.
I subscribe to the RNZ daily newsletter. I have tried to provide the link but apparently my browser does not support "paste" So here is the whole article
Mōrena,
Chris Hipkins’ first big meetings as prime minister are a series of charm offensives with Auckland businesses, seeking to understand what their priorities and issues are.
“I’ll be there to ask questions of them and to listen to them, in order to accelerate the important relationship that’s needed between business and government, in order to benefit all New Zealanders and to continue to grow our economy,” he said.
It’s music to the ears of former political rival Simon Bridges, now Auckland Business Chamber CEO, who said it’ll give business “some confidence”, and that Hipkins was “off to a good start”.
“I think it’s incredibly refreshing to see from a new PM that he gets it.”
Hipkins brushed off criticism his first meetings were with business leaders, and not Labour’s traditional supporters like unions, saying he’ll have meetings “with a large cross-section of people over the coming weeks and months”.
Even the Greens cut ‘Chippy’ some slack, co-leader Marama Davidson saying it was perhaps “an area where he particularly feels he’s neglected”.
So what do businesses actually want? RNZ spoke to some to find out.
I think we can all be happy that Bridges is out of the picture. In hindsight he was much better politically than either Labour or National Party supporters gave him credit for.
[We are not mind readers here and you must explain what you are talking about with a link, if necessary. Lift your game if you want to make it to Election Day on this site – Incognito]
With "Pride" coming up next month – we hope it is more civilised than this. It will be interesting to see if we are allowed to have any same sex events at all.
Yes UncookedSelachimorpha, The "cheek" of Willis to infer wages have and will add to inflation, when wages are last to move in any cycle.
Businesses do three things which create stress.
Bank Businesses tighten their loan strategies and raise rates. They are part of the Fire Economy.
Larger Business shed costs through staff redundancies, and close less productive branches to online strategies or automation.
Small Businesses, which have less fat and usually home loans in the game, have none of these options and are often the target of the local disaffected criminal attacks and thefts, which become a weapon to politically target the Government.
This is world wide and made much worse by Russia's invasion of Ukraine causing spikes in oil and grain costs.
The new PM going on a "listening " tour of Auckland Small Business/ Chamber of Commerce RT is a smart move imo. He can take that info back to Cabinet to justify the changes in priorities to help mitigate inflation and the impacts of it. He has shown smarts.
Good point about the differences between small businesses and large corporates.
So often National and their wealthy friends defend the interests of large corporates with their megaprofits, by pointing to the interests of struggling small businesses, pretending it’s all the same thing.
In fact small business would probably also benefit if the megaprofits of large corporates were redirected to benefit wider society more.
Greedy duopoly in NZ takes the piss. Kiwis cannot afford to eat properly in our land of plenty. Chippy needs to start kicking arse and taking names. Regulate the duopolists, fine them, imprison them, nationalise the supermarkets, I don’t know, just do something to stop them ripping us all off.
Aye. The duopolists with their cutesy, feelgood, promotional ads. FAKE as fuck. Just ripoff gougers. Labour could get major votes by doing something . Action time !
Ireland is in the EU, which subsidises food production and facilitates food transport across Europe, bringing down costs. Mainland UK has suffered shocking food inflation since Brexit strangled easy goods exchange with Europe.
Ive gotten this secondhand and cant find it online but did Nicola Marie Antionette Willis say on NatRad to paraphrase something like this that "its Labours fault for increasing the minimum wage too much and now they cant give the poorer people any more help to afford the costs of inflation without causing more inflation ".
If true, she really is an idiot, is she Sunaking or Kwarztening ?
Yep, she is that much of a moron. Whether or not the minimum wage had been raised in the past – a 5% increase now is still a 5% increase now in terms of inflation effects. And also evil, to be pointing the finger at the vulnerable, saying they are responsible for managing inflation.
National says it's a "great shame" Labour has increased the minimum wage by so much, because it means they can't do it now to help low-income Kiwis make ends meet without stoking inflation.
Pararēkau Island in the Manukau Harbour, just off the coast of Karaka, is the site of a proposed exclusive gated community, but preferred builder, Landmark Homes, is not doing the project any favours.
On Thursday morning, a link to the development on the company’s website was featuring what appears to be a parody video with new narration over the original footage.
“Just imagine, a rare opportunity waits you, to own the property of a lifetime,” the voiceover says. “Once covered in native forests where sunlight filtered through the lush foliage, and birds and insects thrived, we’ve done it again, bulldozed the entire f—— lot to make way for a limited number of sections that only the rich and privileged can afford.”
And there’s more: “Bordered by 16 acres of nature reserve, we justify our destruction. Secure your waterfront section now, even though beaches should be available to everyone. Knowing all of this, breathe in the fresh salty air and drink a glass of red wine.
This is an interesting study of the linguistic differences of the leaders in two countries the early pandemic times. One country was NZ and the other was the US.
Abstracting from the Abstract
……
'By way of background and in order to contextualise the research, we compared and contrasted Trump’s and Ardern’s leaderships using the toxic triangle framework of destructive leadership. We then focused on the leader behaviour element of the triangle by using computerised text analysis (CTA) to analyse Trump’s and Ardern’s public pronouncements during the critical early stages of the pandemic. Based on a similarity index (S), we identified linguistic markers associated with destructive leader behaviours and negative outcomes (Trump) and non-destructive leader behaviours and positive outcomes (Ardern)'
There is interesting material on the toxix trianagle, computerised text analysis
'Based on the LIWC manual’s description of these variables, Ardern’s language indicates formal, logical and hierarchical thinking patterns delivered in a personal, humble and vulnerable way. On the other hand, Trump’s words indicate thinking patterns that are less formal and logical, delivered in a less personal way lacking in humility and vulnerability and with a higher overall positive emotional tone. Trump’s speech is also marked by a lack of humility, formality and logic. Conversely, Ardern’s speech was marked by authenticity, formality, logic and a lower overall emotional tone (see Figure 2)'
The takeaway for me is to wonder how we can use the knowledge about this toxic way of speaking by 'innoculating' listeners away from being taken in by it. People were taken in by Trump and some saw Ardern's speech as too personal, calm, measured and some times too self effacing (pers.comm with Shanreagh) (I guess the type that are used to the in your face, booming speech of types like Trump.
And for all those who poo-pooed the comms degre that the foremer PM JA had the results of following good comms ethics/protocols are clear. Even though for Labour Pty press releases as a whole may have been pitched at too high an age group, as I have said many times before.
So much good stuff
‘This finding indicates that Ardern explained her government’s response to the pandemic in
terms of reasoning and causation and with greater certainty and less tentativeness than Trump;’ p10
'Scholars have long-warned of the perils associated with destructive leadership. Preventing or intervening in destructive leadership constitutes a major priority and challenge in politics, public administration and business in order to deal effectively with future crises that are knowable (such as new pandemics, climate or a political crisis) as well as those that are unknowable (but for which a potentially destructive leader may be unsuited). Failure to learn from crises has allowed the negative consequences of destructive leadership in the pandemic to spill-over and entangle individuals, institutions, firms, industries and entire economies and societies with grave repercussions nationally and internationally at an immense economic and human cost. The identification and analysis of linguistic markers as a basis for intervention or prevention could be an objective, simple and scalable tool that might help mitigate against the occurrence of such crises in the future'
Perhaps after a while our PM's speeches could be run through these linguistic markers to detect good or bad patterns. We could do the same for Luxon's. This is not manipulating but best practice in getting the message across.
It has occurred to me that all of all the pundits and MSM political talking heads and journalists who have offered opinions on the Ardern era, not one has acknowledged the fact that due to her actions 10-15,000 New Zealanders are alive today (and many who have died had many more months of life than they otherwise would have) than if we'd just gone with an open border, "business led" response.
The fact that the right wing media has spent so much time frantically re-writing the covid response to the point that this sort of deliberate amnesia is possible is a damning indictment of the MSM, and of the values and ethics of those in it.
… all the pundits and MSM political talking heads and journalists who have offered opinions on the Ardern era, not one has acknowledged the fact that due to her actions 10-15,000 New Zealanders are alive today…
And that is probably a conservative number too.
Hipkins should highlight this example of deliberate MSM failure whenever he gets the opportunity.
Who cares if they are pissed off and turn against him. Once the voters get the inherent message loud and clear, it will be the media culprits who will be the losers.
time to start making jenna linch and jessica muclh stafrt earning their pay. night after night they get up on their soapbox and deride the govdetnment and no one ever takes them to task. now when there is good news and they dont report it then take them to task on fb and twitter.they are getting away with blue murder and have to be brought to heel..who do they think they are. this page i snot social media and no one ever reads it except would be policy wonks who want a job in the labour party research unit. time for people to get stuck in to the real forces of reaction and stop the airy fairy waffling
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Transforming New Zealand: Brian EastonBrian Easton will discuss the above topic at 2/57 Willis Street, Wellington at 5:30pm on Tuesday 26 February at 2/57 Willis Street, WellingtonThe sub-title to the above is "Why is the Left failing?" Brian Easton's analysis is based on his view that while the ...
Salvation Army’s State of the Nation 2025 report highlights falling living standards, the highest unemployment rates since the 1990s and half of all Pacific children going without food. There are reports of hundreds if not thousands of people are applying for the same jobs in the wake of last year’s ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Correction: On the article The Condundrum of David Seymour, Luke Malpass conducted joint reviews with Bryce Wilkinson, the architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill - not Bryce Edwards. The article ...
Tomorrow the council’s Transport, Resilience and Infrastructure Committee meet and agenda has a few interesting papers. Council’s Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport Every year the council provide a Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport which is part of the process for informing AT of the council’s priorities and ...
All around in my home townThey're trying to track me down, yeahThey say they want to bring me in guiltyFor the killing of a deputyFor the life of a deputySongwriter: Robert Nesta Marley.Support Nick’s Kōrero today with a 20% discount on a paid subscription to receive all my newsletters directly ...
Hi,I think all of us have probably experienced the power of music — that strange, transformative thing that gets under our skin and helps us experience this whole life thing with some kind of sanity.Listening and experiencing music has always been such a huge part of my life, and has ...
Business frustration over the stalled economy is growing, and only 34% of voters are confidentNicola Willis can deliver. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 12 are:Business frustration is growing about a ...
I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
This session will feature Simon McCallum, Senior Lecturer in Engineering and Computer Science (VUW) and recent Labour Party candidate in the Southland Electorate talking about some of the issues around AI and how this should inform Labour Party policy. Simon is an excellent speaker with a comprehensive command of AI ...
The proposed Waimate garbage incinerator is dead: The company behind a highly-controversial proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant in the Waimate District no longer has the land. [...] However, SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the sales and purchase agreement to purchase land from Murphy Farms, near Glenavy, lapsed at ...
The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been a vital tool in combatting international corruption. It forbids US companies and citizens from bribing foreign public officials anywhere in the world. And its actually enforced: some of the world's biggest companies - Siemens, Hewlett Packard, and Bristol Myers Squibb - have ...
December 2024 photo - with UK Tory Boris Johnson (Source: Facebook)Those PollsFor hours, political poll results have resounded across political hallways and commentary.According to the 1News Verizon poll, 50% of the country believe we are heading in the “wrong direction”, while 39% believe we are “on the right track”.The left ...
A Tai Rāwhiti mill that ran for 30 years before it was shut down in late 2023 is set to re-open in the coming months, which will eventually see nearly 300 new jobs in the region. A new report from Massey University shows that pensioners are struggling with rising costs. ...
As support continues to fall, Luxon also now faces his biggest internal ructions within the coalition since the election, with David Seymour reacting badly to being criticised by the PM. File photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Not since 1988 when Richard Prebble openly criticised David Lange have we seen such a challenge to a Prime Minister as that of David Seymour to Christopher Luxon last night. Prebble suggested Lange had mental health issues during a TV interview and was almost immediately fired. Seymour hasn’t gone quite ...
Three weeks in, and the 24/7 news cycle is not helping anyone feel calm and informed about the second Trump presidency. One day, the US is threatening 25% trade tariffs on its friends and neighbours. The reasons offered by the White House are absurd, such as stopping fentanyl coming in ...
This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Wherever you look, you'll hear headlines claiming we've passed 1.5 degrees of global warming. And while 2024 saw ...
Photo by Heather M. Edwards on UnsplashHere’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s politics and economy in the week to Feb 10 below. That’s ahead of live chats on the Substack App and The Kākā’s front page on Substack at 5pm with: on his column in The ...
Is there anyone in the world the National Party loves more than a campaign donor? Why yes, there is! They will always have the warmest hello and would you like to slip into something more comfortable for that great god of our age, the High Net Worth Individual.The words the ...
Waste and fraud certainly exist in foreign aid programs, but rightwing celebration of USAID’s dismantling shows profound ignorance of the value of soft power (as opposed to hard power) in projecting US influence and interests abroad by non-military/coercive means (think of “hearts and minds,” “hugs, not bullets,” “honey versus vinegar,” ...
Health New Zealand is proposing to cut almost half of its data and digital positions – more than 1000 of them. The PSA has called on the Privacy Commissioner to urgently investigate the cuts due to the potential for serious consequences for patients. NZNO is calling for an urgent increase ...
We may see a few more luxury cars on Queen Street, but a loosening of rules to entice rich foreigners to invest more here is unlikely to “turbocharge our economic growth”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Let us not dance daintily around the elephant in the room. Our politicians who serve us in the present are not honest, certainly not as honest as they should be, and while the right are taking out most of the trophies for warping narratives and literally redefining “facts”, the kiwi ...
A few weeks ago I took a look at public transport ridership in 2024. In today’s post I’m going to be looking a bit deeper at bus ridership. Buses make up the vast majority of ridership in Auckland with 70 million boardings last year out of a total of 89.4 ...
Oh, you know I did itIt's over and I feel fineNothing you could say is gonna change my mindWaited and I waited the longest nightNothing like the taste of sweet declineSongwriters: Chris Shiflett / David Eric Grohl / Nate Mendel / Taylor Hawkins.Hindsight is good, eh?The clarity when the pieces ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 16 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 10The Kākā’s weekly wrap-up of news about politics and the economy is due at midday, followed by webinar for paying subscribers in Substack’s ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 2, 2025 thru Sat, February 8, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Today, I stumbled across a Twitter Meme: the ending of The Lord of the Rings as a Chess scenario: https://x.com/mellon_heads/status/1887983845917564991 It gets across the basic gist. Aragorn and Gandalf offering up ‘material’ at the Morannon allows Frodo and Samwise to catch Sauron unawares – fair enough. But there are a ...
Last week, Kieran McAnulty called out Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis for their claims that Kāinga Ora’s costs were too high.They had claimed Kāinga Ora’s cost were 12% higher than market i.e. private devlopersBut Kāinga Ora’s Chair had already explained why last year:"We're not building to sell, so we'll be ...
Stuff’s Political Editor Luke Malpass - A Fellow at New Zealand IniativeLast week I half-joked that Stuff / The Post’s Luke Malpass1 always sounded like he was auditioning for a job at the New Zealand Initiative.Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. For a limited time, subscriptions are 20% off. Thanks ...
At a funeral on Friday, there were A4-sized photos covering every wall of the Dil’s reception lounge. There must have been 200 of them, telling the story in the usual way of the video reel but also, by enlargement, making it more possible to linger and step in.Our friend Nicky ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is methane the ...
The Government’s idea is that the private sector and Community Housing Providers will fund, build and operate new affordable housing to address our housing crisis. Meanwhile, the Government does not know where almost half of the 1,700 children who left emergency housing actually went. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong ...
Oh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youOh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youSongwriters: Alexander Ebert / Jade Allyson CastrinosMorena,I’m on a tight time frame this morning. In about an hour and a half, I’ll need to pack up and hit the road ...
This is a post about the Mountain Tui substack, and small tweaks - further to the poll and request post the other day. Please don’t read if you aren’t interested in my personal matters. Thank you all.After oohing-and-aahing about how to structure the Substack model since November, including obtaining ...
This transcript of a recent conversation between the Prime Minister and his chief economic adviser has not been verified.We’ve announced we are the ‘Yes Government’. Do you like it?Yes, Prime Minister.Dreamed up by the PR team. It’s about being committed to growth. Not that the PR team know anything about ...
The other day, Australian Senator Nick McKim issued a warning in the Australian Parliement about the US’s descent into fascim.And of course it’s true, but I lament - that was true as soon as Trump won.What we see is now simply the reification of the intention, planning, and forces behind ...
Among the many other problems associated with Musk/DOGE sending a fleet of teenage and twenty-something cultists to remove, copy and appropriate federal records like social security, medicaid and other supposedly protected data is the fact that the youngsters doing the data-removal, copying and security protocol and filter code over-writing have ...
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tuneBird fly high by the light of the moonOh, oh, oh, JokermanSong by Bob Dylan.Morena folks, I hope this fine morning of the 7th of February finds you well. We're still close to Paihia, just a short drive out of town. Below is the view ...
It’s been an eventful week as always, so here’s a few things that we have found interesting. We also hope everyone had a happy and relaxing Waitangi Day! This week in Greater Auckland We’re still running on summer time, but provided two chewy posts: On Tuesday, a guest ...
Queuing on Queen St: the Government is set to announce another apparently splashy growth policy on Sunday of offering residence visas to wealthy migrants. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, February 7:PM Christopher ...
The fact that Waitangi ended up being such a low-key affair may mark it out as one of the most significant Waitangi Days in recent years. A group of women draped in “Toitu Te Tiriti” banners who turned their backs on the politicians’ powhiri was about as rough as it ...
Hi,This week’s Flightless Bird episode was about “fake seizure guy” — a Melbourne man who fakes seizures in order to get members of the public to sit on him.The audio documentary (which I have included in this newsletter in case you don’t listen to Flightless Bird) built on reporting first ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk The 119th Congress comes with a price tag. The oil and gas industry gave about $24 million in campaign contributions to the members of the U.S. House and Senate expected to be sworn in January 3, 2025, according to a ...
Early morning, the shadows still long, but you can already feel the warmth building. Our motel was across the road from the historic homestead where Henry Williams' family lived. The evening before, we wandered around the gardens, reading the plaques and enjoying the close proximity to the history of the ...
Thanks folks for your feedback, votes and comments this week. I’ll be making the changes soon. Appreciate all your emails, comments and subscriptions too. I know your time is valuable - muchas gracias.A lot is happening both here and around the world - so I want to provide a snippets ...
Data released today by Statistics NZ shows that unemployment rose to 5.1%, with 33,000 more people out of work than last year said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Economist Craig Renney. “The latest data shows that employment fell in Aotearoa at its fastest rate since the GFC. Unemployment rose in 8 ...
The December labour market statistics have been released, showing yet another increase in unemployment. There are now 156,000 unemployed - 34,000 more than when National took office. And having thrown all these people out of work, National is doubling down on cruelty. Because being vicious will somehow magically create the ...
Boarded up homes in Kilbirnie, where work on a planned development was halted. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 5 are;Housing Minister Chris Bishop yesterday announcedKāinga Ora would be stripped of ...
This week Kiwirail and Auckland Transport were celebrating the completion of the summer rail works that had the network shut or for over a month and the start of electric trains to Pukekohe. First up, here’s parts of the press release about the shutdown works. Passengers boarding trains in Auckland ...
Through its austerity measures, the coalition government has engineered a rise in unemployment in order to reduce inflation while – simultaneously – cracking down harder and harder on the people thrown out of work by its own policies. To that end, Social Development Minister Louise Upston this week added two ...
This year, we've seen a radical, white supremacist government ignoring its Tiriti obligations, refusing to consult with Māori, and even trying to legislatively abrogate te Tiriti o Waitangi. When it was criticised by the Waitangi Tribunal, the government sabotaged that body, replacing its legal and historical experts with corporate shills, ...
Poor old democracy, it really is in a sorry state. It would be easy to put all the blame on the vandals and tyrants presently trashing the White House, but this has been years in the making. It begins with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and the spirit of Gordon ...
The new school lunches came in this week, and they were absolutely scrumptious.I had some, and even though Connor said his tasted like “stodge” and gave him a sore tummy, I myself loved it!Look at the photos - I knew Mr Seymour wouldn’t lie when he told us last year:"It ...
The tighter sanctions are modelled on ones used in Britain, which did push people off ‘the dole’, but didn’t increase the number of workers, and which evidence has repeatedly shown don’t work. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, ...
Catching you up on the morning’s global news and a quick look at the parallels -GLOBALTariffs are backSharemarkets in the US, UK and Europe have “plunged” in response to Trump’s tariffs. And while Mexico has won a one month reprieve, Canada and China will see their respective 25% and 10% ...
This post by Nicolas Reid was originally published on Linked in. It is republished here with permission. Gondolas are often in the news, with manufacturers of ropeway systems proposing them as a modern option for mass transit systems in New Zealand. However, like every next big thing in transport, it’s hard ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s move to increase speed limits substantially on dozens of stretches of rural and often undivided highways will result in more serious harm. ...
In her first announcement as Economic Growth Minister, Nicola Willis chose to loosen restrictions for digital nomads from other countries, rather than focus on everyday Kiwis. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay will travel to Australia today for meetings with Australian Trade Minister, Senator Don Farrell, and the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF). Mr McClay recently hosted Minister Farrell in Rotorua for the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers’ meeting, where ANZLF presented on ...
A new monthly podiatry clinic has been launched today in Wairoa and will bring a much-needed service closer to home for the Wairoa community, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.“Health New Zealand has been successful in securing a podiatrist until the end of June this year to meet the needs of ...
By Lagi Keresoma in Apia The Miss Pacific Islands Pageant (MPIP) Committee has finally issued a statement — 5 days after damaging social media attacks following the 2025 Pageant finals hosted by the Solomon Islands last Saturday. The statement yesterday simply said the committee recognised and deeply regretted the distress ...
Report by Dr David Robie – Café Pacific. – The New Zealand government and the mainstream media have gone ballistic (thankfully not literally just yet) over the move by the small Pacific nation to sign a strategic partnership with China in Beijing this week. It is the latest in ...
The Chinese have politely told the Kiwis to back off. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told reporters that China and the Cook Islands have had diplomatic relations since 1997 which “should not be disrupted or restrained by any third party”. “New Zealand is rightly furious about it,” a TVNZ Pacific ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra When parliamentarians left Canberra on Thursday after the fortnight sitting, federal politics had the air of an uneasy waiting game. Waiting for the election date, although the campaign has been running for months. ...
The Health Committee has heard from both the Minister for Mental Health, and from members of the public offering their own lived experience of mental health treatment. ...
The regional imperialist powers, including Australia, New Zealand and France have maintained neo-colonial control over the Southwest Pacific for more than a century, keeping the fragile island nations in a state of dependency with conditions of poverty ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milad Haghani, Associate Professor & Principal Fellow in Urban Risk & Resilience, The University of Melbourne Public transport in Queensland now costs just 50 cents. Yet in the first six months of the trial, it’s been revealed that thousands of commuters were ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Harris Rimmer, Professor, Griffith Law School, Griffith University Two federal politicians from opposing camps reached across the aisle this week to promote a valuable cause – the wellbeing of future Australian generations. Independent MP Sophie Scamps tabled the Wellbeing of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Younger, Lecturer in Southern Ocean Vertebrate Ecology, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania Australia’s Antarctic territory represents the largest sliver of the ice continent. For decades, Australian scientists have headed to one of our three bases – Mawson, ...
A Māori Purposes Bill is an omnibus bill that enables minor, technical, and non-controversial amendments to legislation relating to Māori affairs. This Māori Purposes Bill aims to modernise some legislation relating to Māori Affairs. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Campbell, Lecturer, Performing Arts, UniSA Creative, University of South Australia Matt Byrne/STCSA Housework, a new play by Emily Steel, lifts the rock off politics to expose its crawling, ruthless, yet undeniably comic underside. The result is masterful, hilarious and deeply ...
After two years of major damage from storms, a key government unit has made an abrupt change to focus on cyber security over and above natural disasters. ...
Pacific Media Watch Papua New Guinea’s civic space has been rated as “obstructed” by the Civicus Monitor and the country has been criticised for pushing forward with a controversial media law in spite of strong opposition. Among concerns previously documented by the civil rights watchdog are harassment and threats against ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Younger, Lecturer in Southern Ocean Vertebrate Ecology, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania Australia’s Antarctic territory represents the largest sliver of the ice continent. For decades, Australian scientists have headed to one of our three bases – Mawson, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Scott Dwyer, Research Director, Energy Futures, University of Technology Sydney 24K-Productions Our cars sit unused most of the time. If you have an electric vehicle, you might leave it charging at home or work after driving it. But there’s another step ...
Everything you missed from day four of the Treaty principles bill hearings, when the Justice Committee heard two hours of submissions.Read our recaps of the previous hearings here.Parliament’s Room 3 was the same old, same old on Thursday morning for the fourth Treaty principles bill hearing – brown ...
By Melina Etches of the Cook Islands News A motion of no confidence has been filed against the Prime Minister and his Cabinet following the recent fiasco involving the now-abandoned Cook Islands passport proposal and the comprehensive strategic partnership the country will sign with China this week. Cook Islands United ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Scott Dwyer, Research Director, Energy Futures, University of Technology Sydney 24K-Productions Our cars sit unused most of the time. If you have an electric vehicle, you might leave it charging at home or work after driving it. But there’s another step ...
The December results are reported against forecasts based on the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update 2024 (HYEFU 2024), published on 17 December 2024, and the results for the same period for the previous year. ...
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In a move likely to trigger Putin pacifiers here, I see that Germany is now sending Leopard tanks to Ukraine and is allowing other European nations to send theirs. Also, the US is sending US is sending 31 Abrams tanks. Along with all the Bradleys, Strykers, and other high-end APCs, Ukraine is soon going to have some serious kick-arse weaponry that will cause the Russians a lot of problems.
And the Ukrainians will soon be getting ground launched small diameter bombs with a range of 150km so most occupied areas in Ukraine and Crimea will likely soon be in range.
And Britain is considering giving Ukraine long range missiles that will enable them to hit military targets inside Russia, and potentially do a proper job of taking out the Kerch bridge
I think that it has now been recognised that the quickest path to peace is for the Russians to be totally defeated in Ukraine, and Ukraine is now getting the tools that will enable them to do that.
Well, thats the story of escalation.Starts with javelins, ends in nukes.
I think you'll find it is the other way round.
Yes, I agree with you. It is a pity that Russia has been escalating this conflict.
But Russia has set more red lines than a first-year uni assignment which the west has ignored and Russia has done nothing about.
And, Putin and his regime will be freaked out about the spooky US intelligence. At the start of the war, the US was releasing emails from Russian military commanders etc complaining about how the US was reading their emails. So, Putin and his regime will know that the US likely knows exactly where they are at any time, and will likely be the first target of any retalatory strike.
And Russia's key ally, China has told Putin to stop all the nuke talk.
Most now think Putin's threats were just a bluff, which is a view consistent with evidence to date.
What a dishonest take.
It started when Russia invaded its sovereign neighbour.
Escalated further with Russia's warcrimes in Bucha.
More escalation with the complete destruction of Mariupol and murder of tens of thousands of the civilian residents by Russia..
More escalation with phony referendums and illegal annexations of Ukrainian territory.
Then another big escalation with Russia's attacks on civilian infrastructure across Ukraine.
NATO, the West & the US abandoned the 1st Strike action/ Policy in the late 60's or in 70's, at pretty much at the request of Germany & couple of other European countries when it was realised MÀD was completely pointless.
Now NATO has a Political & Defence Posture of gradual response.
The use of WMD's when I did my CBRND Cse's, pretty much said that WMD Response is last on the list when we look at the employment & use of such Weapons to understand why you would use them in the 1st place.
If Tsar Poot's goes down to this path, it's all over Red Rover for him.
The biggest concern would be holding be holding back the Poles & the Baltic States as they still want revenge after 80 odd years for what Russia did in 1939!
Which btw, I think could the biggest concern atm if Russia does launch another Armoured Assualt/s from Belarus again. The Poles may very well go fuck this EU & NATO Bullshit & charge head first into Belarus or down the Lviv corridor to support the Ukrainian's?
The reckoning is that Poland (note there is a right wing Polish Government in Power atm, which isn't as bad as the one in the 30's which was a shocker) isn't exactly comfortable of Russia being on its door step again. No matter what old mate from Belarus says atm & quite frankly I don't trust a word coming out of his mouth either atm.
If the Ukrainians get a weapon with the range and accuracy to destroy the Crimean bridge then the chances are they'll regain Crimea. The war is poised at the moment. The attritional battles around Bakhmut have caused heavy losses to both sides – the Ukrainians appear to have lost heavily in Soledar in particular.
Russian losses however appear to be catastrophic. There is so much video evidence online showing very heavy losses being inflicted on Russian forces who seem to be using a variation of human wave tactics.
Olga Romanova, the head of Russia Behind Bars, a charity advocating prisoners’ rights says in a video published by the YouTube channel My Russian Rights,
"…Our data shows that, as of late December, 42,000–43,000 inmates had been recruited. By now, this is probably upwards of 50,000. Out of that number, 10,000 are now fighting at the front, because the rest have either been killed or wounded, or went AWOL, or deserted, or surrendered…"
So 80% effective loss rate in a few months.
Other reports indicate the Russian manpower wastage across the entire front can get as high as 1000 a day. As I have said, the Ukrainians are also losing heavily, but nothing like the Russians.
A unseasonably warm winter seems to have denied the Ukrainians a chance to attack before the mass of Russia's new conscripts enter the fray. Looking at the force composition of both sides in these winter battles they seem to largely be territorial and local defense units. I would guess the best and most professional units are being rested and rebuilt for what is going to be the decisive phase of the war this coming Northern spring/summer.
These modern tanks will come with fire control systems and thermal optics far superior to anything the Russians have, and will be significant force multipliers. However, weapon systems alone seldom if ever have a strategic impact. The Tiger tank made no difference in WW2. Superior tactics and a sound strategy is more important.
There has been little strategic value for the Russians in attacking the likes of Bakhmut and Soledar, and the Ukrainains have been using these pointless attacks as an opportunity to wear down the Russian forces.
There is a clear pattern to the ebb and flow of this conflict. At the moment we are in the first phase where the Ukrainians wear down Russian forces by conducting fighting withdrawals from inconsequential areas.
When they have worn down the Russians enough, they will go to the second phase, and back on the attack and regain huge swathes of territory.
But, they are not entirely on defensive, and are getting close to capturing Kreminna.
This is much more strategically important than the nonsense the Russians are engaged with at the moment. That is because taking Kremmina will enable the Ukrainians to flank the Russian defence lines, and force the Russians to cede a lot more territory in order to reestablish sound defence lines..
I would be careful assuming these attritional battles are necessarily all in Ukraines favour. We don't know for sure how heavy the losses are on either side, and while common sense tells us the Russians must be suffering heavier losses, the first world war also informs us that in big artillery siege battles the losses are often more even than you'd think. One thing that has astonished me has been how poor the Ukrainian field works are, or at least the ones I have seen in videos. They lack overhead cover, proper fire steps, parapets/parados, duckboards – all stuff that indicates that this is still an army of amateur volunteers. However, it may just be that these are all we get to see on the telly – the best fortifications may be unfilmed for obvious reasons, but still it is a worry.
Even if the Russians are suffering very heavy manpower attrition, it doesn't necessarily follow that the Ukraine can outlast the Russians in straight Verdun style slogging match since Russia has a much bigger population and in very Panem style it is sacrificing it's convicts and ethnic minorities to protect the urban ethnic Russian middle class whilst the Ukraine is sacrificing it's volunteers – their graphic designers, IT startup owners, patriotic students etc etc in defense of their homeland.
The Russian command remains hopelessly fragmented and whilst Putin can call up any number of mobiks it is an open question as to if his generals can equip them properly to be anything more than straw for the furnace.
The war remains in the balance, lets all hope and pray (and donate money) for a Ukrainian victory this year.
My understanding is they withdraw when the costs start getting too high. And I understand Russia can outlast Ukraine in a war of attrition if the Ukrainain losses are too high, even if they are less than Russian losses. So, the Bradleys et al will allow the Ukrainians a lot more protection, which will be a good thing.
Some of the defences are very good. Look at what they are doing at the Belarusian border, for instance. I guess it is a factor of how much time they have available to prepare defences.
Part of what they are doing in some of these areas is to withdraw, and force the Russians to advance across open fields, which ends up often being a slaughter.
The nature of the Ukrainian defeat at Soledar is hard to work out since reliable information is so thin on the ground.
However, there is about enough information to suppose the attack there came as a surprise to the Ukrainians who had the area weakly held with territorial units. They reinforced the position to late and were forced to commit mobile reserves to a hasty counter-attack, suffered a repulse, and were forced to retreat from the town. But the thing is it was a defeat, not a voluntary withdrawal.
These guys here seems reasonably up to date and accurate for AFU deployments, and you can see from this map the Ukrainians have been forced to deploy significant armoured reserves to stabilise the situation around Soledar.
A rare failure of operational intelligence.
From what my close associates have told me, the Ukrainian's were caught off guard by the shear numbers of mass infantry thrown at them around the Solader Area.
Only the Local Armour/ Mobile Reserves have been committed, ie at Divisional Level & below.
Solader & the surrounding area is becoming an old fashioned WW1 style Defensive Battle.
The Ukrainian Artillery/ Missile Artillery & UAV's units are doing all the talking in the Solader Area.
The bulk of the Ukrainian Armoured Corp & it's Panzer Grenadiers (Mech Infantry) have gone to ground. So watch this space once the ground starts firming up.
The Russian attack in Zaporizhzhia appears to have been planned by general Cecilski Hogmanayi Melchettovich with a clumsily telegraphed unsupported frontal attack resulting in very heavy casualties.
It is going to be interesting to see how long it is before even Putin's police state gets significant popular blowback.
This guy I follow who seems to have quite detailed insight and intelligence was saying in his latest videos that the Russians have been losing 3600 per day in that Zaporizhzhia offensive. Not working out too well for them.
Yep,Especially where they are drawing the Troops from as they still have to go via Moscow thanks to the Russian Military Rail Base logistic System.
Which is has ended badly for a few Tsar's & their respective Dumas.
This video shows why the Ukrainians would not have wanted to withdraw from Soledar. The Ukrainian earthworks lack cover and are exposed to accurate artillery fire. The slightly elevated position they are dug to hold is the dominant terrain feature west of Soledar for some distance. Should they lose control of this feature – here or anywhere between Silj and Paraskoviivka – the Russian could bring the E50 supply route under fire. This road, along with the T0504 road which now apparently already under observed fire, are the main all weather supply routes into Bakhmut. Orientation – Silj is visible at 1:16, Soledar at 1:40.
https://twitter.com/Militarylandnet/status/1618319380961714178?cxt=HHwWhIDTteO5tvUsAAAA
Yeah. I see a lot of that UAV survellience from the Ukrainians as well.
The takeaway for me is that I would hate to be stuck in a trench in one of those conflicts when a UAV might drop a bomb on me at any moment, or might give my coordinates so artillery can drop a shell exactly on my position.
A lot of the Russian fortifications don't look much different though. I guess it is just the haste of the situation. As I said, have a look at the Ukrainian fortifications on the Belarusian border that they have been working on for months, or what the Russians are doing at the border between Kherson Oblast and Crimea. It is on a completely different scale.
Check out this picture of the Hindenburg line from 1917…
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Hindenburg_line_Bullecourt.jpg
Putin pacifiers, wow! did you make that name up all by yourself you ignorant shrill, send 200 tanks and it won't make any difference to the outcome of this conflict, have you got air cover for the few measly tanks etc the West can send, answer is NO, they will become sitting ducks and turned into glass, You and the foul mouthed joe90 and the sanctimonious sanctuary and the cog in the wheel have been bleating on since the beginning of the conflict that Russia is on the ropes, Putin is all but done and the nazi infested Ukraine is whopping Russia, absolutely no evidence of that unless you only read western propaganda which you swallow and spit out without critical analysis. All the sanctions have backfired, Europe is turning into a financial backwater and 85% of the Planet is doing business with Russia, you are on the wrong side of history on this issue.
You say this "But Russia has set more red lines than a first-year uni assignment which the west has ignored and Russia has done nothing about". care to confirm this rubbish with facts?
. <— this is a period. Please try to use it more often. Also, if you have a method of turning metal into glass I’d patent it.
Too late it's already been done .. Metals and glass don't seem to have anything in common. Glass is generally transparent and fragile while metals are opaque and extremely strong; but under the right conditions, metals can form glass, and when they do, what results is an opaque, durable, scratch- and corrosion-resistant material that is often stronger than steel. Metallic glass is so versatile it can be used in iPhone cases, the lubricant-free gears of Moon rovers, and electrical transformers. Recently, experiments on the International Space Station that NASA’s Space Life and Physical Sciences Research and Applications (SLPSRA) division funded have revealed aspects of metallic glass formation that could open the door to even greater possibilities
[Banned for 2 weeks for plagiarism – Incognito]
Copypasta without attribution. Nice. (nasa.gov)
Mod note
. This is a full-stop. I gave up on periods years ago.
This is enough for me to know that you are likely a toxic Russian troll. Get acquainted with some facts instead of spouting nonsense. Russia has its own nazis who Putin has used for his own ends. So, if he is really worried about Nazis, he needs to stop using them, and clean up his own country. From the link:
In contrast have a look at the results of the last Ukrainian election where the far right gained around 2% of the vote.
And, for goodness sake, Zelensky is a Jew.
Zelensky is a coke head clown puppet, so what if he is also a jew. or is that meant to carry some weight?
Mmmmmm. you've got a source for the first of yr descriptors or it is just rant & rave designed to demean someone in the eyes of the public.
I'm picking the latter
The snorter ..
https://www.bitchute.com/video/obVgksibBbsa/
Bitchute link! My god.
Tony as you can see we don't really rate Bitchute.
Here is a link to the entry in Media bias fact check
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/
Summary
This is the link to the full report. https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/bitchute/
Perhaps check your sources for credibility before linking or publishing from them when you come back.
OMG is "Tony" for real?
1) Its not Zelensky.
2) He doesn't wear suits… ever! As far as I can tell.
Is ‘Tony’ one of the crowd who think the moon is made of cheese?
Zelensky has worn suits, but while the war continues he wears fatigues – showing he is in the fight I presume.
Like Churchill and his boiler-suits.
No-one will take much notice of you if you can't enter into sensible discussion and back up what you say with evidence. Just saying something doesn't make it true no matter how often or obnoxiously you say it.
Jews who fought for Nazi Germany ..
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-12-24-mn-12209-story.html
Hey TS, you say the Nazis only got 2% of the Ukrainian vote, that's 800,000 people which is no small number..
315,568 votes or 2.15%
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Ukrainian_parliamentary_election
In WW2 Ukraine collaborator militia willingly massacred many Jews horribly during German occupation, which would have been taught to children under Russian rule postwar. More recently, an ultranationalist movement ran paramilitary militia in the Donbras conflict between Ukraine and Russian-funded separatists, and attracted allegations of rape and torture
Sorry, pressed publish far too soon.
…allegations of rape and torture from Amnesty and the UN.
The ultranationalists, by a violent terror campaign, stymied Ukraine government efforts to implement the internationally-supported Minsk accord, which aimed to reduce the Donbas conflict. One of the accord conditions was to retain Russian as an official language. They also had a couple of top members in high positions in the government.
The ultranationalists were also white supremicists with a penchant for Nazi memes, and they spread their ideas online. Our very own mosque shooter was a fan, and even went to visit.
In 2019, Ukranians voted in a Jew from the Russian-speaking east, standing on an anti-corruption platform as President, and the ultranationalists got very few votes in the legislature. Therefore, the vast majority of Ukrainians pre-invasion did not support the ultranationalists.
The ultranationalist paramilitary were rolled up at some stage into the general Ukraine army and overt Nazi ideas were discouraged. Zelenskyy knew that any hint of Nazism would sink Western support, specifically from Germany.
Ukraine has been open to outside observation of their army's behaviour, and prosecuted its own soldiers when they acted badly. Western support and the support of their own civilian poulation is critical, so no point in atrocities. To be fair, the Azov Battalion, the flagship ultranationalist paramilitary unit in 2016, has fought in the worse areas, and suffered heavy losses.
So 'Ukraine is a Nazi state' is not true.
You don't need, bucket loads of Airpower, the Ukrainian's just need to obtain Air Parity of a number of Sectors like they did in the Autumn Offensive using a mixture fixed, Rotary & UAV aircraft.
Then throw in GBAD (Ground Base Air Defence), EW, SF Strategic OPs on top of your usual SEAD Ops & Ground Base Recc'e Ops.
There is more than 90% chance of the next Ukrainian Offensive being a success again depending on where they hit the Russians again.
The Head of the Ukrainian's Theatre Reserve Forces is a former Senior Officer of the Russia Armoured Corp & he is also the head of the Ukrainian Armoured Corp. He is no mug to Armoured Warfare, also was the lead planner & Commander of the Autumn Offensive.
If the Yanks get really annoyed they'll lend Zelensky a Spirit with a full bomb load. The Russians wouldn't like it – but they wouldn't be able to see it – making complaining about it difficult.
It just won't be the Spirit Russia need to worry about if Poot's does the Full Monty!
I think just about anything that Fly's in NATO will be Launched at Russia & Belarus. And what's left of his Navy would be sunk.
Then there is Poles & the Baltic States who would like nothing, but seek revenge on the Russians no matter how dice roll.
The Spirit is a curious beast – very low radar profile. Chances are Russian radar systems can't identify it, much less target it, and its bomb load is huge, about 18 tonnes – enough to one-shot the Kerch Bridge for example.
One flyby by something Russia can't see ought to be fairly deniable – and the faster the war wraps up the better.
Abrams tanks in winter
lol
Don't worry. I think it is more likely they will arrive in the summer. So, not likely to be a problem.
Summer arrival of about 105 tanks, remind me how many tanks Russia has? the pesky Ruskies ain't going to sit around waiting for them, come Summer it will be over or we will be in WW111 and guess what, Russia will win that war because the idiot west is draining their armaments into the corrupt Ukraine where already weapons are turning up in other Countries ..
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/28/the-us-and-europe-are-running-out-of-weapons-to-send-to-ukraine.html
How many Soviet era tanks do you think the Ukrainians have? Didn't you see how much they captured in the Kharkiv offensive? It looks like the Russians have donated more weapons to Ukraine than anyone else.
And the Javelins have done a fantastic job in wiping out most of Russias more advanced tanks, so now they tend to use a lot of old T62s and T72s which aren’t exactly great against more modern technology.
And what difference have those few HIMARS made? Totally stuffed up the Russian logistics because they have had to move a lot of their storage out of range, which complicates things for them a lot.
What Ukraine will likely do is focus those Western tanks on a specific point where they can create a breakthrough. The western tanks are much better than the Soviet equivalents. That, and a squad of Bradleys and Strykers focused on a weak point will prove a huge problem for the Russians.
The combined GDP of the west is multitudes bigger than Russia. So the west can afford to keep this going a lot longer than Russia can.
weapons meant for ukraine end up …..
https://www.euractiv.com/section/all/short_news/weapons-sent-to-ukraine-may-have-ended-up-in-finnish-underground/
That was a load of Bollocks, the Muppets still had road pads on the tracks & thence they couldn't climb the hill without a decent run up nor negotiate the corner safety!
Shit, if I did that in the old M113 APC as a driver! I would be wearing a size 9 to my Kidneys but an imprint of a .50cal or Gollock on my helmet & Scorpion Driver would've probably been Charged or had his daylights punch out of him!!!
lol at the pro-Putin copium. You just keep believing that.
Just like HIMARS would make no difference, western artillery like the Pz2000 would make no difference, NLAW would make no difference, so western tanks will obviously make no difference. Why, they can't even get up an icy slope! Silly western tank!
Honestly if western gear is so awful, surely then it would make no difference if the west gave the Ukrainians ATACMS, F-16s and JDAMS?
The M1 tank isn't a Wunderwaffe, it is just a tank. But it is way better tank than those 1950s and 1960s designed tincans the Ruskies are driving around in and it is a lot more mobile than your wishful thinking hopes.
It's a weird irony that while humans pump out billions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every day there is a shortage of the stuff for the brewing industry.
If only…..
Part of what we do is supply equipment for extracting Nitrogen from the atmosphere. Nitrogen is easy because it is by far the largest proportion of gas in the atmosphere.
Although C02 is a greenhouse gas, in proportionate terms, it is a very small proportion of the atmosphere, which makes it much more difficult to extract economically.
I was just thinking I wish George Carlin was still with us, I bet he would have made a joke with this.
Get used to flat beer as the amount of CO2 released in to the atmosphere by beery burps and fizzy farts must be enormous. Surely that is another human source of the dread gas that can be stopped entering the atmosphere …… How humans are prevented from breathing it out is a bit more problematic!
The shortage of eggs and the many Countdown supermarkets with empty egg shelves I can live with, but if they run out of beer that's serious!
Not me. I like 2 eggs a day, but only 2 beers a week.
This is not a good start to the year. I think media Works were also laying off staff.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/money/2023/01/fears-grow-the-warehouse-group-may-axe-190-jobs.html
What did Adrian Orr say? We need about 70.000 people unemployed in order to get inflation under control? Well i guess they have to start somewhere on that number.
When did he say that Sabine? I'm not aware of any time at which he was so specific and the closest I am aware of is ""Returning to low inflation will, in the near-term, constrain employment growth and lead to a rise in unemployment,".
What is your evidence for the 70,000 figure?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/adrian-orr-beating-inflation-will-mean-higher-unemployment/WO3WLQQUGWEC5NVK3AQTR2BN5A/
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/money/2022/12/economist-proposes-alternative-solution-to-inflation-as-up-to-70-000-people-forecast-to-lose-jobs.html
Economist proposes alternative solution to inflation as up to 70,000 people forecast to lose jobs
I cannot see anything in that story of Orr saying that we need 70,000 people to become unemployed. That is the claim I was asking Sabine to justify.
That story has a claim that if unemployment went from X to Y it would mean something like that but it doesn't have Orr saying he wants it.
Is orr in the reserve bank?
Doesnt the reserve bank have a say.
I think Warehouse Group's problems go back before interest rates started rising where they were coming out the wrong side of intense competition in all their categories. Big box retail hasn't been a happy place for a couple of years with too many players and companies are having to cut back.
From RNZ this morning – Hipkins meeting the Auckland Chamber of Commerce
It's music to the ears of former political rival Simon Bridges, now Auckland Business Chamber CEO, who said it'll give business "some confidence", and that Hipkins was "off to a good start". "I think it's incredibly refreshing to see from a new PM that he gets it."
Hidden barbs there from one of the several former National leaders who Jacinda Ardern saw off … and remind me – just what is Bridges background in commerce given that the right's commentariat go on about Labour and the running of businesses?
National might just be a tad nervous in case Hipkins and the Auckland C of C actually find some common ground which will make National's whinging less relevant.
Where did your quote come from? Where is your link?
I subscribe to the RNZ daily newsletter. I have tried to provide the link but apparently my browser does not support "paste" So here is the whole article
Mōrena,
Chris Hipkins’ first big meetings as prime minister are a series of charm offensives with Auckland businesses, seeking to understand what their priorities and issues are.
“I’ll be there to ask questions of them and to listen to them, in order to accelerate the important relationship that’s needed between business and government, in order to benefit all New Zealanders and to continue to grow our economy,” he said.
It’s music to the ears of former political rival Simon Bridges, now Auckland Business Chamber CEO, who said it’ll give business “some confidence”, and that Hipkins was “off to a good start”.
“I think it’s incredibly refreshing to see from a new PM that he gets it.”
Hipkins brushed off criticism his first meetings were with business leaders, and not Labour’s traditional supporters like unions, saying he’ll have meetings “with a large cross-section of people over the coming weeks and months”.
Even the Greens cut ‘Chippy’ some slack, co-leader Marama Davidson saying it was perhaps “an area where he particularly feels he’s neglected”.
So what do businesses actually want? RNZ spoke to some to find out.
Ta
I think it relates to this: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/483111/chris-hipkins-to-sit-down-with-business-leaders-there-to-ask-questions.
I think we can all be happy that Bridges is out of the picture. In hindsight he was much better politically than either Labour or National Party supporters gave him credit for.
[We are not mind readers here and you must explain what you are talking about with a link, if necessary. Lift your game if you want to make it to Election Day on this site – Incognito]
Mod note
With "Pride" coming up next month – we hope it is more civilised than this. It will be interesting to see if we are allowed to have any same sex events at all.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/114832273/jim-hubbard-cartoons
Spot on analysis.
Useless National, lying that raising the minimum wage will drive inflation. They make no complaints about the effect of outsized company profits doing the same (NZ company profits on track to jump 60% over 2 years). 60% increase in the minimum wage, anyone?
Plenty of evidence that raising minimum wages has little or no effect on inflation. And during high inflation it is even more important to maintain wages, especially at the bottom end of town.
Yes UncookedSelachimorpha, The "cheek" of Willis to infer wages have and will add to inflation, when wages are last to move in any cycle.
Businesses do three things which create stress.
Bank Businesses tighten their loan strategies and raise rates. They are part of the Fire Economy.
Larger Business shed costs through staff redundancies, and close less productive branches to online strategies or automation.
Small Businesses, which have less fat and usually home loans in the game, have none of these options and are often the target of the local disaffected criminal attacks and thefts, which become a weapon to politically target the Government.
This is world wide and made much worse by Russia's invasion of Ukraine causing spikes in oil and grain costs.
The new PM going on a "listening " tour of Auckland Small Business/ Chamber of Commerce RT is a smart move imo. He can take that info back to Cabinet to justify the changes in priorities to help mitigate inflation and the impacts of it. He has shown smarts.
Good point about the differences between small businesses and large corporates.
So often National and their wealthy friends defend the interests of large corporates with their megaprofits, by pointing to the interests of struggling small businesses, pretending it’s all the same thing.
In fact small business would probably also benefit if the megaprofits of large corporates were redirected to benefit wider society more.
Greedy duopoly in NZ takes the piss. Kiwis cannot afford to eat properly in our land of plenty. Chippy needs to start kicking arse and taking names. Regulate the duopolists, fine them, imprison them, nationalise the supermarkets, I don’t know, just do something to stop them ripping us all off.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/131067124/new-zealand-student-on-exchange-in-ireland-shocked-by-insane-food-price-difference
Aye. The duopolists with their cutesy, feelgood, promotional ads. FAKE as fuck. Just ripoff gougers. Labour could get major votes by doing something . Action time !
Ireland is in the EU, which subsidises food production and facilitates food transport across Europe, bringing down costs. Mainland UK has suffered shocking food inflation since Brexit strangled easy goods exchange with Europe.
Ireland has recently introduced the EU Unfair Trading Practices (UTP) regulations to its food and agriculture supply chain.
I suspect our market would benefit from this kind of oversight
Andrew Tate a serial fantasist?
I'm shocked!
https://twitter.com/paulkenyonTV/status/1617582023895355394
Tick Tock
Tick Tock
Boom
So 90 seconds to Midnight – warmongers be stupid, climate deniers be dumb and anti-vaxxers have taken the cake.
Ive gotten this secondhand and cant find it online but did Nicola Marie Antionette Willis say on NatRad to paraphrase something like this that "its Labours fault for increasing the minimum wage too much and now they cant give the poorer people any more help to afford the costs of inflation without causing more inflation ".
If true, she really is an idiot, is she Sunaking or Kwarztening ?
Yep, she is that much of a moron. Whether or not the minimum wage had been raised in the past – a 5% increase now is still a 5% increase now in terms of inflation effects. And also evil, to be pointing the finger at the vulnerable, saying they are responsible for managing inflation.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/483135/minimum-wage-too-high-to-increase-further-without-fuelling-inflation-national-s-nicola-willis
Ahuh…just another version of Victim Blaming. And as usually..done by rightwing/authoritarians…
We must stop the Nacts….in their tracks
We have been warned!
Brilliant.
Pararēkau Island in the Manukau Harbour, just off the coast of Karaka, is the site of a proposed exclusive gated community, but preferred builder, Landmark Homes, is not doing the project any favours.
On Thursday morning, a link to the development on the company’s website was featuring what appears to be a parody video with new narration over the original footage.
“Just imagine, a rare opportunity waits you, to own the property of a lifetime,” the voiceover says. “Once covered in native forests where sunlight filtered through the lush foliage, and birds and insects thrived, we’ve done it again, bulldozed the entire f—— lot to make way for a limited number of sections that only the rich and privileged can afford.”
And there’s more: “Bordered by 16 acres of nature reserve, we justify our destruction. Secure your waterfront section now, even though beaches should be available to everyone. Knowing all of this, breathe in the fresh salty air and drink a glass of red wine.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/latest/131069086/group-builders-website-links-to-parody-video-by-mistake
This is an interesting study of the linguistic differences of the leaders in two countries the early pandemic times. One country was NZ and the other was the US.
Abstracting from the Abstract
……
'By way of background and in order to contextualise the research, we compared and contrasted Trump’s and Ardern’s leaderships using the toxic triangle framework of destructive leadership. We then focused on the leader behaviour element of the triangle by using computerised text analysis (CTA) to analyse Trump’s and Ardern’s public pronouncements during the critical early stages of the pandemic. Based on a similarity index (S), we identified linguistic markers associated with destructive leader behaviours and negative outcomes (Trump) and non-destructive leader behaviours and positive outcomes (Ardern)'
https://www.scienceopen.com/document_file/3a12d09f-6791-4e0a-a820-2577b2fe4885/PubMedCentral/3a12d09f-6791-4e0a-a820-2577b2fe4885.pdf
There is interesting material on the toxix trianagle, computerised text analysis
'Based on the LIWC manual’s description of these variables, Ardern’s language indicates formal, logical and hierarchical thinking patterns delivered in a personal, humble and vulnerable way. On the other hand, Trump’s words indicate thinking patterns that are less formal and logical, delivered in a less personal way lacking in humility and vulnerability and with a higher overall positive emotional tone. Trump’s speech is also marked by a lack of humility, formality and logic. Conversely, Ardern’s speech was marked by authenticity, formality, logic and a lower overall emotional tone (see Figure 2)'
The takeaway for me is to wonder how we can use the knowledge about this toxic way of speaking by 'innoculating' listeners away from being taken in by it. People were taken in by Trump and some saw Ardern's speech as too personal, calm, measured and some times too self effacing (pers.comm with Shanreagh) (I guess the type that are used to the in your face, booming speech of types like Trump.
And for all those who poo-pooed the comms degre that the foremer PM JA had the results of following good comms ethics/protocols are clear. Even though for Labour Pty press releases as a whole may have been pitched at too high an age group, as I have said many times before.
So much good stuff
‘This finding indicates that Ardern explained her government’s response to the pandemic in
terms of reasoning and causation and with greater certainty and less tentativeness than Trump;’ p10
The conclusion
'Scholars have long-warned of the perils associated with destructive leadership. Preventing or intervening in destructive leadership constitutes a major priority and challenge in politics, public administration and business in order to deal effectively with future crises that are knowable (such as new pandemics, climate or a political crisis) as well as those that are unknowable (but for which a potentially destructive leader may be unsuited). Failure to learn from crises has allowed the negative consequences of destructive leadership in the pandemic to spill-over and entangle individuals, institutions, firms, industries and entire economies and societies with grave repercussions nationally and internationally at an immense economic and human cost. The identification and analysis of linguistic markers as a basis for intervention or prevention could be an objective, simple and scalable tool that might help mitigate against the occurrence of such crises in the future'
Perhaps after a while our PM's speeches could be run through these linguistic markers to detect good or bad patterns. We could do the same for Luxon's. This is not manipulating but best practice in getting the message across.
It has occurred to me that all of all the pundits and MSM political talking heads and journalists who have offered opinions on the Ardern era, not one has acknowledged the fact that due to her actions 10-15,000 New Zealanders are alive today (and many who have died had many more months of life than they otherwise would have) than if we'd just gone with an open border, "business led" response.
The fact that the right wing media has spent so much time frantically re-writing the covid response to the point that this sort of deliberate amnesia is possible is a damning indictment of the MSM, and of the values and ethics of those in it.
And that is probably a conservative number too.
Hipkins should highlight this example of deliberate MSM failure whenever he gets the opportunity.
Who cares if they are pissed off and turn against him. Once the voters get the inherent message loud and clear, it will be the media culprits who will be the losers.
time to start making jenna linch and jessica muclh stafrt earning their pay. night after night they get up on their soapbox and deride the govdetnment and no one ever takes them to task. now when there is good news and they dont report it then take them to task on fb and twitter.they are getting away with blue murder and have to be brought to heel..who do they think they are. this page i snot social media and no one ever reads it except would be policy wonks who want a job in the labour party research unit. time for people to get stuck in to the real forces of reaction and stop the airy fairy waffling