The Top 20 Biggest U.S. Military Interventions, Best to Worst

Written By: - Date published: 10:39 am, August 31st, 2021 - 76 comments
Categories: afghanistan, Africa, australian politics, China, class war, colonialism, defence, Disarmament, Europe, Iran, iraq, israel, Japan, Korea, Pacific, Palestine, Peace, Russia, Syria, uk politics, United Nations, us politics, war - Tags:

UN forces’ transport vehicles recrossing 38th Parallel as they withdraw from Pyongyang, North Korean capital, during Korean War. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/National Archives/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

With the last flights coming out of Kabul, it’s time to review whether this US attitude to the world is a good idea.

Rules: major military use in country. Not counting CIA interventions.

  1. World War 2. 1939-1945 Instrumental in huge Allied win which saved much of the world.
  2. World War 1. 1914-1918 Instrumental in huge Allied win which saved much of Europe.
  3. Marshall Plan and Cold War Europe 1946-1989 Rebuilt many damaged countries, defended Europe from Soviet communist expansion
  4. American Revolutionary War 1775-1783 Independence from Britain enabling quick emergence of unique and powerful country with revolutionary democracy
  5. Korean War 1950-53 Stopped half of Korea turning communist
  6. Persian Gulf War 1990-91. Cleared Iraq out of Kuwait
  7. Bosnia 1995 Helped bring Serbs to negotiating table
  8. Thailand Communist Insurgency 1965-83 Stopped communist expansion
  9. American Civil War 1861-65 Reunited the country, stopped slavery. Crappy postwar settlement
  10. War of 1812 and Creek War. Britain and US largely settled. Defeat of Tecumseh’s native confederacy, massive native land thefts accelerate.
  11. Philippine-American War 1899-1902. Successfully stabilised the country, miserable huge loss of local lives.
  12. Iraq War 2003-11 Initial victory, total chaos afterwards, strengthened Iranian influence
  13. Beiruit 1982-84 Started off stabilising Israel’s mess, went downhill fast.
  14. Syria 2014-present ISIS defeated, then US backed the losing rebels. Syria now in proxy control by Turkey and Russia.
  15. Panama Invasion 1989 Mixed. Got rid of a tyrant but left near-ungovernable mess.
  16. Russian Civil War 1918-20 US-supported allies pantsed.
  17. Somalia 1992-93 Simply made it worse.
  18. Vietnam War 1961-73 Done like a dinner. Lots of meaningless death and war crimes.
  19. Yemeni Civil War 2015-present Millions of starving people and caused no good.
  20. Afghanistan 2001-21 Useful stabilisation first. Made 2020 pact with Islamofascist Taleban – led to fast and total unravelling. Over half a million locals dead. Tyranny installed.

Analysis of why they do it.

76 comments on “The Top 20 Biggest U.S. Military Interventions, Best to Worst ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Stephen D 1
    31 August 2021 at 10:52 am

    Are you just trying to wind Muzza up?

  2. Stephen D 2
    31 August 2021 at 11:00 am

    Boots on the ground, all true.

    Though I don’t think you can ignore the affect of CIA intervention entirely. Chile being an example. Getting rid of Allende in cahoots with ITT, lead to Pinochet, and the deaths accordingly.

  3. Gosman 3
    31 August 2021 at 11:07 am

    The Civil war and arguably even the War of Independence weren't really the US involving itself in other nations affairs. You also missed the first real overseas conflicts the newly independent US was involved with which was the Barbary wars of the early 19th century.

  4. Phil 4
    31 August 2021 at 11:11 am

    Remember when John Key went on Letterman for the 'Top 10' and everyone universally agreed that it was really dumb?

    Congratulations, your list has out-dumbed John Key's.

  5. Gosman 5
    31 August 2021 at 11:11 am

    There was also no Philippine-American War between 1899-1902. It was the Spanish-American War which also involved Cuba and Puerto Rico. Afterwards the US was engaged in anti-insurgent conflict in both the Philippines and Cuba.

      • Morrissey 5.1.1
        31 August 2021 at 2:08 pm

        … the Wikipedia references….

        First-tier scholarship. Just as I suspected.

        • Ad 5.1.1.1
          31 August 2021 at 2:24 pm

          At least bring something other than a little whine.

          Any aggregate study of US military would do.

        • Incognito 5.1.1.2
          31 August 2021 at 3:35 pm

          groan

          If I didn’t know you better, I’d say you’re a lazy snob.

          We believe that not contributing to crowd-sourced resources represents a lost opportunity for enriching medical students’ learning and for disseminating more accurate, up-to-date medical information to Wikipedia’s readers worldwide.

          Why Medical Schools Should Embrace Wikipedia: Final-Year Medical Student Contributions to Wikipedia Articles for Academic Credit at One School

          https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5265689/ [check out on the right-hand site Similar articles in PubMed although it might be a biased selection]

    • Gosman 5.2
      31 August 2021 at 12:13 pm

      I stand corrected however you still missed the Spanish- American war which was the larger conflict and led to both this insurgency and others.

    • Adrian Thornton 5.3
      31 August 2021 at 12:46 pm

      Here are the observations of one of the most highly decorated US soldiers who took part in the US interventions in Cuba and the Philippines….

      “War is a racket. It always has been,” Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler

      “I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”

      https://www.rightsanddissent.org/news/war-is-a-racket-it-always-has-been-smedley-butler/

      BTW Ad, I am not sure if using wikipedia as a point of reference when discussing US/Western military aggression is really that helpful in many cases.

      • Ad 5.3.1
        31 August 2021 at 12:58 pm

        Their references collected at the bottom are always a useful quick start.

        • Adrian Thornton 5.3.1.1
          31 August 2021 at 2:19 pm

          That is true in many cases, but I would suggest that there can be selective bias on many important entries that if not noted, and a reader just followed the links provided, would end up with quite a distorted understanding of the subject.

          Persistent Bias on Wikipedia

          "Systematically biased editing, persistently maintained, can occur on Wikipedia while nominally following guidelines. Techniques for biasing an entry include deleting positive material, adding negative material, using a one-sided selection of sources, and exaggerating the significance of particular topics. To maintain bias in an entry in the face of resistance, key techniques are reverting edits, selectively invoking Wikipedia rules, and overruling resistant editors. Options for dealing with sustained biased editing include making complaints, mobilizing counterediting, and exposing the bias. To illustrate these techniques and responses, the rewriting of my own Wikipedia entry serves as a case study. It is worthwhile becoming aware of persistent bias and developing ways to counter it in order for Wikipedia to move closer to its goal of providing accurate and balanced information."

          How a Small Group of Pro-Israel Activists Blacklisted MintPress on Wikipedia

          "For over ten years, Wikipedia has been a key focus of right-leaning, pro-Israel groups that have effectively weaponized the online encyclopedia as a means of controlling the narrative when it comes to the state of Israel’s more than 50-year-long military occupation of Palestine."

          https://www.mintpressnews.com/pro-israel-activists-blacklist-mintpress-wikipedia/261022/

          • Ad 5.3.1.1.1
            31 August 2021 at 2:22 pm

            For sure. Not proposing an epistemic purity contest.

            Though I don't know of other big sites where the texts are in perpetual edit and contest.

  6. roblogic 6
    31 August 2021 at 11:27 am

    America's ostensibly honourable actions in WW2 were eternally tainted by their use of WMDs on the populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

    Also there was a lot of domestic support for Hitler

    • Molly 6.1
      31 August 2021 at 11:38 am

      …as shown at Madison Square in 1939…

      https://youtu.be/r4zRZ7XLYSA

    • Gosman 6.2
      31 August 2021 at 12:38 pm

      Less devastating than firebombing of Tokyo and arguably saved many tens of thousands of allied soldiers lives.

      • roblogic 6.2.1
        31 August 2021 at 1:00 pm

        Hooray. They were slightly less sociopathic and mass murdery than they could have been.

      • Adrian Thornton 6.2.2
        31 August 2021 at 1:14 pm

        Aahh Gosman, the man who never fails to spew out western pro war propaganda…at least your are consistent I guess.

        A recent article by historian Gar Alperovitz, after noting that Eisenhower had strong misgivings about the use of the bomb on Japan1, states:
        General Curtis LeMay, the tough cigar-smoking Army Air Force “hawk,” was also
        dismayed. Shortly after the bombings he stated publicly: “The war would have been over in two weeks. … The atomic bomb had nothing to do with the end of the war at all.”
        Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet, went public
        with this statement: “The Japanese had, in fact, already sued for peace. … The atomic
        bomb played no decisive part, from a purely military standpoint, in the defeat of Japan"

        https://ee.stanford.edu/~hellman/sts152_03/handout04.pdf

        • Tiger Mountain 6.2.2.1
          31 August 2021 at 1:21 pm

          The nuclear attacks on the civilians of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the start of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and US Imperialism really.

          The yanks were “willie waving” and saying look what we got… at horrific cost to non combatants.

          • Phil 6.2.2.1.1
            1 September 2021 at 11:46 am

            Use of WMDs may not have ended WWII in the Pacific, but it's undeniable that they did give US and Soviet decision makers (and the global public at large) sufficient understanding of the consequences of their use, that neither side used their enormous arsenals during the cold war.

            Without the horrific sacrifice of life in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it's virtually inevitable that one or both superpowers would have felt more comfortable using WMDs in another theatre of war. The extreme consequences of mutual retaliation from those decisions should be obvious to us all.

        • Treetop 6.2.2.2
          1 September 2021 at 10:15 am

          Do you think the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs were pay back for Pearl Harbour 7 December 1941?

      • Stuart Munro 6.2.3
        31 August 2021 at 1:33 pm

        arguably

        No. The argument that the bombs precipitated the Japanese surrender is fatuous, though often employed as a post-facto justification of using wmds.

        Japan surrendered because the Soviet Union declined a limited surrender and entered the war.

  7. Forget now 7
    31 August 2021 at 11:39 am

    Ad – maybe you could give a bit of warning when your link is to a 375 page pdf? Not such an issue with most people at home today, but that can really mess with data usage on cheaper mobile plans.

    Also; "Islamofascist Taleban", seriously?

    • roblogic 7.1
      31 August 2021 at 11:51 am

      Created by the USA, now armed to the teeth by the USA. A cynic would think that US actions are a deliberate attempt to destabilise the region and create a mess on the doorstep of their regional rivals, Russia and China.

    • Ad 7.2
      31 August 2021 at 4:53 pm

      Taleban treatment of women make The Handmaid's Tale look pretty mild.

  8. Byd0nz 8
    31 August 2021 at 11:43 am

    I knew it would read like a horror story of fascist proportions, bin it.

  9. Adrian Thornton 9
    31 August 2021 at 12:13 pm

    Just when I thought, after reading Red Logic’s surreal attempt at justifying and defending the wholesale destruction of the planet for the sake of 150 progress in his post last week, that The Standard had reached the bottom of the barrel in Neo Liberal reactionary content…then along comes Ad just to prove how very wrong I was.

    The first clue is in his heading “ The Top 20 Biggest U.S. Military Interventions, Best to Worst” which reads like some sort of inane click bait about some meaningless shit or another, not a piece about a subject that has resulted in unimaginable amounts of self inflicted human misery across the entire planet.

    I am not going to get into rebutting most of his childish list…there is no point, Ad,like so many of his ilk ,have made it abundantly clear through their comments here on TS, time and time again, that they wholeheartedly support pretty much any western intervention that they are told to…and will support the inevitable next one when comes along, there can be no doubt.

    Here is the actual reality of one of Ad’s “Top 20 U.S. Military Interventions”….

    The Destruction and Reconstruction of North Korea, 1950 – 1960 北朝鮮の破壊と再建’、1950-1960年

    The American Air War and the Destruction of North Korea

    "The Korean War, a “limited war” for the US and UN forces, was for Koreans a total war. The human and material resources of North and South Korea were used to their utmost. The physical destruction and loss of life on both sides was almost beyond comprehension, but the North suffered the greater damage, due to American saturation bombing and the scorched-earth policy of the retreating UN forces.1 The US Air Force estimated that North Korea’s destruction was proportionately greater than that of Japan in the Second World War, where the US had turned 64 major cities to rubble and used the atomic bomb to destroy two others. American planes dropped 635,000 tons of bombs on Korea — that is, essentially on North Korea –including 32,557 tons of napalm, compared to 503,000 tons of bombs dropped in the entire Pacific theatre of World War II.2 The number of Korean dead, injured or missing by war’s end approached three million, ten percent of the overall population. The majority of those killed were in the North, which had half of the population of the South; although the DPRK does not have official figures, possibly twelve to fifteen percent of the population was killed in the war, a figure close to or surpassing the proportion of Soviet citizens killed in World War II.

    https://apjjf.org/-Charles-K.-Armstrong/3460/article.html

    The U.S. war crime North Korea won’t forget

    The bombing was long, leisurely and merciless, even by the assessment of America’s own leaders. “Over a period of three years or so, we killed off — what — 20 percent of the population,” Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay, head of the Strategic Air Command during the Korean War, told the Office of Air Force History in 1984. Dean Rusk, a supporter of the war and later secretary of state, said the United States bombed “everything that moved in North Korea, every brick standing on top of another.” After running low on urban targets, U.S. bombers destroyed hydroelectric and irrigation dams in the later stages of the war, flooding farmland and destroying crops.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-us-war-crime-north-korea-wont-forget/2015/03/20/fb525694-ce80-11e4-8c54-ffb5ba6f2f69_story.html?utm_term=.28d1e135099b

  10. arkie 10
    31 August 2021 at 12:16 pm

    Analysis of why they do it.

    RAND Corporation is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is financed by the U.S. government and private endowment, corporations, universities and private individuals.

  11. RedLogix 11
    31 August 2021 at 1:07 pm

    To be really fair we need to compare the US with all the other military interventions of the past 10,000 yrs or so. And on that broad measure the average person living in the 70 yrs since the end of WW2 is far less likely to die in war than at any other time in human history.

    The comparison also needs to take into account what the alternatives were – with the US as the prime military hegemon it also took conflict between almost all the other nations off the table. To assume that if the US military had stayed at home and never set boot or bomb offshiore – that as a result the world would have been some kind of peaceful nirvana is completely deluded.

    And if we were going to have a self appointed world policeman the Americans were uniquely ill-suited to the task. Inward looking to the point of narcissistic and generally ignorant of geography much less history or culture – from the end of the Cold War onward their involvement in the wider world has delivered little but perverse outcomes. Mostly I think because the global machine they had created was no longer governed by a sense of purpose or reasoned principle. Instead they've blundered into engagements on often emotive rationalisations and no exit strategy. Such poorly conceived affairs were always going to end badly.

    There are now fewer US troops stationed overseas than anytime since about 1915 and the number continues to decline. They will continue to act where they see it as in their interests to do so – but that sphere is far smaller and more targeted than it once was. Still a post like this is going to bait the reflexively anti-US left into their usual fulminations – all demanding the Yanks go home. Well in this decade they're going to get their wish and we’re all going to see how that turns out.

    • roblogic 11.1
      31 August 2021 at 1:33 pm

      US troops tend to be insular, trigger-happy & ignorant, whereas others might try to actually get along with locals (according to a mate who's been to several troubled spots). But most forces are a bit useless and corrupt, tbf.

    • roblogic 11.2
      31 August 2021 at 1:37 pm

      Yes the Pax Americana had a stabilising effect, but that doesn't excuse the awful catalogue of US injustices from their military adventures.

    • Adrian Thornton 11.3
      31 August 2021 at 4:41 pm

      @RedLogix

      “To be really fair we need to compare the US with all the other military interventions of the past 10,000 yrs or so. And on that broad measure the average person living in the 70 yrs since the end of WW2 is far less likely to die in war than at any other time in human history.”

      Maybe a bit off topic ( I hope Ad won't mind) but a more important comparison to make, and to put some much needed balance into the modern western man triumphalism that RL is so fond of voicing here on TS could be this….humans are living on the planet for 10,000 years or so, 150 years or so ago said humans through a series of major technological advancements, and the use of free energy in the shape of oil, start on a project of extractive industrialization on a scale never before imagined.

      Unmanaged and uncontrolled this once only opportunity for the human race is of course instantly co-opted by the most powerful Imperialist countries, capitalist industrialists, the powerful etc and so was not was never to be used for the benefit of human development as it’s driving ideological motivation, no greed and the ideology of endless growth were to be it’s engine room and guiding principle…an engine that in 150 short years has proved itself so short sighted, so blinded by it’s own interests, that it has brought the 10,000 year human project and the entire planet with it, to the very brink of destruction.

      And now you say a human living now has less chance of dying through warfare (which is a contested asumption btw https://mikeharrisny.medium.com/the-pinker-problem-df7a40eb1fdf) however for the sake of this conversation let's assume it is a fact, that death rate has according to some studies already been replaced by deaths as a result of climate change….

      Climate Change Linked to 5 Million Deaths a Year, New Study Shows

      https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-07/climate-change-linked-to-5-million-deaths-a-year-new-study-shows

      https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/08/extreme-temperatures-kill-5-million-people-a-year-with-heat-related-deaths-rising-study-finds

      Personally I am a little hesitant to use those figures, but even if only half that number were proved to be true it obviously means that 2.5 million deaths per year are already linked to climate change, and 83 million deaths directly as the result of climate change by the 2100…. this of course doesn't even take into account the masses of extinctions and degradation of every other species of life on the planet over these last 150 years…and you, with ba straight face, tell us it was a fair trade for that 150 years of progress….

      Climate crisis could kill 83 million people by 2100, study finds

      https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/deaths-global-warming-carbon-emissions-b1895169.html

      And finally and ironically enough, it turns out that in the future the US won’t even have to fire Hellfire missiles or drop huge pay loads of bombs to fuck up the rest of the world like they are so fond of doing today…nope just by the way they (and we) have built their pointless, endless growth, endless consumer nightmare of a system, is apparently enough to bring misery around the world, without even them have to get up off their couches……thats real progress right there!

      Three Americans create enough carbon emissions to kill one person, study finds

      https://www.carbonbrief.org/daily-brief/three-americans-create-enough-carbon-emissions-to-kill-one-person-study-finds

      • weka 11.3.1
        31 August 2021 at 4:47 pm

        can’t see why that got caught in the filter, please check your name and email address for typos on next comment just in case.

      • Ad 11.3.2
        31 August 2021 at 4:52 pm

        Sure it's a wee way off track but I'm totally with you Adrian on that. The US military have sent that signal of climate change as their largest strategic threat loud and clear for years. Our own military have taken way too long to catch up with their own threat and the useful role they could play.

        Yesterday's timing of Hurricane Ima smashing into Louisiana and New Orleans, the day before all United States troops left their disgusting mess in Afghanistan, must surely be Earth's way of underscoring that point.

        • Adrian Thornton 11.3.2.1
          31 August 2021 at 6:07 pm

          At some point we have to somehow get the human project back on track…most importantly that really import part were we are meant to be slowly evolving… hopefully to something a bit more enlightened.

          Maybe the worldwide nature of the Climate Change battle will spark and unleash some sort of collective spirit laying dormant and mostly untapped within the human psych, just as capitalism/free market liberalism unlocked and unleashed in such a negative way the deep rooted greed component of the human psych…..now that would be real progress.

          The anthem of my youth still rings as true today as it did then, maybe more so….

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jce4-CXTXzA

          • Ad 11.3.2.1.1
            31 August 2021 at 6:33 pm

            There you also find yourself in perfect agreement with RedLogix as well.

            Me I'm much less optimistic on that score.

  12. aj 12
    31 August 2021 at 1:40 pm

    US troops stationed overseas than anytime since about 1915 and the number continues to decline.

    And their ability to kill and maim from the sky continues to increase, in theory this is to kill 'terrorists' but the collateral damage continues to grow as well.

    I’d wake up in my “can,” a small but comfortable air-conditioned metal container outfitted with a bed, desk and a dresser. I would take a hot shower and shave and then walk 100 feet over to the cafeteria for a breakfast of eggs, bacon and Cheerios. Afterward, I crossed a small dusty road lined with porta johns to arrive at the operations center. I brewed a pot of coffee and then took over my shift at 8 a.m.

    I killed men for the next eight hours.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/i-killed-taliban-fighters-from-an-air-conditioned-room-did-it-even-help/2021/08/20/66522f2c-0049-11ec-a664-4f6de3e17ff0_story.html

  13. Adrian 13
    31 August 2021 at 5:39 pm

    I am no US excusist, went to enough Vietnam protest, wmd ones to be that, but.. just take a pause to consider the scenarios if the US had not intervened in a few of those shit fights, how many 9/11s, Bali’s, London train bombings and how many slaughtered Afghanis or Iraqis, Koreans even, before somebody had to do something. The genocide in the Balkans of which the US didn’t want to have a bar of until it was obvious that the Europeans whose shitfight it was, were not going to have the gumption to intervene. Tally up the death and destruction of just those and the numbers pale in the shade caused by intervention. Tragic as every life lost was.

    • Ad 13.1
      31 August 2021 at 5:42 pm

      The whole of post-1945 would make an interesting alternative history.

    • Adrian Thornton 13.2
      31 August 2021 at 6:10 pm

      Wrong.

    • McFlock 13.3
      31 August 2021 at 7:57 pm

      Compare with Rwanda, where they did fuckall, not even belatedly.

    • aj 13.4
      31 August 2021 at 8:27 pm

      9/11s, Bali’s, London train bombings

      One could make a strong case that these events would not have taken place without decades of interference in middle east politics, supporting first one side then the other, by the USA and it's lackeys.

      • Pierre 13.4.1
        2 September 2021 at 10:44 pm

        If the US, Britain, and Pakistan had not armed the Afghan mujahideen, Afghanistan might have remained a secular and democratic state for the last three decades.

        If the British and American banks had not funded the reactionary gulf monarchies, the history of the Bin Laden family might have turned out differently.

        If the US had not armed the reactionary Islamist militias in Syria, there would have been no 'Islamic State' in Raqqa and Idlib. Libya was one of the most highly developed countries in Africa before the NATO bombing.

        I can only dream of how the world would have developed without imperialism.

  14. Adrian 14
    31 August 2021 at 6:01 pm

    Yes Ad, and the Americans in 76 years couldn't hold a candle to the death and carnage the Germans caused in just 6 years or so from Spain to the Berlin bunker.

  15. bwaghorn 15
    31 August 2021 at 6:15 pm

    My reckons on the the ww2 wa the yanks fucked around for as long as possible so England would be on its knees allowing the USA to take the top spot in the west .

    Is the any merit in my reckons or am I barking mad?

    • McFlock 15.1
      31 August 2021 at 7:53 pm

      Not really the main consideration – domestic issues were the main drivers for isolationism. But it worked out well for them, eh. Loaned a shedload of cash to UK so the UK could buy US war materials, then turn up halfway through to make sure their debtors are on the winning side…

  16. Adrian 16
    31 August 2021 at 6:57 pm

    Tony Simpsons book Operation Mercury will put you right, it covers the reason why NZ got involved in Crete, Franklin D Roosevelt had been pressed by Churchill to get involved but with only about 1% of American people supporting the idea of getting involved he couldn't commit even though Roosevelt personally was in favour but when convinced that the Axis forces moving on Greece were heading for American oil interests in the Middle East, popular support began to build and then Pearl Harbour happened and full commitment ensued. The Kiwi and Aussie troops were used as bait by Brit high command to advance to the Albanian border where Mussolini had tried to invade much to German annoyance as they didn't want to open another front. Its an intriuging story.

  17. Ad 17
    4 September 2021 at 8:51 am

    I should probably do a rejoinder piece on the top 20 most successful interventions since the formation of the UN.

  18. Obtrectator 18
    4 September 2021 at 12:17 pm

    Quite a few interventions in Haiti, too, over the years, none of them with any lasting positive effect.

    And then there's Hawai'i. Not really a military intervention, but the threat of it was there in the background when Queen Liliʻuokalani was forced to abdicate in 1893 and allow installation of a stooge "president" by a cartel of US businessmen. Result: an independent country, internationally recognised, ended up being forcibly incorporated into the USA.

Recent Comments

Recent Posts

  • Climate Change: The wrong direction
    This week the International Energy Association released its Net Zero Roadmap, intended to guide us towards a liveable climate. The report demanded huge increases in renewable generation, no new gas or oil, and massive cuts to methane emissions. It was positive about our current path, but recommended that countries with ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    14 hours ago

  • “Racism” becomes a buzz word on the campaign trail – but our media watchdogs stay muzzled when...
    Buzz from the Beehive  Oh, dear.  We have nothing to report from the Beehive. At least, we have nothing to report from the government’s official website. But the drones have not gone silent.  They are out on the election campaign trail, busy buzzing about this and that in the hope ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    14 hours ago

  • Play it, Elvis
    Election Hell special!! This week’s quiz is a bumper edition featuring a few of the more popular questions from last weekend’s show, as well as a few we didn’t have time for. You’re welcome, etc. Let us press on, etc. 1.  What did Christopher Luxon use to his advantage in ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    15 hours ago

  • Pure class warfare
    National unveiled its fiscal policy today, announcing all the usual things which business cares about and I don't. But it did finally tell us how National plans to pay for its handouts to landlords: by effectively cutting benefits: The biggest saving announced on Friday was $2b cut from the ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    15 hours ago

  • Ask Me Anything about the week to Sept 29
    Photo by Anna Ogiienko on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week for an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session for paying subscribers about the week that was for an hour, including:duelling fiscal plans from National and Labour;Labour cutting cycling spending while accusing National of being weak on climate;Research showing the need for ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    18 hours ago

  • Weekly Roundup 29-September-2023
    Welcome to Friday and the last one for September. This week in Greater Auckland On Monday, Matt highlighted at the latest with the City Rail Link. On Tuesday, Matt covered the interesting items from Auckland Transport’s latest board meeting agendas. On Thursday, a guest post from Darren Davis ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    22 hours ago

  • Protest at Parliament: The Reunion.
    Brian’s god spoke to him. He, for of course the Lord in Tamaki’s mind was a male god, with a mighty rod, and probably some black leathers. He, told Brian - “you must put a stop to all this love, hope, and kindness”. And it did please the Brian.He said ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    23 hours ago

  • Labour cuts $50m from cycleway spending
    Labour is cutting spending on cycling infrastructure while still trying to claim the higher ground on climate. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Labour Government released a climate manifesto this week to try to claim the high ground against National, despite having ignored the Climate Commission’s advice to toughen ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    23 hours ago

  • The Greater Of Two Evils.
    Not Labour: If you’re out to punish the government you once loved, then the last thing you need is to be shown evidence that the opposition parties are much, much worse.THE GREATEST VIRTUE of being the Opposition is not being the Government. Only very rarely is an opposition party elected ...
    Bowalley Road
    24 hours ago

  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #39 2023
    Open access notables "Net zero is only a distraction— we just have to end fossil fuel emissions." The latter is true but the former isn't, or  not in the real world as it's likely to be in the immediate future. And "just" just doesn't enter into it; we don't have ...
    Skeptical Science
    1 day ago

  • Chris Trotter: Losing the Left
    IN THE CURRENT MIX of electoral alternatives, there is no longer a credible left-wing party. Not when “a credible left-wing party” is defined as: a class-oriented, mass-based, democratically-structured political organisation; dedicated to promoting ideas sharply critical of laissez-faire capitalism; and committed to advancing democratic, egalitarian and emancipatory ideals across the ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    1 day ago

  • Road rage at Kia Kaha Primary School
    It is not the school holidays yet at Kia Kaha Primary School!It can be any time when you are telling a story.Telling stories about things that happened in the past is how we learn from our mistakes.If we want to.Anyway, it is not the school holidays yet at Kia Kaha ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago

  • Road rage at Kia Kaha Primary School
    It is not the school holidays yet at Kia Kaha Primary School!It can be any time when you are telling a story.Telling stories about things that happened in the past is how we learn from our mistakes.If we want to.Anyway, it is not the school holidays yet at Kia Kaha ...
    More than a fieldingBy David Slack
    2 days ago

  • Road rage at Kia Kaha Primary School
    It is not the school holidays yet at Kia Kaha Primary School!It can be any time when you are telling a story.Telling stories about things that happened in the past is how we learn from our mistakes.If we want to.Anyway, it is not the school holidays yet at Kia Kaha ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago

  • Hipkins fires up in leaders’ debate, but has the curtain already fallen on the Labour-led coalitio...
    Labour’s  Chris Hipkins came out firing, in the  leaders’ debate  on Newshub’s evening programme, and most of  the pundits  rated  him the winner against National’s  Christopher Luxon. But will this make any difference when New  Zealanders  start casting their ballots? The problem  for  Hipkins is  that  voters are  all too ...
    Point of OrderBy tutere44
    2 days ago

  • Govt is energising housing projects with solar power – and fuelling the public’s concept of a di...
    Buzz from the Beehive  Not long after Point of Order published data which show the substantial number of New Zealanders (77%) who believe NZ is becoming more divided, government ministers were braying about a programme which distributes some money to “the public” and some to “Maori”. The ministers were dishing ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    2 days ago

  • MIKE GRIMSHAW: Election 2023 – a totemic & charisma failure?
    The D&W analysis Michael Grimshaw writes –  Given the apathy, disengagement, disillusionment, and all-round ennui of this year’s general election, it was considered time to bring in those noted political operatives and spin doctors D&W, the long-established consultancy firm run by Emile Durkheim and Max Weber. Known for ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    2 days ago

  • FROM BFD: Will Winston be the spectre we think?
    Kissy kissy. Cartoon credit BoomSlang. The BFD. JC writes-  Allow me to preface this contribution with the following statement: If I were asked to express a preference between a National/ACT coalition or a National/ACT/NZF coalition then it would be the former. This week Luxon declared his position, ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    2 days ago

  • California’s climate disclosure bill could have a huge impact across the U.S.
    This re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Andy Furillo was originally published by Capital & Main and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The California Legislature took a step last week that has the potential to accelerate the fight against climate ...
    Skeptical Science
    2 days ago

  • Untangling South East Queensland’s Public Transport
    This is a cross post Adventures in Transitland by Darren Davis. I recently visited Brisbane and South East Queensland and came away both impressed while also pondering some key changes to make public transport even better in the region. Here goes with my take on things. A bit of ...
    Greater AucklandBy Guest Post
    2 days ago

  • Try A Little Kindness.
    My daughter arrived home from the supermarket yesterday and she seemed a bit worried about something. It turned out she wanted to know if someone could get her bank number from a receipt.We wound the story back.She was in the store and there was a man there who was distressed, ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    2 days ago

  • What makes NZFirst tick
    New Zealand’s longest-running political roadshow rolled into Opotiki yesterday, with New Zealand First leader Winston Peters knowing another poll last night showed he would make it back to Parliament and National would need him and his party if they wanted to form a government. The Newshub Reid Research poll ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    2 days ago

  • September AMA
    Hi,As September draws to a close — I feel it’s probably time to do an Ask Me Anything. You know how it goes: If you have any burning questions, fire away in the comments and I will do my best to answer. You might have questions about Webworm, or podcast ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    2 days ago

  • Bludgers lying in the scratcher making fools of us all
    The mediocrity who stands to be a Prime Minister has a litany.He uses it a bit like a Koru Lounge card. He will brandish it to say: these people are eligible. And more than that, too: These people are deserving. They have earned this policy.They have a right to this policy. What ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago

  • More “partnerships” (by the look of it) and redress of over $30 million in Treaty settlement wit...
    Buzz from the Beehive Point of Order has waited until now – 3.45pm – for today’s officially posted government announcements.  There have been none. The only addition to the news on the Beehive’s website was posted later yesterday, after we had published our September 26 Buzz report. It came from ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 days ago

  • ALEX HOLLAND: Labour’s spending
    Alex Holland writes –  In 2017 when Labour came to power, crown spending was $76 billion per year. Now in 2023 it is $139 billion per year, which equates to a $63 billion annual increase (over $1 billion extra spend every week!) In 2017, New Zealand’s government debt ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago

  • If not now, then when?
    Labour released its fiscal plan today, promising the same old, same old: "responsibility", balanced books, and of course no new taxes: "Labour will maintain income tax settings to provide consistency and certainty in these volatile times. Now is not the time for additional taxes or to promise billions of ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    3 days ago

  • THE FACTS:  77% of Kiwis believe NZ is becoming more divided
    The Facts has posted –        KEY INSIGHTSOf New Zealander’s polled: Social unity/division 77%believe NZ is becoming more divided (42% ‘much more’ + 35% ‘a little more’) 3%believe NZ is becoming less divided (1% ‘much less’ + 2% ‘a little less’) ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago

  • Gordon Campbell on the cynical brutality of the centre-right’s welfare policies
    The centre-right’s enthusiasm for forcing people off the benefit and into paid work is matched only by the enthusiasm (shared by Treasury and the Reserve Bank) for throwing people out of paid work to curb inflation, and achieve the optimal balance of workers to job seekers deemed to be desirable ...
    Gordon CampbellBy lyndon
    3 days ago

  • Wednesday’s Chorus: Arthur Grimes on why building many, many more social houses is so critical
    New research shows that tenants in social housing - such as these Wellington apartments - are just as happy as home owners and much happier than private tenants. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The election campaign took an ugly turn yesterday, and in completely the wrong direction. All three ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago

  • Old habits
    Media awareness about global warming and climate change has grown fairly steadily since 2004. My impression is that journalists today tend to possess a higher climate literacy than before. This increasing awareness and improved knowledge is encouraging, but there are also some common interpretations which could be more nuanced. ...
    Real ClimateBy rasmus
    3 days ago

  • Bennie Bashing.
    If there’s one thing the mob loves more than keeping Māori in their place, more than getting tough on the gangs, maybe even more than tax cuts. It’s a good old round of beneficiary bashing.Are those meanies in the ACT party stealing your votes because they think David Seymour is ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    3 days ago

  • The kindest cuts
    Labour kicks off the fiscal credibility battle today with the release of its fiscal plan. National is expected to follow, possibly as soon as Thursday, with its own plan, which may (or may not) address the large hole that the problems with its foreign buyers’ ban might open up. ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    3 days ago

  • Green right turn in Britain? Well, a start
    While it may be unlikely to register in New Zealand’s general election, Britain’s PM Rishi Sunak has done something which might just be important in the long run. He’s announced a far-reaching change in his Conservative government’s approach to environmental, and particularly net zero, policy. The starting point – ...
    Point of OrderBy xtrdnry
    3 days ago

  • At a glance – How do human CO2 emissions compare to natural CO2 emissions?
    On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
    Skeptical Science
    3 days ago

  • How could this happen?
    Canada is in uproar after the exposure that its parliament on September 22 provided a standing ovation to a Nazi veteran who had been invited into the chamber to participate in the parliamentary welcome to Ukrainian President Zelensky. Yaroslav Hunka, 98, a Ukrainian man who volunteered for service in ...
    Open ParachuteBy Ken
    4 days ago

  • Always Be Campaigning
    The big screen is a great place to lay out the ways of the salesman. He comes ready-made for Panto, ripe for lampooning.This is not to disparage that life. I have known many good people of that kind. But there is a type, brazen as all get out. The camera ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    4 days ago

  • STEPHEN FRANKS: Press seek to publicly shame doctor – we must push back
    The following is a message sent yesterday from lawyer Stephen Franks on behalf of the Free Speech Union. I don’t like to interrupt first thing Monday morning, but we’ve just become aware of a case where we think immediate and overwhelming attention could help turn the tide. It involves someone ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago

  • Competing on cruelty
    The right-wing message calendar is clearly reading "cruelty" today, because both National and NZ First have released beneficiary-bashing policies. National is promising a "traffic light" system to police and kick beneficiaries, which will no doubt be accompanied by arbitrary internal targets to classify people as "orange" or "red" to keep ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago

  • Further funding for Pharmac (forgotten in the Budget?) looks like a $1bn appeal from a PM in need of...
    Buzz from the Beehive One Labour plan  – for 3000 more public homes by 2025 – is the most recent to be posted on the government’s official website. Another – a prime ministerial promise of more funding for Pharmac – has been released as a Labour Party press statement. Who ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 days ago

  • Bryce Edwards: The Vested interests shaping National Party policies
    As the National Party gets closer to government, lobbyists and business interests will be lining up for influence and to get policies adopted. It’s therefore in the public interest to have much more scrutiny and transparency about potential conflicts of interests that might arise. One of the key individuals of ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    4 days ago

  • Labour may be on way out of power and NZ First back in – but will Peters go into coalition with Na...
    Voters  are deserting Labour in droves, despite Chris  Hipkins’  valiant  rearguard  action.  So  where  are they  heading?  Clearly  not all of them are going to vote National, which concedes that  the  outcome  will be “close”. To the Right of National, the ACT party just a  few weeks  ago  was ...
    Point of OrderBy tutere44
    4 days ago

  • GRAHAM ADAMS: Will the racists please stand up?
    Accusations of racism by journalists and MPs are being called out. Graham Adams writes –    With the election less than three weeks away, what co-governance means in practice — including in water management, education, planning law and local government — remains largely obscure. Which is hardly ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago

  • Gordon Campbell on whether Winston Peters can be a moderating influence
    As the centre-right has (finally!) been subjected to media interrogation, the polls are indicating that some voters may be starting to have second thoughts about the wisdom of giving National and ACT the power to govern alone. That’s why yesterday’s Newshub/Reid Research poll had the National/ACT combo dropping to 60 ...
    Gordon CampbellBy lyndon
    4 days ago

  • Tuesday’s Chorus: RBNZ set to rain on National's victory parade
    ANZ has increased its forecast for house inflation later this year on signs of growing momentum in the market ahead of the election. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: National has campaigned against the Labour Government’s record on inflation and mortgage rates, but there’s now a growing chance the Reserve ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago

  • After a Pittsburgh coal processing plant closed, ER visits plummeted
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Katie Myers. This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. Pittsburgh, in its founding, was blessed and cursed with two abundant natural resources: free-flowing rivers and a nearby coal seam. ...
    Skeptical Science
    4 days ago

  • September-23 AT Board Meeting
    Today the AT board meet again and once again I’ve taken a look at what’s on the agenda to find the most interesting items. Closed Agenda Interestingly when I first looked at the agendas this paper was there but at the time of writing this post it had been ...
    Greater AucklandBy Matt L
    4 days ago

  • Electorate Watch: West Coast-Tasman
    Continuing my series on interesting electorates, today it’s West Coast-Tasman.A long thin electorate running down the northern half of the west coast of the South Island. Think sand flies, beautiful landscapes, lots of rain, Pike River, alternative lifestylers, whitebaiting, and the spiritual home of the Labour Party. A brief word ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    4 days ago

  • Big money brings Winston back
    National leader Christopher Luxon yesterday morning conceded it and last night’s Newshub poll confirmed it; Winston Peters and NZ First are not only back but highly likely to be part of the next government. It is a remarkable comeback for a party that was tossed out of Parliament in ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    4 days ago

  • 20 days until Election Day, 7 until early voting begins… but what changes will we really see here?
    As this blogger, alongside many others, has already posited in another forum: we all know the National Party’s “budget” (meaning this concept of even adding up numbers properly is doing a lot of heavy, heavy lifting right now) is utter and complete bunk (read hung, drawn and quartered and ...
    exhALANtBy exhalantblog
    4 days ago

  • A night out
    Everyone was asking, Are you nervous? and my response was various forms of God, yes.I've written more speeches than I can count; not much surprises me when the speaker gets to their feet and the room goes quiet.But a play? Never.YOU CAME! THANK YOU! Read more ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    5 days ago

  • A pallid shade of Green III
    Clearly Labour's focus groups are telling it that it needs to pay more attention to climate change - because hot on the heels of their weaksauce energy efficiency pilot programme and not-great-but-better-than-nothing solar grants, they've released a full climate manifesto. Unfortunately, the core policies in it - a second Emissions ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago

  • A coalition of racism, cruelty, and chaos
    Today's big political news is that after months of wibbling, National's Chris Luxon has finally confirmed that he is willing to work with Winston Peters to become Prime Minister. Which is expected, but I guess it tells us something about which way the polls are going. Which raises the question: ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago

  • More migrant workers should help generate the tax income needed to provide benefits for job seekers
    Buzz from the Beehive Under something described as a “rebalance” of its immigration rules, the Government has adopted four of five recommendations made in an independent review released in July, The fifth, which called on the government to specify criteria for out-of-hours compliance visits similar to those used during ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago

  • Letter To Luxon.
    Some of you might know Gerard Otto (G), and his G News platform. This morning he wrote a letter to Christopher Luxon which I particularly enjoyed, and with his agreement I’m sharing it with you in this guest newsletter.If you’d like to make a contribution to support Gerard’s work you ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago

  • LINDSAY MITCHELL: Alarming trend in benefit numbers
    Lindsay Mitchell writes –  While there will not be another quarterly release of benefit numbers prior to the election, limited weekly reporting continues and is showing an alarming trend. Because there is a seasonal component to benefit number fluctuations it is crucial to compare like with like. In ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago

  • BRIAN EASTON: Has there been external structural change?
    A close analysis of the Treasury assessment of the Medium Term in its PREFU 2023 suggests the economy may be entering a new phase.   Brian Easton writes –  Last week I explained that the forecasts in the just published Treasury Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update (PREFU 2023) was ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago

  • CRL Progress – Sep-23
    It’s been a while since we looked at the latest with the City Rail Link and there’s been some fantastic milestones recently. To start with, and most recently, CRL have released an awesome video showing a full fly-through of one of the tunnels. Come fly with us! You asked for ...
    Greater AucklandBy Matt L
    5 days ago

  • Monday’s Chorus: Not building nearly enough
    We are heading into another period of fast population growth without matching increased home building or infrastructure investment.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Labour and National detailed their house building and migration approaches over the weekend, with both pledging fast population growth policies without enough house building or infrastructure investment ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago

  • Game on; Hipkins comes out punching
    Labour leader Chris Hipkins yesterday took the gloves off and laid into National and its leader Christopher Luxon. For many in Labour – and particularly for some at the top of the caucus and the party — it would not have been a moment too soon. POLITIK is aware ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    5 days ago

  • Tax Cut Austerity Blues.
    The leaders have had their go, they’ve told us the “what?” and the “why?” of their promises. Now it’s the turn of the would be Finance Ministers to tell us the “how?”, the “how much?”, and the “when?”A chance for those competing for the second most powerful job in the ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    6 days ago

  • MIKE GRIMSHAW:  It’s the economy – and the spirit – Stupid…
    Mike Grimshaw writes – Over the past 30-odd years it’s become almost an orthodoxy to blame or invoke neoliberalism for the failures of New Zealand society. On the left the usual response goes something like, neoliberalism is the cause of everything that’s gone wrong and the answer ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago

  • 2023 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #38
    A chronological listing of news and opinion articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Sep 17, 2023 thru Sat, Sep 23, 2023. Story of the Week  Opinion: Let’s free ourselves from the story of economic growth A relentless focus on economic growth has ushered in ...
    Skeptical Science
    6 days ago

  • The End Of The World.
    Have you been looking out of your window for signs of the apocalypse? Don’t worry, you haven’t been door knocked by a representative of the Brian Tamaki party. They’re probably a bit busy this morning spruiking salvation, or getting ready to march on our parliament, which is closed. No, I’ve ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    7 days ago

  • Climate Town: The Brainwashing Of America's Children
    Climate Town is the YouTube channel of Rollie Williams and a ragtag team of climate communicators, creatives and comedians. They examine climate change in a way that doesn’t make you want to eat a cyanide pill. Get informed about the climate crisis before the weather does it for you. The latest ...
    Skeptical Science
    1 week ago

  • Has There Been External Structural Change?
    A close analysis of the Treasury assessment of the Medium Term in its PREFU 2023 suggests the economy may be entering a new phase. Last week I explained that the forecasts in the just published Treasury Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update (PREFU 2023) was similar to the May Budget BEFU, ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    1 week ago

  • Another Labour bully
    Back in June, we learned that Kiri Allan was a Parliamentary bully. And now there's another one: Labour MP Shanan Halbert: The Labour Party was alerted to concerns about [Halbert's] alleged behaviour a year ago but because staffers wanted to remain anonymous, no formal process was undertaken [...] The ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 week ago

  • Climate Change: Ignoring our biggest problem
    Its that time in the election season where the status quo parties are busy accusing each other of having fiscal holes in a desperate effort to appear more "responsible" (but not, you understand, by promising to tax wealth or land to give the government the revenue it needs to do ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 week ago

  • JERRY COYNE: A good summary of the mess that is science education in New Zealand
    JERRY COYNE writes –  If you want to see what the government of New Zealand is up to with respect to science education, you can’t do better than listening to this video/slideshow by two exponents of the “we-need-two-knowledge-systems” view. I’ve gotten a lot of scary stuff from Kiwi ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 week ago

  • Good news on the GDP front is accompanied by news of a $5m govt boost for Supercars (but what about ...
    Buzz from the Beehive First, we were treated to the news (from Finance Minister Grant Robertson) that the economy has turned a corner and New Zealand never was in recession.  This was triggered by statistics which showed the economy expanded 0.9 per cent in the June quarter, twice as much as ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    1 week ago

  • The Scafetta Saga
    It has taken 17 months to get a comment published pointing out the obvious errors in the Scafetta (2022) paper in GRL. Back in March 2022, Nicola Scafetta published a short paper in Geophysical Research Letters (GRL) purporting to show through ‘advanced’ means that ‘all models with ECS > ...
    Real ClimateBy Gavin
    1 week ago

  • Friday's Chorus: Penny wise and pound foolish
    TL;DR: In the middle of a climate emergency and in a city prone to earthquakes, Victoria University of Wellington announced yesterday it would stop teaching geophysics, geographic information science and physical geography to save $22 million a year and repay debt. Climate change damage in Aotearoa this year is already ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 week ago

  • CHRIS TROTTER: Calling the big dog’s bluff
      For nearly thirty years the pundits have been telling the minor parties that they must be good little puppies and let the big dogs decide. The parties with a plurality of the votes cast must be allowed to govern – even if that means ignoring the ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 week ago

  • The electorate swing, Labour limbo and Luxon-Hipkins two-step
     Another poll, another 27 for Labour. It was July the last time one of the reputable TV company polls had Labour's poll percentage starting with a three, so the limbo question is now being asked: how low can you go?It seems such an unlikely question because this doesn't feel like the kind ...
    PunditBy Tim Watkin
    1 week ago

  • A Womance, and a Nomance.
    After the trench warfare of Tuesday night, when the two major parties went head to head, last night was the turn of the minor parties. Hosts Newshub termed it “the Powerbrokers' Debate”.Based on the latest polls the four parties taking part - ACT, the Greens, New Zealand First, and Te ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 week ago

  • New community-level energy projects to support more than 800 Māori households
    Seven more innovative community-scale energy projects will receive government funding through the Māori and Public Housing Renewable Energy Fund to bring more affordable, locally generated clean energy to more than 800 Māori households, Energy and Resources Minister Dr Megan Woods says. “We’ve already funded 42 small-scale clean energy projects that ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Huge boost to Te Tai Tokerau flood resilience
    The Government has approved new funding that will boost resilience and greatly reduce the risk of major flood damage across Te Tai Tokerau. Significant weather events this year caused severe flooding and damage across the region. The $8.9m will be used to provide some of the smaller communities and maraes ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Napier’s largest public housing development comes with solar
    The largest public housing development in Napier for many years has been recently completed and has the added benefit of innovative solar technology, thanks to Government programmes, says Housing Minister Dr Megan Woods. The 24 warm, dry homes are in Seddon Crescent, Marewa and Megan Woods says the whanau living ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago

  • Te Whānau a Apanui and the Crown initial Deed of Settlement I Kua waitohua e Te Whānau a Apanui me...
    Māori: Kua waitohua e Te Whānau a Apanui me te Karauna te Whakaaetanga Whakataunga Kua waitohua e Te Whānau a Apanui me te Karauna i tētahi Whakaaetanga Whakataunga hei whakamihi i ō rātou tāhuhu kerēme Tiriti o Waitangi. E tekau mā rua ngā hapū o roto mai o Te Whānau ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • Plan for 3,000 more public homes by 2025 – regions set to benefit
    Regions around the country will get significant boosts of public housing in the next two years, as outlined in the latest public housing plan update, released by the Housing Minister, Dr Megan Woods. “We’re delivering the most public homes each year since the Nash government of the 1950s with one ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago

  • Immigration settings updates
    Judicial warrant process for out-of-hours compliance visits 2023/24 Recognised Seasonal Employer cap increased by 500 Additional roles for Construction and Infrastructure Sector Agreement More roles added to Green List Three-month extension for onshore Recovery Visa holders The Government has confirmed a number of updates to immigration settings as part of ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 days ago

  • Poroporoaki: Tā Patrick (Patu) Wahanga Hohepa
    Tangi ngunguru ana ngā tai ki te wahapū o Hokianga Whakapau Karakia. Tārehu ana ngā pae maunga ki Te Puna o te Ao Marama. Korihi tangi ana ngā manu, kua hinga he kauri nui ki te Wao Nui o Tāne. He Toa. He Pou. He Ahorangi. E papaki tū ana ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Renewable energy fund to support community resilience
    40 solar energy systems on community buildings in regions affected by Cyclone Gabrielle and other severe weather events Virtual capability-building hub to support community organisations get projects off the ground Boost for community-level renewable energy projects across the country At least 40 community buildings used to support the emergency response ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • COVID-19 funding returned to Government
    The lifting of COVID-19 isolation and mask mandates in August has resulted in a return of almost $50m in savings and recovered contingencies, Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. Following the revocation of mandates and isolation, specialised COVID-19 telehealth and alternative isolation accommodation are among the operational elements ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Appointment of District Court Judge
    Susie Houghton of Auckland has been appointed as a new District Court Judge, to serve on the Family Court, Attorney-General David Parker said today.  Judge Houghton has acted as a lawyer for child for more than 20 years. She has acted on matters relating to the Hague Convention, an international ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Government invests further in Central Hawke’s Bay resilience
    The Government has today confirmed $2.5 million to fund a replace and upgrade a stopbank to protect the Waipawa Drinking Water Treatment Plant. “As a result of Cyclone Gabrielle, the original stopbank protecting the Waipawa Drinking Water Treatment Plant was destroyed. The plant was operational within 6 weeks of the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Govt boost for Hawke’s Bay cyclone waste clean-up
    Another $2.1 million to boost capacity to deal with waste left in Cyclone Gabrielle’s wake. Funds for Hastings District Council, Phoenix Contracting and Hog Fuel NZ to increase local waste-processing infrastructure. The Government is beefing up Hawke’s Bay’s Cyclone Gabrielle clean-up capacity with more support dealing with the massive amount ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Taupō Supercars revs up with Government support
    The future of Supercars events in New Zealand has been secured with new Government support. The Government is getting engines started through the Major Events Fund, a special fund to support high profile events in New Zealand that provide long-term economic, social and cultural benefits. “The Repco Supercars Championship is ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • There is no recession in NZ, economy grows nearly 1 percent in June quarter
    The economy has turned a corner with confirmation today New Zealand never was in recession and stronger than expected growth in the June quarter, Finance Minister Grant Robertson said. “The New Zealand economy is doing better than expected,” Grant Robertson said. “It’s continuing to grow, with the latest figures showing ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Highest legal protection for New Zealand’s largest freshwater springs
    The Government has accepted the Environment Court’s recommendation to give special legal protection to New Zealand’s largest freshwater springs, Te Waikoropupū Springs (also known as Pupū Springs), Environment Minister David Parker announced today.   “Te Waikoropupū Springs, near Takaka in Golden Bay, have the second clearest water in New Zealand after ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • More support for victims of migrant exploitation
    Temporary package of funding for accommodation and essential living support for victims of migrant exploitation Exploited migrant workers able to apply for a further Migrant Exploitation Protection Visa (MEPV), giving people more time to find a job Free job search assistance to get people back into work Use of 90-day ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Strong export boost as NZ economy turns corner
    An export boost is supporting New Zealand’s economy to grow, adding to signs that the economy has turned a corner and is on a stronger footing as we rebuild from Cyclone Gabrielle and lock in the benefits of multiple new trade deals, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. “The economy is ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Funding approved for flood resilience work in Te Karaka
    The Government has approved $15 million to raise about 200 homes at risk of future flooding. More than half of this is expected to be spent in the Tairāwhiti settlement of Te Karaka, lifting about 100 homes there. “Te Karaka was badly hit during Cyclone Gabrielle when the Waipāoa River ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Further business support for cyclone-affected regions
    The Government is helping businesses recover from Cyclone Gabrielle and attract more people back into their regions. “Cyclone Gabrielle has caused considerable damage across North Island regions with impacts continuing to be felt by businesses and communities,” Economic Development Minister Barbara Edmonds said. “Building on our earlier business support, this ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • New maintenance facility at Burnham Military Camp underway
    Defence Minister Andrew Little has turned the first sod to start construction of a new Maintenance Support Facility (MSF) at Burnham Military Camp today. “This new state-of-art facility replaces Second World War-era buildings and will enable our Defence Force to better maintain and repair equipment,” Andrew Little said. “This Government ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Foreign Minister to attend United Nations General Assembly
    Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta will represent New Zealand at the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York this week, before visiting Washington DC for further Pacific focussed meetings. Nanaia Mahuta will be in New York from Wednesday 20 September, and will participate in UNGA leaders ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago

  • Midwives’ pay equity offer reached
    Around 1,700 Te Whatu Ora employed midwives and maternity care assistants will soon vote on a proposed pay equity settlement agreed by Te Whatu Ora, the Midwifery Employee Representation and Advisory Service (MERAS) and New Zealand Nurses Association (NZNO), Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. “Addressing historical pay ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago

  • New Zealand provides support to Morocco
    Aotearoa New Zealand will provide humanitarian support to those affected by last week’s earthquake in Morocco, Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced today. “We are making a contribution of $1 million to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) to help meet humanitarian needs,” Nanaia Mahuta said. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago

  • Government invests in West Coast’s roading resilience
    The Government is investing over $22 million across 18 projects to improve the resilience of roads in the West Coast that have been affected by recent extreme weather, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed today.  A dedicated Transport Resilience Fund has been established for early preventative works to protect the state ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago

  • Government invests in Greymouth’s future
    The Government has today confirmed a $2 million grant towards the regeneration of Greymouth’s CBD with construction of a new two-level commercial and public facility. “It will include a visitor facility centred around a new library. Additionally, it will include retail outlets on the ground floor, and both outdoor and ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago

  • Nanaia Mahuta to attend PIF Foreign Ministers’ Meeting
    Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta will attend the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, in Suva, Fiji alongside New Zealand’s regional counterparts. “Aotearoa New Zealand is deeply committed to working with our pacific whanau to strengthen our cooperation, and share ways to combat the challenges facing the Blue Pacific Continent,” ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago

  • PREFU shows no recession, growing economy, more jobs and wages ahead of inflation
    Economy to grow 2.6 percent on average over forecast period Treasury not forecasting a recession Inflation to return to the 1-3 percent target band next year Wages set to grow 4.8 percent a year over forecast period Unemployment to peak below the long-term average Fiscal Rules met - Net debt ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 weeks ago

  • New cancer centre opens in Christchurch
    Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall proudly opened the Canterbury Cancer Centre in Christchurch today. The new facility is the first of its kind and was built with $6.5 million of funding from the Government’s Infrastructure Reference Group scheme for shovel-ready projects allocated in 2020. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 weeks ago

  • Government invests in top of the south’s roading resilience
    $12 million to improve the resilience of roads in the Nelson, Marlborough and Tasman regions Hope Bypass earmarked in draft Government Policy Statement on land transport $127 million invested in the top of the south’s roads since flooding in 2021 and 2022 The Government is investing over $12 million to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 weeks ago

  • New Zealanders continue to support the revitalisation of te reo as we celebrate Te Wiki o te Reo Mā...
    Ko tēnei te wiki e whakanui ana i tō tātou reo rangatira. Ko te wā tuku reo Māori, e whakanuia tahitia ai te reo ahakoa kei hea ake tēnā me tēnā o tātou, ka tū ā te Rātū te 14 o Mahuru, ā te 12 o ngā hāora i te ahiahi. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 weeks ago

Page generated in The Standard by Wordpress at 2023-09-29T16:55:01+00:00