Latest Top Scoops Headlines
Banal Terrors: Pandemics And The Ordinary Business Of War
Tuesday, 7 April 2020, 4:12 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The twaddle of framing the confrontation of the coronavirus as a “war” has proven to be a cheapening, misguided exercise. France’s president Emmanuel Macron has deemed COVID-19 the “invisible, elusive enemy”, making it sound like an adept ... More >>
Emancipatory Catastrophism In Times Of COVID-19
Tuesday, 7 April 2020, 3:44 pm | Dr. Thomas Owen
COVID has disrupted politics, the economy, and everyday citizens’ lives in major ways across the planet. Can - and should - such disruption be welcomed as an opportunity for progressive social change? More >>
Coronavirus: Boris Johnson taken to intensive care
Tuesday, 7 April 2020, 2:48 pm | RNZ
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been moved to intensive care in hospital after his coronavirus symptoms worsened, Downing Street has said. More >>
Prepare To Have Your Worldview Obliterated
Tuesday, 7 April 2020, 2:29 pm | Caitlin Johnstone
The first draft of the civil rights-eroding USA PATRIOT Act was magically introduced one week after the 9/11 attacks . Legislators later admitted that they hadn't even had time to read through the hundreds of pages of the history-shaping ... More >>
Universal Basic Income (or Basic Universal Income) And Covid19
Tuesday, 7 April 2020, 11:15 am | Keith Rankin
Once again it was very disappointing to hear a radio programme poo-pooing the idea of a Universal Basic Income by misrepresenting it. Refer: (The Panel, National Radio, 6 April 2020) https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/thepanel/audio/2018741718/a-universal-basic-income-to-all-its-citizens ... More >>
On The Ethics (and Some Of The Economics) Of Lifting The Lockdown
Tuesday, 7 April 2020, 11:09 am | Gordon Campbell
As New Zealand passes the half-way mark towards moving out of Level Four lockdown, the trade-offs involved in life-after-lockdown are starting to come into view. All very well for National’s finance spokesperson Paul Goldsmith to claim that “The ... More >>
Covid-19: Government launches mental health support tools
Tuesday, 7 April 2020, 10:28 am | RNZ
Support is being rolled out for New Zealanders struggling with their mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic. More >>
COVID-19’s Challenge To The Christian Church: What Would Jesus Do?
Tuesday, 7 April 2020, 9:46 am | John W Whitehead
“The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it ... More >>
Covid-19: Electronic bracelet monitoring suggested for arrivals
Tuesday, 7 April 2020, 9:44 am | RNZ
Electronic bracelets should be strongly considered for travellers arriving from overseas, prominent scientist Nick Wilson says. More >>
USA Blocks Aid Deliveries Despite The Coronavirus Pandemic
Monday, 6 April 2020, 5:34 pm | Scoop.me
Author: Cuba HEUTE/Cuba HEUTE Original Source: https://scoop.me/cuba-usa-medical-help-block-coronavirus-ai United States has prevented a Chinese aid shipment of medical supplies to Cuba to combat the novel coronavirus. The North American transport company withdrew from ... More >>
Cuba Sends Doctors Around The World – Not Only In Times Of Corona
Monday, 6 April 2020, 5:28 pm | Scoop.me
In the midst of the Corona crisis, teams of Cuban doctors have landed in Italy and Andorra to provide medical support to Europe. However, this is not the first time that the island state has shown solidarity this way. Medical cooperation with other ... More >>
Coronavirus Socialism For The Wealthy
Monday, 6 April 2020, 3:24 pm | Binoy Kampmark
When capitalism screeches to a halt and starts its old business of killing off the adventurous but weakened, the enterprising but foolish, those who initially benefited, shed tears. Losses mount, accountants tally up current and future losses. Huge profits ... More >>
On The Lockdown, Masks And Aerosol Transmission
Monday, 6 April 2020, 10:48 am | Gordon Campbell
Ironically, our relative success in suppressing the exponential spread of Covid-19 is only increasing the pressure to ease back from those measures, on a regional basis at least. We seem set on course to start tentatively emerging from lockdown in about ... More >>
They Told Us So.
Monday, 6 April 2020, 8:32 am | Jim Miles
I cannot say “I told you so” because I did not. But I can say “They told us so” because they did. “They” being the alternate media that provided news and views that the mainstream media (MSM) would not touch because it harmed their veneer ... More >>
Binoy Kampmark: University Bailouts, Funding And Coronavirus
Sunday, 5 April 2020, 4:23 pm | Binoy Kampmark
In a set of stable circumstances, funding higher education should be a matter of automatic persuasion. If you want an educated populace, the tax payer should muck in. In some countries, however, this venture is uneven. In the United Kingdom, the ... More >>
Hospital Staff At Risk In The War Against Covid -19
Saturday, 4 April 2020, 2:11 pm | Ray Avery
The war against Covid-19 will not be won in the desolate streets of New Zealand but in the trenches of our Hospitals. In war, the front line always has the most casualties and our Hospital doctors ,nurses and patients will ultimately bear the ... More >>
Stuck In Limbo In New Zealand
Saturday, 4 April 2020, 2:01 pm | Luke Davis
-Flights home cancelled and now stuck here with not enough funds to stay as money tied up with travel agent More >>
A Department Of Actual Defense In A Time Of Coronavirus
Saturday, 4 April 2020, 8:46 am | David Swanson
A Department of Actual Defense in a Time of Coronavirus By David Swanson When a few thousand people were murdered on September 11, 2001, I was actually stupid enough – I kid you not – to imagine that the general public would conclude that because More >>
As Millions Struggle To Meet Basic Needs, Trump Organization Requests Financial Relief
Friday, 3 April 2020, 4:27 pm | Common Dreams
by Julia Conley, staff writer While millions of Americans face uunemployment, the loss of health coverage, and difficulty affording necessities over the coming months as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, President Donald Trump's business empire ... More >>
Countries Having The Highest Percentages Of Population With Covid-19 Infection
Friday, 3 April 2020, 4:19 pm | Eric Zuesse
As of April 2nd, the top ten most-infected countries, by numbers of persons tested positive , and their respective population-sizes , and the resulting percentages of population who are known to be infected, are: USA 217,661 / 327,527,107 = 0.0007 ... More >>
Decline In Fossil Fuel Emissions Due To Coronavirus Lockdowns No Substitute For Climate Action
Friday, 3 April 2020, 4:16 pm | Common Dreams
As power plants, public transportation, and businesses shut down in a growing number of countries around the world due to governments using widespread social distancing practices to slow the spread of the coronavirus, climate scientists are recording ... More >>
Someone’s Screwing You, And It Ain’t China: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix
Friday, 3 April 2020, 4:08 pm | Caitlin Johnstone
Ten million Americans declare unemployment in two weeks and all your government does is give you a $1,200 "advance" on your tax return while bailing out corporations with the largest wealth transfer ever, and some of you are ... More >>
Lockdown Dog Incidents On The Rise
Friday, 3 April 2020, 3:49 pm | Marcus Anselm - Local Democracy Reporter
An increase in dog attacks in Masterton since the covid-19 lockdown has led to a call for "common sense" from the district council's environmental leader. Three people have suffered attacks from dogs in the last two weeks, and one dog has ... More >>
First Carterton District Mayor Dies
Friday, 3 April 2020, 3:26 pm | Marcus Anselm - Local Democracy Reporter
Barry Keys, who died on Tuesday aged 82, will be remembered as the glue that kept Carterton District Council together at its foundation. Keys was the district council’s first leader after local government reforms in 1989. Alongside the new councillors ... More >>
Nana Joy remembers the 1925 polio lockdown
Friday, 3 April 2020, 3:12 pm | RNZ
Leilani Momoisea's 101-year-old Nan was in lockdown during a polio epidemic in the 1920s; she remembers those times and has some advice for children in lockdown today. More >>
On Wage Cuts, And The Listener’s Demise
Friday, 3 April 2020, 10:57 am | Gordon Campbell
Various levels of across the board wage cuts – 10%? 15% ?- are being mooted for workers in some of our larger firms, in order to help the likes of Fletchers, Mediaworks etc survive the Covid-19 crisis. It is extraordinary that unions should be having ... More >>
Covid-19: Demand high for 'game changer' drug amid caution and optimism
Friday, 3 April 2020, 10:47 am | RNZ
A malaria drug touted by Donald Trump as a "game changer" in the fight against Covid-19 has been in high demand in NZ. More >>
New Zealand Workers Speak Out On Unsafe Conditions, Wage Cuts
Friday, 3 April 2020, 8:13 am | Socialist Equality Group
By Tom Peters Workers in New Zealand remain deeply concerned about being exposed to the potentially deadly COVID-19 coronavirus. The Labour Party-led government’s four-week shutdown of schools and non-essential businesses began on March 26 in an ... More >>
Money, Public Debt And The Covid19 Emergency
Thursday, 2 April 2020, 8:11 pm | Keith Rankin
What is Money? Money is a mystery. To most of us we receive it, we spend it, we save it, we borrow it. And if we don't have enough, we are in trouble. Many of us think of money as if it is tangible, like gold; something that is naturally scarce, ... More >>
Dangerous Gifts: Coronavirus And Trump’s Sanctions Regime
Thursday, 2 April 2020, 5:08 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The global effort to combat the coronavirus pandemic has been one of stutters and staggers. There are go-it-alone instances of severity, and cases of blasé indifference. State ministers and leaders have not escaped the chance to demonise and point accusing ... More >>
US Escalates Warmongering Against Venezuela Because Of… Drug Trafficking?
Thursday, 2 April 2020, 4:10 pm | Caitlin Johnstone
The Trump administration is sending Navy ships to patrol Venezuela, the latest escalation against the government targeted by an aggressive hybrid US regime change intervention. "President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that Navy ships ... More >>
Advancing Change In A Time Of Disruption: Forging A New Pathway For Nature
Thursday, 2 April 2020, 2:50 pm | Common Dreams
by Mari Margil I first traveled to Nepal in 2012 to meet with members of the Constituent Assembly drafting the country’s new constitution. The central question we discussed was how to tackle global warming from a Rights of Nature perspective. Home to Mt. ... More >>
Could COVID-19 Reshape Global Leadership?
Thursday, 2 April 2020, 2:49 pm | Common Dreams
As U.S. COVID-19 cases double every few days and the death toll mounts, the U.S. seems to be caught in a “worst of both worlds” predicament: daily life and much of the U.S. economy is shut down, but no real progress has been achieved in its efforts ... More >>
Union on badly behaved employers: 'We will remember'
Thursday, 2 April 2020, 1:53 pm | RNZ
The president of the Council of Trade Unions says double digit employment is realistic, but NZ faces a tremendous opportunity to rethink our economy. More >>
On The Changes Hitting The Economy, Work, And The Benefit System
Thursday, 2 April 2020, 11:50 am | Gordon Campbell
The economy may be falling like a rock but it hasn’t hit the bottom of the well yet, here or anywhere else. Time is so stretched – early March feels like a distant country – that planning rationally for what the economy might look like in two, ... More >>
Healthcare Not Warfare
Thursday, 2 April 2020, 11:32 am | Valerie Morse
The discussion about Covid-19 health care has focused on the ability of our health care system to cope with large influx of people requiring serious care and ventilators. Sitting at home is the best way to ‘flatten the curve’ we have learned, and not ... More >>
Covid-19: Major magazine publisher Bauer Media closing down
Thursday, 2 April 2020, 11:21 am | RNZ
The publisher's chief executive says the Covid-19 lockdown has stopped magazine production and put the business in an untenable position. More >>
Tunisia Leads The Way: New Report Exposes Israel’s False Democracy
Thursday, 2 April 2020, 10:02 am | Ramzy Baroud
Tunisia is the Middle East’s greatest success story, according to the findings of the V-Dem Annual Democracy Report 2019 . One of the world’s most regarded annual reports on democracy and good governance, the V-Dem Report is produced by the V-Dem ... More >>
People’s Skepticism About Covid-19 Is The Fault Of The Lying Mass Media
Wednesday, 1 April 2020, 5:51 pm | Caitlin Johnstone
Coronavirus disinformation is the hot topic of the day, with pressure mounting on social media platforms to censor incorrect information about the virus and mainstream news outlets blaring dire warnings every day about the threat posed by the circulation ... More >>
The Post-Coronavirus World Will Be Far Worse Than The Pre-Coronavirus World
Wednesday, 1 April 2020, 2:41 pm | Eric Zuesse
Signs, especially in the United States, are that the post-coronavirus-plagued world will have even more inequality of wealth, within each nation, than existed prior to the plague. Billionaires are demanding to be included in the bailouts by their ... More >>
Signing In And Dropping Out: Coronavirus And The Virtual University
Wednesday, 1 April 2020, 12:50 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It was made with little thought but a good deal of high-minded urgency: Evacuate your office, take what you can, and prepare for the virtual world. Fill in a form, tell us if you actually pinched the office computer. This was the message that was ... More >>
'Can I Keep You Safe? Your Future Is Uncertain’: Climate And The Fate Of Humanity
Wednesday, 1 April 2020, 11:31 am | Media Lens
In the face of the coronavirus pandemic, the most immediate objective is to slow its spread, minimise the death toll and help people through the crisis. But, despite government promises to support citizens who are now losing their jobs and income, ... More >>
On Buying Ventilators, And Expanding The Testing For Covid-19
Wednesday, 1 April 2020, 11:12 am | Gordon Campbell
Before getting into recent developments….. who knew that Covid-19 was so powerful it could make NZ parliamentarians act like adults, and make them pose intelligent questions to officials and Cabinet Ministers about issues of public interest? Wowzah. ... More >>
The Challenges And Benefits Of Outdoor Recreation During NZ's Coronavirus Lockdown
Wednesday, 1 April 2020, 10:29 am | The Conversation
During New Zealand’s four-week lockdown, all sporting facilities, back-country walking trails and parks are closed to stop the spread of coronavirus and avoid injuries. More >>
The Swedish Alternative: Coronavirus As A Grand Gamble
Tuesday, 31 March 2020, 3:23 pm | Binoy Kampmark
As draconian lockdowns, punitive regimes and surveillance become the norm of the coronavirus world, Sweden has treaded more softly in the field. This is certainly in contrast to its Scandinavian cousins, Denmark and Norway. The rudiments of a life ... More >>
Mortgage, Debt And Rent Holidays Will Help Businesses And Employees Survive.
Tuesday, 31 March 2020, 12:39 pm | Cities and Regions
Dr David Wilson 30/03/20 I’m reminded of a John Ralston Saul quote: “If economists were doctors, they’d be mired in malpractice suits.” Are you getting a little tired of commentators guessing, sorry “forecasting”, about how ... More >>
COVID-19 And The Fundamentals Of Living On A Timed Borrow
Tuesday, 31 March 2020, 10:55 am | Nikko AM
Opinion: Fergus McDonald Towards the end of last year, I wrote a 2020 outlook piece – one I regret to say that failed to foresee a global pandemic – that referenced the estimated US$250 trillion of government, corporate and household debt underpinning ... More >>
Katya Rivas' Passion: Gethsemane & Last Supper (Parts 4 & 5)
Tuesday, 31 March 2020, 8:49 am | Katya Rivas
For the final two weeks of Lent 2020 Scoop will be publishing a serialisation of Katya Rivas’s “The Passion”. Readers can sign up to receive the serial by email Here . To order a video about Katya’s work visit apleatohumanity.com The Medallion ... More >>
An Inglorious Opportunity: Coronavirus And Emergency Powers
Monday, 30 March 2020, 3:36 pm | Binoy Kampmark
There has been a hurried spate of cancellations and suspensions of elections across the globe because of the risk posed by COVID-19. The trend is unsurprising. In the age of post-democratic process, suspending the procedure should only induce a cough ... More >>
On Our (Fatal?) Shortage Of Ventilators
Monday, 30 March 2020, 12:24 pm | Gordon Campbell
With a few honourable exceptions there has been a striking lack of focus on the (insufficient) number of ventilators in our intensive care units – and an almost complete absence of overt urgency about acquiring and/or building more of them. Ventilators ... More >>
Retail banks agree to a mortgage holiday repayment scheme
Monday, 30 March 2020, 10:51 am | RNZ
Retail banks have agreed to a mortgage holiday repayment scheme for those affected by Covid-19, Minister of Finance Grant Robertson has announced. More >>
Coronavirus: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says no change in Australia's stance to New Zealanders
Monday, 30 March 2020, 10:48 am | RNZ
Jacinda Ardern has pleaded with the Australian Prime Minister to make an exception to the rule that bars many of the 650,000 New Zealanders there from receiving a benefit. More >>
Corona Virus: Letter To A Friend
Monday, 30 March 2020, 10:45 am | Don Franks
Hi David, Nice hearing from you, I'm glad to hear you're getting by okay in these grim times. You asked how’s it going for us back here in New Zealand. You would have heard that the whole country is locked down and with breaks for exercise ... More >>
Covid-19: Fruit industry facing hurdles with harvest due to restrictions
Monday, 30 March 2020, 10:45 am | RNZ
The kiwifruit industry is fighting for survival as it tries to pick and pack the season's crop while enforcing Covid-19 restrictions. More >>
Covid-19: $5 billion foreign student industry faces dramatic drop
Monday, 30 March 2020, 10:39 am | RNZ
The $5 billion foreign student industry is facing a massive downturn with as many as half of this year's enrolments now in doubt. More >>
Coronavirus: PM backs families battling to keep seniors in their bubble
Monday, 30 March 2020, 10:36 am | RNZ
People over 70 and those with underlying health conditions faced the lockdown four days before the rest of the country - but some of the elderly still aren't taking any notice. More >>
Coronavirus: PM to reconsider 'essential businesses'
Monday, 30 March 2020, 10:33 am | RNZ
Ministers will meet today to discuss whether more services should be deemed essential and allowed to be open for business. More >>
How Fascism Won Control in The West
Monday, 30 March 2020, 10:15 am | Eric Zuesse
“The West” is the nations that are essentially controlled, basically dictated-to, by America’s approximately 600 billionaires, who control the U.S. Government, by coordinatedly funding (through their news-media and political donations, and also ... More >>
Tracking Your Location And Targeted Texts: How Sharing Your Data Could Help In NZ's Level 4 Lockdown
Monday, 30 March 2020, 9:32 am | The Conversation
New Zealand and much of the world is now under an unprecedented lockdown. Public health experts say this is the best way to suppress the spread of the virus. But how long will such a lockdown be socially sustainable? More >>
