Latest Top Scoops Headlines
Going Global With NATO
Monday, 8 August 2022, 12:58 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Regional alliances should, for the most part, remain regional. Areas of the globe can count on a number of such bodies and associations with varying degrees of heft: the Organization of American States; the Organisation of African Unity; and the Association ... More >>
On National’s Plan To Privatise Welfare Delivery
Monday, 8 August 2022, 11:28 am | Gordon Campbell
On the rare occasions when it ever gets asked, the public keeps rejecting tax cuts as such, as a policy priority. It keeps saying it wants tax levels to either stay the same or be increased, so that public services can be maintained, or even (perish ... More >>
The Intricate Fight For Africa: The Legacy Of The Soviet Union Vs Western Colonialism
Monday, 8 August 2022, 6:34 am | Ramzy Baroud
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's recent tour in Africa was meant to be a game changer, not only in terms of Russia's relations with the continent, but in the global power struggle involving the US, Europe, China, India, Turkey and others. ... More >>
Colossal ‘Porkies’ And Band-aids Don’t Make A Health Workforce Plan
Sunday, 7 August 2022, 6:06 am | Ian Powell
On 1 August Minister of Health Andrew Little announced what he described as the start of a plan for the beleaguered workforce in Aotearoa New Zealand’s health system: Government’s 5 year late health workforce announcement . In October 2017, ... More >>
Chegg, Cheating And Australian Universities
Sunday, 7 August 2022, 6:03 am | Binoy Kampmark
The note on Radio National’s Background Briefing on the morning of July 31 was sombre. A student, who did not divulge his real name (he is professionally pseudonymised as Ramesh), talks about services that aid him in his study. Aid is less accurate ... More >>
Some Important But Little Known Facts About Taiwan
Friday, 5 August 2022, 3:21 pm | Keith Rankin
The nuclear clock is closer than ever (since 1962) to 'midnight'. Taiwan and Ukraine are of course the two flashpoints. It is important that the citizens of the world understand the key facts. The official name of Taiwan is the 'Republic of China'. ... More >>
Some Important But Little Known Facts About Taiwan
Friday, 5 August 2022, 3:14 pm | Keith Rankin
The nuclear clock is closer than ever (since 1962) to 'midnight'. Taiwan and Ukraine are of course the two flashpoints. It is important that the citizens of the world understand the key facts. The official name of Taiwan is the 'Republic of China'. ... More >>
On National’s Incredible Disappearing Tax Policy
Friday, 5 August 2022, 11:57 am | Gordon Campbell
During the years of the Key government one hardy perennial of political journalism was that whenever the Labour Opposition would suggest a policy alternative to the status quo, the hard bitten response from the Gallery realists would be “But how’re ... More >>
Tourism, Air Tickets, & Medical Sleaze
Thursday, 4 August 2022, 2:30 pm | Richard S. Ehrlich
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Vietnam arrested foreign ministry, tourism, air, medical, and manufacturing officials and expelled them from the ruling Communist Party, amid multi-million dollar corruption scandals which are testing Hanoi's reliability in the U.S. Indo-Pacific ... More >>
Nancy Pelosi, You Silly Biddy
Thursday, 4 August 2022, 2:03 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s visit to Sarajevo in 1914 was an instructive lesson on how the dumb do, at some point, ask for it. Bosnia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, was desired by the Kingdom of Serbia. With the Serbs also well represented ... More >>
The Fuss About Monkeypox
Thursday, 4 August 2022, 1:51 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The World Health Organization has been one of the easier bodies to abuse. For parochial types, populist moaners and critics of international institutions, the WHO bore the brunt of criticisms from Donald Trump to Jair Bolsonaro. Being a key institution ... More >>
Why Resistance Matters: Palestinians Are Challenging Israel’s Unilateralism, Dominance
Thursday, 4 August 2022, 6:11 am | Ramzy Baroud
Until recently, Israeli politics did not matter to Palestinians. Though the Palestinian people maintained their political agency under the most demoralizing conditions, their collective action rarely influenced outcomes in Israel, partly due to the massive ... More >>
On The “One Person, Many Votes” Principle
Wednesday, 3 August 2022, 10:50 am | Gordon Campbell
That gormlessly glum picture of Christopher Luxon in Samoa graphicallly tells us what kind of image New Zealand would be projecting abroad if there’s a change of government next year. The glumness is understandable. For months, National and ACT ... More >>
How Maasai Women Are Resisting Land Grabs
Tuesday, 2 August 2022, 7:20 am | Globetrotter
In Mwanza, Tanzania, Nairukoki Leyian-Naisinyai tells me that here, “Corporations come with papers from the government claiming that they have the right to our land.” She points to the large corporations that have entered the lands of the Maasai people ... More >>
On Why We Should Pay Kiwis Living Abroad
Monday, 1 August 2022, 11:47 am | Gordon Campbell
This morning, National’s deputy leader Nicola Willis managed to get top of the bulletin news coverage by pointing out that some Kiwis living abroad might receive the government’s cost of living payment. Quelle horreur. What is the problem here? ... More >>
Facial Recognition Technology Down Under
Friday, 29 July 2022, 2:37 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The language is far from reassuring. Despite being caught red handed using facial recognition technology unbeknownst to customers, a number of Australia’s large retail companies have given a meek assurance that they will “pause” their use. ... More >>
On Games Fervour, And The Music Of S.G. Goodman
Friday, 29 July 2022, 1:42 pm | Gordon Campbell
Given how the pandemic has disrupted the sporting calendar, no-one would begrudge our elite athletes their chance to compete at international level. What with the war in Ukraine and the cost of living, there are also not many ‘good news” stories ... More >>
Washington Is The Problem, Not The Solution: Why Mahmoud Abbas Is Seeking New ‘Powerful’ Sponsors
Thursday, 28 July 2022, 6:43 am | Ramzy Baroud
To judge US President Joe Biden’s recent visit to Israel and Palestine as a ‘failure’ in terms of activating the dormant ‘peace process’ is simply a misnomer. For this statement to be accurate, Washington would have had to indicate even a nominal ... More >>
Chaff Candidates: The Race For The UK Tory Leadership
Wednesday, 27 July 2022, 3:25 pm | Binoy Kampmark
As UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson set the scene in spectacular fashion. All who sought to confine him to history, perished. He was the only one who seemed to survive, and reject, one diabolical scandal after the next – till now. No leader with such ... More >>
On Luxon’s Holiday, And The Greens Phantom Revolt
Wednesday, 27 July 2022, 2:55 pm | Gordon Campbell
If nothing else, some of the media treatment of the Luxon lu’au has reeked of a double standard. If Jacinda Ardern – or any of her Cabinet Ministers – had been holidaying in Hawaii while their social media imagery was depicting them working ... More >>
New Zealand’s ‘tobacco endgame’ law will be a world first for health – here’s what the modelling shows us
Wednesday, 27 July 2022, 9:48 am | The Conversation
Legislation now entering parliament aims to make Aotearoa New Zealand smokefree by 2025. Forecast effects show huge potential health gains, especially for Māori. More >>
International Accountability: Myanmar, The ICJ And The Genocide Question
Tuesday, 26 July 2022, 7:01 am | Binoy Kampmark
The indomitable spirit of Raphael Lemkin, bibliophile, assiduous documenter of humanity’s dark deeds and inexecrable conduct, is bound to be an unsettled one. This brilliant, committed and peculiarly dedicated creature took years to come up with what would, ... More >>
On The Greens, And On Free Market Myopia
Monday, 25 July 2022, 12:52 pm | Gordon Campbell
Climate change has gone from being one of those allegedly wacky Green ideas to wide mainstream acceptance. In their own ways, leaders like Jeanette Fitzsimons, Russel Norman and James Shaw each added to the increased credibility the Greens’ now have ... More >>
Masks In Schools A Potential Circuit-breaker; But Wider Strategy And Hope Also Required
Monday, 25 July 2022, 6:40 am | Ian Powell
On 22 July it was reported by Stuff that Associate Minister of Education Jan Tinetti had made an important decision on masks in schools. It is a good decision but still short of what is required to reduce the reproduction rate of Omicron variant ... More >>
The War ‘Diplomat’: How Borrell, The West Lost The ‘Global Battle Of Narratives’
Sunday, 24 July 2022, 10:58 am | Ramzy Baroud
In a blog entry, reflecting on the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Bali, Indonesia on July 7-8, the High Representative of the European Union, Josep Borrell, seems to have accepted the painful truth that the West is losing what he termed “the ... More >>
Scott Morrison Awaits The Apocalypse
Sunday, 24 July 2022, 5:26 am | Binoy Kampmark
The minds of defeated prime ministers are rarely pretty. In some cases, they are damnably awful places, where ruins accumulate and dust gathers in wretchedness. Such figures can become, by the admission of former Australian prime minister, Malcolm ... More >>
AUKUS, Technology And Militarising Australia
Friday, 22 July 2022, 4:53 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Thinktanks across Australia, tanked with cash from US sources and keen to think in furious agreement, are all showing how delighted they are with the AUKUS security pact and what potential it has for local, if subordinated industry. The United States ... More >>
The Economic Cost Of War, Especially World War
Friday, 22 July 2022, 2:59 pm | Keith Rankin
All wars incur economic costs, and not only to the directly belligerent countries. The biggest costs arise when a war becomes a prolonged stalemate. The present war in Ukraine can be characterised, differently, as a Russian Civil War (that's the ... More >>
A Teachable Moment – For Joe Biden
Friday, 22 July 2022, 2:13 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
As readers of ‘Meditations’ know, I pretty much gave up on America and Americans years ago. But I still care about what happens in the nation of my nascency, especially in the context of the future of humanity. For the sake of humanity, and this country, ... More >>
What Happens When A Health Minister Loses Workforce Trust And Confidence
Thursday, 21 July 2022, 8:01 pm | Ian Powell
On 4 July Stuff published my opinion piece on the angry behaviour of Minister of Health Andrew Little in publicly disparaging dedicated people and organisations strongly committed to the provision of accessible quality healthcare: Health Minister’s ... More >>
On The Covid Surge, And Re-infection
Thursday, 21 July 2022, 1:32 pm | Gordon Campbell
Hate to sound “fearful” and “inward”in my thinking , but it seems Covid can’t be beaten simply by a dose of positive thinking and a “can do” Kiwi attitude. The virus doesn’t seem to respect our mindset. The Omicron BA. 4 and BA.5 variants ... More >>
Dunne Speaks: Time For MPs To Think For Themselves
Thursday, 21 July 2022, 10:25 am | Peter Dunne
One of the more frequently quoted statements of the Irish statesman and philosopher, Edmund Burke, was his observation that “Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgement, and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it ... More >>
Dunne Speaks: Time For MPs To Think For Themselves
Thursday, 21 July 2022, 10:23 am | Peter Dunne
One of the more frequently quoted statements of the Irish statesman and philosopher, Edmund Burke, was his observation that “Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgement, and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it ... More >>
The Shameful UN ‘List Of Shame’: Equating Between The Israeli Perpetrator And The Palestinian Victim
Wednesday, 20 July 2022, 9:32 am | Ramzy Baroud
“We regret we failed to protect you.” This was part of a statement issued by United Nations human rights experts on July 14, urging the Israeli government to release Palestinian prisoner Ahmad Manasra. Only 14 years old at the time of his ... More >>
Employee Attendance Tracking – One Of The Best Ways To Boost Team Morale
Wednesday, 20 July 2022, 8:36 am | Monitask
No one likes working on a team where someone isn’t pulling their weight. Employee perceptions – whether real or imagined – that management isn’t effectively preventing staff members from abusing flexitime or monitoring absenteeism can lead ... More >>
What Is Your Theory Of Human Nature?
Tuesday, 19 July 2022, 2:35 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
A telling sentence by a conservative pundit jumped out at me: "They had no illusions about the depravity of human beings." Given what is happening in the world, that worldview seems to be confirmed. But is it a self-fulfilling prophecy? ... More >>
Latest Covid19 Death Demographics In New Zealand
Monday, 18 July 2022, 2:41 pm | Keith Rankin
This morning, on Morning Report (RNZ) Monash University epidemiologist Tony Blakely noted that Covid19 death rates in New Zealand are 20% higher in New Zealand than in Victoria, Australia. He also noted that facemask use is significantly more widespread ... More >>
Customary Barbarity: Britain’s SAS In Afghanistan
Monday, 18 July 2022, 2:14 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The insistence that there is a noble way of fighting war, one less bloody and brutal, has always been the hallmark of forces self-described as civilised. Restraint characterises their behaviour; codes of laws follow in their wake, rather than genocidal impulses. ... More >>
On The US Attempt To Regain Lost Ground
Monday, 18 July 2022, 1:09 pm | Gordon Campbell
The brief fist bump between Joe Biden and Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader Mohammad bin Salman was the most memorable image from the US President’s journey last week to the Middle East. To many, it was a humiliating sign of American impotence. Fist ... More >>
On The US Attempt To Regain Lost Ground
Monday, 18 July 2022, 1:06 pm | Gordon Campbell
The brief fist bump between Joe Biden and Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader Mohammad bin Salman was the most memorable image from the US President’s journey last week to the Middle East. To many, it was a humiliating sign of American impotence. Fist ... More >>
The Rise Of BRICS: The Economic Giant That Is Taking On The West
Sunday, 17 July 2022, 5:54 am | Ramzy Baroud
The G7 summit in Elmau, Germany, June 26-28, and the NATO summit in Madrid, Spain, two days later, were practically useless in terms of providing actual solutions to ongoing global crises - the war in Ukraine, the looming famines, climate change and ... More >>
Download Weekly - Ontario Teachers buys Spark's TowerCo
Saturday, 16 July 2022, 6:18 pm | Digitl
Ontario Teachers buy majority share of Spark's TowerCo Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board will pay Spark $900 million for a 70 percent majority stake in TowerCo, the telco’s mobile tower business. More >>
Get Gota: Holding A War Criminal Accountable
Saturday, 16 July 2022, 6:15 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The fall and ignominious retreat of Sri Lanka’s Gotabaya Rajapaksa has enlivened one distinct possibility. Having formally resigned as Sri Lankan President, a point made via email from Singapore, those wishing to see him account for war crimes may ... More >>
Science Versus Narrative: Facemasks And Other Scientific Matters
Friday, 15 July 2022, 1:12 pm | Keith Rankin
A scientific hypothesis is a claim that is both plausible and 'empirically' testable. A hypothesis is the first part of the process of pure science. The second part is to actually test such claims. Claims that survive the rigour of testing become scientific ... More >>
Cultural Psychosis: The Cruel Deaths Of The Two Cows Who Escaped Whanganui Slaughterhouse
Friday, 15 July 2022, 11:39 am | Lynley Tulloch
With a sense of sadness I read a news piece on two cows who escaped Waimarie Meats slaughterhouse in Whanganui on July 11, 2022. One ended up being shot and killed by police. The other was contained and returned to the slaughterhouse. It’s anyone’s More >>
Worsening Chaos: Israel’s Political Instability Is Now The Norm
Friday, 15 July 2022, 7:01 am | Ramzy Baroud
The collapse of the short-lived Israeli government of Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid validates the argument that the political crisis in Israel was not entirely instigated and sustained by former Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Bennett’s coalition ... More >>
Will The Ukraine Conflict Turn Private?
Friday, 15 July 2022, 6:14 am | Globetrotter
The expanding use of private military and security companies in recent years suggests that they may take a leading role as the Ukraine conflict develops. By John P. Ruehl / Globetrotter Since the turn of the century, private military and security companies ... More >>
On Labour’s Bunker Mentality
Thursday, 14 July 2022, 11:43 am | Gordon Campbell
It seems very odd that RNZ thought it was worth breaking into its normal programming yesterday in order to provide Christopher Luxon with a platform from which to try and explain away his latest outbreaks of foot-in-mouth disease. Can we now assume ... More >>
Facemasks And Covid19 Mortality In 2021 And 2022, In Asia And Europe
Thursday, 14 July 2022, 9:58 am | Keith Rankin
Professor Michael Baker: "Societies who are using masks are doing very well, like South Korea, Japan. … And when we look at the countries which are succeeding, they are mask-using societies." From COVID-19: Epidemiologist Michael Baker ... More >>
Vicarious Zeal: Fighting To The Last Ukrainian
Wednesday, 13 July 2022, 4:39 pm | Binoy Kampmark
As the bloody conflict in Ukraine continues, the rhetoric from the imperial spear-holders in Washington and some allies is becoming increasingly fixated with one object: victory against Russia. Such words should be used sparingly, especially given their binding, ... More >>
Covid Vaccine Policy Fail: Priority Groups Under-protected
Wednesday, 13 July 2022, 1:35 pm | Keith Rankin
Keith Rankin, 13 July 2022 Kathryn Ryan: "Why is there a six-month gap between boosters?" Siouxsie Wiles: "I can't answer that for you. It doesn't make sense based on the data that we have. … In Israel they got it at least ... More >>
Wellington College first school to Hyperfibre
Tuesday, 12 July 2022, 6:34 pm | Digitl
For schools like Wellington College, a standard UFB fibre connection is not enough. Hyperfibre removes the congestion. Wellington College upgrades to Hyperfibre Wellington College is the first school in New Zealand to connect using Chorus’ Hyperfibre. ... More >>
Download Weekly - Southern Cross lights Next cable
Tuesday, 12 July 2022, 6:31 pm | Digitl
The Southern Cross Next cable doubles New Zealand's international data capacity. Southern Cross lights Next cable Southern Cross Cables hit the switch on its 72 Tbps trans-Pacific Next cable on Thursday. The move doubled capacity on routes between ... More >>
Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 2: Well built mobile review
Tuesday, 12 July 2022, 6:25 pm | Digitl
Microsoft's Surface Laptop Go 2 doesn’t break any new ground, but you’ll be hard pressed to find a better designed, better made laptop in the same price range. More >>
Barely Legal: The Global Uber Enterprise
Tuesday, 12 July 2022, 12:24 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The lobbying of Uber should, along with those of other corporate giants, only surprise those prone to pollyannaish escapism. Its hungry, desperate behaviour takes place in plain sight, and denials merely serve to emphasise the point. It resembles, in ... More >>
On The Pacific Islands Forum Gathering
Monday, 11 July 2022, 2:04 pm | Gordon Campbell
In recent months, China has been widely portrayed as a major strategic threat to the Pacific region, yet the Pacific states themselves beg to differ. Pacific leaders insist that climate change is a far more pressing existential threat. A month ago, ... More >>
Whistleblower Relief: Dropping The Collaery Case
Sunday, 10 July 2022, 5:33 am | Binoy Kampmark
The Anglo-Australian legal system has much to answer for. While robed lawyers and solemn justices proclaim an adherence to the rule of law, the rule remains a creature in state, more fetish than reality. Had the farcical prosecution of former ACT Attorney ... More >>
Abandoning The Sinking Rat: Boris Johnson Resigns
Friday, 8 July 2022, 1:47 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Like the political equivalent of a cockroach, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson survived and endured one strike after another. His credibility was shot, his mendacity second to none. He lost the confidence of a party that delighted in his buffoonish performances ... More >>
On The Trade Deal With The Europeans
Friday, 8 July 2022, 10:22 am | Gordon Campbell
We’ve grown so used to thinking the “we punch above our weight” cliché is real that the shortcomings in our free trade deal with the European Union may have come as something of a shock. That ingrained sense of Kiwi exceptionalism dies hard. ... More >>
15 Years Of Failed Experiments: Myths And Facts About The Israeli Siege On Gaza
Thursday, 7 July 2022, 11:10 am | Ramzy Baroud
15 years have passed since Israel imposed a total siege on the Gaza Strip, subjecting nearly two million Palestinians to one of the longest and most cruel politically-motivated blockades in history. The Israeli government had then justified its siege as the ... More >>
