Latest Top Scoops Headlines
Space Loos, Lunar Exploitation And Colonial Escapism: The Artemis II Mission
Wednesday, 22 April 2026, 2:40 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Colonial pursuits are often preceded by the spirit of discovery, economic reconnaissance,
inquiry.Then comes the appropriation, the brazen theft, the seizure wrapped in the
jolly packaging of blood, civilisation and empire.More >>
On The Lifeline Thrown To Christopher Luxon
Wednesday, 22 April 2026, 1:57 pm | Gordon Campbell
The National Party caucus seems to have a death wish.In increasingly “uncertain and volatile times,” it has placed all its bets on the guy who has been seriously underperforming in more certain, less volatile times.More >>
Why I’m Not A Buddhist
Wednesday, 22 April 2026, 1:48 pm | Martin LeFevre – Meditations
Though science & technology have advanced exponentially because the west prized reason
over inner life since Aristotle (with Locke codifying rationality as the cornerstone
of the Enlightenment), inwardly and psychologically, we’ve reached a dead end More >>
Divide And Prosper – The Evil Genius Of The UAE
Tuesday, 21 April 2026, 7:38 pm | Eugene Doyle
Without understanding the astonishing network of power exercised by the United Arab
Emirates you would have no idea why the UAE was hit particularly hard by Iran in
recent weeks.Nor would you know what fuels chaos from Libya to Sudan to Somalia …More >>
Troubled Relations: Pope Leo XIV And President Donald Trump
Tuesday, 21 April 2026, 1:57 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Pope Leo XIV, for his part, has become increasingly perturbed by President Donald
Trump’s metamorphosis from an alleged eschewer of war to that of a spluttering
warlord.
More >>
A Change In The Weather #192
Tuesday, 21 April 2026, 12:39 pm | Bruce Mahalski
The latest episode of Bruce Mahalski’s long-running cartoon strip A Change in the Weather, originally published in the Otago Daily Times magazine The Weekend Mix.
More >>
War Trophies: Considering USA, Iran, And Japan
Monday, 20 April 2026, 4:46 pm | Keith Rankin
It’s commonplace, especially in The West, to think of wars in binary terms.In those
terms, wars are either won or lost, like a sports match.And the symbol of victory
is a trophy.In a match-up, the symbol of defeat is the loss of a trophy.
In the …More >>
ANZAC Poem
Monday, 20 April 2026, 1:11 pm | Frances Palmer
A poem on what remembrance means to us, and possible pathways forward.This is not
the preferred messaging for traditional ANZAC Days, but it is an example of what
is unforgettable to civilian nurses in war zones.More >>
How Does ANZAC Day Relate To War Today?
Monday, 20 April 2026, 1:01 pm | Frances Palmer
How could ANZAC become more meaningful in a constructive way? How does ‘lest we
forget’ warn against ‘lest we repeat’?
More >>
On New Zealand’s Luxon Liability
Monday, 20 April 2026, 12:45 pm | Gordon Campbell
The National Party caucus has got itself into in a real bind.For weeks, their Cabinet
Ministers and MPs have had their work cut out trying to look credible while voicing
their undying loyalty to an unpopular PM widely seen to be not up to the job.More >>
In Quieting The Chatter Of Human Language, One Hears The Languages Of Animals
Monday, 20 April 2026, 10:41 am | Martin LeFevre – Meditations
My worldview was thrown into doubt.
I had always believed that only humans committed
murder, but here I had proof beyond reasonable doubt that a jay had intentionally
killed another bird.More >>
The Cowardice Of Qualification: When Anti-War Voices Speak The Language Of Empire
Monday, 20 April 2026, 7:26 am | Ramzy Baroud
Israel has long operated within this same framework.
Its wars have consistently been presented as existential and necessary for the survival of democracy and civilization itself.More >>
Confused Closures And Opaque Openings: Continuing Dramas In The Hormuz Strait
Sunday, 19 April 2026, 5:13 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Increasingly, the US imperium is resembling a paper tiger, incapable of stalking
and capturing its far more resourceful prey.
More >>
Failing Kidney Patients Symptomatic Of Health System Crisis; Health System Needs Its Own Mantra
Sunday, 19 April 2026, 4:55 pm | Ian Powell
Ian Powell discusses a revealing opinion piece by a medical specialist on the failure
to implement a plan on addressing chronic kidney disease as symptomatic of a wider
crisis in New Zealand’s health system.More >>
Agency Is Bullshit, In Humans Or Chatbots
Saturday, 18 April 2026, 2:59 pm | Martin LeFevre – Meditations
We human beings have to gain deepening insight into the place of memory, knowledge
and thought within ourselves if we are to put and keep thought machines in their
place.More >>
Putting The Calamity Makers In Charge: Anthropic And Claude Mythos Preview
Saturday, 18 April 2026, 4:46 am | Binoy Kampmark
What a fine picture this is turning out to be.
And there are the questions on Anthropic’s
reliability here.
Will it be as good at finding vulnerabilities as fixing them, acting
as both poacher and gamekeeper? More >>
Marooned In The Pacific Ocean: Famine Down-Under?
Friday, 17 April 2026, 3:46 pm | Keith Rankin
New Zealand’s worst – or at least most immediate – problem might not be fertiliser.
Rather, it might be dependence on imports of both human food staples and animal feed.
More >>
Dunne’s Weekly: What To Do When Prime Ministers Become Impaired
Friday, 17 April 2026, 8:12 am | Peter Dunne
Under section 4 of 25th Amendment, the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet
can declare the President unfit for office, for health or other reasons, and, with
the support of the Congress, remove the President, in favour of the Vice President.More >>
The Collapse Is Real – Lebanon Ceasefire Marks A Historic Strategic Defeat
Friday, 17 April 2026, 7:40 am | Ramzy Baroud
Lebanon was meant to be the exception—a theater where Israel could isolate and
defeat Hezbollah.Instead, it became further evidence of strategic failure.Efforts
to separate the fronts—Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Iran—have collapsed.More >>
Hope In The Data: Can Palestine Explain America’s Moral Shift?
Friday, 17 April 2026, 7:31 am | Ramzy Baroud
For the first time in generations, a reason for cautious—yet unmistakable—optimism:
that ordinary Americans are no longer passive recipients of power, but active participants
in shaping a more morally conscious political reality.
More >>
Crusaders: The Crass, The Past, And The Present
Thursday, 16 April 2026, 2:50 pm | Keith Rankin
The Crusader issue is far from being an issue confined to the Middle Ages.
More >>
What Does It Mean To Collaborate At The Core Of Consciousness?
Thursday, 16 April 2026, 1:14 pm | Martin LeFevre – Meditations
‘How did nature, which unfolds in seamless wholeness, evolve a creature that is
fragmenting the Earth all to hell?’
More >>
On The Government’s Zombie Shuffle Into A Fuel Crisis
Thursday, 16 April 2026, 12:28 pm | Gordon Campbell
The US rationale for the blockade/entire war is that Iran must never, ever be allowed
to have a nuclear weapon and that Iran has always refused to give up that goal.
More >>
Aggravating An Aggravated Cost Of Living Crisis
Wednesday, 15 April 2026, 3:45 pm | Keith Rankin
Like Donald Trump, on certain matters our governments just listen to a very close
coterie of self-promoted advisers.
More >>
In Surrender Of Memory
Wednesday, 15 April 2026, 12:52 pm | Martin LeFevre – Meditations
By attentively letting go of psychological memory, the mind has the space and energy
to see and create anew.More importantly, beyond words there is direct awareness
of the transcendent actualities of beauty and love.
More >>
Making Sense Of The Opportunity Party: Ripples Or Wave
Tuesday, 14 April 2026, 6:12 pm | Ian Powell
The question is whether the enthusiasm generated by this political ripple (the Opportunity
Party) becomes a political 5%+ wave in November.If it does there will be an intriguing
new parliamentary dynamic.More >>
Printing Money To Finance This And Other Wars
Tuesday, 14 April 2026, 4:41 pm | Keith Rankin
‘Printing money’ is not a literal expression; actually printed (or photocopied) money,
counterfeit money, is illegal.
More >>
The Travails Of Noma: God Chefs, Brutal Kitchens And The Cult Of Fine Dining
Tuesday, 14 April 2026, 1:55 pm | Binoy Kampmark
As long as the punters seek the oddly named experience known as fine dining curated by titans of the kitchen, willing to pay astronomical amounts, the God Chef will continue to thrive.More >>
On The Rise And Fall Of Hungary’s Viktor Orban
Tuesday, 14 April 2026, 1:34 pm | Gordon Campbell
Why did Donald Trump, J.D.
Vance, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Vladimir Putin work so
hard to try and swing the election result in Hungary, a relatively poor country of
fewer than ten million people? More >>
A Change In The Weather #191
Tuesday, 14 April 2026, 8:06 am | Bruce Mahalski
The latest episode of Bruce Mahalski’s long-running cartoon strip A Change in the
Weather, originally published in the Otago Daily Times magazine The Weekend Mix.
More >>
Confront Power Per Se, Not Just The Powers That Be
Sunday, 12 April 2026, 4:38 pm | Martin LeFevre – Meditations
To end violence, including the violence of oppression and war, power must be deconstructed
and superseded by intelligence, not taken as an unchangeable aspect of human nature
and socio-political organization.More >>
Calling Out Health New Zealand For Intimidation Of Nurses
Saturday, 11 April 2026, 4:47 pm | Ian Powell
It is time for Health New Zealand to listen, learn and act by weaving, not intimidating.
It is also time to repair its damaged relationships with the nurses it employs and
benefits from.More >>
Ceasefire Exemptions And Quarries Of Death: Israel’s War On Lebanon
Saturday, 11 April 2026, 4:42 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The momentum is against Israel, however slow the turning.
More >>
Binyamin, Adolf, And Benito
Friday, 10 April 2026, 2:38 pm | Keith Rankin
While Nazi Germany is generally regarded as having been more extreme than the Fascist
State, the word ‘fascist’ has commonly been applied to the former National Socialist
regime of Germany.More >>
The Lebanon Conspiracy: Massacres, Negotiations, And A New Order
Friday, 10 April 2026, 9:25 am | Ramzy Baroud
The massacres create pressure.The negotiations create an alternative political pathway—one
that excludes Iran and reframes the conflict around disarmament and normalization.
More >>
Dunne’s Weekly: Pulled Punches Wise Diplomacy
Friday, 10 April 2026, 8:51 am | Peter Dunne
There is a fine line to tread between making the country’s position clear in US–Israel
military action against Iran, consistent with our independent foreign policy and
being overly belligerent in our language to the detriment of our wider interests.More >>
After Iran: Is This The Unraveling Of The US-Israeli Order?
Friday, 10 April 2026, 7:24 am | Ramzy Baroud
If Trump’s decision to pursue a settlement holds, and especially if it matures
into a permanent agreement between Washington and Tehran, then his long-constructed
vision of a “new Middle East” does not simply stall—it collapses.
More >>
Trump, Hegseth And The Language Of War Crimes
Thursday, 9 April 2026, 1:50 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Far from being unbecoming aberrations, these comments from Trump and Hegseth are
not out of character in the history of American warfare.
More >>
On Australia’s Failing R16 Social Media Ban
Thursday, 9 April 2026, 1:10 pm | Gordon Campbell
So that you can tell the grandkids, I hope you know where you were yesterday around
noon, for what US President Donald Trump called “one of the most important moments
in the long and complex history of the World.” More >>
Humans Don’t Matter To Cosmic Intelligence
Thursday, 9 April 2026, 11:27 am | Martin LeFevre – Meditations
See the earth and people anew every day.But living in terms of the known totally
impedes direct perception, stillness and insight.
More >>
The Gallows Law: Israel Moves Toward Executing Palestinian Children
Thursday, 9 April 2026, 10:51 am | Ramzy Baroud
Under Israel’s military court system, Palestinian children as young as 12 are prosecuted.
In practice, they are often treated as adults within a system that offers few safeguards
and operates with an extremely high conviction rate.More >>
Seven Messages – Can Israel Survive Defeat Without Setting The Region Ablaze?
Thursday, 9 April 2026, 7:49 am | Ramzy Baroud
Will Israel’s massacres be enough for Iran to declare that the US-Israeli camp
has violated the ceasefire?Or will negotiations proceed, despite the bloodshed in
Lebanon? The answer will shape the next phase of the war.More >>
Exploiting Useful Enemies: Ukraine In Hungary’s Elections
Wednesday, 8 April 2026, 1:38 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The Orbán project has been electorally successful but tends to create false gods
of exaggerated potency.The threat transmutes into a villainous figure one can almost
sympathise with.More >>
The Axis Nuclear Option In Light Of Japan 1945
Wednesday, 8 April 2026, 9:19 am | Keith Rankin
The author argues US-Israel ‘axis’ may use nuclear option on a city or some other
quasi-military site in the northeast of Iran, drawing on the 1945 Japan precedent.
More >>
On National’s Caucus Ructions
Tuesday, 7 April 2026, 12:17 pm | Gordon Campbell
In his tilt at the leadership last November, Chris Bishop plainly forgot Omar’s
excellent advice from The Wire: “If you come at the king, better not miss.” He’s
now paid the price.More >>
We Don’t Need To Leave The Planet To See And Feel The Earth
Tuesday, 7 April 2026, 11:48 am | Martin LeFevre – Meditations
From a scientific perspective, how could the earth and all the life on it emerge
from “a whole lot of nothing” anyway?
More >>
A Change In The Weather #190
Tuesday, 7 April 2026, 7:57 am | Bruce Mahalski
The latest episode of Bruce Mahalski’s long-running cartoon strip A Change in the
Weather, originally published in the Otago Daily Times magazine The Weekend Mix.
More >>
Understanding Cuba’s Health System Benefits New Zealand
Monday, 6 April 2026, 7:05 pm | Ian Powell
Ian Powell discusses the Cuban health system and how New Zealand’s system might
learn from it.
More >>
Omissions On A Cruel Trade: The Neglected Role Of African Slavers
Monday, 6 April 2026, 3:39 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The historical role of slavery in various African kingdoms is an extensive one, continental,
sprawling and international.
While there was demand in Europe and the Americas, there
were more than willing suppliers.More >>
Kohima Drive: A Street That Remembers A Distant War
Monday, 6 April 2026, 7:00 am | A.D.Paul
The fighting was brutal, intimate, and relentless.The Japanese forces attempted
to seize the Kohima ridge, a strategic high ground overlooking the vital road to
Imphal, where British and Indian troops were besieged.More >>
Food Time Bombs And Predicted Starvation: The Prospects Of A Hormuz Transit Deal
Sunday, 5 April 2026, 5:41 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Even if some arrangement spectrally reminiscent of the Black Sea Initiative was to
get off the ground and through the water, it would only haphazardly deal with a crisis
that is increasingly crippling for vulnerable global populations.More >>
A Contemplative Understanding Of Jesus
Sunday, 5 April 2026, 12:47 pm | Martin LeFevre – Meditations
The essence of the historical Jesus was forgiveness.
More >>
Who Will Pay Billions In Reparations To Iran? We Will
Saturday, 4 April 2026, 8:29 pm | Eugene Doyle
It is high time the “middle powers” stopped chattering and wittering on, and finally stood up for law over lawlessness, peace over war, and humanity over the military-industrial-tech complex.
More >>
Executing With Prejudice: Israel’s Death Penalty Law
Saturday, 4 April 2026, 7:05 pm | Binoy Kampmark
This bill is but the start of a series of measures signalling Israel’s intention
to further limit Palestinian resistance to its predations with punitive finality.
More >>
‘Torture And Degrading Treatment’ — The Case Of Dr.Abu Safiya And Gaza’s Broken Medical System
Saturday, 4 April 2026, 7:22 am | Ramzy Baroud
“Israel must release Dr.Abu Safiya and all healthcare workers,” said UN experts.
Israel should also release all Palestinian prisoners, lift the siege, and end the
genocide in its entirety.More >>
‘Macron – Whose Wife Treats Him Extremely Badly’: Trump’s Iran War Unraveling
Friday, 3 April 2026, 8:07 pm | Ramzy Baroud
Trump is not managing a war; he is managing its failure.
What cannot be won on the
battlefield is now being displaced onto allies, rewritten in real time, and stripped
of any remaining coherence.More >>
On World Aquatic Animal Day, Spare A Thought For The Fishes
Friday, 3 April 2026, 11:47 am | Bianka Atlas
Recognise them as the sentient individuals our law already says they are – not
as tonnes of biomass, not as ornaments, not as an afterthought.They have been waiting
long enough.More >>
The Exapted Human Brain
Friday, 3 April 2026, 10:41 am | Martin LeFevre – Meditations
The human brain, which is generating more and more fragmentation by using thought
unwisely, contains the capacity for insight beyond knowledge creation.Awakening
that potential will enable us to use thought, including AI thought machines, wisely.More >>
Dunne’s Weekly: A Prime Minister, Not A CEO
Friday, 3 April 2026, 9:39 am | Peter Dunne
Christopher Luxon’s comment to an apparently taken-aback Tova O’Brien on Breakfast
earlier this week, that he saw his role as “CEO of New Zealand”, shows how little
he has moved on from the days when he used to run an airline.
More >>.