A Labour Prime Minister, re-elected in Norway, despite trailing in the polls for most of this term in office . "This is a signal to outside Norway that Social Democracy can win, despite a right wing wave." www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

NOW: Māori AI & Data Sovereignty - embedding values in tech. Keynote by Dr Karaitiana Taiuru. According to #WAI262 and #TAI262 claimants, Artificial Intelligence is listed as one of the three catastrophises Māori face in 2024. #AI #DataSovereignty #LIANZA2025 #libraryconference #library

World News Day: The light we cannot lose - https://www.thepost.co.nz/world-news/360828624/world-news-day-light-we-cannot-lose - Details and more news at: https://nzccl.org.nz/news

I've seen the great historian Anne Gray Fischer say a few times that state violence is a permission structure--it gives an implied green light for civilians to attack the same targets as the state. It's the point at which "civilian" violence becomes "state-sanctioned" violence.

Once a proud forerunner in progressive foreign policy, NZ now shamefully lags behind Australia, Canada and those wretched old colonisers England and France who’ve joined over 150 countries in recognising the state of Palestine. #onetermgovt #nzpol #freepalestine

It's obviously true unless something unexpected happens, but a) the incumbent government needs to actually have *delivered for its coalition* to lead a republican front b) the leader needs to be a plausible leader of it and c) they do need to actually be able to say 'Vichy was bad'.

Otago University study finds firearms deaths cost NZ up to $321m a year

What if universities stood up for their faculty, students, and staff members the way that Hollywood rallied behind Kimmel?

Shameless Zionism and genocide apologists Act Party are almost certainly the reason for NZs laggard status on recognising Palestine. #onetermgovt

Come to New Zealand for a dose of exploitation, racism, unaffordable insecure housing, soaring food and utility prices and Ministers in the government who scream Immigrants go home and immigrants are problem to garner votes. #nzpol

I occasionally do things for NZ media like go on news shows or talk to journos for articles they're writing, but not anymore. The NZ media system is woefully inadequate and cannot respond to the seriousness of the moment. My contributions do nothing but maintain the illusion that it is adequate.

The only question I've heard on the radio this morning from the pro Israel lobby is "But how does Starmer's statement improve the position of the Palestinian people today? " It does the same as Martin Luther King "I have a dream" speech; it gives hope. That is what frightens them. Palestinian hope.

Welcome to Farage's UK, as promoted by a lot of the media and what is happening being ignored by the Government

New Zealand has a government led by moral degenerates. Whether it’s failing to take action on Palestine, or punitive policies against anyone but the ‘wealthy and sorted’ at home, the damage they’re doing is far reaching and will be hard to turn around.

3 experts discuss the question "How can we tell if #FOI laws are working in practice?" Join Toby Mendel of @law-democracy.bsky.social, Giovanni Esposito of Université Libre de Bruxelles & @mariazuffova.bsky.social of @eui-eu.bsky.social on Oct 2: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/putting-tr... #RightToKnowDay

This is great. Do please watch it.

It was obvious when EU citizens had the terms of their settlement here retrospectively revoked that a precedent was being set and that, in time, the argument would move on to other categories of migrant, always tending towards a purity test of who is ‘indigenous’. Unless resisted.

You can always telegraph what Luxon will do because he instinctively condescends. "It's not a race" ah fuck me Christopher I thought it might be a different kind of human activity maybe something geared toward preventing immanent and ongoing mass murdering of civlians

Signs we won't recognise Palestine: - Seymour said he won't & Luxon said it'll be a Govt position not an agree-to-disagree one - If we were going to, we would have announced today with UK/Aus/Can - Aus PM reacted to US pushback today saying Aus policy not decided in Washington *or Wellington*

Another big win for transparency. Right to Know has forced the release of data on the location of Ireland’s largest cattle herds. The Commissioner for Environmental Information said public interest trumps privacy claims. www.thestory.ie/2025/09/22/r...

The UK's 40 year ideological experiment of privatisation has failed A majority of the PEOPLE are against it but what about the POLITICIANS? Our new scorecard explains what the parties are saying and doing on public ownership 👇👇👇 weownit.org.uk/why-public-o...

The government is struggling and urgently needs some new ideas. This week’s letter to 99% members has some important suggestions. sh1.sendinblue.com/3g5z5z62bglp...

The hospital director, arrested and tortured by Israel, has just seen his brother and other family members killed.

I don't think it's wise of the Lib Dems to promote the idea that asylum constitutes a national emergency, justifying use of the Civil Contingencies Act. That Act bestows enormous powers on ministers, to be used only in "the most serious of emergencies". Would Davey want Farage having those powers?

"Denazification will be long and all-encompassing, touching every aspect of our collective life. ... But the process must begin now, with the refusal to commit the horrors taking place daily in Gaza, and the refusal to let them pass as normal."

Government: "we will withhold all our official email addresses to protect our privacy" Also Government: "We will release all submitter email addresses (or maybe just yours), because fuck your privacy". You'd almost suspect they wanted to discourage submissions or something.

That said, my spidey sense is that, despite the Cabinet Manual + coalition agmt, Seymour will speak publicly against the Cabinet decision, explicitly in his capacity as leader of ACT, without any formal agree-to-disagree arrangement. And the PM will be relaxed about that.

"When academics can't invoke settled patterns of far-right mainstreaming without hitting up against coordinated harassment campaigns sanctioned by elected officials, we've already lost something important." culture-centered.blogspot.com/2025/09/how-...

"I don’t know about you, but paying $180 million a year for a project that delivers an annual $63 million (or $79 million) in benefits doesn’t sound like a very good deal." Today's post: Matt does the numbers on last week's report from Infrastructure NZ: www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2025/09/22/g...

Recognition of Palestine is Not Enough, Sanctions Must Follow to Stop the Genocide. Read our full statement on Australian recognition of Palestine at: www.jewishcouncil.com.au/2025/09/jewi...

favor does NZ expect to curry from its supine obsequiousness and from who? Or are internal NACTFIRST politics and/or interest group lobbying steering its approach (against the advice of the diplomatic corps)? Either way, the position is untenable as well as indefensible.

Geoffrey Palmer’s warning - https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/09/22/geoffrey-palmers-warning/ - Details and more news at: https://nzccl.org.nz/news

Kmart broke privacy laws by scanning customers’ faces. What did it do wrong, and why? - https://theconversation.com/kmart-broke-privacy-laws-by-scanning-customers-faces-what-did-it-do-wrong-and-why-265576 - Details and more news at: https://nzccl.org.nz/news

Time for yet another in a long line of 'fossil of the day' awards for Shane Jones. Who needs to pull out of the Paris Agreement on climate change when you have a minister pushing the use of coal regardless?

Anyone shocked that Reform plan to deport immigrants with Indefinite Leave to Remain hasn’t been paying attention. Next it will be stripping citizenship from dual citizens, then deporting them. Who do you think Reform are? This. This is who they are.

I encourage you all to read this article. It sets out very clearly how intentional and concerning comments like Mooney’s are. NO sitting MP should be calling for the sacking of an academic in this way. #nzpol

Yet more centralisation of power - this time into the hands of an unelected official, the Government Chief Digital Officer. Centralising procurement of IT for government in their hands also means greater likelihood of bribery and corruption in procurement.

So, two things about this cartoon. First, it seems like it's encouraging NATO to start firing live munitions at Russia. Is that what people want? Second, the left hand side of this cartoon could equally apply to the situation in Gaza & the West Bank, but the right would need to show tanks & bombs.

How a National Party MP Weaponized Violence to Target Academic Criticism culture-centered.blogspot.com/2025/09/how-...

+1 to Sabina Schnell’s work: ruling parties go along with anti-corruption reforms because they believe they will be able to control the outcomes - to their detriment. Force Republicans to try to go along with anticorruption reforms. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

80 years ago the UN was founded on the spirit of peace through cooperation, human rights and a rules-based order. But the rules are being flouted, human rights ignored and cooperation replaced with economic and military force. 🧵

One of the amazing things about Tom Homan taking 50k is that Trump has made 3 billion off the presidency. Kushner made 100s of millions. Stephen Miller is invested in Palantir. JD is a made man in the PayPal mafia. But their top dog ICE man is bribing for 50k.

The Foreign Affairs Commission Committee has found that cuts to the FCDO “open the door to malign influence at the UN Security Council”. I wrote about these cuts in March for ⁦‪Byline Times bylinetimes.com/2024/05/01/f...

This is not good policy, nor targeted spending. It’s just a press release trying to distract people from the very real problems in health. Our health system needs real solutions and real funding - to properly support health workers across Aotearoa. Not more spin.

Lest we forget.

everything changed, everything destroyed, everything gone

Watch this. I strive to be this clear and effective. Best line — “A temper tantrum disguised as an ideology.”

I’m so sorry for not posting this with alt-text. This one has it.