Scoop Independent News

03/09/2024

Wellington.Scoop: by Gordon Campbell As far as the rest of the country is concerned, Wellington rarely has a Goldilocks moment. Central government is either too involved in telling people what to do, or not involved enough in responding to public needs. Talking of which, the chronic under-funding of the public health system by successive governments finally […]

As far as the rest of the country is concerned, Wellington rarely has a Goldilocks moment. Central government is either too involved in telling people what to do, or not involved enough in respondi...

31/08/2024

Wellington.Scoop: by Gordon Campbell Spring will soon be bringing cricket alive again in Wellington and to the Basin Reserve, the nation’s traditional home of cricket. Talking of which … the Black Caps are due to play a test match against Afghanistan between September 9-13, in India. So far, the biggest news story about this fixture has […]

29/08/2024

Wellington.Scoop: by Helene Ritchie Riding on a train in a little forest village in the Czech Republic, I emailed a Wellington City Councillor – one of the four who had stated their opposition to the sale of Wellington airport shares. That was early June. Why did I do this? Well, the Wellington City Council is always […]

Riding on a train in a little forest village in the Czech Republic, I emailed a Wellington City Councillor – one of the four who had stated their opposition to the sale of Wellington airport shar...

28/08/2024

Wellington.Scoop: by Cr Ben McNulty and Cr Diane Calvert Johnsonville Mall has been a focal point of discussion for decades. Yet, despite the chatter, tangible progress remains elusive. The mall’s history is marked by missed opportunities and poor decisions. Over a decade ago, a misguided plan change by the Wellington City Council aimed to safeguard inner-city […]

by Cr Ben McNulty and Cr Diane Calvert Johnsonville Mall has been a focal point of discussion for decades. Yet, despite the chatter, tangible progress remains elusive. The mall’s history is marke...

28/08/2024

Top Scoops: Beware The Derogators: The Geneva Conventions Turn 75

Better, it would seem, a world with the Geneva Conventions than one without them. What is needed, Policinski reminds us, “is not more or different rules” but “better respect for existing rules, something all states have a stake in.”

28/08/2024

Top Scoops: Anthropomorphism Is No Longer The Issue; Misanthropy Is

The misanthropic desire for the extinction of the human race, under the pretense of humility and the deconstruction of anthropocentrism, belies a deep disrespect for life and evolution.

27/08/2024

Wellington.Scoop: by Felicity Wong A political pantomime is playing out on The Terrace. In 1943 the Evening Post reported that Labour’s Housing Minister Bob Semple had purchased a two acre site which had been “for many years one of the beauty spots in the city” and had “an interesting history”. The site had two houses on […]

by Felicity Wong A political pantomime is playing out on The Terrace. In 1943 the Evening Post reported that Labour’s Housing Minister Bob Semple had purchased a two acre site which had been “f...

27/08/2024

Top Scoops: From Financial Illiteracy Smear To Understanding Healthcare Complexities; History Repeating Or Rhyming?

Ian Powell discusses the smearing of the Health NZ Board, the dual complexities of health systems, the relevance of the subsidiarity principle, and asks whether history is repeating or rhyming.

27/08/2024

Top Scoops: Gordon Campbell On How "fast Track" Steamrolls The Public Good

New Zealand has a habit of creating official posts – the Overseas Investment Office, the Banking Ombudsman, the Grocery Commissioner – as a sop to public concerns, but where the terms of reference guarantee that such posts won't interfere unduly ...

26/08/2024

Wellington.Scoop: by Stephen Olsen Talks and exhibitions that promote different aspects of social change, photography and architecture have been having a good run in Wellington this year. In recent weeks the annual Peter Turner Memorial Lecture was again coupled with the successful Photobook NZ Festival (held every two years) at Te Papa, the Friends of the […]

by Stephen Olsen Talks and exhibitions that promote different aspects of social change, photography and architecture have been having a good run in Wellington this year. In recent weeks the annual...

26/08/2024

Top Scoops: Mark Lynch, Probability And The Cyber Industrial Complex

It began as a devastating, confined storm off the coast of Sicily, striking the luxury yacht Bayesian in the form of a devastating water column resembling a tornado.

25/08/2024

Top Scoops: AI Will Liberate Us From Thought Or Completely Enslave Us To It

Why are humans petty creatures of thought when we can be noble human beings of awareness?

25/08/2024

Wellington.Scoop: by Diane Calvert The weekend newspapers presented a range of perspectives on local government, highlighting a story of contrasts following the Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s address at the Takina conference. In his speech, the Prime Minister emphasised the need to curb expenditure on non-essential projects, eliminate frivolous additions to basic services and ensure better access […]

The weekend newspapers presented a range of perspectives on local government, highlighting a story of contrasts following the Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s address at the Takina conference. ...

25/08/2024

Top Scoops: Warmonger Confessions: More Frankness On AUKUS

For those who hold the reins in Canberra, the march to war amidst the false sounding notes of peace is not only inevitable but desirable.

24/08/2024

Wellington.Scoop: by Stephen Olsen Setting type to poetry and poetry to type, one letter at a time, is a special way to mark National Poetry Day every August. It has become a tradition at the much-treasured Wai-te-ata Press snuggled under the Kelburn Library at Victoria University – Te Herenga Waka, coinciding neatly with the University’s Open […]

by Stephen Olsen Setting type to poetry and poetry to type, one letter at a time, is a special way to mark National Poetry Day every August. It has become a tradition at the much-treasured Wai-te-a...

24/08/2024

Wellington.Scoop: by James Barber Recently I’ve been learning more about my ancestry. Two families on my mum’s side, the Kanes and the Cates, joined together on the West Coast at the start of the 20th century. The Cates arrived with the New Zealand Company in the early 40s and the Kanes arrived towards the end of […]

by James Barber Recently I’ve been learning more about my ancestry. Two families on my mum’s side, the Kanes and the Cates, joined together on the West Coast at the start of the 20th century. T...

23/08/2024

Top Scoops: Apologists For R**e: The Sde Teiman Protests

The unit was also involved in a violent disruption at the Sde Teiman military base in the Negev desert, where detained Palestinians from the Gaza Strip had been subjected to various forms of torture and maltreatment.

22/08/2024

Top Scoops: Before The Bubble Bursts And The Wave Breaks

When a democracy begins to slide into fascism, only a reckoning with the darkness and deadness at its core that’s giving rise to despotism can arrest the degeneration.

22/08/2024

Wellington.Scoop: by Peter Dunne The water pipe which burst beneath Wellington’s Cambridge Terrace on Wednesday could not have chosen a better moment to do so. Not only did it cause massive traffic disruption, but also a loss of water pressure, and in some cases supply, to Roseneath and Mount Victoria. It was the last thing needed […]

The water pipe which burst beneath Wellington’s Cambridge Terrace on Wednesday could not have chosen a better moment to do so. Not only did it cause massive traffic disruption, but also a loss of...

22/08/2024

Top Scoops: Prolonging Genocide As A Smokescreen: On Israel’s Other War In The West Bank

While Israel is extending its failed military campaign in the Strip with no clear strategic objectives, its war on the West Bank is driven by clear strategic motives: the annexation of the West Bank and the ethnic cleansing of large sectors of the ...

22/08/2024

Top Scoops: Gordon Campbell On The Plague Of The Seymourites

David Seymour is like one of those American Televangelists. He is now building his own temple of bureaucracy...and it shall be known as the Ministry of Regulation and many regulations previously passed to protect the consumer, environment, and the ...

21/08/2024

Wellington.Scoop: by Lindsay Shelton Cost cutting? By the Wellington City Council? Last week’s announcement may have caused some surprise. “Cost cutting” was the council’s explanation of its decision to close its temporary library in Manners Street. But the council’s announcement gave no information about what costs were being cut or what amount was being saved. Did […]

Cost cutting? By the Wellington City Council? Last week’s announcement may have caused some surprise. “Cost cutting” was the council’s explanation of its decision to close...

21/08/2024

Top Scoops: Dunne's Weekly: Luxon's Tough Talk One-sided

Beyond that and arguably more worryingly, the government’s refusal to act also sends a clear message that at least so far as culture and heritage is concerned this government has no interest in upholding the well-being responsibility it is about ...

21/08/2024

Top Scoops: Violating The Sherman Act: Google’s Illegal Monopoly

Judge Amit P. Mehta of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia found that Google acted as a monopoly in its “general search” and “general search text advertising” markets and had breached Section 2 of the Sherman Act ...

20/08/2024

Top Scoops: Outremer In Palestine: Lessons From The Twelfth Century

If we see Israel as a settler-colonial proxy for its Christian patron, the United States of America, then the current events in the Holy Land can very much be understood as a post-medieval Crusade.

20/08/2024

Top Scoops: Price Of The CIA's Secret War In Laos

BANGKOK, Thailand -- U.S. Air Force Sgt. David Price, disguised in civilian clothes as a Lockheed employee, was operating a 'classified CIA' mountaintop navigation beacon in Laos for U.S. planes bombing Communist North Vietnamese troops when he ...

20/08/2024

Top Scoops: The Illegality And Immorality Of The Israeli Annihilation Of Gaza - A Thread By Ori Goldberg

It is illegal and morally corrupt to bring about such annihilation as 'collateral damage' incurred in 'the destruction of Hamas'. It is criminal and morally corrupt to continue to kill civilians after ordering their evacuation to 'safe zones' that ...

20/08/2024

Top Scoops: Chicago Authorities Want A “Conversation” With The Poor People’s Army About The DNC 2024

The Poor People’s Army has a permit to march to the steps of the Democratic National Convention in August, but now Chicago authorities want to have a “conversation” with them.

20/08/2024

Top Scoops: Federal Judge Rules Against Coalition To March On The DNC 2024

The coalition wanted to march for 2.3 miles on wide streets that pass alongside the convention center, but the city’s route confines them to 1.1 miles, largely on narrow streets and several blocks from the convention center.

20/08/2024

Top Scoops: Gordon Campbell On Why Workers Get Treated As Disposable

National is willing to waste time and money on supporting Act's Treaty Bill's first reading and sending it to a select committee – where more time and money will be wasted on public submissions and on committee hearings that are bound to receive ...