The Breaking Views blog is administered by the New Zealand Centre for Political Research at NZCPR.com. The views expressed are those of the author alone.
John Kerry promises US won't cave to China to save climate agenda
In this newsletter:
1) China nixes US climate appeal over Uighur genocide claims
New York Post, 28 January 2021
2) Chinese warplanes simulated attacking US carrier near Taiwan
Financial Times, 29 January 2021
Moreover, he is confident his all-Maori team of advisers will not be taking race into account as they help to improve Oranga Tamariki’s care and protection of children.
Whether all members of the team got this message is another matter.
Matthew Tukaki (the bloke who sees nothing amiss in deriding MPs who raise questions that vex him as “baboons”) is chair of the new ministerial advisory group on Oranga Tamariki.
What's so special about businesses in the Cook Islands?
Well, they must have something worth preserving that our businesses here don't have. Their Prime Minister, Mark Brown, told Heather du Plessis-Allan on Newstalk ZB Drive last night that kind donors from this country are paying the Covid wage subsidy through until the end of March with support packages being planned by the Government there to go through until the end of June.
The kind donors are of course New Zealand taxpayers.
India to cut taxes to boost domestic fracking and oil drilling
In this newsletter:
1) Defying US sanctions and EU lawmakers, Russian ship lays Nord Stream 2 pipe in Danish Waters
New Europe, 26 January 2021
2) Biden bans new permits for drilling on federal lands, waters for one year
Fox News, 27 January 2021
A few ideas on how MIQ should be working. Currently, not only is it run badly, it’s not run to its full potential.
It’s run with fear as a driving force and fear limits your ability to think, excel and expand.
Firstly, the experts the Bakers and the Gormans are right. The fact they are virtually all in major centres is insanity, especially with the new strains.
Well we might have some cities like Christchurch basking in 35-degree heat today, but it's not quite the 40 degrees that some Sydneysiders are baking in.
Some NSW homes so hot, residents can barely cool them down, especially those on low incomes.
One resident was quoted as saying she ‘dreaded summer’ and had to wrap herself in a damp towel with ice cubes just to cool down. Which made me think about our new ventilation and insulation rules coming in here shortly for landlords.
COP26 in trouble as Boris Johnson's government split over new coal mine
In this newsletter:
I was talking to my brother last night. He was about to board his flight from LA to Auckland, he had his negative Covid test in his hot little hand, he sent me pictures of the airport all closed off. Red tape everywhere, barriers, closed doors, the Koru lounge closed, all the shops closed, even the travelators were cordoned off.
He said there was a mix of people in masks casually pulling them up and down to eat or use their phones, and others in full Hazmat suits. He was relieved he had his Covid test result back in time, and that it was negative.
Tiwai is a lesson in why this country in parts needs to get its act together.
The clue here is the balance of power - no pun intended.
Does Tiwai need Southland or New Zealand? No. Does Southland and/or New Zealand need Tiwai? Yes.
And in that is the clue as to why they’re not going anywhere.
German agriculture ministry wants EU carbon border tax for farming imports
In this newsletter:
For most of us, just surviving the virus would seem an achievement in itself and for that the Government can take credit - after all, that is the number one responsibility of any government when its people are under threat. But that responsibility is not a singular requirement of those who occupy the treasury benches - the other equally important role is to manage any crisis in a way that keeps us safe economically as well.
'Significant Media Bias During Cannabis Referendum’, imagine my surprise in seeing that headline after new analysis was carried out on how the media covered the lead up to the cannabis and euthanasia referendums.
A clear bias emerged in the coverage of the cannabis debate.
No kidding.
I was saying that all along, and it felt like I was talking to a brick wall. The media had an agenda and ran with it, and the worst part of that was the pretence that they were impartial, neutral, not taking a position. What a crock.
According to social media, the current zeitgeist, and the author of the runaway bestseller White Fragility, it absolutely is.[1] If you are “white,” and you disagree on any political issue with any person of colour, this is a sure sign that you are a “racist.”
Ok, then. Let’s take that same logic and apply it to other common situations:
Is it sexist for a man to disagree with a woman? Is it sexist every time a husband disagrees with his wife?
You might have noted over the holiday period one of the flags we raised before Christmas was not to get sucked in by the government who were, once again, playing us for fools when the heat in the housing market spilled over to the political world.
The politicians got embarrassed over the fact they'd banged on endlessly about affordable housing while in opposition, but in government and had done nothing about it apart from watch the prices go up, and up, and up.
So as a pre-Christmas distraction Grant Robertson wrote to the Reserve Bank Governor and made some noise about prices, in the vein hope that we'd all think that actually meant something.
I thought a lot over summer – as I’m sure many of us did, just how lucky we are to be able to get out and about, attend concerts and festivals, mingle with each other, travel around the place, eat out, conduct our normal lives.
I don’t think we take that for granted.
Especially when we see the pictures from overseas where countries still ravaged by Covid are locked down, shut, excluding people from daily activities.
But it’s a fine line isn’t it, between being grateful and aware of our privilege here, and being complacent.
China’s 2020 coal output rises to highest since 2015, undermining climate pledges
In this newsletter:
India to invest $55 billion in clean coal 'to become $5-trillion economy'
In this newsletter:
There’s nothing in the article to convincingly explain how current staff ratios adversely affect Pharmac’s job of buying medicines or how they actually undermine the nation’s health.
The drug-purchasing agency’s “appalling” shortcomings instead relate to concerns about cultural inadequacies, systemic racism and a failure to meet Treaty of Waitangi obligations.
Is John Kerry setting up Boris Johnson for COP26 flop?
In this newsletter:
1) Hundreds of Pacific Islands are getting bigger despite global warming
ABC News, 8 January 2021
Senate Democrats eye quick repeal of Trump rules
In this newsletter:
1) Control of US Senate allows Democrats to act on Biden’s climate agenda
CNBC, 6 January 2021
2) Senate Democrats eye quick repeal of Trump rules
E&E News, 6 January 2021
UK climate targets threaten up to 10 million jobs
In this newsletter:
Global hurricane activity trending downward over the last 30 years
In this newsletter:
1) European satellites reveal global wildfires declining since 2003
Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Even the most loyal Labour supporter would have to admit
it paints a very different picture of the Prime Minister and her bunch of
sycophants than the one available to voters of this mythical “Mother Teresa”
when they entered the ballot boxes last year.
The report in fact shows her to be the “Empress with no
clothes” .
Since entering tertiary education over 30 years ago, I have been active in both, but have veered more towards the latter activity, as a glance at the Publications section of my CV bears witness to.
My approach to research stresses the ‘science’ in ‘social science’: I treat social science research as an exercise in applied science – scientific methodology applied to social issues. This involves the collection of ‘hard’ quantitative data mostly directly from research subjects and processing it using analytical statistics.
Global hurricane activity below average in 2020
In this newsletter:
1) Scientists discover melting of Greenland ice sheet driven by geothermal activity
Tohoku University (Japan), 17 December 2020