Perspective with Ryan Bridge: Winston's right about one thing in this situation

Winston Peters has a point - but is making it terribly.

In fact, if you've been following what happened in the House yesterday, it doesn't actually make all that much sense. But the bit the media is focusing on is the part where Winston tells Green Party MP Lawrence Xu-Nan to "go back to your own country".

Perspective with Ryan Bridge: Why are the oil and gas companies scared to invest in us?

There are two ways to look at this oil and gas announcement today.

Aussie outfit EnZed Energy's been given the nod to go have a sniff around off the coast of Taranaki.

That's important because they're the first company to be given that right since the Ardern ban. But there's already talk online about the fact this was the only application. There was nobody else applying for this permit, and it's just to have a poke around.

Perspective with Ryan Bridge: What do the latest inflation numbers really mean for the 'squeezed middle'?

Nicola Willis will like the inflation number that's come out. More importantly, she'll like the story that number is telling.

Remember, her target audience is the squeezed middle. This is the battleground. This is the fight for the soft centre at the election: Labour versus National. These are the voters both parties are targeting.

Perspective with Ryan Bridge: Do we need a moratorium on data centres?

There's a bit of having your cake and eating it too when it comes to people who turn their noses up at these data centres.

The Greens are jumping up and down about them. Of course they are. They say they'll suck up power from the grid, push up electricity prices and create only a handful of jobs. That's the problem, apparently.

Ryan Bridge: Would we send our troops to fight the Houthis?

It's possible our defence force could send personnel to the Middle East to help stop the Houthis.

They're the group in Yemen, backed by Iran, currently firing drones and cruise missiles at Saudi tankers.

Ryan Bridge: Is our data safe with AI?

The more you read about these AI hacks, the less you want to know about them.

Basically, the short story is that there was an AI bot out there that went full Terminator. It hacked into another system, another AI system, without being told to do so, acting entirely of its own volition.

Ryan Bridge: The price of being a climate warrior

Chris Hipkins is floating the idea of an effective tariff on imported cement.

He reckons it could be a better way of dealing with our cement problem than $60-million in corporate welfare.

Ryan Bridge: We don't have the money for corporate welfare

A $60 million corporate welfare cheque for Golden Bay Cement is fixing a symptom but not the disease.

It's taxpayer money. It's not a loan – it's free money. Owner Fletcher Building has agreed, in return, to keep the thing open till 2040 and invest $150 million, phased over time.

Ryan Bridge: A billion-dollar Gamble on oil

New Zealand First wants to spend a billion bucks looking for oil and gas fields to make our country rich again.

Well, richer.

A bit more like the place our kids go to earn a living, Australia, who've pulled in $430 billion in mining royalties over the past decade alone.

Ryan Bridge: Is swearing really that bad?

Swearing. Most of us do it.

Unless you're a Bishop (or maybe they do it in private, too?).

Especially in New Zealand.

Ryan Bridge: Should we just ban kids' cell phones altogether?

Is banning smart phones for kids a dumb idea?

That would leave them with dumb phones, sans apps and the internet, just texts and phone calls.

Remember the old Nokia? Or Alcatels? They came in that weird light orangey-peachy colour and a purpley-blue.

Ryan Bridge: How much are political parties willing to borrow after a disaster?

Welcome to New Zealand... land of earthquakes, stormy weather and absolute natural beauty.

Another reminder overnight of how shaky these isles can be.

Hope everyone's alright this morning. It's always a bit hard to get back to sleep after a decent jolt and it sounds like you had one.

Ryan Bridge: We need to believe in our economy

We're cruising towards 2% growth off the back of these two bits of good news on the economy.

2% is not rocketing along but it's not stuck in a ditch, either.

And given the war and diesel and Trump, some (i.e. the government) might even say it's fantastic.

Ryan Bridge: National needs Labour's support on its social media bill

Where is National's social media bill at?

We know Seymour doesn't like it. Winston is apparently has reservations with the wording, though that's only according to Stuff, rather than the man himself.

Labour might need to step in and save the day by supporting it from across the aisle.

Ryan Bridge: We can't bash the RBNZ

The problem with bashing the RBNZ in real time is that nobody really knows how badly they might have cocked something until well after the cocking's happened.

There weren't many, though not none, chiding Orr for low rates until it was bleedingly obvious in actual data, and what Prince Harry would term 'lived experience', that prices were on the march.

Ryan Bridge: Banning and taxing won't solve the problem

This week the Tony Blair Institute warned Andy Burnham that you can't tax your way to prosperity.

Some of our politicians could use a similar lecture.

We have parties wanting new taxes to fund what is basically a Universal Basic Income, even though AI hasn't yet stolen the number of jobs they claimed it would.

Ryan Bridge: Democracy is a privilege billions still don't have

It was a weekend of big events. A wedding, a funeral, and a milestone birthday.

Congratulations, in that order, to America on its 250th anniversary, to Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce on their wedding, to those Iranians who suffered under the Ayatollah's rule, and to the All Blacks for beating France.

Ryan Bridge: Only hungry children should be feed by the state

The government's looking to 'move on' from free school lunches for every kid in a poor school.

David Seymour told me this week they're looking at making changes, potentially tightening things up.

Ryan Bridge: Should we care what the IMF thinks?

Don't you find it annoying when some economist or think tank or some 'group' comes to our country and tells us what they think we need to do to make it better?

There's the odd case where you'd want to listen. Former world leaders, current world leaders, banks who lend you money, rating agencies who dictate your cost of borrowing.

Ryan Bridge: Commerce will always find a way eventually

Good morning, and I really do mean, good morning.

Four months ago, war kicked off in the middle east. A year earlier the tariff war kicked off all over the world.

And yet today the following things are happening, regardless.