Dr Jake Scott: The Bear Looks East

Russia’s economic realignment leaves Europe in the cold.

As the eyes of the world watch negotiations over Kiev’s future, and the “special military operation” that was intended to last ten days nears the end of its fourth year, Russia is carefully deepening its economic ties outside of the West’s sphere of influence.

Emmanuel Rincon: Sanctions Didn’t Destroy Venezuela’s Economy — Socialism Did

In recent weeks, the debate over Venezuela has intensified, largely due to the military pressure that the Trump Administration has placed on Maduro’s regime. This has led various political figures, journalists, and analysts to revisit Venezuela’s recent history and the causes that drove the Maduro regime to provoke the worst economic collapse ever recorded in the Western world — an 80 percent GDP contraction in less than a decade. The crisis becomes even more shocking when considering that Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves.

John MacDonald: What a bunch of pushovers we are

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. We are the People’s Republic of Pushovers.

This time, we’ve been pushovers over this apparent cyber-attack on Parliament and spying on our politicians by China.

It happened two-and-a-half years ago, but it was only yesterday when we heard about it. It was something of a staged announcement with the United States and Britain, which were also targeted.

Mike's Minute: Why are we surprised about China?

It was hard to watch the China spying coverage yesterday without wondering what all the fuss was about.

It had an air of breathlessness about it, as though this had come as some sort of surprise.

Does the fact China spies on people honestly come as news to anyone? I guess hacking, as the PM suggested, is new, but spying and hacking... it's all nefarious skulduggery, isn't it?

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 22/7/23

Mahuta aims more missiles – of the sanctionary variety – at Putin and his cronies

Was that wincing we heard from the Kremlin?

Probably. It would have been triggered by the news being communicated to Vladimir Putin that Nanaia Mahuta has announced a new tranche of 23 sanctions as part of New Zealand ongoing response to Russia’s illegal and unjustified assault on Ukraine.

Point of Order: Clark has a new Bill to back up his threats to supermarkets

Who will blink first – Russian oligarchs or Kiwi duopolists?

We ask because our government has further tightened the thumbscrews on both.

It has introduced a bill to crimp the powers of the supermarkets in this country and it has imposed further sanctions to express this country’s disapproval of Russian and Belarusian military action in Ukraine.