New Zealand’s slide down the global corruption rankings has become so predictable it barely causes a stir. Tonight, Transparency International released its annual Corruption Perceptions Index, and New Zealand has dropped again: from 83 to 81, losing another two points and sinking to equal fourth alongside Norway. We are now eight points behind Denmark, which continues to sit comfortably at the top. Over the past four years, New Zealand has lost…
Frequent sexual fantasies are linked with neuroticism – a personality trait that could put you at risk of a range of physical and mental health problems – according to a study from Michigan State University, US. *Credit: Getty images* Researchers surveyed more than 5,000 US adults about their sexual fantasies and personality traits. The scientists used the Big Five framework, which is widely used in psychology to measure open-mindedness,…
Every society claims its emergencies are exceptional. History shows the opposite: emergencies are the preferred pathway for expanding power, because fear collapses resistance faster than force ever could. New Zealand’s COVID response must be understood not only as a public-health event, but as a **political precedent** — one that future governments will study carefully. The Old Rule: Emergency First, Accountability Later ### Emergency powers…
**Tucker Carlson and The Why Files** The people who run countries believe in the supernatural. It’s the main thing they believe in. Why do they try so hard to convince the rest of us it’s not real? AJ Gentile on giants, the pyramids and remote viewing. **Chapters:** 00:00 Why Does the Science Community Refuse to Admit When They’re Wrong? 04:10 What Do We Know About the Pyramids and Giants? 11:29 Why Would the U.S. Government…
Russia’s top diplomat said the late US financier’s crimes are “beyond comprehension” *A protester holds a picture of Jeffrey Epstein outside a New York courthouse. July 8, 2019. © Stephanie Keith / Getty Images* [RT] The decadent lifestyle of disgraced US financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his entourage is a testament to the moral decay of Western elites, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. Last …
Czech PM Andrej Babis is the latest official to accuse British ex-PM Boris Johnson of insisting that Kiev shouldn’t seek peace Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis has become the latest addition to a growing chorus of Western officials who are prepared to acknowledge the role Britain and the West played in sabotaging a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine in 2022, the terms of which were far better for Kiev than those being discussed in…
Member states should work on economic matters in small groups in the absence of unanimity, the European Commission president has said *European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. © Philipp von Ditfurth / picture alliance via Getty Images* [RT] European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has called for a mechanism that would further water down the European Union unanimity requirement – a key pillar…
The US Justice Department’s release of more than three million Epstein files (including 180,000 images and 2,000 videos) has blown the doors off the most protected social network of the late twentieth century. What these documents reveal is not just a catalogue of one man’s depravity. It is, as Helen Rumbelow wrote in The Times, like “taking the back off the world clock”, exposing how power actually works at the top of the Western world. And…
Many expected fireworks at Waitangi this year. In an election year, with the Government’s record on Treaty issues still fresh and raw, the annual commemorations looked set to be a battleground. Instead, the week turned out to be remarkably calm on the surface. And deeply fractured underneath. The real story of Waitangi 2026 wasn’t about Māori versus the Crown. It was about Māori versus Māori, and an opposition that seems incapable of getting…
For all the lives they ruined, the actual criminals have faced remarkably little in the way of retribution https://www.rt.com/op-ed/authors/robert-bridge/ https://www.rt.com/op-ed/authors/robert-bridge/ ***Robert Bridge** is an American writer and journalist. He is the author of 'Midnight in the American Empire,' How Corporations and Their Political Servants are Destroying the American Dream.* https://www.rt.com/op-ed/authors/robert-bridge/ …
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