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Source: Kiwibank Economics · ▪ Budget 2026 delivered no real surprises. As expected, set on the backdrop of a global uncertainty, the Budget revealed a short-term downgrade to the economic outlook. · ▪ A more uncertain global outlook didn’t seem to hinder longer term growth in Treasury’s forecasts. Indeed, a rebound is predicted that falls outside our own expectations. Inflation is forecast to peak at 4.0% in the June quarter of 2026, lower…

By Mike Hosking · I asked for the surplus to arrive sooner than previously forecast and, as though she was listening this time yesterday, the first words out of Nicola Willis' mouth were it will be a year ahead of schedule. · You can't ask for more than that. · That’s not an election year lolly, but I'm increasingly of the belief that a growing number of New Zealanders have got the message. · A growing number of us have been shaken into the…

Last year, in an extensive piece on the Eurasian Charter of Diversity and Multipolarity in the XXI Century, published by Russia in Global Affairs, I argued that external interference in the affairs of Eurasian countries has consistently prevented their successful and independent development. I traced this pattern from the Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)…

Mandatory military conscription of women in Estonia is only a matter of time due to an inevitable shortage of men in the future, the head of the country’s Defense Resources Agency (KRA) has said. NATO’s European members have pursued a major military buildup since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, citing what they describe as a Russian threat – dismissed by Moscow as baseless. Several states have reintroduced a mandatory…

As an inveterate leftie with an irrepressible intuitive sympathy for genuine, decent conservatives – that term excludes, obviously, gutless mainstream centrists – I am always looking for exemplars of this old and venerable political species. For one thing, they are much more fun to talk to than woked-out liberals, washed-out social-democrats, or hysterical warmongers of the German variety of (camouflage) Green. By Tarik Cyril Amar, a historian…

Vladimir Zelenksy’s decision to name a commando unit after Ukrainian Nazi collaborators is evidence that his country is “not ready to become part of the European family,” Polish President Karol Nawrocki has said. Under a decree signed on Tuesday, Zelensky granted the title ‘Heroes of the UPA’ – the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, the armed wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) – to the Special Operations Center North, saying the…

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for an “objective investigation” into a drone incident in Romania in which two people were injured. Moscow is ready to share its assessment if it is provided with either the debris of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or the data about it, he told journalists on Friday. A drone crashed into an apartment block in the eastern Romanian city of Galati near the Ukrainian border early on Friday. The…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the military to occupy 70% of Gaza, in violation of the US-brokered ceasefire deal between West Jerusalem and Hamas, which allows Israel to control no more than 53% of the enclave. The 2025 agreement, backed by a UN Security Council resolution, envisioned a phased Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in exchange for Hamas disarming and relinquishing control of the territory. Instead, sporadic…

Vladimir Putin calls out Western media on its hypocrisy as they turn a blind eye to the Starobelsk massacre that killed 21 civilians instead reporting on how Kiev produces drones. · Moscow says Western actors are using a drone incident in Romania to shift attention away from Kiev's lethal UAV strike on a Donbass college campus. · RT hears exclusively from Russia's Ambassador to Romania who says Bucharest is resorting to manipulative…

This week’s Budget confirmed what most New Zealanders already suspected. The government’s finances are tight, the deficit persists, and there is no pot of money waiting to be spent on the country’s problems. Dr Oliver Hartwich | Executive Director | oliver.hartwich@nzinitiative.org.nz · Just as well, because government spending never delivers growth or prosperity. The question is, what will? · While the reformers of the mid-1980s faced an…