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Donald Trump’s demand for a $500bn (£400bn) “payback” from Ukraine goes far beyond US control over the country’s critical minerals. It covers everything from ports and infrastructure to oil and gas, and the larger resource base of the country. · The terms of the contract that landed at Volodymyr Zelensky’s office a week ago amount to the US economic colonisation of Ukraine, in legal perpetuity. It implies a burden of reparations that cannot…

Walter Bolton, a 68-year-old Whanganui farmer, became the last person executed on 18 February 1957 in New Zealand. Convicted for the murder of his wife, Beatrice, he was hanged at Mt Eden prison following a controversial trial. · Beatrice’s tea had contained traces of arsenic, and, over the best part of a year, she had consumed enough to kill her. Investigators found traces of arsenic in water on the Boltons’ farm, and in Walter and one of his…

Microsoft has quietly severed ties with NewsGuard, a left-wing fact-checking outfit that has helped advertisers blacklist conservative media. · The move comes after US Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, launched an investigation into NewsGuard’s funding and influence, revealing its ties to USAID and its history of labelling right-leaning outlets as “unreliable” while giving favourable ratings to progressive publications. · Microsoft now…

It may not be to everyone's taste, but kombucha tea may be able to deliver the benefits of fasting, without the hardest part – the fasting itself. Researchers found that when the yeasts and bacteria from the fermented, sweetened tea colonized the gut, they altered fat metabolism, without any other dietary changes, resulting in lower fat stores. · At the center of these findings is the flora found in kombucha tea's SCOBY (Symbiotic Cultures of…

Former Prime Minister Helen Clark has slammed Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown for signing a partnership agreement with China without consulting New Zealand, calling it a “clandestine” move that has “damaged” relations. · The deal’s contents remain undisclosed, raising concerns over potential Chinese involvement in deep-sea mining and unsustainable debt. · Clark argues that under the Joint Centenary Declaration of 2001, Cook Islands…

Climate Change – Bullshit & Bluster · There was a February deadline from the UN under the Paris Agreement, to submit new emissions-reduction plans, yet of the 195 signatories to that agreement, only 13 submitted their climate action plans outlining emissions-reduction targets and strategies under that agreement. · While global powers like China, India, and the EU delayed or outright ignored the requirement, New Zealand lined up with just nine…

Destiny Church protests against a children’s drag event and Auckland’s Rainbow Parade erupted into a confrontation over the weekend, drawing condemnation from Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown, and Labour leader Chris Hipkins, and praise from supporters online. · Destiny’s Man Up and Legacy Sisterhood groups interrupted a drag queen’s science show at a Te Atatū library. Hours later, the same groups disrupted the…

You lean back from the dinner table, feeling like you physically couldn’t fit another bite in – but then someone offers pie and you just can’t say no. Scientists have now identified the neurons behind the “dessert stomach” phenomenon. · In a new study, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research gave mice the option to eat sugary snacks after a meal. Unsurprisingly, they dug in even when they should have been feeling pretty…

- A Finnish study suggests mental health conditions may spread among adolescents through peer influence, raising questions about whether the same applies to gender dysphoria. · - A Harvard analysis finds that only 0.1% of US minors diagnosed with gender dysphoria receive puberty blockers or hormones, despite over 3% of high school students identifying as transgender. If transitions are so rare, why has this issue dominated political debate? ·…

New Zealand suffered many test defeats at the hands of England’s cricketers before finally winning for the first time at Wellington’s Basin Reserve on 15th  February 1978. · By 2019 the two countries had met in 105 tests, with England winning 48 and New Zealand 11. Official cricketing contact with England began when the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) sent a team to New Zealand in 1906–07. Founded in 1787, the MCC is a private members’ club based…