Free Republic

Tonight in Israel a parliamentary committee clearing the way for a vote next week... The Swedish Embassy in Baghdad stormed early Thursday morning. The building set on fire. No embassy staff have been hurt... More explosions in Odessa and Sumy in Ukraine tonight... The latest US military aid to Ukraine 1.3 billion dollars worth... n Auckland, New Zealand a deadly shooting attack...two killed, six wounded... Türkiye and the United Arab Emirates cutting deals worth 50.7 billion US dollars... "We insist that the US should abide by the one-China principle" China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning expressing opposition to plans by...

At least two people and an armed attacker were killed and six others wounded in a shooting in New Zealand's largest city of Auckland on Thursday, hours ahead of the opening match of the Women's soccer World Cup in the city. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said the soccer tournament would proceed as planned, adding the shooting appeared to be the actions of an individual and that police were not seeking anyone else in relation to the incident. "There was no identified political or ideological motivation for the shooting and therefore no national security risk," Hipkins said during a televised media...

Four New Zealand rugby players were critically affected mid-game. Two are in hospital, and two died. The Auckland Rugby Union said they were “unaware of the cause”, but inexplicably added, “We are fortunate that events of this nature are extremely rare” Maybe they should have used the past tense “were”? The events reported on the rugby field are tragic, but when unexpected health events are consistently way above historical levels over a period of two and a half years they can no longer be described as a series of isolated and unrelated tragedies. (snip) The events were reported as a...

The Kiwi government has instituted a trendy new social engineering project for Equity™ that consists of denying healthcare to whites because of White Supremacy™ or whatever.Via the New Zealand Herald:Auckland surgeons are now required to consider a patient’s ethnicity alongside other factors when deciding who should get an operation first.Several surgeons say they are upset by the policy, which was introduced in Auckland in February and gave priority to Māori and Pacific Island patients – on the grounds that they have historically had unequal access to healthcare.Health officials stress that ethnicity is just one of five factors considered in deciding...

y Henri Astier BBC News, New Zealand On a bright Sunday morning the wildlife-lovers gather in Miramar, a scenic peninsula. They are on an exterminating mission. Predator-Free Miramar aims to protect birds in this area of Wellington, New Zealand's capital, by ridding it of rats - every last one of them. After donning hi-vis jackets, the volunteers are handed peanut butter - ideal bait for rodents - and poison. Each is assigned a patch where they will check coil traps and toxin-laced bait boxes. "Good luck fellows," says Dan Coup, who leads the group.

A New Zealand high school maths teacher has had his teaching license cancelled for refusing to call his Year 10 student by her preferred name and pronouns. The New Zealand teaching council’s Complaints Assessment Committee charged the teacher with serious misconduct for not calling the student by a male name and he/him pronouns, a charge the teacher denies. “I have been accused of serious misconduct and deny this charge,” he wrote in his submission to the Teacher’s Tribunal (pdf). “On the contrary, I believe I would be guilty of serious misconduct and child abuse if I was to call the...

Well, this might not come as a surprise, but Netflix’s password-sharing crackdown already appears to be working in the US. According to the data analytics company Antenna (via The Wall Street Journal), Netflix saw a huge spike in subscribers in the four days after it notified users about its paid sharing policies on May 23rd. While average daily signups rose to 73,000 during this window, marking a 102 percent increase over Netflix’s previous 60-day average, Antenna says the streamer also added 100,000 subscribers on both May 26th and May 27th. That’s more subscribers than Netflix raked in once the covid-related...

At the risk of raining on the June parades, it’s timely to recall that transgender medicine is controversial for a reason June is LGBTQI+ Pride month. US President Biden has proclaimed it as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Pride Month. “We must support LGBTQI+ activists around the globe,” he declared. Around the world, the rainbow flag has been draped over buildings and streets. New York is hosting not one but eight Pride marches. To the consternation of the Vatican, even the US Embassy to the Holy See is displaying a flag. The most controversial of all the letters,...

A sweeping review into the country's electoral system is recommending the voting age be lowered to 16, a 3.5 per cent party threshold, and a public referendum on a longer Parliamentary term. An independent panel of experts has been considering public submissions on nearly every aspect of electoral law, commissioned by former Justice Minister Kris Faafoi in May last year. After 58 public meetings and more than 1700 submissions it is now reporting a swathe of draft recommendations to make electoral laws 'fairer, clearer and more accessible'. "There have been piecemeal changes to electoral law over many years, including some...

The New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs has released a consultation document containing proposed changes to censorship procedures. Read a sobering commentary by the Free Speech Union HERE. The proposals include the appointment of a chief regulator who will be empowered to decide whether online content – including social media posts – is “harmful.” To do so, he will be empowered to make up his own “guidelines” without the input of parliament. The proposals will also allow fines exceeding NZ$200,000 to be levied on those who don’t comply with his ideas. ... What Exactly Will the Regulator’s Draconian Powers Replace?...

New Zealand honey producers have lost their latest battle against Australian beekeepers to trademark the name manuka. In a decision published on Monday (May 22), the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand ruled that the term manuka honey cannot be registered as a certification mark in New Zealand. The certification mark was sought by New Zealand's Manuka Honey Appellation Society (MHAS). But the Australian Manuka Honey Association opposed the move, arguing that the word manuka honey is not sufficiently distinctive to be registered as a certification mark in New Zealand.

Organizers of a New Zealand hunting contest are pawing their way out of controversy after canceling an event that would have seen children 14 and under compete to kill the most feral cats. The North Canterbury Hunting Competition is open to both kids and adults, and aims to manage invasive species and raise money for local causes — specifically, a school and pool in the rural village of Rotherham. Last year, more than 250 children killed 427 animals, mostly possums, hares and rabbits, according to The Guardian. Organizers added a new category this year, announcing in a since-deleted Friday Facebook...

World New Zealand hostel fire kills at least 6 in fire chief's "worst nightmare" May 15, 2023 / 9:57 PM / CBS/AP A fire ripped through a hostel in New Zealand's capital overnight, killing at least six people and forcing others to flee the four-story building in their pajamas in what a fire chief on Tuesday called his "worst nightmare." Fifty-two people in the Loafers Lodge hostel in Wellington had been accounted for, but firefighters were still looking for others, said Wellington Fire and Emergency District Manager Nick Pyatt. He said they were called to the hostel at about 12:30...

After stepping down as leader of New Zealand earlier this year, Jacinda Ardern has revealed that she is swapping the rough and tumble of politics for a stint of quiet reflection within academia overseas, heading to Harvard University this fall under two fellowships. She was appointed to dual fellowships at the Harvard Kennedy School, the university’s school of public policy and government, according to a news release by Harvard. She will serve as the Angelopoulos Global Public Leaders Fellow, a program aimed at high-profile leaders transitioning from public service roles, and the Hauser Leader in the School’s Center for Public...

Former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern has announced she will join Harvard University as a fellow later this year.The prestigious Ivy League university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said in a news release that Ms Ardern had been appointed to dual fellowships. Ms Ardern served as prime minister of New Zealand for more than five years. She announced she was resigning from public office in January, saying she did not have "enough in the tank".

India has taken its first step towards liberating itself from dependence on the US dollar by buying oil from Russia in Indian rupees We have seen the continuous rise of the dollar since the First World War. After World War I, in exchange for supplies, the Allies began paying in gold to the United States, due to which America became the world's largest gold reserve. After the end of the war, various countries linked their currencies with the dollar and with this, the 'Gold Standard' ended in the world and thus the dollar became the world's most preferred currency. All...

A male weightlifter once dubbed "New Zealand's Strongest Man" applied last week to compete in a women's powerlifting competition. His intention was not to defeat women in the sport, but rather to discredit the notion that biological men don't have a physiological advantage over their female peers — an advantage which male transsexuals appear keen to simultaneously exploit and deny. Global Powerlifting Committee New Zealand has since denied Dale Shepherd's application, adopting new rules over the weekend that will preclude him from taking the stage to make his point. While Shepherd suggests the new rules are similarly "deficient," it appears...

It was only a matter of time before the Left arrested a former president of the opposition party. My field of study in graduate school was communism. As a fellow at the Russian Institute of Columbia’s School of International Affairs, I was, if I remember correctly, one of seven students in the entire university to major in what was known at the time as “Communist Affairs.” I cite this in order to make this point: In my wildest dreams, I never imagined what I was studying would ever apply to the United States of America, the freest country in world...

Despite everything we know about the deadly and ineffective nature of the COVID shots, our government recommends four booster doses for people as young as 6 months old. The shots have even been added to the child immunization schedule. Yet there is no protest whatsoever from the GOP establishment, including the biggest voice among them – Donald J. Trump. Just how radical is this? Even Australia – the poster child for COVID fascism – now only recommends the shots for the elderly and those with health risks. Perhaps it’s because the excess deaths down under have become too big to...

יוסף חדאד - Yoseph Haddad @YosephHaddad Don’t miss this! This video is proof of how anti-Israel organizations work and brainwash people around the world without regard to reality and without having any idea what the truth is...You have to see what happened when I arrived in New Zealand to the Palestinian club's booth at the University of Auckland... Watch! Credit - Perry Trotter Mar 7, 2023