Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: US President attacks national drug buying agencies, Iain Lees–Galloway embraces his critics, and Greenpeace under fire for sweary voicemail. New Zealand could end up paying more for medicine after a proposal from US President Donald Trump. This story on Stuff (joint winner website of the year) has … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Kiwifruit workers debate and divide deepens, an admission that Kiwibuild might not involve actually building so many houses, and Trump pulls out of Iran deal. The shortage of fruit pickers and packhouse staff has morphed into a debate on migrant workers and unemployment in Parliament. One … Read more
Last night North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean president Moon Jae-in met for the first time, pledging a new era of friendship between the two countries. In today’s Cheat Sheet: is peace finally about to come for the people of Korea? What’s all this about then? The leaders of North and … Read more
In the new film Isle of Dogs, David Farrier says director Wes Anderson has produced his most artistic, political and detailed film yet. My introduction to Wes Anderson came back in 2001, when I rented The Royal Tenenbaums from Video Ezy in Tauranga. I was blown away by this utterly bizarre, beautiful thing I … Read more
The campaign launched by the US with France and UK is a breach of international law. These bombs will kill and maim more people, bringing irrevocable suffering to an already traumatised people, writes Green MP Golriz Ghahraman The harrowing reality of Syria’s war, with chemical weapons, a trapped civilian population and blocked UN security council, … Read more
Charlotte Grimshaw writes about the forces behind her new novel: “Trump, Putin, Kim Jong-un. The posturing. The bizarre hairstyles, the violence and cruelty. The narcissism…” May 2016, London We were staying in a small flat with a roof terrace. I typed sitting outside at a picnic table. I’d written pieces about Karl Ove Knausgaard … Read more
Podcast host, comedian and big-brained Brit Andy Zaltzman will be coming to New Zealand later this year for the comedy festival. He spoke to Alex Braae about politics, satire, and the game he can’t get enough of. “Half an hour later, the entire foundation of English civilisation had collapsed. It was the lowest point in … Read more
Facebook’s shares have taken a nosedive after something to do with data used by Cambridge Analytica. Confused? Here’s what it means, and what could come next. This piece was originally published on Radio NZ. Cambridge Analytica is a London-based consulting firm. It is under pressure over allegations it uses illegally obtained data and social media manipulation to … Read more
Matamata-born Chris Liddell has been given a top job by US President Donald Trump. But how does he fit into the long list of Trump’s hires, fires, triers and liars? Chris Liddell was already doing pretty nicely for himself when the call up came. White House chief of staff John Kelly had picked him out … Read more
Earlier this week the Spinoff visited the prime minister at her Auckland home for a wide-ranging interview. So wide-ranging, not all of it made the cut. Below, Jacinda Ardern on Winston Peters, the arts, sexism in politics, Auckland, and Donald Trump Jacinda Ardern on working with Winston Peters “It had always been said to me, … Read more
As America marks one of their greatest orators on Martin Luther King Day, Christine Ammunson looks back on her trip to Georgetown University for the World Speechwriters Conference in October. As I hopped into an Uber, I reflected on an extraordinary week at the World Speechwriters Conference hearing from writers and strategists who’d served US presidents … Read more
In purporting to deliver a disinterested appraisal of the US president’s first year, Heather Du Plessis-Allan creates a perfect storm of misinformation, argues Branko Marcetic. A lot of people will hate the column in yesterday’s Herald on Sunday column, which purported to explain “why Trump’s first year hasn’t been that bad”, for a lot of … Read more
No one has ever produced a political exposé quite like Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, writes Danyl Mclauchlan. Journalists are supposed to protect their sources. But not all sources deserve to be protected and the best journalism, Janet Malcolm famously observed in The Journalist and the Murderer, often comes from … Read more
Alex Casey delves into the endless relevance of The Handmaid’s Tale, available exclusively on Lightbox. This story was originally published on June 8, 2017 I first encountered The Handmaid’s Tale during high school English. They were simpler times, when you could buy three full size (!) Moro bars for $2 at the tuck shop, and the world didn’t … Read more
In July, US Ambassador Scott Brown had what he probably thought was an interview scheduled with Kim Hill. What actually ensued was a brilliantly shady media boxing match. Sam Brooks gives his play-by-play. My prevailing memory of Kim Hill is from something I once taped on One, back in the dark ages where you would tape … Read more
The New Zealand PM has dismissed reports that the American president confused her with the Canadian prime minister’s spouse. Such is the torrent of malapropism, muddle and casual offence that flows from the mouth of the US president, it would hardly be a surprise if Donald Trump’s response to seeing Jacinda Ardern at a leaders’ … Read more
Radical populism arises on the left, the right and in the centre. In this essay, from the newly published Journal of Urgent Writing, Simon Wilson makes a radical proposal for New Zealand. It was a time when New Zealand was sick of being New Zealand. It was the 1980s, a high old time, a time of … Read more
Danyl McLauchlan reviews the new election memoir by baffled sore loser Hillary Clinton. What did Hillary Clinton do after losing the election to Donald Trump? Pretty much what you’d expect: she cried; she prayed; she read books and poems (inevitably by Maya Angelou); she watched movies with her husband; did yoga with her personal instructor; … Read more
Donald Trump’s increasingly bellicose threats against North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un are raising fears of all-out war. But if the worst happens, which way will New Zealand jump? Victoria University professor Robert Ayson considers the options. Many of us are thinking, or at least hoping, that Donald Trump is bluffing when he implies that violence is … Read more
In an interview on RNZ, foreign policy expert Van Jackson used a coarse term to describe US president. But it was neither a gaffe, nor emotionally motivated, he explains If you do enough media interviews, you’re bound to gaffe. We sometimes say things when we’re on the spot that we later regret, or that we … Read more
A New York Times feature on the new breed of Washington lobbyists lays bare the weird connection between the New Zealand embassy under Tim Groser and Robert Stryk, a Trump-connected political player. Catherine McGregor explains. The night of 20 January was a massive one on Washington DC’s party circuit, as Republican politicians, lobbyists and assorted hangers-on thronged … Read more
Helen Clark’s ill-fated bid for the top job at the UN is documented with extraordinary proximity and passion in My Year with Helen. Alex Casey sits down with the former NZ prime minister and director Gaylene Preston, in an empty foyer at the movies, to discuss the shit that happens. Of all the firm handshakes … Read more
Global warming is a fact, it’s caused by humans, and it’s going to change our world. Oh, and one more truth: you may never be able to convince your libertarian, climate change-denying uncle otherwise. Dave Hansford explores the psychology of denial. The annals of inaction — the long, sorry history of human inertia — are … Read more
What’s the best response to the threat to political norms – and, some say, to democracy itself – posed by President Donald Trump? According to the NZ-born, New York-based political philosopher Jeremy Waldron, it’s civility, reason and restraint. Max Rashbrooke talked to him during a recent visit back home. If the world is going to … Read more
The spectre of war with Kim Jong-un is back in headlines after a rhetorical exchange that has included Donald Trump threatening “fire and fury”. How serious are the threats from Pyongyang, and what does it mean for New Zealand, asks Asia-Pacific expert Van Jackson This is how they say people fall asleep, or fall in … Read more
Over the weekend, US Ambassador Scott Brown had what he probably thought was an interview scheduled with Kim Hill. What actually ensued was a brilliantly shady media boxing match. Sam Brooks gives his play-by-play. My prevailing memory of Kim Hill is from something I once taped on One, back in the dark ages where you would … Read more
On Megyn Kelly’s new show Keith Morrison delivers a high-gloss paean to New Zealand, where US citizens are apparently flocking following the demise of the American dream. Branko Marcetic tunes in. When former Fox News-host Megyn Kelly put out the third episode of her new NBC show, most probably expected they’d direct their outrage at … Read more
Crowds in Wellington today were seen raising their middle fingers at the motorcade carrying the American secretary of state. We’d like to take the opportunity to say sorry. Donald Trump’s diplomat-in-chief was in the New Zealand capital today, and it welcomed him with grey skies and blustery rain. We’re sorry about that, Secretary Tillerson. This is … Read more
With secretary of state Rex Tillerson in New Zealand on Tuesday, Bill English and Paula Bennett have a chance to strongly condemn the dereliction of international leadership in quitting the Paris deal – and to use the occasion to galvanise action here, writes climate scientist James Renwick This morning we heard President Donald Trump formally state … Read more