Right now, our most fiery national debate is over whether New Zealanders were nice to the singer Amanda Palmer in a cafe. Desperate to restore peace in our nation, Hayden Donnell went in search of the truth. Joe Biden had barely finished calling for unity when Amanda Palmer posted a tweet that split New Zealand … Read more
With violence erupting in Washington DC this weekend and Covid-19 sweeping the nation, you could be forgiven for thinking the United States is descending into utter chaos. Justin Latif got in touch with a few mates to see if this really is the case. Following Joe Biden’s US presidential election victory and then Donald Trump’s … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for November 17. Reach me on stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 7.00pm: The day in sum There were four new cases of Covid-19 in managed isolation Act leader David Seymour called on Chris Hipkins to apologise after the Covid-19 response minister labelled Taiwan an “authoritarian regime”. Taiwan is a multi-party democracy. The government … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for November 16. Reach me on stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 4.10pm: Masks mandatory on Auckland public transport and domestic flights nationwide From Thursday morning, masks will need to be worn on all public transport in Auckland, in and out of Auckland, and on domestic flights throughout New Zealand, Covid-19 response minister Chris … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for the weekend. Contact us on inof@thespinoff.co.nz Sunday November 15 7.00pm: Regional trade pact signed The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) has been agreed in a virtual ceremony with 15 national signatories from the Asia-Pacific region –the 10 members Asean, plus China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. India … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for November 13, covering all the latest New Zealand news, updated throughout the day. Reach me on stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 3.20pm: The full list – Ministry updates Covid-19 ‘locations of interest’ The Ministry of Health has updated its Covid-19 locations of interest, and is asking anyone who was at the Auckland … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for November 12, covering all the latest New Zealand news, updated throughout the day. Reach me on stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 8.40pm: All Auckland University exams tomorrow to be online Auckland University has announced that following the community Covid case reported today, all exams scheduled for tomorrow, Friday November 13, on central … Read more
A new social media platform that keeps censorship to a bare minimum has taken off in the wake of Donald Trump’s election loss. So what is this thing? You’ve quite possibly never heard of Parler, the new app taking the free speech world by storm. But in the United States it’s top of the app … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for November 11, covering all the latest New Zealand news, updated throughout the day. Reach me on stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 7.00pm: The day in sum The Reserve Bank of New Zealand announced a new funding for lending programme will be rolled out next month. The impacts of Covid-19 on Auckland Council … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for November 10, covering all the latest New Zealand news, updated throughout the day. Reach me on stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 7.30pm: The day in sum There was one new case of Covid-19 in managed isolation. Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced a breakthrough on a Covid-19 vaccine, with early trials suggesting it protects … Read more
David Farrar (not Farrier) is a pollster for the National Party. Today, he’s being tweeted by Patricia Arquette. Stewart Sowman-Lund talks to New Zealand’s newest celebrity. Updated with tweets by Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Right-wing blogger, commentator and the head of Curia Market Research, David Farrar, has been flung from the safety of New … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for November 9, covering all the latest from the US election along with New Zealand news, updated throughout the day. See the latest results on an interactive US map here. Reach me on stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 7pm: The day in sum Four new cases of Covid-19 in managed isolation were announced. … Read more
Yesterday’s celebrations over Donald Trump’s election loss were a rare moment of unalloyed joy in what has been a miserable year. But the happiness was tempered with fear for a bitterly divided nation, writes New York-based New Zealander Tess McClure. It is 11.31am when Harlem erupts. Down the street, I hear a woman scream. A … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for November 7-8, covering all the latest from the US election along with New Zealand news, updated throughout the day. See the latest results on an interactive US map here. Reach me on jihee@thespinoff.co.nz 8pm: The day in sum Joe Biden was declared the next president of the United … Read more
The Democrats started this week high on hopes for winning Senate elections up and down the map. It didn’t quite work out that way, as Catherine McGregor explains. Hooray! President Trump is about to be booted out. That means things are going back to normal, right? Not so fast. There’s no doubt a Biden presidency … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for November 6, covering all the latest from the US election along with New Zealand news, updated throughout the day. See the latest results on an interactive US map here. Reach me on stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 8.10pm: Auckland quarantine worker tests positive for Covid-19 A worker at the Auckland quarantine facility … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for November 5, covering all the latest from the US election along with New Zealand news, updated throughout the day. See the latest results on an interactive US map here. Reach me on stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 6.30pm: The day in sum The US election remained on a knife-edge, with Joe Biden’s … Read more
Win or lose, the shame of Donald Trump’s presidency will be a stain on the United States for years to come, writes former New Zealand prime minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer QC. Since the election of Donald Trump as President in 2016, the United States has endured much political agony. The election of 2020 does little … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s US election live blog: election news, analysis and reaction, updated throughout the day. See the latest results on an interactive US map here. Reach me on catherine@thespinoff.co.nz. 9.45pm: And that’s a wrap, for now With most of the United States fast asleep and much of the vote counting halted for the … Read more
Most New Zealanders have a view on whether Donald Trump or Joe Biden should win the election this week. But why should we care, exactly? Former United States ambassador to New Zealand David Huebner has a few ideas. While talking with attendees after a Marine Band concert in Porirua in 2012, I was approached by … Read more
It could be days or even weeks before we know the full outcome of the US presidential election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, and it’s likely to be complicated. Here’s when we might start getting answers. When is the US presidential election? Officially, the election date is November 3, which is a Tuesday in … Read more
It’s normal to feature two different perspectives discussing a major US political set piece. Yet this morning RNZ’s flagship Morning Report hosted two unabashed Trump acolytes ahead of the final debate. At 2pm New Zealand time, the final debate between president Donald Trump and his challenger, Joe Biden, takes place in Nashville, Tennessee. It’s Trump’s … Read more
Less than 30 days out from the US election, what happens if Trump’s condition worsens – or he dies? A former member of the office of the White House chief of staff explains how the line of succession works. Since Donald Trump was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for Covid-19 treatment on … Read more
Summer reissue: The candidates to tackle Donald Trump are very keen on the New Zealand prime minister. This post was first published 12 November, 2019. It could be because Vogue called her “the anti-Trump”. It could be the desperate shortage of tolerable left-leaning leaders in the Anglosphere. Or it could be because everyone knows it’s … Read more
Early on Thursday NZ time, the Trump impeachment inquiry kicks into high gear, as the previously closed-door proceedings are replaced with televised public hearings. Here’s the lowdown. What’s about to happen? Just over seven weeks since Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced an impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, televised hearings are … Read more
The candidates to tackle Donald Trump are very keen on the New Zealand prime minister. It could be because Vogue called her “the anti-Trump”. It could be the desperate shortage of tolerable left-leaning leaders in the Anglosphere. Or it could be because everyone knows it’s illegal to be mean about people from New Zealand. Whatever … Read more
Practical steps to take right now if you’re appalled at the news coming out of the United States. This article was originally published in June 2018 and has been updated with current information. From the far side of an ocean, we in Aotearoa are still watching, horrified, as human rights abuses unfold in real time … Read more
Today, longtime Time photographer Callie Shell releases a book of intimate images taken over more than a decade she spent photographing the Obamas. Hope, Never Fear is not a love-fest, she insists: “it is, instead, my personal portrait of a journey that changed us all for the better.” Here is the book’s introduction, abridged. I … Read more
If Donald Trump believes yesterday’s release of the long-awaited Mueller report is the end of his troubles, he’s in for a rude awakening, writes a former investigator into Reagan’s Iran-contra scandal. The release on April 18 of a redacted version of the Mueller report came after two years of allegations, speculation and insinuation – but … Read more