All articles

**Fact Checking the Bullsh-- Claims** **Maori are Indigenous to NZ:** **The** **Cambridge dictionary definition of indigenous** is as follows: **Indigenous:-** **Adjective:** *Used to refer to, or relating to, the people who originally lived in a place, rather than people who moved there from somewhere else:* *Used to refer to plants and animals that grow or live naturally in a place, and have not been brought there from somewhere else:*…

Google is eliminating hiring goals tied to diversity, becoming the latest tech giant to scale back DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives amid political pressure from President Donald Trump’s administration. The company confirmed it is reevaluating its DEI programs but insists it remains committed to workplace equity. Following the 2020 George Floyd protests, Google pledged to increase leadership representation of underrepresented…

On the evening of 12 February 1909, the Union Steam Ship Company passenger steamer Penguin left Picton for Wellington in fine weather. Conditions quickly deteriorated as the Penguin reached Cook Strait. As the weather closed in, familiar landmarks disappeared. Unable to see Pencarrow light, Captain Francis Naylor set a course to steer clear of danger. After changing course again to ride out the storm, the ship struck rocks and began to sink in…

Langen Motorcycles last made waves back in 2023 with the Lightspeed, a limited edition naked capable of a face-melting 185 bhp. It's now set to take things up a notch by turbocharging the heart of that beast to summon 300 thundering horses – with a view to make it the 'world's fastest production motorcycle.' Citing turbo-equipped legends from the 80s like the 100-hp Honda CX650 and 112-hp Kawasaki GPZ750 as inspiration, the Manchester-based…

Fact-checking has gone out of fashion, at least for much of the social media 'broligarchy' — that billionaire tech group typified by Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg and X's Elon Musk. Zuckerberg announced earlier this year that Meta had disbanded Facebook and Instagram's independent fact-checking programme. Meta will instead use a form of Community Notes, similar to that introduced by X after owner Musk dumped third-party fact-checking when he…

In a blistering letter to senior health leaders, Federal MP Russell Broadbent has accused the Australian government of wilful blindness over mounting evidence of DNA contamination in Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines. Broadbent slams the government’s repeated failure to engage with compelling scientific findings, instead offloading responsibility to officials lacking the necessary expertise. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Health Minister…

Scientists have found a rare Einstein ring in “our cosmic backyard” using images from the Euclid space telescope. The discovery, revealed in the journal Astronomy And Astrophysics, is of a circle of light created by gravitational lensing around a galaxy 500 million light years away called NGC 6505. This ring is made up of light from another galaxy 4.42 billion light years away and what can be seen from Earth is distorted by gravity. The…

Delicious, crunchy, cheap. Apples – you can’t beat them. Despite strawberries, grapes and bananas topping the polls as a favourite fruit, it’s the apple that is found most frequently in our shopping baskets. And it’s for good reason. “Apples are a nutrient-dense fruit,” says Nichola Ludlam-Raine, a nutritionist and author of How Not to Eat Ultra-Processed. The fruit bowl favourite is full of antioxidants to enhance our heart health and…

No businessman has ever wielded as much political power as Elon Musk and he hasn’t had to get elected, or even be approved by Congress. But while Musk’s Doge team rips through the Washington swamp, uncovering waste and corruption, he should perhaps be paying attention to business closer to home. Tesla is in trouble. Sales have crashed 50pc in Europe compared to last January. In China, its largest market, sales fell 11.5pc in January. The…

Two weeks ago the world commemorated the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. In the years since 1945 the images of the inmates have become part of the fabric of history, documenting the evil of which some of our species are capable. We may now be used to seeing them, but the pictures of starved, emaciated bodies, barely more than skeletons, have never lost the power to shock. As a former editor of the Jewish Chronicle, I have had…

A landmark lawsuit against Merck is underway in a Los Angeles courtroom, marking the company’s first jury trial over claims it misrepresented the safety of its highly profitable Gardasil HPV vaccine. Newly declassified documents in the trial have revealed troubling details about Merck’s failure to conduct key safety tests. Internal emails reveal that Merck knew its Gardasil vaccine was contaminated with HPV DNA fragments from the vaccine's…

While we've seen antibacterial wound dressings before, Italian scientists have taken the idea to new extremes. They've created a material that kills multiple types of harmful bacteria, and it does so using tiny flowers. If you've never heard of nanoflowers, they're microscopic structures made up of nanosheets of material which self-assemble into three-dimensional clusters. The "petals" of each flower pack a huge amount of surface area…

A recent article in the online journal Aleteia (“Cimabue, the genius Italian painter eclipsed by Giotto”) highlighted the whole issue of the fickleness of fame. Such is Giotto’s giant stature that his eclipse of Cimabue from the limelight of history is almost total. Nowhere is this evident more bluntly and graphically than in the title of Michael Levey’s celebrated work on art history: From Giotto to Cézanne: A Concise History of Painting. It…

Able Seaman William Edward Knowles became one of the first New Zealanders to die in the First World War as a result of enemy action, following an ambush by Ottoman forces outside Alexandretta (İskenderun) on 8 February 1915. The New Zealand Expeditionary Force had suffered its first combat-related death just three days earlier, when Private William Ham succumbed to wounds received during an Ottoman raid on the Suez Canal on 3 February. The…

Farmers and industry leaders have written an open letter to Science Minister Shane Reti, warning that cuts to AgResearch’s science teams could have serious consequences for farm productivity and animal welfare. The state-owned research institute, focused on scientific research to support the agricultural sector, is axing 40 positions. Its entire parasitology team is being shut down—despite its globally recognised work on drench resistance…

David Harvey of The Halfling’s View notes that NZME’s restructuring of the New Zealand Herald will prioritise engagement metrics over traditional journalistic values. Editor-in-chief Murray Kirkness confirmed that the newsroom will publish fewer stories, cutting those that fail to “resonate” with audiences. According to Harvey, this means newsworthiness will take a backseat to digital metrics such as page views and video engagement. …

Te Pāti Māori wants a new Te Tiriti o Waitangi commissioner with the power to veto parliamentary decisions. Co-leader Rawiri Waititi says the policy is a non-negotiable demand in any post-2026 coalition talks. He claims such a commissioner would have blocked ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill, currently in committee. ACT leader David Seymour says the proposal would “break democracy,” while Labour and the Greens remain open to discussions on…

For the British it was the costliest day of the New Zealand Wars – but it occurred far from the battlefield. Bringing naval stores from Sydney, the modern 1706-ton steam corvette HMS Orpheus ran aground on the bar at the entrance to Auckland’s Manukau Harbour on February 7th, 1863. Of the 259 naval officers, seamen and Royal Marines aboard, 189 died. In terms of lives lost, it remains New Zealand’s worst maritime disaster. The disaster was…

A new study has found that eating between one and six eggs each week significantly reduces the risk of dying from any cause but particularly from heart disease – even in people who have been diagnosed with high cholesterol levels. Whether eating eggs is good for you is something that has been debated for decades. That they’re packed with beneficial nutrients, including high-quality protein, is offset by the frequently cited concern about…

Acute respiratory infections are a serious public health concern across the world.  Every year, around 13 million children under the age of five die from these infections. Unsurprisingly, a majority of them – 95 per cent – are from developing nations; acute respiratory infections are responsible for one-third of all deaths.  One among a host of viruses causing these infections is Human metapneumovirus (hMPV), which has been in the news…