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In politics, authenticity is currency — and in an election year, credibility can matter more than policy detail. As Opposition Leader Chris Hipkins delivered his State of the Nation address, questions lingered not just about Labour’s direction, but about its record in government and whether voters feel they’ve heard true accountability. Veteran broadcaster Duncan Garner has offered a sharp and provocative take — imagining the speech he believes…

New Zealand’s first National Infrastructure Plan, released last week, has already produced a flurry of headlines about leaky hospitals, mouldy barracks, tolled bridges and unaffordable mega-roads. It deserves that attention. But for my money, the most important thing written about the plan so far is Danyl McLauchlan’s Listener column this week, “All pitch, no policy”, which slyly turns the report into a takedown of how our whole political…

Budapest has ordered units to guard critical infrastructure sites in areas bordering Ukraine amid the Druzhba oil pipeline standoff · Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. ©  Getty Images / Janos Kummer · [RT] Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has ordered military units and additional police to guard energy infrastructure sites in his country’s east, citing the threat of potential Ukrainian attacks. · Orban announced…

The Russian president has outlined plans to develop the bioeconomy at the Future Technologies Forum in Moscow · Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a plenary session of the Future Technologies Forum in Moscow, Russia on February 25, 2026. © Sputnik / Evgeny Biyatov · Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed joint bioeconomy projects with other BRICS nations, positioning the economic bloc at the forefront of…

Citizens are trying to avoid the draft using methods ranging from comical to horrifying · A Ukrainian military recruitment poster. ©  Andriy Andriyenko / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images · A Ukrainian court has ordered the military to remove a citizen from the list of potential conscripts after the person underwent gender transition. Less drastic methods have also been employed by draft dodgers amid the…

How Trump’s tariff defeat exposed the limits of White House power · By Anton Grishanov, Chief Research Fellow at the Institute for Contemporary International Issues of the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry · RT composite. ©  Getty Images / Bill Chizek; Roberto Schmidt · The constant change of scenery in President Donald Trump’s America has trained observers not to overreact to each new sensation from…

By Etiido Uko · This supraball (left) is 2,100 nanometers in diameter and is made from hundreds of tiny gold nanoparticles (right) engineered to boost solar energy absorptionAdapted from ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 2026, DOI: 10.1021/acsami.5c23149 · At any given moment, 89,000 terawatts of solar power hits the Earth’s surface. While significant advancements have been made in harvesting this power, existing technologies do not…

By Malcolm Azania - Traditional carbon fiber (pictured) is strong and lightweight, but can be difficult to repair once damaged · Imagine trying to design machines that will last forever, regardless of use or destination. Instead of those machines requiring a steady stream of spare parts (essentially impossible for space probes or exoplanetary landers to haul or acquire), they’ll be able to heal their super-durable “flesh” more than a…

By Abhimanyu Ghoshal · Almost a century and a half after construction began on La Sagrada Familia, the exterior structure of the tallest church in the world was finally completed last Friday in Barcelona, Spain. · The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família, as it's officially named and the only way I refer to it in casual conversation, has now had its tallest tower, the tower of Jesus Christ, reach its maximum height. It's…

By C.C. Weiss · A fast-rising name in the hybrid vehicle market, Horse Powertrain has spent the past three years transitioning into one of the world's leading engine manufacturers while developing a portfolio of electric motors, hybrid powertrains and other net-zero-supporting technologies. Now it's looking ahead into the future, showing an early concept version of a next-generation hybrid engine system powered by 100% renewable…