LOS ANGELES, US – Newsaktuell – 7 May 2026 – The newly released 2026 Berggruen Governance Index (BGI) paints a mixed picture of global governance heading into a future of mounting shocks, finding widespread gains in public-goods provision from 2000 to 2023 even as democratic accountability edged down and state capacity showed little overall improvement.

The BGI, presented Wednesday by an international group of governance scholars, analyses measurable benchmarks of democratic accountability across 145 countries.

On a 100-point scale, the global score for democratic accountability slipped slightly from 65 in 2000 to 64 in 2023, the most recent data used in the project. The wave of democratisation observed in the closing decades of the last century has stalled in the last 15 years. Democratic accountability fell in 54 countries while it improved in 48 countries.

Yet the BGI — a collaborative project of the Luskin School of Public Affairs at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Berlin’s Hertie School and the Berggruen Institute, a think tank headquartered in Los Angeles — captures remarkably widespread growth in provision of public goods.

Encompassing healthcare, education, infrastructure, environmental sustainability and conditions to foster employment and rising prosperity, public goods improved in 135 of the countries studied, while declining slightly in just four. The global average jumped from 58 to 69 points from 2000 to 2023.

The third component of what the BGI authors refer to as the “governance triangle” is state capacity, defined as the ability to tax, borrow and spend, control territory, operate scrupulous, competent bureaucracies and administer predictable rule of law. The index finds the global average ticking up from 48 to 49 points; 56 countries had increased state capacity while 57 declined.

“What does it tell us about the world ahead?” Prof. Helmut K. Anheier, a Luskin School sociologist and BGI principal investigator, asked during the public release of the 2026 BGI on the UCLA campus.

“Countries are not really improving in their governance performance in significant ways. … We’re not really having forward-looking investment in governance capacity. There is considerable inertia.”

The largest improvements across all three BGI components occurred in Gambia, which the report groups with “low-capacity developing states.” These states score low across the board, particularly in the provision of public goods. This cluster constitutes the poorest countries with the least developed economies, which face the most serious challenges.

“They have the greatest exposure to likely future crises, whether it’s global warming, whether it’s a new pandemic, whether it’s another financial crisis, whether it’s the impact of AI,” Anheier said. “And they have the least capacity to respond to it.”

Bhutan, Georgia, Iraq and Tunisia — which make up the remaining top five countries with the largest improvements in the BGI — are classified as “capacity-constrained states.” They tend to be middle-income with struggling democracies. These countries score higher across the board than the low-capacity developing states, but their state capacity tends to lag compared to public goods and democratic accountability.

The capacity-constrained states risk falling into “a cycle that erodes the institutions they have built,” Anheier said.

“Consolidated democratic states”, a cluster of most of the world’s richest countries, which score highly in all three BGI components, have to confront domestic complacency. Further, in the United States and some others, “political dysfunction” is leaving mounting problems unaddressed and risking erosion of state capacity, Anheier said.

At the other end of the spectrum, the country with the farthest fall on the BGI since 2000 is Nicaragua. Second from last is Venezuela, followed by Hong Kong, Hungary and Turkey. The rest of the bottom 10 are Russia, Iran, Poland, El Salvador and Belarus.

Since 2023, which is the last year of data available for the study, Poland and Hungary have both seen government changes via election, despite serious democratic backsliding. Both had fallen out of the group of “consolidated democratic states” by 2023 and moved into the capacity constrained cluster.

The other eight countries at the bottom of the list are all places that once had some semblance of competitive elections, but by now have little or no remaining pretense of democracy. They are grouped by the authors among the “authoritarian and hybrid states”, which have by far the lowest democratic accountability but outperform even some struggling democracies in delivering public goods.

These regimes have tended toward faster economic growth in the period observed. But that seeming prosperity, typically fueled by extractive industries or overreliance on exports, masks “serious institutional weaknesses in these countries, including divided elites,” Anheier said.

Relatively few countries — 21 of the 145 — changed enough for better or worse to be classified in a new group by the end of the 23-year study period.

“Movement between them is rare, but this is largely what we should expect,” said Stella Ghervas, a UCLA historian on a panel of experts who discussed the BGI findings Wednesday. “Government systems are not created in a moment. They evolve over long periods of time.”

Local conditions shaping governance in each country can rarely be quickly reset through political will or even external shocks, Joseph C. Saraceno, a Luskin School data scientist and BGI co-author, said Wednesday.

“Despite all the talk of major transformations happening in global affairs, the underlying configuration of governance simply doesn’t appear to change very much,” Saraceno said. “We use the term inertia to describe this reoccurring pattern. In other words, the structures of global governance are resistant to movement as the conditions beneath them are quite sticky: political economies, demographics, resource endowments. These are deeply layered, and they push each country toward the world that it already inhabits.”

But the challenges lurking around the world may not wait for the slow and difficult processes of political change and development to catch up.

“With the few exceptions of those countries in the consolidated democratic world,” Anheier said, “the great majority of the countries in the world is ill-prepared for the future.”

The full report, ‘ 2026 Berggruen Governance Index – The Four Worlds of Governance’, can be viewed and downloaded from the website of the UCLA’s Luskin School.

Frank Fuhrig, DNA

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Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced a new round of sanctions targeting malicious cyber actors and others supporting Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine.  

Today’s sanctions package designates 20 individuals and entities. Among them are actors supporting the Kremlin’s hybrid warfare tactics, by enabling Russian cybercrime activity that supports the war, and the dissemination of anti-Ukraine propaganda aimed at legitimising Moscow’s illegal aggression.  

“Those who mis-use online platforms to support Russia’s war against Ukraine will face real consequences, including sanctions,” Mr Peters says. 

New Zealand is also introducing sanctions against an alternative payment provider whose service is used widely for the evasion of sanctions against Russia.  

“We are targeting the payment infrastructure that has helped enable Russia’s war against Ukraine,” Mr Peters says. 

The sanctions announced today also target those contributing to Russia’s military-industrial complex, and actors from the DPRK and Iran who are providing support to the Russian military.  

Since the Russia Sanctions Act came into force in March 2022, New Zealand has imposed sanctions on more than 2000 individuals, entities, and vessels, alongside a range of trade measures. This is New Zealand’s 35th round of Russia sanctions.  

More information about sanctions, travel bans, and export controls against Russia, as well as diplomatic, military and economic support to Ukraine, can be found on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade website here. 

MIL OSI

A leading economist says businesses could exploit the war in the Middle East to raise prices even when not directly related to the fuel crisis.

Petrol price surges have seen 91 routinely above $3 a litre and KiwiRail this week announced an increase on the fuel surcharge for freight on the Interislander ferry. Internationally, shipping company Maersk announced its own 27 percent fuel surcharge.

The Reserve Bank has warned that the fuel and transport costs would likely push inflation above 4 percent in the June quarter.

Westpac economist Kelly Eckhold told Nine to Noon on Wednesday businesses find it easier to lift prices when inflation is becoming widespread.

“[Many price hikes] you can shape back to fuel quite quickly. And in those cases, firms are taking their approach of imposing surcharges. So they’re saying, ‘Well, we’re going to put the price up by this amount’. It’s reflecting this increase in the oil or the refined fuels price.

“And then they say, ‘When those prices come down, we’ll remove that’. So that’s pretty transparent, isn’t it? And then that’s the sort of pricing behaviour that I don’t think the Reserve Bank or anyone would be very surprised by.”

But in other cases, Eckhold explained, prices are unlikely to drop when the price of fuel normalises – particularly if they cannot be linked directly back to the cost of fuel.

“When the services prices start to increase, for example, my Spotify subscription or your Sky subscription, et cetera, you’re very unlikely to see those prices fall back.

“What’s more likely is that is the price, that’s the base price that you’ll pay in the future. And the best you might hope for is that if costs rise less quickly in the future, then maybe the next increase that you see could be delayed for a period of time.

“That sort of inflation, I think, is less comfortable for central banks and the sort of inflation that they’re really all looking out for to gauge just how much… they have to increase interest rates by.”

The next official cash rate (OCR) update from the Reserve Bank is due on 27 May. The bank uses the OCR to increase or decrease the cost of borrowing – the former decreases spending and aims to curb inflation, while the latter does the opposite.

Eckhold did not believe the OCR would need to rise as much as it did following Covid-19, when it peaked at 5.5 percent in 2023.

“The conditions are a bit different. I mean, there we had a big supply shock coming from the Covid disruptions themselves, and then the onset of the Russian war, combined with very expensive fiscal and military policy. And that second set of factors isn’t really present right now, at least not in New Zealand.”

It could take a few more months to see the full impact of the Iran war on the economy here, Eckhold said.

“Fertiliser is a good example where we produce some fertiliser here, but a lot of it is actually imported. We got a little bit lucky in the fertiliser game because we had imported a lot of our needs for the next six months before the shock hit.

“The questions are going to arise about what happens after that period, and prices are lifting because global prices have gone up over 100 percent. An imbalance increased their prices yesterday by about 10 or 15 percent, starting to reflect that.

“But all through the rest of the supply chain, particularly think about plastics. So pretty much everything you buy comes in some kind of plastic container. That stuff is directly an offshoot of the naphtha market, which is a part of the oil distillation process. And those are the sort of price increases that are going to become really prominent, broad, but also come at quite a bit of a lag as that filters through the global supply chains.”

That delay could prompt the Reserve Bank to get ahead of any possible inflation, he said. The OCR was currently at 2.25 percent.

“They will probably realise that with this increase in headline inflation, that inflation expectations are likely to rise. And they’ll be trying to gauge how long this increase in inflation is going to last. And there, the news hasn’t been very good, because forecasts of the gulf war ending within a few weeks have consistently been disappointed.”

Whatever happens, it was likely New Zealand’s economy was in for a “tough time”, particularly through winter, with increased petrol costs slashing spending in retail and hospitality.

“I think the housing market is one that just won’t do very well in this environment, because we’re probably looking at a rising unemployment rate. Disposable incomes are being cut here by the cost shock. Confidence is also really low, and confidence is quite important for that.

“The other thing is to think about is the tourism market as well, because the costs of coming to New Zealand are probably getting more expensive and uncertain…

“New Zealand Incorporated has taken a big income loss here because we’re basically paying an extra, say, $6 or $7 or $8 billion a year for our refined fuels than we did in the previous year. When I look at that, that’s two-thirds of the dairy industry that we just lost in terms of income. And the government, the Reserve Bank, no one can give that back to us.”

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MIL OSI

SHANGHAI, CHINA – Media OutReach Newswire – 24 April 2026 – SIBUR, Russia’s largest polymer producer, plans to increase its supplies to Asian countries fivefold by 2030, driven by capacity growth supported primarily by the launch of a major new polymer production facility, the Amur Gas Chemical Complex (AGCC), in Russia’s Far East.

With an annual capacity of 2.7 million tonnes of basic polymers, the AGCC is set to become the most efficient polymer production facility in Russia and one of the largest globally. Polyethylene production is scheduled to begin in 2026, followed by polypropylene in 2027. The launch will enable SIBUR to greatly expand its presence in key markets in South and Southeast Asia.

“Emerging Asian markets are demonstrating strong growth in polymer demand, driven primarily by the packaging, healthcare and hygiene industries, as well as sizeable infrastructure and construction investments. The majority of demand in the region is met through imports. The commissioning of the AGCC will enable SIBUR to increase supplies to South and Southeast Asian markets fivefold by 2030 compared with current levels,” said Natalia Burlina, Head of SIBUR’s New Projects Go-to-Market Division, speaking at the ChinaPlas SIBUR Conference in Shanghai for South and Southeast Asian customers.

“In recent years, we have strengthened our position in South and Southeast Asian markets. We continue to grow and improve our customer service through local sales and technical support.”

Various logistics options for delivering AGCC polymers to Asian markets were discussed at the conference, including transshipment via Chinese ports and direct shipments from Russian seaports to destination ports.

The AGCC portfolio includes more than 20 in-demand solutions, such as linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) for packaging films; high-density polyethylene (HDPE) for blow moulding, injection moulding, films, monofilament and pressure pipes; polypropylene (PP) yarn for raffia and nonwoven materials; as well as BOPP for packaging applications. In addition, SIBUR, thanks to its well-established R&D infrastructure and innovation practices, is ready to develop tailor-made solutions to meet customers’ needs.

SIBUR’s reliable supply of AGCC polymer solutions to Asian markets will create a shared value for its customers.

Hashtag: #SIBUR

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

– Published and distributed with permission of Media-Outreach.com.

Modelling done for the government on its plans for an LNG terminal did not consider the effect of an international price spike, documents show.

A climate advocate said the decision not to model price volatility was “remarkable” and raised further questions about whether the planned facility was a good idea.

However, officials said although the current conflict in the Middle East had created volatility in LNG prices, longer-term price projections were still in line with the information the government based its decision on.

The government announced in February it would proceed with plans for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import facility in Taranaki, with the billion-dollar plus cost paid for through an electricity levy.

The proposal, widely criticised at the time, has attracted renewed opposition after Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz prompted the price of fossil fuels – including LNG – to spike.

Gentailer chief executives expressed doubts at the energy sector’s conference last month, prompting Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to say the government would not proceed if the business case did not stack up.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) said in a statement last month that the LNG terminal was selected from a shortlist of five options that it considered “timely, feasible and of sufficient scale to meet dry year needs”.

It would also be beneficial to major industrial gas users, who had been forced to limit production or shut up shop altogether in recent years as domestic gas supply dwindled, the ministry said.

The announcement had already had an effect on the prices electricity suppliers were paying for supply later this year, MBIE said.

“While forward prices will move around in response to a range of factors, electricity forward prices dropped substantially in the weeks following the government’s LNG announcement.”

Documents released to RNZ under the Official Information Act outline how consultants contracted by the ministry modelled the effect of an LNG facility on New Zealand energy prices.

The variables they tested included whether two or three coal- and diesel-burning Rankine turbines at Huntly are working over winter, how fast future renewable generation is built, and whether a private joint venture to build gas storage beneath the Tariki gas field in Taranaki goes ahead.

The model tested various scenarios with two international LNG prices: $20 and $25 per gigajoule.

It did not look at any higher pricing.

“[This] modelling has not considered the potential impact of international fuel price volatility,” the document said.

Undertaken before the current fuel crisis, the modelling said that, at the moment, New Zealand’s electricity system was currently “relatively insulated” from international energy prices.

That had been beneficial when international prices, especially LNG, spiked during 2021 and 2023 – when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine affected supply.

International natural gas prices have now increased again, after Iran blocked the Strait of Hormuz, and Goldman Sachs recently said prices could increase by another 50 to 100 percent if the conflict with Israel and the US dragged on.

Lawyers for Climate Action executive director Jessica Palairet said the modelling reinforced “real questions about whether the LNG import facility is going to deliver”.

“The analysis did not consider the risk of international LNG price … which is quite remarkable.”

The model also assumed that supply of LNG would be unlimited and uninterrupted, an assumption that was being tested by the current situation, she said.

An MBIE spokesperson said the current conflict had created only “short-term volatility” in LNG markets,

“LNG futures prices for 2028/2029 remain consistent with the price assumptions that fed into earlier Cabinet analysis on LNG,” they said.

“Importantly, events in the Middle East do not impact the cost of the LNG import facility itself, nor the benefits of having reliable dry year cover in New Zealand.”

The modelling documents showed that having access to LNG had the greatest effect on New Zealand’s electricity system in scenarios where electricity demand was much greater than supply, the Tariki gas storage project did not go ahead, and LNG prices were low.

“If LNG is significantly higher priced than NZ gas, LNG will likely result in cost,” the documents said.

Savings were also much lower when supply and demand was in balance, and if there was additional gas storage available through Tariki – which emails between officials and consultants concluded would have a “high impact”.

An agreement to develop the Tariki project was signed by NZ Energy Corp and Genesis late last year, and early work has begun.

A Genesis spokesperson said there was no timeline yet for “this potential project”.

Significant parts of the documents were redacted, including the introductory pages of the final presentation outlining the results.

Jessica Palairet said what appeared to have been redacted was the full executive summary, including any conclusions the Concept Consulting consultants – who she said were “rell-regarded” – had drawn from the modelling.

“We don’t have the interpretation of the consultants of their own modelling, In some ways, they’re … the most important information in the entire analysis.”

“What’s been redacted appears to be what the modellers actually thought about their model.”

MBIE said those sections of the document, along with multiple smaller redactions, were held back to prevent the “free and frank exchange of opinions”.

Official Information laws allow for such redactions, provided that they are not outweighed by the public interest.

Palairet – who also received a redacted version of the same documents – said her organisation was challenging that decision with the Ombudsman.

“There’s a really strong public interest in releasing the full document. We’re talking about a huge expenditure in the middle of an energy crisis.”

RNZ has laid a separate complaint with the Ombudsman, asking for the redactions to be reconsidered.

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21 April 2026 – Amnesty International calls on states to stop predatory, anti-rights order from taking hold in pivotal moment for humanity

Predatory attacks on multilateralism, international law and civil society marked 2025
The alternative on offer is a racist, patriarchal, unequal and anti-rights world order
Protesters, activists and global bodies are working to resist, disrupt and transform

The world is on the brink of a perilous new era, driven by powerful states’, corporations’ and anti-rights movements’ assaults on multilateralism, international law and human rights, Amnesty International warned today upon launching its annual report, The State of the World’s Human Rights. States, international bodies and civil society must reject the politics of appeasement and collectively resist these attacks to prevent this new order from taking hold, the organization said in its assessment of the human rights situation in 144 countries.

“We are confronting the most challenging moment of our age. Humanity is under attack from transnational anti-rights movements and predatory governments determined to assert their dominance through unlawful wars and brazen economic blackmail,” said Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Agnès Callamard.

“For years, Amnesty International has denounced the gradual disintegration of human rights in every part of the world, warning of the consequences of flagrant rule-breaking by governments and corporate actors. We’ve also demonstrated time and again how double standards and selective compliance with international law have weakened the multilateral system and accountability.

“What marks this moment as fundamentally different is that we’re no longer documenting erosion around the system’s edges. This is a direct assault on the foundations of human rights and the international rules-based order by the most powerful actors for the purpose of control, impunity and profit.

“The spiralling conflict in the Middle East is a product of this descent into lawlessness. Following the initial unlawful US-Israeli attacks in violation of the UN Charter, which triggered Iran’s indiscriminate retaliation, the conflict has quickly morphed into an open warfare against civilians and civilian infrastructure, exacerbating the already catastrophic suffering of people across the region. It is now engulfing countries around the world, impacting populations everywhere, and threatening the livelihood of millions. This is what happens when the norms, institutions and legal framework painstakingly built to safeguard humanity are hollowed out for the purpose of domination.”

“Amnesty’s 2025 annual report moves beyond warning of imminent breakdown to documenting a collapse now underway, and exposing its devastating consequences for human rights, global stability and the lives of millions in 2026 and beyond. It calls on states around the world to urgently reject the politics of appeasement embraced in 2025, overcome fear, and resist in words and actions the construction of a predatory world order.”

Predatory attacks are accelerating the destruction of international law

The State of the World’s Human Rights, and Amnesty International’s documentation so far this year, detail pervasive crimes under international law and mounting attacks on the international justice system, which are gravely harming the foundations that underpin human rights globally.

Israel has maintained its genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, despite the October 2025 ceasefire agreement, and its system of apartheid over Palestinians, while accelerating the expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and taking steps toward annexation. Israeli authorities have increasingly allowed or encouraged settlers to attack and terrorize Palestinians with impunity, and prominent officials have praised and glorified violence against Palestinians, including arbitrary arrests and the torture of detainees.

The United States of America has committed over 150 extrajudicial executions by bombing boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific, and carried out an act of aggression against Venezuela in January 2026. Russia has intensified its aerial attacks on critical civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, while Myanmar’s military used motorized paragliders to drop explosive munitions on villages last year, killing dozens of civilians, including children.

The United Arab Emirates has fuelled the conflict in Sudan by providing advanced Chinese weaponry to the Rapid Support Forces, who seized control of El Fasher last October after an 18-month siege of the city and committed mass civilian killings and sexual violence. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the M23 armed group, with the active support of Rwanda, captured the cities of Goma and Bukavu and unlawfully killed civilians and tortured detainees.

In early 2026, the USA and Israel’s unlawful use of force against Iran, in violation of the UN Charter, has triggered retaliatory Iranian strikes on Israel and Gulf Cooperation Council countries, while Israel has escalated its attacks on Lebanon. From the killing of over 100 children in an unlawful US strike on a school in Iran, to the devastating attacks by all parties on energy infrastructure, the conflict has endangered the lives and health of millions of civilians and threatens to inflict vast, predictable and long-term civilian and environmental harm, impacting access to energy, healthcare, food and water across an already turbulent region and beyond.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban escalated its predatory policies against the female population, with further bans prohibiting them from education, work and freedom of movement, while in Iran, the authorities massacred protesters in January 2026, in what was likely the most lethal such repression for decades.

The USA, Israel and Russia further undermined international accountability mechanisms, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) in particular, last year. The Trump administration enacted sanctions against ICC staff, collaborators and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, while Russian courts issued arrest warrants against ICC officials. Several other states withdrew or announced their intention to withdraw from the Rome Statute and treaties banning cluster munitions and anti-personnel mines.

The vast majority of states have been unwilling or unable to consistently denounce predatory acts by the USA, Russia, Israel or China, or to chisel out diplomatic solutions. The European Union and most European states appeased US assaults on international law and multilateral mechanisms. They have failed to take meaningful action to stop Israel’s genocide or end the irresponsible arms and technology transfers fuelling crimes under international law around the world. They have also been unwilling to enact blocking statutes to protect the targets of US sanctions, including on ICC judges and prosecutors. Italy and Hungary declined to arrest individuals subject to ICC warrants in their territory, while France, Germany and Poland implied they would do the same.

“World leaders have been far too submissive in the face of attacks on international law and the multilateral system. Their silence and inaction are inexcusable. It is morally bankrupt and will bring nothing but retreat, defeat and the erasure of decades of hard-fought human rights gains. To appease aggressors is to pour fuel on a fire that will burn us all and scorch the future for generations to come,” said Agnès Callamard.

“Some may be tempted to dismiss the system built over the last 80 years as nothing but an illusion. This is to ignore the hard-fought achievements towards the recognition of universal rights, the adoption of multiple international conventions and national laws protecting against racial discrimination and violence against women, enshrining the rights of workers and trade unions, and recognizing the rights of Indigenous Peoples. It is to forget the poverty addressed, the reproductive rights strengthened and the justice delivered when states chose to uphold the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  

“The political and economic predators, and their enablers, are declaring the multilateral system dead not because it’s inefficient but because it’s not serving their hegemony and control. The response is not to proclaim it an illusion or beyond repair, but to confront its failures, end its selective application and keep transforming it so that it’s fully capable of defending all people with equal resolve.”

Ramped-up assaults on civil society spread around the world

The proliferation of attacks on civil society and social movements deepened in 2025, with sustained efforts to silence and disempower human rights defenders, organizations and dissenters spreading to almost every part of the world.

Authorities in Nepal and Tanzania were particularly brazen in their unlawful use of lethal force to repress protests expressing political and socio-economic grievances. The governments of Afghanistan, China, Egypt, India, Kenya, the USA and Venezuela, among others, also violently repressed protests, criminalized dissent through counterterrorism and security laws, or used abusive policing tactics, enforced disappearances or extrajudicial executions.

In the United Kingdom, authorities proscribed Palestine Action, a direct-action protest network primarily targeting Israeli arms manufacturers and their subsidiaries, under overly broad counterterrorism laws and arrested more than 2,700 people for peacefully opposing the ban. The UK High Court ruled this unlawful in February 2026. The government is appealing the decision.

Turkish authorities detained hundreds of peacefully protesters after the arrest of Istanbul mayor and presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu, who is among over 400 people facing politically motivated prosecution under alleged corruption charges.

US authorities launched an unlawful clampdown on migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, committing unnecessary and excessive use of force, racial profiling, arbitrary detention, and practices that amounted to torture and enforced disappearance. In Latin America, states such as Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela adopted or reformed legal frameworks that impose disproportionate controls on civil society organizations directly impacting their ability to operate, access resources, support communities and defend human rights.

Many governments, facilitated by corporate actors, used spyware and digital censorship to restrict freedom of expression and the right to information. US authorities used AI-powered surveillance tools to target foreign students expressing solidarity with Palestinians with arrest and deportation. Serbia’s government used spyware and digital forensics tools against student protesters, civil society and journalists. Kenyan authorities systematically deployed technology-facilitated repression tactics, including online intimidation, threats, incitement to hatred and unlawful surveillance, to suppress youth-led protests.

The USA, Canada, France, Germany and the UK, among others, announced or enacted sweeping cuts to international aid budgets, despite knowing they would likely result in millions of avoidable deaths, and in several cases while committing to massive parallel hikes in military expenditure. This has had a catastrophic impact on NGOs’ efforts to advance press freedom, climate resilience, and gender justice, to protect refugees, migrants and asylum seekers, and to provide healthcare and sexual and reproductive rights.

Many states continued to resist reining in the aggressive tax avoidance and evasion by billionaires and corporate giants while weakening further restraints on corporate power. In the USA, strategic lawsuits against public participation had a chilling effect on civil society, with one such lawsuit resulting in a court ordering Greenpeace to pay a fossil fuel company $345 million (reduced from an initial $660 million).

In a context dominated by the US president describing climate change as a “scam”, governments did nowhere near enough to address climate displacement, equitably transition away from fossil fuels, or adequately ramp up finance for climate action – even as the UN Environment Programme warned that the world is on track to reach 3°C above pre-industrial levels by 2100.

“What alternative do the bullies and predators offer to the imperfect global experiment they’re so intent on destroying? The world order they propose is one that mocks and discards racial, gender and climate justice, treats civil society as an enemy, and rejects international solidarity. It is built on silencing dissent, weaponizing the law and dehumanizing those deemed ‘others’. Their vision of the world is predicated not on respect for our common humanity, but on military force, trade domination and technological hegemony. It is, ultimately, a vision with no moral compass,” said Agnès Callamard.

Protesters, civil society and international bodies lead efforts to resist, disrupt and transform

Undeterred by adversity, millions around the world are resisting injustice and authoritarian practices.

Gen Z protests swept over a dozen countries in 2025, including Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Morocco, Nepal and Peru, and around 300,000 people defied Hungary’s ban on Budapest Pride to defend LGBTI rights. Throughout early 2026, demonstrators from Los Angeles to Minneapolis have organized street by street and block by block against violent and highly militarized US immigration enforcement raids.

Mass demonstrations against Israel’s genocide spread around the world last year and humanitarians from over 40 countries launched flotillas to show solidarity with Palestinians. Global activism against the flow of arms to Israel expanded, with dockworkers in France, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Spain and Sweden seeking to disrupt arms shipment routes. Activism and legal pressure also led several states to restrict or ban arms exports to Israel.

While many governments appeased attacks on international justice, several states and bodies bucked this trend by demonstrating their commitment to multilateralism and rule of law. A growing number acknowledged that Israel was committing genocide and several states joined the Hague Group, a collective committed to holding Israel accountable for violations of international law, and contributed to South Africa’s case against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

The Philippines handed former president Rodrigo Duterte over to the ICC to face charges of the crime against humanity of murder, and the court issued warrants against two Taliban leaders for gender-based persecution. The Council of Europe and Ukraine agreed to establish the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, and a hybrid court in the Central African Republic convicted six former members of an armed group for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The UN Human Rights Council established an independent investigative mechanism for Afghanistan and a fact-finding mission and Commission of Inquiry on Eastern DRC, and expanded the mandate of its fact-finding mission on Iran. Significant progress was made toward a binding UN tax convention and a Crimes Against Humanity Convention, and the ICJ and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued landmark advisory opinions affirming state human rights obligations to respond to climate damage.

More states have started speaking out against authoritarian practices and attacks on the rules-based order in 2026, with the Spanish government notably taking principled stands, but such calls must be backed up with decisive and sustained action.

“From city streets to multilateral forums, 2025 brought powerful displays of resistance and solidarity from protesters, diplomats, political leaders and many others around the world. We must build on their example and courage and forge bold coalitions to reimagine, rebuild and re-centre the global order around human rights, the rule of law and universal values,” said Agnès Callamard.

“Let 2026 be the year we assert our agency and demonstrate that history is not merely something imposed upon us; it is ours to make. And for the sake of humanity, the time to make history is now.”

MIL OSI

The Defence Force has taken part in a wargame with the United States based on a Russian nuclear blast aimed at taking out satellites.

The classified exercise was run by the American space warfighting agency, alongside 60 companies.

About the same time, the government put out a new NZ-US space dialogue that aimed to expand commercial and military space co-operation.

New Zealand had also signed up to “accelerating defence industrial cooperation” through a US-led 16-nation group in the Indo-Pacific.

The US partners of the NZDF – its Space Command and US Space Force – had also released a vision of space in 2040 that imagined China developing an AI-driven ‘Supermind’ that could strike with “unmatched speed and lethality”.

In the here-and-now, the force’s leading general told US lawmakers recently that space systems were critical to the ‘Epic Fury’ war in Iran.

‘Forced us to prepare’

The desktop wargame in March focused on a “worst-case” scenario of weapons of mass destruction in orbit.

“Reporting about Russia’s plans to launch such a weapon… has forced us to prepare,” said the general in charge, US Space Command head Stephen Whiting.

Exactly what went on remained secret, but participants, including the NZDF and more than 60 companies, “shared innovation, courses of action, and new and interesting ideas on how to deter the use of nuclear detonation in space”.

Whiting has designated 2026 the “Year of Integration” of the US Space Force, with both commercial partners and America’s ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence group partners.

NZ is part of Five Eyes and also a member of the elite US-led Operation Olympic Defence space security group.

The wargrame was the first of four in Space Command’s new ‘Apollo Insight’ commercial integration series.

“These partnerships are not symbolic,” Whiting said. “They accelerate innovation, expand warfighting capacity and increase operational tempo that government alone cannot achieve.”

‘Overwhelming American firepower’

The US warned allies two years ago that Russia might put a nuclear weapon in space.

Last month, Senate Armed Services Committee chair Republican Roger Wicker said he was particularly concerned that the current US space and nuclear strategy “does not address space and nuclear threats with anywhere near the urgency they deserve”.

Since the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty’s (New START) nuclear weapons limits expired in February, there was now no verifiable agreement to cap nuclear arms for the first time since the early 1970s. Last year, US President Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon to resume testing nukes, in place of simulations, for the first time in 33 years.

After Wicker’s call to up their game, the US Space Force this week put out a report on what 2040 might look like.

The 2040 report stressed how vital integration with allies was across surveillance, warning and targeting and stated, “Success means that the Space Force dominates the domain in the long tradition of overwhelming American firepower.”

‘Accelerating defense industrial collaboration’

RNZ asked the NZDF what benefits New Zealand gained from taking part in the Apollo wargame and if it gave any undertakings to the US.

On 20 March, New Zealand re-affirmed its commitment to “accelerating defence industrial cooperation” through the US-founded 16-member group PIPIR (Partnership for Indo-Pacific Industrial Resilience).

In late 2024, RNZ revealed NZ had joined this group and, earlier, that America had unilaterally inserted New Zealand into its defence-related national technology industrial base or NTIB.

“We agreed that PIPIR continues to make tangible progress toward addressing barriers and accelerating defense industrial collaboration to promote a stronger, more resilient, more integrated, defense industrial base,” a joint statement from the group’s second annual meeting said.

The group was working on getting more drone motors and batteries made, and a support hub in Australia for P-8 Poseidons, which the NZDF flies.

Expanding ‘space situational awareness’

Also last month, the US and New Zealand governments signed a new space dialogue that mentioned the military directly once.

“Both sides also discussed opportunities for further cooperation to address space-related threats to shared security interests, including military space cooperation and managing the risks to ground-based space infrastructure.”

It had more to say about the commercial side, such as, “They decided to work closely together to address regulatory constraints that hinder effective cooperation, commercial engagement, and mutual benefits.”

It also talked about expanding “space situational awareness, launch and re-entry”. While satellites were already key to missile defence and targeting systems – and to the Trump administration’s Golden Dome – defence documents showed that another key was space situational or domain awareness monitoring systems which include one the NZDF runs for the US in Auckland that produces unclassified reports on satellite movements.

Recently, the Senate Armed Services Committee talked about the threat from China and recommended expanding the Pentagon’s commercial space-or-ground-based monitoring systems.

On rocket launches, the dialogue said the partners “acknowledged New Zealand’s geographic advantages have enabled frequent and responsive launches”. Responsive is a term used for rapid launches.

US lawmakers got a report last month looking in part at what spaceports in other countries it could use for military and spy launches. It had not been made public, although RNZ has sought a copy.

‘Diversified spaceports’ and ‘select niche competencies’

The report on what 2040 might look like said China would remain the No.1 threat.

Its “vision for victory” said allies and partners would operate as “integral nodes within the decision lattice… preserving the continuity of Joint All-Domain Command and Control”. Command and Control or C2 is central to data-integration partnerships the NZDF now has with each of the US navy, army and air force.

The NZDF told MPs recently that the data-crunching software in military platforms would dictate how good weapons were in future.

New Zealand has signed up to the US army’s Project Convergence; it also has the NGC2 (Next Generation Command and Control) battlefield tech system, and had to report back to lawmakers by 31 March on NGC2 with details about how it was mandating “interoperability with NATO and Indo-Pacific allies as a requirement in its new command and control software program”, a congressional report said.

This month as part of these data-powered-military moves, the US army launched a new data operations centre, called ADOC. The NZDF was scheduled to join a US army exercise with emerging technology in mid-2026.

The 2040 report Saltzman had put out envisaged allies offering “rapid launch and diversified spaceports”.

“Allies in the Indo-Pacific will seek to contribute through geography and select niche competencies,” it said.

It emphasised a future where US and allies’ systems were integrated with each other, and human decisionmaking integrated with machine speed, to break adversaries’ “long range kill chains”.

Whiting’s fellow space general, Chance Saltzman, released the 2040 report this week in a speech at US Space Force’s largest space symposium in Colorado. Last year, Defence Minister Judith Collins gave the keynote speech there, but successor Chris Penk was not there this week.

Saltzman talked about bringing “commercial services to the fight”.

“Today, the Department of War is implementing new initiatives to unshackle our industry partners and continue putting our space industrial base on a wartime footing,” the head of US Space Force said.

‘Bodyguard’ satellites

The second Apollo Insight wargame – otherwise known as a ‘Campaigning with Commercial Partners’ tabletop exercise – in June 2026 would focus on manoeuvre warfare.

“Participants will explore how commercial, industry and allied partners can enable these approaches, and help challenge traditional methods of operating in space,” said Space Command.

It was worried about China building “bodyguard” and “inspector” satellites that, unlike traditional ones, were not fixed in space, conserving fuel, but moved around.

Whiting used his Colorado symposium speech to warn that China’s first experiment in refuelling a satellite in low earth orbit had shifted space “from a relatively permissive environment into one where US satellites could be tracked, targeted or interfered with during a conflict”.

In response, US and partner satellites had to be built to move more, he said.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

HAIKOU, CHINA – Media OutReach Newswire – 14 April 2026 – The sixth China International Consumer Products Expo (CICPE) kicked off on Monday in Haikou, capital of south China’s Hainan Province, attracting more than 3,400 brands from over 60 countries and regions.

Themed “Opening Up Drives Global Consumption, Innovation Empowers A Better Life,” this year’s expo runs from April 13 to 18. Meanwhile, the 2026 “Shopping in China” International Consumption Season was launched simultaneously.

The sixth CICPE has expanded in scale, with an exhibition area of 143,000 square meters, up 13,000 square meters from the previous edition. International exhibits account for 65 percent of the total, an increase of 20 percentage points from last year. Meanwhile, over 200 new products are expected to make their debut, double last year’s number and spanning fields including healthcare, jewelry and digital technology.

Since its launch in 2021, the CICPE has become an important platform for multinationals to stay abreast of consumer trends in China’s gigantic market, with over 3,800 enterprises and more than 12,000 brands from 92 countries and regions participating over the past five editions.

Canada, this year’s guest country of honor, has organized its largest-ever delegation, with around 40 companies participating in sectors including cosmetics, agricultural products, health products and pet food.

Russia and Bulgaria are among nations setting up national pavilions for the first time, while official delegations from 12 countries and regions, including Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Ireland, are attending the event.

Beyond the main venue in Haikou, a health exhibition area in Hainan’s Boao features 120 international pharmaceutical and medical device companies, while a yacht show in Sanya in the province is hosting over 200 yachts, with international brands accounting for 70 percent.

Committed to building an international, professional, and market-oriented multilateral economic and trade cooperation platform, the CICPE has become a “bridgehead” for high-level opening up. It has attracted over 230,000 domestic and overseas buyers in the five expos to date.

This edition, for the first time, has set up a buyer service center on site, providing exhibitors and buyers with full-process, all-round supply-demand matchmaking services. Additionally, an online supply-demand matchmaking platform has been established, leveraging digital technology to enable one-click matching of needs.

“An estimated 65,000 professional buyers will attend this year’s expo, a 10-percent increase from the previous edition,” said Lu Min, director of the Hainan Provincial Bureau of International Economic Development. “We also plan to hold more than 10 supply-demand matchmaking events to effectively enhance the sense of fulfillment for both buyers and exhibitors.”

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

– Published and distributed with permission of Media-Outreach.com.

A Catholic leader says Donald Trump’s comments about the Pope are totally wrong and unjustified.

Donald Trump is criticising Pope Leo after the head of the global Catholic Church preached against war and urged peaceful solutions to conflict.

Cardinal John Dew took part in the conclave that elected Pope Leo.

He told Checkpoint Pope Leo has a right to plead for peace and a moral duty to oppose the destruction of war.

That comes after President Donald Trump called Pope Leo weak on crime, terrible for foreign policy and suggested he stop catering to the radical left.

Trump also claimed if he was not in the White House, Pope Leo would not be in the Vatican.

The comments have drawn wide criticism from religious and other leaders.

But President Trump’s doubled down saying he would not be apologising.

“We don’t like a pope that’s going to say that it’s okay to have a nuclear weapon, we don’t want a pope that says crime is okay in our cities. I don’t like it I’m not a big fan of Pope Leo.”

Trump’s statements on social media followed Pope Leo’s Sunday prayer service in St Peter’s Basilica.

There was no mention of the United States or President Trump.

But the Pontiff spoke of the power of prayer.

“It is here that we find a bulwark against that delusion of omnipotence that surrounds us and is becoming increasingly unpredictable and aggressive,” Pope Leo said.

“Enough of the idolatry of self and money! Enough of the display of power! Enough of war!”

Pope Leo was not backing down either.

“The message of the church, my message, the message of the gospel, blessed are the peacemakers. I do not look at my role as being political, a politician.

“I don’t want to get into a debate with him, I don’t think that the message of the gospel is meant to be abused in the way that some people are doing.

“I will continue to speak out loudly against war hoping to promote peace, promoting dialogue in all bi-laterial relationships among the states to look for just solutions and promise.

“Too many people are suffering in the world today, too many innocent people are being killed and I think someone has to stand up and say there’s a better way to do this.”

Cardinal Dew said that he and many others believed Trump’s comments about the pope were totally wrong.

“The pope has a right to speak up on issues that affect the world, issues such as world peace.”

Prior to the conclave, world peace was a major issue because of the war between Russia and Ukraine and Israel and the Palestinians, he said.

“Pope Leo certainly heard from the cardinals that working for peace and speaking out for peace was something that he would need to be doing and that he is doing very clearly and strongly with the message of the gospel behind everything he says.”

US Vice President JD Vance, who is Catholic, told Fox News that the pope should “stick to matters of morality”.

But Cardinal Dew said that war was a moral matter.

“It’s a moral issue when people are being attacked, when whole nations are being threatened … which means that people are losing their lives, their livelihood, their homes are being completely destroyed and left homeless – that’s a moral issue.”

The pope and others have the right to speak out for peace and plead for peace, he said.

Many people heeded Pope Leo’s call to pray for peace, he said.

Even in New Zealand last weekend many people gathered to pray for peace, over and above the usual Sunday masses and services, he said.

Pope Leo did not specifically mention Donald Trump or the war in Iran in his comments, but Dew said the pope was “political enough to know that he shouldn’t be mentioning the president by name”, he said.

“But he is making a point that affects the whole world that the world needs to stop and think about why there are wars and are they being caused by greed or selfishness or wanting more land which again are moral issues.”

Dew said it seemed that democracy was being ignored at the moment.

“So the pope is saying look we need to think of these values, these things that shaped our world for so long and have helped us to live in ways that everyone is respected, that people are cared for and that all people look after one another and they’re not just attacked for no reason.”

Dew said leaders should not declare a war with no consultation simply because they believed it was the right thing to do.

“The threats of people just being annihilated are not the way that any leader should be running a country or speaking about any other countries in the world.”

Dew rejected that Donald Trump had anything to do with the election of Pope Leo.

Dew thought that Trump should apologise to Pope Leo.

“Yes I think he should but I don’t think he’ll get it … I don’t think anyone has the right to speak about another world leader in the way that the pope has been spoken about.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

New Zealand’s top spies will be weighing cutting the US out of some intelligence it shares with other Five Eyes partners, a former CIA head of counterintelligence has told RNZ.

Susan Miller had a long career in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), including as its head of counterintelligence. She worked under the first Trump administration, but has since retired from the agency and seen her security clearance cut off by Trump in retribution for leading a probe into the Russian influence campaign during the 2016 US Presidential election.

Miller spoke with RNZ for a new podcast, The Agency, which has just been released in partnership with Bird of Paradise Productions. The podcast examines New Zealand’s close links with the CIA through the story of a Kiwi spy who spent six years in cover for the US agency.

Miller, who described New Zealand’s intelligence community as “righteous”, said she was certain they would be weighing how much could be shared with the US under Trump.

“I’m not going to be in that room when the Five Eyes, minus America, probably sit down and say, what do we do? Do we share Russia with him? Do we? Do we even claim that we’re allies anymore when he’s doing this? What do we do? And that’s what I think is probably going on.”

It was likely they would conclude: “We can’t share everything with this guy,” she said.

“I can’t trust him, and maybe they can on some China things and things like that, but when he’s acting like this … I would think that your leadership right now would be, at a minimum, thinking to themselves, wait a minute. I might not want to share this Russian information with this ambassador here, because he’s a Trump appointee.”

Late last year the UK stopped sharing intelligence with the US about suspected drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean because it was concerned about getting bound up in potentially illegal military strikes on the boats.

Miller said she was saddened that the intelligence sharing relationship had to be curtailed but cautioned against backing out of the Five Eyes arrangement completely.

“We’re always very focused on our relationship with Five Eyes and our joint things that we do on hard targets, whether it’s terrorism or China or, you know, name something else that comes up in the day … It’s super important that we have this and I would ask them to stay as long as they can and do what they are doing, keep that door open. Don’t completely break off from us.”

During her time with the CIA, Miller said she met with then-Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern as well as senior counterparts here to discuss China.

“Your team there, it’s a very small group that works in your intelligence service. They are righteous. I mean, these guys are super smart,” Miller said.

Listen now to all six episodes of The Agency, via Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.

In the podcast, the minister formerly in charge of New Zealand’s intelligence agencies, Andrew Little, agreed the agencies were likely to be thinking about “current conditions”.

“I think given their obligations under the New Zealand legislation – which is they’ve got to act independently, and they have to think carefully about their own legal and human rights obligations before sharing intelligence – I’d be surprised if they weren’t actively considering how they share intelligence and the current conditions.”

The “general sentiment and moves which undermine democracy” were “a cause for worry”, Little said.

“But I’m equally confident that the Five Eyes relationship will endure through that and without agencies like ours, and indeed, the other partners, compromising their principles, their requirement to respect democracy and freedom of expression and all those sorts of things. I think the Five Eyes arrangement will survive.”

A spokesman for the SIS said: “Whilst the global environment continues to be dynamic, the Five Eyes intelligence sharing partnership continues to function largely as it always has, and our relationships with our Five Eyes counterparts remains strong and enduring, regardless of political change within partner administrations.”

The Five Eyes was a “valued partnership”, with significant benefits to New Zealand.

“There are robust policies and processes in place to ensure that any cooperation New Zealand does with its Five Eyes partners, including the US, is consistent with New Zealand’s policy and legal framework, including human rights obligations.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Cuba has been under US trade sanctions since 1962 and the past few months have further challenged the Caribbean nation, with tightened economic blockades by America.

University of Canterbury lecturer Josephine Varghese and Ambassador Luis Morejon Rodriguez talk to Kadambari Raghukumar in this Here Now episode.

Last December Josephine Vargehese found herself in the rare position of a being a speaker at a conference in Cuba. It was a chance she’d long been waiting for.

Indian-born, Christchurch based, Josephine Varghese is a lecturer at University of Canterbury, with a focus on analysing geopolitics through a post-colonial lens. She’s always felt drawn to Cuba.

“It’s a nation state that resisted imperialism, just 90 miles away from the United States coast. People are very fascinated by that in Kerala” said Varghese who was born in the south Indian state.

“Kerala has a a revolutionary history itself.”

Kerala occupies a long, narrow strip on the southwest coast of India. Since its formation in 1956, the people of Kerala have often elected the Communist Party of India to lead their legislative assembly.

The state has achieved the highest literacy rate in India and a consistently high GDP, while making huge investments in health and education. And over the years, it has built ties with the communist government and people of Cuba involving ideology, medical research, sport and literature.

“When I was in Cuba, just walking through the streets and having the interest that I have, I invariably talked to people about politics and people are well aware of international politics. When I’m in the West, it’s more around ‘oh India’s poor or backward and you’re running away from there’ – a very narrow understanding of India’s history, whereas in Cuba I felt that the awareness about India was rooted in India’s anti-colonial past.”

Varghese was a speaker at the Tricontinental Conference. The first Tricontinental Conference took place in Havana in 1966. This 60th anniversary event saw over 500 delegates from anticolonial movements across 82 countries from the Global South.

“I saw this as the pinnacle of my career and my life so far,” Varghese said.

She was visiting at a tough time for the Caribbean nation. Cuba’s in the midst of an economic and humanitarian crisis. Its economic struggles date back to the collapse of the Soviet Union and Cuba’s critics point to the communist government’s failure to adapt to the post-Soviet era.

But much of the current pressure stems from America escalating its embargo on Cuba this year – blocking Venezuelan oil and President Donald Trump threatening to “take” the country

Josephine arrived in Cuba in late 2025, before the escalation, but she was already seeing the pressures Cubans were facing.

“I went there in December 2025, actually the last shipment of oil to that country before this recent Russian oil tanker which broke you know USA’s blockade reached there. The last one was December 2025, just before we arrived there. And so it was a very critical time in Cuba.”

Back in New Zealand, Josephine was invited to share her experiences at a talk in Auckland a few weeks ago -where the Cuban ambassador to New Zealand, Luis Morejon Rodriguez was also present.

“We live under sanctions for more than 60 years and we continue trying to do our best. In the current context, diplomacy becomes more of an important. My role is to provide accurate informal information about Cuba, strengthen bilateral relations and promote cooperation between our people. It’s also important to explain the real impact of the blockade and the consequences of that policy to attempt to isolate Cuba. Many people here understand the differences between countries should be resolved through dialogue and mutual respect, not through economic coercion that ultimately affects ordinary people,” Luis Morejon told Here Now.

Some critics point out, however, that many ordinary Cubans have been pressured into silence by their government. Here Now tried to contact people within the Cuban community in New Zealand, but none of the persons contacted wanted to be interviewed.

In response, Luis Morejon responded “Here in New Zealand we have a very small Cuban community and they are spread out for the whole country. It is natural that there are different perspectives regarding Cuba this diversity of view exists in many societies, not only in Cuba. What is important is that discussions are based on respect, facts and understanding and complex reality faced by Cuban people we are consistently emphasize is that political differences should never justify policy that harm the entire population. The Cuban people deserve the opportunity to develop without external pressure or economic strangulation,” Morejon said.

Here Now’s Kadambari Raghukumar asked Varghese if global issues like the embargo on Cuba connect back to New Zealand at all. She said “communities in New Zealand have in the past spoken out vociferously against imperialism, for example, when it came to the anti-apartheid struggle, New Zealand took a leading role among the West, for example, in opposing apartheid, um, but also the anti-nuclear movement over here. We understand that the Pacific is one of the contested spheres of influence. I think that our interest in Aotearoa New Zealand is to have an independent foreign policy that protects us and also protects the Pacific from imperial wars”.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Hungary’s veteran nationalist leader Viktor Orban conceded defeat after a landslide election victory by the upstart opposition Tisza party, in a setback for his allies in Russia and US President Donald Trump’s White House.

Results based on 46 percent of votes counted showed the centre-right, pro-EU Tisza party of Peter Magyar winning 135 seats – or a crucial two-thirds majority – in the 199-member parliament, ahead of Orban’s Fidesz party.

“The election results are not final yet, but the situation is understandable and clear,” Orban said at the Fidesz campaign offices. “The election result is painful for us, but clear.”

Pollsters predicted a record voter turnout, with Hungarian television showing long queues outside some voting stations in Budapest. Data at 1630 GMT, half an hour before polls were due to close, showed 77.8 percent of voters casting their ballots, up from 67.8 percent four years earlier.

If the final results confirm the early readings, an end to Orban’s period in government after 16 years in power would have significant implications not only for Hungary, but for the European Union, Ukraine and beyond.

It would likely spell an end to Hungary’s adversarial role inside the EU, possibly opening the way for a 90 billion euro loan to war-battered Ukraine blocked by Orban.

Defeat for Orban could also mean the eventual release of EU funds to Hungary that the bloc had suspended due to what Brussels said was Orban’s erosion of democratic standards.

Orban’s exit would also deprive Russian President Vladimir Putin of his main ally in the EU and send shockwaves through Western right-wing circles, including the White House.

In Hungary, a Tisza victory could open the way for reforms that the party says would aim to combat corruption and restore the independence of the judiciary and other institutions.

However, the extent of such reforms will depend on whether Tisza can secure the two-thirds constitutional majority it would need to reverse much of Orban’s legacy.

Economic stagnation hurt Orban’s support

Orban, a eurosceptic, carved out a model of an “illiberal democracy” seen as a blueprint by Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement and its admirers in Europe.

But many Hungarians have grown increasingly weary of Orban, 62, after three years of economic stagnation and soaring living costs as well as reports of oligarchs close to the government amassing more wealth.

Tisza’s leader Magyar appears to have successfully tapped into this frustration.

Casting his vote for Tisza in the Hungarian capital, Mihaly Bacsi, 27, said the country needed change.

“We need an improvement in public mood, there is too much tension in many areas and the current government only fuels these sentiments,” he said.

Another voter, who gave her name as Zsuzsa, said she wanted continuity.

“I would really like if all the results that have been achieved in recent years remain – and I am terribly afraid of the war,” she said, referring to the conflict raging in Ukraine, Hungary’s eastern neighbour.

Orban sought to cast Sunday’s election as a choice between “war and peace”. During campaigning, the government blanketed the country with signs warning that Magyar would drag Hungary into Russia’s war with Ukraine, something he strongly denies

– Reuters

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

UFC 327: Ulberg v Prochazka

1pm Sunday, 12 April

Kaseya Center Miami, Florida.

Live blog updates on RNZ

An agent of chaos meets a cerebral assassin.

The king has vacated his throne and the fight to succeed him ends on Sunday.

New Zealand’s own Carlos ‘Black Jag’ Ulberg will clash inside the cage with Jiri ‘Czech Samurai’ Prochazka for the UFC light-heavyweight strap in Miami, after champion Alex Pereira relinquished his title to move to heavyweight.

Prochazka brings one of the wildest, most unorthodox and chaotic striking styles in the game, while Ulberg uses a methodical, calculated approach to dismantle opponents.

These elements will combine to create a violent reaction in the Octagon and only one man will emerge with gold.

Who did they last fight?

Ulberg has been on a murderous run of late, riding a nine-fight win streak with six finishes.

His most recent came in vicious fashion, as he slept Dominick Reyes – who had given Jon Jones the closest fight of his career – in round one.

Prochazka is no stranger to the title scene, winning the belt in 2022 in a Fight of the Year with Glover Teixeira.

He was subsequently usurped by Pereira, but wins over Jamahal Hill and Khalil Roundtree Jnr have brought him right back in contention.

What are they saying?

“I know I belong at the top. This is like a mountain, my mission is climb that mountain, get to the top, and anyone who gets in front of me, eliminate them. I’m going to shock the world – he’s a wild fighter, but I’m a sniper man.”

Ulberg

“I like this match-up. Carlos is a great stand-up fighter. He proved he is a good striker. Every fight for me is a title fight. That’s why I can be the best. I’m going to handle this fight and win the title.”

Prochazka

What’s going to happen?

Don’t expect a grappling clinic, this will be a stand-and-bang affair.

Prochazka is a notoriously slow starter, working his way into a fight and making it as messy as he can.

Ulberg will bide his time and find his shots, any of which could shut the Czech Samurai’s lights out.

When gold is on the line, recklessness is slightly reserved, so expect this one to go the distance.

Ulberg will pepper Prochazka with kicks. Prochazka’s ability to thrive in the flurry should be enough to keep Ulberg at bay, but just one clean shot and the Kiwi could shock the world.

Prediction

Prochazka by unanimous decision.

About the fighters

Jiri Prochazka

‘Czech Samurai’

Age: 33

Czech Republic

Record: 32 wins, 5 losses, 1 draw

Height: 1.91m (6ft 3in)

Weight: 93kg (205lb)

Reach: 203cm (80in)

Carlos Ulberg

‘Black Jag’

Age: 35

New Zealand

Record: 14 wins, 1 loss

Height: 1.93m (6ft 4in)

Weight: 93kg (205lb)

Reach: 196cm (77in)

Who else is on the card?

Ulberg’s last victim, Reyes, returns to take on another enigmatic striker in Johnny Walker.

Cub Swanson’s retirement tour ends with Nate Landwehr, who has promised to send the veteran out on his shield.

In heavyweight, one of the most polarising figures to emerge recently in the promotion, unbeaten Josh Hokit meets the dangerous Curtis Blaydes. Hokit has adopted a pro wrestling-like persona many have labelled cringe, while others revel in the refreshing nature of his antics.

The co-main is a heated light-heavyweight bout, as Paulo Costa – a man Ulberg has expressed interest in fighting since his move up a weight class – meets Russia Azamat Murzakanov.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

The fuel industry says people should start seeing some relief at the pump over the next week, despite motorists using diesel fearing prices could reach more than $4 a litre.

Following news of the US and Iran ceasefire, oil prices have fallen, which Waitomo Group chief executive Simon Parham, said was positive news for prices of fuel.

Parham told Morning Report, there would be some relief at the pump in the next couple of weeks and that relief would start to be seen on some gasoline products over the weekend.

Diesel would be a different story however, Parham said, and he expected it would take some time for prices to unwind – but he believed it would not get to $4 a litre.

“I think we’ll skim just under that.”

RNZ went out to speak to drivers at petrol stations on Wednesday, about diesel becoming the most expensive fuel at the pump as it overtakes 98.

According to fuel finding app Gaspy, 260 stations in the motu were charging diesel at $3.99 a litre, with some truck stops in the Bay of Plenty and Waikato hitting $4.20 a litre.

Motorists said that commuters and individuals could switch to petrol cars, public transport or working from home.

But commercial trucking fleets do not have that flexibility.

One contractor told RNZ business owners had no choice but to absorb higher diesel costs in contracts agreed months ago before the fuel crisis.

Another business owner said companies would have to decide whether to pass on the higher cost of diesel to their customers in any new contracts.

A civil construction company owner said: “We’re definitely feeling the pinch. We’re trying to wear the cost as much as possible. But we are looking at price increases”

They said that could cause ripple effects across all industries from construction to agriculture.

One builder told RNZ: “All our suppliers are charging extra on deliveries now.”

Parham said purchases of fuel had softened as prices rose, after a couple of weeks of panic buying.

He said demand was down about 10 percent.

“There’s definitely been a change in behaviours. We’re more keen than anybody to get these prices back down.”

Gaspy spokesperson Mike Newton said dependence on overseas refineries and the lack of alternatives to diesel would likely keep prices high for a while.

Fuel prices in general rose following the outbreak of war in the Middle East and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping route.

US President Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire on Wednesday which led to crude oil prices dropping.

However, Newton said diesel prices were unlikely to drop because New Zealand had no refining capacity and would have to wait for supplies from overseas.

Newton said diesel prices had risen sharply and it was not clear why.

“It’s been creeping up five cents a day sort of thing, but we’ve seen jumps of 30, 40, 50 cents. At some stations just out of nowhere, and it’s not clear to us exactly what is causing such a big jump so suddenly.”

He said the fuel crisis was worse than the price spike that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which drove up diesel prices by about 50 percent.

“Currently, we have already doubled the price of diesel, so it’s over 100 percent increase,” Newton said.

“So although we’re seeing similar patterns, the numbers are just so much bigger than what we saw during the Ukraine conflict.”

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Motorists using diesel say they have little choice but to wear higher costs as prices reach more than $4 a litre in parts of the country.

RNZ went out to speak to drivers at petrol stations about diesel becoming the most expensive fuel at the pump as it overtakes 98.

According to fuel finding app Gaspy, 260 stations in the motu were charging diesel at $3.99 a litre, with some truck stops in the Bay of Plenty and Waikato hitting $4.20 a litre.

Motorists said that commuters and individuals could switch to petrol cars, public transport or working from home.

But commercial trucking fleets do not have that flexibility.

One contractor told RNZ business owners had no choice but to absorb higher diesel costs in contracts agreed months ago before the fuel crisis.

Another business owner said companies would have to decide whether to pass on the higher cost of diesel to their customers in any new contracts.

A civil construction company owner said: “We’re definitely feeling the pinch. We’re trying to wear the cost as much as possible. But we are looking at price increases”

They said that could cause ripple effects across all industries from construction to agriculture.

One builder told RNZ: “All our suppliers are charging extra on deliveries now.”

Gaspy spokesperson Mike Newton said dependence on overseas refineries and the lack of alternatives to diesel would likely keep prices high for a while.

Fuel prices in general rose following the outbreak of war in the Middle East and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping route.

US President Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire on Wednesday which led to crude oil prices dropping.

However, Newton said diesel prices were unlikely to drop because New Zealand had no refining capacity and would have to wait for supplies from overseas.

Newton said diesel prices had risen sharply and it was not clear why.

“It’s been creeping up five cents a day sort of thing, but we’ve seen jumps of 30, 40, 50 cents. At some stations just out of nowhere, and it’s not clear to us exactly what is causing such a big jump so suddenly.”

He said the fuel crisis was worse than the price spike that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which drove up diesel prices by about 50 percent.

“Currently, we have already doubled the price of diesel, so it’s over 100 percent increase,” Newton said.

“So although we’re seeing similar patterns, the numbers are just so much bigger than what we saw during the Ukraine conflict.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

8 April 2026 – The Monetary Policy Committee today agreed to hold the OCR at 2.25 percent. Since the February Monetary Policy Statement, events in the Middle East have materially altered the outlook and the balance of risks for inflation and economic growth in New Zealand. In the near term, inflation is expected to increase and the economic recovery to weaken. The Committee is vigilant to any generalised inflationary pressure and stands ready to act to return inflation to its medium-term target.  

The Middle East conflict has disrupted global supply chains, leading to significantly higher prices for oil and refined petroleum products. As a result, near-term inflation is increasing and economic growth is weakening in many countries. Global financial markets have been volatile and market interest rates have increased.

In New Zealand, the extent of the near-term increase in headline inflation will depend on how the conflict in the Middle East evolves and the magnitude and duration of the disruption to global supply chains and energy markets.

Medium-term inflationary pressure will depend on the extent to which higher costs influence price- and wage-setting behaviour by firms and workers in the economy. If medium-term inflation expectations increase, then inflation is likely to become more persistent. However, weak demand and spare productive capacity in the economy should constrain the degree to which higher costs can be passed on.

The current economic situation is different to 2022 when COVID-19 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupted global supply chains and increased energy prices. Back then, demand was growing strongly, adding to inflation pressure.

The Committee’s decision to hold the OCR balances the potential benefits of responding pre-emptively to the risk of higher medium-term inflation against the cost of unnecessarily stifling the economic recovery.

The Monetary Policy Committee is focused on ensuring that inflation returns to the 2-percent target midpoint over the medium term. This requires core inflation and wage growth to remain contained and medium- and long-term inflation expectations to remain around 2 percent. If these conditions are not met, decisive and timely increases in the OCR would be required.

Read the full statement and Record of meeting: https://govt.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=bd316aa7ee4f5679c56377819&id=922ab96a14&e=f3c68946f8

MIL OSI

Overall commodity prices are at record highs with the war in the Iran generating risks and rewards for New Zealand exporters.

The ANZ World Commodity Price Index rose 4.1 percent in March over February (m/m) — an increase second only to the outbreak of the Russian-Ukraine three years ago.

All components of the index rose in March except horticulture, which was between seasons, with market prices unavailable until the new season’s produce reached its destination.

A 2.8 percent drop in the value of the New Zealand dollar last month also supported export price growth, and helped drive the NZD Commodity Price Index up 6.4 percent m/m to a record high.

Global dairy prices rose 5.9 percent m/m as importers increased purchases to secure supply.

ANZ agriculture economist Matt Dilly said global dairy prices were rising even before the current Middle East conflict started, with current events pushing prices even higher.

“Importers have increased purchases in response to concerns about supply chain disruption. However, global milk supply remains healthy, so higher prices might not be sustained once purchasing behaviours return to normal,” he said.

Aluminium prices were up 9.8 percent m/m, with a damage to a large aluminium smelter in the United Arab Emirates further supporting prices, as the damage was expected to take several months to repair.

Meat and fibre prices increased 2.4 percent m/m with higher overseas prices for beef and lamb.

The meat and fibre index increased 2.4 percent m/m in March and is up 19 percent y/y.

“Overseas demand remains strong for both beef and lamb, despite recent events, and supply is constrained,” Dilly said.

“This could change in the coming months as New Zealand supply increases on a seasonal basis.”

Wool prices dropped 2.8 percent m/m but had risen 49 percent y/y.

The forestry index rose 3.1 percent m/m but was down 5.3 percent y/y as China’s construction activity remained a concern.

“Higher shipping costs, mostly due to fuel surcharges, will further erode margins on New Zealand log exports.”

While exporters could pass on the indirect and direct cost of fuel, he said it would be more difficult for suppliers to pass those costs on to domestic consumers.

In addition he said market volatility could quickly change global demand for commodities.

“There’s a lot we don’t know about what’s happening in the Middle East and sometimes the ripple effects of of a shock like this can have intended and unexpected consequences,” Dilly said.

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Fifty years ago, the trial of Bill Sutch on charges of breaching the Official Secrets Act rocked the nation. Historian Sarah Gaitanos says evidence that was withheld from court gives us an insight into his work as an alleged agent of the KGB. That evidence is published here for the first time.

Bill Sutch could be extremely persuasive. An influential and self-assured intellectual, he could give an impressive account of himself.

In his many books his accounts of his epic solo trek in 1932, around the Arctic Ocean, across the Soviet Union and over the mountains of Afghanistan into India became more extravagant with every telling. Publishers, readers, even his wife Shirley Smith, believed them. Decades after his death, Smith was shocked to discover that it was mostly a fantasy.

Sutch had spent only two weeks in Russia. But that trip – and those two weeks in Soviet Russia – was nevertheless the start of a true story that culminated in his arrest in 1974.

In February 1975, Dr Bill Sutch was tried under the Official Secrets Act. The Act dealt with what was loosely known as spying and wrongful disclosure of communication of official information for a purpose that prejudiced the safety or interests of the state. Sutch, it was said, had been using his position of influence close to the government to gather sensitive information and pass it on to the Soviet Union – an enemy of the state in the Cold War era.

Sutch had been a senior economist in the public service, head of the Department of Industries and Commerce until his forced retirement. Since then he had worked as a consultant. He was an influential public speaker and author with a devoted following.

Over five decades since his trial, accounts of the circumstances surrounding the case have diverged depending on who is telling the story. Those who hold that Bill Sutch was a patriot who would never have betrayed his country shrug off the evidence that he was a KGB agent and point to the lack of evidence of what he was actually doing for Soviet intelligence.

But two documents that NZSIS officers found in Sutch’s office safe do provide direct insight into his activities and relationship with the KGB.

Both written in 1970, the first is a report with classified information on a Cabinet decision about Japanese fishing rights in the Pacific. It shows that Sutch, though no longer a public servant, had access to top level sensitive information. His report, apparently prepared for his KGB handler at the time, gave the Soviet Union an edge in their negotiations for fishing rights in New Zealand waters, potentially compromising the New Zealand Government’s efforts to police their relations with the USSR.

The second – the focus of this article – is a document made up of six short profiles of senior civil servants. It shows a different aspect of the role of a KGB agent.

Attorney General Sir Martyn Finlay, who had the responsibility of deciding whether the case should proceed to court, would later acknowledge that the profiles had ‘tipped the scales’ in his decision to prosecute Dr Sutch, adding that their ‘possible effects in one way or another’, had caused him the greatest anxiety.

This raises intriguing questions. The prosecution went to lengths to determine how to present them in the trial but in the event they were kept secret. The profiles remained classified until 2008 and have not been published until now.

Listen now to The Agency, a new podcast detailing the story of a Kiwi spy who was close to the Sutch case before spending six years in cover for the CIA

I came to the Bill Sutch story as the biographer of his wife (human rights campaigner and trailblazing lawyer) Shirley Smith. Sutch and Smith were married for over 30 years and after his death in 1975, she spent another 30 years defending his reputation. In private, she was more circumspect.

I examined her marriage, her responses to revelations about her husband that continued to emerge, her agonizing doubts and confusion, what she knew and didn’t know about his activities. She would say that her husband didn’t let the truth get in the way of a good story but decades after his death she was still discovering how far he had deceived her. Her discovery of letters Sutch sent to his mother revealed the simpler truth of his travels as a younger man.

She had been shocked, too, to learn of Sutch’s arrest on the night of 26 September, 1974 after agents picked him up on the way to a meeting with Dmitri Razgovorov, First Secretary of the USSR Embassy in Wellington.

The two had been observed meeting in obviously clandestine circumstances, following standard spy craft procedures known as ‘Moscow rules’.

After he was brought in, Detective Colin Lines urged Sutch to come clean and get ‘off the hook’ with the Russians. Sutch at one point asked what would happen to him if he did?

The primary purpose of the joint operation between Police and Security Service was to get Sutch’s cooperation, but Sutch refused to talk to anyone from the SIS and the police had not been sufficiently briefed as to how the matter would be hushed up. In return for his full co-operation, a full and frank account of his association with the Russians, Sutch was to be given immunity. He would have received the knighthood he longed for. His public reputation would have been left intact.

Not knowing this, Lines could only reply to Sutch that it would be a better outcome for him. Sutch considered this before replying that there was no hook.

This testimony, along with evidence of Security Service surveillance of Sutch’s clandestine meetings with Razgovorov, was presented in court.

Whether or not the jury would have returned a different verdict had the report on Japanese fishing rights and the profiles been presented as evidence, one cannot say. Sutch cut a frail figure in court and there was little desire to see him sent to jail. (He would die of liver cancer months later.) According to Smith, a juror told her that they wanted to acquit him and realised they didn’t have to give a reason.

While his acquittal did not end public debate, the profiles were kept out of the discussion until former Attorney General Sir Martyn Finlay was interviewed about them almost 20 years later. What exactly they contained was still not disclosed.

To recap, the profiles refer to a document found in a file labelled ‘Foreign Affairs’ in the safe in Sutch’s office. The document was headed ‘Memo for File’, dated 20 October 1970, and was made up of short pen portraits describing the personal experiences, aptitudes and ambitions of six civil servants, their interests and relationships with their wives.

In four of the six, their attitude towards the Soviet Union is indicated.

The subjects were Tom Larkin and Charles Craw of Foreign Affairs, Geoff Easterbrook-Smith, Geoff Datson and Harold Holden of Industries and Commerce, and Jack Lewin, Department of Statistics. Lewin was Sutch’s closest friend. None of these men were ever suspected of spying for the Soviet Union.

You can read the profiles at the bottom of this article, along with the accompanying SIS analysis.

The SIS analyst who examined the subject, written style, nature and scope of the comments concluded that they were written by a single author, a man with a ‘good working knowledge of Foreign Affairs and Industries and Commerce personnel, and of I & C departmental activities and postings reaching many years back.’

The author wrote familiarly about his subjects as if they were inferior to him. It was noted that Sutch’s background of employment, his general status and degree of influence over the years, fitted him for the part.

The profiles seemed to have been intended for a third person who had asked for information of this sort, the analyst concluded. The first five men were all dealt with in a similar way while the comments on Lewin were more specific.

The analyst wrote a hypothetical brief that the author might have been given:

Prepare brief notes on some of the more senior offices in Industries & Commerce and Foreign affairs Depts. known to you, who hold liberal left-wing political views. I attach a list of points to be covered in your consideration of the men. At the same time, include some comments on LEWIN with respect to his political views, his relationship to the NZ Labour Party and his family interests.

1 Age

2 present job/special expertise

3 Overseas postings

4 Experience and ability

5 Political views (general)

6 Political views during youth

7 Attitude to Soviet Union

8 Intelligence/intellectual ability

9 Interests/hobbies

10 Wife’s attitudes

11 Openness/talkativeness

12 Response to socials/dinners/parties

13 Vulnerabilities/weaknesses/ambitions

The analyst prepared this brief without reference to the Canadian Royal Commission Report of 27 June 1946 (the Gouzenko Report) which outlined criteria Soviet military intelligence used for recruiting agents, based on a document provided by GRU defector, Igor Gouzenko.

Subsequently the analyst studied that report and compared the similarities. He concluded that the ‘memo for file’ was written by Dr Sutch for a trained Russian Intelligence Officer seeking personality information on senior officers in the New Zealand Government Service, specifically in areas where they would expect to have access to classified information and to travel abroad on Government postings.

Crucially, this could then be used by the Soviets for recruitment.

The profiles offer the kind of information that enables an intelligence officer to assess a target: an individual’s likely career path, how to make a friendly approach based on mutual interest, vulnerabilities that might offer leverage, and so on.

The recruitment of foreign government officials is highly prized by intelligence agencies because it allows access not simply to information, but also to people elsewhere in the hierarchy. If the target is recruited in place and remains well placed, the connection can remain open and fruitful over many years.

Intelligence and defence officials are prime targets; after them, foreign affairs.

The profiles were therefore seen as significant supplementary evidence. The Crown Counsels, Solicitor General Richard Savage and Paul Neazor, decided early on to call an expert witness who could explain the methods and information targets of Soviet intelligence agencies. They considered calling a New Zealand intelligence officer to give such evidence, then decided it would be preferable to call an officer from another Service. They approached MI5 but the British were unhappy about one of their officers appearing in court in New Zealand.

Reverting to their original proposal, on 20 December, the prosecution gave preliminary notice of their intention to call additional evidence along with an officer of the New Zealand Service to explain it.

When Bungay showed the profiles to Sutch, he denied all knowledge of them and said they must have been a plant. Smith later told him that wouldn’t sound likely.

Sutch’s former sister-in-law Gladys Brown, who had been his typist in 1970, told police that she hadn’t typed them and didn’t know anything about them but according to an unsent letter to Martyn Finlay among Smith’s papers, Brown confirmed that they were typed on the office typewriter. An SIS search for the typewriter was unsuccessful. It left a question as to whether all of this would amount to evidence in the law.

The decision not to present the profiles in the trial surprised Finlay. He later asked for an explanation. Neazor wrote on 21 July 1975 that it was decided ‘there could be an argument about its probative value not sufficiently outweighing its prejudicial effect, and that it was not of sufficient value to the case as framed to warrant the diversion it would cause.’

The ‘diversion’ resonates with Finlay’s later comment about their ‘possible effects in one way or another’ that caused him such anxiety. They possibly had political repercussions in mind.

The report on the Japanese fishing rights was also not given in evidence. And at the last minute before the trial, the judge decided that cryptic entries from Sutch’s diaries that recorded times and places of clandestine meetings with his handler for years before 1974 were inadmissible because they predated the time-frame of the charge.

All this evidence was analysed by Chief Ombudsman Sir Guy Powles in his [https://www.nzsis.govt.nz/assets/NZSIS-Documents/News-supporting/SutchOmbudsmanReport.pdf

investigation of NZSIS after the Sutch trial], following allegations against them. He found the allegations were without foundation but noted that Sutch’s association with the Russians had lasted for a period of years before his meeting with Razgovorov on April 18, 1974.

Other circumstantial evidence that came to public attention was the wealth Sutch had accumulated, exceeding anything he could have earned legitimately in his career as a public servant, a consultant or as an author (even if his claim that his book Poverty and Progress sold 100,000 copies was true).

Attempts to put a figure on Sutch’s wealth have been based on some of his properties and holdings in New Zealand but not overseas. Smith discovered only in the late 1980s that his estate included a property in the Bahamas. His various overseas funds that could not be known include those in his Swiss bank account.

Sutch’s attempt to hide his wealth was made public after his death when the New Zealand Gazette named him as an evader of taxes estimated at $47,241 between 1966 and 1974, the second highest for any individual among about 650. His undisclosed income during that period was estimated to be about $100,000.

The first evidence that the package Sutch gave Razgovorov in Holloway Road on the 26 September 1974 had reached the Soviet Embassy came from Moscow after the Cold War was over. In 1993, New Zealand journalist Geoff Chapple tracked down Alexei Makarov, who had been Chargé d’Affaires of the Soviet Embassy in Wellington in 1974.

Makarov decided that with the breakup of the USSR and its secret police he had nothing to fear from giving his account of the Sutch affair. He recalled the circumstances of how he received the package of KGB material that Sutch had given to Razgovorov.

Makarov tracked down Razgovorov, who was living in retirement in Moscow. Besides recalling his meeting with Sutch in Holloway Road and how he delivered the package to his driver, Razgovorov told Makarov that he had ‘inherited’ Sutch from the KGB officer he had replaced in Wellington.

In 2014, evidence emerged from the Mitrokhin Archive in Cambridge, England, that Dr Sutch had been recruited to the Soviet intelligence service in 1950.

The Mitrokhin Archive comprises notes of KGB foreign intelligence files hand-copied secretly by archivist Vasili Mitrokhin, who had spent most of his working life in the KGB foreign intelligence archives. Disillusioned by the Soviet system and sympathetic towards dissidents, his chance came to do something in 1972 when he was given the job of overseeing the transfer of KGB foreign intelligence archives to new headquarters.

Mitrokhin secretly wrote summaries of the files, smuggled them out of the building and hid them under the floor in his villa. Over the ten years it took to complete the transfer, he accumulated six trunks of material.

In 1992 Mitrokhin approached British MI6, who then arranged for him, his family and his archive to be brought to the United Kingdom. As copies of original documents, the files have no direct evidential value, but their value in terms of intelligence proved immense. They include the following short entry under a codename: ‘Maori’ – Englishman, born 1907, New Zealand citizen, doctor of philosophy, former high-level bureaucrat in government service, retired in 1965, recruited in 1950, contact with him via Drozhzhin.

The biographical detail fits Sutch exactly and an extensive search proved it fitted him uniquely. After establishing the identity, the significant information is ‘recruited in 1950’.

‘Recruited’ in Russian has a specific meaning in Soviet intelligence, signifying that the subject knows, is tasked and will respond. Mitrokhin later published a KGB dictionary in which he defined ‘agent recruitment’ as ‘the covert involvement as agents of individuals who have opportunities to carry out intelligence tasks at the present time or in the future’.

Transactions were formally recorded. From the moment a KGB agent was on the payroll, he was ‘on the hook’.

Mitrokhin’s entry was written in the early 1970s, before Sutch’s arrest and trial. Mitrokhin names Drozhzhin as Sutch’s contact, confirming Razgovorov’s claim that he had inherited Sutch from his predecessor.

Yuri Timofeyevich Drozhzhin, First Secretary at the USSR Legation and the leading Soviet Intelligence officer in Wellington before Razgovorov, was regarded as a master spy. The pen portraits were written by Sutch for him.

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In February of this year an adult male brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) was found in a trap in Ōrākei, just along the coast from Auckland’s port.

“They can come on imports in containers or in used vehicles and machinery,” says Dr Scott Sinclair, manager of the Biosecurity New Zealand operational readiness team which handles threats to our plants and the environment at the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI).

“And they can obviously then come on the passenger pathway, so via people’s luggage and other paraphernalia like that.”

Scott told Our Changing World that the recently caught BMSB was found in a new type of trap and the response was swift, with more traps placed in the surrounding areas. Thankfully, no further bugs were detected.

So, “It’s really just considered to be an outlier,” he says.

What an invasion might look like

That is a good thing, because we definitely do not want BMSB to set up shop here in Aotearoa.

“It feeds on over 300 host plants. So whatever you can imagine, it will feed on,” says Dr Gonzalo Avila who took RNZ’s Our Changing World on a tour of his lab at the Bioeconomy Science Institute (BSI) where work to build an army to protect New Zealand against a BMSB invasion is taking place.

“Of course, [BMSB] has its preferences, but it would do very well in apples. It would do very well in cherries. It would do very well in kiwi fruit. In the United States, it caused massive destruction to the apple industry there.”

New Zealand’s native flora is also unlikely to escape unscathed.

“All our native plants are in specific families, and BMSB is known to attack plants in the same families. So, they would be potentially at risk as well,” says Gonzalo.

And then there’s the smell. If you have ever come across a native shield or stink bug, you will know the scent they give off when threatened. Karina Santos, Senior Research Associate at the BSI, says BMSB is on “another level.”

“The power is stronger and when they are in big numbers… the chemical that they release can intoxicate humans.”

[embedded content]

The high-risk season for BMSB runs from September until April, as the Northern hemisphere-based bugs find places to overwinter, including inside shipping containers and other things being exported.

There is a real concern that it’s not a case of if BMSB will come in, but when.

The solution?

Just behind the towering industrial BSI building in the heart of Auckland’s Mt Albert, is the squat concrete building which Gonzalo fondly nicknames Area 51.

“Because we’re rearing aliens. We’re bringing insects that are not present in New Zealand and they need to come into containment.” These ‘aliens’ are the potential weapon against BMSB – the samurai wasp.

At first glance the wasp doesn’t look like much. It’s tiny – about the size of an ant. But sticking with the Alien theme, the samurai wasp has some similarities to the chestburster in the Sigourney Weaver movies. It’s a parasitoid, mainly eating nectar from flowers, but needing a host to reproduce. So, the teeny wasp lays its eggs inside a BMSB egg – the larvae kills its host – and instead of getting a stink bug hatching you get a wasp.

While it might not live up to its name in looks – the samurai wasp or Trissolcus japonicus is the natural enemy of BMSB.

Neither of these insects, which are native to East Asia, are in New Zealand yet but in 2018 the Environmental Protection Agency approved the use of the samurai wasp if BSMB ever became established.

The idea is if you get a pest insect into the country, you recruit its home predator to help you. We’ve done this before – dating right back to the late 1800s when ladybirds were brought in to deal with aphids.

A lot of the work being done by Gonzalo and Karina is to make sure we understand just what releasing this biological control might mean and what it would entail.

Building the army

Ensuring we can quickly create an army of samurai wasps to handle a BMSB invasion is one of the problems Karina has been looking into.

She’s experimenting to see if the samurai wasp could be reared using the pittosporum shield bug, which is an exotic species that showed up here in New Zealand in the 1950s, and they have another project, funded by MBIE, which is looking into developing artificial stink bug eggs.

“We are now at the phase that we are developing our first prototypes of artificial eggs,” says Gonzalo.

And to attract the wasps, Karina is testing out stink bug perfume on steel balls, which look a lot like the ones you might use to decorate a Christmas cake.

Gonzalo explains that the steel balls are covered with volatiles from the brown marmorated stink bug and if they figure out an attractive perfume, they’ll then hone in on which are the specific chemicals that are enticing the wasp.

An army on ice

Mass rearing isn’t the only option for building the army. Another recent study looked at bringing in the wasps and keeping them on ice.

The team managed to import around 12,000 parasitoid wasps and more than 90 percent of the females survived.

“We wanted to try to see for how long we could keep them alive and still be viable,” says Karina, “Because one thing is that they survive, but the other thing is that they survive, but they also attack and reproduce.”

The results were positive.

“Yes, they can do that.”

Unleashing the army

The decision-making about when and how to release the samurai wasp, would fall to MPI’s Biosecurity New Zealand, and Dr Scott Sinclair says “It’s a really cool idea, but it’s something that’s really difficult for us to operationalise and particularly to operationalise rapidly because there’s some really challenging logistical constraints.”

This is because we would need a huge population to make a dent in a BMSB incursion.

“So, it’s unlikely that we’d be using samurai wasps, I would say, within the first year of a response,” he says, “But as things move forward and we can think about some of those logistics and how it’s challenging to put those out into the environment, then that process would probably happen, in subsequent years.”

Figuring out the best way to grow this army and then deploy it is not an easy thing, says Gonzalo.

But Gonzalo stresses just how important it is to keep working on ways to combat BMSB, because the threat to New Zealand is so high

“We don’t want to play the Russian roulette here and see what happens. The consequences of doing nothing would be so high.”

If think you have found a brown marmorated stink bug, don’t kill it. Catch it. Take a photo and contact Biosecurity New Zealand.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

By Holmes Lybrand, Evan Perez, Katelyn Polantz, Kara Scannell, CNN

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who President Donald Trump tapped to serve as the interim head of the Justice Department, managed the day-to-day operations of the department over the past year, often taking a more public-facing role when Pam Bondi was in hot water with White House officials.

Early in the administration, in fact, the White House told the now-former attorney general she could not appear on Fox News for a time amid fallout over the Justice Department’s handling of making parts of the documents related to Jeffrey Epstein public. Blanche appeared in her absence, helming the administration’s defense over the drawn-out Epstein debacle.

Blanche was Trump’s defense attorney across several criminal cases the then-former president faced following his first term in office, one of several members of Trump’s legal team given key DOJ or judiciary posts.

When Blanche took the deputy attorney general position, his experience as a former prosecutor and as a lawyer at a large law firm in New York was seen by career officials as an encouraging sign that the department’s institutional norms would be protected, something that did not bear out.

Swaths of DOJ and FBI officials who worked on 6 January or Trump-related cases have been removed, attempts have been made to prosecute the president’s political enemies, and the cloud of the Epstein files continues to hang over the department.

As deputy attorney general, and while he has served in parrying attacks related to Epstein and beyond, Blanche faced blistering criticism after his interview last year with Epstein’s co-conspirator and business partner Ghislaine Maxwell.

Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for her role trafficking girls for Epstein, was upgraded to a minimum-security prison camp. In December, Blanche said the Bureau of Prisons made the decision to move Maxwell, adding that “she was suffering numerous and numerous threats against her life.”

Blanche also came under criticism because he hadn’t asked about documents congressional Democrats had subpoenaed from the Epstein estate.

“When I interviewed Maxwell, law enforcement didn’t have the materials Epstein’s estate hid for years and only just provided to Congress,” Blanche said in a post on X, responding to Trump critic George Conway.

Thursday (all times local), Blanche on Fox News said Epstein didn’t have anything to do with Bondi’s removal and also sought to bat down conspiracy theories around Epstein – including the idea that he was a spy – marking his continued desire to move past the issue.

“I think that to the extent that the Epstein files was a part of the past year of this Justice Department, it should not be a part of anything going forward,” Blanche said.

“I’m not sure you totally get what people feel about that,” Fox News host Jesse Watters said later on Blanche’s responses to Epstein-related questions.

Fighting Trump’s perceived political enemies

At the Conservative Political Action Conference last month, Blanche boasted about what he saw as one major success of the past year: ousting political enemies from the department.

Every DOJ employee – including FBI agents – who worked on investigations or cases around Trump following his first term had been fired, resigned, or took early retirement, Blanche said, adding that the number amounted to “over 200” people.

“There is not a single man or woman at the Department of Justice who had anything to do with those prosecutions,” Blanche said.

Blanche’s continued work as Trump’s personal attorney also translated into adopting some of the language of the president’s MAGA allies and publicly clashing with Trump critics.

Blanche defended Bondi after she was fired Thursday.

“As President Trump said today, the attorney general made our country safe again,” Blanche said on Fox News, hours after the announcement. “And she is a friend, and she did a great job in the first year of this administration.”

The new head of the Justice Department said he understood the frustration and desire to go after Trump’s political enemies when pressed on the issue and the failure to prosecute those individuals. Blanche noted that he was Trump’s defense attorney in multiple criminal cases following Trump’s first term.

“I had a firsthand accounting of what happened,” Blanche said. “Yes, I understand it. The American people understand it, and I know that the American people expect that it will never happen again, and we take that seriously.”

Blanche in meetings flashes a dry sense of humor but is also known to quickly lash out in anger when his frustrations boil over, associates say. At the Justice Department, he often led meetings, even those that the attorney general was supposed to be in charge of, an indication that he wielded the day-to-day power at the department.

Trump is considering replacing Bondi with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, according to sources, though others may also be on the short list. The former congressman could face harsh probing from senators over his very limited legal experience as well as his defense of Trump during his first impeachment hearings in late 2019.

In the trenches with Trump

Blanche was one of Trump’s lawyers for the New York hush-money case as well as the two federal cases brought by special counsel Jack Smith over Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his retention of classified material after leaving office.

He is the only administration official who sat beside and guided Trump while his freedom was on the line during the criminal trial involving hush money payments in New York. While Trump was convicted, Blanche’s legal maneuvering resulted in Trump’s sentencing being postponed until after the election, all but ensuring that Trump would avoid serving any prison time.

The Trump defense team also won at the Supreme Court expanded protections from criminal prosecution for the president, in the 6 January case, just before Trump retook the presidency. He and his team also convinced a Trump-appointed judge in Florida to throw out the classified documents charges.

More recently, the Justice Department supported the same judge, Aileen Cannon, burying part of the special counsel’s final report on that investigation into Trump and others.

Beyond Epstein, Blanche has also faced criticism over public comments he made regarding the wrongfully deported immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, comments that led to Blanche nearly having to testify about his oversight of the case in Tennessee against Abrego Garcia.

During his confirmation hearing last year for deputy attorney general, Blanche declined to say if he would recuse himself from Justice Department efforts to re-examine the prior work of federal prosecutors on the Trump cases – cases in which Blanche represented Trump.

Blanche responded to questions about conflicts of interest by saying he would not violate his ethical obligations.

Previous Justice Departments attempted to maintain distance from political winds and the president’s direct wishes, and recusals were common when a department lawyer had previously been on the defense side of an investigation. That wall was most evident when former Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from overseeing the Russia investigation around Trump’s 2016 political campaign.

Yet Blanche has continued to attack the prosecutions of Trump, now from inside the Department.

“Jack Smith is a proven liar, consistent with these fake accusations from his failed vendetta against the President,” Blanche wrote on social media last week regarding the former Justice Department special counsel who had secured two indictments against Trump in 2023. Both were dismissed before trial.

“There is absolutely zero proof of wrongdoing,” Blanche added, echoing the same position he had taken in court while opposite the Justice Department.

– CNN

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By Peter Hutchison and Helen Rowe, AFP with aditional reporting from RNZ

New Zealand High Commissioner to the UK, Hamish Cooper, has attended a meeting discussing joint action to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

In a statement from a spokesperson for Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters, the discussions were ” collaborative and provided a useful opportunity to discuss diplomatic and political options for restoring freedom of navigation and the free movement of vital commodities through the Strait of Hormuz, including how countries might work together to achieve this.”

The statement also said the coming together of 40 countries for the meeting demonstrated “strong international agreement on the urgent need to restore freedom of navigation and see the Strait of Hormuz reopened.

It also alluded to the impacts felt in New Zealand due to the Strait being shut, saying it is directly impacting New Zealand’s economy and leading to higher fuel prices.

The statement said New Zealand will continue to work with partners to “identify a constructive way forward”, and that the talks are in line with “our longstanding commitment to freedom of navigation,” and reflects “the critical importance of this region to New Zealand’s economy.”

The meeting, hosted by the UK, included France, Germany, Canada, the United Arab Emirates and India.

The US did not attend the meeting.

The meeting wrapped up on Thursday (local time) with a demand for the “immediate and unconditional” reopening of the vital shipping route, but no immediate breakthrough.

“Iran is trying to hold the global economy hostage in the Strait of Hormuz. They must not prevail,” British foreign minister Yvette Cooper said in a statement.

“To that effect, partners today called for the immediate and unconditional reopening of the Strait and respect for the fundamental principles of freedom of navigation and the law of the sea,” she added.

The strait has been virtually closed since the US-Israeli war against Iran started on February 28, impacting global supplies of important commodities including oil, liquid natural gas, and fertiliser.

That has led to a sharp rise in energy prices.

The foreign ministers and representatives who joined the call discussed a range of areas of “possible collective, coordinated, action,” Cooper added.

This could include increased diplomatic pressure, including through the UN, as well as possible sanctions, she said.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) meanwhile called Thursday for the UN Security Council to authorise the use of force to protect the key waterway.

Bahrain has proposed a draft resolution that would greenlight states to use “all necessary means” to assure free transit through the Strait of Hormuz.

However, the measure has divided the 15-member Security Council, with Russia, China and France — who each hold veto privileges — all voicing strong objections.

Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajanialso, who joined the virtual talks, called for a “humanitarian corridor” for fertiliser and other essentials through the strait to avoid a food disaster in Africa.

Cooper earlier slammed Iran’s “recklessness” over the strait as she kicked off the virtual meeting.

She said Iran’s blockade of the waterway was “hitting our global economic security”.

Around a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passes through the strait in peacetime.

A total of 37 countries have signed a statement, first published last month, expressing “readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through” the shipping lane.

Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the Netherlands are among those to have signed it.

The United States, China, and most Middle Eastern countries have not, according to a list provided by the UK government.

‘Unrealistic’

A spokesperson for the French foreign ministry said securing the Strait of Hormuz could “only take place once the intense phase of the bombing is over”.

French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking on a visit to South Korea, said a military operation to liberate the Strait of Hormuz was “unrealistic”, while lamenting Trump’s differing daily statements on the Iran war and NATO.

“There are those who advocate for the liberation of the Strait of Hormuz by force through a military operation, a position sometimes expressed by the United States,” Macron said.

“I say sometimes because it has varied, it is never the option we have chosen and we consider it unrealistic,” he said.

The virtual meeting hosted by Britain came after Trump urged oil-importing nations to show “courage” and seize the narrow strait.

“The countries of the world that … receive oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage,” Trump said in a prime-time address late Wednesday.

“Just take it, protect it, use it for yourselves,” he added.

Trump has said he would consider a ceasefire only when Hormuz is “free and clear”.

Many countries have however insisted any operation to protect seafarers using the strait could only come after a ceasefire.

“We are also convening military planners to look at how we marshal our collective defensive military capabilities, including looking at issues such as de-mining,” Cooper told Thursday’s meeting.

The channel normally sees around 120 daily transits, according to shipping industry intelligence site Lloyd’s List.

But since March 1, commodities carriers have made just 225 crossings, according to maritime intelligence firm Kpler, a 94-percent decrease on peacetime.

-AFP

(Additional reporting by RNZ)

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Across the Arctic north, reindeer still follow routes that have shaped Sámi life for generations, tying people to land, culture and identity.

Now University of Auckland Law School Professor Claire Charters is heading to Sápmi to study the Indigenous political institutions that have emerged from that history.

Charters (Ngāti Whakaue, Tūwharetoa, Ngāpuhi, Tainui) has received a $10,000 Borrin Foundation Travel and Learning Award to examine Sámi governance institutions and what they might offer Aotearoa New Zealand.

The Sámi, who number about 80,000 across Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia’s Kola Peninsula, are the only recognised Indigenous people in the European Union. In response to pressure on their land, culture and political rights, representative bodies known as Sámi parliaments were established in Norway, Finland and Sweden.

Charters will attend sessions of the parliaments, meet parliamentarians and members of the Sámi Council, and connect with experts in Sámi law and governance at the University of Tromsø, the University of Helsinki, and the University of Oulu.

“The Sámi parliaments in Norway, Finland and Sweden are utterly fascinating as mechanisms to realise Indigenous peoples’ self-determination, even if they only do so imperfectly,” says Charters, who co-directs the Aotearoa New Zealand Centre for Indigenous Peoples and the Law.

“There are so many lessons we can learn to apply in Aotearoa. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to undertake research on the parliaments in situ.”

Her research will focus on the relevance of Sámi constitutional arrangements to Indigenous governance in Aotearoa, at a time when questions about Māori political authority, self-determination and constitutional transformation remain central.

Charters says her broader work in Indigenous peoples’ rights, in Aotearoa and internationally, is driven by a passion for justice for Māori and other Indigenous peoples in light of the impact of colonisation, together with consequential structural and socio-economic inequities.

MIL OSI