by Karl du Fresne from his blog

Last Tuesday’s edition of my local paper, the Wairarapa Times-Age, devoted an entire page to an Associated Press (i.e. American) feature story about affluent middle-class professionals taking extended career breaks.

The people mentioned in the story are representatives of an elite US metropolitan class who can afford to put their careers on hold while they spend months enjoying a “reset” in exotic locations such as Egypt and Brazil. It’s hard to imagine a story less relevant to readers of a paper in a New Zealand provincial town where many people are struggling.

Stuff, which provides most of the content in the Times-Age, made a half-hearted and thoroughly unconvincing effort to dress up the article as something important by labelling it “The Global Read”. That it was published in the Times-Age was an insult; in fact a double insult. It was insulting to the paper’s readers first because it was a lazy way to fill space, and second because of its complete lack of empathy. People who worry about being unable to pay the grocery or electricity bill are hardly likely to relate to stories about privileged lifestyles that they could never dream of emulating.

The article lacked even the saving grace of being well written. In common with much American journalism produced by earnest university graduates, it was turgid and overlong. I couldn’t imagine a single Times-Age reader persevering to the end. Most would have given up after the first few sentences, the subject matter being only marginally more compelling than a doctoral thesis on nematodes.

For this, the small editorial staff of the Times-Age are blameless. The paper is owned by Stuff and much of its content is generic, being shared with other papers in the Stuff chain. Local (i.e. Wairarapa) input is generally restricted to three or four news pages at the front, plus letters to the editor, an occasional opinion column, some featherweight community-contributed content (the “Thought of the Day” is popular) and a bit of sport. The rest is centrally generated by Stuff and relies heavily on syndicated content from overseas providers such as the aforementioned Associated Press. The editor of the Times-Age has no control over it and his opinion of its merit is not known to me.

Stuff papers are – excuse the pun – stuffed full of content that’s shovelled into the pages with little concern for relevance and even less for attractive display. Turn the pages of any Stuff paper and you’re bound to be confronted by great slabs of dull grey type devoted to subjects of minimal interest, typically illustrated with lifeless, static pictures downloaded from an online image library. Filling the space seems the sole imperative, and Stuff’s editors appear to grab whatever happens to be available.

It’s cheap and it requires minimal effort; that seems to be Stuff’s operating model. Never mind what the readers might want. Who cares?

Let’s return to Tuesday’s Times-Age. Eager to read something interesting and relevant after the AP snorefest, readers would have turned the page to see a double-page spread, this time reproduced from Britain’s Sunday Times, about Ukraine creating underground classrooms where children can learn without the disruption caused by Russian missiles and drone attacks.

I didn’t have the patience to do a count but I would guess the story ran to at least 2000 words, which is far too much to ask of a provincial newspaper reader on a weekday morning. (Note that the original British version was published on a Sunday, when people have the luxury of time – and bear in mind that the Sunday Times is read by the leisured class.) And while the subject was interesting enough, the story could have easily been crunched down to a quarter of its length without losing any crucial information (hint: it’s called editing).

And so it continued. The following page was another grey slab – this time a wordy opinion column on aged care, accompanied by another file picture retrieved from an overseas image library. More laziness.

Further on, another two-page spread: a travel article about a remote location in Queensland. Travel pieces are a handy way of padding a newspaper with fluff. The writers are often prepared to accept a token payment because their principal reward is the free trip (or junket, in journalistic parlance).

The Wednesday paper wasn’t much better. This time, the full-page “Global Read” was about Singapore Airport’s introduction of a levy to pay for sustainable aviation fuel. Really? An entire page, in a paper serving provincial New Zealand? Couldn’t they find something a little more germane to readers’ lives and interests?

Oh, but hang on – there’s more. A few pages further on, there’s a full-page opinion piece – running, I’d guess, to about 1500 words – by a university lecturer from Leicester, England, about the potential harm done by social media. And opposite that, another full-page piece of similar length by another university academic, this time an Australian-based American writing about cyber crime.

Most readers of the Times-Age will have flicked over these pages with barely a pause because they offered nothing to lure them in. The vital principle that a successful newspaper reflects its community appears to have been forgotten or ignored.

Thursday’s paper brought yet another double-page spread, again from the purveyors of stodge at Associated Press, about an American man raising twin boys with autism. It was labelled with the tag line “In depth”, as if that magically made it something people in provincial New Zealand would want to read about. And on the following page, an opinion piece by a University of Auckland academic about slavery laws. Academics, like freelance travel writers, are a handy source of cheap copy because they’re keen to get published and in their case, the taxpayer picks up the tab because the writers are on the public payroll.

This is a rip-off worthy of the attention of Consumer magazine. People in the Wairarapa (and come to that, in Wellington and the Manawatu and the Waikato and Christchurch and Timaru and Nelson and Invercargill too, all of whom get served the same dross by their local Stuff papers) don’t buy their daily paper to read wordy articles by academic non-entities about subjects far removed from readers’ real-life interests and concerns.

Another “In depth” piece on Friday – from The Times of London – was a dispatch from Greenland about how Donald Trump is making the locals nervous. Again, a legitimate subject – but two pages? And further back in the paper, another two pages devoted to newly released movies that may never be screened in the Wairarapa.

People pay good money for their paper. They deserve better than to be presented with pretend newspapers that contain barely a skerrick of hard news. Every one of those esoteric non-stories occupied precious space that in a previous era would have been filled with content of genuine interest and value; information vital to the functioning of informed communities. Even as recently as 10 years ago, no self-respecting paper would have wasted space on them.

To use a biblical analogy, we’re being fed lots of chaff but precious little wheat. Even the few supposed news pages come up short. In seven years as a news editor on daily papers, I always held to the view that on a typical day there were probably about half a dozen stories of such national interest and importance that they had to be in the paper. They might be stories about politics, crime, business takeovers, fires and fatal car accidents or whatever. You could be confident that if you read a daily paper in any of the major cities or provincial centres, you’d be informed about them. And if you didn’t see them, by definition you were not well informed.

That operating principle was abandoned years ago. News coverage is now a random, hit-and-miss affair. You might read about a major event or you might not. We literally don’t know what we’re missing. Vast areas of the country are black holes; we hear virtually nothing about them. (The demise of the New Zealand Press Association, which used to ensure that all news of significance from anywhere in the country was promptly distributed nationwide, is a separate tragedy of its own.)

The American journalist Walter Lippman once said that without the news media, we would live in an invisible society; we wouldn’t know anything. We haven’t quite reached that point, but we’re heading in that direction. We know less about ourselves than at any time since the emergence of the popular press in the 19th century.

In place of news, we now get bulky opinion pieces from Stuff journalists. Too often they take a partisan political or ideological line. The short, sharp, punchy news story, which previous generations of reporters could write in their sleep and once filled papers, is virtually extinct.

In the case of Stuff papers, there’s a disproportionate preponderance of content from the Press. The Christchurch paper has become the engine room of the Stuff chain, with the result that Stuff papers carry a lot of Christchurch news that’s of zero interest to readers elsewhere.

Obituaries? Don’t get me started. I frequently see full-page obits for Americans and Brits whom most Stuff readers will have never heard of. The deaths of notable New Zealanders, meanwhile, pass unnoticed.

I could go on. I haven’t mentioned the pages devoted to soft, lifestyle-oriented content that used to be the preserve of glossy magazines: articles about gardening, interior design, food, fashion and relationships. The Times-Age, like other Stuff papers, also devotes acres of space to movies and TV shows that most people will never watch. In the days when everyone viewed the same free-to-air television, stories about programmes and personalities made sense. Not so, however, when most TV content is streamed on subscription platforms and viewing patterns have become hopelessly fragmented.

A few of the Stuff journalists who edit all this generic copy (if editing is the appropriate word, given that much of it is lifted holus-bolus, headlines and all, from other sources) are old enough to remember when newspapers were full of stuff that mattered. I can’t imagine all of them are happy to be processing editorial content whose sole purpose is to fill space.

It seems hard to believe that with its resources, Stuff can’t present the readers of its papers with a more compelling editorial product. I’m therefore forced to the conclusion that the company is run by people who don’t care much about newspapers and may even regard them as a tiresome anachronism that they would rather be rid of. I get the impression print readers are deemed far less important than those who “consume content” – a hideous phrase – online (Stuff owner Sinead Boucher was an early convert to digital).

How have we come to this? That’s a long, sad story that can wait for another time. Suffice it to say that newspapers were hit by a digital technology revolution that fatally undermined their profitability, and their decline was hastened by owners who were panicked into doing the wrong things – such as making content available free online.

The strange thing, in view of all the foregoing, is that I still value the Times-Age enough to keep paying my subscription. Reading it with my first coffee of the day, although it takes far less time than it once did, is a morning ritual. But more than that, the local paper – even in its tragically feeble and eviscerated state – is still a valuable means of keeping communities connected. With a bit more care and commitment from their apparently indifferent owner, Stuff papers might yet avoid the inevitable fate that otherwise confronts them.

Original article

You will probably say, ‘isn’t it only the 5th year’, but it really began with the Obama–regime-backed coup d’etat against the then pro-Russian government in Ukraine in 2014 which led Russia to re-annex the Crimean peninsula. From then to 2022 NATO together with its gangster regime in Kyiv (Kiev) orchestrated a campaign of military provocation against Russia, including massive persecution of ethnic Russians in the Donbass region and a huge military build-up including biological weapons facilities.

According to TV1 News, New Zealand has ignominiously contributed $180 million to NATO’s war to date under both the last government and the present one (that would have covered the cost of a hospital in Kapiti). Yesterday, Winston Peters announced another $8 million is going to these crooks — see this article on The Daily Telegraph and read the comments!

by Andrew Korybko

As it’s always done, Russia is expected to ensure its sovereignty, security, and thus its survival through the creative interplay between its political, military, intelligence, diplomatic, expert, and civil society communities.

Russia’s special operation against NATO-backed Ukraine just entered its fifth year. The last three anniversaries were reflected upon here, here, and here, and keeping with tradition, the present piece will review what happened over the past year and forecast what might be come in the next one. Generally speaking, Russia now faces five geostrategic challenges that are expected to shape its approach towards the US-mediated peace talks with Ukraine and its grand strategy overall, namely:

———-

* NATO Influence Is Poised To Expand Along Russia’s Entire Southern Periphery

Last August’s “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity” (TRIPP) along Armenia’s southern Syunik Province has the dual function of a NATO military-logistics corridor through the South Caucasus to Central Asia. Spearheaded by member state Turkiye with allied Azerbaijan serving as the launchpad across the Caspian, TRIPP threatens to revolutionize Russia’s regional security situation for the worse if these threats aren’t contained, especially if it emboldens Kazakhstan to follow in Ukraine’s footsteps.

* The US Supports The Revival Of Poland’s Long-Lost Great Power Status

“September 2025 Was The Most Eventful Month For Poland Since The End Of Communism” for the 18 reasons enumerated in the preceding hyperlinked analysis, which set Poland up to play a central role in the US’ National Security Strategy for containing Russia after the Ukrainian Conflict ends. It already has the EU’s largest army, is located in the middle of pivotal military-logistics corridors, and is very eager to revive its long-lost Great Power status and attendant historical rivalry with Russia at Moscow’s expense.

* The EU Is Unprecedentedly Militarizing And Upgrading Its Military-Logistics

De facto EU leader “Germany Is Competing With Poland To Lead Russia’s Containment” in no small part through the nearly $100 billion in defense procurement projects that it approved last year alone. The EU as a whole is also militarizing too with the help of the €800 billion “ReArm Europe Plan”. To make matters even more concerning for Russia, the “military Schengen” for optimizing the dispatch of troops and equipment towards its borders continues apace, with the Baltic States newly committing to join this too.

* India Seems To Be Undergoing A US-Friendly Grand Strategic Recalibration

India began aligning with some of the US’ interests after their trade deal as explained here, which could eliminate tens of billions of dollars’ worth of Russian budgetary revenue if India does indeed reduce its import of Russian oil like the US claimed that it agreed to. The same goes for India possibly eschewing new big-ticket military-technical purposes from Russia too. This US-friendly grand strategic recalibration might also put more pressure on Russia’s top Chinese partner and therefore reshape Asian geopolitics.

* Poland Now Wants Nukes & Turkiye Might Soon Declare The Same Intent

The US’ decision to let the New START lapse risks a global nuclear arms race. Poland was emboldened to declare its nuclear intentions while RT published a detailed report about how Turkiye might go down this route too. Both are historical Russian rivals, and seeing as how Poland envisages carving out a sphere of influence in Central & Eastern Europe and Turkiye envisages one in Central Asia as was noted above, them obtaining nukes would pose a huge threat to Russia and raise the likelihood of its containment.

———-

The five geostrategic challenges confronting Russia in the fifth year of its special operation are formidable but not insurmountable. As it’s always done, Russia is expected to ensure its sovereignty, security, and thus its survival through the creative interplay between its political, military, intelligence, diplomatic, expert, and civil society communities. They might opt to cut a deal with the US over Ukraine so as to focus more on tackling these challenges, but not at any cost, ergo why that hasn’t yet happened.

Small in itself but the implications make it major.

by Natalya Murakhver

A £21 million settlement in the UK just set a precedent. American institutions haven’t answered for what they did to a generation — yet.

In a watershed moment that should send shockwaves across the Atlantic, University College London has agreed to pay £21 million to settle a lawsuit brought by 6,500 former students who claimed their education was gutted by Covid closures — cancelled lectures, substandard Zoom teaching, locked libraries and labs.

And this is just the beginning. Lawyers are now pursuing 36 other UK universities on behalf of 194,000 claimants. If successful, the total payout for Britain’s higher education sector could run into hundreds of millions of pounds.

Let that sink in.

Students in the United Kingdom are being compensated for what they lost. Meanwhile, American college students who suffered the same fate — stripped of the campus experience they paid tens of thousands of dollars for — have largely been left holding nothing but debt and degrees that didn’t deliver on their promise.

The Covid disruption to childhood and education spared no one. From the youngest kids in kindergarten to graduate students defending dissertations on Zoom, an entire generation was failed at every level — by school boards, administrators, public health officials, and university presidents alike. No age group, no grade, no stage of learning was protected. Children lost years. Adolescents lost milestones. College students lost the education they were promised and paid for.

The UK ruling didn’t happen by accident. It happened because students organized, lawyers stepped forward, and courts took seriously the idea that institutions have an obligation to deliver what they promise — pandemic or not. UCL admitted no liability, but wrote a £21 million check anyway. That is accountability in action. Financial Times report.

American [and NZ —Eds] students were failed at every level of their education. The question is: who will hold American institutions — from school boards to university presidents — accountable for what they took from an entire generation?

The precedent is now set. The wave is coming. And if you’re a college student, a graduate, or a parent who watched your child’s education collapse behind a screen — you should be asking very loudly: Where is our reckoning?

The Council says–

With new housing developments underway in Waikanae North, a new roundabout is being built on Old SH1 between Waikanae and Peka Peka to improve safety and traffic flow. The developer is constructing this roundabout to meet their requirement to provide safe and appropriate access to the site.

Construction will begin early March on the northbound lane before shifting to the southbound lane in April. Stop/go traffic management will be in place. The roundabout is expected to fully open at the end of May.

By 2050, we expect another 32,000 people to call Kapiti home. This means carefully planning housing, infrastructure, and services to support our community’s future.

Given how much its leaders have Stuffed it, particularly over the last 4 years, it’s hardly surprising.

“The unthinkable just happened in Brussels and the world is in shock. Viktor Orban’s Hungary has officially activated the exit procedure, causing an unprecedented earthquake that threatens to collapse the entire European building. As the Euro collapses and the capitals panic, one question burns all lips: where did Ursula von der Leyen go? Some talk of a hasty escape in the face of explosive revelations. Do not remain in ignorance, discover the details of this historic divorce and the secrets hidden in the full article” —

Full article

It’s kind of what you’d expect from a country whose parliament gave a standing ovation to a former member of the Nazi Waffen-SS. Readers should put ‘Nazi T4 program’ into a search engine to see where this could lead.