It needs to be remembered, as Israelis themselves often point out, that Israel is only a small country, 21,000 km² or about the size of Canterbury province in NZ. Missiles from Gaza or Lebanon don’t need to travel very far to hit a significant destination. Fortunately, the Iron Dome defense system works pretty well, but would it not be better for Israel to reach some sort of accord whereby legitimate grievances (not the destruction of Israel and its inhabitants which Hamas and Hezbollah want) can be accommodated and hostilities stop? Before he was uninstalled in 2020, Donald Trump managed to achieve Treaties between most of the Arab states and Israel. Hopefully, he will achieve the same again.

https://twitter.com/RealJamesWoods/status/1838227806041592052

In Indonesia, a country noted for an excessive number of airline crashes.

Here Noel Phillips, a travel vlogger with a penchant for commercial aircraft, shows what he experienced on an aging Sriwijaya airline Boeing 737-500, bought second-hand from Continental Airlines. The airline has only one of them now, it had another but managed to crash it. He flies from Depati Amir to Jakarta.

Airlines in NZ aren’t cheap but, aerial trampolining when landing in Wellington notwithstanding, there is an extremely good chance of getting where you’re going in excellent safety. In Indonesia, it’s a bit less so.

EPIC: Peter Hitchens exposes the farcical nature of net zero, to the dismay of BBC Question Time panellists and audience members. 🔥

"If you want to live in a country where nobody can afford to heat their house… if you want lots of people to lose their jobs because there's no… pic.twitter.com/T72pXDxyDs

— Wide Awake Media (@wideawake_media) September 23, 2024

The Council invites submissions on a proposed change (PC3) to the Operative District Plan 2021, to recognise Kārewarewa urupā as a site of significance to Māori. 

Located at Waikanae Beach around Barrett Drive, Te Ropata Place, Marewa Place, and Tamati Place, Kārewarewa urupā holds significant spiritual, cultural, and historical value to tangata whenua, including Te Ātiawa ki Whakarongotai. It has been used as an urupā from the mid-19th century, and is considered wāhi tapu by Te Ātiawa. 

PC3 has immediate legal effect on Wednesday 18 September, in accordance with section 86B(3)(d) of the Resource Management Act 1991. This means the District Plan rules for sites and areas of significance to Māori will apply to subdivision, use, and development at Kārewarewa urupā on and from this date. 

Submission on this plan must be received by 5pm, Friday, 1 November.  

Make a submission on Proposed Plan Change 3 – Kārewarewa urupā

We support this change; burial grounds should not be disturbed. —Eds

from AntiWar.com

The Biden administration is preparing to provide Taiwan with $567 million in “military aid” as the US continues to ignore China’s red lines related to the island, Defense News reported on Friday.

The weapons package is in the final stages and will be provided through the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA), which allows the US to ship weapons to other countries directly from US military stockpiles.

The military aid will be the largest PDA package that the US has provided Taiwan. Since Washington severed diplomatic relations with Taipei in 1979 as part of a normalization deal with Beijing, the US has always sold weapons to Taiwan but never financed the purchases or provided the arms free of charge until last year.

In 2023, the US gave Taiwan a $345 million arms package using the PDA and provided $80 million in Foreign Military Financing (FMF), a State Department program that gives foreign governments money to purchase US arms.

The Defense News report said the new $567 million package has been approved by the Pentagon and is awaiting President Biden’s signature. He’s expected to sign it before the 2024 Fiscal Year ends on September 30.

Congress has authorized the provision of $1 billion in PDA for Taiwan each year, and the $95 billion foreign military aid bill Biden signed in April included $1.9 billion that could be used to replenish weapons sent to Taiwan.

The new form of US support for Taiwan has infuriated Chinese officials, who frequently warn the US that the issue is the “first red line” in US-China relations that must not be crossed.

When President Biden signed the foreign military aid bill in April, Beijing warned that new military aid for Taiwan will make a conflict more likely.

“I would like to stress that getting closer militarily between the United States and the Taiwan region will not make the latter safer or save ‘Taiwan independence’ from doom. It will only heighten tensions and the risk of conflict and confrontation in the Taiwan Strait, and will eventually backfire,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin.

The DNC has to keep its armaments-manufacturer sponsors happy, but they have already done extremely well out of the Biden administration. Hopefully Trump will stop this waste.