Upon our first inspection after the work by the GWRC was finished we were surprised by the degree of alteration, and not pleasantly.

The impression that had given in the GWRC announcement was that the shingle island mid-stream was going to be excavated and removed. It has been eliminated but only by bulldozing it to each bank. The result is another pair of big shingle beaches to add to the ones further upstream.

Even with the shingle island there, the river had nice vistas here, and we’ve posted several photos of them.

It seems to us the main objective has been increasing the slopes of the banks to deal with the next occasion there is an “abundance of Dougherty’s precious water” that is, a flood. No doubt that will cause a lot of this loose shingle to move westwards into the Estuary proper.

At least the detour that had been necessary because of the north bank washout here is no more.

Telegram founder is furious with the EU: “We do not help with political censorship”

Pavel Durov, founder of the immensely popular communication platform Telegram, is furious about what he sees happening in the European Union. In a scathing statement on social media, he makes it clear that Telegram will not cooperate with political censorship.

European governments want tech companies to help punish ordinary citizens who criticize the government. But Telegram refuses. “This trend in the EU is alarming,” Durov writes. “I’ve seen German requests to prosecute users who merely criticize government officials. Calling a politician a ‘pig’ or a ‘lizard’ is now treated as a crime. Telegram doesn’t meet such demands – we oppose political prosecution.”

It’s a rare powerful and principled voice at a time when almost all other platforms, from X to Facebook, have collapsed under government pressure.

Read the rest (Dutch)

The mighty European Union, as ruled by Brussels and followed in principle by Great Britain, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, has been exposed as a Neo- Feudalist totalitarian nightmare! The Globalist Banksters and their ilk who took over the Feudal system… pic.twitter.com/T48LjhnyFv

— Carl Freeman (@CarlFreema27787) July 23, 2025

There are plenty of videos on social media showing how Starmer and Macron’s Third World migrant hordes behave (and Merz’s migrants are probably as bad) in the subways.

How much longer will these be paddocks before Property Businessmen move in? Fortunately, all their new developments (one is on the other side of the road here) means there will soon be an oversupply of houses in Waikanae.

from Centrist

NZ First leader Winston Peters, in Parliament this week, rejected the use of “Aotearoa”, slamming what he called a sham name change never approved by the people. 

The clash came during Question Time when Green list MP Teanau Tuiono asked about marine commitments made at the UN Ocean Conference in France. 

Peters, who attended as foreign minister, replied bluntly, “No such country turned up.”

Speaker Gerry Brownlee stepped in to defend the use of “Aotearoa New Zealand” in the House, pointing out it appears on passports and in legislation, citing the New Zealand Geographic Board’s use of the name. 

Winston Peters: Only the will of the people can change this country's name, not a bureaucratic board pic.twitter.com/08Lz7jMpTv

— New Zealand First (@nzfirst) July 24, 2025

“If there is any change to the Geographic Board’s position, it should be done by legislation, by the government,” Brownlee said.

However, Peters cited the New Zealand Geographic Board’s own 2018 policy, which says the board has no power to rename the country and that any change requires an act of Parliament alongside public consultation.

“We are not going to put up with this sham or pretence that our name is being changed when the New Zealand taxpayer has never been consulted,” Peters said. “It is not even the name of the South Island where Māori are concerned,” he argued.

Yet, Brownlee upheld the right of MPs to use Māori terms such as “Aotearoa” under the rules of the House. 

See this earlier post by Roger Childs here

More on YouTube here and here

According to the NZ Herald, TV Three’s latest financial result shows the Warner Brothers Discovery NZ owned broadcaster has made a full year $77.6 million after-tax loss and a redundancy bill of almost $15 million has been announced. That is not the only loss that Discovery NZ has made with TV3.

Surprisingly it seems that Warner Brothers Discovery is not requiring Sky to take on its debt, which Fairfax must have required Ms Boucher to do in 2020 when it sold Stuff to her, also for $1. It must be assumed that there is enough cash at the bank to pay its debt.

It all shows the state of the Legacy Media, particularly those which persist in promoting Far Left propaganda — unless they receive subsidies from the likes of the US Democrats’ government propagandist USAid (which the Trump administration has put a stop to), Google, Microsoft and/or George Soros associated NGOs for that.

We can’t see TV3 making a profit under Sky TV, which as we observed last year is very badly managed and not worth paying for. Anyone who wants their pay content can get most of it free with the Kodi app and a Virtual Private Network (VPN) such as Nord.

So what is TVNZ worth now — also nothing? We said in this post in February that the time to sell it was then while it was still worth something — has that ship sailed?