The 27-year-old UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider crossed the line on Paris’ Champs-Elysees in the peloton, to join Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain as the endurance event’s most successful male riders. Matt Warwick, BBC Sport
Pogacar unbeatable
PARIS, FRANCE – JULY 26: Mads Pedersen of Denmark and Team Lidl – Trek celebrates at podium as Green Sprint Jersey winner during the 113th Tour de France 2026, Stage 21 a 89km stage from Paris to Paris / #UCIWT / on July 26, 2026 in Paris, France. (Photo by Bernard Papon – Pool/Getty Images)
All the world’s cycling experts picked the Slovenian to win and he duly obliged to join four legends in picking up a fifth victory. This year’s Tour de France started in Barcelona and covered 3230km in 21 stages before finishing in Paris last weekend.
One of the big unknowns is always survival, especially as crashes and pile-ups are common, and top riders can be forced out because of injury. This year 2022 and 2023 champion Jonas Vingegaard from Denmark was forced to abandon the Tour in the third week. Pogacar was quite upset: “It’s a shame Jonas crashed out this time and many others. I hope they have a quick recovery and next year we fight again.”
Tadej Pogacar had his anticipated successful tour and always seemed able to catch the leaders if he got behind, especially on the massive mountain climbs. “Victory is really special,” said Pogacar. “Thank you to all the fans and my team. But the biggest thanks goes to all my family who support me all my life. My parents – without them I would not be standing here five times already.
“Seven Tours and seven times on the podium, and five wins, is something you wouldn’t even … write in a story book, and it’s unbelievable for me.”
The battle on the streets of Paris
The final 21st stage was reduced from 133km to 89km because some emergency services from the capital were needed to help tackle wild fires in south-west France.
Organisers introduced a circuit which took on a cobbled climb over the city’s famous Montmartre hill and passed the iconic Sacre-Coeur Cathedral, changing the route enough to allow the heavier, more powerful riders to challenge for victory. The finish was the usual desparate race on the Champs Elysees, but this year it was not a bunch sprint.
Pogacar was clearly keen to win the final dash, but for once the Slovenian wasn’t quite up to it. After a thrilling battle through the huge crowds in the narrow city streets notably in Montmatre where some fans had cell phones knocked out of their hands, Belgian Mathieu van der Poel got away from Pogacar in the last kilometre to take the coveted final sprint from a fast finishing Jasper Philipsen.
Worthy champions
The top three riders in the overall Tour’ general classification were
1. Tadej Pogacar, Slovenia 73hrs 56mins 26secs
2. Remco Evenepoel, Belgium +6mins 26secs
3. Isaac del Toro, Mexico +9mins 42secs
One of the most entertaining riders in theTour was Ecuador’s Richard Carapas. He struggled early in the race before coming into great form in the last few stages to claim the king of the mountains’ polka dot jersey. He won stage 18 and Saturday’s stage 20 after topping the race’s highest point in the French Alps – the legendary Alp d’Huez first, after 5,450km of climbing and 21 hairpin bends.
The green points jersey was won by Denmark’s Mads Pedersen, after tenacious riding on climbs he is not typically strong on to sweep up mid-stage points, alongside winning stage four.
He beat a number of top sprinters to the jersey, including Belgian Jasper Philipsen. The Belgian won stage 17 and fellow countryman Tim Merlier won three bunch sprint stages.
Still as popular as ever
Millions watched the race from the sides of roads, footpaths, and mountain sides, and on television, and there was the usual huge trade in the famed yellow, green and white jerseys. However, the most popular top is always the King of the Mountains polka dot jersey.
The big political story in the last 24 hours has been Christopher Luxon ruling out TOP. But there’s a more important story this morning that’s been largely missed – Luxon appears to be no longer ruling out increasing your taxes!
Our new report out today also exposes local councils for sitting on a fortune! (Of art, that is.) And, worse still, only a measly one third of it is even on display.
Let’s jump in.
Luxon embraces the inflation tax
Christopher Luxon spent his years in Opposition warning that inflation was silently dragging hard-working Kiwis into higher income tax brackets. Stopping this ‘bracket creep’ was even part of his 2023 election pledge.
A worker gets a pay rise to keep up with rising prices. They are not actually any better off in real terms, but more of their income is pushed into a higher tax bracket.
The Government collects more tax without announcing a tax rise, passing a law, or having to defend the decision.
It’s sneaky, nasty, tax increases by stealth. Failing to deal with it makes a mockery of National’s claim to be the party of ‘lower taxes’.
“No taxation without indexation!”
National cannot credibly claim to be the party of lower taxes while relying on inflation to hike them.
And indexation of income tax thresholds is not some radical new tax cut.
It simply stops the Government from collecting a larger share of someone’s income when their wages have only risen to keep pace with inflation.
Super, benefits, and Working for Families are all adjusted to reflect rising prices. We say taxpayers are entitled to the same protection.
National made the case for tax indexation in Opposition. Now they ought to deliver it in Government.
EXPOSED: MBIE officials waste $35m on botched IT project – then lied to Ministers to cover it up!
MBIE have been caught red-handed running amok, lyingmisleading successive Governments and Ministers about an immigration IT project failing and blowing through $35 million of taxpayers’ money to get nothing.
In short, officials withheld information from Ministers, deliberately avoided Cabinet scrutiny, and kept pouring taxpayer money into a project that was doomed and eventually abandoned.
Senior Immigration New Zealand officials repeatedly ignored requests from the minister’s office and progressed work on a project the minister hadn’t agreed to extra funding for, according to new documents released to RNZ.
The hundreds of pages of correspondence paint a picture of the processes the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (MBIE), which the Immigration department sits within, used to pursue a now abandoned IT upgrade.
Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche has appointed Michael Heron KC to investigate “integrity concerns” after Immigration Minister Erica Stanford revealed last month her officials “deliberately withheld” information from both her and the previous government.
At least $35 million of taxpayers’ money was wasted after the biometric capability upgrade (BCU) was ultimately stopped in 2025 after years of red flags, delays, and missed milestones.
In an unusual move Stanford has released documents to RNZ she would normally withhold under the “free and frank” provision, given the “significant public interest considerations and the fact that my recollections of the conversations are consistent with what is noted in the timeframe”.
One of those documents, a timeline developed by her specialist ministerial advisor, Kara Isaac, clearly lays out the many emails, conversations, and meetings between the minister’s office and her ministry officials, including the chief executive, between 21 February and 30 April 2024.
The timing is interesting. Just last month, the MBIE boss referred to above was rewarded a gong as part of the King’s Birthday Honours!
You couldn’t make it up! At the very same time the Government is exposing the rot under the leadership of Carolyn Tremain (pictured) she was made a Companion of the King’s Service Order!
If someone in the private sector misled their boss (and blew $35 million) they would be shown the door.
But this boss gets a gong.
Remember the rule in the public service: every failure is a success, and every success is well rewarded…
Porky the Waste-Hater joins the MBIE picket line
While the research team here at the Taxpayers’ Union were digging into the MBIE story (literally reviewing the material released by the Minister) we noticed that we received a media alert that MBIE workers were walking off the job to demand [checks notes] more money!
Now, normally we’d be all for MBIE staff walking off the job (most business owners would agree having the Ministry’s offices closed greatly assists with New Zealand’s business, innovation, and employment) but we thought the timing was misjudged.
We worked out that had the $35 million on the failed immigration IT project been saved – the equivalent of more than $6,000 would be available for every MBIE employee!
So your humble Taxpayers’ Union headed down to MBIE’s Wellington headquarters with Porky the Waste-Hater to join the picket line.
But there was a problem, Geoffrey. With so many of MBIE’s officials still working from home there was almost no one in the office to “walk off the job”!
Apparently, even the picket line was working from home.
Only the Public Service Association (the union for bureaucrats) would announce a picket line to the media – and then fail to deliver.
Thank God for the Taxpayers’ Union!
Nicola Willis cements taxpayers with $60m corporate welfare bill
Fletcher Building had been considering shutting down local clinker production and switching to imported cement as operating costs rose.
What’s driving those costs, you ask? Well, Nicola Willis needs to save Golden Bay Cement from Nicola Willis’s policies.
The Government is imposing carbon costs that make New Zealand industry uncompetitive, so is now taking money from taxpayers to stop the uncompetitive industry from closing.
Take with one hand, give back with the other – and send taxpayers the bill for both.
Golden Bay Cement competes against overseas producers facing different carbon costs.
If the result of New Zealand’s settings is to shut an efficient local plant, import the same cement from overseas, and export the jobs and emissions from our own ledger, that is not serious climate or fiscal policy.
Lack of transparency: What did taxpayers buy?
Then there is the matter of the agreement itself. As yet, the full terms of the corporate welfare “deal” have not been released.
The Government cannot fix every company made uncompetitive by its own policies with an individual taxpayer-funded rescue package. A cheque for Golden Bay (i.e. Fletcher Building) politically papers over the much larger crack.
The question politicians should really be asking is whether the Emissions Trading Scheme is still fit for purpose given that it was based on the assumption our trading partners would soon follow and price emissions (which is clearly not happening).
And we are not talking about a few dusty prints hanging in the town hall.
Auckland owns a Salvador Dalí. Dunedin owns a Claude Monet. Wellington owns a Pablo Picasso.
And as exposed on Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking Breakfast this morning, even Rotorua Council owns some Goldies!
Auckland displays less than 2 percent of its collection, while Hamilton manages just 2.5 percent. Thirteen councils reported having none of their collections on public display at all.
Quite the public collection… if you are lucky enough to work in the storeroom.
So young New Zealanders are being told to save more for their own retirement while continuing to fund an increasingly expensive universal pension for everyone ahead of them.
Our campus youth group, Generation Screwed felt, well… well and truly screwed.
There is a reasonable argument for encouraging people to save more for retirement.
But you cannot call it retirement reform while refusing to reform the taxpayer-funded pension young workers will also be expected to pay for.
Kicking the NZ Super can down the road might be politically convenient in an election year, but it does not make the cost disappear.
It simply hands a bigger bill to young New Zealanders already dealing with high rents, student debt, and a tax system tilted towards funding promises made long before they entered the workforce.
When Super was set up, there was one recipient for every seven workers. By 2060, when our Gen Screwed kids will be looking to their imminent retirement, that ratio will be just two workers to every recipient.
It’s not unreasonable to expect them to be concerned about what, exactly, will be waiting for them.
We’ve seen many examples of Leftists waving Islamist flags thinking that they support LGBTQIA+ people when the opposite is the case.Islamists will see them as useful idiots for some of their objectives, but that’s all.
the BBC says
In Germany there is grief, shock and, increasingly, anger about the attack at Berlin Pride on Saturday night which left one Polish woman dead and injured at least 29 others.
Germany’s Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said Ballout “had previously drawn attention to himself through a high volume of criminal offences, radicalisation and affiliation with the Islamist scene.”
““When I heard the news that a car had plowed into the Berlin Gay Pride Parade… a man in a car, and what was also shocking to me was that the first thing I thought was: ‘Hopefully it’s not a Kanake, hopefully it’s a white Christian person.’ But it wasn’t. Intersectionality comes into play again. We don’t all face the [same things] inoments like these.”
This is a request that you e-mail the Health Select Committee ASAP at health@parliament.govt.nz on two urgent matters, as it is sitting this week. Please see template below for e-mail content. As the controlled creep of impositions from bird flu gathers pace, there is an important opportunity to have your say; to let the government know you are watching and will not accept more of the same.
Also, our colleague and tireless advocate, Greg Rzesniowiecki, has already submitted a Petition to Parliament: “Urgently withdraw all COVID-19 injectable products from market.”
Yesterday, he provided the Health Committee (made up of MPs across parliament) with a comprehensive new paper – a document that lays bare the evidence, the institutional failures, and the urgent need for action.
Greg’s paper is solid evidence and it draws on:
The 58 conditions attached to Medsafe’s February 2021 provisional approval — conditions which indicated the products were more toxic by orders of magnitude than any prior vaccine.
The excess mortality data: New Zealand has suffered approximately 19,000 excess deaths from 2021 to 2025 — more than our total losses in World War One.
The documented suppression of repurposed well-established treatments like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, while novel, untested gene therapies were mandated.
The admissions of the Royal Commission that the approval process failed to communicate the evolving risk profile =- especially to young people.
The failures of Medsafe –– including to define what “safe” actually means, despite marketing itself as a safety authority.
As Greg states in his paper:“The Covid-19 Response was detrimental to New Zealand’s National Interests. The State is guilty of gross human rights abuses in its Pandemic Response as adjudicated by an objective mind.”
What We Can Do
The Health Select Committee is currently reviewing Greg’s submission. NZDSOS will write urgently to the HSC that it be examined, and that they become aware of the serious issue of blood contamination by the white clots. We encourage you to write to the Committee as soon as possible, ideally today.
We are asking supporters to: Email the Health Committee at Health@parliament.govt.nz — even a short message makes a difference. Please send your own rather than forward this e-mail, which may trigger a spam filter. Share your own experience if you would like — whether you were injured, know someone who was, or have relevant expertise. Personal stories carry weight.
Express your support for Greg’s four recommendations, especially:
The withdrawal of all COVID-19 injectable products;
A proper inquiry into ‘vaccine’ damage;
An investigation into ACC’s handling of vaccine injury claims;
An amendment to the Bill of Rights to protect bodily autonomy.
Oppose the normalisation of gene technology in medicine, food, and agriculture without proper, independent, long-term safety assessment.
Put the government on notice that we are fully awake to unjustified impositions via Bird Flu.
Suggested e-mail template, but please use your own words as much as possible. It can be short and to the point.To: Health Select Committee – Health@parliament.govt.nz
Subjects: Attention Health Select Committee. Support for Petition: Urgently withdraw all COVID-19 injectable products from market. Bird Flu management.
Dear Health Committee members,
A. I am writing to express my strong support for the Petition submitted by Greg Rzesniowiecki, and for the four recommendations set out in his paper to the Committee.I urge the Committee to:
Recommend the immediate withdrawal of all COVID-19 injectable and other gene therapy products from the New Zealand market.Support a full Select Committee inquiry into vaccine damage, as called for by Rt Hon Winston Peters. Or better yet, a fully independent one.Investigate ACC’s processes for dealing with vaccine-injured New Zealanders.
Support an amendment to the Bill of Rights Act 1990 to ensure that the State can never again compel mass vaccination under an emergency declaration, nor suppress and persecute health workers who dissent.[Add your personal story or reasons here – e.g., “I was injured,” “I know someone who was,” “I have reviewed the evidence and am deeply concerned,” or “I support the protection of pregnancy, bodily autonomy and informed consent.”]
For the reasons above, I urge the Committee to adopt the Petitioner’s recommendations and report back to the House. [Optional suggestion, if you believe, as we do, the Epstein class may be trying it again.]
B. In addition, based on all the information Greg, NZDSOS, The Health Forum NZ, VFF and others have delivered to government on pandemic harms since 2020, we require elected representatives on our behalf to be deeply sceptical and investigate for themselves the advice on bird flu that comes via ministry officials such as MBIE, MOH, MPI and MFAT, and the WHO — so discredited by its COVID-19 shenanagins.
Restrictions and impositions affecting human rights, animals, democratic processes and our food supply in the name of power and profit will be far less tolerated this time around.
Thank you [Your Full Name] [Your Title / Organisation, if applicable]
[Your Contact Details]
The Broader Context
Greg’s paper also highlights the systemic capture of regulators by the pharmaceutical industry, the military-aligned rollout (Operation Warp Speed), and the ongoing refusal of authorities to release health outcome data comparing the vaccinated and unvaccinated. NZDSOS and many of you have been relentless trying to get these and many other factors to decision-makers. Much of the information we have all gathered is evidence for a serious criminal investigation.
As Greg reminds us:“When an individual does an injustice, the law provides remedy and redress. When the State does an injustice, who interprets the law and provides the remedy and redress?”The answer, in a democracy, is Parliament. And Parliament only acts when it hears from the people.
What Else You Can Do
Share this post with your networks, friends, and familyPost about the petition on social media, using the link: Petition Link HereContact your local MP and ask them to support the recommendationsSupport our workwith your donations
In Solidarity
This remains a difficult fight, but the most important one of our lives. The mainstream media and health care remains mostly captured and have ignored the covid jab deaths and disablement. Parliament has dismissed these victims, as the politicians “move on” and tell us to.
But we will not, because the evidence keeps mounting and the harm keeps compounding. People need our help.
As Greg said in his paper:“The carnage was foreseeable to one with a comprehension of political economy, sociology and history, and could think clearly and critically.”
We ask you to think clearly and critically — and to act. Contact the Health Committee today; make your voice heard.
Support Greg’s petition. Tell the MPs they must not be deceived into attacking the country over bird flu – nor ever again.
P.S. The papers submitted to the Health Committee and Petitions Committee are available here: