ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on February 28, 2026.
Cuban ambassador denounces US aggression and violations of international law
INTERVIEW: By Eugene Doyle This is a moment of great peril for the small Caribbean nation of Cuba. Nothing less than its sovereignty is on the line as the US drives its knee into the neck of 10 million Cubans by means of a crushing air and sea blockade and a set of secondary sanctions
Keith Rankin Analysis – New Zealand’s Fiscal Crisis
Analysis by Keith Rankin, 27 February 2026. I heard this on RNZ News 11am 12 Feb 2026: “The government’s finances are in better shape than expected due to lower [government] spending and a higher tax take. Treasury figures … show a deficit of $5.2b for the six months ended December, almost $1.6b below the half-year
Keith Rankin Essay – Vagrants and a Very Basic Universal Income
Essay by Keith Rankin, 25 February 2026. Over the last few days, there has been plenty of media chatter in relation to the government’s proposal to pass a law enabling police to forcibly shift street dwellers from Auckland’s CBD. (Refer ‘Move On’ orders penalise those with the least, Scoop 22 Feb 2026.) While Labour likes
Keith Rankin Essay – Milano-Cortina, Pandemic Central
Essay by Keith Rankin, 20 February 2026. Imagine if the Olympic Games were currently being held in Wuhan, China. There would be widespread mentionings of it having been the starting place of the Covid19 pandemic, in December 2019. But pandemics (not ‘global pandemics’; pandemics are global by definition, as are world wars) have two places
Keith Rankin Analysis – Parliamentary Term Length; is New Zealand really an Outlier?
Analysis by Keith Rankin, 19 February 2026 The RNZ news bulletin of 10pm on 18 February stated: “New Zealand and Australia are outliers in having three-year parliamentary terms, with four or five year terms far more common … politicians have over the years expressed frustration at how much can be achieved in a three-year cycle.”
Local plumber Hannah Spencer beats both Reform and Labour to win UK byelection
Novara Media In a spectacular triumph, Britain’s Green Party has won the Gorton and Denton byelection in Greater Manchester. Local plumber Hannah Spencer has now become the party’s fifth MP — a historic victory for the ascendent Greens, who ran a campaign of national hope and international solidarity against Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The byelection
Amnesty slams global impunity fueling Israel’s illegal West Bank annexation measures
Amnesty International Amnesty International has condemned Israeli authorities over unleashing a series of unlawful measures deliberately designed to dispossess Palestinians in the occupied West Bank — including East Jerusalem — and to make the annexation of the territory an irreversible reality. These decisions since December 2025 represent an unprecedented escalation – in scale and speed
Woolworths’ AI agent rambled about its ‘mother’. It’s a sign of deeper problems with the tech rollout
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Uri Gal, Professor in Business Information Systems, University of Sydney Recently some Australian shoppers got more than they bargained for when they chatted with Woolworths’ artificial intelligence (AI) assistant, Olive. Instead of sticking to groceries, recipes and basket suggestions, Olive reportedly produced strange, overly human-like responses. It
Why Commonwealth Bank’s $1 billion suspected loan fraud should change how we bank and do business
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Toby Walsh, Professor of AI, Research Group Leader, UNSW Sydney The Commonwealth Bank reportedly suspects around A$1 billion in home loans were obtained fraudulently, including through AI-generated documents. The Australian Financial Review says the bank has reported itself to police and the corporate watchdog to investigate. According
What is Aspergillus, the fungus behind recent hospital deaths?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thomas Jeffries, Senior Lecturer in Microbiology, Western Sydney University A common mould has killed two people, and left four others seriously ill, at one of Sydney’s largest hospitals. Health authorities are investigating a cluster of fungal infections at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital’s transplant unit. Six patients
Home ground disadvantage? How sleep and travel could impact the Matildas
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michele Lastella, Senior Lecturer, CQUniversity Australia On paper, the Matildas should have a major advantage playing on home soil for the upcoming Women’s Asian Cup. However, from a sleep and travel perspective, they may be fighting a hidden disadvantage despite Australia hosting the tournament, which runs from
View from The Hill: Ley formally resigns, tells Taylor it’s ‘vital’ he holds Farrer
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Deposed Liberal leader Sussan Ley formally resigned from parliament on Friday – and sent a blunt challenge to her successor, Angus Taylor, in her farewell statement. Speaker Milton Dick will now set the date for the byelection in the regional
NSW’s new rapid response police unit may help some people feel safer, but it also raises difficult questions
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Poe, Associate Professor of Social and Political Thought, Australian Catholic University The New South Wales government has just announced the launch of a new, permanent rapid response police unit. Composed of about 250 officers and 28 administrative staff, the unit will be equipped with a fleet
Ed Sheeran caught the train to Melbourne to protect the climate. But what about his thousands of fans?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milad Haghani, Associate Professor and Principal Fellow in Urban Risk and Resilience, The University of Melbourne This week, images on social media showed global superstar Ed Sheeran alighting from the overnight train from Sydney into the decidedly utilitarian surrounds of Southern Cross Station in Melbourne. In Australia
ER Report: A Roundup of Significant Articles on EveningReport.nz for February 27, 2026
ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on February 27, 2026.
