From grand harbour spectacular to intimate perfection: the varied dance at Sydney Festival 2026

January 22, 2026

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Erin Brannigan, Associate Professor, Theatre and Performance, UNSW Sydney

Of all the arts, dance has a special capacity to create worlds. Centred around the moving body, these worlds draw on other art forms – music, visual art, design, projection – to fill-out visions in time-space.

Dance at this year’s Sydney Festival ranged from a 20 minute, salon-style performance for two dancers, to an outdoor, multimedia, participatory sunset event with Sydney Harbour as a backdrop.

Garrigarrang Badu

Jannawi Dance Clan’s premiere of Garrigarrang Badu by Peta Strachan is the perfect work to orient audiences to the Dharug Country at the heart of Sydney Festival.

Jannawi is an all-female group with members from across the country who work collaboratively with artistic director Strachan, a Dharug woman of the Boorooberongal clan. Strachan’s role as a Dharug Knowledge Holder informs the language-revitalisation-in-action that grounds and filters through this work.

In this full-length dance work in local language, lyrics to a song-cycle by Matthew Doyle are linked to places, materials, costumes and objects that fill each dance in a series that flows.

In Dharug, garrigarrang means salt water and badu fresh water. The title speaks to where the two meet in our water systems at Sydney Harbour where we gather on the sweltering night of the performance.

The work is shaped around women’s knowledge, artisanship, music and movement. They present to us an intergenerational connection to land, water, sky and all that they hold.

A collection of women on stage. — Garrigarrang badu is shaped around women’s knowledge, artisanship, music and movement.
Stephen Wilson Barker/Sydney Festival

To see this all female performance, intimately and proudly connected to Country, is a moving occasion. Dancers Dubs Yunupingu and Buia David are stand-outs as the central protagonists of the loose narrative.

Digging sticks, eel traps and Nawi (canoes) focus our attention on a skilful, ethical and balanced collaboration with resources. Alongside the ephemeral cultural materials of music and dance, the whole presents as a living archive of the Dharug people.

Strachan’s choreography, with co-credits for the cast, Albert David and Beau Dean Riley Smith, reflects influences from her time at NAISDA (Australia’s National Indigenous Dance College) and with Bangarra (2000–04), and as a cultural performer and teacher.

Low shuffling walks, softly curved spines and mimetic hand gestures are combined with contemporary elements such as barrel jumps and high-leg extensions, reminiscent of the Bangarra vocabulary.

Garabari

We later moved outside for Melbourne-based, Wiradjuri choreographer Joel Bray’s Garabari, one of Bray’s first full-length, ensemble works, following his earlier solo pieces.

He describes himself as a gay Indigenous man raised in a white Pentecostal home, training at both NAISDA and the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts, and with an international career as a dancer prior to his first solo choreographies.

Garabari was developed across multiple cultural and artistic encounters. Time as a performer and artist-in-resident with Chunky Move may have supported the lean into popular culture in his work. The movement language draws on traditional, contemporary and popular vocabularies with a formal or shaped-based quality that perhaps reflects ten years Bray spent dancing in Israel, where a certain modern aesthetic associated with Ohad Naharin’s Gaga technique dominates.

A large group of people dance together outside. — In Joel Bray’s work, gradually we all become part of a whirling human garabari.
Stephen Wilson Barker/Sydney Festival

At a language workshop I attended, led Bray and his father Christopher Kirkbright, Bray explained how this work came about. Consultation with the Wiradjuri community in Wagga Wagga led to conversations with local Elder, the late Uncle James Ingram.

Ingram shared the story of the birth of the Murrumbidgee River with Bray, the greedy Goanna men thwarted by a heroine, Ballina, which forms the core narrative of the work.

Garabari begins with some words of welcome from Bray, explaining that the title of the show is an Anglicised Wiradjuri word for corrobboree.

As the sky darkens, we are led to the furthest boardwalk of the Opera House where the Harbour Bridge looms large. We move through a smoking ceremony and wander among quiet dancers in white on multiple open-air stages. We hear recounted stories and watch danced dramas.

Gradually we become part of a whirling human garabari, with music by Byron Scullin and projections by Katie Sfetkidis coming into their own. The crowd swarms and pulses under the dancers’ instructions.

Featuring excellent dancers such as Luke Currie-Richardson and Zoe Brown Holten, this is a work with an inclusive, celebratory and contemporary spirit.

Exxy

A few days later I am back at the house to enter another world – Dan Daw Creative Project’s Exxy.

Based in the United Kingdom, this disabled-led company’s model of “theatre, dance and activism” is connected to Australia’s Restless Dance company in Adelaide through Daw, an ex-performer in the company.

The suburban, slightly grimy and claustrophobic scenography becomes a platform for vibrant truth-telling and venting. Emotional charge and physical excess go head-to-head in this relentless work that ends with both performers and audience crying to The Power of Love.

Two people on stage scream. — Dan Daw Creative Project’s Exxy is a work of vibrant truth-telling and venting.
Neil Bennett/Sydney Festival

In the opening scenes, Daw takes time to care for his audience and introduce his collaborators Tiiu Mortley, Sofia Valdiri and Joe Brown. This introduction gives little indication of what is to come.

Like Garabari, this work grows in complexity and mood as each artist on stage shares autobiographical snippets through word and action.

The performers tell stories of lying about sports injuries and offensive sexual encounters. They perform drooling, running under duress and shaking. These stories and actions are connected by a repeated skipping or tripping movement to create a circle of unity. Interspersed are solo dances of delicate devastation.

Daw dances high and light on his feet with arms reaching above and around him. Mortley maps dramatic shapes with her arms and torso. Brown repeats actions punishingly in response to commands from off-stage and Valdiri stims violently on the floor.

Saltbush – a plant that can thrive in the harshest environments – becomes a central metaphor in this work about being not only unapologetic about disability, but expressing it with relish, abandon and anger.

Save the Last Dance for Me

Two shows at Sydney Town Hall in the Vestibule Room top off the dance program with lessons in refinement.

Italian choreographer Alessandro Sciarroni’s Save the Last Dance for Me is a 20 minute piece of perfection.

Dancers Gianmaria Borzillo and Giovanfrancesco Giannini, simply with a sound score and stylish outfits, perform a dance from the early 20th century Bologna called Polka Chinata.

Two men dance in an ornate hall. — Save the Last Dance for Me is a 20 minute piece of perfection.
Stephen Wilson Barker/Sydney Festival

Recently rediscovered by Italian dance historians, like the Argentinian tango Polka Chinata is a male social dance form created to seduce a female audience.

Sciarroni simply adds a contemporary frame and the dance does the rest. It is intense, virtuosic and sexy.

Echo Mapping

Azzam Mohammed has emerged from the hip hop community in Sydney, winning competitive events and performing in Nick Power’s contemporary-street dance works.

A recent Sydney Festival staple, his new collaboration with composer and artist Jack Prest is Echo Mapping.

A man bends over backwards in front of an audience. — Echo Mapping is mesmerising.
Victor Frankowski/Sydney Festival

This pared-back duet is mesmerising. Mohammed, trance-like, summons movement and vocalisations that shift across Africanist angular static forms, percussive geometric patterning and echoes of the most recent iteration of this deep lineage in the popping and locking that Mohammed excels in.

The music-dance dialogue between the two artists matches yearning trumpet calls to melodic cries and drum beats to looping running steps.

The perfect venue for this intimate spectacle.

Erin Brannigan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. From grand harbour spectacular to intimate perfection: the varied dance at Sydney Festival 2026 – https://theconversation.com/from-grand-harbour-spectacular-to-intimate-perfection-the-varied-dance-at-sydney-festival-2026-273459

Eugene Doyle: Mark Carney’s moment – a new non-aligned movement?

By Asia Pacific Report -

January 22, 2026

COMMENTARY: By Eugene Doyle

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney gave a speech at Davos this week that signals there may still be a leader in the West worth following.

“Middle powers must act together because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu,” he warned.

The Canadian PM was brutally honest about Western conduct in the world but shone a bright light on a better path forward.

At a time when the US has pivoted to a smash-and-grab deployment of hard power that now extends to its closest allies, Carney stepped up.

The speech wasn’t a rhetorical tour de force; it was better than that: it was a declaration by the leader of a major, middle ranked Western power that the snivelling compliance, the fawning and the keep-your-head-down approach that has typified the collective West’s response to Trumpism is at a strategic dead end.

We are at a moment which Carney defines as “a rupture in the world order”.

Nostalgia is not a strategy
“We know the old order is not coming back. We shouldn’t mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy,” Carney said.

At a time when the US is led by a criminal toddler who can’t stop whining about not getting the Nobel Peace Prize even as he attacks country after country, it is refreshing to encounter a leader who thinks and speaks like a statesman of the first rank.

“We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition. Over the past two decades, a series of crises in finance, health, energy and geopolitics have laid bare the risks of extreme global integration.

“But more recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons, tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited,” Carney said.

A modern non-aligned movement
Carney did not reference the Non-Aligned Movement formed at the Belgrade Conference in September 1961 but it leapt to my mind when I heard him say:

“In a world of great power rivalry, the countries in between have a choice: compete with each other for favour or to combine to create a third path with impact.”

Carney also reaffirms the importance of the institutions that the West itself, including Canada, has severely weakened in recent years — WTO, UN and COP to name three. Russia, with its invasion of Ukraine, comes in a distant second in this regard.

With an assertive, aggressive US hell-bent on getting whatever it wants, Carney looks on the times we have entered with much-needed clarity. His call is for an alliance of middle powers.

In a word: collectivism.

The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and what Carney is proposing have similarities, particularly structurally, but also significant differences, particularly ideologically.

Not least Carney is a reformer and not at heart an anti-imperialist. He is the former head of both the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada and will not be seen in a Che Guevara t-shirt any time soon.

As with the NAM, however, Carney advocates collective leverage, resistance to client-state dependency and using internationalism to resist divide-and-rule by great powers.

“When we only negotiate bilaterally with a hegemon, we negotiate from weakness. We accept what is offered. We compete with each other to be the most accommodating. This is not sovereignty. It’s the ‘performance’ of sovereignty while accepting subordination.”

The giants who formed the Non-Aligned movement were Josip Broz Tito (Yugoslavia), Gamal Abdel Nasser (Egypt), Jawaharlal Nehru (India), Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana), and Sukarno (Indonesia). They gathered nations around the “Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence”: mutual respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty, non-aggression, non-interference, equality and mutual benefit, peaceful coexistence.

In a nutshell: the polar opposite of the Western Rules-Based Order. Carney’s speech echoed many of the same sentiments.

“The powerful have their power. But we have something too — the capacity to stop pretending, to name reality, to build our strength at home and to act together.

“And it is a path wide open to any country willing to take it with us.”

Brilliant. But converting a speech into a movement that mobilises countries in an effective way requires commitment and resources we need to see emerge at pace.

In the 1960s and 70s, it was about small and middle powers navigating a course between two superpower blocs — a passage between Scylla (Soviet Union) and Charybdis (United States). Today we all must navigate the rough and rowdy world of the US, China and a resurgent Russia.

Canada’s astonishing resistance to the Empire
What is astonishing is that this time around, the impulse to rally together comes not from a socialist country like the former Yugoslavia or a “black Third World country” (in 1960s parlance) like Tanzania, but from the beating heart of the white-dominated Western world – from Canada, one of the capitals of the Western empire. My, how times have suddenly changed.

This should act as shock therapy to somnolent countries like Australia and New Zealand who cleave to a past that no longer exists. Carney has shown the power of looking at the world through untinted lenses (though Macron did look pretty cool in Davos in his blue sunnies).

A rare moment of honesty about Western conduct
I don’t recall a Western leader being so open about the ear-splitting hypocrisy and double-dealing of the West. Most impressively, Carney gives a clear signal of what needs to be done to survive in this world of jostling hegemons.

More submissive leaders like Christopher Luxon of New Zealand and Australia’s Anthony Albanese should take careful note because, as Carney says, we are at a turning point in the world.

Carney, who previously mumbled his way through issues like Venezuela and Gaza, made a valuable contribution to confronting the desolation of reality:

“First it means naming reality. Stop invoking ‘rules-based international order’ as though it still functions as advertised. Call it what it is: a system of intensifying great power rivalry where the most powerful pursue their interests using economic integration as a weapon of coercion.”

In time, this may open the door to Truth and Reconciliation. The genocide in Gaza is an example par excellence of the falsity of the rules-based order; Venezuela’s recent rape by the Americans, greeted with shuffling indifference by the West, traduced international law. The lawless bombing of Iran, the starvation of hundreds of thousands of Yemeni civilians in a blockade imposed by Saudi Arabia and armed by the US and UK are just a few of many such examples.

“We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false. That the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient. That trade rules were enforced asymmetrically. And we knew that international law applied with varying rigour depending on the identity of the accused or the victim,” Carney said.

Noting the standing ovation Carney received, the threat to Greenland has clearly acted on the Western countries as a shock therapy that the Gaza genocide, the bombing of Iran and the attack on Venezuela failed to deliver.

Carney stands on the shoulders of giants
I would point out that former leaders like prime minister Helen Clark of New Zealand have been arguing along these lines for years, advocating, for example, for a nuclear free Pacific and recommending “that we always pursue dialogue and engagement over confrontation.”

Warning that Trump was too unstable to be relied on, she told a conference in 2025 that New Zealand “should join forces with other countries across regions who want to be coalitions for action around these issues, not just little Western clubs.”

I’ll give the last word to the late Julius Nyerere, first President of Tanzania, from a 1970 speech to the Non-Aligned Movement. It expresses a worldview in accord with Carney’s speech but which is the polar opposite of 500 years of Western conduct from Christopher Columbus to Donald Trump:

“By non-alignment we are saying to the Big Powers that we also belong to this planet. We are asserting the right of small, or militarily weaker, nations to determine their own policies in their own interests, and to have an influence on world affairs which accords with the right of all peoples to live on earth as human beings equal with other human beings.

“And we are asserting the right of all peoples to freedom and self-determination; therefore expressing an outright opposition to colonialism and international domination of one people by another.”

Eugene Doyle is a writer based in Wellington. He has written extensively on the Middle East, as well as peace and security issues in the Asia Pacific region, and he contributes to Asia Pacific Report. He hosts the public policy platform solidarity.co.nz

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Instead of a marriage, the Coalition should be an on-again, off-again affair

By The Conversation -

January 22, 2026

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Linda Botterill, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University

The short-lived split between the Nationals and the Liberal Party after last year’s election has been followed by another breakup less than nine months later.

The Nationals are publicly stating they cannot work under Sussan Ley’s leadership. Provided there’s no rekindling of the relationship, this is the end of a coalition arrangement that’s survived for more than a century, albeit with the occasional hiccup.

As dramatic as this seems, it’s not the first time it has happened. Earle Page resigned as leader of the (then) Country Party in 1939 because he could not work under Liberal prime minister Robert Menzies, leading to a temporary breakup.

Even earlier, the Country Party made it a condition of establishing the first Coalition that Prime Minister Billy Hughes be replaced by the Nationalist Party’s Stanley Bruce.

But this time, the Nationals are much weaker than they were in the past. Facing perceived political threats from One Nation and a revolving door of leaders in the past decade, the party may benefit from some time to regroup.

Access to power

The Country Party emerged as a rural counterweight to the perceived urban bias of the other political parties in the first quarter of the 20th century.

In a clear statement of independence, the Country Party’s first federal leader, William McWilliams told the parliament in March 1920 the party was not seeking any alliances or “collusion”. It would steer its own course.

A black and white photo of a man with a white moustache — William McWilliams founded the federal Country Party in 1920.
National Library of Australia/Wikimedia Commons

This, however, did not last long. The Coalition has been a consistent feature of the political landscape since 1923.

The Country Party, which would go on to become the National Party, is Australia’s second oldest, after Labor. Because of the coalition arrangement, it has been in government more often than not over that period. As a result, the party has wielded policy power arguably out of proportion to the number of votes it attracts.

The Liberal National Party arrangement in Queensland aside, the Nationals have resisted calls for the parties to amalgamate. Both the Liberals and the Nationals have benefited from the coalition.

The Liberals have relied on National Party numbers on all but two occasions to form government. Meanwhile, the Nationals have gained access to key cabinet posts of importance to rural Australia, such as trade and commerce.

Particularly under John “Black Jack” McEwen – who had a brief prime ministerial stint in the 1960s – the party wielded real influence over Australia’s economic policy direction. For instance, he drove the negotiation of a trade agreement with Japan. More broadly, McEwen successfully pushed for tariff protection for Australia’s manufacturing industries.

Over the years, the Nationals have crossed the floor over tariff policy, the restructure of the Australian Wheat Board and other issues of direct concern to the party’s constituency.

Each time, these events have highlighted something that many tend to forget: the Coalition was never one party, but two distinctly different ones, with different constituencies and often different priorities.

History repeating

The events of this week are also not the first time the parties have disagreed while in opposition, with the Liberals supporting a Labor government bill and the Nationals voting against it.

In 1973, the Nationals opposed the Whitlam government’s Industries Assistance Commission Bill. They argued the commission (the predecessor to the Productivity Commission) would introduce central planning by stealth and “be usurping the functions of many government departments”.

But there’s an important difference. Between 1972 and 1974, the then Country Party and the Liberals were not in coalition. They did not re-form the Coalition after Labor won the 1972 election. In the interim, both parties were free to vote in parliament in line with their own policies.

Why stay together?

While coalition makes sense to form government, the persistence of the arrangement when in opposition is more perplexing.

The Liberal-National Party Coalition is a very peculiar beast. It’s unlike any coalition arrangement anywhere in the world. Elsewhere, minor parties come together only after an election and negotiate a way to form government.

The apparent permanence of the Australian arrangements has contributed to the current unedifying situation. There is no reason why two different political parties in opposition would agree with one another on everything and vote accordingly in parliament.

The crisis here is a direct result of the two parties, largely for historical reasons, persisting with an uncomfortable coalition that is not necessary while they are in opposition, as was demonstrated between 1972 and 1974.

And over the past four decades, the Nationals have faced a different Australia from the one in which McEwen was so influential. The deregulation of the economy in the 1980s and 1990s, which included reduced support for the agricultural sector, put the Nationals on the back foot in policy terms.

Rather than being the driver of pro-rural policies, they were defending Coalition policies their supporters disliked. Gun reforms introduced after the Port Arthur tragedy in 1996 is a case in point. Nationals leader Tim Fischer played a central role in supporting Liberal Prime Minister John Howard’s position.

It’s left the Nationals in a weaker electoral position over time. In the current parliament, Labor and the Liberals (including Liberal-aligned Liberal National Party members) each hold more rural seats than the Nationals. Ironically, given recent events, Tim Fischer’s old seat is now held by Ley.

There’s also the rural independents, making inroads into former National Party strongholds.

Depending on what recommendations are in the currently unpublished report into the Liberals’ performance at the 2025 election, the Nationals may find that this time, the Liberals will decide the coalition agreement is not worth the grief while in opposition.

A break would provide Sussan Ley and her team with the opportunity to reassess their party’s values and rebuild in a way that improves their chances of picking up the urban seats they so desperately need to form government. They may conclude this is easier to do without the Nationals.

Linda Botterill has in the past received funding from the Australian Research Council.

– ref. Instead of a marriage, the Coalition should be an on-again, off-again affair – https://theconversation.com/instead-of-a-marriage-the-coalition-should-be-an-on-again-off-again-affair-274105

Ian Powell: Bondi Beach’s murderous terrorism aftermath – an Aotearoa perspective

By Asia Pacific Report -

January 22, 2026

COMMENTARY: By Ian Powell

On 14 December 2025, a father and son, reportedly linked to the ISIS clerical fascist organisation, committed a murderous attack on innocent participants at a Jewish celebration on Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach. Fifteen were killed and around 40 seriously injured.

There is no way this horrific event can be minimised. It was murderous, it was antisemitic, the victims and their loved ones were completely innocent.

It also can’t be remotely justified by Israel’s genocide in Gaza and increasing repression on the West Bank.

Nor did it in anyway serve the interests of Palestinians and their fight for peace and self-determination — if anything it gave “pro-genociders” a deceitful propaganda weapon.

Extraordinary heroism also powerful message of interfaith kindness
There is no “notwithstanding high point” in this murderous tragedy. But there was much heroism.

Understandably the overwhelming impact of the sheer horror of the slaughter meant that this was not reported as much as it deserved.

The heroism of Ahmed al-Ahmed saved lives and prevented more serious injuries. Image: politicalbytes.blog

But prominent was the extraordinary courage of Ahmed al-Ahmed who wrestled the gun from one of the attackers and was severely wounded — being shot five times — as a result.

His extraordinary courage was covered by The Guardian (29 December 29): Saving lives at Bondi Beach.

Ahmed al-Ahmed is an Australian of Syrian origin. He is also Muslim. His bravery saved many Jewish lives.

Sickening contrast
This makes the sickening response of the Israeli government even more deplorable. It attempted to blame the terrorist attack on the Palestinian resistance to Israel’s ethnic cleansing and genocide, and to opponents of this warmongering.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu . . . response dishonest and deplorable. Image: politicalbytes.blog

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu even went so far as to dishonestly claim Australia’s recognition of Palestine as a state was to blame.

Two newspaper opinion pieces from New Zealanders who deny the reality of ethnic cleansing and genocide by Israel repeat this disgraceful “blame Palestinians” response.

The first was by Deborah Hart, chair of the Holocaust Foundation New Zealand. Her paywalled piece was published by The New Zealand Herald (December 15): Never again.

The second was by Juliet Moses, a spokesperson for the New Zealand Jewish Council. Her piece was published by Stuff (December 17): New Zealand should pay attention.

While both justifiably describe the horrific nature of the slaughter, they also reiterated the above-mentioned theme of the Israeli government thereby whitewashing its ethnic cleansing and genocide.

The fact that they both write in a softer, non-brazen and more subtle style does not diminish this observation.

The heroic Ahmed al-Ahmed is similarly whitewashed presumably because the heroism of a Muslim is considered inconsistent with Israel’s unconscionable narrative.

The implied narrative of Hart and Moses is that the life of an Israeli trumps the life of a Palestinian — including a child — and the right of Israelis to self-determination overrides the right of Palestinians to self-determination.

Further, Palestinian refusal to accept this narrative is consequentially responsible in some way for the Bondi Beach slaughter.

It is bad enough to hold this position; it is even worse to tar the Bondi victims with this same brush.

An aside: Jewish exceptionalism
As an aside, this narrative is reinforced by a Zionist claim of Jewish exceptionalism that is used to justify an untenable position that granting equal rights to others in Israel would be “tantamount to suicide.”

This exceptionalism argument is effectively rebutted by a paywalled article by Peter Beinart in the October 2025 issue of Le Monde Diplomatique: Jewish exceptionalism not so exceptional.

Beinart points out that the past experiences of South Africa, Northern Ireland and the American South where “. . . time and again dominant groups have loudly claimed that granting equal rights would be tantamount to suicide . . .” were always wrong.

Getting it right
On December 17, the Palestinian Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) released a public condemnation of the Bondi Beach atrocity.

It was appalled by the antisemitic terror attack, sided with the Jewish community, and acknowledged that for more than two years it had marched with Jews and Jewish groups against the genocide in Gaza.

Further, it criticised the use of the Bondi Beach slaughter by Benjamin Netanyahu and others to condemn and blame Palestinians and others for opposing Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

For completion, the statement from national co-chair John Minto is published below:

“PSNA was appalled and shocked at Sunday’s antisemitic terror attack targeting the Jewish community in Australia on the first day of the celebration of Hanukkah.

“The best antidote to race hatred is community solidarity and we stand with the Jewish community in the face of such horror.

“For many decades, and the past two years in particular, we have protested and marched side by side with Jews and Jewish groups to condemn the genocide in Gaza and stand with the Palestinian people in their struggle for liberation.

“We have always made clear our campaign targets Israel’s genocide, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing. Jews are not responsible for these policies, despite Netanyahu claiming he is acting and speaking as ‘Prime Minister’ of all Jews.

“Palestine supporters were also appalled when Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, and leaders of the pro-Israeli lobby in Australia and New Zealand, tried to exploit the horror in Bondi by blaming it on condemnation of Israel’s genocide and the Australian government’s (largely non-existent) support for Palestinian rights.

“This blaming almost invariably comes from people who support Israel’s actions in Gaza. Their strategy is to exploit the killing in Bondi to help the Israel government carry on its genocide and ethnic cleansing without criticism.”

“We are concerned that the strategy will cross the Tasman to panic the New Zealand government into introducing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-semitism into New Zealand legislation.

“This definition is used to target people supporting Palestine. The Israeli government has managed to get it into government legislation, university rules and local government policy in many parts of the Western world.”

“It’s all part of Netanyahu’s ‘Eighth Front’ to silence Israel’s critics.

“It has no place here.”

Apart from agreeing with it, there is nothing I could say that could add to its persuasive and powerful message. It speaks for itself.

Ian Powell is a progressive health, labour market and political “no-frills” forensic commentator in New Zealand. A former senior doctors union leader for more than 30 years, he blogs at Second Opinion and Political Bytes, where this article was first published. Republished with the author’s permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

RSF condemns verdict in ‘fabricated’ case against Filipino journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio

By Asia Pacific Report -

January 22, 2026

Pacific Media Watch

The Paris-based global media freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned the guilty verdict against Filipino journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio whose case has been challenged since her arrest almost six years ago.

Cumpio was found guilty today on a charge of “financing terrorism” in the Philippines, and now faces a sentence of between 12 and 18 years in prison.

RSF released a statement condemning the verdict and questioning the Philippines government’s commitment to a free press.

“We are appalled by this verdict. Three RSF investigations and evidence presented in court by Frenchie Mae Cumpio’s lawyers clearly show how fabricated this case has been from the very beginning,” said RSF Asia-Pacific Bureau advocacy manager Aleksandra Bielakowska
in the statement in Taipei today.

Local and international groups have condemned the conviction of 26-year-old community journalist Cumpio, saying it sends a “chilling message” to media, activists, and even ordinary people in the Philippines, reports Rappler.

“Frenchie Mae Cumpio’s conviction represents a devastating failure on the part of the Philippine justice system and the authorities’ blatant disregard for press freedom,” said Bielakowska.

“The Philippines should serve as an international example of protecting media freedom — not a perpetrator that red-tags, prosecutes and imprisons journalists simply for doing their work.

‘Highlights systemic issues’
“This sentence only highlights the systemic issues in the country and the urgent need for comprehensive reforms.

“We renew our call on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to act without delay to end this injustice and release Frenchie Mae Cumpio immediately.

“Without his decisive action, there will be no meaningful difference from previous administrations that showed no regard for upholding a free press.”

Committee to Protect Journalists Asia-Pacific director Beh Lih Yi said the court ruling was “absurd” and that the promises made by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to uphold press freedom were “nothing but empty talk”.

She added that the Philippines must stop criminalising journalists.

According to the 2025 RSF World Press Freedom Index, the Philippines is 116th out of 180 countries surveyed.

Pacific Media Watch collaborates with Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Former colleagues mourn loss of Auckland lawyer who died at Coromandel beach

By Evening Report -

January 22, 2026

Source: Radio New Zealand

Jack Oliver-Hood, 37, was pulled from the water at Hahei Beach shortly after 3pm on Monday but could not be resuscitated and died at the scene. Supplied

Former colleagues are mourning the loss of a “bright” Auckland lawyer who died while swimming at a Coromandel beach.

Jack Oliver-Hood, who was 37, was pulled from the water at Hahei Beach shortly after 3pm on Monday.

Despite rescuers performing CPR, he could not be resuscitated and died at the scene.

Barrister Kevin Glover KC said he first met Oliver-Hood while he was a junior barrister at Shortland Chambers in Auckland from 2015 to 2016.

After completing his Master’s at Columbia University in the US, Glover said Oliver-Hood returned to Auckland and had been working as an independent barrister since 2020.

“Jack was a bright and very able lawyer. He did fantastic work, and he was very good on his feet.

“People had a huge and genuine affection for Jack.”

Glover said they had worked on several cases together, including representing LEGO in a trademark dispute with toy company Zuru.

“I have been talking to people overseas who we worked with on the LEGO case, and they’re absolutely gutted. Jack did a really good job connecting with people.

“He was a very good lawyer across quite different areas of practice that people don’t normally combine, with this strength in IP [Intellectual Property], which is where I worked with him, and also criminal cases, where he worked with very senior practitioners on very high-profile cases.”

“The IP community all knows each other and has been pretty hard hit by this.”

Oliver-Hood also worked on the high-profile murder appeals of Mark Lundy and Gail Maney.

He was the only son of well-known music producer and engineer Doug Hood, who died in 2024.

Glover said they had a shared interest in music.

“I used to see Jack at gigs. He was very intertwined in the alternative music scene.”

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Reports of sub-standard hygiene at some beauty salons sparks council review

By Evening Report -

January 22, 2026

Source: Radio New Zealand

The appearance industry covers many procedures, including waxing, manicure or pedicures, derma-blading, microneedling, tattooing and body piercing. 123RF

Marlborough District Council is considering whether to implement a bylaw for the appearance industry, after reports of sub-standard hygiene at some beauty salons.

The industry covers many procedures, including waxing, manicure or pedicures, derma-blading, microneedling, tattooing and body piercing.

At an Environment & Planning Committee meeting on Thursday, environmental health officers Georgia Murrin and Mary Ann Douthett told councillors they had received an increasing number of formal and informal notifications of concerns regarding practices at some Marlborough appearance industry providers.

In some cases, they had found sub-standard hygiene practices.

She said some appearance industry procedures had the potential to cause adverse health outcomes if not done hygienically. This included the risk of infection, burns or scarring and can result in time off work for patients, medical costs or even hospitalisation so standards were important to manage and avoid risk.

Murrin said complaints could be investigated under the Health Act 1956, but the council’s enforcement powers were limited.

There are 16 councils around the country that have bylaws in place to register and regulate the appearance industry.

“There are currently no national regulations that apply to New Zealand’s appearance industry although our professional body, the New Zealand Institute of Environmental Health, is actively lobbying Government to develop national legislation.”

Murrin said initial enquiries with some industry appearance businesses had shown support for industry regulation and it planned to engage in further consultation to consider whether a bylaw should be adopted.

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Glider crashes in north Otago

By Evening Report -

January 22, 2026

Source: Radio New Zealand

The crash happened at the Omarama Airfield. Supplied / St John

Emergency services are responding to a glider crash in north Otago.

The crash happened about 3.15pm at the Omarama Airfield on Airport Road.

St John says they have sent two vehicles and a helicopter to the scene.

The Civil Aviation Authority has been alerted.

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Ōakura cut off in both directions, could take weeks to fix slip damage – mayor

By Evening Report -

January 22, 2026

Source: Radio New Zealand

A drone image captures the massive slip at Helena Bay Hill in Northland, cutting off Ōakura Bay. Supplied / Ngātiwai Trust Board

Whangārei Mayor Ken Couper says it could take weeks to fix a massive slip blocking the road to Ōakura.

Couper said the slip came down on Wednesday night at Helena Bay Hill on what was known as the Old Russell Road.

With the road to the north closed since Sunday by a bridge washout, Ōakura was now cut off in both directions.

“That slip is a bit of a problem because we have to get some heavy machinery up to the top of it, because it’s so big they won’t be able to excavate at the bottom without danger,” he said.

“It could take a couple of days before they even start to get a good idea on how long it’s going to take to clear it.”

Fixing the slip was likely a matter of weeks, not days, he said.

Whangārei mayor Ken Couper looks at the latest information. Kim Baker Wilson / RNZ

Ōakura and other settlements such as Punaruku were also cut off to the north by damage to Ngaiotonga Bridge.

Couper said repairs to the bridge approach, which was in the Far North District, were progressing.

Goods could now be handed across the bridge but it was not yet capable of taking traffic.

The only other option was a “very tricky” back road which was suitable only as an emergency lifeline. It was also used when a giant slip closed Helena Bay Hill for several months in 2007.

A drone image captures the massive slip at Helena Bay Hill in Northland, cutting off Ōakura Bay. Supplied / Ngātiwai Trust Board

Couper said another concern was the failure of the wastewater treatment plant at Ōakura.

A team was heading there on Thursday with generators to rectify the plant.

If they managed to reach Ōakura through the “lifeline” road, they would be followed by building inspectors who would examine beachfront homes evacuated after Sunday’s deluge.

Sixteen people and seven pets were evacuated, he said. Most were staying with friends and family but some were being looked after by local marae.

Inside the Emergency Operations Centre at Whangārei District Council. Kim Baker Wilson / RNZ

Couper said it was disappointing the massive slip had hit just as the district was almost at the end of the four-day storm.

“We were nearly there, and then this has come down. The roading crews have done a fantastic job out there, the locals, the farmers have responded really well and kept the resilience going, and then this happened. It’s very, very upsetting, really, but it’s just a fact of life.”

His message to residents in cut-off areas was to “lean on each other, keep up the cooperation that you’ve demonstrated so far, and keep in touch with the council so if you need help, we can get it to you”.

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Search suspended for driver swept away into Mahurangi River, north of Auckland

By Evening Report -

January 22, 2026

Source: Radio New Zealand

Police inspect a section of Falls Road near the Mahurangi River where a person and their vehicle is believed to have been swept into the river Lucy Xia

The wife of a man who was swept away in his car at Mahurangi River, north of Auckland, says she is holding out hope that her husband is still alive.

The woman, who RNZ has agreed not to name, says her husband is strong, wise and – as a fisherman – familiar with the water.

About 20 people, drones, helicopters and white water rafts were searching for the man until evening on Wednesday. Water levels were still too high on Thursday for a search but Police used drones to carry out aerial searches for the car. Neither the man nor his car have been located.

His wife said her husband, 47, was a fisherman back home in Kiribati. They had moved to New Zealand in 2023 with their four children.

The woman, who did not want to be named, said her husband and her nephew – who had just moved to New Zealand in December – were taking their usual route to work in Warkworth early morning when they were swept away by water on Falls Road.

Both worked at Southern Paprika, a company specialising in growing greenhouse vegetables.

The woman said she was still sleeping when the police and her nephew – who managed to get onto land – came knocking at the door.

“The police came with my nephew, I don’t know how I feel… it’s horrible when I… I think I lose my breathing,” she said of hearing the news.

“I just have time to grab my nephew, and hug him strongly and I thank God for keeping him alive,” she said.

The woman said both her husband and her nephew had fallen into the water with the vehicle, and her husband had pushed her nephew so that the young man could grab onto a branch, but did not manage to get back onto land himself.

“When [the nephew] held on the branch, he called, ‘Uncle please come and grab on my leg and both go to the land.’

“Then [my] husband tried to grab, but then he knows that he’s so heavy, because he’s bigger than his nephew. I think like, when he saw his nephew like that, he didn’t want to pull him back, so he untied his hand and says ‘Go on, go and find life, while I’m going to swim this way and find another branch.”

The woman said she was hopeful that her husband would survive and be found.

“I know his personality is strong, wise, according to his decisions with the community and the church community, and he’s religious.”

She said he was a fisherman in Kiribati and knew how to swim, had seen big waves, been in canoes and knew how to dive.

The woman said she was at home supporting her four children on Wednesday to give them courage to face the traumatic event. She said she and her nephew, and another family member, would continue to search for her husband.

The incident

Fire and Emergency were called to the rescue at a river crossing on Falls Road – near the intersection with Woodcocks Road – at about 7.51am on Wednesday.

Police night shift staff conducted checks in the area overnight, but were unable to locate the man.

The Mahurangi River on Wednesday. Lucy Xia / RNZ

A police search and rescue would redeploy to the area on Thursday once water levels had subsided and it was safe to continue searching.

An eagle helicopter was also expected to do a flyover of the river.

Police were in contact with the man’s family.

“We acknowledge they must be going through a very uncertain and upsetting time while he remains missing,” Waitematā North Police Senior Sergeant Carl Fowlie said.

“Our thoughts are with them.”

A section of Falls Road near the Mahurangi River is flooded over, it is in the area where a person and their vehicle is believed to have been swept into the river Lucy Xia

On Thursday, a resident of the area said the crossing could be dangerous.

“When people go to drive straight, but it’s got a curve in the bridge, in the ford, that’s what gets you into danger – because the wheels go off one side, then the flow of the water will just carry them away,” Dawn Ferguson said.

Ferguson said she was devastated to hear what happened.

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown also said he was alarmed to hear of the disappearance.

About 20 people were involved in the search on Wednesday, including firefighters, police officers and whitewater rafters.

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ER Report: A Roundup of Significant Articles on EveningReport.nz for January 22, 2026

By Evening Report -

January 22, 2026

ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on January 22, 2026.

Trump sows ‘chaotic cruelty’ while Canadian PM Carney reminds the world it doesn’t have to play along
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Shortis, Adjunct Senior Fellow, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University In what has become a familiar, exhausting cycle, the rest of the world is left with the futile task of trying to dredge meaning from the wreckage left behind by US President Donald

The United States’ new military strategy is a case of ‘AI peacocking’
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zena Assaad, Senior Lecturer, School of Engineering, Australian National University The United States is set to become “the world’s undisputed [artificial intelligence-enabled] fighting force”. At least that’s the view of the country’s Department of War, which earlier this month released a new strategy to accelerate the deployment

Pro-independence FLNKS ‘unequivocally’ reject latest agreement for New Caledonia
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk The signing of a new agreement on New Caledonia’s political and financial future has triggered a fresh wave of reactions from across the French territory’s political chessboard. The Elysée-Oudinot agreement was signed on Monday, January 19, in the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron as well

Nationals break Coalition, declaring it ‘untenable’ and blaming Ley
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The federal Coalition is dead, with Nationals leader David Littleproud on Thursday morning declaring it “untenable” after Liberal leader Sussan Ley stared down the Liberals’ minor partner. This followed all Nationals frontbenchers resigning from the shadow ministry on Wednesday night,

Australia’s frightening new ‘hate speech’ laws are clearly aimed at pro-Palestine groups
COMMENTARY: By Caitlin Johnstone Australia’s Labor government has successfully passed a “hate speech” bill that’s plainly aimed, at least in part, at suppressing pro-Palestine organizations as “hate groups”. Free speech advocates are sounding the alarm about the new laws, saying their extremely vague wording, lack of procedural fairness and low thresholds for implementation mean groups

Beneath Antarctica’s largest ice shelf, a hidden ocean is revealing its secrets
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Craig Stevens, Professor in Ocean Physics, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau; National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) Stevens/NIWA/K061, CC BY-NC-ND Beneath Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf lies one of the least measured oceans on Earth – a vast, dark cavity roughly twice the volume of

Shakespeare reinvented: how Chloé Zhao blends East and West philosophies in Hamnet
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yanyan Hong, Adjunct Fellow in Communication, Media and Film Studies, Adelaide University Agata Grzybowska © 2025 Focus Features In Hamnet, Agnes Hathaway (Jessie Buckley) asks William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) to introduce himself by telling her a story. It is her way of seeing who this man really

NZ is again being soaked this summer – record ocean heat helps explain it
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kevin Trenberth, Distinguished Scholar, NCAR; Affiliate Faculty, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Sanka Vidanagama/Getty Images For many people this summer – especially those across Northland Auckland and Coromandel – showery days and bursts of heavy rain have become all too familiar. This week, fresh downpours on

Humanity’s oldest known cave art has been discovered in Sulawesi
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maxime Aubert, Professor of Archaeological Science, Griffith University Supplied When we think of the world’s oldest art, Europe usually comes to mind, with famous cave paintings in France and Spain often seen as evidence this was the birthplace of symbolic human culture. But new evidence from Indonesia

View from The Hill: Coalition crisis explodes after Sussan Ley wields the whip against defiant Nationals
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The federal Coalition was imploding on Wednesday night, with all Nationals frontbenchers, including leader David Littleproud, quitting the shadow ministry. They were retaliating against Opposition Leader Sussan Ley’s insistence three Nationals senators must resign for defying shadow cabinet solidarity. The

Grains of sand prove people – not glaciers – transported Stonehenge rocks
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Clarke, Research Associate, School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Curtin University Ask people how Stonehenge was built and you’ll hear stories of sledges, ropes, boats and sheer human determination to haul stones from across Britain to Salisbury Plain, in south-west England. Others might mention giants, wizards,

Provocateur attacks Australian Palestine peace activists protesting over Gaza genocide
By Sarah Hathway in Djilang/Geelong A group of Australian Palestine supporters in the state of Victoria have been attacked as tensions continue over the right to protest against Israel’s genocide in Gaza in the wake of the Bondi massacre last month. As Geelong and Victoria Southwest branch members of Independent Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN) were

Hate crime laws may have unintended consequences – including chilling free speech
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anne Twomey, Professor Emerita in Constitutional Law, University of Sydney What impact will the criminal hate provisions in the Albanese government’s Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Act 2026 have on the ability of ordinary Australians to protest? An earlier version contained a criminal offence of promoting or

As Trump’s threats over Greenland escalate, will Europe use its ‘trade bazooka’?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Markus Wagner, Professor of Law and Director of the UOW Transnational Law and Policy Centre, University of Wollongong The renewed campaign by United States President Donald Trump to acquire Greenland has escalated, with tariff threats against European allies. Asked on Tuesday how far he is willing to

‘We kill enemies’ – spy firm Palantir secures top Australian security clearance
US cybersecurity company Palantir has received a high-level Australian government security assessment despite concerns about its surveillance and complicity in the Gaza genocide in occupied Palestine. In November 2025, Palantir Technologies was assessed as meeting the protected level under the Australian Information Security Registered Assessors Programme (IRAP). This protection is a key requirement for companies

High Seas Treaty welcome news for SPREP in uncertain times
By Johnny Blades, RNZ Pacific bulletin editor In an otherwise mixed month for the Pacific Regional Environmental Programme (SPREP), its leadership is hailing a win for Pacific conservation efforts with the UN Treaty on the High Seas coming into effect. The legally binding UN High Seas Treaty officially received more than 60 ratifications, and following

Keith Rankin Analysis – Greenland: National Politics versus Geopolitics
Analysis by Keith Rankin, 21 January 2026 Truth in world affairs is not a single expert-narrated story. National Politics In our ‘official’ ‘United Nations’ world – the world referenced by the expression the international rules-based order – there are about 200 sovereign nation states (ie ‘countries’) which are equal members of the global community of

‘Complacency in their systems’ : Justin Marshall predicts pressure for incumbent All Blacks

By Evening Report -

January 22, 2026

Source: Radio New Zealand

Justin Marshall. © Photosport Ltd 2019 www.photosport.nz

Former All Black halfback Justin Marshall thinks that a number of All Blacks will have a point to prove during this year’s Super Rugby Pacific season. The Sky Sport commentator said that the dramatic axing of Scott Robertson should force a mindset change among the incumbent playing group, no matter who gets the head coaching role.

“Those players probably have a bit of complacency in their systems, because they’re used to getting picked. They’re used to going out and doing what they’ve been doing for the last six years, 10 years, whatever it might be,” said Marshall, who played alongside Robertson in both the Crusaders and All Blacks.

“That coach is going to be announced, so all those players that were working under (Robertson) have to reset.

Scott Robertson. SANKA VIDANAGAMA

“Because they now have to think about ‘do I fit into this with the thinking of a new coach? Is he going to see from me every week that I want to be an All Black?’ That could be a total mindset change, and they want to make sure they’re performing each week.”

Marshall said he knows full well the position the players are in now, as he experienced several All Black head coaching changes during his 81-test career.

“I came in when Laurie Mains moved on, then John Hart moved on after the World Cup, then Wayne Smith moved on prematurely. It does make you wonder about where you sit because all of a sudden you are not communicating with that coach regularly. Where they saw you in that environment is no longer relevant because that environment doesn’t exist anymore.”

11 October, 2003. Telstra Dome, Melbourne, Australia. Rugby World Cup. Pool D. Italy v New Zealand. Justin Marshall. The All Blacks won the match, 70 -7. Pic: Andrew Cornaga/Photosport Photosport

However, Marshall doesn’t see that as a negative, rather something that will make the All Blacks and Super Rugby Pacific stronger.

“It’s good to be put in that position of pressure, particularly when you’ve been around that environment for a long time and have that familiarity of where you sit,” he said.

“Because it means that you need make sure that you’re performing and maybe showing a little bit of something that we haven’t seen out of your game in a while. That might be what the coaches are looking for.”

Marshall also made the point that the Australian players in Super Rugby Pacific will have more or less the same mindset, with Joe Schmidt set to be replaced by Queensland Reds coach Les Kiss after the Wallabies’ July Nations Cup fixtures.

“I think that’ll add a real edge to this competition as well,” he said.

NZ Rugby hasn’t set a timeline for Robertson’s replacement to be named, although it’s believed that it will be at least a month – after the Super Rugby Pacific season has commenced. The frontrunner for the job is Jamie Joseph, who is currently coaching one of the teams that will play in the first game on 13 February. His Highlanders take on the defending champion Crusaders at Forsyth Barr Stadium, so it’s likely plenty of attention will be on that fixture both on and off the field.

Marshall said the task was pretty straightforward for whoever comes in as All Black head coach.

“There’s a World Cup in two years. But what we want to stop with All Black rugby are those fluctuations in performance, which we’ve seen over the last six years.”

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Another IT outage impacts southern hospitals, staff left in the dark

By Evening Report -

January 22, 2026

Source: Radio New Zealand

Health New Zealand said the latest outage impacted the hospital administration system across the South Island. 123rf

Another IT outage has struck southern hospitals, impacting access to patient health records for several hours on Wednesday.

It was the latest in a series of outages that have impacted hospitals on both islands this month including South Island clinicians losing access to patient records that tracked medication and lab results for more than 12 hours last week.

Health New Zealand (HNZ) said the latest outage impacted the hospital administration system across the South Island from early in the morning until it was restored before 9.30am, but patient care continued safely throughout.

A HNZ employee, who RNZ has agreed not to name, said the most recent outage meant they could not access real-time data as they were left with paper forms.

They were frustrated as they had been left in the dark about what happened, and no one seemed to follow up to find out how staff and patients were impacted or the clinical risk, they said.

The outage alert, which RNZ has seen, told clinicians to use “offline downtime forms” as the South Island’s patient care system was experiencing issues site wide with users facing error messages and delays.

It was being treated as a high priority and was impacting applications including whiteboards and MedChart, the alert said.

HNZ Te Waipounamu regional digital director Kirsty Martin said the outage was not related to previous outages or a cybersecurity incident.

“The system holds a record of the patient journey through the hospital and passes information to downstream applications such as Health Connect South, which were temporarily impacted,” she said.

“Normal business continuity plans were enacted during the incident, which included manual processes to keep services running safely, while digital staff worked with vendors to fix the issue.”

HNZ was undergoing a debrief to identify the cause, the extent of the outage and potential ways to improve its systems, she said.

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Trump sows ‘chaotic cruelty’ while Canadian PM Carney reminds the world it doesn’t have to play along

By The Conversation -

January 22, 2026

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Shortis, Adjunct Senior Fellow, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University

In what has become a familiar, exhausting cycle, the rest of the world is left with the futile task of trying to dredge meaning from the wreckage left behind by US President Donald Trump.

As Trump departed the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, much was made of the content of his rambling, hour-long speech because the president had so escalated his rhetoric over Greenland.

Trump had said the United States would take the semi-autonomous Danish territory “whether they like it or not”. He had threatened direct tariffs on NATO allies that opposed him. Europe was considering reciprocal tariffs and had even gotten to the point of sending troops to Greenland as a demonstration of resolve.

NATO itself seemed on the verge of collapse.

While some analysis suggests a reprieve, there is no permanence to Trump’s statements. This president plays with lives, and the future of entire countries, with no care for the consequences.

‘Big, beautiful piece of ice’

Those who seek clarity in the chaos may have been relieved to hear the president make what may seem, on the face of it, a definitive statement of his position on Greenland:

I don’t have to use force. I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force.

That may well seem a clear statement of intent. But attempting to impose clarity by stripping sentences of their context risks dramatically misinterpreting that intent.

Even the sentences around this one hint that Trump has far from given up on acquiring that “big, beautiful piece of ice”.

In a speech riddled with inaccuracies, the president continued:

All the United States is asking for is a place called Greenland. Where were we already had it as a trustee but respectfully returned it back to Denmark not long ago after we defeated the Germans, the Japanese, the Italians and others in World War Two. We gave it back to them. We were a powerful force then, but we are a much more powerful force now.

Never mind that Greenland was never the US’ to “give” or “take” back – this is a president who has long demonstrated himself impervious to fact checking.

Trump went on to describe, in detail, his plan to build new battleships for the US Navy. The implication is fairly straightforward. Trump’s United States may not have to use force, but it can if it wants to.

Be grateful, or else

In this same section of the speech, Trump fell back on a familiar theme – that the US bears all the burden of global security, with none of the benefits. As he put it,

We’ve never gotten anything except we pay for NATO.

(Never mind the hundreds of NATO troops who died fighting with the Americans in Afghanistan after September 11, the only time Article 5 of the NATO alliance has been invoked).

That Trumpian resentment was only fuelled, unsurprisingly, by a striking speech by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

Carney’s excoriation of the Trump administration’s attacks on the world order was unlikely to be met with anything else from Trump.

Canada gets a lot of freebies from us, by the way. They should be grateful also. But they’re not. I watched their prime minister yesterday. He wasn’t so grateful, they should be grateful to us. Canada, Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that Mark [Carney], the next time you make your statements.

The Trump administration is seeking “ownership” of the western hemisphere – that is, all of the continents of north and south America and surrounds. By implication, that leaves the other hemispheres to other great powers and strongmen, with whom Trump “has always had a very good relationship”.

This is the violent world Trump wants to create – a world divided into fiefdoms run by Mafia-style bosses paid simpering tributes by their weaker supplicants.

The rhetoric of white supremacy

Trump went to Europe to give a speech dripping with disdain for the people who live there. In contrast to those leaders with whom he has a “great relationship” (Putin, Xi, Kim Jong Un, et al), the Trump administration sees Europe and European leaders not just as weak, but as responsible for the demise of western civilisation – something only he can reverse.

After a racist rant directed at Somali immigrants, Trump claimed:

The explosion of prosperity and conclusion and progress that built the West did not come from our tax codes. It ultimately came from our very special culture. This is the precious inheritance that America and Europe have in common.

Trump’s talk of inheritance, of his pure European bloodlines, of the “mass import of foreign cultures” reveal, once again, the ideological drive behind his administration and its attempt to radically remake not just the US but the world.

While the president may have softened his rhetoric on Greenland specifically, this drive is a constant for the administration.

Live the truth

This is why Carney’s speech was so striking. It identified, in clear language, the truth of what the Trump administration is doing.

We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false. That the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient. That trade rules were enforced asymmetrically. And we knew that international law applied with varying rigour depending on the identity of the accused or the victim.

This fiction was useful. And American hegemony, in particular, helped provide public goods: open sea lanes, a stable financial system, collective security and support for frameworks for resolving disputes.

So, we placed the sign in the window. We participated in the rituals. And we largely avoided calling out the gaps between rhetoric and reality.

This bargain no longer works.

Trump may have temporarily “backed down” on Greenland, but as Carney put it, the “rupture in the world order” cannot be undone. But what comes next is not inevitable, and it does not have to be left up to Trump.

Carney’s speech is a clear indication that while the American president will not break his constant cycle of chaotic cruelty, the rest of the world may be attempting to step outside it.

There is meaning in that.

Emma Shortis is Director of International and Security Affairs at The Australia Institute, an independent think tank.

– ref. Trump sows ‘chaotic cruelty’ while Canadian PM Carney reminds the world it doesn’t have to play along – https://theconversation.com/trump-sows-chaotic-cruelty-while-canadian-pm-carney-reminds-the-world-it-doesnt-have-to-play-along-274099

Woolworths warned it might be breaking the law

By Evening Report -

January 22, 2026

Source: Radio New Zealand

The warning comes after the Commission analysed the range review processes of all major supermarkets. Samantha Gee/RNZ

The Commerce Commission has warned Woolworths New Zealand for what it believes is a likely breach of the Grocery Industry Competition Act, following a review of the major supermarkets’ product delisting processes.

The warning comes after the Commission analysed the range review processes of all major supermarkets to assess whether they were meeting their obligations under the Grocery Supply Code.

As part of range reviews, supermarkets assess which products they will continue to stock. In some cases, products may be “delisted”, meaning they are removed from shelves.

The updated Grocery Supply Code is due to come into force on 1 May. The revised code gives suppliers clearer rights to challenge delisting decisions and greater transparency in their dealings with major supermarkets.

Any breaches of the code are breaches of the Grocery Industry Competition Act.

Commerce Commission head of groceries Dr Alice Hume said Woolworths, Foodstuffs North Island and Foodstuffs South Island together controlled about 82 percent of New Zealand’s grocery market. She warned losing access to supermarket shelves could effectively be the end of the road for smaller suppliers.

“The possibility of products being removed from shelves is a significant weight on suppliers that can reinforce the power imbalance between major supermarkets and smaller suppliers,” Hume said.

“The risk of losing market access can lead to suppliers accepting conditions that aren’t beneficial to them, and a lack of trust about how supermarkets make these decisions.”

During the Commission’s review, it identified and investigated instances where it considered Woolworths was at risk of failing to meet its obligations under the code.

The Commission said it issued Woolworths with a warning for what it believe was a likely breach of the act, noting that only a court can determine whether a breach had occurred.

Woolworths has since updated its processes to meet its obligations, the Commission said.

In reply, Woolworths supplied the following statement.

“We take our obligations under the Grocery Supply Code seriously and we are proud of the strong relationships we have with our suppliers.

“We work hard to make sure we comply with all of our obligations under the code. If we become aware of potential issues, we fix them as quickly as we can.

“We reviewed and updated all of our templates when the code first came into force, but the Commission expressed concerns about whether one of our template letters included specific language that was required under the code.

“We fully cooperated with the Commission’s enquiries, and have updated our template letter in light of the Commission’s views.”

Levelling the playing field

Hume said the updated code played a crucial role in helping level the playing field between major supermarkets and smaller suppliers, and that the Commission took compliance seriously.

She said range reviews remained an ongoing area of focus for the regulator.

Hume also urged suppliers to come forward if they had concerns about delisting or other potentially unfair treatment.

“You can contact the Commission directly, or through the anonymous reporting tool on our website.”

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‘Complacency in their systems’ : Marshall predicts pressure for incumbent All Blacks