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Comment & Analysis
Comment & Analysis headlines with summaries.
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Tensions and timing test Luxon on first official China visit
Analysis - Luck was not on Christopher Luxon's side for his first official trip to China. Audio
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Who are Iran's allies? Would any help if the US joins Israel in its war?
Analysis: Over the past two years, Israel has dealt significant blows to Iran's "axis of resistance", writes Ali Mamouri for The Conversation.
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Scrapping national census raises data sovereignty, surveillance fears for Māori
20 Jun 2025Analysis - The move is not necessarily bad, especially given the rising cost and declining participation rates, but there are concerns, experts say.
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Government spending is up despite decades of cost cutting - why?
20 Jun 2025Analysis: Concerns over school lunches highlight major issues, when we talk about "fiscal responsibility" and "austerity", Ian Lovering writes.
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Elon Musk's SpaceX rockets keep blowing up at worst possible time
Analysis: One of his most important companies just had another setback: a SpaceX Starship rocket exploded in an immense fireball.
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As Trump flirts with strikes on Iran, will it be a bridge too far?
Analysis: For years now, Americans have been trending in a more isolationist, anti-war direction when it comes to the rest of the world's problems.
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As Luxon heads to China, his govt's pivot toward the US is a stumbling block
18 Jun 2025Analysis:Ahead of his first visit to China, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has been at pains to present meetings with Chinese premier Xi Jinping and other leaders as advancing New Zealand's best…
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Matariki and our diminishing night sky: Light pollution makes stars harder to see
18 Jun 2025Aotearoa New Zealand officially celebrates Matariki for the fourth time this week, but more needs to be done to promote and protect the country's dark skies.
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Why do phones sometimes not ring when people call?
17 Jun 2025Analysis - And how do they actually work?
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Israel's attacks on Iran hint at bigger goal - regime change
Analysis - Israel's surprise attack aims to disrupt Tehran's nuclear programme, but the scale, choice of targets and its politicians' own words suggest another objective.
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What's it like to survive a mass disaster?
14 Jun 2025Being a sole survivor of a mass casualty event can have complex psychological challenges. Audio
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Los Angeles protests not the American dream
13 Jun 2025Analysis: As the Trump administration cracks down on undocumented migrants, stages mass deportations and raids workplaces, for many the American dream is rapidly turning into a nightmare.
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Trump's China 'truce' is nothing of the sort
13 Jun 2025Analysis: Tariff rates from both countries remain historically high, and significant export restrictions remain in place.
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NZ’s goal to get smoking rates under 5 percent this year – why that’s highly unlikely
11 Jun 2025Analysis: Smoking rates in New Zealand have flatlined rather than fallen for the first time in a decade.
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With so many parties 'ruling out' working with each other, is MMP losing its way?
11 Jun 2025Analysis: At next year's election, voters will effectively face the same scenario they confronted under electoral rules rejected over 30 years ago.
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Fake news and real cannibalism: a cautionary tale from the Dutch Golden Age
10 Jun 2025What can happen when disinformation is allowed to run rampant.
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Trump seizes on LA protests in contentious use of military amid migrant crackdown
10 Jun 2025Analysis: Unrest sparked by federal immigration raids in Los Angeles provided a questionable catalyst for President Donald Trump to stage a demonstration of military force.
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Labour faces balancing act over haka protest
6 Jun 2025The saga over Te Pāti Māori's protest has ended - but it foreshadows fault lines to come, Craig McCulloch writes. Audio
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Making it easier to build a granny flat makes sense - but it's no solution to a housing crisis
Analysis: Soon granny flats up to 70sqm will not need consents.
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Trump-Musk divorce threatens a business empire
7 Jun 2025Analysis - Elon Musk's decision to go all in on Donald Trump never made much sense. His scorched-earth approach to breaking up with Trump is even harder to square.
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The ugliest things Trump and Musk just said about one another
6 Jun 2025From calls for impeachment to claims about the "Epstein files" and name-calling - a fight between the two has rapidly escalated.
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Trump is increasingly hostile to China. He’s playing with fire
6 Jun 2025Analysis: Despite concerns over a trade war, the US President has notched quite a few wins on his economic belt in recent weeks.
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Resignation of PM's press secretary highlights gaps in NZ law on covert recording and harassment
5 Jun 2025The police have said the case did not meet the threshold for prosecution.
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Supermarket sector competition reports like Groundhog Day
5 Jun 2025Analysis - The latest report on the supermarket duopoly concludes much as the first report.
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