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INDEPENDENT NEWS
Government and farming sector leaders have agreed to attempt the eradication of cattle disease Mycoplasma bovis from New Zealand to protect the national herd and the long-term productivity of the farming sector.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Agriculture and Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor say we have one shot at eradicating a disease that causes painful, untreatable illness in cattle.
The decision was taken collectively by Government and farming sector bodies after months of intense modelling and analysis to understand the likely impacts of the disease, the potential spread and the costs and benefits of eradication versus other actions. More>>
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New Zealand Politics
Abortion Law Reform: "Yes" Wins In Ireland

ALRANZ: “The Irish government has promised to introduce legislation providing for abortion care on request up to 12 weeks, with no reason given. When the law is passed, Ireland’s abortion laws will be more progressive than New Zealand’s.” More>>

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Welfare Reform: Expert Advisory Group Established

Minister for Social Development, Hon Carmel Sepuloni, has today announced the formation of an expert advisory group to support the overhaul of the welfare system. More>>

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Self-Own Call: Phil Twyford’s CAA Responsibilities Transferred

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has agreed to transfer Transport Minister Hon Phil Twyford’s responsibilities for the Civil Aviation Authority to Associate Transport Minister Hon Julie Anne Genter, following his admission today of making a phone call on a domestic flight after the aircraft doors had shut in preparation for take-off. More>>

Gordon Campbell:
On The M Bovis Outbreak

As the public keeps on being told, there is no risk at all to human health from cows infected with Mycoplasma bovis… Even so, the M bovis outbreak is still doing the head in of Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor, who will be announcing on Monday whether the government intends going down the ‘eradication’ or the ‘management’ path with respect to the outbreak. More>>

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Climate Change Adaptation: Technical Group Calls For Urgent Action

Proactively planning how we can adapt to climate change urgently needs to weave into the work of every organisation, at every level, in every sector of New Zealand if we hope to adapt to the effects of climate change... More>>

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RNZ: Fishing Industry Lies Revealed In Leaked Report

Some of the country's biggest fishing companies have been under-reporting their hoki catch by hundreds of tonnes, according to a leaked fisheries report. The report has been kept secret from the public for seven years and environmentalists say it casts doubt on industry claims that lucrative hoki is being fished sustainably. More>>

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Uni Cuts: VCs At Risk Of Opting Out Of Government’s Vision

Vice-Chancellors need to accept that cutting jobs to meet narrow performance metrics will do nothing to help rebuild an inclusive tertiary education sector that meets the needs of all New Zealanders, the Tertiary Education Union said today. More>>

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Business, Science & Tech
PM In Taranaki: 'Collaborative Approach' On Oil And Gas Transition

The Prime Minister is meeting with local government leaders, energy industry representatives and workers about the Government’s plans for a just transition to a low emissions economy. More>>

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Taxing Multinationals: Next Step To Improve System

New legislation to improve the fairness of the tax system and prevent large multinationals from exploiting rules in order to shift their profits offshore has passed another step closer to becoming law. More>>

A Fuel And His Money: Petrol Prices Hit Records

The cost of 91 octane in Wellington and the South Island hit $2.30 a litre last week, beating the previous high set in 2013. Crude oil prices have been rising globally while the New Zealand dollar has fallen, making the cost of fuel more expensive. More>>

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NZentry: EU And NZ To Start Free Trade Talks

A free trade deal between New Zealand and the European Union (EU) has taken a major step forward with the announcement overnight that the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council has approved its negotiating mandate. More>>

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You'd Hope: Employers Told To Pay Minimum Wage

Advertisers offering jobs to backpackers are being told they must pay the minimum wage or risk prosecution. Last week, RNZ revealed a job website - Backpackerboard - was advertising roles below the $16.50 per hour minimum wage. More>>

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Still Gaining: More Migrants Head Back Overseas

Annual net migration is down 4,800 from a high point a year ago, largely because more non-New Zealand citizens are leaving the country, Stats NZ said today. More>>
Comment
Gordon Campbell: On Why We Should Be Anxious About Artificial Intelligence

Frankly, the prospect of possibly losing half the existing forms of paid employment to AI does make me feel extremely anxious, given the indifference shown by central government to the downstream social damage caused by the reform process last time around... More>>

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Binoy Kampmark: Tom Wolfe The Parajournalist

As New Journalism’s primary advocate, Tom Wolfe headed the field with such experimental forces as Norman Mailer, Truman Capote and Hunter S. Thompson, all dedicated to enriching supposedly factual accounts with excessive flourishes that hurried out the beige in favour of the kaleidoscopic. More>>

Gordon Campbell: On Racism And The Windsors

For all the talk about the modernizing effect that Meghan Markle could have on the Royal Family, the suspicion all along has been that the House of Windsor is resistant to change at any level beyond the purely decorative. More>>

Gordon Campbell: On Prospects Of US Talks With North Korea

On June 12, the leaders of North Korea and the United States will meet across a table in Singapore, and Kim Jong Un must already be feeling giddy at the thought that this meeting is already being described with the word “summit” formerly reserved for meetings between superpowers of equal stature... Image: Steve Bolton NZ's contribution to the IAEA’s work on North KoreaGordon Campbell: On National’s Latest Attempts At Relevance

Having ignored the existence of massive problems in health and education for nine years in government, it is no longer politically viable for National to maintain the pretence that such problems really don’t exist, or are somehow unworthy of serious concern by rational men of commerce.... More>>
World
"Systematic Murder": Complaint Filed To ICC Over Gaza Killings

Scoop's Alastair Thompson reports: Over the past four years Kiwi journalist, investigator and human rights activist Julie Webb Pullman has trained and coordinated funding to assemble teams to collect evidence, interview witnesses and properly document thousands of individual war crimes committed in the period since Operation Protective Edge (2014). More>>

Trump On Drugs: Threat To Affordable Medicines Through Trade Deals

“US President Donald Trump’s policy to end “freeloading” and force trading partners to increase prices they pay for US pharmaceutical exports is a direct threat to Australia’s policy of ensuring affordable medicines through our Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme...” More>>

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Gordon Campbell: On Nine Trump Lies About The Iran Deal

The cascade of Orwellian lies that US President Donald Trump has used to rationalize why his country is reneging on the commitments it made under the Iran nuclear deal should be posing a genuine problem for our media. More>>

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Colombia’s Elections: Assassinations, Presidential Death Squads, Fraud And A Fragile Peace Process Under Threat

Scoop's Joseph Cederwall reports: Next week Colombia, goes to the polls in one of the most pivotal and closely fought elections in decades. This election will now take place under the watch of EU monitors as an escalating fraud scandal develops surrounding the recent congressional elections. The two frontrunners are starkly contrasted, as are the potential outcomes for Colombia and the entire Latin American region. More>>

Gordon Campbell: On Hostility Against Journalists & Israel’s Lies About Iran

At last count, 32 working journalists had been killed this year up until April 30, and recent weeks have seen the worst period of sustained violence against journalists since the 2015 Charlie Hebdo killings in France. More>>

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Lifestyle
Ockhams: Pip Adam Wins Premier Book Award

A novel which judges say ‘will bring readers back from the dead’ has won the 2018 $50,000 Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize in the country’s premier book awards. More>>

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Voyager Award Winner: “Sempy’s Xmas”

Congratulations to Kent Blechynden, who won a Voyager Media Award for this photo essay, published on Scoop in December.

Michael “Semp” Semple is an old school punk rocker from New Plymouth who is on the methadone programme... On Christmas day he thought he would be alone but two of his mates, “Mikey” and “Stacey”, turned up for some banter. More>>

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Auckland & Christchurch: Bob Dylan Returns To NZ

The cross-generational icon will take in Auckland’s Spark Arena on Sunday 26th August and Christchurch’s Horncastle Arena on Tuesday 28th August. More>>
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