Month: November 2025

On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky faces an impossible choice. Sign the “peace plan” drafted primarily by a New York real estate developer and a Moscow financier.

Something peculiar is happening in New Zealand politics. Labour, routed just two years ago with its worst result since proportional representation began in 1996, has surged to 38 per cent in the latest political poll.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon this week opened the door to asset recycling. He suggested that the government could sell state-owned enterprises and commercial assets it no longer has any reason to own, to fund new infrastructure.

Presentation to the Dutch Business Association, in cooperation with The New Zealand Initiative, at EY in Auckland.

New Zealand can learn from Dutch pragmatism, competence and cooperation.

In just two school terms, something remarkable has happened in New Zealand’s primary classrooms. According to data from the Education Review Office, the proportion of students meeting curriculum expectations for phonics knowledge after 20 weeks of schooling has increased from 36 per cent to 58 per cent, with those exceeding expectations more than doubling.

Last month, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented her plans for 2026 to the European Parliament. She promised the continent would become the “master of its own destiny”, build its own armies, control key technologies and lead the green transformation without depending on the US or China.