Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown has suggested a double standard, saying he was “not privy to or consulted on” agreements New Zealand may enter into with China.
New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters has paused $18.2 million in development assistance to the Cook Islands due to a lack of consultation regarding a partnership agreement and other deals signed with Beijing earlier this year.
The pause includes $10 million in core sector support, which Brown told parliament this week represents four percent of the country’s budget.
“[This] has been a consistent component of the Cook Islands budget as part of New Zealand’s contribution, and it is targeted, and has always been targeted, towards the sectors of health, education, and tourism.”
Brown said he was surprised by the timing of the announcement.
“Especially Mr Speaker in light of the fact our officials have been in discussions with New Zealand officials to address the areas of concern that they have over our engagements in the agreements that we signed with China.”
Peters said the Cook Islands government was informed of the funding pause on June 4. He also said it had nothing to do with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon being in China.
Ensured good outcomes
Brown said he was sure Luxon could ensure good outcomes for the people of the realm of New Zealand on the back of the Cook Islands state visit and “the goodwill that we’ve generated with the People’s Republic of China”.
“I have full trust that Prime Minister Luxon has entered into agreements with China that will pose no security threats to the people of the Cook Islands,” he said.
“Of course, not being privy to or not being consulted on any agreements that New Zealand may enter into with China.”
The Cook Islands is in free association with New Zealand and governs its own affairs. But New Zealand provides assistance with foreign affairs (upon request), disaster relief, and defence.
The 2001 Joint Centenary Declaration signed between the two nations requires them to consult each other on defence and security, which Winston Peters said had not been lived up to.
In a statement on Thursday, the Cook Islands Foreign Affairs and Immigration Ministry said there was a breakdown in the interpretation of the 2001 Joint Centenary Declaration.
The spokesperson said repairing the relationship requires dialogue where both countries are prepared to consider each other’s concerns.
‘Beg forgiveness’
Former Cook Islands deputy prime minister and prominent lawyer Norman George said Brown “should go on his knees and beg for forgiveness because you can’t rely on China”.
“[The aid pause] is absolutely a fair thing to do because our Prime Minister betrayed New Zealand and let the government and people of New Zealand down.”
But not everyone agrees. Rarotongan artist Tim Buchanan said Peters is being a bully.
“It’s like he’s taken a page out of Donald Trump’s playbook using money to coerce his friends,” Buchanan said.
“What is it exactly do you want from us Winston? What do you expect us to be doing to appease you?”
Buchanan said it had been a long road for the Cook Islands to get where it was now, and it seemed New Zealand wanted to knock the country back down.
Brown did not provide an interview to RNZ Pacific on Thursday but is expected to give an update in Parliament.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
The surprise US-Israeli attack on Iran is literally and figuratively designed to unleash centrifugal forces in the Islamic Republic.
Two nuclear powers are currently involved in the bombing of the nuclear facilities of a third state. One of them, the US has — for the moment — limited itself to handling mid-air refuelling, bombs and an array of intelligence.
If successful they will destroy or, more likely, destabilise the uranium enrichment centrifuges at Natanz and possibly the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, causing them to vibrate and spin uncontrollably, generating centrifugal forces that could rupture containment systems.
Spinning at more than 50,000 rpm it wouldn’t take much of a shockwave from a blast or some other act of sabotage to do this.
There may be about half a tonne of enriched uranium and several tonnes of lower-grade material underground.
If a cascade of bunker-busting bombs like the US GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators got through, the heat generated would be in the hundreds, even thousands, of degrees Celsius. This would destroy the centrifuges, converting the uranium hexafluoride gas into a toxic aerosol, leading to serious radiological contamination over a wide area.
The head of the IAEA, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, warned repeatedly of the dangers over the past few days. How many people would be killed, contaminated or forced to evacuate should not have to be calculated — it should be avoided at all cost.
Divided opinions Some people think this attack is a very good idea; some think this is an act of madness by two rogue states.
On June 18, Israeli media were reporting that the US had rushed an aerial armada loaded with bunker busters to Israel while the US continued its sham denials of involvement in the war.
Analysts Professor Jeffrey Sachs and Sybil Fares warned this week of “Israel bringing the world to the brink of nuclear Armageddon in pursuit of its illegal and extremist aims”. They point out that for some decades now Netanyahu has warned that Iran is weeks or even days away from having the bomb, begging successive presidents for permission to wage Judeo-Christian jihad.
In Donald Trump — the MAGA Peace Candidate — he finally got his green light.
The centrifugal forces destabilising the Iranian state The other — and possibly more significant — centrifugal force that has been unleashed is a hybrid attack on the Iranian state itself. The Americans, Israelis and their European allies hope to trigger regime change.
There are many Iranians inside and outside the country who would welcome such a development. Other Iranians suggest they should be careful of what they wish for, pointing to the human misery that follows, as night follows day, wherever post 9/11 America’s project to bring “democracy, goodness and niceness” leads. If you can’t quickly think of half a dozen examples, this must be your first visit to Planet Earth.
Iranian news presenter Sahar Emami during the Israeli attack on state television which killed three media workers . . . Killing journalists is both an Israeli speciality and a war crime. Image: AJ screenshot APR
Is regime change in Iran possible? So, are the Americans and Israelis on to something or not? This week prominent anti-regime writer Sohrab Ahmari added a caveat to his long-standing call for an end to the regime. Ahmari, an Iranian, who is the US editor of the geopolitical analysis platform UnHerd said: “The potential nightmare scenarios are as numerous as they are appalling: regime collapse that leads not to the restoration of the Pahlavi dynasty and the ascent to the Peacock Throne of its chubby dauphin, Reza, but warlordism and ethno-sectarian warfare that drives millions of refugees into Europe.
“Or a Chinese intervention in favour of a crucial energy partner and anchor of the new Eurasian bloc led by Beijing . . . A blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and attacks on the Persian Gulf monarchies.”
Despite these risks, there are indeed Iranians who are cheering for Uncle Bibi (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu). Some have little sympathy for the Palestinians because their government poured millions into supporting Hamas and Hezbollah — money that could have eased hardship inside Iran, caused, it must be added, by both the US-imposed sanctions and the regime’s own mismanagement, some say corruption.
As I pointed out in an article The West’s War on Iran shortly after the Israelis launched the war: the regime appears to have a core support base of around 20 percent. This was true in 2018 when I last visited Iran and was still the case in the most recent polling I could find.
I quoted an Iranian contact who shortly after the attack told me they had scanned reactions inside Iran and found people were upset, angry and overwhelmingly supportive of the government at this critical moment. Like many, I suggested Iranians would — as typically happens when countries are attacked — rally round the flag. Shortly after the article was published this statement was challenged by other Iranians who dispute that there will be any “rallying to the flag” — as that is the flag of the Islamic Republic and a great many Iranians are sick to the back teeth of it.
Some others demur:
“The killing of at least 224 Iranians has once again significantly damaged Israel’s claim that it avoids targeting civilians,” Dr Shirin Saeidi, author of Women and the Islamic Republic, an associate professor of political science at the University of Arkansas, told The New Arab on June 16. “Israel’s illegal attack on the Iranian people will definitely not result in a popular uprising against the Iranian state. On the contrary, Iranians are coming together behind the Islamic Republic.”
To be honest, I can’t discern who is correct. In the last few of days I have also had contact with people inside Iran (all these contacts must, for obvious reasons, be anonymous). One of them welcomed the attack on the IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps). I also got this message relayed to me from someone else in Iran as a response to my article:
“Some Iranians are pro-regime and have condemned Israeli attacks and want the government to respond strongly. Some Iranians are pro-Israel and happy that Israel has attacked and killed some of their murderers and want regime change, [but the] majority of Iranians dislike both sides.
They dislike the regime in Iran, and they are patriotic so they don’t want a foreign country like Israel invading them and killing people. They feel hopeless and defenceless as they know both sides have failed or will fail them.”
Calculating the incalculable: regime survival or collapse? Only a little over half of Iran is Persian. Minorities include Azerbaijanis, Kurds, Arabs, Balochis, Turkmen, Armenians and one of the region’s few post-Nakba Jewish congregations outside of Israel today.
Mossad, MI6 and various branches of the US state have poured billions into opposition groups, including various monarchist factions, but from a distance they appear fragmented. The Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) armed opposition group has been an irritant but so far not a major disruptor.
The most effective terrorist attacks inside Iran have been launched by Israel, the US and the British — including the assassination of a string of Iranian peace negotiators, the leader of the political wing of Hamas, nuclear scientists and their families, and various regime figures.
How numerous the active strands of anti-regime elements are is hard to estimate. Equally hard to calculate is how many will move into open confrontation with the regime. Conversely, how unified, durable — or brittle — is the regime? How cohesive is the leadership of the IRGC and the Basij militias? Will they work effectively together in the trying times ahead? In particular, how successful has the CIA, MI6 and Mossad been at penetrating their structures and buying generals?
Both Iran’s nuclear programme and its government — in fact, the whole edifice and foundation of the Islamic Republic — is at the beginning of the greatest stress test of its existence. If the centrifugal forces prove too great, I can’t help but think of the words of William Butler Yeats:
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Peace and prosperity to all the people of Iran. And let’s never forget the people of Palestine as they endure genocide.
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. He contributes to Asia Pacific Report and Café Pacific, and hosts the public policy platform solidarity.co.nz
BEARING WITNESS:By Cole Martin in occupied Bethlehem
Kia ora koutou,
I’m a Kiwi journo in occupied Bethlehem, here’s a brief summary of today’s events across the Palestinian and Israeli territories from on the ground.
At least 16 killed by Israeli airstrike on al-Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza. 92 killed across Gaza in total, a significant number while seeking aid. 15 months after the shocking “flour massacre”, Israeli forces are now committing daily massacres against Gazan residents desperately seeking food due to Israel’s policy of forced starvation. These ongoing war crimes have been met with indifference, justification, and ongoing impunity from global leaders.
*
Jerusalem’s Old City markets remain closed for the seventh consecutive day after restrictions were imposed under the pretext of “wartime emergency”. Meanwhile, across the besieged West Bank the occupation forces continue demolishing homes in Tulkarm and Jenin refugee camps, where more than 40,000 residents have been displaced by Israel’s months-long “military operation”.
Israeli soldiers occupying houses south of Jenin as military barracks, embedding themselves among Palestinian civilians as they have for several days in Al Khalil/Hebron.
Around two-dozen young men detained in Asakra village south-east of Bethlehem, and several more in Laban village, south of Nablus. A young man, Moataz, 22, was executed by Israeli forces in his home village of Wolja west of Bethlehem. Movement of ambulances has been affected by gasoline shortages in Bethlehem. Forces invaded Plata camp in East Nablus for the second day in a row.
*
Israel bombed the outskirts of Shabaa town, in southern Lebanon, yet another violation of ceasefire agreements.
*
An Iranian missile hit Beersheba’s Soroka hospital in southern Israel last night, with no resulting casualties — Iran claiming it targeted a nearby military site. Outrage at the war crime has highlighted widespread double-standards across Israeli society and globally. Israeli forces have destroyed, bombed, or damaged 38 hospitals in Gaza over their 20-month genocidal war on the enclave, with the World Health Organisation recording around 700 attacks on Gazan healthcare facilities in that same period. Israeli residents have erected tents, transforming an underground parking lot into a bomb shelter.
*
Several more retaliatory volleys of Iranian missiles targeted the Israeli territories throughout the day, as heavy Israeli assaults continued on Iranian territories. Israel’s reported death toll has risen to 24, with Iran’s rising to 639.
Cole Martin is an independent New Zealand photojournalist based in the Middle East and a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.
BEARING WITNESS:By Cole Martin in occupied Bethlehem
Kia ora koutou,
I’m a Kiwi journo in occupied Bethlehem, here’s a brief summary of today’s events across the Palestinian and Israeli territories from on the ground.
At least 16 killed by Israeli airstrike on al-Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza. 92 killed across Gaza in total, a significant number while seeking aid. 15 months after the shocking “flour massacre”, Israeli forces are now committing daily massacres against Gazan residents desperately seeking food due to Israel’s policy of forced starvation. These ongoing war crimes have been met with indifference, justification, and ongoing impunity from global leaders.
*
Jerusalem’s Old City markets remain closed for the seventh consecutive day after restrictions were imposed under the pretext of “wartime emergency”. Meanwhile, across the besieged West Bank the occupation forces continue demolishing homes in Tulkarm and Jenin refugee camps, where more than 40,000 residents have been displaced by Israel’s months-long “military operation”.
Israeli soldiers occupying houses south of Jenin as military barracks, embedding themselves among Palestinian civilians as they have for several days in Al Khalil/Hebron.
Around two-dozen young men detained in Asakra village south-east of Bethlehem, and several more in Laban village, south of Nablus. A young man, Moataz, 22, was executed by Israeli forces in his home village of Wolja west of Bethlehem. Movement of ambulances has been affected by gasoline shortages in Bethlehem. Forces invaded Plata camp in East Nablus for the second day in a row.
*
Israel bombed the outskirts of Shabaa town, in southern Lebanon, yet another violation of ceasefire agreements.
*
An Iranian missile hit Beersheba’s Soroka hospital in southern Israel last night, with no resulting casualties — Iran claiming it targeted a nearby military site. Outrage at the war crime has highlighted widespread double-standards across Israeli society and globally. Israeli forces have destroyed, bombed, or damaged 38 hospitals in Gaza over their 20-month genocidal war on the enclave, with the World Health Organisation recording around 700 attacks on Gazan healthcare facilities in that same period. Israeli residents have erected tents, transforming an underground parking lot into a bomb shelter.
*
Several more retaliatory volleys of Iranian missiles targeted the Israeli territories throughout the day, as heavy Israeli assaults continued on Iranian territories. Israel’s reported death toll has risen to 24, with Iran’s rising to 639.
Cole Martin is an independent New Zealand photojournalist based in the Middle East and a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.
Had Israel not launched its unprovoked attack on Iran on Friday night, in direct violation of the UN Charter, Iran would now be taking part in the sixth round of negotiations concerning the future of its nuclear programme, meeting with representatives from the United States in Muscat, the capital of Oman.
Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu claimed he acted to prevent Iran from building a nuclear bomb, saying Iran had the capacity to build nine nuclear weapons. Israel provided no evidence to back up its claims.
On 25 March 2025, Trump’s own National Director of Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, said:
“The IC [Intelligence Community] continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorised the nuclear weapons programme he suspended in 2003. The IC is monitoring if Tehran decides to reauthorise its nuclear weapons programme”
Even if Iran had the capability to build a bomb, it is quite another thing to have the will to do so.
Any such bomb would need to be tested first, and any such test would be quickly detected by a series of satellites on the lookout for nuclear detonations anywhere on the planet.
It is more likely that Israel launched its attack to stop US and Iranian negotiators from meeting on Sunday.
Only a month ago, Iran’s lead negotiator in the nuclear talks, Ali Shamkhani, told US television that Iran was ready to do a deal. NBC journalist Richard Engel reports:
“Shamkhani said Iran is willing to commit to never having a nuclear weapon, to get rid of its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium, to only enrich to a level needed for civilian use and to allow inspectors in to oversee it all, in exchange for lifting all sanctions immediately. He said Iran would accept that deal tonight.”
Inside Iran as Trump presses for nuclear deal. Video: NBC News
Shamkhani died on Saturday, following injuries he suffered during Israel’s attack on Friday night. It appears that Israel not only opposed a diplomatic solution to the Iran nuclear impasse: Israel killed it directly.
A spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Esmaeil Baghaei, told a news conference in Tehran the talks would be suspended until Israel halts its attacks:
“It is obvious that in such circumstances and until the Zionist regime’s aggression against the Iranian nation stops, it would be meaningless to participate with the party that is the biggest supporter and accomplice of the aggressor.”
On 1 April 2024, Israel launched an airstrike on Iran’s embassy in Syria, killing 16 people, including a woman and her son. The attack violated international norms regarding the protection of diplomatic premises under the Vienna Convention.
It is worth noting how the TheNew York Times described the occupation of the US Embassy in November 1979:
“But it is the Ayatollah himself who is doing the devil’s work by inciting and condoning the student invasion of the American and British Embassies in Tehran. This is not just a diplomatic affront; it is a declaration of war on diplomacy itself, on usages and traditions honoured by all nations, however old and new, whatever belief.
“The immunities given a ruler’s emissaries were respected by the kings of Persia during wars with Greece and by the Ayatollah’s spiritual ancestors during the Crusades.”
Now it is Israel conducting a “war on diplomacy itself”, first with the attack on the embassy, followed by Friday’s surprise attack on Iran. Scuppering a diplomatic resolution to the nuclear issue appears to be the aim. To make matters worse, Israel’s recklessness could yet cause a major war.
Trump: Inconsistent and ineffective In an interview with Time magazine on 22 April 2025, Trump denied he had stopped Israel from attacking Iran’s nuclear sites.
“No, it’s not right. I didn’t stop them. But I didn’t make it comfortable for them, because I think we can make a deal without the attack. I hope we can. It’s possible we’ll have to attack because Iran will not have a nuclear weapon.
“But I didn’t make it comfortable for them, but I didn’t say no. Ultimately I was going to leave that choice to them, but I said I would much prefer a deal than bombs being dropped.”
— US President Donald Trump
In the same interview Trump boasted “I think we’re going to make a deal with Iran. Nobody else could do that.” Except, someone else had already done that — only for Trump to abandon the deal in his first term as president.
In July 2015 Iran signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) alongside the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and the European Union. Iran pledged to curb its nuclear programme for 10-15 years in exchange for the removal of some economic sanctions. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also gained access and verification powers.
Iran also agreed to limit uranium enrichment to 3.67 per cent U-235, allowing it to maintain its nuclear power reactors.
Despite clear signs the nuclear deal was working, Donald Trump withdrew from the JCPOA and reinstated sanctions on Iran in November 2018. Despite the unilateral American action, Iran kept to the deal for a time, but in January 2020 Iran declared it would no longer abide by the limitations included in JCPOA but would continue to work with the IAEA.
By pulling out of the deal and reinstating sanctions, the US and Israel effectively created a strong incentive for Iran to resume enriching uranium to higher levels, not for the sake of making a bomb, but as the most obvious means of creating leverage to remove the sanctions.
As a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Iran is allowed to enrich uranium for civilian fuel programmes.
Iran’s nuclear programme began in the 1960s with US assistance. Prior to the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Iran was ruled by the brutal dictatorship of the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahavi.
American corporations saw Iran as a potential market for expansion. During the 1970s the US suggested to the Shah he needed not one but several nuclear reactors to meet Iran’s future electricity needs. In June 1974, the Shah declared that Iran would have nuclear weapons, “without a doubt and sooner than one would think”.
In 2007, I wrote an article for Peace Researcher where I examined US claims that Iran does not need nuclear power because it is sitting on one of the largest gas supplies in the world. One of the most interesting things I discovered while researching the article was the relevance of air pollution, a critical public health concern in Iran.
In 2024, health officials estimated that air pollution is responsible for 40,000 deaths a year in Iran. Deputy Health Minister Alireza Raisi said the “majority of these deaths were due to cardiovascular diseases, strokes, respiratory issues, and cancers”.
Sahimi describes levels of air pollution in Tehran and other major Iranian cities as “catastrophic”, with elementary schools having to close on some days as a result. There was little media coverage of the air pollution issue in relation to Iran’s energy mix then, and I have seen hardly any since.
An energy research project, Advanced Energy Technologies provides a useful summary of electricity production in Iran as it stood in 2023.
Iranian electricity production in 2023. Source: Advanced Energy Technologies
With around 94.6 percent of electricity generation dependent on fossil fuels, there are serious environmental reasons why Iran should not be encouraged to depend on oil and gas for its electricity needs — not to mention the prospect of climate change.
One could also question the safety of nuclear power in one of the most seismically active countries in the world, however it would be fair to ask the same question of countries like Japan, which aims to increase its use of nuclear power to about 20 percent of the country’s total electricity generation by 2040, despite the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated that Iran’s uranium enrichment programme “must continue”, but the “scope and level may change”. Prior to the talks in Oman, Araghchi highlighted the “constant change” in US positions as a problem.
Trump’s rhetoric on uranium enrichment has shifted repeatedly.
He told Meet the Press on May 4 that “total dismantlement” of the nuclear program is “all I would accept.” He suggested that Iran does not need nuclear energy because of its oil reserves. But on May 7, when asked specifically about allowing Iran to retain a limited enrichment program, Trump said “we haven’t made that decision yet.”
Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in a May 14 interview with NBC that Iran is ready to sign a deal with the United States and reiterated that Iran is willing to limit uranium enrichment to low levels. He previously suggested in a May 7 post on X that any deal should include a “recognition of Iran’s right to industrial enrichment.”
That recognition, plus the removal of U.S. and international sanctions, “can guarantee a deal,” Shamkhani said.
So with Iran seemingly willing to accept reasonable conditions, why was a deal not reached last month? It appears the US changed its position, and demanded Iran cease all enrichment of uranium, including what Iran needs for its power stations.
One wonders if Zionist lobby groups like AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) influenced this decision. One could recall what happened during Benjamin Netanyahu’s first stint as Israel’s Prime Minister (1996-1999) to illustrate the point.
In April 1995 AIPAC published a report titled ‘Comprehensive US Sanctions Against Iran: A Plan for Action’. In 1997 Mohammad Khatami was elected as President of Iran. The following year Khatami expressed regret for the takeover of the US embassy in Tehran in 1979 and denounced terrorism against Israelis, while noting that “supporting peoples who fight for their liberation of their land is not, in my opinion, supporting terrorism”.
The threat of improved relations between Iran and the US sent the Israeli government led by Netanyahu into a panic. The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz reported that “Israel has expressed concern to Washington of an impending change of policy by the United States towards Iran” adding that Netanyahu “asked AIPAC . . . to act vigorously in Congress to prevent such a policy shift.”
Twenty years ago the Israeli lobby were claiming an Iranian nuclear bomb was imminent. It didn’t happen.
Netanyahu’s Iran nuclear warnings. Video: Al Jazeera
The misguided efforts of Israel and the United States to contain Iran’s use of nuclear technology are not only counterproductive — they risk being a catastrophic failure. If one was going to design a policy to convince Iran nuclear weapons may be needed for its own defence, it is hard to imagine a policy more effective than the one Israel has pursued for the past 30 years.My 2007 Peace Researcher article asked a simple question: ‘Why does Iran want nuclear weapons?’ My introduction could have been written yesterday.
“With all the talk about Iran and the intentions of its nuclear programme it is a shame the West continues to undermine its own position with selective morality and obvious hypocrisy. It seems amazing there can be so much written about this issue, yet so little addresses the obvious question – ‘for what reasons could Iran want nuclear weapons?’.
“As Simon Jenkins (2006) points out, the answer is as simple as looking at a map. ‘I would sleep happier if there were no Iranian bomb but a swamp of hypocrisy separates me from overly protesting it. Iran is a proud country that sits between nuclear Pakistan and India to its east, a nuclear Russia to its north and a nuclear Israel to its west. Adjacent Afghanistan and Iraq are occupied at will by a nuclear America, which backed Saddam Hussein in his 1980 invasion of Iran. How can we say such a country has no right’ to nuclear defence?’”
This week the German Foreign Office reached new heights in hypocrisy with this absurd tweet.
Iran has no nuclear weapons. Israel does. Iran is a signatory to the NPT. Israel is not. Iran allows IAEA inspections. Israel does not.
Starting another war will not make us forget, nor forgive what Israel is doing in Gaza.
From the river to the sea, credibility requires consistency.
I write about New Zealand and international politics, with particular interests in political economy, history, philosophy, transport, and workers’ rights. I don’t like war very much.
Joe Hendren writes about New Zealand and international politics, with particular interests in political economy, history, philosophy, transport, and workers’ rights. Republished with his permission. Read this original article on his Substack account with full references.
New Zealand has paused $18.2 million in development assistance funding to the Cook Islands after its government signed partnership agreements with China earlier this year.
This move is causing consternation in the realm country, with one local political leader calling it “a significant escalation” between Avarua and Wellington.
A spokesperson for Foreign Minister Winston Peters said the Cook Islands did not consult with Aotearoa over the China deals and failed to ensure shared interests were not put at risk.
On Thursday (Wednesday local time), Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown told Parliament that his government knew the funding cut was coming.
“We have been aware that this core sector support would not be forthcoming in this budget because this had not been signed off by the New Zealand government in previous months, so it has not been included in the budget that we are debating this week,” he said.
The agreements focus in areas of economy, infrastructure and maritime cooperation and seabed mineral development, among others. They do not include security or defence.
However, to New Zealand’s annoyance, Brown did not discuss the details with it first.
Prior to signing, Brown said he was aware of the strong interest in the outcomes of his visit to China.
Afterwards, a spokesperson for Peters released a statement saying New Zealand would consider the agreements closely, in light of the countries’ mutual constitutional responsibilities.
The Cook Islands-New Zealand relationship Cook Islands is in free association with New Zealand. The country governs its own affairs, but New Zealand provides assistance with foreign affairs (upon request), disaster relief and defence.
Cook Islanders also hold New Zealand passports entitling them to live and work there.
In 2001, New Zealand and the Cook Islands signed a joint centenary declaration, which required the two to “consult regularly on defence and security issues”.
The Cook Islands did not think it needed to consult with New Zealand on the China agreement.
Peters said there is an expectation that the government of the Cook Islands would not pursue policies that were “significantly at variance with New Zealand’s interests”.
A spokesperson for Peters said at the time said the New Zealand government noted the mining agreements and would analyse them.
How New Zealand reacted On Thursday morning, Peters said the Cook Islands had not lived up to the 2001 declaration.
Peters said the Cook Islands had failed to give satisfactory answers to New Zealand’s questions about the arrangement.
“We have made it very clear in our response to statements that were being made — which we do not think laid out the facts and truth behind this matter — of what New Zealand’s position is,” he said.
“We’ve got responsibilities ourselves here. And we wanted to make sure that we didn’t put a step wrong in our commitment and our special arrangement which goes back decades.”
Officials would be working through what the Cook Islands had to do so New Zealand was satisfied the funding could resume.
He said New Zealand’s message was conveyed to the Cook Islands government “in its finality” on June 4.
“When we made this decision, we said to them our senior officials need to work on clearing up this misunderstanding and confusion about our arrangements and about our relationship.”
Asked about the timing of Luxon’s visit to China, and what he thought the response from China might be, Peters said the decision to pause the funding was not connected to China.
He said he had raised the matter with his China counterpart Wang Yi, when he last visited China in February, and Wang understood New Zealand’s relationship with the Cook Islands.
Concerns in the Cook Islands Over the past three years, New Zealand has provided nearly $194.6 million (about US$117m) to the Cook Islands through the development programme.
Cook Islands opposition leader Tina Browne said she was deeply concerned about the pause.
Browne said she was informed of the funding pause on Wednesday night, and she was worried about the indication from Peters that it might affect future funding.
She issued a “please explain” request to Mark Brown:
“The prime minister has been leading the country to think that everything with New Zealand has been repaired, hunky dory, etcetera — trust is still there,” she said.
“Wham-bam, we get this in the Cook Islands News this morning. What does that tell you?”
Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown (left) and Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters in Rarotonga in February last year. Image: RNZ Pacific/Eleisha Foon
Will NZ’s action ‘be a very good news story’ for Beijing? Massey University’s defence and security expert Dr Anna Powles told RNZ Pacific that aid should not be on the table in debate between New Zealand and the Cook Islands.
“That spirit of the [2001] declaration is really in question here,” she said.
“The negotiation between the two countries needs to take aid as a bargaining chip off the table for it to be able to continue — for it to be successful.”
Dr Powles said New Zealand’s moves might help China strengthen its hand in the Pacific.
She said China could contrast its position on using aid as a bargaining chip.
“By Beijing being able to tell its partners in the region, ‘we would never do that, and certainly we would never seek to leverage our relationships in this way’. This could be a very good news story for China, and it certainly puts New Zealand in a weaker position, as a consequence.”
However, a prominent Cook Islands lawyer said it was fair that New Zealand was pressing pause.
Norman George said Brown should implore New Zealand for forgiveness.
“It is absolutely a fair thing to do because our prime minister betrayed New Zealand and let the government and people of New Zealand down.”
Brown has not responded to multiple attempts by RNZ Pacific for comment.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
18 June 2025. On the eve of the 48th birthday of Khurram Parvez, a globally respected human rights defender from Indian-administered Kashmir, we, the undersigned organizations, renew our call for his immediate and unconditional release. Khurram has now spent over three and a half years in arbitrary detention under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) – an Indian counter-terrorism law that has been widely condemned by experts and the United Nations (UN) for violating legal rules and norms, including by enabling prolonged pre-trial incarceration.
Khurram is the Program Coordinator of the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) and former Chairperson of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances. He was arrested on 22 November 2021 by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) and charged under multiple sections of the UAPA and Indian Penal Code. In March 2023, he was further implicated in a second case, alongside Kashmiri journalist and former JKCCS researcher Irfan Mehraj. The case, originally filed in October 2020, seeks to punish their human rights work as “funding terror activities” and the “propagation of secessionist agenda[s].”
In June 2023, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) issued an opinion ruling that Khurram’s detention was arbitrary and without legal basis, and urging the government of India to release him immediately and to provide reparation. Multiple other UN Special Procedures have highlighted Khurram’s case as a reprisal for his human rights work including his engagement with the UN human rights mechanisms. They find his detention a violation of binding international law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Nonetheless, Khurram continues to be held in a maximum-security prison in New Delhi, India.
Khurram’s continued incarceration is emblematic of Indian authorities’ systematic criminalization of human rights work, denial of the rights to freedom of expression, and the silencing of dissent in Indian-administered Kashmir. Khurram has for years documented human rights violations, including in Indian-administered Kashmir. His work, and that of JKCCS, is widely respected and recognized internationally, as demonstrated by Khurram’s receipt of the Martin Ennals Award in 2023 and the Reebok Human Rights Award in 2006.
As Khurram marks another birthday behind bars, we, the undersigned organizations, call on the government of India to immediately and unconditionally release Khurram Parvez, as well as Irfan Mehraj and all human rights defenders unlawfully imprisoned by Indian authorities for their human rights work.
We urge Indian authorities to fully comply with their international legal obligations, including by ending their ongoing and longstanding abuse of counter-terrorism legislation to target civil society and dissent.
Signed:
Amnesty International
Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD)
CIVICUS
FORUM-ASIA
Front Line Defenders
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), in the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
Kashmir Law and Justice Project
World Organisation Against Torture, in the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
SPECIAL REPORT: By Saige England in Ōtautahi and Ava Mulla in Cairo
Hope for freedom for Palestinians remains high among a group of trauma-struck New Zealanders in Cairo.
In spite of extensive planning, the Global March To Gaza (GMTG) delegation of about 4000 international aid volunteers was thwarted in its mission to walk from Cairo to Gaza to lend support.
The land of oranges and pyramids became the land of autocracy last week as peace aid volunteers — young, middle-aged, and elderly — were herded like cattle and cordoned behind fences.
Their passports were initially seized — and later returned. Several New Zealanders were among those dragged and beaten.
While ordinary Egyptians showed “huge support” for the GMTG, the militant Egyptian regime showed its hand in supporting Israel rather than Palestine.
A member of the delegation, Natasha*, said she and other members pursued every available diplomatic channel to ensure that the peaceful, humanitarian, march would reach Gaza.
Moved by love, they were met with hate.
Violently attacked
“When I stepped toward the crowd’s edge and began instinctually with heart break to chant, ‘Free Palestine,’ I was violently attacked by five plainclothes men.
“They screamed, grabbed, shoved, and even spat on me,” she said.
Tackled, she was dragged to an unmarked van. She did not resist, posed no threat, yet the violence escalated instantly.
“I saw hatred in their eyes.”
Egyptian state security forces and embedded provocateurs were intent on dismantling and discrediting the Global March activists. Image: GMTG screenshot APR
Another GMTG member, a woman who tried to intervene was also “viciously assaulted”. She witnessed at least three other women and two men being attacked.
The peacemakers escaped from the unmarked van the aggressors were distracted, seemingly confused about their destination, she said.
It is now clear that from the beginning Egyptian State forces and embedded provocateurs were intent on dismantling and discrediting the GMTG.
Authorities as provocateurs
The peace participants witnessed plainclothed authorities act as provacateurs, “shoving people, stepping on them, throwing objects” to create a false image for media.
New Zealand actor Will Alexander . . . “This is only a fraction of what Palestinians experience every day.” GMTG
New Zealand actor Will Alexander said the experience had inflated rather than deflated his passion for human rights, and compassion for Palestinians.
“This is only a fraction of what Palestinians experience everyday. Palestinians pushed into smaller and smaller areas are murdered for wanting to stand on their own land,” he said.
“The reason that ordinary New Zealanders like us need to put our bodies on the line is because our government has failed to uphold its obligations under the Genocide Convention.
“Israel has blatantly breached international law for decades with total impunity.”
While the New Zealanders are all safe, a small number of people in the wider movement had been forcibly ‘disappeared’,” said GMTG New Zealand member Sam Leason.
Their whereabouts was still unknown, he said.
Arab members targeted
“It must be emphasised that it is primarily — and possibly strictly — Arab members of the March who are the targets of the most dramatic and violent excesses committed by the Egyptian authorities, including all forced disappearances.”
Global March to Gaza activists being attacked . . . the genocide cannot be sustained when people from around the world push against the Israeli regime and support the people on the ground with food and healthcare. Image: GMTG screenshot APR
This did, however, continuously add to the mounting sense of stress, tension, anxiety and fear, felt by the contingent, he said.
“Especially given the Egyptian authorities’ disregard to their own legal system, which leaves us blindsided and in a thick fog of uncertainty.”
Moving swiftly through the streets of Cairo in the pitch of night, from hotel to hotel and safehouse to safehouse, was a “surreal and dystopian” experience for the New Zealanders and other GMTG members.
The group says that the genocide cannot be sustained when people from around the world push against the Israeli regime and support the people on the ground with food and healthcare.
“For 20 months our hearts have raced and our eyes have filled in unison with the elderly, men, women, and children, and the babies in Palestine,” said Billie*, a participant who preferred, for safety reasons, not to reveal their surname.
“If we do not react to the carnage, suffering and complete injustice and recognise our shared need for sane governance and a liveable planet what is the point?”
Experienced despair
Aqua*, another New Zealand GMTG member, had experienced despair seeing the suffering of Palestinians, but she said it was important to nurture hope, as that was the only way to stop the genocide.
“We cling to every glimmer of hope that presents itself. Like an oasis in a desert devoid of human emotion we chase any potential igniter of the flame of change.”
Activist Eva Mulla . . . inspired by the courage of the Palestinians. Image: GMTG screenshot APR
Ava Mulla, said from Cairo, that the group was inspired by the courage of the Palestinians.
“They’ve been fighting for freedom and justice for decades against the world’s strongest powers. They are courageous and steadfast.”
Mulla referred to the “We Were Seeds” saying inspired by Greek poet Dinos Christianopoulos.
“We are millions of seeds. Every act of injustice fuels our growth,” she said.
Helplessness an illusion
The GMTG members agreed that “impotence and helplessness was an illusion” that led to inaction but such inaction allowed “unspeakable atrocities” to take place.
“This is the holocaust of our age,” said Sam Leason.
“We need the world to leave the rhetorical and symbolic field of discourse and move promptly towards the camp of concrete action to protect the people of Palestine from a clear campaign of extermination.”
Saige England is an Aotearoa New Zealand journalist, author, and poet, member of the Palestinian Solidarity Network of Aotearoa (PSNA), and a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.
*Several protesters quoted in this article requested that their family names not be reported for security reasons. Ava Mulla was born in Germany and lives in Aotearoa with her partner, actor Will Alexander. She studied industrial engineering and is passionate about innovative housing solutions for developing countries. She is a member of the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA).
New Zealand and other activists with Tino Rangatiratanga and Palestine flags taking part in the Global March To Gaza. Will Alexander (far left) is in the back row and Ava Mulla (pink tee shirt) is in the front row. Image: GMTG screenshot APR
With tensions escalating in the Iran-Israel conflict, which has claimed many civilian lives since it began on June 13, a video of an Israeli soldier in tears, begging for mercy, has gone viral. In the video, the soldier looks at the camera and urges the Iranian army to stop the destruction, while injured soldiers are seen lying in the rubble of destroyed buildings in the background. “Iran, we beg you. Please stop the attacks. Half of Israel is gone. We surrender. Just stop this destruction,” he says.
The conflict between the two, which is threatening to turn into an all-out war, started with Israel attacking nuclear and military sites in Iran on June 13. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the attack ‘Operation Rising Lion‘ – supposedly launched to disconcert Iran’s nuclear program. However, the strikes resulted in the deaths of many ordinary citizens, after which Iran, too, resorted to retaliatory missile strikes.
X user (@Skylar_Soul_) posted the viral video on June 16. When this article was written, the post had accumulated more than 100,000 views and was reshared over 1,000 times. (Archive)
A reverse image search on one of the key frames from the clip led us to the same video on YouTube posted around the same time, but with better resolution.
We noticed that the YouTube version had a clear watermark ‘Veo’ on the bottom right corner. The same watermark can be seen in the viral video as well, but owing to lower resolution, it is faint and not very apparent.
Veo is an artificial intelligence-based video generation tool, launched by Google this year. It allows users to create 8-second-long realistic videos without anatomical abnormalities.
Note that the viral video is precisely 8 seconds long. Moreover, what makes Veo stand out from other video generation models is its ability to integrate audio and dialogue without distortions, which is evident in the viral video.
To be sure, we also ran the video through HIVE’s AI detection tool. According to this, there is an 88% likelihood that the viral video was AI-generated.
Based on these findings, we were able to conclude that the viral video showing an Israeli soldier crying and pleading with Iran to stop the retaliatory strikes against Israel is artificially generated through Google Veo, and not real.
With tensions escalating in the Iran-Israel conflict, which has claimed many civilian lives since it began on June 13, a video of an Israeli soldier in tears, begging for mercy, has gone viral. In the video, the soldier looks at the camera and urges the Iranian army to stop the destruction, while injured soldiers are seen lying in the rubble of destroyed buildings in the background. “Iran, we beg you. Please stop the attacks. Half of Israel is gone. We surrender. Just stop this destruction,” he says.
The conflict between the two, which is threatening to turn into an all-out war, started with Israel attacking nuclear and military sites in Iran on June 13. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the attack ‘Operation Rising Lion‘ – supposedly launched to disconcert Iran’s nuclear program. However, the strikes resulted in the deaths of many ordinary citizens, after which Iran, too, resorted to retaliatory missile strikes.
X user (@Skylar_Soul_) posted the viral video on June 16. When this article was written, the post had accumulated more than 100,000 views and was reshared over 1,000 times. (Archive)
A reverse image search on one of the key frames from the clip led us to the same video on YouTube posted around the same time, but with better resolution.
We noticed that the YouTube version had a clear watermark ‘Veo’ on the bottom right corner. The same watermark can be seen in the viral video as well, but owing to lower resolution, it is faint and not very apparent.
Veo is an artificial intelligence-based video generation tool, launched by Google this year. It allows users to create 8-second-long realistic videos without anatomical abnormalities.
Note that the viral video is precisely 8 seconds long. Moreover, what makes Veo stand out from other video generation models is its ability to integrate audio and dialogue without distortions, which is evident in the viral video.
To be sure, we also ran the video through HIVE’s AI detection tool. According to this, there is an 88% likelihood that the viral video was AI-generated.
Based on these findings, we were able to conclude that the viral video showing an Israeli soldier crying and pleading with Iran to stop the retaliatory strikes against Israel is artificially generated through Google Veo, and not real.
With tensions escalating in the Iran-Israel conflict, which has claimed many civilian lives since it began on June 13, a video of an Israeli soldier in tears, begging for mercy, has gone viral. In the video, the soldier looks at the camera and urges the Iranian army to stop the destruction, while injured soldiers are seen lying in the rubble of destroyed buildings in the background. “Iran, we beg you. Please stop the attacks. Half of Israel is gone. We surrender. Just stop this destruction,” he says.
The conflict between the two, which is threatening to turn into an all-out war, started with Israel attacking nuclear and military sites in Iran on June 13. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the attack ‘Operation Rising Lion‘ – supposedly launched to disconcert Iran’s nuclear program. However, the strikes resulted in the deaths of many ordinary citizens, after which Iran, too, resorted to retaliatory missile strikes.
X user (@Skylar_Soul_) posted the viral video on June 16. When this article was written, the post had accumulated more than 100,000 views and was reshared over 1,000 times. (Archive)
A reverse image search on one of the key frames from the clip led us to the same video on YouTube posted around the same time, but with better resolution.
We noticed that the YouTube version had a clear watermark ‘Veo’ on the bottom right corner. The same watermark can be seen in the viral video as well, but owing to lower resolution, it is faint and not very apparent.
Veo is an artificial intelligence-based video generation tool, launched by Google this year. It allows users to create 8-second-long realistic videos without anatomical abnormalities.
Note that the viral video is precisely 8 seconds long. Moreover, what makes Veo stand out from other video generation models is its ability to integrate audio and dialogue without distortions, which is evident in the viral video.
To be sure, we also ran the video through HIVE’s AI detection tool. According to this, there is an 88% likelihood that the viral video was AI-generated.
Based on these findings, we were able to conclude that the viral video showing an Israeli soldier crying and pleading with Iran to stop the retaliatory strikes against Israel is artificially generated through Google Veo, and not real.
Fiji police have commenced investigations into a Commission of Inquiry report on the appointment of the country’s now sacked head of the anti-corruption office.
Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka stood down Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC) commissioner Barbara Malimali last month after a months-long inquiry was completed.
Malimali was appointed as FICAC chief in September last year despite being under investigation by the anti-corruption office.
Opposition figures at the time slammed it as “unbelievable” but the government backed her appointment.
The 648-page inquiry report, prepared by the Commissioner of Inquiry and Supreme Court Judge David Ashton-Lewis, has rocked Rabuka’s coalition government in recent weeks, with one political expert calling it a “full-blown crisis”.
The report, which has now been leaked online, includes allegations not only against Malimali, but senior government officials and lawyers, including the nation’s highest judicial officer and the head of the Law Society.
Local media are reporting that the inquiry found a “systematic failure of integrity” across Fiji’s governance and justice systems.
They report that the inquiry states the appointment process for Malimali was “legally invalid” and “ethically reprehensible”.
Investigations started
Police Commissioner Rusiate Tudravu confirmed via a statement on Wednesday that investigations into the Commission of Inquiry Report findings commenced after the police received a formal letter of referral from President Ratu Naiqama Lalabalau.
“A formal letter of referral was sent to the Fiji Police Force and the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption, to investigate the Final Report of the Commission of Inquiry and persons of interests, and where warranted, prosecution,” he said.
Tudravu said he had met with the FICAC acting Commissioner Lavi Rokoika, alongside senior Fiji police officers “to discuss the specific areas of investigation to be undertaken by our respective institutions, to avoid duplication, and ensure efficiency of the investigation process”.
He has given his assurance for a thorough independent investigation by the team of senior investigators from the Criminal Investigations Department.
“A Commission of Inquiry report into the appointment of Barbara Malimali as head of the Fiji Independent Commission against Corruption has cost the country’s Attorney-General Graham Leung his job, embroiled Fiji’s Law Society in an acrimonious feud and exacerbated tensions in the governing coalition,” Victoria University of Wellington’s political science professor John Fraenkel wrote for the DevpolicyBlog on Tuesday.
Among the accused
“The country’s Chief Justice Salesi Temo is allegedly among those accused by the COI (though, at the time of writing, the report has not been publicly released).
“Worryingly, given Fiji’s history of coups in 1987, 2000 and 2006, military chief Jone Kalouniwai has visited the Prime Minister’s office reminding the nation of his constitutionally-bequeathed responsibility for the ‘wellbeing of Fiji and its people’.”
According to Fraenkel, the inquiry controversy comes at a critical juncture, with the Supreme Court due to rule on the legal status of the country’s 2013 Constitution in August and with Fiji drawing closer to the next election, scheduled for 2026 or, at the very latest, February 2027.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
A day after Apple introducing new user interface (UI) feature Liquid Glass at its worldwide developers conference in California, an X user by the name Jon Yongfook (@yongfook) shared a tweet on June 10 stating he and his entire team had been fired by Apple even though they worked tirelessly for 18 months.
Several Indian media outlets picked up the story and began reporting on it. Republic Bharat, News24, IndiaTV, and Ahmedabad Mirror published reports claiming that Apple had fired the chief designer behind the Liquid Glass UI and his entire design team, and that this termination happened just a few hours after the official announcement of iOS 26. However, after the story began receiving scrutiny, all the outlets either updated their articles to correct the information or deleted them altogether.
NDTV Profit and Gadget 360 Hindi, both owned by the Adani Group, also published similar stories amplifying the same claims. The report published by NDTV was also republished by MSN.com.
Alt News conducted a search of Jon Yongfook’s profiles on X as well as LinkedIn. Upon examining his professional history, we found no confirmation indicating he had ever been employed by Apple. His X profile bio however, clearly states that he is the founder of BannerBear, which is a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) platform for the automatic generation of images, social media visuals, ecommerce banners and more. Furthermore, according to the job history listed on his LinkedIn profile, Yongfook is a former employee of Aviva.
In addition, Yongfook later posted a clarification on his X account in a follow-up tweet. He explained that his original post had been intended as satire. He wrote, “I have been an Apple user for more than 20 years, this is the worst UI I have seen, I hope Apple will make some changes to it.”
Bless all of you who recognized this as satire. I’ve been enjoying the puns. I’ve been an Apple user for 20+ years, this is the worst UI I’ve seen, I hope they tweak it.
To be perfectly transparent, this is overwhelming my notifications now, so I’m putting the thread on mute
To sum up, X user Jon Yongfook is not an Apple employee but rather an Apple user who posted a satirical comment on social media. The post was amplified as ‘news’ by several media outlets including Republic Bharat, NDTV Group, and News24 seemingly without any verification. These outlets falsely reported that Apple had fired the lead designer and the team behind Liquid Glass UI.
Ninety-five New Zealand lawyers — including nine king’s counsel — have signed a letter demanding Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and two other ministers urge the government to take a stronger stand against Israel’s “catastrophic” actions in Gaza.
The letter has been sent amid rising tensions in the region, following Israel’s surprise attacks on Iran last Friday, and Iran’s retaliatory attacks.
A statement by the Justice For Palestine advocacy group said the letter’s signatories represented all levels of seniority in the legal community, including senior barristers, law firm partners, legal academics, and in-house lawyers.
The letter cited the 26 July 2024 joint statement by the prime ministers of Canada, Australia and New Zealand which acknowledged: “The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue.”
“But it has continued,” said the letter. “The plight of the civilian population in Gaza has significantly deteriorated, featuring steadily escalating levels of bombardment, forced displacement of civilians, blockades of aid and deliberate targeting of hospitals, aid workers and journalists.”
Obligations under international law
In September last year, New Zealand voted in favour of a UN General Assembly resolution calling on all UN member states to comply with their obligations under international law and take concrete steps to address Israel’s ongoing presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said the Justice For Palestine statement.
At the time, New Zealand had noted it expected Israel to take meaningful steps towards compliance with international law, including withdrawal from the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The letter stated that Israel had done nothing of the sort.
Part of the lawyers’ letter appealing to the NZ government for a stronger stance over Israel. Image: J4P
The letter points out that last month independent UN experts had demanded immediate international intervention to “end the violence or bear witness to the annihilation of the Palestinian population in Gaza.”
UN experts have observed more than 52,535 deaths, of which 70 percent continue to be women and children, said the statement.
The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, had called for a response “as humanitarians” urging “Humanity, the law and reason must prevail”.
The Justice For Palestine letter urged the government to consider a stronger response, including:
condemning Israel’s unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,
reviewing immediately all diplomatic and political and economic ties with Israel, and
imposing further sanctions after New Zealand had imposed sanctions on two extremist Israeli politicians.
Rising concern over Israeli breaches One of the letter’s signatories, barrister Max Harris, said:
“This letter reflects rising concern among the general community about Israel’s breaches of international law.
“The Government has tried to highlight red lines for Israel, but these have been repeatedly crossed, and it’s time that the Government considers doing more, in line with international law,”
Aedeen Boadita-Cormican, another barrister, who signed the letter, said: “The government could do more to follow through on how it has voted at the United Nations and what it has said internationally.”
“This letter shows the depth of concern in the legal community about Israel’s actions,” she added.
As tensions between Iran and Israel continue to mount, a 46-second video compilation showing missiles hitting urban areas in the night is being widely circulated with claims that it shows Iran’s retaliatory attacks on Tel Aviv on June 14, a day after Israel launched one of its biggest aerial assaults in an alleged bid to stop Tehran’s nuclear pursuits.
The compilation comprises three separate videos. The first one shows a series of distant explosions, from incoming missiles, lighting up the night sky near a highway. A few vehicles are seen plying on the road while others are parked by the roadside. The second clip shows a cascade of missiles raining down in the distance, filmed from what appears to be a residential balcony. The final clip is recorded from inside a moving vehicle and shows a missile hitting the ground just a few metres away from the car.
We fact checked each of the clips in the compilation separately.
Clip 1: A reverse image search on a few key frames from the video led us to an Instagram post by Creative Community for Peace (@ccfpeace) from October 1, 2024. According to the caption, the footage depicts a missile attack launched by Iran and Hezbollah on Israel during that time.
Clip 2: A similar reverse image search led us to a Reddit post from October 1, 2024. The caption accompanying the video clearly states that it shows an Iranian ballistic missile strike targeting the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF).
Clip 3: We repeated the process and found the same clip on YouTube uploaded on October 2, 2024, by TRT world, a Turkish public broadcast service. The video description reads, “A passenger in a car captured the moment an Iranian missile struck, after Tehran launched nearly 200 missiles at Israel.”
Based on these findings, we were sure that none of the clips used in the compilation were from the recent conflict. They have been available online since at least October 1, 2024, when Iran launched a large-scale missile attack against Israel to retaliate against the strikes on Gaza and Lebanon, as well as to avenge the assassinations of senior commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hamas and Hezbollah.
To sum up, all three clips included in the widely circulated video compilation are not of the escalation between Iran and Israel in June. These visuals are at least eight months old.
The Big Picture Podcast host, New Zealand-Egyptian journalist and author Mohamed Hassan, interviews Middle East Eye editor-in-chief David Hearst about the rapidly unfolding war between Israel and Iran, why the West supports it, and what it threatens to unleash on the global order.
What does Israel really want to achieve, what options does Iran have to deescalate, and will the United States stop the war, or join it as is being hinted?
Hearst says the war is “more dangerous than we imagine” and notes that while most Western leadership still backs Israel, there has been a strong shift in world public opinion against Tel Aviv.
He says Israel has lost most of the world’s support, most of the Global South, most African states, Brazil, South Africa, China and Russia.
Hearst says the world is witnessing the “cynical tailend of the colonial era” among Western states.
The era of peace is over. Video: Middle East Eye
Iran ‘unlikely to surrender’
Ali Vaez, the Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, says Iran is unlikely to “surrender to American terms” and that there is a risk the war on Iran could “bring the entire region down”.
Vaez told Al Jazeera in an interview that US President Donald Trump “provided the green light for Israel to attack Iran” just two days before the president’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, was due to meet with the Iranians in the Oman capital of Muscat.
Imagine viewing, from the Iranian perspective, Trump giving the go-ahead for the attack while at the same time saying that diplomacy with Tehran was still ongoing, Vaez said.
Now Trump “is asking for Iranian surrender” on his Truth Social platform, he said.
“I think the only thing that is more dangerous than suffering from Israeli and American bombs is actually surrendering to American terms,” Vaez said.
“Because if Iran surrenders on the nuclear issue and on the demands of President Trump, there is no end to the slippery slope, which would eventually result in regime collapse and capitulation anyway.”
Most Americans oppose US involvement
Meanwhile, a new survey has reported that most Americans oppose US military involvement in the conflict.
The survey by YouGov showed that some 60 percent of Americans surveyed thought the US military should not get involved in the ongoing hostilities between Israel and Iran.
Only 16 percent favoured US involvement, while 24 percent said they were not sure.
Among the Democrats, those who opposed US intervention were at 65 percent, and among the Republicans, it was 53 percent. Some 61 percent of independents opposed the move.
The survey also showed that half of Americans viewed Iran as an enemy of the US, while 25 percent said it was “unfriendly”.
GENEVA, Switzerland (18 June 2025) – We, the undersigned civil society organizations, are deeply concerned over the ongoing abuse of judicial processes against Thai women human rights defender Pimsiri Petchnamrob.
From 4 to 6 June 2025, court hearings against Pimsiri were held before the Ratchadapisek Criminal Court where she faces criminal charges related to her legitimate exercise of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. With the trial set to resume on 17-20 June and 24-25 June, we urge Thai authorities to quash all charges against Pimisiri.
We are in solidarity with Pimisiri alongside other Thai pro-democracy defenders who have been systematically subject to criminal processes, most for solely carrying out invaluable human rights work.
What happened
In November 2021, Pimsiri was indicted under a total of 10 charges related to lèse-majesté (royal defamation law), sedition, and illegal assembly laws.
She was charged for violating the COVID-19 Emergency Decree after delivering a speech during a peaceful protest in November 2020 near the 11th Military Regiment Headquarters in Bangkok. In her speech, Pimsiri referred to a statement by then United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression and opinion, David Kaye, on how the lèse-majesté laws have no place in a democratic country.
Although Pimsiri never directly advocated for monarchy reforms nor did she make any remarks about the royal family, she was still charged under Section 112 (lèse-majesté) of the Thai Criminal Code. The law makes defamation, insults, or threats to the monarchy a criminal offence.
Pimsiri’s indictment exemplifies an overly broad and unjust application of the law, raising serious concerns over its wider use to suppress democracy, freedom of expression, and freedom of peaceful assembly.
Pimsiri is not alone in facing criminal charges in Thailand for their human rights work. She is among five human rights defenders who were indicted for delivering speeches in the same peaceful protest. Other Thai human rights defenders are facing the same legal attacks.
After Pimsiri’s indictment in November 2021, she was released on bail with an overseas travel restriction. This has required her to seek court approval to leave Thailand. Her subsequent requests to travel abroad to participate in the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Switzerland were consistently denied.
Call to action
The case against Pimsiri represents a worrying trend of silencing peaceful dissent.
As a member of the UNHRC and a State Party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Thailand has an obligation to respect and ensure the right to freedom of expression and should set a good example of implementing the highest standards of human rights protection.
Pimsiri’s indictment and overseas travel ban constitutes a serious form of censorship as well as a direct contravention of Thailand’s commitment to fulfill, protect, and promote its human rights obligations at the international level. We respectfully call on Thai authorities to uphold its international human rights obligations before the ICCPR.
Likewise, the authorities should end all forms of abuse of judicial processes against those peacefully exercising their human rights and fundamental freedoms, including women human rights defenders like Pimsiri.
Sincerely,
Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma (ALTSEAN Burma)
ASEAN SOGIE Caucus (ASC)
ASEAN Youth FORUM
Asia Democracy Network
CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation (CIVICUS)
FIDH – International Federation for Human Rights, within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
Front Line Defenders
The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)
International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet)
World Organisation against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
The Solomon Islands Foreign Ministry says five people who completed agriculture training in Israel are safe but unable to come home amid the ongoing war between Israel and Iran.
The ministry said in a statement that the Solomon Islands Embassy in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, was closely monitoring the situation and maintaining regular contact with the students.
Ambassador Cornelius Walegerea said that given the volatile nature of the current situation, the safety of their citizens in Israel — particularly the students — remained their top priority.
“Once the airport reopens and it is deemed safe for them to travel, the students will be able to return home.”
The five Solomon Islands students have undertaken agricultural training at the Arava International Centre for Agriculture in Israel since September 2024.
The students completed their training on June 5 and were scheduled to return home on June 17.
The students have been advised to strictly follow instructions issued by local authorities and to continue observing all precautionary safety measures.
Ministry updates
The ministry will continue to provide updates as the situation develops.
Its travel advisory, issued the day Israel attacked Iran last Friday, said the ministry “wishes to advise all citizens not to travel to Israel and the region”.
Citizens studying in Israel were told they “should now make every effort to leave Israel”.
Meanwhile, a friend of a New Zealander stuck in Iran said the NZ government needed to help provide safe passage, and that the advice so far had been “vague and lacking any substance whatsover”.
The woman told RNZ the advice from MFAT until yesterday had been to “stay put”, before an evacuation notice was issued.
MFAT declined interview
MFAT declined an interview, but told RNZ it had heard from a small number of New Zealanders seeking advice about how to depart from Iran and Israel.
It would not provide any further detail regarding those individuals.
MFAT said the airspace was currently closed over both countries, which would likely continue.
The agency understood departure via land border crossings had been taking place, but that carried risks and New Zealanders “should only do so if they feel it is safe”.
Meanwhile, the NZ government said visitors from war zones in the Middle East could stay in New Zealand until it was safe for them to return home.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
A video showing missiles being fired into a city was widely linked to the recent conflict between Israel and Iran. Some users shared the video claiming that it showed missiles being fired into Tehran by Israel, while others shared it with ambiguous captions that it was “Iran’s ‘warning’ to Israel.”
This video is among a stream of visuals that have emerged amid escalating tensions between the two countries, after Israel attacked Iran’s nuclear facility and military structures on June 13, killing at least 78 people, including generals, scientists and civilians. Soon afterwards, Iran retaliated with long-range missiles targeting Tel Aviv.
X user Abhijit Majumder (@abhijitmajumder) shared the video on June 13 and claimed it showed bombs and missiles streaming into Tehran and hitting targets. He called Israel’s strikes #OperationRisingLion”. The social media user identifies as a journalist in his bio, but has been found amplifying misinformation on several occasions.
X handle @World_At_War_6 also shared the same video. However, this account claimed it was Iran’s ‘warning’ to Israel. At the time of writing this, the post had over 2.6 million views. (Archive)
Several other accounts shared the video with similar claims. (Archives- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
Upon a reverse image search, Alt News was able to trace the video back to 2024. On October 1, 2024, Beirut-based media outlet Al Mayadeen shared the same video with the caption, “Scenes documenting the moment rockets fell in #Occupied_Palestine” in Arabic.
A reverse image search of these keyframes led to to a Facebook post by Mexican journalist Carlos Zúñiga Pérez from October 2024. According to the caption, the video shows Iran launching a missile attack on Israel.
A keyframe from the video was also used in Indian news outlet OneIndia’s report on Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) launching a missile attack against Israel on October 1, 2024. At the time, Iran had said the missile launches were in retaliation for the deaths of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and IRGC’s Abbas Nilforushan.
Screengrab of OneIndia’s report
As it stands, a compilation of videos from Iran’s missile attack on Israel from October 2024 is being linked to the recent hostilities between the two countries.
A New Zealand journalist on the ground in the Middle East summarises events from the occupied West Bank.
UPDATES:By Cole Martin in Occupied Bethlehem
Fifty six Palestinians were killed by Israel in Gaza today, 38 of them while seeking aid, while five were killed and 20 wounded in an Israeli attack on aid workers northwest of Gaza City.
Al-Qassam Brigades reportedly blew up a house in southern Gaza where a number of Israeli soldiers were operating from.
Israel’s forced starvation and indiscriminate targeting of civilians continues.
Israeli authorities report 370 missiles fired by Iran in total, 30 reaching their targets. Iranian military report they have carried out 550 drone operations.
In response, Iran has issued a warning to evacuate the central offices of Israeli television channels 12 and 14.
An Israeli attack on a Red Crescent ambulance in Tehran resulted in the deaths of two relief workers.
Israel’s Finance Minister Belazel Smotrich, who is accused of being a war criminal and the target of sanctions by five countries including New Zealand, claims they have hit 800 targets in Iran, with aircraft flying freely in the nation’s airspace.
In the West Bank, the tension continues, with business continuing at a subdued level, everyone waiting to see how the situation will unfold.
Israel’s illegal siege continues, cutting off cities and villages from one another, while blocking ambulances and urgent medical access in several locations today.
Israeli and Iranian strikes are expected to continue, and potentially escalate, over the coming days.
Israel’s genocide in Gaza continues.
Cole Martin is an independent New Zealand photojournalist based in the Middle East and a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.
Iranian missiles raining down on Tel Aviv as seen from the occupied West Bank. Image: CM screenshot APR
We, the undersigned international human rights organizations, urge the Interim Government of Bangladesh to extend the mandate of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances until at least December 31, 2025. While the Commission’s mandate is set to expire on June 30, victims and their families deserve adequate time for the Commission to complete its mandate to conduct independent, impartial, and credible investigations into the disappearances that took place under Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government over the past fifteen years. We applaud the initial steps the Interim Government has taken by establishing the Commission and acceding to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED) in August 2024. However, to end the work of the Commission prematurely, in the midst of its fact finding and prior to its completion of a final report, would undermine the Interim Government’s efforts thus far to secure justice, truth, and reparations for those who suffered these gross violations.
Since the Commission was established last August, it has received over 1,850 complaints. It has conducted investigations into 1,350 complaints, as victims and their families have courageously come forward after years of pervasive fear of speaking out, but it needs time to complete the remaining work. The Commission has found that security forces under Sheikh Hasina and top Awami League leaders used disappearances to target political opponents, activists, and others expressing dissent. Security forces involved in disappearances include specialized police units–the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Detective Branch, Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crimes–and the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI).
Victims were frequently held and subjected to torture and ill-treatment at secret detention sites, including a notorious site within DGFI’s headquarters referred to as Aynaghar or “House of Mirrors,” and similar secret sites run by RAB. Some victims disappeared for weeks or months before being brought to court to face fabricated criminal charges, while others were detained for years or extrajudicially killed. Although a few victims were released in August 2024, many families are still waiting to learn the truth about their loved ones’ fate. When the Commission inspected secret detention sites run by DGFI and RAB, it found recent attempts to conceal and destroy evidence of these abuses, such as the removal of walls to enlarge cramped cells, fresh paint over walls on which victims had carved their names, and at the RAB-1 site, a bricked-over entrance to cells so small that victims could not lie down.
Following the submission of the Commission’s second interim report on June 4, the need for the Interim Government to extend the Commission’s mandate until at least December 31 is clearer than ever. In submitting its interim report, the Commission stated that the fate of over 300 victims of disappearances remains undetermined, and Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus instructed the Commission to make short-term policy recommendations for the Interim Government to implement. Therefore, an extension of at least six months is crucial to ensure the Commission can conduct thorough investigations into all remaining cases, propose concrete actions for reform, and prepare a final, public report that advances processes of truth and accountability for victims and their families.
Further, the extension of the Commission’s mandate will provide the needed time to set up a permanent framework to ensure that credible investigations into disappearances continue after this temporary Commission concludes. While the Interim Government recently proposed the draft Ordinance on Enforced Disappearance Prevention and Redress to create such a framework and implement the ICPPED, the draft has serious shortcomings. International human rights organizations have expressed strong concerns that it fails to adhere to international standards. The draft ordinance should be revised following robust public consultations, with enough time for meaningful feedback to address major problems with the draft.
The Interim Government should provide its full support to the Commission to conduct thorough investigations into all cases by extending its mandate until at least December 31, while ensuring the Commission has adequate staffing and resources to complete its work. Security forces should fully cooperate with the Commission by guaranteeing unfettered and ongoing access to all detention centers in Bangladesh, providing free access to records regarding those seized or detained, and ensuring members of security forces participate in good faith in fact-finding interviews requested by the Commission.
We strongly urge the Interim Government to ensure the Commission’s vital efforts are not cut short so continued work on these cases may lead to truth, justice, and reparations which has been desperately sought by victims and their families.
Signed by:
Amnesty International
Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN)
Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD)
Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
Capital Punishment Justice Project
Euro-Mediterranean Federation Against Enforced Disappearances (FEMED)
Fortify Rights
Human Rights Watch
International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI)
International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances (ICAED)
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP)
Latin American Federation of Associations of Relatives of Disappeared-Detainees (FEDEFAM)
The recent series of high-level agreements between Papua New Guinea and France marks a significant development in PNG’s geopolitical relationships, driven by what appears to be a convergence of national interests.
The “deepening relationship” is less about a single personality and more about a calculated alignment of economic, security, and diplomatic priorities with PNG, taking full advantage of its position as the biggest, most strategically placed island player in the Pacific.
An examination of the key outcomes reveals a partnership of mutual benefit, reflecting both PNG’s strategic diversification and France’s own long-term ambitions as a Pacific power.
A primary driver is the shared economic rationale. From Port Moresby’s perspective, the partnership offers a clear path to economic diversification and resilience.
But many in PNG have been watching with keen interest and asking: how badly does PNG want this?
While Prime Minister James Marape offered France a Special Economic Zone in Port Moresby (SEZ) for French businesses, he also named the lookout at Port Moresby’s Variarata National Park after President Emmanuel Macron drawing the ire of many in the country.
The proposal to establish a SEZ specifically for French industries is a notable attempt to attract capital from beyond PNG’s traditional partners.
Strategically coupled
This is strategically coupled with securing the future of the multi-billion-dollar Papua LNG project.
Macron’s personal undertaking to work with TotalEnergies to keep the project on schedule provides crucial stability for one of PNG’s most significant economic ventures.
For France, these arrangements secure a major energy investment for its national corporate champion and establish a stronger economic foothold in a strategically vital region between Asia and the Pacific.
In the area of security, the relationship addresses tangible needs for both nations.
PNG is faced with the immense challenge of monitoring a 2.4 million sq km Exclusive Economic Zone, making it vulnerable to illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
The finalisation of a Shiprider Agreement with France provides a practical force-multiplier, leveraging French naval assets to enhance PNG’s maritime surveillance capabilities. This move, along with planned defence talks on air and maritime cooperation, allows PNG to diversify its security architecture.
For France, a resident power with Pacific territories like New Caledonia and French Polynesia, participating in regional security operations reinforces its role and commitment to stability in the Indo-Pacific.
Elevating diplomatic influence
The partnership is also a vehicle for elevating diplomatic influence.
Port Moresby has noted the significance of engaging with a partner that holds permanent membership on the UN Security Council and seats at the G7 and G20.
This alignment provides PNG with a powerful channel to global decision-making forums. The reciprocal move to establish a PNG embassy in Paris further cements the relationship on a mature footing.
The diplomatic synergy is perhaps best illustrated by France’s full endorsement of PNG’s bid to host a future UN Ocean Conference. This support provides PNG with a major opportunity to lead on the world stage, while allowing France to demonstrate its credentials as a key partner to the Pacific Islands.
This deepening PNG-France partnership does not exist in a vacuum.
The West’s view of China’s rapid emergence as a dominant economic and military force in the region has reshaped the strategic landscape, prompting traditional powers to re-engage with renewed urgency.
increased diplomatic footprint
The United States has responded by significantly increasing its diplomatic and security footprint, a move marked by Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Port Moresby to sign the Defence Cooperation Agreement.
Similarly, Australia, PNG’s traditional security partner, is working to reinforce its long-standing influence through initiatives like the multi-million-dollar deal to establish a PNG team in its National Rugby League (NRL), a soft-power exercise reportedly linked to security outcomes.
This competitive environment has, in turn, created greater agency for Pacific nations, allowing them to diversify their partnerships beyond old allies and providing a fertile ground for European powers like France to assert their own strategic interests.
A strong foundation for the relationship is a shared public stance on environmental stewardship. The agreement on the need for rigorous scientific studies before any deep-sea mining occurs aligns PNG’s national policy with a position of environmental caution.
This common ground extends to broader climate action, where France’s commitment to conservation in the Pacific resonates with PNG’s status as a frontline nation vulnerable to climate change.
This alignment on values provides a durable and politically important basis for cooperation, allowing both nations to jointly advocate for climate justice and ocean protection.
For the Papua New Guinea economy, this deepening partnership with France is critically important as it provides high-level stability for the multi-billion-dollar Papua LNG project and creates a direct pathway for new investment through a proposed SEZ for French businesses.
Vital economic resource
Furthermore, by moving to finalise a Shiprider Agreement to combat illegal fishing, the government is actively protecting a vital economic resource.
For Marape’s credibility in local politics, these outcomes are tangible successes he can present to the nation as he battles a massive credibility dip in recent years.
Securing a personal undertaking from the leader of a G7 nation, gaining support for PNG to host a future UN Ocean Conference, and enhancing national security demonstrates effective leadership on the world stage.
This allows him to build a narrative of a competent statesman who, through “warm, personal relationships”, can deliver on promises of economic opportunity and national security while strengthening his political standing at home.
New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters says countries have the right to choose who enters their borders in response to reports that the Trump administration is planning to impose travel restrictions on three dozen nations, including three in the Pacific.
But opposition Labour’s deputy leader Carmel Sepuloni says the foreign minister should push back on the US proposal.
Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu have reportedly been included in an expanded proposal of 36 additional countries for which the Trump administration is considering travel restrictions.
The plan was first reported by The Washington Post. A State Department spokesperson told the outlet that the agency would not comment on internal deliberations or communications.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Peters said countries had the right to decide who could cross their borders.
“Before we all get offended, we’ve got the right to decide in New Zealand who comes to our country. So has Australia, so has . . . China, so has the United States,” Peters said.
US security concerns
He said New Zealand would do its best to address the US security concerns.
“We need to do our best to ensure there are no misunderstandings.”
Peters said US concerns could be over selling citizenship or citizenship-by-investment schemes.
Vanuatu runs a “golden passport” scheme where applicants can be granted Vanuatu citizenship for a minimum investment of US$130,000.
Peters says citizenship programmes, such as the citizenship-by-investment schemes which allow people to purchase passports, could have concerned the Trump administration. Image: 123rf/RNZ Pacific
Peters said programmes like that could have concerned the Trump administration.
“There are certain decisions that have been made, which look innocent, but when they come to an international capacity do not have that effect.
“Tuvalu has been selling passports. You see where an innocent . . . decision made in Tuvalu can lead to the concerns in the United States when it comes to security.”
Sepuloni wants push back
However, Sepuloni wants Peters to push back on the US considering travel restrictions for Pacific nations.
Labour Party Deputy Leader Carmel Sepuloni . . . “I would expect [Peters] to be pushing back on the US and supporting our Pacific nations to be taken off that list.” Image: RNZ/Angus Dreaver
Sepuloni said she wanted the foreign minister to get a full explanation on the proposed restrictions.
“From there, I would expect him to be pushing back on the US and supporting our Pacific nations to be taken off that list,” she said.
“Their response is, ‘why us? We’re so tiny — what risk do we pose?’”
Wait to see how this unfolds – expert Massey University associate professor in defence and security studies Anna Powles said Vanuatu has appeared on the US’ bad side in the past.
“Back in March Vanuatu was one of over 40 countries that was reported to be on the immigration watchlist and that related to Vanuatu’s golden passport scheme,” Dr Powles said.
However, a US spokesperson denied the existence of such a list.
“What people are looking at . . . is not a list that exists here that is being acted on,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said, according to a transcript of her press briefing.
“There is a review, as we know, through the president’s executive order, for us to look at the nature of what’s going to help keep America safer in dealing with the issue of visas and who’s allowed into the country.”
Dr Powles said it was the first time Tonga had been included.
“That certainly has raised some concern among Tongans because there’s a large Tongan diaspora in the United States.”
She said students studying in the US could be affected; but while there was a degree of bemusement and concern over the issue, there was also a degree of waiting to see how this unfolded.
Israel targeted one of the buildings of the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) in Tehran on the fourth day of attacks on Iran, interrupting a live news broadcast, reports Press TV.
The attack, involving at least four bombs, struck the central building housing IRIB’s news department, while a live news broadcast was underway.
The transmission was briefly interrupted before Hassan Abedini, IRIB’s news director and deputy for political affairs, appeared on air to condemn the “terrorist crime”.
At the time of the attack, news anchor Sahar Emami was presenting the news. Despite the building trembling under the first strike, she stood her ground and continued the broadcast.
“Allah o Akbar” (God is Great), she proclaimed, drawing global attention to the war crime committed by Israel against Iran’s national broadcaster.
Moments later, another blast filled the studio with smoke and dust, forcing her to evacuate. She returned shortly after to join Abedini and share her harrowing experience.
“If I die, others will take my place and expose your crimes to the world,” she declared, looking straight into the camera with courage and composure.
Casualties unconfirmed
While the number of casualties remains unconfirmed, insiders reported that several journalists inside the building had been injured in the bombing.
Israel’s war ministry promptly claimed responsibility for the attack.
Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the aggression on the state broadcaster as a “war crime” and called on the United Nations to take immediate action against the regime.
. . . But after a brief interruption on screen as debris fell from a bomb strike, Sahar Emami was back courageously presenting the news and denouncing the attack. Image: AJ screenshot APR
Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei denounced the attack and urged the international community to hold the regime accountable for its assault on the media.
“The world is watching: targeting Iran’s news agency #IRIB’s office during a live broadcast is a wicked act of war crime,” Baghaei wrote on X.
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) also condemned the bombing of the IRIB news building, labeling it an “inhuman, criminal, and a terrorist act.”
CPJ ‘appalled’ by Israeli attack
The Committee to Protect Journalists said it was “appalled by Israel’s bombing of Iran’s state TV channel while live on air.”
“Israel’s killing, with impunity, of almost 200 journalists in Gaza has emboldened it to target media elsewhere in the region,” Sara Qudah, the West Asia representative for CPJ, said in a statement after the attack on an IRIB building.
The Israeli regime has a documented history of targeting journalists globally. Since October 2023, it has killed more than 250 Palestinian journalists in the besieged Gaza Strip.
The regime launched its aggression against the Islamic Republic, including Tehran, early on Friday, leading to the assassination of several high-ranking military officials, nuclear scientists, and civilians, including women and children.
In response, Iran launched a barrage of missiles and drones late Friday night, followed by more retaliatory operations on Saturday and Sunday as part of Operation True Promise III.
In Israel, 24 people have been killed and hundreds wounded since hostilities began. In Iran, 224 people have been killed.
Plumes of black smoke billowing after an Israeli attack against Iran’s state broadcaster yesterday. Image: PressTV
The UN Ocean Conference (UNOC) concluded today with significant progress made towards the ratification of the High Seas Treaty and a strong statement on a new plastics treaty signed by 95 governments.
Once ratified, it will be the only legal tool that can create protected areas in international waters, making it fundamental to protecting 30 percent of the world’s oceans by 2030.
Fifty countries, plus the European Union, have now ratified the Treaty.
Deep sea mining rose up the agenda in the conference debates, demonstrating the urgency of opposing this industry.
The expectation from civil society and a large group of states, including both co-hosts of UNOC, was that governments would make progress towards stopping deep sea mining in Nice.
Attention now turns to what actions governments will take in July to stop this industry from starting.
Megan Randles, Greenpeace head of delegation regarding the High Seas Treaty and progress towards stopping deep sea mining, said: “High Seas Treaty ratification is within touching distance, but the progress made here in Nice feels hollow as this UN Ocean Conference ends without more tangible commitments to stopping deep sea mining.
“We’ve heard lots of fine words here in Nice, but these need to turn into tangible action.
“Countries must be brave, stand up for global cooperation and make history by stopping deep sea mining this year.
“They can do this by committing to a moratorium on deep sea mining at next month’s International Seabed Authority meeting.
“We applaud those who have already taken a stand, and urge all others to be on the right side of history by stopping deep sea mining.”
Attention on ISA meeting
Following this UNOC, attention now turns to the International Seabed Authority (ISA) meetings in July. In the face of The Metals Company teaming up with US President Donald Trump to mine the global oceans, the upcoming ISA provides a space where governments can come together to defend the deep ocean by adopting a moratorium to stop this destructive industry.
Negotiations on a Global Plastics Treaty resume in August.
John Hocevar, oceans campaign director, Greenpeace USA said: “The majority of countries have spoken when they signed on to the Nice Call for an Ambitious Plastics Treaty that they want an agreement that will reduce plastic production. Now, as we end the UN Ocean Conference and head on to the Global Plastics Treaty negotiations in Geneva this August, they must act.
“The world cannot afford a weak treaty dictated by oil-soaked obstructionists.
“The ambitious majority must rise to this moment, firmly hold the line and ensure that we will have a Global Plastic Treaty that cuts plastic production, protects human health, and delivers justice for Indigenous Peoples and communities on the frontlines.
“Governments need to show that multilateralism still works for people and the planet, not the profits of a greedy few.”
Driving ecological collapse
Nichanan Thantanwit, project leader, Ocean Justice Project, said: “Coastal and Indigenous communities, including small-scale fishers, have protected the ocean for generations. Now they are being pushed aside by industries driving ecological collapse and human rights violations.
“As the UN Ocean Conference ends, governments must recognise small-scale fishers and Indigenous Peoples as rights-holders, secure their access and role in marine governance, and stop destructive practices such as bottom trawling and harmful aquaculture.
“There is no ocean protection without the people who have protected it all along.”
The anticipated Nice Ocean Action Plan, which consists of a political declaration and a series of voluntary commitments, will be announced later today at the end of the conference.
None will be legally binding, so governments need to act strongly during the next ISA meeting in July and at plastic treaty negotiations in August.
Republished from Greenpeace Aotearoa with permission.
A Paris-based military and political analyst, Elijah Magnier, says he believes the hostilities between Israel and Iran will only get worse, but that Israeli support for the war may wane if the destruction continues.
“I think it’s going to continue escalating because we are just in the first days of the war that Israel declared on Iran,” he told Al Jazeera in an interview.
“And also the Israeli officials, the prime minister and the army, have all warned Israeli society that this war is going to be heavy and . . . the price is going to be extremely high.
“But the society that stands behind [Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu and supports the war on Iran did not expect this level of destruction because, since 1973, Israel has not waged a war on a country and never been attacked on this scale, right in the heart of Tel Aviv,” Magnier said.
“So now they are realising what the Palestinians have been suffering, what the Lebanese have been suffering, and they see the destruction in front of them — buildings in Tel Aviv, in Haifa destroyed, fire everywhere.
“The properties no longer exist. Eight people killed, 250 wounded in one day.
“That’s unheard of since a very long time in Israel. So, all that is not something that the Israeli society has been ready for,” added Magnier, veteran war correspondent and political analyst with more than 35 years of experience covering decades of war in the Middle East and North Africa.
Peters criticised over ‘craven’ statement
Meanwhile, in Auckland, the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) criticised New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters for “refusing to condemn Israel for its egregious war crimes of industrial-scale killing and mass starvation of civilians in Gaza”.
It also said that Peters had “outdone himself with the most craven of tweets on Israel’s massive attack on Iran”.
Iran missiles strikes on Israel for third day in retaliation to the surprise attack. Video: Al Jazeera
Co-chair Maher Nazzal said in a statement that minister Peters had said he was “gravely concerned by the escalation in tensions between Israel and Iran” and that “all actors” must “prioritise de-escalation”.
But there was no mention of Israel as the aggressor and no condemnation of Israel’s attack launched in the middle of negotiations between Iran and the US on Iran’s nuclear programme, said Maher.
“It’s Mr Peters’ most obsequious tweet yet which leaves a cloud of shame hanging over the country.
“Appeasement of this rogue state, as our government and other Western countries have done over 20 months, have led Israel to believe it can attack any country it likes with absolute impunity.”
New Zealand is gravely concerned by the escalation in tensions between Israel and Iran. Any further retaliatory action significantly increases the risk of a regional war. This would have catastrophic consequences in the Middle East.
A renowned Samoan fashion designer was fatally shot at the “No Kings” protest in Salt Lake City on Saturday, the Salt Lake City Police Department (SLCPD) has confirmed.
Arthur Folasa Ah Loo, known as Afa Ah Loo, an “innocent bystander” at the protest, died despite efforts by paramedics to save his life, police said.
Ah Loo, a Utah resident, died at the hospital. The Utah Office of the Medical Examiner will determine the official cause and manner of death.
The SLPCD said the incident began about 7.56pm local time when a sergeant assigned to the SLCPD Motor Squad reported hearing gunfire near 151 South State Street.
It said the sergeant and his squad were working to facilitate traffic and help to ensure public safety during a permitted demonstration that drew an estimated 10,000 participants.
“As panic spread throughout the area, hundreds of people ran for safety, hiding in parking garages, behind barriers, and going into nearby businesses.
“The first officers on scene notified SLCPD’s incident management team using their police radios.”
The SLCPD said officers quickly moved in to secure the scene and search for any active threats and found a man who had been shot and immediately began life-saving efforts.
“Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the 39-year-old man who was killed, and with the many community members who were impacted by this traumatic incident,” Salt Lake City police chief Brian Redd said.
“When this shooting happened, the response of our officers and detectives was fast, brave, and highly coordinated. It speaks to the calibre of this great department and our law enforcement partners.”
Detectives working to thoroughly investigate The SLCPD said about 8pm, members of its Violent Criminal Apprehension Team (VCAT) and Gang Unit were flagged down near 102 South 200 East, where officers found a man crouching among a group of people with a gunshot wound.
The man is identified as 24-year-old Arturo Gamboa, who was dressed in all black clothing and wearing a black mask.
“As officers approached, community members pointed out a nearby firearm, which was described as an AR15-style rifle.
“Officers also located a gas mask, black clothing, and a backpack in close proximity. The items were collected and processed by the SLCPD Crime Lab.
“Paramedics took Gamboa to the hospital. Detectives later booked Gamboa into the Salt Lake County Metro Jail on a charge of murder.
Police said officers also detained two men who were wearing high-visibility neon green vests and carrying handguns.
Peacekeeping team
These men were apparently part of the event’s peacekeeping team.
According to the police, detectives learned during interviews that the two peacekeepers saw Gamboa move away from the crowd and move into a secluded area behind a wall — behavior they found suspicious.
“One of the peacekeepers told detectives he saw Gamboa pull out an AR15-style rifle from a backpack and begin manipulating it.
“The peacekeepers drew their firearms and ordered Gamboa to drop the weapon.
“Witnesses reported Gamboa instead lifted the rifle and began running toward the crowd gathered on State Street, holding the weapon in a firing position.
“In response, one of the peacekeepers fired three rounds. One round struck Gamboa, while another tragically wounded Mr Ah Loo.”
“Our detectives are now working to thoroughly investigate the circumstances surrounding this incident,” Redd said.
“We will not allow this individual act to create fear in our community.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
BANGKOK, Thailand (16 June 2025) – The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) calls on newly elected South Korean President Lee Jae-myung to restore peace, democracy, and gender justice in the country.
On 3 June 2025, South Korea held a snap presidential election, resulting in a landslide victory for opposition leader Lee Jae-myung from the Democratic Party of Korea. The snap election came after the impeachment of former president Yoon Suk Yeol over his illegal declaration of martial law in December 2024.
“The South Korean people have continuously shown vigorous resistance against any form of military dictatorship and unjust oppression. The newly elected government must therefore heed the people’s call to protect and uphold democracy, human rights, and the rule of law at all times,” said Mary Aileen Diez-Bacalso, Executive Director of FORUM-ASIA.
Looming charges
According to the National Election Commission, voter turnout was close to 80 percent, marking the highest turnout since South Korea’s 1997 election.
Following Yoon’s martial law declaration, Lee was among those who bravely pushed past military barricades in the National Assembly building. Lee joined the parliament’s emergency vote to end Yoon’s martial law order. At that time, Lee urged citizens to protest against the martial law order.
In his first inaugural address, Lee pledged to turn South Korea into a truly democratic republic, emphasizing the need to prevent any recurrence of an arms-based insurrection and to hold its instigators accountable.
The election provided a semblance of democratic restoration following months of political disarray. Lee, however, currently faces five different criminal charges involving alleged corruption, election law violations from his 2022 presidential campaign, the misuse of public funds, and subordination of perjury. Lee has denied all charges, arguing that such accusations are merely politically motivated.
According to Article 84 of South Korea’s Constitution, a sitting president cannot be subjected to criminal prosecution while in office. On 9 June, a hearing for Lee’s election law violation case was postponed as the Supreme Court is yet to determine whether Article 84 should be applied to a criminal defendant who has been elected as president.
Meanwhile, the ruling Democratic Party is reportedly pushing for a bill that would suspend ongoing trials involving a serving president.
Gender-based discrimination
Notably missing in Lee’s election manifesto is the commitment to address the country’s systemic gender-based discrimination. The same can be said for other South Korean candidates.
Lee did not emphasize any specific measures for addressing cases of sexual harassment and other forms of gender-based discrimination. Likewise, he did not clarify allegations of anti-feminist sentiments from the previous election, including past sexual harassment scandals surrounding the Democratic Party.
During his 2022 presidential bid, Lee commented against a proposed anti-discrimination law, which included LGBTQIA+ rights protection. Lee noted that such a law would require a majority consensus within South Korean society.
“The commitment to realize and protect democracy cannot be fully achieved without addressing the underlying problems of gender-based discrimination. Gender-based discrimination prevents a person from fully accessing and enjoying their fundamental rights and freedoms. Although gender-based discrimination affects everyone, the reality is that its impacts are disproportionately felt by women, girls, and LGBTQIA+ individuals,” said Bacalso.
An independent national human rights institution
Civil society welcomes President Lee’s commitment to reform the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) as part of his pledge to restore democracy.
As a national human rights institution, the NHRCK is in charge of promoting and protecting human rights by initiating advocacy, conducting investigations, and providing recommendations to the government.
The NHRCK’s flailing independence and effectiveness have long been criticized by civil society. The NHRCK has reportedly mistreated human rights defenders, discriminated against the LGBTQIA+ community, and retaliated against NHRCK staff who disagree with the leadership’s decisions. NHRCK’s disappointing track record on gender based-discrimination continued as it snubbed the 26th annual Seoul Queer Culture Festival held on 14 June, breaking its eight-year streak of consecutive participation since 2017.
In December 2024, a majority of NHRCK Commissioners opposed a proposal to investigate human rights violations committed during Yoon’s martial law declaration. The NHRCK Commissioners’ continued defense of former President Yoon–despite his martial law order–only further jeopardized the Commission’s credibility.
The Asian NGO Network on National Human Rights Institutions (ANNI)–alongside Korean civil society–has long called for such an investigation. The NHRCK’s reluctance reflects its inability to maintain its independence and unwillingness to serve its mandate.
In April 2025, the Global Alliance of NHRIs’ Sub-Committee on Accreditation (SCA) initiated a special review of the NHRCK following numerous complaints by civil society. The SCA issued the NHRCK with a list of questions, covering key issues such as investigations into alleged human rights violations, mistreatment of defenders and staff, discrimination against the LGBTQIA+ community, and its response to the Martial Law declaration.
In June, the NHRCK clapped back against the SCA, arguing that it is effectively performing its mandate. The NHRCK also maintained its controversial recommendation to guarantee the former president’s right to defend himself during his impeachment trial. South Korean media and civil society, however, accused the NHRCK of using misleading statistics and false claims about its performance.
Call to action
As South Korea is actively navigating its way back to stability, FORUM-ASIA calls on the new administration to learn from past mistakes and to serve as an example to other Asian governments in promoting and protecting human rights for all.
We call on the government to prioritize the needs of its citizens over any political interests.
Without gender justice and equality, there can be no democracy. The elimination of gender-based discrimination should be among the new administration’s top priorities.
FORUM-ASIA echoes civil society’s demands to restore the credibility, independence, and effectiveness of the NHRCK by urging President Lee to call for the resignation of the Commission’s current leadership.
The persistent failures of the NHRCK Chairperson and Commissioners have resulted in poor public trust. To actualize meaningful reforms within the NHRCK, a complete overhaul might be necessary.
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The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) is a network of 90 member organisations across 23 countries, mainly in Asia. Founded in 1991, FORUM-ASIA works to strengthen movements for human rights and sustainable development through research, advocacy, capacity development and solidarity actions in Asia and beyond. It has consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, and consultative relationship with the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights. The FORUM-ASIA Secretariat is based in Bangkok, with offices in Jakarta, Geneva and Kathmandu. www.forum-asia.org
The son of a Fiji assistant minister is under investigation for allegedly driving a government vehicle without authority and causing an accident that killed two men.
The accident took place along Bau Road, Nausori, last night.
The vehicle involved in the accident was the official government vehicle issued for the assistant minister.
It is alleged the 17-year-old took the vehicle without the knowledge of his father.
Police have confirmed the incident.
“The suspect is alleged to have taken the keys of the vehicle from his father while he slept and was driving along Bau Road, when he bumped the two victims standing on the roadside, and he fled the scene,” said the Fiji Police Force.
“He later relayed the matter to his father who reported the matter to police.
“The two victims in their 40s were conveyed to the Nausori Health Centre where their deaths were confirmed by medical officials.”
A video of an airstrike is going viral on social media with the claim that it is related to the current conflict between Iran and Israel.
Israel on June 13 launched blistering attacks on Iran’s nuclear and military structures from warplanes and drones killing at least 78 people including generals, scientists and civilians. Iran retaliated with long-range missiles targeting Tel Aviv, wounding at least 34 people, according to Israel’s paramedic services.
The official X handle of the Israel Defense Forces posted the video and claimed that this was the raw footage of a missile being fired on Israel. ( Archive link )
NDTV managing editor Shiv Aroor tweeted this video describing it as footage of Iranian missiles over Israel. He later deleted the post.
An account named Jat Association, which is often found spreading misinformation, also shared the video and made the same claim. ( Archive link )
A user named Mukhtar also shared the video and linked it to the ongoing conflict between the two countries and said that Iran retaliated by attacking Tel Aviv. ( Archive link )
Several other users also shared the video with the same claim.
Fact Check
We did a reverse image search of the frames of the viral video. We found this video in a tweet dated November 10, 2024. This makes it clear that this video is old and it is not from the current conflict between Iran and Israel.
Alt News could not trace the source of this video but the dates of the above uploads make it clear that it is not from the current conflict between Iran and Israel.
Several unrelated videos are currently viral as footage from the ongoing military conflict between the two central Asian countries. Our fact checks of these videos can be read here.
#ASÍ: #Iran lanza un ataque con misiles hacia #Israel. Sonaron sirenas en todo el país. Se puso en operación el escudo de hierro.
