The New Zealand government needs to do more for its Pacific Island neighbours and stand up to nuclear powers, a distinguished journalist, media educator and author says.
Professor David Robie, a recipient of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM), released the latest edition of his book Eyes of Fire: The last voyage and Legacy of the Rainbow Warrior(Little Island Press), which highlights the nuclear legacies of the United States and France.
Dr Robie, who has worked in Pacific journalism and academia for more than 50 years, recounts the crew’s experiences aboard the Greenpeace flagship the Rainbow Warrior in 1985, before it was bombed in Auckland Harbour.
At the time, New Zealand stood up to nuclear powers, he said.
“It was pretty callous [of] the US and French authorities to think they could just carry on nuclear tests in the Pacific, far away from the metropolitan countries, out of the range of most media, and just do what they like,” Dr Robie told RNZ Pacific. “It is shocking, really.”
Speaking to Pacific Waves, Dr Robie said that Aotearoa had “forgotten” how to stand up for the region.
“The real issue in the Pacific is about climate crisis and climate justice. And we’re being pushed this way and that by the US [and] by the French. The French want to make a stake in their Indo-Pacific policies as well,” he said.
‘We need to stand up’ “We need to stand up for smaller Pacific countries.”
Dr Robie believes that New Zealand is failing with its diplomacy in the region.
He accused the coalition government of being “too timid” and “afraid of offending President Donald Trump” to make a stand on the nuclear issue.
However, a spokesperson for New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters told RNZ Pacific that New Zealand’s “overarching priority . . . is to work with Pacific partners to achieve a secure, stable, and prosperous region that preserves Pacific sovereignty and agency”.
The spokesperson said that through its foreign policy “reset”, New Zealand was committed to “comprehensive relationships” with Pacific Island countries.
“New Zealand’s identity, prosperity and security are intertwined with the Pacific through deep cultural, people, historical, security, and economic linkages.”
Pacific ‘increasingly contested’
The spokesperson said that the Pacific was becoming increasingly contested and complex.
“New Zealand has been clear with all of our partners that it is important that engagement in the Pacific takes place in a manner which advances Pacific priorities, is consistent with established regional practices, and supportive of Pacific regional institutions.”
They added that New Zealand’s main focus remained on the Pacific, “where we will be working with partners including the United States, Australia, Japan and in Europe to more intensively leverage greater support for the region.
“We will maintain the high tempo of political engagement across the Pacific to ensure alignment between our programme and New Zealand and partner priorities. And we will work more strategically with Pacific Governments to strengthen their systems, so they can better deliver the services their people need,” the spokesperson said.
The cover of the latest edition of Eyes of Fire: The Last Voyage and Legacy of the Rainbow Warrior. Image: Little Island Press
However, former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark, writing in the prologue of Dr Robie’s book, said: “New Zealand needs to re-emphasise the principles and values which drove its nuclear-free legislation and its advocacy for a nuclear-free South Pacific and global nuclear disarmament.”
Dr Robie added that looking back 40 years to the 1980s, there was a strong sense of pride in being from Aotearoa, the small country which set an example around the world.
“We took on . . . the nuclear powers,” Dr Robie said.
“And the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior was symbolic of that struggle, in a way, but it was a struggle that most New Zealanders felt a part of, and we were very proud of that [anti-nuclear] role that we took.
“Over the years, it has sort of been forgotten”.
‘Look at history’ France conducted 193 nuclear tests over three decades until 1996 in French Polynesia.
Until 2009, France claimed that its tests were “clean” and caused no harm, but in 2010, under the stewardship of Defence Minister Herve Morin, a compensation law was passed.
From 1946 to 1962, 67 nuclear bombs were detonated in the Marshall Islands by the US.
The 1 March 1954 Bravo hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll, the largest nuclear weapon ever exploded by the United States, left a legacy of fallout and radiation contamination that continues to this day. Image: Marshall Islands Journal
In 2024, then-US deputy secretary of state Kurt Campbell, while responding to a question from RNZ Pacific about America’s nuclear legacy, said: “Washington has attempted to address it constructively with massive resources and a sustained commitment.”
However, Dr Robie said that was not good enough and labelled the destruction left behind by the US, and France, as “outrageous”.
“It is political speak; politicians trying to cover their backs and so on. If you look at history, [the response] is nowhere near good enough, both by the US and the French.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Occupied West Bank-based New Zealand journalist Cole Martin asks who are the peacemakers?
BEARING WITNESS:By Cole Martin
As a Kiwi journalist living in the occupied West Bank, I can list endless reasons why there is no peace in the “Holy Land”.
I live in a refugee camp, alongside families who were expelled from their homes by Israel’s violent establishment in 1948 — never allowed to return and repeatedly targeted by Israeli military incursions.
Daily I witness suffocating checkpoints, settler attacks against rural towns, arbitrary imprisonment with no charge or trial, a crippled economy, expansion of illegal settlements, demolition of entire communities, genocidal rhetoric, and continued expulsion.
No form of peace can exist within an active system of domination. To talk about peace without liberation and dignity is to suggest submission to a system of displacement, imprisonment, violence and erasure.
I often find myself alongside a variety of peacemakers, putting themselves on the line to end these horrific systems — let me outline the key groups:
Palestinian civil society and individuals have spent decades committed to creative non-violence in the face of these atrocities — from court battles to academia, education, art, co-ordinating demonstrations, general strikes, hīkoi (marches), sit-ins, civil disobedience. Google “Iqrit village”, “The Great March of Return”, “Tent of Nations farm”. These are the overlooked stories that don’t make catchy headlines.
Protective Presence activists are a mix of about 150 Israeli and international civilians who volunteer their days and nights physically accompanying Palestinian communities. They aim to prevent Israeli settler violence, state-sanctioned home demolitions, and military/police incursions. They document the injustice and often face violence and arrest themselves. Foreigners face deportation and blacklisting — as a journalist I was arrested and barred from the West Bank short-term and my passport was withheld for more than a month.
Reconciliation organisations have been working for decades to bridge the disconnect between political narratives and human realities. The effective groups don’t seek “co-existence” but “co-resistance” because they recognise there can be no peace within an active system of apartheid. They reiterate that dialogue alone achieves nothing while the Israeli regime continues to murder, displace and steal. Yes there are “opposing narratives”, but they do not have equal legitimacy when tested against the reality on the ground.
Journalists continue to document and report key developments, chilling statistics and the human cost. They ensure people are seen. Over 200 journalists have been killed in Gaza. High-profile Palestinian Christian journalist Shireen Abu-Akleh was killed by Israeli forces in 2022. They continue reporting despite the risk, and without their courage world leaders wouldn’t know which undeniable facts to brazenly ignore.
Humanitarians serve and protect the most vulnerable, treating and rescuing people selflessly. More than 400 aid workers and 1000 healthcare workers have been killed in Gaza. All 38 hospitals have been destroyed or damaged, with just a small number left partially functioning. NGOs have been crippled by USAID cuts and targeted Israeli policies, marked by a mass exodus of expats who have spent years committed to this region — severing a critical lifeline for Palestinian communities.
All these groups emphasise change will not come from within. Protective Presence barely stems the flow.
Reconciliation means nothing while the system continues to displace, imprison and slaughter Palestinians en masse. Journalism, non-violence and humanitarian efforts are only as effective as the willingness of states to uphold international law.
Those on the frontlines of peacebuilding express the urgent need for global accountability across all sectors; economic, cultural and political sanctions. Systems of apartheid do not stem from corrupt leadership or several extremists, but from widespread attitudes of supremacy and nationalism across civil society.
Boycotts increase the economic cost of maintaining such systems. Divestment sends a strong financial message that business as usual is unacceptable.
Many other groups across the world are picketing weapons manufacturers, writing to elected leaders, educating friends and family, challenging harmful narratives, fundraising aid to keep people alive.
Where are the peacemakers? They’re out on the streets. They’re people just like you and me.
Cole Martin is an independent New Zealand photojournalist based in the occupied West Bank and a contributor to Asia Pacific Report. This article was first published by the Otago Daily Times and is republished with permission.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.
More than 400 candidates have put their hands up to contest the Bougainville general election in September, hoping to enter Parliament.
Incumbent President Ishmael Toroama is among the 404 people lining up to win a seat.
Bougainville is involved in the process of achieving independence from Papua New Guinea — an issue expected to dominate campaigning, which lasts until the beginning of September.
Voting is scheduled to start on September 2, finishing a week later, depending on the weather.
Seven candidates — all men — are contesting the Bougainville presidency. This number is down from when 25 people stood, including two women.
Toroama is seeking a second term and is being challenged by his former colleague in the leadership of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA), Sam Kauona.
Kauona is one of several contesting a second time, along with Thomas Raivet and a former holder of the Bougainville Regional Seat in the PNG Parliament, Joe Lera.
There are 46 seats to be decided, including six new constituencies.
Two seats will have 21 candidates: the northern seat of Peit and the Ex-Combatants constituency.
Several other constituencies — Haku, Tsitalato, Taonita Tinputz, Taonita Teop, Rau, and Kokoda — also have high numbers of candidates.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Almost two months ago, a UN special rapporteur, Dr Michael Fakhri, penned an opinion article in The Guardian newspaper warning that “if aid doesn’t enter Gaza now, 14,000 babies may die.”
“UN peacekeepers must step in,” he added.
Dr Fakhri is the UN Special Rapporteur for the Right to Food and an associate professor of international law at the University of Oregon.
His article came 15 days after a long list of UN experts — including Dr Fakhri and beginning with the outspoken Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese — published an extraordinary joint statement declaring: “End unfolding genocide or watch it end life in Gaza: UN experts say States face defining choice.”
The joint statement said humanity was descending into “a moral abyss”, and Dr Fakhri decried the response so far of nations as “slow and ghastly”.
On the other hand, he praised the individuals who “mobilise and enforce international law through their own hands”, particularly the Gaza Freedom Flotillas and the land marchers attempting to reach the Rafah crossing from Egypt to Gaza.
Dr Fakhri appears to consider the deployment by the UN General Assembly of UN Peacekeepers as the only feasible option that is practical and also fast enough and vigorous enough to properly address the gravity of the situation in Gaza.
Many others have expressed similar sentiments. For instance, just days after The Guardian article, Ireland’s Labour Party asked the Irish government “to use every lever at its disposal to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza through a UN-mandated peacekeeping force”.
Dr Fakhri makes his case for UN peacekeepers action. Video: Badil Resource Centre
As another example, DAWN, a group promoting democracy and human rights in the Middle East and North Africa has long advocated for UN Peacekeepers for Gaza and has just started a petition.
Dr Michael Fakhri . . . deployment by the UN General Assembly of peacekeepers is the only feasible option that is practical and fast enough for saving Gaza. Image: UN
DAWN’s petition may have been timed to influence the “emergency summit”
on the crisis being held today and tomorrow in Bogota, Colombia. It is co-hosted by Colombia and South Africa and will be attended by representatives from more than 30 nations and prominent actors such as Albanese.
A crucial point is that Dr Fakhri and others have explained how the UN General Assembly can rapidly deploy a UN Peacekeeping Force for this purpose. This is important because of the widespread, but erroneous, belief that only the UN Security Council — the UN’s other main legislative organ — can authorise UN peacekeeping missions.
Arab League calls for UN peacekeepers . . . but the subheading in this report wrongly says it is up to UNSC to make the call. Image: NYT screenshot
An example of this falsehood being spread by the corporate news media is shown by this New York Times claim.
Whereas all UN member states are equally represented in the General Assembly, the Security Council is dominated by its five permanent members — the United States, China, Russia, Britain, and France — with each having the power to veto all proposals.
But the US is actively supporting Israel’s activities in occupied Palestine, and it would surely block any such peacekeeping initiative if submitted to the Security Council. This leaves it up to the UN General Assembly to organise any UN Peacekeeping Force for Gaza.
As indicated by Dr Fakri, the founding UN Charter of 1945 provides for the General Assembly to step in to restore peace where the Security Council has failed in its primary responsibility to act.
Relevant sections of the UN Charter.
As shown above, primary responsibility was given to the Security Council under the UN Charter for practical reasons only, “to ensure prompt and effective action”.
Formal protocols for the General Assembly to take over from the Security Council were added in 1950, in what is widely referred to as the “Uniting for Peace” resolution. It explicitly provides the option of setting up an armed force, as shown below.
The Uniting for Peace resolution, 1950.
As also shown, Uniting for Peace resolutions are addressed in Emergency Special Sessions of the UN General Assembly. These can be called within 24 hours and from a request by any member state. To be passed, a resolution requires a two-thirds majority of the states that voted either for, or against, the resolution.
Historically, the very first UN Peacekeeping force was set up in this way in response to the Suez Crisis of 1956-7 — see below. Those UN Peacekeepers oversaw the prompt retreat from Egypt of Israel and of the Security Council permanent members, Britain and France. Eventually, in 1957 they were present for Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza itself, then a protectorate of Egypt.
UN General Assembly resolutions setting up the first UN Peacekeeping Force in 1956.
Returning to the current circumstances, Dr Fakhri says that if a UN peacekeeping force is formed then Israel’s permission is not required for its deployment in Gaza.
The actual main impediment to the success of the plan may come from covert bullying of UN member nations by the US and Israel. As explained by prominent law professor Francis Boyle: “The US government will bribe, threaten, intimidate and blackmail all members of the UN General Assembly not to [act against] Israel.”
Dr King is a physicist researching topics in renewable energy, with an interest in humanitarian issues.
BANGKOK, Thailand (15 July 2025) – The Asian NGO Network on National Human Rights Institutions (ANNI) calls on the Government of the Maldives to ensure that the ongoing selection process for vacant commissioner positions at the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) fully complies with the Paris Principles, the internationally recognized standards that underpin the independence, effectiveness, and credibility of national human rights institutions (NHRIs).
In June 2025, the President’s Office announced the opening of applications to fill two commissioner positions on the HRCM, as the terms of two current commissioners are set to expire. According to the Human Rights Commission Act (Law No. 6/2006), candidates are nominated by the President, approved by the People’s Majlis, and formally appointed by the President.
However, the nomination process led by the President has not been made public, which runs contrary to international standards. The lack of transparency, marked by a closed process under full executive control, without any independent or participatory mechanism, raises serious concerns about the fairness and impartiality of the selection.
Failure to guarantee impartial vetting of applications undermines the Commission’s integrity and independence. The Parliament Oversight Committee must play a central role in ensuring transparency and public accountability in the vetting of candidates.
“ANNI reminds the Maldivian Government to ensure that the selection process is transparent, inclusive, and merit-based, in line with the Paris Principles,” said Mary Aileen Diez-Bacalso, Executive Director of Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), the ANNI Secretariat. “This process must involve meaningful consultations with civil society and ensure that appointees are selected based on demonstrated integrity, competence, and experience in protecting and promoting human rights. Shielding the process from political interference is critical to restoring and maintaining public trust in the Commission,” added Bacalso.
An Independent and Pluralistic Commission Is Key to Credibility
The Paris Principles, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1993, outline the minimum conditions for NHRIs to function effectively. These include institutional autonomy, pluralistic representation, adequate financial and operational resources, and a broad human rights mandate.
ANNI and FORUM-ASIA jointly remind the Maldivian authorities to meaningfully engage with the civil society in the selection of new HRCM Commissioners. A key element of these standards is a selection and appointment process that is transparent, participatory, and merit-based. It must include inputs from diverse stakeholders, including civil society, academia, professional associations, and marginalized communities. Representation across gender, religion, ethnicity, and disability is not merely symbolic–it is central to the NHRI’s legitimacy, serving a diverse society.
The HRCM was last reviewed by the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions – Sub-Committee on Accreditation (GANHRI-SCA) in 2010, when it was granted B-status, indicating only partial compliance with the Paris Principles. One of the SCA’s key concerns was the legal requirement that all commissioners be Muslim, an exclusionary provision that directly contradicts the Paris Principles’ emphasis on pluralism. Notably, the Commission has not sought re-accreditation since that review.
As the Maldives proceeds with appointing new commissioners, ANNI and FORUM-ASIA stress that this process presents an important opportunity to reinforce and not weaken the independence and legitimacy of the HRCM.
ANNI and FORUM-ASIA urge the Government of Maldives to demonstrate its commitment to international human rights standards by ensuring the selection process is transparent, inclusive, and consistent with the Paris Principles. This includes making the process public, establishing an independent and participatory shortlisting, and ensuring that appointments reflect gender balance and are truly pluralistic. A credible appointment process will help restore public confidence in the HRCM and strengthen its ability to carry out its mandate effectively.
Asian NGOs Network on National Human Rights Institutions (ANNI)
The Asian NGOs Network on National Human Rights Institutions (ANNI) was established in December 2006. It is a network of Asian non-governmental organisations and human rights defenders working on issues related to National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs). ANNI has members that are national organisations from all over Asia. ANNI currently has 33 member organisations from 21 countries or territories. The work of ANNI members focuses on strengthening the work and functioning of Asian NHRIs to better promote and protect human rights as well as to advocate for the improved compliance of Asian NHRIs with international standards, including the Paris Principles and General Observations of the Sub-Committee on Accreditation (SCA) of the Global Alliance of NHRIs (GANHRI). The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) has served as the Secretariat of ANNI since its establishment in 2006.http://l.forum-asia.org/ANNI
Malimali was described as “universally corrupt” by Justice David Ashton-Lewis, the commissioner of the nine-week investigation, which involved 35 witnesses.
“She was a pawn in the hands of devious members of government, who wanted any allegations against them or other government members thrown out,” Ashton-Lewis told RNZ Pacific Waves earlier this month.
Tanya Waqanika, who acts for Malimali, told RNZ Pacific that her client was seeking a “substantial” payout for damages and unpaid dues.
Waqanika met lawyers from the Attorney-General’s Office in the capital, Suva, on Tuesday after earlier negotiations failed.
Expected to hear in writing
She declined to say exactly what was discussed, but said she expected to hear back in writing from the other party the same day.
A High Court judge has given the government until 3pm on Friday to reach a settlement, otherwise he will rule on the application on Monday.
“We’ll see what they come up with, that’s the beauty of negotiations, but NZ$1.5 million would be a good amount to play with after your career has been ruined,” Waqanika said.
“[Malimali’s] career spans over 27 years, but it is now down the drain thanks to Ashton-Lewis and the damage the inquiry report has done.”
She said Malimali also wanted a public apology, as she was being defamed every day in social media.
“I don’t expect we’ll get one out of Ashton-Lewis,” she said.
Adjournment sought
During a hearing in the High Court on Monday, lawyers for the state sought an adjournment to discuss a settlement with Waqanika.
However, she opposed this, saying that the government’s legal team had vast resources and they should have been prepared for the hearing.
Malimali filed a case against President Naiqama Lalabalavu, Rabuka and the Attorney-General on June 13 on the grounds that her suspension was unconstitutional.
Waqanika said the President suspended her on the advice of the Prime Minister instead of consulting the Judicial Services Commission.
Government lawyers approached Waqanika offering a compensation deal the same day she lodged a judicial review in the High Court.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
The Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa has called on the New Zealand government to not follow Australia’s policy moves which would effectively criminalise the Palestine solidarity movement.
Co-chair John Minto said PSNA had no tolerance for anti-semitism in Aotearoa New Zealand, or anywhere else.
“But equally there should be no place for any other kind of racism, such as Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism. Our government must speak out against all forms of discrimination and support all communities when racism rears its ugly head,” he said.
“Let’s not forget the murderous attacks on the Christchurch mosques.”
Minto said the Australian measures would “inevitably” be used to criminalise the Palestinian solidarity movement across the country.
Trump ‘demonising’ support
“We see it happening in the US, to attack and demonise support for Palestinian human rights by the Trump administration. We see it orchestrated in the UK to shut down any speech which Prime Minister Starmer and the Israeli government don’t like.”
“undermining Australia’s democratic freedoms, inflaming community divisions, and entrenching selective approaches to racism that serve political agendas.”
Minto said the free speech restrictions in the US, UK and Australia had nothing to do with what people usually understand as anti-semitism.
“The drive comes from the Israeli government. They see making anti-semitism charges as the most effective means of preventing anyone publicly pointing to the genocide its armed forces are perpetrating in Gaza,” he said.
“The definition of anti-semitism, usually inserted into codes of ethics or legislation, is from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. The IHRA definition includes 11 examples. Seven of the examples are about criticising Israel.”
“It’s quite clear the Israeli campaign is to distract the community from Israel’s horrendous war crimes, such as the round-the-clock mass killing and mass starvation of Palestinians in Gaza, and deflect calls for sanctions against Israel.
“Already we can see in both the UK and US, that people have been arrested for saying things about Israel which would not have been declared illegal if they’d said it about other countries, including their own.”
Worrying signs
Minto said there were already worrying signs that the New Zealand government, media and police were “falling into the trap”.
“Just over the past few weeks, there has been an unusually wide-ranging mainstream media focus on anti-semitism,” Minto said citing:
At least one opinion article in the Stuff newspapers from NZ Jewish Council spokesperson Ben Kepes on anti-semitism in New Zealand
A New Zealand Herald podcast featuring Holocaust Foundation spokesperson Deborah Hart. The Holocaust Foundation is partly funded by the Israeli Embassy.
An enthusiastic 1News item on the latest appeal to the government to adopt similar measures here to those taken in Australia (TVNZ One News, 13 July 2025)
Stories highlighting anti-semitic graffiti in Wellington — numerous reports along these lines
However, New Zealand politicians and media had been silent about:
An attack which knocked a young Palestinian woman to the ground when she was using a microphone to speak during an Auckland march
An attack where a Palestine supporter was kicked and knocked to the pavement outside the Israeli embassy in Wellington. The accused was wearing an Israeli flag. He was not held in custody and the Post newspaper has reported neither the arrest nor the resulting charge (this case is due in court July 15)
An attack on a Palestine solidarity marshal in Christchurch who was punched in the face, in front of police, but no action taken.
An attack in Christchurch when a Destiny Church member kicked a solidarity marshal in the chest (no action taken by police)
Anti-Palestinian racist attacks on the home of a Palestine solidarity activist in New Plymouth. One supporter has had their front fence spraypainted twice with pro-Israel graffiti and their car tyres slashed twice (4 tyres in total) and had vile defamatory material circulated in their neighbourhood. (Police say they cannot help)
The refusal of the Human Rights Commission to publicly correct false statements it published in The Post newspaper which claimed anti-semitism was increasing, when in fact the evidence it was using was that the rate of incidents had declined.
‘Silence on mass killings’
Minto said that in each of the cases above there would have been far more attention from politicians, the police and the media had the victims been Israeli supporters.
“Meanwhile, both our government and the New Zealand Jewish Council have refused to condemn Israel’s blatant war crimes. There is silence on the mass killing, mass starvation and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza,” he said.
“The Jewish Council and our government stand together and refuse to hold Israel’s racist apartheid regime to account in just about any way.
“Adding to the clear perception of appalling bias on the part of our government, both the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs have met with New Zealand Jewish Council spokespeople over the war in Gaza.
“But both have refused to meet with representatives of Palestinian New Zealanders, or the huge number of Jewish supporters of the Palestine solidarity movement.”
Minto said New Zealand must “stand up and be counted against genocide” wherever it appeared and no matter who the victims were.
New Zealand paused $18.2 million in development assistance funding to the Cook Islands in June after its government signed several agreements with China in February.
At the time, a spokesperson for Foreign Minister Winston Peters said the pause was because the Cook Islands did not consult with Aotearoa over the China deals and failed to ensure shared interests were not put at risk.
Peters and New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon will not attend the celebrations.
Ten years ago, former Prime Minister Sir John Key attended the celebrations that marked 50 years of Cook Islands being in free association with New Zealand.
Officials from the Cook Islands and New Zealand have been meeting to try and restore the relationship.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
BEARING WITNESS:By Cole Martin in occupied West Bank
Two young Palestinians were shot and beaten to death on their land, and 30 injured, by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank on Saturday.
A large group of settlers attacked the rural Palestinian village of Sinjil, in the Ramallah governorate, beating Sayfollah “Saif” Mussalet, 20, who died from his wounds after the mob blocked medical access for several hours.
The body of Muhammad Shalabi, 23, was recovered that evening — having reportedly bled to death while ambulances and rescuers were blocked by Israeli military as settlers roamed the Palestinian farmland for hours.
Both young men are from the neighbouring Mazra’a Sharqiya billate, and Saif was an American citizen visiting loved ones and friends over summer. His family released a statement calling his death an “unimaginable nightmare and an injustice that no family should ever have to face”.
They said he was a “beloved member of his community . . . a brother and a son [and] a kind, hard-working, and deeply-respected young man.”
Saif built a widely-loved business in Tampa, Florida, and was known for his generosity, ambition, and connection to his Palestinian heritage.
Following news of his death an overwhelming number of locals gathered at his store to share their grief and anger.
Frequent atrocities
Such lynchings have become a frequent atrocity across the West Bank, as settler gangs are repeatedly emboldened by the Israeli government, police, and military who protect and often facilitate violence against Palestinian communities.
Two settlers were reportedly detained following the attacks, but released again within hours.
Between 2005-2020, 91 percent of Palestinian cases filed with police were closed without indictment, according to the Israeli human rights organisation B’tselem, and settlers undergo trial with full legal rights and higher lenience in Israeli civil courts.
By contrast, Palestinians are tried in Israeli military courts, established in violation of the fourth Geneva Convention and largely considered corrupt for maintaining a 95 percent conviction rate (Military Court Watch).
Additionally, more than 3600 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli captivity without charge or trial, with all detainees facing an increase in documented physical, psychological, and sexual abuse — including children.
A funeral was held for the young men on Sunday in Mazra’a Sharqiya village, with thousands in attendance. The killings continue a systemic pattern which alongside military incursions, has seen 153 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since the beginning of 2025 (OCHA).
UN resolution
A UN resolution last September reaffirmed the illegality of Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territories, demanding a total and unconditional withdrawal within a year.
Ten months on, settler attacks have escalated in frequency and severity, settlement expansion has rapidly increased, and numerous Palestinian villages have been forcibly displaced after months of sustained violence.
Communities across the West Bank are facing erasure, and as the death toll climbs pressure continues to grow for the New Zealand government to enforce stronger political sanctions, including the entire opposition uniting behind the Green Party’s Unlawful Occupation of Palestine Sanctions Bill.
Cole Martin is an independent New Zealand photojournalist based in the Middle East and a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.
Mourners pay their respects to the two young Palestinians killed by illegal settlers. Image: Cole Martin
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
New Caledonia’s pro-and-anti-independence parties have committed to an “historic” deal over the future political status of the French Pacific territory, which is set to become — for the first time — a “state” within the French realm.
The 13-page agreement yesterday, officially entitled “Agreement Project of the Future of New Caledonia”, is the result of a solid 10 days of difficult negotiations between both pro and anti-independence parties.
They have stayed under closed doors at a hotel in the small city of Bougival, in the outskirts of Paris.
French Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls (centre) shows signatures on the last page of New Caledonia’s new agreement. Image: RNZ Pacific/FB
The talks were convened by French President Emmanuel Macron after an earlier series of talks held between February and May 2025 failed to yield an agreement.
After opening the talks on July 2, Macron handed over them to his Minister for Overseas, Manuel Valls, to oversee. Valls managed to bring together all parties around the same table earlier this year.
In his opening speech earlier this month, Macron insisted on the need to restore New Caledonia’s economy, which was brought to its knees following destructive and deadly riots that erupted in May 2024.
He said France was ready to study any solution, including an “associated state” for New Caledonia.
During the following days, all political players exchanged views under the seal of strict confidentiality.
While the pro-independence movement, and its Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS), remained adamant they would settle for no less than “full sovereignty”, the pro-France parties were mostly arguing that three referendums — held between 2018 and 2021 — had already concluded that most New Caledonians wanted New Caledonia to remain part of France.
Those results, they said, dictated that the democratic result of the three consultations be respected.
Group photo of participants at the end of negotiations. Image: Philippe Gomes
With this confrontational context, which resulted in an increasingly radicalised background in New Caledonia, that eventually led to the 2024 riots, the Bougival summit was dubbed the “last chance summit”.
In the early hours of Saturday, just before 7 am (Paris time, 5 pm NZ time), after a sleepless night, the secrecy surrounding the Bougival talks finally ended with an announcement from Valls.
He wrote in a release that all partners taking part in the talks had signed and “committed to present and defend the agreement’s text on New Caledonia’s future.”
Valls said this was a “major commitment resulting from a long work of negotiations during which New Caledonia’s partners made the choice of courage and responsibility”.
The released document, signed by almost 20 politicians, details what the deal would imply for New Caledonia’s future.
In its preamble, the fresh deal underlines that New Caledonia was “once again betting on trust, dialogue and peace”, through “a new political organisation, a more widely shared sovereignty and an economic and social refoundation” for a “reinvented common destiny.”
New Caledonia’s population will be called to approve the agreement in February 2026.
If approved, the text would be the centrepiece of a “special organic law” voted by the local Congress.
It would later have to be endorsed by the French Parliament and enshrined in an article of the French Constitution.
What does the agreement contain? One of the most notable developments in terms of future status for New Caledonia is the notion of a “State of New Caledonia”, under a regime that would maintain it as part of France, but with a dual citizenship — France/New Caledonia.
Another formulation used for the change of status is the often-used “sui generis”, which in legal Latin, describes a unique evolution, comparable to no other.
This would be formalised through a fundamental law to be endorsed by New Caledonia’s Congress by a required majority of three-fifths.
The number of MPs in the Congress would be 56.
The text also envisages a gradual transfer of key powers currently held by France (such as international relations), but would not include portfolios such as defence, currency or justice.
In diplomacy, New Caledonia would be empowered to conduct its own affairs, but “in respect of France’s international commitments and vital interests”.
On defence matters, even though this would remain under France’s powers, it is envisaged that New Caledonia would be “strongly” associated, consulted and kept informed, regarding strategy, goals and actions led by France in the Pacific region.
On police and public order matters, New Caledonia would be entitled to create its own provincial and traditional security forces, in addition to national French law enforcement agencies.
New Caledonia’s sensitive electoral roll The sensitive issue of New Caledonia’s electoral roll and conditions of eligibility to vote at local elections (including for the three Provincial Assemblies) is also mentioned in the agreement.
It was this very issue that was perceived as the main trigger for the May 2024 riots, the pro-independence movement feared at the time that changing the conditions to vote would gradually place the indigenous Kanak community in a position of minority.
It is now agreed that the electoral roll would be partly opened to those people of New Caledonia who were born after 1998.
The roll was frozen in 2007 and restricted to people born before 1998, which is the date the previous major autonomy agreement of Nouméa was signed.
Under the new proposed conditions to access New Caledonia’s “citizenship”, those entitled would include people who already can vote at local elections, but also their children or any person who has resided in New Caledonia for an uninterrupted ten years or who has been married or lived in a civil de facto partnership with a qualified citizen for at least five years.
Provincial elections once again postponed One of the first deadlines on the electoral calendar, the provincial elections, was to take place no later than 30 November 2025.
It will be moved once again — for the third time — to May-June 2026.
A significant part of the political deal is also dedicated to New Caledonia’s economic “refoundation”, with a high priority for the young generations, who have felt left out of the system and disenfranchised for too long.
One of the main goals was to bring New Caledonia’s public debts to a level of sustainability.
In 2024, following the riots, France granted, in the form of loans, over 1 billion euros (NZ $1.9 billion) for New Caledonia’s key institutions to remain afloat.
But some components of the political chessboard criticised the measure, saying this was placing the French territory in a state of excessive and long-term debt.
Group photo of participants at the end of negotiations with the signed agreement. Image: Philippe_Gomes/RNZ Pacific
Strategic nickel A major topic, on the macro-economic side, concerns New Caledonia’s nickel mining industry, after years of decline that has left it (even before 2024) in a state of near-collapse.
Nickel is regarded as the backbone of New Caledonia’s economy.
A nickel “strategic plan” would aim at re-starting New Caledonia nickel’s processing plants, especially in the Northern province, but at the same time facilitating the export of raw nickel.
There was also a will to ensure that all mining sites (many of which have been blocked and its installations damaged since the May 2024 riots) became accessible again.
Meanwhile, France would push the European Union to include New Caledonia’s nickel in its list of strategic resources.
New Caledonia’s nickel industry’s woes are also caused by its lack of competitiveness on the world market — especially compared to Indonesia’s recent rise in prominence in nickel production — because of the high cost of energy.
Swift reactions, mostly positive
New Caledonian politicians Sonia Backès (left to right), Nicolas Metzdorf, Gil Brial and Victor Tutugoro. Image: Nicolas Metzdorf/RNZ Pacific
The announcement yesterday was followed by quick reactions from all sides of New Caledonia’s political spectrum and also from mainland France’s political leaders.
French Prime Minister François Bayrou expressed “pride” to see an agreement “on par with history”, emerge.
“Bravo also to the work and patience of Manuel Valls” and “the decisive implication of Emmanuel Macron,” he wrote on X-Twitter.
From the ranks of New Caledonia’s political players, pro-France Nicolas Metzdorf said he perceived as one of the deal’s main benefits the fact that “we will at last be able to project ourselves in the future, in economic, social and societal reconstruction without any deadline.”
Metzdorf admitted that reaching an agreement required concessions and compromise from both sides.
“But the fact that we are no longer faced with referendums and to reinforce the powers of our provinces, this was our mandate”, he told public broadcaster NC La 1ère.
“We’ve had to accept this change from New Caledonia citizenship to New Caledonian nationality, which remains to be defined by New Caledonia’s Congress. We have also created a completely new status as part of the French Republic, a sui generis State”, he noted.
He said the innovative status kept New Caledonia within France, without going as far as an “associated state” mooted earlier.
“At least, what we have arrived at is that New Caledonians remain French”, pro-France Le Rassemblement-LR prominent leader Virginie Ruffenach commented.
“And those who want to contribute to New Caledonia’s development will be able to do so through a minimum stay of residence, the right to vote and to become citizens and later New Caledonia nationals”
“I’m aware that some could be wary of the concessions we made, but let’s face it: New Caledonia nationality does not make New Caledonia an independent State . . . It does not take away anything from us, neither of us belonging to the French Republic nor our French nationality,” Southern Province pro-France President Sonia Backès wrote on social media.
In a joint release, the two main pro-France parties, Les Loyalistes and Rassemblement-LR, said the deal was no less than “historic” and “perennial” for New Caledonia as a whole, to “offer New Caledonia a future of peace, stability and prosperity” while at the same time considering France’s Indo-Pacific strategy.
From the pro-independence side, one of the negotiators, Victor Tutugoro of UNI-UPM (Progressist Union in Melanesia) said what mattered was that “all of us have placed our bets on intelligence, beyond our respective beliefs, our positions, our postures”.
“We put all of these aside for the good of the country.”
“Of course, by definition, a compromise cannot satisfy anyone 100 percent. But it’s a balanced compromise for everyone,” he said.
“And it allows us to look ahead, to build New Caledonia together, a citizenship and this common destiny everyone’s been talking about for many years.”
Before politicians fly back to New Caledonia to present the deal to their respective bases, President Macron received all delegation members last evening to congratulate them on their achievements.
During the Presidential meeting at the Elysée Palace, FLNKS chief negotiator Emmanuel Tjibaou (whose father Jean-Marie Tjibaou also struck a historic agreement and shook hands with pro-France leader Jacques Lafleur, in 1988), stressed the agreement was one step along the path and it allows to envisage new perspectives for the Kanak people.
A sign of the changing times, but in a striking parallel — 37 years after his father’s historic handshake with Lafleur, Emmanuel Tjibaou (whose father was shot dead in 1989 by a radical pro-independence partisan who felt the independence cause had been betrayed — did not shake hands, but instead fist pumped with pro-France’s Metzdorf.
In a brief message on social networks, the French Head of State hailed the conclusive talks, which he labelled “A State of New Caledonia within the (French) Republic,” a win for a “bet on trust.”
“Now is the time for respect, for stability and for the sum of good wills to build a shared future.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Signatures on the last page of New Caledonia’s new agreement. Image: Philippe Dunoyer/RNZ Pacific
An opposition Labour Party MP today paid tribute to the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific (NFIP) movement, saying it should inspire Aotearoa New Zealand to maintain its own independence, embrace a strong regionalism, and be a “voice for peace and demilitarisation”.
But Phil Twyford, MP for Te Atatu and spokesperson on disarmament, warned that the current National-led coalition government was “rapidly going in the other direction”.
“It mimics the language of the security hawks in Washington and Canberra that China is a threat to our national interests,” he said.
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“That is then the springboard for a foreign policy ‘reset’ under the current government to a closer strategic alignment with the United States and with what are often more broadly referred to as the ‘traditional partners’.
“For that read the Five Eyes members, but particularly the United States.”
Speaking at the opening of the week-long “Legends of the Pacific: Stories of a Nuclear-Free Moana 1975-1995” exhibition at the Ellen Melville Centre, Twyford referred to the 40th anniversary of the Rainbow Warrior bombing by French secret agents on 10 July 2025.
“Much has been made in the years since of what a turning point this was, and how it crystallised in New Zealanders a commitment to the anti-nuclear cause,” he said.
However, he said he wanted to talk about the “bigger regional phenomenon” that shaped activism, public attitudes and official policies across the region, and what it could “teach us today about New Zealand’s place in the world”.
“I am talking about the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific movement.
The Te Vaerua O Te Rangi dance group performing at the nuclear-free Pacific exhibition opening in Auckland today. Image: Asia Pacific Report
“Activists and leaders from across the Pacific built a movement that challenged neocolonialism and colonialism, put the voices of the peoples of the Pacific front and centre, and held the nuclear powers to account for the devastating legacy of nuclear testing.”
The NFIP movement led to the creation of the Treaty of Rarotonga, the Pacific’s nuclear weapons free zone, Twyford said. It influenced governments and shaped the thinking of a generation.
Twyford said that with increasing great power rivalry, the rise of authoritarian leaders, and the breakdown of the multilateral system “the spectre of nuclear war has returned”.
Labour’s Te Atatu MP Phil Twyford admiring part of the nuclear-free Pacific exhibition after opening it in Auckland today. Image: Del Abcede/APR
New Zealand faced some stark choices about how it made its way in the world, kept their people and the region safe, and remained “true to the values we’ve always held dear”.
The public debate about the policy “reset” reset had focused on whether New Zealand would be part of AUKUS Pillar Two, “the arrangement to share high end war fighting technology that would sit alongside the first pillar designed to deliver Australia its nuclear submarines”.
Part of the nuclear-free Pacific exhibition honouring Fernando Pereira, the Greenpeace photographer killed by French state saboteurs when they bombed the Rainbow Warrior on 10 July 1985. Image: APR
While the New Zealand government had had little to say on AUKUS Pillar Two since the US elections, the defence engagement with the US had “escalated”.
It now included participation in groupings around supply chains, warfighting in space, interconnected naval warfare, and projects on artificial intelligence and cyber capabilities.
China’s growing assertiveness as a great power was not the main threat to New Zealand.
“The biggest threat to our security and prosperity is the possibility of war in Asia between the United States and China,” he said.
NFIP activist Hilda Halkyard-Harawira (Ngāti Haua featured in one of the storytelling videos at the nuclear-free Pacific exhibition. Image: APR
“Rising tensions could conceivably affect trade, and that would be disastrous for us. All-out war, especially if it went nuclear, would be catastrophic for the region and probably for the planet.”
Labour’s view was that security for New Zealand and the Pacific could be pursued through active engagement with the country’s partners across the Tasman and in the Pacific, and Asia — and be a voice for peace and demilitarisation.
Twyford acknowledged Dr Robie’s “seminal book” Eyes of Fire, thanking him for “a lifetime’s work of reporting important stories, exposing injustice and holding the powerful to account”.
Dr Robie spoke briefly about the book as a publishing challenge following his earlier speech at the launch on Thursday.
Other speakers at the opening of the nuclear-free Pacific exhibition included veteran activist such as Reverend Mua Strickson-Pua; Bharat Jamnadas, an organiser of the original Nuclear-Free and Independent Pacific (NFIP) conference in Suva, Fiji, in 1975; businessman and community advocate Nikhil Naidu, previously an activist for the Fiji Anti-Nuclear Group (FANG); and Dr Heather Devere, peace researcher and chair of the Asia Pacific Media Network (APMN).
The Te Vaerua O Te Rangi dance group also performed Cook Islands items.
The exhibition has been coordinated by the APMN in partnership with Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, with curator Tharron Bloomfield and Antony Phillips; Ellen Melville Centre; and the Whānau Communty Centre and Hub.
It is also supported by Pax Christi, Quaker Peace and Service Fund, and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).
The exhibition recalls New Zealand’s peace squadrons, a display of activist tee-shirt “flags”, nuclear-free buttons and badges, posters, and other memorabilia. A video storytelling series about NFIP “legends” such as Hilda Halyard-Harawira and Dr Vijay Naidu is also included.
Azad Samaj Party chief Chandrashekhar Azad was on June 29 detained in Prayagraj Circuit House in Uttar Pradesh while on his way to meet two families — one in Isota village in Karchana police station area of Prayagraj district where an individual from the scheduled caste community had been allegedly murdered on April 13, and another in Kokhraj police station area of Kaushambi district where a minor girl had been allegedly kidnapped and gangraped some time between April 24 and 27.
In protest against the detention, supporters of Azad Samaj Party and Bhim Army — both founded by Azad — started a protest in Bhadewara market area in Karchana town, which soon turned violent. As many as 85 people were arrested for stone-pelting, arson and damaging public property.
Against this backdrop, two videos went viral on social media in which police personnel can be seen walking with some men. In the first video, the hands and heads of these men are bandaged and they are limping. The other video shows a group of youths with shaved heads. Users are sharing this video and claiming that the rioting supporters of Chandrashekhar Azad received the treatment they deserved from UP Police.
Video I
X user Megh Updates, who has been found sharing misinformation and communal propaganda on several occasions, shared the video and wrote, “Chandrashekhar Ravan’s supporters who rioted in Prayaggraj are getting the treatment they deserve from Yogi’s UP police.”
Chandrashekhar Ravan supporters who RIOTED in Prayagraj are getting the TREATMENT they truly deserve from Yogi’s UP Police pic.twitter.com/QLj6EKL2Tb
A reverse image search with frames taken from the viral video led us to the source video posted on a Facebook page named Khabar Padampur and Gramin on June 5, 2025. The post mentions that four members of an extortion gang were nabbed red-handed in Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan. The group was demanding a sum of Rs 5 lakh from a businessman while posing as gangsters. The businessman’s accountant and his nephew were also found to be involved in the conspiracy.
A Facebook user named NAYAK YODHA also posted this video on June 6, claiming it to be from Sri Ganganagar.
श्रीगंगानगर में रंगदारी गैंग पकड़ी गई, 4 बदमाश रंगे हाथों गिरफ्तार! गैंगस्टरों के नाम पर व्यापारी से मांगी जा रही थी 5 लाख की रंगदारी पुलिस ने लग्जरी फॉर्च्यूनर गाड़ी में आए बदमाशों को किया गिरफ्तार व्यापारी का मुनीम और उसका भतीजा भी निकले साजिश में शामिल पुलिस ने रकम बरामद की, अन्य आरोपियों की तलाश जारी डीआईजी गौरव यादव के निर्देश में बड़ी कार्रवाई श्रीगंगानगर पुलिस की बड़ी कामयाबी – शहर में अपराधियों में हड़कंप!
#highlightseveryonefollowers2025 #hilights #CrimeNews
Apart from this, Alt News also found a tweet by Ganganagar Police from June 5, containing a newspaper cutting related to this case. The four accused seen in the video were also seen in the newspaper clipping. The report states that four miscreants had been caught red-handed under a well-planned operation while extorting a reputed businessman from Sri Ganganagar and threatening to kill him. A ransom amount of Rs 5 lakh was recovered from the accused. The arrested miscreants included a employee of the businessman, and his nephew.
To sum up, the viral video is not related in any way to the Prayagraj violence or the men accused of rioting.
Video II
The second video, as mentioned earlier, shows some men with tonsured heads being paraded publicly by police.
X user Ocean Jain shared the video and wrote, “Look at what Baba’s police did to the hooligans of Prayagraj”. Alt News has fact-checked this user several times in the past.
प्रयागराज के हुड़दंगियों का बाबा की पुलिस ने क्या हाल कर दिया है, अब सबका इंजन सेट हैpic.twitter.com/w7QHXcY5UK
We noticed ‘@VIRENDRASINGH6513’ written on the frame of the viral video. On searching the username, we found an Instagram profile named ‘Virendra Singh’ where we found the original video posted on June 2. According to the information provided with the post, Baran Police in Rajasthan had arrested 12 people for planning to loot a petrol pump.
NDTV Rajasthan covered the incident and reported that the Baran Police in Rajasthan arrested 12 accused planning to loot petrol pumps in two different police station areas, shaved their heads, and paraded them in a crowded market to teach them a lesson.
To sum up, the second viral video is also not related to the Prayagraj violence. It is from Baran district of Rajasthan where 12 people were arrested in early June for allegedly planning to loot a petrol pump in two different police station areas.
Nuclear-free and independent Pacific advocates are treating Aucklanders to a lively week-long exhibition dedicated to the struggle for nuclear justice in the region.
It will be opened today by the opposition Labour Party’s spokesperson on disarmament and MP for Te Atatu, Phil Twyford, and will include a range of speakers on Aotearoa New Zealand’s record as a champion of a nuclear-free Pacific and an independent foreign policy.
Speaking at a conference last month, Twyford said the country could act as a force for peace and demilitarisation, working with partners across the Pacific and Asia and basing its defence capabilities on a realistic assessment of threats.
Veteran nuclear-free Pacific spokespeople who are expected to speak at the conference include Reverend Mua Strickson-Pua; Bharat Jamnadas, an organiser of the original Nuclear-Free and Independent Pacific (NFIP) conference in Suva, Fiji, in 1975; businessman and community advocate Nikhil Naidu, previously an activist for the Fiji Anti-Nuclear Group (FANG) and Dr Heather Devere, peace researcher and chair of the Asia Pacific Media Network (APMN).
A group of Cook Islands young dancers will also take part.
Knowledge to children
One of the organisers, Nik Naidu, told Asia Pacific Report, it was vital to restore the enthusiasm and passion around the NFIP movement as in the 1980s.
“It’s so important to pass on our knowledge to our children and future generations,” he said.
“And to tell the stories of our on-going journey and yearning for true independence in a world free of wars and weapons of mass destruction. This is what a Nuclear-Free and Independent Pacific is.”
One of the many nuclear-free posters at the exhibition. Image: APR
The exhibition is is coordinated by the APMN in partnership with the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, with curator Tharron Bloomfield and coordinator Antony Phillips; Ellen Melville Centre; and the Whānau Communty Centre and Hub.
It is also supported by Pax Christi, Quaker Peace and Service Fund, and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).
It recalls New Zealand’s peace squadrons, a display of activist tee-shirt “flags”, nuclear-free buttons and badges, posters, and other memorabilia.
“It is a sort of back to the future situation where the world is waking up again to a nuclear spectre not really seen since the Cold War years,” he said.
“With the horrendous Israeli genocide on Gaza — it is obscene to call it a war, when it is continuous massacres of civilians; the attacks by two nuclear nations on a nuclear weapons-free country, as is the case with Iran; and threats against another nuclear state, China, are all extremely concerning developments.”
Incidents of violence by so-called cow protection groups affiliated to Hindutva outfits have been on the rise in several north Indian states. Now, one such incident has come to light from the Ganjam district of Odisha where two Dalit men were brutally tortured on false charges of cow smuggling. They were allegedly beaten up, half tonsured, and forced to eat grass and drink sewer water.
According to a report by the Indian Express, victims Bulu Nayak (52) and Babul Nayak (43), residents of Singipur village in Sanakhemundi Tehsil in Ganjam District, had bought a cow and two calves from Haripur to be given as dowry in a family wedding. While they were taking the cattle to their village in a tempo rickshaw, a group of locals stopped them.
The group accused them of illegally transporting the cows, and snatched their mobile phones and money. They allegedly demanded Rs 30,000 to release the animals. When the duo refused, the group tied their hands and legs and brutally assaulted them. Next, they were taken to a local salon where parts of their heads were shaved. They were then made to walk on their knees for about two kilometres to Jahada village where they were allegedly forced to eat grass and drink water from a drain.
The incident took place in broad daylight on June 22, 2025 at Kharigumma village under Dharakot block in Ganjam district. Both the victims somehow managed to escape from the spot and were provided first aid at a local hospital, after which they lodged a complaint with the Dharakote Police.
After photos and videos of the incident went viral on social media, several social media users, including social activists and politicians, started sharing the visuals and demanding the arrest of the accused and that appropriate action be taken against them.
A case has been registered under relevant sections of BNS and SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
During investigation, 8 accused persons have been arrested and one CICL apprehended. All were forwarded to the Hon’ble court. (2/2) pic.twitter.com/LxUFlKkrSX
On June 26, the police reported that the main accused in the incident had been arrested A local news portal carried the names of the accused arrested in the case in a report dated June 25. They were identified as Sibashankar Mohanty, Satya Sahu, Bainath Bisoi, Om Gowda, Ganapati Palei, Santosh Dakua, Shankar Das, and Narayan Dakua and a minor.
Another report published on July 3 stated that a total of 16 people had been arrested in the case so far.
Alarming Increase in Cow-Vigilantism Violence
It is pertinent to note that cases of violence related to cow-vigilantism have skyrocketed in the recent past. From 2016 to 2020, lynching or mob violence following suspected cow slaughter or trade has claimed at least 50 lives, according to a report by ACLED, an independent non-profit organisation that tracks and analyses data on violent conflict and protest across all countries and regions.
ACLED recorded a sharp increase in the number of incidents of political violence related to the protection of cows in India in 2018. Compared to 2016, incidents of political violence related to cow protection increased by more than 40% in 2017 and almost doubled in 2018, with this increase in violence coinciding with the establishment of BJP-led governments in several states, including Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Jharkhand.
The report further revealed that more than 80% of reported incidents of cow protection-related violence were carried out against civilians. The victims of these attacks were usually those involved in the cattle trade and individuals belonging to minority groups, including Muslims, Dalits or Adivasi communities.
Social media users recently shared a video claiming that slogans of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ were raised by Muslims participating in a Muharram procession in Uttar Pradesh. The viral posts also contain derogatory words against the Muslim community.
X user Deepak Sharma, who regularly shares disinformation and promotes communal propaganda, shared the video tagging the Deoria Police and wrote, “Do you hear what I am hearing? This crowd raising slogans of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ is not in Pakistan but in India, that too in India’s Uttar Pradesh. Betrayal is in their blood.”
पाकिस्तान जिंदाबाद
जी हाँ ये पाकिस्तान जिंदाबाद क़े नारे लगाती ये भीड़ पाकिस्तान में नहीं भारत में है और भारत क़े
भी उत्तर प्रदेश में है
खून में ही गद्दारी इन BSD वाले लोगों क़े…
Hello @DeoriaPolice
क्या आप वो सुन पा रहे हैं जो मैं सुन रहा हूँ ?
Right-wing X user Sandeep Mishra and several others on other platforms like Instagram and Facebook shared the same footage with claims that ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans had been raised during a Muharram procession.
Alt News found that the official X handle of the Deoria Police had tweeted about this and refuted the claim about ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans being raised. According to police, in the video recorded during a Muharram procession by the Five Star Club, slogans of ‘Five Star Zindabad’, and not ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ could be heard.
The police also mentioned that the procession was carried out peacefully in police presence.
Alt News examined the video by playing it in slow motion. On listening carefully to the slogans being raised in the procession, it became clear that the chants were not that of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’, but ‘Five Star Zindabad’. However, due to the background noise, the slogans are not that clear.
Apart from this, we noticed that many people participating in the procession wore green T-shirts with ‘5 STAR CLUB’ and ‘5 star’ printed on them.
Upon further investigation, we also came across the Instagram page of 5 star club. Many videos taken during Muharram can be found on this page. Apart from these, in a post by Instagram user Israfil Ansari, too, members of the 5 Star Club can be seen participating in Muharram observation wearing the same green T-shirts in the presence of police personnel.
To sum it up, slogans of “Five Star Zindabad” were raised in the video in question. However, some users falsely claimed that Muslims were raising ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans during Muharram.
A video showing a female police volunteer pulling away a woman kneeling underneath a large wooden chariot is viral on social media with communal claims that she was offering namaz or Islamic prayers during the annual Rath Yatra in Puri, Odisha. While the clip does not clearly show namaz being offered, someone in the background can be heard asking, “Namaz porche naki?” (Are they offering the namaz?)
The Rath Yatra or Chariot festival is a major Hindu festival in which thousands of devotees of the Hindu god Jagannath (believed to be a form of another deity, Krishna) come to Puri. In Hindu mythology, the deity travels in a chariot to visit his aunt along with his siblings and offers blessings to all on the way. The city usually witnesses a massive surge in visitors around this time. A glimpse of this scale is also visible in the viral video.
Social media users claim the video shows two individuals offering namaz under the holy chariot of Jagannath, and this is done to deliberately disrespect the religious sentiments of Hindus and malign the sanctity of the festival.
On July 2, X user BALA (@erbmjha) shared the footage, calling it blasphemous. They also tagged the Odisha police, demanding her arrest.
Blasphemy during Rath Yatra!!
Woman caught doing Namaz under the Jagannath Rath in Puri.
The same day, on X, Sagar Kumar (@KumaarSaagar), a journalist at Sudarshan News, a pro-Right outlet, shared the same video, suggesting that offering namaz during a Hindu festival signalled a larger conspiracy at play.
ये एक बहुत बड़ी साज़िश है।
अपना शक्ति प्रदर्शन किया गया है।
हिंदुओं की सबसे बड़ी और पवित्र रथ यात्रा भगवान जगन्नाथ जी के रथ के नीचे “नमाज़” पढ़ी गई। pic.twitter.com/UCgiSJhUXm
— Sagar Kumar “Sudarshan News” (@KumaarSaagar) July 2, 2025
The post had over 573,000 views at the time this was written.
Another X user, Sameer (@BesuraTaansane), also shared the video with a provocative caption that those who hate Hindus should go to their “promised land”.
If you hate Hindus so much why don’t you just GTFOH & go to your promised land
Shameless beach was caught offering under the Rath at the Jagannath Rath Yatra pic.twitter.com/3FWer1vLgv
On looking closely, we found that the viral video had a “Khabardar Live” watermark. We then found Khabardar Live’s Facebook page, which identifies itself as a local news and media website based in Odisha. On this page, we found a longer version of the viral video posted on June 28, 2025. The caption, in Odia, reads, “Why did police bring women under Jagannath’s chariot?”
In this video, at the 1:22-minute mark, the woman who was seen being dragged by the police volunteer can be heard protesting, “Yeh kya tareeka hai?” she says (“What kind of behaviour is this?”). To this, a man nearby responds that the idol of the Jagannath deity would soon be carried up the chariot stairs, and for that, people were not allowed to sit under the chariot. The woman then replies, “Lekin humko yahaan par bitha ke gaye the, bhaiyya..” (“But I was asked to sit here”). Pointing at the others still kneeling under the chariot, she says, “Wo bhi toh wahin khade hai” (“They are also standing there”).
This made it clear that the woman was not sitting there defiantly, but there seemed to be some miscommunication regarding her presence there.
Also, usually, during prayers, Muslims cover their head and use a prayer mat, which was not the case here, making us doubt that she was offering namaz. To be sure, we ran this by someone familiar with how Islamic prayers are done, and they too told us that covering the head is a customary requirement for women during namaz, and her sitting posture—with feet crossed—does not align with the posture prescribed for Salah. They added that no janamaz or prayer mat was visible, making it unlikely that she was offering namaz.
Alt News also contacted a senior journalist from Puri who was familiar with the incident. Refuting the communal narrative being circulated, she said that the individuals were kneeling and sitting there just to get a glimpse of Jagannath’s idol.
To corroborate this, Alt News also reached out to Odisha Police’s officer in charge of temple security, Kaushik Nayak. When asked about the alleged video, Nayak said, “No such instance was reported.”
Alt News also independently identified the woman in the video, but will not be divulging her name to protect her privacy. We managed to reach out to her family and acquaintances, who confirmed that she is, in fact, Hindu and a Jagannath devotee.
These findings, put together, make it clear that the viral video shows a Hindu woman sitting under the chariot during the crowded Rath Yatra festival and not offering namaz as social media users wrongly claimed.
A journalist who was on the Rainbow Warrior voyage to Rongelap last night condemned France for its “callous” attack of an environmental ship, saying “we haven’t forgotten, or forgiven this outrage”.
David Robie, the author of Eyes of Fire: The Last Voyage and Legacy of the Rainbow Warrior, said at the launch that the consequences of almost 300 US and French nuclear tests – many of them “dirty bombs” — were still impacting on indigenous Pacific peoples 40 years after the bombing of the ship.
French saboteurs had killed “our shipmate Fernando Pereira” on 10 July 1985 in what the New Zealand prime minister at the time, David Lange, called a “sordid act of international state-backed terrorism”.
Although relations with France had perhaps mellowed over time, four decades ago there was a lot of hostility towards the country, Dr Robie said.
“And that act of mindless sabotage still rankles very deeply in our psyche,” he said at the launch in Auckland Central’s Ellen Melville Centre on the anniversary of July 10.
About 100 people gathered in the centre’s Pioneer Women’s Hall for the book launch as Dr Robie reflected on the case of state terrorism after Greenpeace earlier in the day held a memorial ceremony on board Rainbow Warrior III.
“One of the celebrated French newspapers, Le Monde, played a critical role in the investigation into the Rainbow Warrior affair — what I brand as ‘Blundergate’, in view of all the follies of the bumbling DGSE spy team,” he said.
Plantu cartoon
“And one of the cartoons in that newspaper, by Plantu, who is a sort of French equivalent to Michael Leunig, caught my eye.
“You will notice it in the background slide show behind me. It shows François Mitterrand, the president of the French republic at the time, dressed in a frogman’s wetsuit lecturing to school children during a history lesson.
“President Mitterrand says, in French, ‘At that time, only presidents had the right to carry out terrorism!’
Tahitian advocate Ena Manurevia . . . the background Plantu cartoon is the one mentioned by the author. Image: Asia Pacific Report
He noticed that in the Mitterrand cartoon there was a “classmate” sitting in the back of the room with a moustache. This was none other than Edwy Plenel, the police reporter for Le Monde at the time, who scooped the world with hard evidence of Mitterrand and the French government’s role at the highest level in the Rainbow Warrior sabotage.
Dr Robie said that Plenel now published the investigative website Mediapart, which had played a key role in 2015 revealing the identity of the bomber that night, “the man who had planted the limpet mines on the Rainbow Warrior — sinking a peace and environmental ship, and killing Fernando Pereira.”
Jean-Luc Kister, a retired French colonel and DGSE secret agent, had confessed to his role and “apologised”, claiming the sabotage operation was “disproportionate and a mistake”.
“Was he sincere? Was it a genuine attempt to come to terms with his conscience. Who knows?” Dr Robie said, adding that he was unconvinced.
Hilari Anderson (right on stage), one of the speakers, with Del Abcede and MC Antony Phillips (obscured) . . . the background image shows Helen Clark meeting Fernando Pereira’s daughter Marelle in 2005. Image: Greenpeace
French perspective
Dr Robie said he had asked Plenel for his reflections from a French perspective 40 years on. Plenel cited three main take ways.
“First, the vital necessity of independent journalism. Independent of all powers, whether state, economic or ideological. Journalism that serves the public interest, the right to know, and factual truths.
“Impactful journalism whose revelations restore confidence in democracy, in the possibility of improving it, and in the usefulness of counterbalancing powers, particularly journalism.”
Secondly, this attack had been carried out by France in an “allied country”, New Zealand, against a civil society organisation. This demonstrated that “the thirst for power is a downfall that leads nations astray when they succumb to it.
“Nuclear weapons epitomise this madness, this catastrophe of power.”
Finally, Plenel expressed the “infinite sadness” for a French citizen that after his revelations in Le Monde — which led to the resignations of the defence minister and the head of the secret services — nothing else happened.
“Nothing at all. No parliamentary inquiry, no questioning of François Mitterrand about his responsibility, no institutional reform of the absolute power of the president in a French republic that is, in reality, an elective monarchy.”
‘Elective monarchy’ trend
Dr Robie compared the French outcome with the rapid trend in US today, “a president who thinks he is a monarch, a king – another elective monarchy.”
He also bemoaned that “catastrophe of power” that “reigns everywhere today – from the horrendous Israeli genocide in Gaza to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, from Trump to Putin to Netanyahu, and so many others.”
The continuous Gaza massacres were a shameful indictment of the West that had allowed it to happen for more than 21 months.
Dr Robie thanked many collaborators for their help and support, including drama teacher Hilari Anderson, an original crew member of the Rainbow Warrior, and photographer John Miller, “who have been with me all the way on this waka journey”.
He thanked his wife, Del, and family members for their unstinting “patience and support”, and also publisher Tony Murrow of Little Island Press.
Eyes of Fire: The Last Voyage and Legacy of the Rainbow Warrior . . . published 10 July 2025. Image: David Robie/Little Island Press
Launching the book, Greenpeace Aotearoa programme director Niamh O’Flynn said one thing that had stood out for her was how the legacy of the Rainbow Warrior had continued despite the attempt by the French government to shut it down 40 years ago.
“We said then that ‘you can’t sink a rainbow’, and we went on to prove it.
“When the Rainbow Warrior was bombed in Auckland harbour, it was getting ready to set sail to Moruroa Atoll, to enter the test exclusion zone and confront French nuclear testing head-on.”
So threatened
The French government had felt so threatened by that action that it had engaged in a state-sanctioned terror attack to prevent the mission from going ahead.
“But we rebuilt, and the Rainbow Warrior II carried on with that mission, travelling to Moruroa three times before the French finally stopped nuclear testing in the Pacific.
“That spirit and tenacity is what makes Greenpeace and what makes the Rainbow Warrior so special to everyone who has sailed on her,” she said.
“It was the final voyage of the Rainbow Warrior to Rongelap before the bombing that is the focus of David Robie’s book, and in many ways, it was an incredibly unique experience for Greenpeace — not just here in Aotearoa, but internationally.
“And of course David was a key part in that.”
O’Flynn said that as someone who had not even been born yet when the Rainbow Warrior was bombed, “I am so grateful that the generation of nuclear-free activists took the time to pass on their knowledge and to build our organisation into what it is today.
“Just as David has by writing down his story and leaving us with such a rich legacy.”
Greenpeace Aotearoa programme director Niamh O’Flynn . . . “That spirit and tenacity is what makes Greenpeace and what makes the Rainbow Warrior so special to everyone who has sailed on her.” Image: APR
Other speakers
Among other speakers at the book launch were teacher Hilari Anderson, publisher Tony Murrow of Little Island Press, Ena Manuireva, a Mangarevian scholar and cultural adviser, and MC Antony Phillips of Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga.
Anderson spoke of the Warrior’s early campaigns and acknowledged the crews of 1978 and 1985.
“I have been reflecting what these first and last crews of the original Rainbow Warrior had in common, realising that both gave their collective, mostly youthful energy — to transformation.
“This has involved the bonding of crews by working hands-on together. Touching surfaces, by hammer and paint, created a physical connection to this beloved boat.”
She paid special tribute to two powerful women, Denise Bell, who tracked down the marine research vessel in Aberdeen that became the Rainbow Warrior, and the indomitable Susi Newborn, who “contributed to naming the ship and mustering a crew”.
Manuireva spoke about his nuclear colonial experience and that of his family as natives of Mangareva atoll, about 400 km from Muroroa atoll, where France conducted most of its 30 years of tests ending in 1995.
He also spoke of Tahitian leader Oscar Temaru’s pioneering role in the Nuclear-Free and Independent Pacific (NFIP) movement, and played haunting Tahitian songs on his guitar.
On July 5, 2025, the Press Information Bureau (PIB)—the official media and public relations arm of the Indian government—published a press release titled “World Bank Places India Among World’s Most Equal Societies.” Citing a World Bank report, PIB published a misleading claim that “India ranks fourth globally in income equality with a Gini score of 25.5,” after the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, and Belarus.
After PIB’s release, several media outlets, including Times of India, Moneycontrol, The Hindu, Mint, Deccan Herald, Indian Express and Republic published reports that India ranked fourth in terms of income equality, with some directly attributing it to the World Bank. Among them, The Hindu and Deccan Herald had PTI copies while Mint had an ANI copy. Largely, they all parroted the PIB release.
Comparing India’s Gini score (25.2) with the United Kingdom (32.4), the United States (41.8) and China (35.7), PIB said that India’s income equality outshone major economies.
Source: PIB press release
The World Bank defines the Gini as an index that measures the “extent to which the distribution of income or consumption among individuals or households within an economy deviates from a perfectly equal distribution”. A Gini score or coefficient is expressed as a percentage. The number 0 denotes a perfectly equal society (where everyone has the same level of income or consumption), while a score of 100 denotes extreme inequality (where some have nothing and the rest have all).
“…India’s consumption-based Gini index improved from 28.8 in 2011-12 to 25.5 in 2022-23, though inequality may be underestimated due to data limitations. In contrast, the World Inequality Database shows income inequality rising from a Gini of 52 in 2004 to 62 in 2023. Wage disparity remains high, with the median earnings of the top 10 percent being 13 times higher than the bottom 10 percent in 2023-24…”
So, there are two Ginis—one based on consumption and the other on income. Clearly, the World Bank says that India has improved in one and done worse in the other.
But PIB has compared the consumption-based Gini score of India (where India fares slightly better in 2022-23 than 2011-12) with the income-based Gini scores of UK, US, Slovenia and Slovak Republic (where India is worse off now than before).
The World Bank itself warns against comparing Gini coefficients of different countries for this very reason, because the underlying data used in surveys for these calculations varies. Note that the World Bank does not collect data itself; it measures inequality based on household survey data provided by governments. From the World Bank glossary:
“Because the underlying household surveys differ in methods and types of welfare measures collected, data are not strictly comparable across countries or even across years within a country.”
The reason such a comparison is problematic follows:
“… Surveys can differ in many respects, including whether they use income or consumption expenditure as the living standard indicator. The distribution of income is typically more unequal than the distribution of consumption.”
So, in comparing India’s consumption inequality with more developed countries’ income inequality, we are essentially comparing two different units. And inequality based on consumption data will, by default, appear more equal.
Let’s understand why this is so.
Inequality Based on Consumption vs Income
Most developed, wealthy or high-income countries use income-based household surveys because their economies are formalised and tracking incomes is not a challenge. Developing, middle and lower-income groups use consumption-based household surveys owing to challenges with collecting data on incomes (some reasons could be a sizeable proportion of the labour force being deployed in informal sectors, more cash transactions, less access to banking, etc).
But when we track inequality based on the two different surveys, the results are different. Countries that use income-based surveys appear to be more unequal. There are three main reasons for this:
First, income-based surveys include all means through which one earns (such as salary, capital gains, additional earnings) whereas consumption-based surveys take account only of households’ expenditure. To put it another way, one measures a household’s potential purchasing power while the other only measures how much is actually used or spent. While those with higher incomes may consume more, they also have a greater propensity to save. So, just looking at households’ consumption data cannot give us a clear picture of their potential purchasing power.
Let’s take an oversimplified example. A poor household spends around Rs 15,000 a month or 75% of its income, while a wealthy household spends Rs 50,000, which is 10% of its monthly income. At a glance, just based on their expenditure or consumption, it is hard to gauge the level of inequality between the two, even when there is a significant difference in their spending. But if we conflate their monthly incomes—Rs 20,000 and Rs 5 lakh, respectively—the level of inequality is stark.
Two, according to a 2024 paper on the Gini coefficient titled “The World Bank’s New Inequality Indicator: The Number of Countries with High Inequality” (Haddad et al.) households’ incomes can sometimes be extremely low or even negative, due to unemployment, loss in business, or other temporary shocks but they would still need to maintain a basic level of consumption for sustenance. This keeps consumption levels from falling sharply.
Three, wealthier households have a greater propensity to save. As incomes grow, the proportion of what is spent on essentials diminishes and the proportion devoted to savings rises. For instance, a household might receive a large one-time income from investments but won’t necessarily spend all of it right away. Instead, they may save most of it for future needs or emergencies.
Because of these differences, income and consumption inequality are not directly comparable—income can fluctuate sharply, while consumption tends to be smoother since everyone depends on at least a minimum level of subsistence.
What PIB Got Wrong
The Press Information Bureau took the 25.5 figure, which is the consumption-based Gini and compared it with the income-based Gini of the United States of America and the United Kingdom. It also claimed that India stands fourth globally in income equality, after the Slovak Republic, Slovenia and Belarus.
As established earlier, income inequality is typically higher than consumption inequality. This means that when the Gini for a country is calculated using income data, it will appear more unequal and thus have a higher score than when it is calculated using consumption data.
For example, the United Kingdom’s score on the Gini index (calculated in 2021) is 32.40, which makes it seemingly more unequal than India’s consumption-based Gini index score of 25.5. The footnote in the World Bank data clearly states that the UK’s Gini score is based on income data.
Similarly, the United States of America’s latest score on the Gini index (calculated in 2023) is 41.80, which is higher (and hence more unequal) than India’s consumption-based Gini index score of 25.5. US’s Gini coefficient is also based on income data.
Like we mentioned before, this is similar to comparing absolute numbers of different units. For instance, it’s like saying 100 grams is more than 50 ounces. What is comparable, however, is India’s income-based Gini, which is 62, much higher than those of the UK and the USA.
Similarly, the Slovak Republic, in 2022, had an income-based Gini of 24.10. When compared with India’s income-based Gini of 62, the Slovak Republic is far ahead in terms of equality.
As of 2020, Belarus had a consumption-based Gini Index of 24.40. This is comparable to India’s consumption-based Gini of 25.5. Belarus fares better than India.
We’ve ranked the countries mentioned in the PIB press release below, distinguishing their most recent available consumption-based and income-based scores on the Gini index.
To put things in perspective, India’s income inequality has actually risen from 2004 to 2023. The World Bank brief clearly says this. Even the improvement in consumption inequality is very marginal—from 28.8 in 2011-12 to 25.5 in 2022-23. This is hardly celebratory; it rather shows that India’s consumption is facing strain.
Economist Surbhi Kesar, who was the first to point out PIB’s misrepresentation of World Bank data on X, writes that we might even be underestimating India’s consumption inequality due to data limitations. The 2022–23 Household Consumption Expenditure Survey introduced several changes in methodology compared to the earlier 2011–12 survey, making direct comparisons on poverty reduction unreliable.
Also, the Gini index is one inequality indicator, just like income and consumption are a few metrics to measure inequality. Like economist Santosh Mehrotra points out in The Wire, inequality manifests in various ways such as social inequality (owing to caste, ethnicity, class, etc) and wealth-based inequality (when wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few over the years and then passed down as inheritence), which are often beyond the scope of the Gini index but crucial for developing economies like India to take into account.
Importantly, these surveys and numbers do not highlight enough just how stark inequality is in India, in terms of wealth concentration. These issues have been widely flagged by economists and statisticians on several occasions.
After the observance of Muharram on July 6, 2025, a video showing a man seated atop what appeared to be a stack of loudspeakers caught the attention of some news channels. The man held a large flag bearing a crescent and star motif. The footage was aired in news bulletins with the claim that the Pakistani national flag had been carried in a Muharram procession in Jamui, Bihar.
News18 Bihar aired the video on July 6, with anchors highlighting the incident and identifying the flag as Pakistan’s national flag. Remarking that the Pakistani flag drew inspiration from the Islamic flag, News18 clarified that the video had not been independently verified by the channel. The location of the incident, was, however, identified as Pairamatihana village in Sono block of Jamui district in Bihar.
During the bulletin, the anchors described the act as potentially problematic and turned to an on-ground reporter for an update. The reporter stated that a formal complaint had been lodged, and police had initiated an investigation. Authorities were currently reviewing the footage, and efforts were underway to identify the individual seen waving the flag, he further reported, adding, once the person was identified, appropriate legal action would be taken.
It is worth noting that News18 Bihar has since deleted both the video and the corresponding post on X. One can watch the relevant part of the bulletin below. An archived version of the X post by the media outlet can be seen here.
Dainik Bhaskar, on July 7, published a report on this in which the headline described the flag as an Islamic flag, but the photo caption and the story itself said it was a Pakistani flag. The story stated that on the evening of Sunday, July 6, during a Muharram procession in Sono, a man was seen waving a flag of Pakistan while being seated over the sound system. The report further claimed that Sono police station-in-charge Dharmendra Kumar acknowledged that the flag had not been noticed by officers at the time. However, he assured that efforts were underway to identify the individual, and appropriate legal action would be taken.
Bhaskar also made a voice-over video report on this which is embedded in the above-mentioned article. At the 5-second mark, the reporter can be heard saying, “Ek yuvak Pakistani Jhandda lehrate huye dikh rahe hai” (A young man is seen waving a Pakistani flag). Again, at the 20-second mark in the video, the reporter alleges the flag in question was the Pakistani national flag. Watch it here:
Right-wing propaganda website OpIndia published an article detailing instances of violence reported during several Muharram processions in Bihar. The article referenced the incident and claimed that the Pakistani national flag had been waved in Jamui. Although police were present at the location, they did not take any action, the article added.
Fact Check
Upon closer examination of the video, it becomes evident that the flag held by the man is an Islamic flag, not the national flag of Pakistan. The flag in question appears black in colour, featuring a crescent and a star, common Islamic symbols. In contrast, Pakistan’s national flag is bright green with a white vertical stripe towards the mast, also bearing a white crescent and a star.
A visual comparison has been done below for clarity.
Alt News reached out to the Sono police station-in-charge Dharmendra Singh, who clarified that the flag seen in the viral video was not the national flag of Pakistan, but an Islamic flag. He further stated that no formal complaint or FIR had been registered in connection with the incident. Singh also noted that the authenticity of the video’s location — whether it was indeed filmed in Sono — was still under investigation.
To sum up, the flag waved by a man at a Muharram procession reportedly in Bihar’s Jamui was not Pakistan’s national flag; it was the Islamic flag. Several media outlets and propaganda website OpIndia misreported the incident and falsely claimed that the Pakistani national flag had been waved.
From the prologue of the 40th anniversary edition of David Robie’s seminal book on the Rainbow Warrior’s last voyage, former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark (1999-2008) writes about what the bombing on 10 July 1985 means today.
By Helen Clark
The bombing of the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour on 10 July 1985 and the death of a voyager on board, Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira, was both a tragic and a seminal moment in the long campaign for a nuclear-free Pacific.
It was so startling that many of us still remember where we were when the news came through. I was in Zimbabwe on my way to join the New Zealand delegation to the United Nations World Conference on Women in Nairobi. In Harare I met for the first time New Zealand Anglican priest Father Michael Lapsley who, in that same city in 1990, was severely disabled by a parcel bomb delivered by the intelligence service of the apartheid regime in South Africa. These two bombings, of the Rainbow Warrior and of Michael, have been sad reminders to me of the price so many have paid for their commitment to peace and justice.
It was also very poignant for me to meet Fernando’s daughter, Marelle, in Auckland in 2005. Her family suffered a loss which no family should have to bear. In August 1985, I was at the meeting of the Labour Party caucus when it was made known that the police had identified a woman in their custody as a French intelligence officer. Then in September, French prime minister Laurent Fabius confirmed that French secret agents had indeed sunk the Rainbow Warrior. The following year, a UN-mediated agreement saw the convicted agents leave New Zealand and a formal apology, a small amount of compensation, and undertakings on trade given by France — the latter after New Zealand perishable goods had been damaged in port in France.
Both 1985 and 1986 were momentous years for New Zealand’s assertion of its nuclear-free positioning which was seen as provocative by its nuclear-armed allies. On 4 February 1985, the United States was advised that its naval vessel, the Buchanan, could not enter a New Zealand port because it was nuclear weapons-capable and the US “neither confirm nor deny” policy meant that New Zealand could not establish whether it was nuclear weapons-armed or not.
In Manila in July 1986, a meeting between prime minister David Lange and US Secretary of State George Schultz confirmed that neither New Zealand nor the US were prepared to change their positions and that New Zealand’s engagement in ANZUS was at an end. Secretary Schultz famously said that “We part company as friends, but we part company as far as the alliance is concerned”.
Pour les 40 ans de l’attentat de la France contre le Rainbow Warrior, le journaliste néo-zélandais @DavidRobie publie une nouvelle édition de son livre sur le dernier voyage du navire de Greenpeace. Préfacée par Helen Clark, ex-PM de Nouvelle-Zélandehttps://t.co/n1v8Nduel6
New Zealand passed its Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament and Arms Control Act in 1987. Since that time, until now, the country has on a largely bipartisan basis maintained its nuclear-free policy as a fundamental tenet of its independent foreign policy. But storm clouds are gathering.
Australia’s decision to enter a nuclear submarine purchase programme with the United States is one of those. There has been much speculation about a potential Pillar Two of the AUKUS agreement which would see others in the region become partners in the development of advanced weaponry. This is occurring in the context of rising tensions between the United States and China.
Many of us share the view that New Zealand should be a voice for deescalation, not for enthusiastic expansion of nuclear submarine fleets in the Pacific and the development of more lethal weaponry.
Eyes of Fire: The Last Voyage and Legacy of the Rainbow Warrior . . . publication 10 July 2025. Image: David Robie/Little Island Press
Nuclear war is an existential threat to humanity. Far from receding, the threat of use of nuclear weapons is ever present. The Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists now sits at 89 seconds to midnight. It references the Ukraine theatre where the use of nuclear weapons has been floated by Russia. The arms control architecture for Europe is unravelling, leaving the continent much less secure. India and Pakistan both have nuclear arsenals. The Middle East is a tinder box with the failure of the Iran nuclear deal and with Israel widely believed to possess nuclear weapons. North Korea continues to develop its nuclear weapons capacity. An outright military conflict between China and the United States would be one between two nuclear powers with serious ramifications for East Asia, South-East Asia, the Pacific, and far beyond.
August 2025 marks the eightieth anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A survivors’ group, Nihon Hidankyo, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year. They bear tragic witness to the horror of the use of nuclear weapons. The world must heed their voice now and at all times.
In the current global turbulence, New Zealand needs to reemphasise the principles and values which drove its nuclear-free legislation and its advocacy for a nuclear-free South Pacific and global nuclear disarmament. New Zealanders were clear — we did not want to be defended by nuclear weapons. We wanted our country to be a force for diplomacy and for dialogue, not for warmongering.
The multilateral system is now in crisis — across all its dimensions. The UN Security Council is paralysed by great power tensions. The United States is unlikely to pay its dues to the UN under the Trump presidency, and others are unlikely to fill the substantial gap which that leaves. Its humanitarian, development, health, human rights, political and peacekeeping, scientific and cultural arms all face fiscal crises.
This is the time for New Zealand to link with the many small and middle powers across regions who have a vision for a world characterised by solidarity and peace and which can rise to the occasion to combat the existential challenges it faces — including of nuclear weapons, climate change, and artificial intelligence. If our independent foreign policy is to mean anything in the mid-2020s, it must be based on concerted diplomacy for peace and sustainable development.
Movement back towards an out-of-date alliance, from which New Zealand disengaged four decades ago, and its current tentacles, offers no safe harbour — on the contrary, these destabilise the region within which we live and the wide trading relationships we have. May this new edition of David Robie’s Eyes of Fire remind us of our nuclear-free journey and its relevance as a lode star in these current challenging times.
The 40th anniversary edition of Eyes of Fire: The Last Voyage and Legacy of the Rainbow Warrior by David Robie ($50, Little Island Press) can be purchased from Little Island Press.
KATHMANDU, Nepal (10 July 2025) – The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) and Bytes for All, Pakistan condemn the Islamabad District Magistrate’s order, issued on 24 June 2025, to block 27 YouTube channels for allegedly disseminating “anti-state content” and “spreading false, misleading, and fake information.” The targeted channels, run by journalists, political commentators, and opposition voices, including those in exile, are the latest targets in Pakistan’s ongoing crackdown on dissent.
“The censorship of journalists and political voices under the pretext of national security is a dangerous precedent,” said Mary Aileen Diez-Bacalso, Executive Director of FORUM-ASIA. “This is not a lawful regulation; it is repression disguised as cybersecurity. That global platforms, like YouTube, appear complicit only reinforces the fragility of civic space.”
This move is part of a deepening pattern of digital authoritarianism in Pakistan, where vague and overly broad laws are used to suppress independent media, shrink civic space, and criminalise dissent both online and offline.
PECA: A tool for systemic digital repression
The blocking order, which was based on a request from Pakistan’s newly created National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA), invoked Section 37 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes (Amendment) Act (PECA), 2025. The court accepted claims of “provoking disorder” and “defaming state institutions” without independent scrutiny or due process.
FORUM-ASIA has consistently raised concerns about PECA and its 2025 amendments, which expand the law enforcement’s ability to surveil, censor, and criminalise online speech and expression. These laws institutionalise state control over digital civic space and violate Pakistan’s commitment to international human rights standards, including those under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
PECA has been consistently weaponised to target journalists, such as in the arrest of Farhan Mallick, and to stifle media freedom. Such patterns entrench legalised censorship and erode the foundations of a free and open civic space.
Judicial and platform complicity in a shrinking civic space
The court’s decision to issue a blocking order, in the absence of procedural safeguards or transparent justification, risks turning the judiciary into a tool for repression. Equally concerning is YouTube’s apparent compliance, including takedown warnings that threaten removal without explanation or recourse. These actions were carried out without due process, adequate safeguards, or a meaningful opportunity for appeal against this unilateral decision. YouTube’s willingness to enforce such orders exemplifies a broader trend of corporate complicity, where platforms yield to state pressure at the expense of freedom of expression.
Even when responding to domestic court orders, platforms retain an independent responsibility under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights to assess whether enforcement contributes to human rights violations. Platforms are obligated to conduct human rights due diligence and reject requests that violate international law. Compliance must meet the tests of legality, necessity, and proportionality.
“The judiciary’s uncritical acceptance of vague censorship claims, coupled with YouTube’s opaque compliance, exemplifies the dangerous convergence of state and corporate power in curtailing online freedoms,” said Shahzad Ahmad, Country Director of Bytes for All, Pakistan. “As a platform with global reach, YouTube must demonstrate human rights due diligence and refuse to enable politically motivated crackdowns. Silence and compliance are not neutral; they constitute complicity in shrinking civic space.”
From the recently lifted long-term ban on X (formerly Twitter), to repeated internet shutdowns during protests, and growing investment in state surveillance infrastructure, Pakistan is consolidating control over digital narratives. These efforts discredit dissent, restrict public participation, and erode democratic accountability.
Transnational Repression
The order’s takedown direction also targets channels operated by exiled journalists and commentators, including Moeed Pirzada, Imran Riaz Khan, and Wajahat Khan, among others. U.S.-based journalist Ahmad Noorani, whose investigative platform FactFocus was previously blocked in Pakistan in May 2025, now also finds his personal YouTube channel among the 27 listed for removal. This double targeting highlights a deliberate strategy to exhaust and erase dissenting voices from the digital sphere.
These actions reflect a broader pattern of transnational repression, where the government pressures global platforms to remove content abroad, merely for being critical of the state. By exporting censorship extraterritorially, Pakistan undermines international standards on freedom of expression and sets a dangerous precedent for digital rights globally.
Call to action
FORUM-ASIA and Bytes for All urge the Government of Pakistan to immediately revoke the Islamabad District Magistrate’s blocking order and end all forms of politically motivated digital censorship. The government must repeal PECA, including its 2025 amendments, and ensure all digital laws are brought in line with Pakistan’s constitutional guarantees and its international human rights obligations, particularly under ICCPR. It must also end the use of courts, regulatory agencies, and law enforcement to target dissent, intimidate journalists, and undermine press freedom.
We further call on YouTube and other digital platforms to uphold their responsibilities under the international human rights legal framework, including UNGPs. Platforms must resist compromising their independence or facilitating the erosion of fundamental freedoms, particularly the right to freedom of expression.
In instances where content or channels are suspended, YouTube must ensure due process and fully disclose the basis for such decisions. This includes providing timely and specific information on the alleged violation(s), the rationale for the action, notifications to affected users, and accessible procedures for appeal.
Above all, digital platforms must ensure their operations do not contribute to human rights violations or the ongoing shrinking of civic space.
**
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
Bytes for All (B4A), Pakistan is a network of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) professionals and practitioners. B4A focuses on the relevance of ICTs and the implementation of ICT solutions for sustainable development and strengthening human rights movements in the country. B4A has been actively working since 2003 at the forefront of the Internet Rights movement and the struggle for democracy. B4A focuses on field projects and policy advocacy from the perspective of civil liberties, as well as on capacity building of human rights defenders (HRDs) on their digital security, online safety and privacy.
Forty years ago today, French secret agents bombed the Greenpeace campaign flagship Rainbow Warrior in an attempt to stop the environmental organisation’s protest against nuclear testing at Moruroa Atoll in Mā’ohi Nui.
People gathered on board Rainbow Warrior III to remember photographer Fernando Pereira, who was killed in the attack, and to honour the legacy of those who stood up to nuclear testing in the Pacific.
The Rainbow Warrior’s final voyage before the bombing was Operation Exodus, a humanitarian mission to the Marshall Islands. There, Greenpeace helped relocate more than 320 residents of Rongelap Atoll, who had been exposed to radiation from US nuclear testing.
The dawn ceremony was hosted by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei and attended by more than 150 people. Speeches were followed by the laying of a wreath and a moment of silence.
Photographer Fernando Pereira and a woman from Rongelap on the day the Rainbow Warrior arrived in Rongelap Atoll in May 1985. Image: David Robie/Eyes of Fire
Tui Warmenhoven (Ngāti Porou), the chair of the Greenpeace Aotearoa board, said it was a day to remember for the harm caused by the French state against the people of Mā’ohi Nui.
Warmenhoven worked for 20 years in iwi research and is a grassroots, Ruatoria-based community leader who works to integrate mātauranga Māori with science to address climate change in Te Tai Rāwhiti.
She encouraged Māori to stand united with Greenpeace.
“Ko te mea nui ki a mātou, a Greenpeace Aotearoa, ko te whawhai i ngā mahi tūkino a rātou, te kāwanatanga, ngā rangatōpū, me ngā tāngata whai rawa, e patu ana i a mātou, te iwi Māori, ngā iwi o te ao, me ō mātou mātua, a Ranginui rāua ko Papatūānuku,” e ai ki a Warmenhoven.
Tui Warmenhoven and Dr Russel Norman in front of Rainbow Warrior III on 10 July 2025. Image:Te Ao Māori News
A defining moment in Aotearoa’s nuclear-free stand “The bombing of the Rainbow Warrior was a defining moment for Greenpeace in its willingness to fight for a nuclear-free world,” said Dr Russel Norman, the executive director of Greenpeace Aotearoa.
He noted it was also a defining moment for Aotearoa in the country’s stand against the United States and France, who conducted nuclear tests in the region.
Greenpeace Aotearoa executive director Dr Russel Norman speaking at the ceremony on board Rainbow Warrior III today. Image: Te Ao Māpri News
In 1987, the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act officially declared the country a nuclear-free zone.
This move angered the United States, especially due to the ban on nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed ships entering New Zealand ports.
Because the US followed a policy of neither confirming nor denying the presence of nuclear weapons, it saw the ban as breaching the ANZUS Treaty and suspended its security commitments to New Zealand.
The Rainbow Warrior’s final voyage before it was bombed was Operation Exodus, during which the crew helped relocate more than 320 residents of Rongelap Atoll in the Marshall Islands, who had been exposed to radiation from US nuclear testing between 1946 and 1958.
The evacuation of Rongelap Islanders to Mejatto by the Rainbow Warrior crew in May 1985. Image: Greenpeace/Fernando Pereira
The legacy of Operation Exodus Between 1946 and 1958, the United States carried out 67 nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands.
For decades, it denied the long-term health impacts, even as cancer rates rose and children were born with severe deformities.
Despite repeated pleas from the people of Rongelap to be evacuated, the US government failed to act until Greenpeace stepped in to help.
“The United States government effectively used them as guinea pigs for nuclear testing and radiation to see what would happen to people, which is obviously outrageous and disgusting,” Dr Norman said.
He said it was important not to see Pacific peoples as victims, as they were powerful campaigners who played a leading role in ending nuclear testing in the region.
Marshallese women greet the Rainbow Warrior as it arrived in the capital Majuro in March 2025. Image: Bianca Vitale/Greenpeace
Between March and April this year, Rainbow Warrior III returned to the Marshall Islands to conduct independent research into the radiation levels across the islands to see whether it’s safe for the people of Rongelap to return.
What advice do you give to this generation about nuclear issues? “Kia kotahi ai koutou ki te whai i ngā mahi uaua i mua i a mātou ki te whawhai i a rātou mā, e mahi tūkino ana ki tō mātou ao, ki tō mātou kōkā a Papatūānuku, ki tō mātou taiao,” hei tā Tui Warmenhoven.
A reminder to stay united in the difficult world ahead in the fight against threats to the environment.
Warmenhoven also encouraged Māori to support Greenpeace Aotearoa.
Tui Warmenhoven and the captain of the Rainbow Warrior, Ali Schmidt, placed a wreath in the water at the stern of the ship in memory of Fernando Pereira. Image: Greenpeace
Dr Norman believed the younger generations should be inspired to activism by the bravery of those from the Pacific and Greenpeace who campaigned for a nuclear-free world 40 years ago.
“They were willing to take very significant risks, they sailed their boats into the nuclear test zone to stop those nuclear tests, they were arrested by the French, beaten up by French commandos,” he said.
Republished from Te Ao Māori News with permission.
Join us for this guided “virtual tour” around the Rainbow Warrior III in Auckland Harbour on the afternoon of 10 July 2025 — the 40th anniversary of the bombing of the original flagship.
The Rainbow Warrior is a special vessel — it’s one of three present-day Greenpeace ships.
The Rainbow Warrior works on the biggest issues affecting the future of our planet. It was the first ship in our fleet that was designed and built specifically for activism at sea.
Virtual tour of the Rainbow Warrior. Video: Greenpeace
It also represents a continuation of the legacy of the previous two Rainbow Warriors.
On this anniversary day we explored the ship and talked to key people about the current campaign to protect the world’s oceans.
Programmes director Niamh O’Flynn presented the tour, starting on Halsey Wharf.
Thanks to third mate Adriana, oceans campaigner Ellie; author David Robie, who sailed on the original Rainbow Warrior on the 1985 Rongelap relocation mission and whose new anniversary edition of Eyes of Fire: The Last Voyage and Legacy of the Rainbow Warrior is being launched tonight, radio engineer Neil and Captain Ali!
I didn’t know much about the surrounding context of the infamous Rainbow Warrior bombing 40 years ago on Thursday. All I knew was that we, as a country, have not forgotten.
I was born in 1996, and although I didn’t know much about the vessel’s bombing, which galvanised anti-nuclear sentiment across Aotearoa further, the basics were common knowledge growing up.
On 10 July 1985, French secret agents destroyed the Rainbow Warrior at Marsden Wharf in Auckland, killing Portuguese-born Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira and sparking global outrage.
The Rainbow Warrior protested nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific, specifically targeting French atmospheric and underground nuclear tests at Moruroa and Fangataufa atolls.
Their efforts drew international attention to the environmental devastation and human suffering caused by decades of radioactive fallout.
There’s plenty to learn from this book in terms of the facts, but what I took away from it most is its continued relevance since its original publication in 1986.
The opening prologue is former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark’s reflection on the Warrior’s bombing, Pereira’s death and the current socio-political climate of today in relation to back then.
Clark makes remarks on AUKUS, nuclear weapons and geopolitical pressures, describing it all as “storm clouds gathering again”.
The Nuclear Free Pacific banner on the Rainbow Warrior. Image: David Robie
Nuclear fallout It has been a tumultuous period for the Pacific region in the political realm, between being at the mercy of a tug-of-war between global superpowers and the impending finality of climate change to the livelihoods of many.
With EOF’s 40th Anniversary edition, it is yet another documentation of these turbulent times for the Pacific, which have never really stopped since colonial powers first made contact.
Between 1946 and 1958, the United States conducted 67 atmospheric and underwater tests in the Marshall Islands. Then, in 1966, the French launched 46 atmospheric tests between 1966 and 1974, followed by 147 underground bombs from 1975 to 1996 after widespread international protest and scrutiny.
Specifically, the US 1954 Castle Bravo nuclear test, the largest atmospheric hydrogen bomb test, resulted in the fallout’s ash coating Rongelap Atoll. Though the US evacuated residents days later, they returned them in 1957, leaving them to suffer from health effects like miscarriages, cancer, and birth deformities.
Eventually, the Rainbow Warrior helped evacuate the Rongelap people in 1985 over several trips, where the locals packed down their homes and brought them onboard.
Throughout history to today, there’s a theme of constant disregard and dehumanisation of my people by the West.
PMN News interview with Dr David Robie on 20 May 2025.
When does it stop? A decade prior to the Rongelap evacuation, the infamous Dawn Raids occurred, where it wasn’t until 1986 that a Race Relations investigation found Pacific people comprised roughly a third of overstayers yet represented 86 per cent of all prosecutions.
The 506-day Bastion Point protest also occurred between 1977 and 1978, where Ngāti Whātua, led by Joe Hawke, pushed back against a proposed Crown sale of that land.
In the end, around 500 NZ police and army forcefully evicted the peaceful protestors.
So, while this was all happening, the Pacific, specifically the Marshall Islands and French Polynesia region, were reeling from the decades of nuclear testing and consequential sickness, pain and death.
Today, the Pacific is stuck between geopolitical egos, the fear of being used as a resource stepping stone, internal struggles, economic destabilisation and pleas for climate change to be made a priority not to save sinking islands but the world.
Amid this “political football”, it constantly feels like Pacific and Māori end up being the ball.
Robie’s book tells heartfelt moments with its facts, which helps connect to its story at a deeper level beyond sharing genealogy with the people involved.
Voices within it don’t hold back their urgency or outrage towards what happened, especially how that past negligence by bodies of power continues today.
When I read books like EOF 40th, whether it’s about my tangata Māori or Tagata Moana, I often close them and wonder: When do we get a break? When does it stop?
I wish I had an answer, but I don’t. At least we will always have answers on what happened to the Rainbow Warrior and why.
No matter what, it is indisputable that an informed generation will navigate the future better than their predecessors, and with EOF 40th, they’ll be well-equipped.
The Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior has sailed into Auckland to mark the 40th anniversary of the bombing of the original Rainbow Warrior in 1985.
Greenpeace’s vessel, which had been protesting nuclear testing in the Pacific, sank after French government agents planted explosives on its hull, killing Portuguese-Dutch photographer Fernando Pereira.
Today, 40 years on from the events on July 10 1985, a dawn ceremony was held in Auckland.
Author Margaret Mills was a cook on board the ship at the time, and has written about her experience in a book entitled Anecdotage.
Author Margaret Mills tells TVNZ Breakfast about the night of the Rainbow Warrior bombing 40 years ago. Image: TVNZ
The 95-year-old told TVNZ Breakfast the experience on board “changed her life”.
“I was sound asleep, and I heard this sort of bang and turned the light on, but it wouldn’t go on.
She said when she left her cabin, a crew member told her “we’ve been bombed”.
‘I laughed at him’
“I laughed at him, I said ‘we don’t get bombs in New Zealand, that’s ridiculous’.”
She said they were taken to the police station after a “big boom when the second bomb came through”.
“I realised immediately, I was part of a historical event,” she said.
TVNZ reporter Corazon Miller talks to Greenpeace Aotearoa executive director Russel Norman (centre) and journalist David Robie after the Rainbow Warrior memorial dawn service today. Image: TVNZ
Journalist David Robie. who travelled on the Rainbow Warrior and wrote the book Eyes of Fire: The Last Voyage and Legacy of the Rainbow Warrior published today, told Breakfast it was a “really shocking, shocking night”.
“We were so overwhelmed by the grief and absolute shock of what had happened. But for me, there was no doubt it was France behind this.”
“But we were absolutely flabbergasted that a country could do this.”
He said it was a “very emotional moment” and was hard to believe it had been 40 years since that time.
‘Momentous occasion’
“It stands out in my life as being the most momentous occasion as a journalist covering that whole event.”
Executive director of Greenpeace Aotearoa Russel Norman said the legacy of the ship was about “people who really stood up for something important”.
“I mean, ending nuclear testing in the Pacific, imagine if they were still exploding bombs in the Pacific. We would have to live with that.
“And those people back then they stood up and beat the French government to end nuclear testing.
“It’s pretty inspirational.”
He said the group were still campaigning on some key environmental issues today.
Tomorrow marks 40 years since the bombing and sinking of the Rainbow Warrior — a moment that changed the course of New Zealand’s history and reshaped how we saw ourselves on the world stage.
Two French agents planted two explosives on the ship, then just before midnight, explosions ripped through the hull killing photographer, Fernando Pereira and sinking the 47m ex-fishing trawler.
The attack sparked outrage across the country and the world, straining diplomatic ties between New Zealand and France and cementing the country’s anti-nuclear stance.
Few people are more closely linked to the ship than author and journalist Dr David Robie, who spent eleven weeks on board during its final voyage through the Pacific, and wrote the book, Eyes of Fire: The Last Voyage and Legacy of the Rainbow Warrior, which is being published tomorrow. He joins Emile Donovan.
A prominent academic has criticised the New Zealand coalition government for compromising the country’s traditional commitment to upholding an international rules-based order due to a “desire not to offend” the Trump administration.
Professor Robert Patman, an inaugural sesquicentennial distinguished chair and a specialist in international relations at the University of Otago, has argued in a contributed article to The Spinoff that while distant in geographic terms, “brutal violence in Gaza, the West Bank and Iran marks the latest stage in the unravelling of an international rules-based order on which New Zealand depends for its prosperity and security”.
Dr Patman wrote that New Zealand’s founding document, the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, emphasised partnership and cooperation at home, and, after 1945, helped inspire a New Zealand worldview enshrined in institutions such as the United Nations and norms such as multilateralism.
Professor Robert Patman . . . “Even more striking was the government’s silence on President Trump’s proposal to own Gaza with a view to evicting two million Palestinian residents.” Image: University of Otago
“In the wake of Hamas’ terrorist attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023, the National-led coalition government has in principle emphasised its support for a lasting ceasefire in Gaza and the need for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the occupied territories of East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank,” he wrote.
However, Dr Patman said, in practice this New Zealand stance had not translated into firm diplomatic opposition to the Netanyahu government’s quest to control Gaza and annex the West Bank.
“Nor has it been a condemnation of the Trump administration for prioritising its support for Israel’s security goals over international law,” he said.
Foreign minister Winston Peters had described the situation in Gaza as “simply intolerable” but the National-led coalition had little specific to say as the Netanyahu government “resumed its cruel blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza in March and restarted military operations there”.
Silence on Trump’s ‘Gaza ownership’
“Even more striking was the government’s silence on President Trump’s proposal to own Gaza with a view to evicting two million Palestinian residents from the territory and the US-Israeli venture to start the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in late May in a move which sidelined the UN in aid distribution and has led to the killing of more than 600 Palestinians while seeking food aid,” Dr Patman said.
While New Zealand, along with the UK, Australia, Canada and Norway, had imposed sanctions on two far-right Israeli government ministers, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar ben Gvir, in June for “inciting extremist violence” against Palestinians — a move that was criticised by the Trump administration — it was arguably a case of very little very late.
“The Hamas terror attacks on October 7 killed around 1200 Israelis, but the Netanyahu government’s retaliation by the Israel Defence Force (IDF) against Hamas has resulted in the deaths of more than 56,000 Palestinians — nearly 70 percent of whom were women or children — in Gaza.
Over the same period, more than 1000 Palestinians had been killed in the West Bank as Israel accelerated its programme of illegal settlements there.
‘Strangely ambivalent’
In addition, the responses of the New Zealand government to “pre-emptive attacks” by Israel (13-25 June) and Trump’s United States (June 22) against Iran to destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities were strangely ambivalent.
Despite indications from US intelligence and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that Iran had not produced nuclear weapons, Foreign Minister Peters had said New Zealand was not prepared to take a position on that issue.
Confronted with Trump’s “might is right” approach, the National-led coalition faced stark choices, Dr Patman said.
The New Zealand government could continue to fudge fundamental moral and legal issues in the Middle East and risk complicity in the further weakening of an international rules-based order it purportedly supports, “or it can get off the fence, stand up for the country’s values, and insist that respect for international law must be observed in the region and elsewhere without exception”.
How Pacific live media communications have changed in the past 21 years.
In May 2004, the live broadcast of Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara’s funeral from Lau required a complex and resource-intensive setup.
Fiji TV relied on assistance from TVNZ, deploying a portable satellite installation to transmit signals from Lau to a satellite up in the sky, then to Auckland, back to another satellite, and finally down to Suva.
This intricate process underscored the technological limitations of the time, where live coverage from remote Fiji areas demanded significant logistical coordination and international support.
Fast forward to 2025, 21 years later, and the communication and media landscape in Fiji has undergone a remarkable transformation.
Today, I see video production houses, TV stations, radio stations, and newspaper media outlets delivering live coverage directly from Lau.
This shows how high-speed internet, mobile networks, and portable streaming devices like Starlink has eliminated the need for cumbersome satellite relays. No approval from any authority.
Where once international partnerships were essential, today’s media teams in Fiji can operate independently, delivering seamless live coverage of cultural, political, and social events from even the most isolated areas.
Republished from Fiji Times managing digital editor Anish Chand’s social media post with permission. He is a former Fiji TV news operations manager.
FORUM-ASIA and Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM) welcome the reply from the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) regarding the cases of two Malaysian human rights advocates and other human rights defenders.
The response was delivered by the Chair of AICHR / AICHR Malaysia, Edmund Bon Tai Soon, following a submission made by FORUM-ASIA on 25 March 2025, concerning the judicial harassment of Mr. Sevan Doraisamy, Executive Director of Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM), and Ms. Azura Nasron, Programme Manager at SUARAM and a family member of a detainee held under Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (SOSMA). The letter also emphasised the importance of aligning domestic laws affecting freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly and of association with the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration and Phnom Penh Statement. The response was based on the demand for AICHR’s involvement in the review process of SOSMA, as previously committed by Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
“We sincerely thank you, in your capacity as Malaysia’s Representative and Chair of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), for the proactive steps taken in response to the concerns we raised. We especially appreciate your efforts to engage with relevant national agencies and consult them on this matter,” said Mary Aileen Diez-Bacalso, Executive Director of FORUM-ASIA.
Background
In the letter, FORUM-ASIA expressed concern over the summons issued to three human rights advocates and family members of SOSMA detainees. The summonses followed a peaceful initiative on 10 February 2025, during which the individuals sought to engage with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA), submit a memorandum, and obtain information regarding the conditions and well-being of their detained relatives.
The organisation also reiterated its deep concern over the continued use of several problematic laws, including the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, the Sedition Act 1948, the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984, the Online Safety Act 2024, the Societies Act 1966, and various provisions of the Penal Code.
At the same time, FORUM-ASIA acknowledged and welcomed the government’s announced intention to amend the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012, particularly the proposed repeal of Section 11 to better facilitate public gatherings, as well as the moratorium imposed by the Prime Minister in February 2025 and the ongoing review of SOSMA.
Response from AICHR
On 19 June 2025, AICHR Malaysia stated in its response that the Representative had engaged with and obtained further information from relevant national agencies. It was reported that investigation files were opened regarding the cases involving the named individuals; however, these cases were later classified as “No Further Action” (NFA).
“We view this as a positive precedent, demonstrating that AICHR, as a regional mechanism, can be responsive to complaints of human rights violations brought before it. Moving forward, such complaints must also be addressed with actionable and time-bound measures to ensure accountability to the victims,” added Bacalso.
“We trust that, as the current Chair of AICHR, you will continue to exercise the mandate under Articles 4.7 and 4.10 of the AICHR Terms of Reference, to provide advisory services and technical assistance on human rights issues, and to request and obtain information from ASEAN Member States in relation to the promotion and protection of human rights. We would be pleased to provide additional information pertaining to these laws and reaffirm our commitment to continued engagement with AICHR on matters concerning the protection and promotion of human rights in the region,” concluded Bacalso.
Ways Forward
Despite this positive step toward the case and the review and reassessment of the PAA and SOSMA in upholding civil liberties, FORUM-ASIA and SUARAM would like to respectfully draw attention to the other aforementioned problematic laws, which are weaponised by the state to curtail rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, association and access to information – including among human rights defenders in the country.
FORUM-ASIA and SUARAM reiterate our call for AICHR to evolve into a more resilient, innovative, and adaptive institution, in line with the newly adopted ASEAN Vision 2045. This transformation should include developing mechanisms to enhance AICHR’s proactiveness in addressing human rights violations in the region—whether through practice or integration into its Terms of Reference, which is currently under revision.
The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) is a network of 85 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
Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM) is a non-governmental organisation established in 1989 to monitor and advocate for the respect of human rights in Malaysia. Through its consistent and uncompromising work, it has established itself as one of the key human rights organisations, one to which Malaysians turn for information and support.
Candidates will be vying for a total of 46 seats, with the autonomous Parliament agreeing earlier this year to add five additional seats.
The seats were created with the establishment of five new constituencies: two in South and Central, and one in North Bougainville.
“This is one of the most important democratic tasks of any nation — to conduct elections where the people exercise the ultimate power to re-elect or de-elect the representatives who have served them in the last House,” Bougainville Parliament Speaker Simon Pentanu said.
“The elections in Bougainville have always been fair, honest, transparent, and equitable. This is a history we should all be proud of and a record we must continue to uphold,” he said.
The region’s Electoral Commissioner Desmond Tsianai said the issuing of writs was a significant event in the electoral calendar.
“We have delivered credible elections in the past and I assure you all that we are prepared, and we will have this election delivered at international standards of free, fair and inclusive — and most importantly, according to the law.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Chandrashekhar Ravan supporters who RIOTED in Prayagraj are getting the TREATMENT they truly deserve from Yogi’s UP Police 
(@MeghUpdates) 
गैंगस्टरों के नाम पर व्यापारी से मांगी जा रही थी 5 लाख की रंगदारी
under the Rath at the Jagannath Rath Yatra 
