Thursday, October 16, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

Maori protest with war dance in New Zealand Parliament

Published 16 November 2024
– By Editorial Staff
The Speaker of Parliament had had enough and chose to evacuate the premises.
2 minute read

New Zealand’s parliament was forced to adjourn and vacate the premises on Thursday after representatives of the country’s Maori party began a traditional war dance amid shouts and howls to protest a high-profile bill.

The protests were sparked by the libertarian party ACT New Zealand, which wants the Treaty of Waitangi, signed 184 years ago and a central part of New Zealand’s laws and policies governing the relationship between the Māori people and the state, to be heavily reinterpreted.

ACT representatives say the aim is to strengthen the rights of all citizens and make them equal before the law, while Māori believe that the proposal, if implemented, would undermine the rights they have fought for over many decades.

Hundreds of Maori and their supporters have also started a nine-day protest march from northern New Zealand to the capital Wellington, where they are planning a major demonstration next week to show their opposition to the proposal.

Although the bill has passed its first vote, it is unlikely to gain enough support to become law and several parties have announced they will vote against it.

Tear up the bill

During a vote in Parliament, Maori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke chose to ostentatiously tear up a copy of the bill as she and several other Maori began singing loudly and dancing the “haka” – a traditional war dance.

A moderately amused Speaker decided to temporarily suspend the vote and clear the chamber until the dancing stopped.

“The haka” was traditionally performed by Maori warriors before battle, using hand gestures, foot stomping, grunts and outstretched tongues to show their courage and strength – and to insult their enemies.

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Trump plans to prioritize white refugees

Donald Trump's USA

Published today 11:41
– By Editorial Staff
The Trump administration is considering a radical transformation of the US refugee program.
2 minute read

The Trump administration is considering sweeping changes to the US refugee system that would give priority to English-speaking, white South Africans and regime-critical Europeans.

According to internal documents obtained by the New York Times, the program would be transformed from primarily accepting refugees from Africa, the Middle East and other parts of the world to focusing more on white refugees.

The proposals were presented to the White House in April and July by officials from the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security. President Trump has previously ordered agencies to investigate whether refugee resettlement serves US interests and paused the entire program on his first day in office.

The proposed changes emphasize whether applicants can adapt to the US, and refugees would be instructed to participate in courses on “American history and values” as well as “respect for cultural norms”.

Trump is recommended to prioritize Europeans who have “targeted for peaceful expression of views online such as opposition to mass migration or support for ‘populist’ political parties”.

Trump has already granted priority status to Afrikaners, the white population group that once ruled South Africa’s apartheid regime. Trump has claimed they face racial persecution, an assertion that South African government officials reject.

Drastic reduction

According to the documents, US refugee resettlement has made the country far too “multicultural”.

“The sharp increase in diversity has reduced the level of social trust essential for the functioning of a democratic polity”, the documents state.

Trump plans to reduce the number of refugees from 125,000 to 7,500 per year. The administration also proposes that hundreds of thousands of people already in the application process should have their applications terminated.

— It should come as no surprise that the State Department is implementing the priorities of the duly elected president of the United States, commented Thomas Pigott, spokesman for the State Department.

Anger over the plans

Reports that the US may focus more on white refugees have been met with anger and outrage from refugee activists and left-liberal figures.

Barbara L. Strack, former chief of the refugee division at US Citizenship and Immigration Services, is among many who are highly critical of the proposals:

— It reflects a preexisting notion among some in the Trump administration as to who are the true Americans, she laments, continuing:

— And they think it’s white people and they think it’s Christians.

Hegseth to Europe: Buy more American weapons for Ukraine

The war in Ukraine

Published yesterday 14:44
– By Editorial Staff
Pete Hegseth together with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
2 minute read

Western military support to Ukraine has nearly halved over the summer. Now the US Secretary of Defense is demanding that NATO countries once again open their wallets for more American weapons deliveries – but several major European nations are hesitating.

Pete Hegseth had a clear message when he met with his NATO counterparts in Brussels on Wednesday: Europe must invest even more money in American weapons for Ukraine.

The US Secretary of Defense pointed to a report from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy showing that military support to Kiev fell dramatically during the summer months – a 43 percent decrease compared to the first half of the year.

Hegseth was explicit about his view on how peace is achieved.

— You get peace when you are strong. Not when you use strong words or wag your fingers, you get it when you have strong and real capabilities that adversaries respect, he declared to assembled journalists.

Zelensky wants more

At the center of discussions is the PURL program – Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List – which has fundamentally changed how the U.S. supports Ukraine militarily. Previously, Washington donated weapons directly, but now NATO countries must pay for the deliveries themselves.

According to Hegseth, the logic is simple: The more Europe buys, the faster the war can be concluded.

— Our expectation today is that more countries donate even more, that they purchase even more to provide for Ukraine, to bring that conflict to a peaceful conclusion, he said.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte announced that $2 billion has been pledged so far through the PURL system, and that he expects additional contributions. But the figure falls far short of the $3.5 billion that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had hoped to secure by October.

Three countries made new pledges on Wednesday: Sweden, Estonia, and Finland. Corresponding commitments from European heavyweights such as Spain, Italy, France, and the United Kingdom are still lacking.

USA – the big winner?

The Russian government has accused Kiev’s European financiers of prolonging the conflict at the expense of Ukrainian lives, and Moscow claims that European countries are unwilling to acknowledge the failure of their strategy.

Meanwhile, European NATO members continue to bear the economic consequences of their sanctions policy against Russia. After rejecting Russian energy, many EU economies have been hit by rising production costs and widespread bankruptcies in industry.

The United States, however, has benefited from developments through increased investment flows and higher sales of liquefied natural gas to Europe.

$70 billion needed to rebuild Gaza

The genocide in Gaza

Published yesterday 11:28
– By Editorial Staff
Two years of Israeli bombings have left the Palestinian enclave in ruins.
2 minute read

The UN estimates that the reconstruction of Gaza will cost $70 billion. The amount of debris in the bombed enclave is equivalent to 13 pyramids of Giza.

The UN Development Programme describes that the amount of debris in Gaza could be stacked 12 meters high over the entire area of New York’s Central Park.

The estimate was presented on Tuesday and is a joint assessment by the UN, EU and the World Bank. The cost has risen sharply since the previous calculation of $53 billion in February.

Jaco Cilliers, special representative for the UNDP administrator in a program to assist Palestinians, described the extent of the devastation at a press conference in Geneva via video link from Jerusalem.

— The estimated damage and rubble, throughout the whole of Gaza, is in the region of 55 million tons, he said.

— Another way to put it, apart from the example from Central Park that I mentioned, is also equal to 13 pyramids in Giza. That is the amount and size of the challenge.

According to Cilliers, $20 billion is needed over the next three years. The remaining funds are needed over a longer period – possibly decades. He pointed to “good indications” from potential donors in the Arab world, Europe and the US, without providing further details.

Trump: “The easiest part”

US President Donald Trump, who on Monday participated in the signing of the peace agreement for Gaza in Egypt, claimed that the reconstruction will be easier than achieving the ceasefire.

— Rebuilding is maybe going to be the easiest part. We know how to build better than anybody in the world.

During the two years that Gaza was bombed by Israeli missiles and tanks, between 60 and 80 percent of all buildings were damaged or destroyed. The enclave was previously home to over 2.1 million people.

The total number of affected buildings is estimated at over 170,000, including homes, businesses, hospitals and religious sites.

After the end of the war, over 500,000 Palestinians have returned to Gaza in recent days – only to find their homes and neighborhoods in ruins.

Peace researcher: Nobel Peace Prize gives Trump carte blanche in Venezuela

Published 14 October 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Peace researcher Frida Stranne describes Maria Corina Machado as a divisive force who has supported sanctions that have cost Venezuelans their lives.
2 minute read

The Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Venezuelan opposition politician Maria Corina Machado gives Donald Trump “something of a carte blanche” to overthrow Venezuela’s government, warns peace researcher Frida Stranne.

She is harsh in her criticism of the laureate, who has supported sanctions against her own people and advocated for foreign military interventions in violation of international law.

Frida Stranne, associate professor in Peace and Development Research at Halmstad University in Sweden, reacts strongly to this year’s peace prize and argues that the award to Machado is an example of how international institutions have fundamentally changed.

“The institutions we have built to protect freedom, democracy and human development have one by one become tools for forces whose purpose is to preserve an order where the strong can behave essentially however they want while others are expected to meekly fall in line. This year’s peace prize rewards exactly that”, she writes resignedly on Facebook.

She emphasizes that there are good reasons to wish for change in Venezuela but simultaneously stresses that the core of democracy is about different views on governance being able to coexist. Her main criticism is directed at how the prize risks legitimizing violent regime changes.

“If you are a true democrat and simultaneously support international legal principles, you can never accept an order where the US and its allies repeatedly take the right to violently replace regimes that somehow stand in the way of their system”.

She believes this year’s peace prize risks rewarding exactly that.

“No unifying force”

Stranne is also very critical of Machado herself and argues that the opposition politician has been more of a divisive force than a force for stability and peace in Venezuela.

She urges interested parties to research for themselves what the Nobel laureate stands for and what political contacts she has.

“The laureate is not some innocent dove or unifying political force”, she states.

The peace researcher points out that the politician has advocated strategies that violate international law and supported sanctions against her own people “which have cost both suffering and death”.

An American puppet?

Perhaps the strongest warning concerns what the prize could mean for the future. Stranne sees a direct connection to Donald Trump and American interests in the region.

“With the peace prize in one hand – she will not oppose an American ‘intervention’ for regime change – with the other hand”.

The peace researcher warns that the prize gives Trump “something of a carte blanche to replace (through direct military attacks or CIA-led covert operations) the sitting government” and that Machado will likely become his puppet going forward.

In her conclusion, Stranne is harshly critical of Western actions.

“The Western world seems to be doing everything to undermine itself and its principles. 2025 will be the year when we made ourselves completely irrelevant to the rest of the world”.

María Corina Machado, born in 1967, is an industrial engineer with a master's degree in economics and founder of the Venezuelan electoral monitoring organization Súmate. She led the opposition party Vente Venezuela and served as a member of Venezuela's National Assembly from 2011 to 2014 before being expelled by the government.

Politically, Machado is a liberal conservative who advocates for privatizing Venezuela's state-owned oil industry and free-market policies. She has maintained close ties with the United States since the Bush era and is supported by Republican politicians such as Marco Rubio. After receiving the Nobel Prize, she dedicated the award to Donald Trump.

Machado has openly called for foreign military intervention in Venezuela, supported US sanctions against the country, and participated in the 2002 coup attempt against democratically elected President Hugo Chávez. Critics describe her as an advocate for regime change through violent means.

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