The Bull Ring

ℕ𝕚𝕔𝕠𝕝𝕒 𝕎𝕚𝕝𝕝𝕚𝕤 𝕕𝕖𝕝𝕚𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕤 𝕒 𝕞𝕒𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕔𝕝𝕒𝕤𝕤 𝕚𝕟 𝕚𝕟𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕡𝕖𝕥𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 ℕ𝕚𝕔𝕠𝕝𝕒 𝕎𝕚𝕝𝕝𝕚𝕤’ 𝕙𝕒𝕟𝕕𝕝𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕠𝕗 𝕣𝕖𝕡𝕝𝕒𝕔𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕀𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕚𝕤𝕝𝕒𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕣 𝕗𝕖𝕣𝕣𝕚𝕖𝕤 𝕙𝕒𝕤 𝕓𝕖𝕖𝕟 𝕒 𝕞𝕒𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕔𝕝𝕒𝕤𝕤 𝕚𝕟 𝕚𝕟𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕡𝕖𝕥𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖. H er recommendation to Cabinet to cancel the Inter-Island Resilient Connection (iReX) project soon after entering Government was based on the desire to find a cheaper way of replacing the ferries. That decision has proven to be completely misguided and has already likely cost the country at least $300–$400 million in cancellation penalties. Despite signalling a decision would be announced imminently after her Ministerial Advisory Group finished its work in July, the announcement kept getting pushed out further. Eventually Winston Peters announced the Government was definitely going to announce the decision in early December. . . After all that, this week, nearly a year after the cancellati...

  Elon Musk spent over a quarter of a billion dollars to help elect Trump By Tim Reid and Jason Lange , Reuters Photo: AFP World's richest man spent heavily to help Trump win Gave $20 million to a group that linked Trump to liberal icon Musk now heavily involved in Trump transition plans Elon Musk spent over a quarter of a billion dollars (US) to help Donald Trump win November's presidential election, according to new filings, underscoring the influence one of the world's wealthiest people had on this year's White House race. The billionaire owner of electric car maker Tesla and SpaceX gave US$259 million (NZ$444m) to groups supporting Trump's 2024 campaign, according to new Federal Election Commission filings released late on Thursday. The huge donations made Musk one of the biggest underwriters of a presidential campaign in US history, helping him to become a powerful political ally of Trump and someone who now plays a...

  Murder, memes and snark: A killing lays bare US healthcare frustrations By Issam Ahmed , AFP Brian Thompson was the CEO of the largest US health insurer, UnitedHealthcare. Photo: LinkedIn / Supplied Jokes, snark, and a striking absence of sympathy have dominated public sentiment since the murder of a US health insurance executive - exposing deep frustration and anger with the nation's medical system. Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare was fatally shot in Manhattan on Wednesday , setting off a citywide manhunt. Within moments of the news breaking, the internet erupted - not with outrage, but with cheers over the death of the 50-year-old father of two. A Facebook post mourning his loss , shared by UnitedHealth Group, racked up more than 71,000 laugh emojis as of Friday - dwarfing other interactions, before the counter was disabled. "My thoughts and prayers are out-of-network," became a recurring quip in comment sectio...

  Health workers say cuts are actually costing public system more Ruth Hill , Reporter ruth.hill@rnz.co.nz Photo: RNZ The Health Commissioner's claim during Parliament's scrutiny week that "overspending" is to blame for Te Whatu Ora's financial crisis has outraged health workers and their unions. Health NZ reported a $722 million deficit for the 2023-24 year on Tuesday, and forecast a $1.1 billion loss in the current financial year. During a marathon six-hour hearing of Parliament's health select committee on Wednesday , Professor Lester Levy told MPs that Health New Zealand had hired more staff than it needed, but "productivity" had fallen. "Our system has got elasticity for performance improvement within the resources we already have, and we should be making sure we achieve that before we look for additional money," he said. "Because the reality is additional money has been p...

𝔻𝕒𝕞𝕖 𝕁𝕒𝕔𝕚𝕟𝕕𝕒 𝔸𝕣𝕕𝕖𝕣𝕟 𝕤𝕥𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝔸𝕠𝕥𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕠𝕒'𝕤 𝕞𝕠𝕤𝕥 𝕡𝕣𝕖𝕗𝕖𝕣𝕣𝕖𝕕 ℙ𝕄 𝕀𝕟 𝕒 𝕔𝕣𝕦𝕖𝕝 𝕥𝕨𝕚𝕤𝕥-𝕠𝕗-𝕗𝕒𝕥𝕖 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕔𝕦𝕣𝕣𝕖𝕟𝕥 ℙ𝕄 𝕃𝕦𝕩𝕠𝕟. 𝔽𝕠𝕣𝕞𝕖𝕣 ℙ𝕄 𝕁𝕒𝕔𝕚𝕟𝕕𝕒 𝔸𝕣𝕕𝕖𝕣𝕟 𝕚𝕤 𝕤𝕥𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕞𝕠𝕤𝕥 𝕡𝕣𝕖𝕗𝕖𝕣𝕣𝕖𝕕 ℙ𝕄 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙 ℕℤ 𝕧𝕠𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕤 I n a further blow to Luxon, the poll shows Hipkins (42 percent) leads as preferred prime minister, but by just one point. Both leaders are down when compared to 2023. . . Former PM Jacinda Ardern has the highest level of favourability among those tested (a net positive of eight points, up four points from a Post/Freshwater Strategy poll taken in late August 2023). . . .