This is edition 2026/147 of the Ten@10 newsletter.
Hi all,
This is the Ten@10, where I collate and summarise ten news items you generally won't see in the mainstream media.
Enjoy!
1. Luxon Remains National Party Leader
Liam Hehir — The Blue Review
- ✅ “Live: Luxon wins confidence vote — again.” Second false alarm in four months. Headlines had him goneburger / three flips / Stanford ticket / whip silent. Dignity damaged; genre of reporting damaged more.
- 🧪 Curia public: Nat +0.5, Luxon preferred PM +4. Next day Post leak of same poll: net fav −19 as if it supersedes. Secret April 27–22: known to president/whips only — caucus “knowing” it is gossip with a motive, not a fact.
- 📡 Luxon’s own statement cited “various media reports and conversations” as reason for the meeting — observer effect as active ingredient. Named Penk numbers-running for Bishop/Stanford/self = gossip dressed as fact.
- 🎯 Takeaway: central fact of a leadership story is whether the leader falls. Get that wrong twice; caveats that survive any outcome are disclaimers on a placed bet, not caution.
2. Luxon Survives — But Can He Improve?
Grant Duncan — Politics Happens / The Conversation
- 🗳 Second confidence vote in five months. “United… full support… back to work.” TVNZ/Verian preferred PM Luxon 17%. Truly secure leaders don’t vote twice. Saving grace: Hipkins as weak; Lab lags Nat.
- 🌏 Westminster scan: Albanese still preferred PM but majority dissatisfied. Starmer wooden → Burnham honeymoon. Standout: Canada’s Mark Carney — focus, trust, reads the room, ~50% leadership polls; demanding but down-to-earth.
- 💼 Luxon’s CEO brand + management-speak block connection; gaffes feature not bug. Survival cuts uncertainty a bit; Nov 7 + coalition talks still test will and skill.
- 🎯 Takeaway: look to who is doing leadership better. Survival ≠ a sure thing after the election.
3. The Overhang 2.7: Putsch Comes to Shove
rustie — The Overhang
- 📊 Pre-speculation: Nat slightly ahead Lab; coalition still favoured (not locked). So… y tho? Scarce list seats + swing-seat nerves + TOP ruled out (still ~2:1 to clear 5%; useful ~30% of formation scenarios).
- 🧮 ~38 Nat seats; TOP cuts wastage and Nat by ~2. Need drop 5 electorates to avoid overhang; 6–7 for Willis/Bishop list room. Brownlee/Goldsmith pray for Christmas (ACT’s James). List set, campaign on — April theory is now payroll.
- 📜 Coups with leader above water rare since 1980 (Muldoon plot collapsed). Most new leaders get a honeymoon; medium-term wash 7–7. Successes (Key/Ardern/Luxon) often consolidated allied vote, not just poached opponents. 87 days left = chase the short bump only.
- 🎯 Takeaway: numbers don’t scream putsch. Motivations (ego, factions, policy) for the memoirs — by lunch the analysis is wrapping.
4. A Regulator Overreaching on Its Way Out
A Halfling’s View (David Harvey)
- 📻 BSA first (maybe last) online broadcaster decision: WK v The Platform — upheld taste/decency + privacy against Plunket over FENZ/tikanga critique and naming complainant Fanselow.
- ⚖ Bill of Rights s5: Authority recites “justified limit” without Hansen proportionality. Core political speech on public-sector “Māorification.” Petros/Te Whata: “mumbo jumbo” vs Catholicism OK; same register vs tikanga = breach via imported “balance” that taste standard doesn’t contain.
- ⚖️ Judge in own cause: 15 Oct show attacked BSA jurisdiction as existential threat. Anonymity for complainant who used own name; open justice inverted. No code for online — uncodified standard after the fact. High-end gravity then zero remedy.
- 🎯 Takeaway: privacy limb strongest; rest wrong in a free-expression direction — especially on the way out the door.
5. When the State Breaks Its Own Rules
A Halfling’s View (David Harvey)
- 📰 Ombudsman on MBIE/NBR: 230+ paywalled articles shared across 11 depts (MBIE 149, IR 43, DIA 23, SFO 15) 2021–25. “Unreasonable… appears contrary to law.” Breach of contract + Copyright Act; Crimes Act s228 argument available. Private firms already paid $200k+ damages — they didn’t settle for “inappropriate.”
- 🏛 Courthouse counters: Access to Court Documents Rules give public as-of-right docs; registries demand judge authorisation the rules don’t require — open justice converted to privilege.
- 🎯 Takeaway: soft vocabulary (“compliance gap”) is a category error that only runs state’s way. Unlawful is unlawful. No public-sector exemption.
6. You Don’t Hate Elite Academia Enough
Alex Berenson — Unreported Truths
- 🎓 Cambridge hired Jason Arday (37) youngest black professor — papers mostly antiracism interviews; claims: mute to 11, illiterate to 18, 30 marathons in 35 days (nine on broken leg), Seven Up before birth, pig’s-head attacks. Plagiarism alarms + memoir crash → resigns. Real villains: admins who needed the hire.
- 📘 Mirror: Tyler Harper Atlantic “Token Black Professor” at Bates — “lynching” = roommates threatening police; mandatory racism self-audit; quit greased tenure track over hypocrisy.
- 🎯 Takeaway: Arday and Harper inverse sides of same DEI rot. Uprooting has barely begun. (Paid; lead free.)
7. Fauci and Friends Knew the Miscarriage Risk Was Real
Ada Nestor — My Reflections From The Edge
- 📱 25 Jan 2021 texts: Murthy asks early vs late pregnancy vax. Fauci: dose-2 cytokine storm/fever “theoretically could be associated with miscarriage in the 1st trimester.” Walensky: “definitely a good point.” Murthy: fetal mutation concerns too.
- 🎤 Nine days later JAMA: FDA found “no red flags.” ACIP answer = Tylenol. Shimabukuro NEJM study enrolled mostly after first trimester — window Fauci flagged already gone. Bok note: mRNA to placenta known from mice; panel knew.
- 🎯 Takeaway: private hypothesis, public “no red flags” = recommendation without informed consent. Not cinematic cover-up — worse: different stories to each other and to mothers.
8. Benjamin Netanyahu Isn’t Blocking Peace in Gaza
Stephen Pollard — The Spectator Australia
- 🗺 Bibi rejects Board of Peace 15-point “roadmap” until Hamas fully disarmed (heavy + light). Framed as election positioning / blocking peace. Pollard: wrong twice.
- 🇮🇱 Eisenkot (polls’ next PM), Bennett, Lieberman same line — not an outlier. No Israel–Hamas deal on table; proposal is Board/US/Hamas; merit is verification not trust (Mladenov).
- 🛡 Three pillars: total decommissioning; Board governance; international force incl. US. No IDF pullback until first stage verified; sector-by-sector; tunnels via specialised firms. If Hamas fails, nothing changes; Israel keeps right to respond.
- 🎯 Takeaway: question isn’t “will Hamas keep its word?” — only “does it actually disarm?” Trust irrelevant by design.
9. What Has Happened to Ricky Gervais?
Chas Newkey-Burden — The Spectator Australia
- 📺 Netflix Alley Cats #1 despite mauling: Independent 1★ “mirthless”; Telegraph 0★ “worst thing since Cats”; Metro “lazy claptrap.” Gervais: millions watched, “best fans,” pet photos for replies — blame “woke.”
- 🎬 Echo of Extras’ Andy Millman: craves peer respect, settles for catchphrase morons, Bowie “little fat man who sold his soul.” Tube ads + stand-up on trans/Aids/race + reverse-explaining jokes = lucrative “can’t say anything” economy.
- 🎯 Takeaway: maybe world changed, not him. Hardcore fans can’t say what they like about Alley Cats — only who they hate for disliking it. Is he really that happy?
10. Is China Going to Control Your Medicine?
Bethany McLean — The Free Press
- 💊 Not just cheap copycats. KdT’s Malone JPM 2024 “oh shit”: global deals >$50m with Chinese cos 23% (2022) → 44% (2024). Stifel’s Opler: 2025 almost 70% of pharma deal dollars ($137.7b) with China start-ups.
- 📈 Slope without precedent — earmarks of prior industry takeovers. (Full investigation paywalled.)
- 🎯 Takeaway: insiders already know the chart. Extrapolate the slope.
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