The Western media went into overdrive this past week to work the laconic Kiwis into a mild frenzy over three Chinese naval vessels conducting exercises in the Tasman Sea a few thousand kilometres off our shores. What was really behind this orchestrated campaign?

Iran may be about to launch a proper missile strike on Israel for the first time ever - in retaliation for the attack on Tehran last month which killed Ismail Haniyeh. Israeli intelligence says an attack is likely to come within days.

The Jerusalem Post on 11 August quoted Ahmad Bakhshayesh Ardestani, a member of the Iranian Parliament's National Security Commission, as saying, "Iran's aerial operations against Israel could last three to four days.”

Geopolitical tensions are again rising to boiling point; the nuclear treaties have been abandoned, nuclear weapons are again in high production, and all the lessons learnt, the visceral fears felt in decades past have been lost. The US will start stationing long-range missiles in Germany from 2026, a massive escalation that Russia has promised to respond to. What’s next?