At the heart of a growing political firestorm in New Zealand is a simple, painful question: who gets to decide whether someone is too unwell to work? The debate exploded after ACT leader David Seymour claimed that doctors are erroneously certifying people as unfit for employment, and he proposed that all health and disability benefits be independently assessed by an approved pool of doctors working for the Ministry of Social Development. For the thousands of New Zealanders who rely on the Jobseeker health and disability benefit, this is not an abstract policy wrinkle. It means a regular trip to the…

On a day when diplomacy usually favors carefully measured words, French President Emmanuel Macron chose something far more direct. While traveling through the Middle East on the 21st, he was asked a deliberately loaded question: had there been signs of foreign interference in the recent violence that had shaken France? His answer did not fit neatly into the usual diplomatic script. There was no dramatic announcement about hacked servers or enemy agents operating in the shadows. No, the interference was not a matter of covert operatives, at least not in the traditional sense. But, Macron insisted, something dangerous was happening.…