by Andrew Korybko

The $100 million that Poland spent on this is only 0.03% of the almost $300 billion in total military aid that Ukraine received since 2022, and it’s also just 0.04% of the Poland’s budget expenditure for this year, so Tusk’s suspension of these contributions will neither harm Ukraine nor help the budget.

Liberal Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that “will not be contributing any money to the PURL [Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List] project at this time…because we spend a great deal on our own armaments.” PURL refers to the program that the US launched in summer 2025 whereby the EU would pay for the military equipment that the US would then send to Ukraine. A US Government report from spring 2026 noted that Poland only contributed $100 million out of $4.1 billion in total by then.

That’s only 0.03% of the almost $300 billion in military aid that Ukraine received from the EU ($226 billion) and the US ($68.2 billion) since February 2022 per their respective official reports here and here. In the three years between February 2022 and February 2025, Poland provided PLN 15 billion in military assistance to Ukraine, which is around $3.75 billion at today’s rate. Despite donating more tanks, infantry combat vehicles, and aircraft than anyone else, that’s still just 1.2% of Ukraine’s total military aid.

Amid a scandal last summer over the ruling liberal coalition’s military aid to Ukraine, Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz revealed in early July that it only supplied Ukraine with PLN 1.55 billion in equipment since coming to power in December 2023, which is around $300 million at today’s rate. In August 2024, he declared that “The Polish government, both our government and the government of our predecessors, has donated billions of dollars in equipment to Ukraine. That’s all we were able to do.”

Several months later in November 2024, Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski proposed selling Ukraine military equipment on credit in order for Poland to continue militarily aiding its neighbor against Russia, so it’s unclear how much the abovementioned $300 million was sold on credit instead of donated. In any case, Bloomberg revealed how embarrassingly underdeveloped Poland’s military-industrial complex is in an article from May 2025 that was analyzed here, so Poland doesn’t have much export capacity anyhow.

While Poland’s emptying of its stockpiles at the start of the large-scale phase of the Ukrainian Conflict significantly shaped its strategic dynamics, its suspension of PURL contributions nearly half a decade later after dwindling support in the years since is militarily insignificant as was proven in this piece. It also won’t harm bilateral military cooperation as suggested by Zelensky’s Chief of Staff Kirill Budanov proposing joint defense projects at an event in Poland on the same day as Tusk’s announcement.

Returning to his decision, it’s really a domestic political distraction from last month’s judicial coup, which is an attempted German takeover of Poland by proxy to prepare Europe for war with Russia. This partially distracts from his political persecution of leading conservative broadcaster TV Republika too. Reputable polling suggests that his ruling liberal coalition will be replaced by a conservative-libertarian one after fall 2027’s Sejm elections, so this move might also be a ploy to appeal to anti-Ukrainian voters.

Poland’s budget expenditure is PLN 918.9 billion, which is $230 billion at today’s rate, so the $100 million that it contributed to PURL between summer 2025 and this spring was just 0.04% of total spending. Thus, Tusk’s other justification of this suspension as being related to Poland’s high budget deficit of ~ 7% of GDP doesn’t add up since it’s a relatively paltry amount. Without a doubt, this is therefore a militarily and financially insignificant domestic political distraction, one which Poles are too smart to fall for.

Quelle force ! ⤵️

À l’appel des Patriotes, le peuple de France défile pour sortir Macron et sortir de l’UE !

Vive la FRANCE LIBRE !
On les aura ! 🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/0pcZxHftDR

— Florian Philippot (@f_philippot) November 14, 2026

by Wally Richards

FEEDING YOUR PLANTS

The reason for this topic is that a local lady gardener recently told me that she was purchasing a liquid plant food from a garden centre to feed her vegetables and even though it was a concentrate and hence diluted with water, it was not going very far over her gardens before she had to buy another one and the repeated cost was not something she could afford.

I agree some of the liquid plant foods might be economical to occasionally feed a few pot plants but feeding vegetables, fruit trees and ornamentals such as your roses would be an expensive diet and likely with no noticeable improvement in growth or production.

The most common fertilisers for garden plants are man-made synthetic NPK water soluble compounds.

Modern synthetic NPK fertilizers are heavily rooted in technologies and industrial surpluses from World War I and World War II. While the individual chemical concepts existed earlier, the massive global production of water-soluble fertilizers was directly fueled by wartime explosives manufacturing. (When they stopped using them to kill people they used them to kill the soil life and grow sickly plants.)

The NPK rating tells you how much nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium the percentage by weight of each nutrient in the bag:

First letter (Nitrogen – N):Promotes rapid green growth, stems, and lush foliage.

Second letter (Phosphorus – P): Supports strong root development, blooms, buds, and fruit production.

Third letter (Potassium – K): Strengthens overall plant health, water regulation, disease resistance, and hardiness against stress.

Synthetic NPK fertilizers are manufactured as water-soluble mineral salts (such as ammonium nitrate, monoammonium phosphate, and potassium chloride).

Immediate availability: When water, rain, or irrigation hits the granules or powder, they quickly dissolve into ionic forms.

Direct root absorption: These dissolved ions are immediately available in the soil solution for plant roots to absorb right away, without needing soil microbes to digest or unlock them first.

Prolonged use of synthetic NPK fertilisers or over-use will acidify the soil harming soil life, microbes and earthworms. The worst case is the over use of these fertilisers including Nitrophoska Blue that tend to lock up in the soil and plants do not grow.

In the past when the Prof on Maggie Barry’s TV gardening program was throwing around Nitrophoska like confetti, some people followed suit and later would phone me to say that nothing is growing in their gardens any more.

If this happens to you then you need to drench the soil with Magic Botanic Liquid to unlock the minerals. Small amounts of synthetic NPK fertilisers can be useful growth stimulants when used sparingly by side dressing plants.

Excessive use of nitrogen fertilisers force plants to grow faster and bigger than they would do naturally without them. This means that the plants are putting all their efforts into growth which is ‘Forced Stressed Growth’ making the plants sickly and much more susceptible to disease and attacks by insects.

In Nature the diseases and insect pests are its cleaners, their job is to break down and get rid of the sickly plants to make way for the healthy ones. Hence the dilemma of commercially grown crops as they have to produce crops that are free of blemishes and holes or be rejected by the supermarket. Also the faster they can grow a crop and harvest it means the quicker they can get another crop in.

Thus they pour in the nitrogen and produce sickly plants which they have to protect from pests and diseases by many chemical sprays, used very frequently.

On the other hand plants grown naturally at their own pace will protect themselves from pests and diseases.

Naturally-grown plants produce secondary metabolites­such as alkaloids, flavonoids, or pyrethrins ­that taste bitter, deter feeding, or poison pests.

Then when attacked, plants ramp up internal defenses or trigger systemic acquired resistance (SAR) to warn and prepare uninfected tissues. (Sprays of aspirin kick into action the plant’s defenses.)

Using natural foods to feed your plants will overcome many problems and produce much healthier plants and crops that grow at their own pace relative to growing conditions — and supply you with very high nutritious food that tastes so good you do not have to eat much to feel full and satisfied.

Any manures from any source are natural in Nature: all two leggeds, four leggeds and ones that fly, defecate (poo) and urinate as they travel through their day, feeding plants and trees along the way.

Healthy soil full of worms and microbes break down the manures making it available to plants which then grow very healthy. Animal and chook manure are supreme foods for the soil and plants. (It’s what they have been eating for thousands of years). You can get bags of horse, chicken manures which are available though Trade Me in many areas. Traveling around the countryside one sees pony poo etc signs for sale.

Gardeners who have farming friends can collect manure from under shearing sheds or cow patts from paddocks.

The only problem is the weed seeds and in particular grass seeds in the manures which if applied to your gardens will give you a crop of grasses or weeds you do not need. To overcome this; obtain a large plastic rubbish container with a lid and place the manure in the bottom third of the container, then fill to two thirds full with (ideally) non chlorinated water.

Obtain a paddle so you able to stir the solution every so often and all the weed seeds will float to the top where with a kitchen sieve you can scoop them out. You can add other things like chopped up seaweed (with salt on), chopped up comfrey (a favorite with many gardeners who grow it for the purpose of feeding gardens.

Wallys Fish Food is teaming with beneficial microbes that will multiply greatly in the manure mix putting millions of beneficial bacteria into your soils. Then simply after giving a good stir, ladle out the liquid manure and side dress your vegetable and plants with it. Other than a bit of time and labor you can have one of the best plant foods in the world (used for the last few million years so proven effective).

Wallys Real Blood & Bone and Wallys Rok Solid are two natural plant foods which are best put in the planting hole of seedlings or incorporated into the soil where sowing seeds.

Then side dress the plants later with your own liquid manure mix.

All going well next week, I will have a new natural product that will allow your plants to make better use of the foods you provide whether natural or man-made.

You will need to use about half the food, natural or man made and get twice the results from just a monthly spray of the foliage! Amazing stuff.

Phone 0800 466464
Garden Pages and News at www.gardenews.co.nz
Shar Pei pages at  www.sharpei.co.nz
Mail Order products at www.0800466464.co.nz

As it looked not so long ago:

And very shortly:

The Developer is Thames Pacific: “Thames Pacific was established in 2010, with the core focus to develop residential and commercial property in Australia and New Zealand. Having built a strong reputation in the marketplace, we pride ourselves on delivering quality developments in sought after locations.

“As a market leader in property development, we are constantly refining ourselves and our projects by engaging world leading architects and designers to bring our vision to life.”

The house designs are a little unusual:

See more on the developer’s website.

Apart from the $1,000 fee to register your intention, prices aren’t mentioned there, however, the prices on here don’t look cheap, an example:

Thus not so ‘affordable’.

What about the name — from this song?

Rumor spreading round in that Texas town
About that shack outside La Grange
And you know what I’m talking about
Just let me know if you wanna go
To that home out on the range
They gotta lotta nice girls
Have mercy

Well, I hear it’s fine if you got the time
And the ten* to get yourself in
A hmm, hmm
And I hear it’s tight most every night
But now I might be mistaken
Hmm, hmm, hmm
Have mercy

*$US 10 in 1973 would be $US 76 now.

La Grange (‘the barn’), Texas, about half way between Austin and Houston.

+++BREAKING NIUS+++

Nach dem Brandanschlag auf sein Auto wendet sich NIUS-Chefredakteur Julian Reichelt @jreichelt an Daniel Günther (CDU), der NIUS bei Lanz „Feinde von Demokratie“ nannte: „Wenn unseren Leuten oder unserem Eigentum etwas zustößt – it's on you. Dann warst du… pic.twitter.com/Kiw4Krl4Bo

— NIUS (@niusde_) November 13, 2026

The family car of Julian Reichelt, editor-in-chief of the German news outlet NIUS and former editor-in-chief of Bild, was set on fire early Friday in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin. Video of the burned out car has been spread widely on social media amid concern about rising left-wing violence.

Reichelt reported the attack on NIUS and during a NIUS Live broadcast. He said a neighbor notified him by WhatsApp and that he looked outside to see his family car in flames. “When someone wakes up like that, one is in utter shock.”

“It is completely clear that this was a targeted attack,” Reichelt said. He added that the perpetrators appeared to have scouted which vehicle belonged to him and used what he called “the classic Antifa trick” of placing accelerant on the tires. A child seat on the front seat did not deter the attackers, he said.

Reichelt vowed that NIUS would not be intimidated and would continue its reporting.

Read more

Staying with the 4th Reich, spy agencies get sweeping new powers

The controversial reform allows intelligence services to carry out sabotage, secretly enter homes, and expand surveillance.

The German parliament has passed sweeping legislation granting the country’s intelligence agencies unprecedented powers to conduct sabotage, secretly enter homes, and expand surveillance. The controversial law has prompted comparisons with the Gestapo and Stasi, the notorious secret police organizations of Nazi Germany and Communist East Germany.

The legislation, championed by Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s governing coalition, was approved on Friday by 300 votes to 190, with 71 abstentions. Only the ruling CDU/CSU bloc and Social Democrats backed the reform. The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) and The Left opposed it, while the Greens abstained.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt hailed the overhaul as a “reform of the century,” declaring a “new era” for German intelligence agencies that would put them on an “equal footing with our European partners.”

Continue reading

Hopefully the next government will change this.

from Stop Data Centres NZ

Zeewolde is a farming town of about 23,000 people in the Netherlands. In 2021 its council voted 11 to 8 to rezone 166 hectares of farmland, around 400 acres, so Meta could build the biggest data center in the country.

A lot of residents didn’t want it. They worried about the farmland, about the huge amount of electricity it would take, and about who the land was really for.

So at the next local election they voted for the party that had promised to stop it. It won by a landslide.

Within weeks Meta paused the project. A few months later it cancelled it for good, saying the town was no longer a good match. A Dutch court later struck down the zoning plan too.

No lawsuits won by billionaires. Just neighbors, a ballot box, and farmland that is still farmland.

Would your town do the same?

Currently in the UK…

15-Year-Olds are not allowed to be on Social Media because The Government says so.

5-Year-Old Children are now permitted to take Puberty Blockers because The Government says so.

This is pure evil. pic.twitter.com/hs87E82U0p

— Valerie Anne Smith (@ValerieAnne1970) November 14, 2026