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🧵The NZ-India Free Trade Agreement, complete list. What each country actually gave up.
🇳🇿 WHAT NEW ZEALAND OPENED:
• Every category of goods. Food, machinery, chemicals, vehicles, textiles, every line. Tariff goes to zero on day one. No exclusions, no phasing in, no quotas.
• Every service sector. NZ is open to Indian companies by default, apart from a specific list of what stays protected: Air NZ ownership, Chorus ownership, ACC, KiwiSaver, public health and education, fishing access, gambling, tobacco and alcohol retail, Fonterra and Zespri's structures, the Treaty of Waitangi exception (for digital trade only). Notable examples of what NZ did NOT put on the protection list: Spark, 2degrees, One NZ, the banking sector, electricity generation, ports and airports, doctors and dentists, private schools, universities, audit firms, aged care, newspapers, law firms.
• A commitment to push US$20 billion (around NZ$33 billion) of NZ investment into India over 15 years. India has no reciprocal target to invest in NZ. If NZ underdelivers, India alone decides whether NZ has fallen short. India alone decides what "proportionate" tariff claw-back to apply. NZ cannot challenge any of it through any panel. The political pressure to deliver lands on NZ Super Fund, ACC, KiwiSaver providers and large NZ corporates to direct savings to India for treaty-performance reasons rather than commercial return.
• 1,000 Indian working holiday visas a year. Nothing equivalent for young New Zealanders going to India.
• 4,100 visa-holders present at any one time across capped skilled-worker categories (IT, engineering, construction, teachers, nurses, physios, plus 600 reserved spots for chefs, yoga teachers, classical musicians and Ayush practitioners).
• An uncapped channel for Indian companies operating in NZ to bring in their own staff with no cap and labour market tests banned. Much like the controversial US H1B - though it is capped at 85,000 per year, is for any company, and has a $100,000 fee.
• Uncapped Indian international student visas. Extended locked-in 2, 3 and 4 year post-study work visas.
• Legally protect the basmati name for Indian rice growers within 18 months.
• Stop NZ insurers from being told to exclude coverage of homeopathy and traditional Indian medicine.
• Working with India on connecting NZ's payment systems to India's national instant-payment network and building central bank digital currencies (like a digital NZ dollar issued by the Reserve Bank). The Reserve Bank of NZ now has obligations on payments policy that it didn't have before. Future decisions about how NZ's payment systems develop are tied to bilateral commitments with India rather than purely Reserve Bank policy.
• If any future trade deal that NZ signs includes better services terms, it gets automatically extended to India. India made no equivalent commitment to NZ so it can give other countries better terms than it gave NZ.
• NZ taxpayers and industry help commercialise Indian apple, kiwifruit, honey and wine growers to upgrade their orchards and supply chains. The same growers we'd be competing with. India can suspend the small NZ market access quotas if it judges we underdelivered. NZ Crown research institutes (Plant & Food Research, AgResearch, Scion) and industry levy bodies (Zespri, NZ Apples & Pears, Apiculture NZ) must divert research budgets and grower-funded levies to build Indian capacity.
🇳🇿 WHAT NEW ZEALAND OPENED:
• Every category of goods. Food, machinery, chemicals, vehicles, textiles, every line. Tariff goes to zero on day one. No exclusions, no phasing in, no quotas.
• Every service sector. NZ is open to Indian companies by default, apart from a specific list of what stays protected: Air NZ ownership, Chorus ownership, ACC, KiwiSaver, public health and education, fishing access, gambling, tobacco and alcohol retail, Fonterra and Zespri's structures, the Treaty of Waitangi exception (for digital trade only). Notable examples of what NZ did NOT put on the protection list: Spark, 2degrees, One NZ, the banking sector, electricity generation, ports and airports, doctors and dentists, private schools, universities, audit firms, aged care, newspapers, law firms.
• A commitment to push US$20 billion (around NZ$33 billion) of NZ investment into India over 15 years. India has no reciprocal target to invest in NZ. If NZ underdelivers, India alone decides whether NZ has fallen short. India alone decides what "proportionate" tariff claw-back to apply. NZ cannot challenge any of it through any panel. The political pressure to deliver lands on NZ Super Fund, ACC, KiwiSaver providers and large NZ corporates to direct savings to India for treaty-performance reasons rather than commercial return.
• 1,000 Indian working holiday visas a year. Nothing equivalent for young New Zealanders going to India.
• 4,100 visa-holders present at any one time across capped skilled-worker categories (IT, engineering, construction, teachers, nurses, physios, plus 600 reserved spots for chefs, yoga teachers, classical musicians and Ayush practitioners).
• An uncapped channel for Indian companies operating in NZ to bring in their own staff with no cap and labour market tests banned. Much like the controversial US H1B - though it is capped at 85,000 per year, is for any company, and has a $100,000 fee.
• Uncapped Indian international student visas. Extended locked-in 2, 3 and 4 year post-study work visas.
• Legally protect the basmati name for Indian rice growers within 18 months.
• Stop NZ insurers from being told to exclude coverage of homeopathy and traditional Indian medicine.
• Working with India on connecting NZ's payment systems to India's national instant-payment network and building central bank digital currencies (like a digital NZ dollar issued by the Reserve Bank). The Reserve Bank of NZ now has obligations on payments policy that it didn't have before. Future decisions about how NZ's payment systems develop are tied to bilateral commitments with India rather than purely Reserve Bank policy.
• If any future trade deal that NZ signs includes better services terms, it gets automatically extended to India. India made no equivalent commitment to NZ so it can give other countries better terms than it gave NZ.
• NZ taxpayers and industry help commercialise Indian apple, kiwifruit, honey and wine growers to upgrade their orchards and supply chains. The same growers we'd be competing with. India can suspend the small NZ market access quotas if it judges we underdelivered. NZ Crown research institutes (Plant & Food Research, AgResearch, Scion) and industry levy bodies (Zespri, NZ Apples & Pears, Apiculture NZ) must divert research budgets and grower-funded levies to build Indian capacity.
🇮🇳 WHAT INDIA OPENED ON DAY ONE:
• Sheep meat. India barely produces sheep.
• Wool. India needs raw wool for its textile mills.
• Logs, sawn wood and timber. India needs timber.
• Wood pulp and paper.
• Raw cotton fabric. India's textile industry needs the input.
• Raw leather hides. India's leather industry needs the input.
• Copper, nickel, aluminium, rare earth ores.
• Coal.
• Chemical and plastic inputs Indian manufacturers need.
• Computers and IT hardware.
• Iron and steel base products.
• Aircraft.
• Stone, ceramics, glass containers.
Pattern: India opened the raw materials its own export industries need to import.
• Sheep meat. India barely produces sheep.
• Wool. India needs raw wool for its textile mills.
• Logs, sawn wood and timber. India needs timber.
• Wood pulp and paper.
• Raw cotton fabric. India's textile industry needs the input.
• Raw leather hides. India's leather industry needs the input.
• Copper, nickel, aluminium, rare earth ores.
• Coal.
• Chemical and plastic inputs Indian manufacturers need.
• Computers and IT hardware.
• Iron and steel base products.
• Aircraft.
• Stone, ceramics, glass containers.
Pattern: India opened the raw materials its own export industries need to import.
🚫🇮🇳 WHAT INDIA PROTECTED FOREVER:
• All dairy (milk powder, butter, cheese, infant formula, dairy ingredients) at 30 to 60 percent tariffs. Fonterra's main export categories. The exception is access for NZ dairy ingredients used for Indian export manufacturing. India captures the value-add margin.
• All meat except sheep. Beef, pork, poultry, goat, offal.
• All tea at 110 percent. All coffee at 100 to 110 percent. All spices at 33 to 77 percent. All edible oils. All sugar at 110 percent.
• 89 percent of vehicles. Cars at 70 to 137 percent. Motorcycles. Tractors. Vehicle parts. The 11 percent India accepted: bicycles, wheelchairs and baby carriages.
• 97 percent of ships. Every vessel including fishing vessels and naval craft.
• Half of consumer electronics. Mobile phones, semiconductors, integrated circuits and cathode-ray displays walled off. The half India accepted is industrial transformers, lighting and power conversion gear.
• All primary aluminium. The Tiwai Point smelter's main export.
• All gold and all jewellery.
• Most major medical devices. MRI, ECG, dialysis, defibrillators, syringes, catheters, anaesthetic equipment all excluded. Sorry Fisher and Paykel. India phased in surgical instruments, endoscopes, hearing aids, X-ray and CT scanners over 10 years. While protecting these from NZ exports, India required NZ's Medsafe to accept Indian device approvals without inspecting them.
• Two thirds of plastics. The third India accepted is specialty industrial resins (Teflon-type, polyurethanes, silicones, epoxies). Mass-market polymers walled off.
• All petrol. All ethanol blend fuel.
• All processed traditional Indian medicines including Ayurvedic and homeopathic preparations.
• Most processed fruit and vegetable products. India accepted only roasted cashews and ground nuts over 7 to 10 years. Pickles, chutneys, jams, juices, preserved vegetables walled off.
• All tobacco. 71 percent of books and printed material (greeting cards in, books and newspapers out). Almost half of finished textile products like sheets and towels.
• The right to slap punitive "anti-dumping" tariffs on NZ exports any time India decides NZ exporters are selling too cheap. NZ has no way to challenge those tariffs through the deal's dispute system. India launches more anti-dumping investigations than any other country in the world. Fonterra has been hit with this before on milk powder.
So even when NZ exports clear the tariff schedule, India can slap a new tariff on top under a different label, and NZ cannot push back.
• All dairy (milk powder, butter, cheese, infant formula, dairy ingredients) at 30 to 60 percent tariffs. Fonterra's main export categories. The exception is access for NZ dairy ingredients used for Indian export manufacturing. India captures the value-add margin.
• All meat except sheep. Beef, pork, poultry, goat, offal.
• All tea at 110 percent. All coffee at 100 to 110 percent. All spices at 33 to 77 percent. All edible oils. All sugar at 110 percent.
• 89 percent of vehicles. Cars at 70 to 137 percent. Motorcycles. Tractors. Vehicle parts. The 11 percent India accepted: bicycles, wheelchairs and baby carriages.
• 97 percent of ships. Every vessel including fishing vessels and naval craft.
• Half of consumer electronics. Mobile phones, semiconductors, integrated circuits and cathode-ray displays walled off. The half India accepted is industrial transformers, lighting and power conversion gear.
• All primary aluminium. The Tiwai Point smelter's main export.
• All gold and all jewellery.
• Most major medical devices. MRI, ECG, dialysis, defibrillators, syringes, catheters, anaesthetic equipment all excluded. Sorry Fisher and Paykel. India phased in surgical instruments, endoscopes, hearing aids, X-ray and CT scanners over 10 years. While protecting these from NZ exports, India required NZ's Medsafe to accept Indian device approvals without inspecting them.
• Two thirds of plastics. The third India accepted is specialty industrial resins (Teflon-type, polyurethanes, silicones, epoxies). Mass-market polymers walled off.
• All petrol. All ethanol blend fuel.
• All processed traditional Indian medicines including Ayurvedic and homeopathic preparations.
• Most processed fruit and vegetable products. India accepted only roasted cashews and ground nuts over 7 to 10 years. Pickles, chutneys, jams, juices, preserved vegetables walled off.
• All tobacco. 71 percent of books and printed material (greeting cards in, books and newspapers out). Almost half of finished textile products like sheets and towels.
• The right to slap punitive "anti-dumping" tariffs on NZ exports any time India decides NZ exporters are selling too cheap. NZ has no way to challenge those tariffs through the deal's dispute system. India launches more anti-dumping investigations than any other country in the world. Fonterra has been hit with this before on milk powder.
So even when NZ exports clear the tariff schedule, India can slap a new tariff on top under a different label, and NZ cannot push back.
Supreme Court Decision on Mifepristone
On May 4, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily restored nationwide access to the abortion pill mifepristone, blocking a lower court ruling that had reinstated an in-person dispensing requirement.
1)
On May 4, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily restored nationwide access to the abortion pill mifepristone, blocking a lower court ruling that had reinstated an in-person dispensing requirement.
1)
Justice Samuel Alito issued an administrative stay that allows the drug to continue being prescribed via telehealth, dispensed at pharmacies, and delivered by mail, maintaining the status quo as of May 1.
2)
2)
The stay, effective through at least May 11, 2026, pauses a decision by the conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which had sided with Louisiana in its lawsuit against the FDA.
3)
3)
In 1862, Robert Smalls stole a Confederate Ship and sailed it to Freedom disguised as a captain, freeing his crew and their families.
A THREAD!
A THREAD!
In 1862, Robert Smalls was serving as the pilot of a steam powered, Confederate ship, The CSS Planter. It was transporting large guns out of Charleston Harbor and deliver them to Union Navy forces on blockade duty
On the evening of 12th May 1862, The ship was docked and the confederate officers left the ship to spend the night on shore, leaving the slave crew on board. Rob had gotten permission to bring the crew’s families on board for the evening, as long as they were gone before curfew.
Thread on the Lebanese govt project to disinherit the resistance and disown the Shia:
What is even more politically destructive and unconscionable than the Aoun-Salam government’s capitulation to Israel, and its joint counter-resistance security project with it, is that this project is also striving to excise from the national body politic the Shia community itself, not as a sect in the abstract, but as a political community constituted through resistance. 1/6
What is even more politically destructive and unconscionable than the Aoun-Salam government’s capitulation to Israel, and its joint counter-resistance security project with it, is that this project is also striving to excise from the national body politic the Shia community itself, not as a sect in the abstract, but as a political community constituted through resistance. 1/6
For in disinheriting the legacy of resistance and embracing the Israeli occupier as this government has done--and perhaps soon literally embracing the world’s most wanted war criminal and genocidaire, Netanyahu--it isn’t only Hizbullah as a military and political organisation that is being targeted, but more importantly its social base, the Shia community in its entirety, as well as those from other sects who support the resistance. 2/6
When President Aoun refers to resistance against Israel’s aggression and occupation as “the war of others on our land,” and more recently portrays it as “treason,” that charge naturally extends to all those from this land who have sacrificed for it not only their lives, but their children, homes, villages, livelihoods, memories, and the very possibility of remaining rooted in the land they are accused of betraying. 3/6
now, your agent can fix itself.
introducing raindrop triage. an agent for finding and investigating agent issues.
introducing raindrop triage. an agent for finding and investigating agent issues.
it's a familiar scene: a customer complains that your agent is broken. now, someone has to spend hours digging through a dashboard to find the trace, and understand the problem.
with @raindrop_ai, that now takes just seconds. and you won't have to leave slack.
with @raindrop_ai, that now takes just seconds. and you won't have to leave slack.
you can set up recurring briefs like "every day, summarize weird tool call failures"
1. I had a really sad conversation recently with a leading African intellectual & Pan-Africanist on the anti-migrant protests in SA. He expressed surprise & disappointment at the ANC & broader political leaderships’ response to the protests. The exception was Malema & the EFF.
2. S/He said, ‘’as you know,Africans from outside SA are hard-working, entrepreneurial, survivors, & create jobs’’. Research supports this. It is not true that crime or illegal activity is centred in the immigrant community. South Africans are at the centre of the criminal world.
3. S/He held that the “Africans supported our struggle” line doesn’t address the issue at all. The root cause is the ANC’s failure to create decent jobs or fulfil people’s dreams. Crime is widespread, & law enforcement must take some of the blame. Political leadership is absent!
Hantavirus in a cruise ship, looks like Andes virus, looks like a voyage of the damned:
1. Trip starts in Argentina, where South American Hanta, Andes virus, is endemic. Patient No 1 rapidly deteriorates, meaning that he was infected before boarding (incubation 20 days) .
1. Trip starts in Argentina, where South American Hanta, Andes virus, is endemic. Patient No 1 rapidly deteriorates, meaning that he was infected before boarding (incubation 20 days) .
2. The following cases developed symptoms about 20 days later, a period consistent with being infected from patient No1. Andes is known as the only Hanta to transmit from person to person, studies from both Argentina and Chile have shown it is plausible.
nejm.org/doi/full/10.10…
nejm.org/doi/full/10.10…
3. Symptoms, as described by WHO, included respiratory failure but also initially diarrheas, all consistent with Andes descriptions. who.int/emergencies/di…
My team at @GoodfireAI has been cooking up a new way to do interpretability: decompose a language model’s weights, not its activations.
Our decomposition natively handles attention (!) and behaves less like a lookup table and more like a generalizing algorithm. (1/6)
Our decomposition natively handles attention (!) and behaves less like a lookup table and more like a generalizing algorithm. (1/6)
Networks don’t use all their parameters on a given input. Using causal ablations, we learn to identify the parts of their params that they *are* using.
This lets us find parameter components that play individual computational roles, like emoticon prediction or gender ID. (2/6)
This lets us find parameter components that play individual computational roles, like emoticon prediction or gender ID. (2/6)
We had to make some big improvements to our previous work, which only worked on toy models. We can now tackle models of a meaningful size, such as our small 4 layer language model.
We now consider our approach a genuine competitor to SAEs and transcoders.
We now consider our approach a genuine competitor to SAEs and transcoders.
H-1B fraud is a scam on American workers.
I just received the official USCIS FY2025 H-1B report. Over 406,348 approvals.
What I found is a flood of foreign labor. Sovereignty, security, and basic morality be damned. 🧵
I just received the official USCIS FY2025 H-1B report. Over 406,348 approvals.
What I found is a flood of foreign labor. Sovereignty, security, and basic morality be damned. 🧵
62% of all H-1B approvals? Tech-related occupations.
Over 252,000. Over 60% of ALL approvals were for tech and IT roles Americans already fill.
Big Tech uses this program to import cheap replacements while laying off U.S. workers. Disgraceful.
Over 252,000. Over 60% of ALL approvals were for tech and IT roles Americans already fill.
Big Tech uses this program to import cheap replacements while laying off U.S. workers. Disgraceful.
While Washington pats themselves on the back, American workers are told to “upskill” or get replaced by H-1B hires.
The entire system is designed to let companies take advantage of the law.
While American grads and workers pay the price.
The entire system is designed to let companies take advantage of the law.
While American grads and workers pay the price.
JUST IN: The DC Police Union has just confirmed that termination papers have been served to numerous high-ranking ‘top brass’ command staff officials within the Metropolitan Police Department, standing firmly by the decision🚨
The terminations are tied directly to the investigation into the ‘deliberate manipulation’ of crime data, the DC Police Union press release cites.
“Justice Is Served- Accountability Begins for Command Staff Implicated in Crime Stat Manipulation Scandal”
The terminations are tied directly to the investigation into the ‘deliberate manipulation’ of crime data, the DC Police Union press release cites.
“Justice Is Served- Accountability Begins for Command Staff Implicated in Crime Stat Manipulation Scandal”
According to our reports, MPD Commanders Michael Pulliam, Tatjana Savoy, and Assistant Chief LaShay Makal are amongst those reportedly facing termination.
Current interim police chief Jeffery Carroll has also abolished the Office of Patrol Operations, which was headed by Assistant Chief Andre Wright— currently on administrative leave for a separate texting scandal.
The Office of Patrol Operations had been established by former police chief Pamela Smith, who resigned from office in December of 2025 after facing backlash for skewing crime numbers in Washington DC.
Current interim police chief Jeffery Carroll has also abolished the Office of Patrol Operations, which was headed by Assistant Chief Andre Wright— currently on administrative leave for a separate texting scandal.
The Office of Patrol Operations had been established by former police chief Pamela Smith, who resigned from office in December of 2025 after facing backlash for skewing crime numbers in Washington DC.
Additionally served termination papers: MPD’s Natasha Wright.
Oh guess what Molly Small has a bath duck in this photo so you get 3 years in prison for being a paedophile for looking at it
I have been trying to work out what this means from the cognitive perspective for UK men. I want to write more about this here now
I have been trying to work out what this means from the cognitive perspective for UK men. I want to write more about this here now
Thinking this through from the cognitive perspective we have a blank mind, maybe we are seeking porn, maybe we aren't, we see Molly, that is the idea - she represents sex, vagina, good looks and without the laws in place you decide to masturbate over her photos
This is healthy
This is healthy
So then what happens if you are told that this is prison for 3 years stimulus?
It means you potentially attach a significant level of fear to the image, that is the game which they want to try and play
It is about instrumental conditioning men with a fear stimulus
It means you potentially attach a significant level of fear to the image, that is the game which they want to try and play
It is about instrumental conditioning men with a fear stimulus
May 5, 2026 Happy #CincoDeMayo2026 to everyone who celebrates! Speaking of which, if anyone out there plans to celebrate away from home today, partaking in adult beverages, and travelling afterward is necessary, please do the right thing and make arrangements to insure that
your return trip is a safe one. Please don't drink and drive. On that serious note, what even better way is there to celebrate a special occasion like Cinco de Mayo than with some Mexico-themed music? Last year I had created a rather short musical thread for the day. I've added
quite a few tunes this year, plus I included two videos of some rather mesmerizing dancing. Hopefully you'll enjoy them all! First, to refresh our memories, here is what Cinco de Mayo is all about. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinco_de_…
