The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Google is being fined 220 million euros by France's antitrust watchdog for abusing its 'dominant' position in online advertising.
The search engine giant is also promising to overhaul the way its platform is used for buying and selling digital ads, at least in France, which could have repercussions on its ongoing legal fights with regulators elsewhere in Europe, the U.S. and around the world.
Google's advertising practices have harmed its competitors along with publishers of mobile websites and applications, the French Competition Authority said Monday. The authority said it is the responsibility of a company with a dominant market position to avoid unfairly undermining its competition.
Google, based in Mountain View, California, did not dispute the facts and opted to settle after proposing some changes, according to a prepared statement from the Competition Authority.
The settlement might serve as a roadmap for other governments that are scrutinizing Google's market power, said Douglas Melamed, a Stanford University law professor.
"I imagine that Google's decision to settle reflected a judgment that it could live with those terms even if it were forced upon it by other jurisdictions," he said.
The head of the authority, Isabelle de Silva, said the decision was unprecedented in the way that it delved into the complex algorithmic auctions that power Google's business selling online display ads.
The fine, along with Google's commitment to changing its practices, "will make it possible to re-establish a level playing field for all players, and the ability for publishers to make the most of their advertising space," de Silva said.
Google France's legal director, Maria Gomri, said in a blog post Monday that Google has been collaborating for the past two years with the French watchdog on issues related to ad technology, notably the platform known as Google Ad Manager. She wrote that commitments made during negotiations would "make it easier for publishers to make use of data and use our tools with other ad technologies."
After tests in the months ahead, changes will be deployed more broadly, some of them globally, Gomri said. She didn't specify which changes would apply outside of France.
The French authority's investigation was prompted by complaints from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., French newspaper group Le Figaro and Belgium-based Rossel La Voix. Le Figaro later withdrew its complaint.
U.S. tech giants have been facing intensifying scrutiny in Europe and elsewhere over their business practices. Germany became the latest country to launch an investigation of Google, using stepped up powers to scrutinize digital giants.
The German competition watchdog said Friday that it was examining whether contracts for news publishers using Google's News Showcase, a licensing platform launched last fall, include "unreasonable conditions."
Google has been facing pressure from authorities to pay for news and signed a deal earlier this year with a group of French publishers that paves the way for it to make digital copyright payments.
European Union regulators have also charged Apple with stifling competition in music streaming and accused Amazon of using data from independent merchants to unfairly compete against them with its own products. They are investigating Google's data practices for advertising purposes and recently opened a formal antitrust investigation into Facebook's advertising practices.
In the U.S., the Justice Department and dozens of states brought antitrust lawsuits against Google last year. They are seeking to prove that Google has been methodically abusing its power as the internet's main gateway in a way that hurts consumers and advertisers.

More industries are set to feel the effects of the global computer chip shortage.
The world's third largest electronics contract manufacturer, Flex, says the shortage could last another year, if not into 2023.
However, IT Professionals New Zealand chief executive Paul Matthews told Mike Hosking says the shortage is a misunderstood issue.
“There isn’t a supply issue; it’s a supply chain issue. It’s getting their hands on it, and everybody panicking a little bit, like they did with toilet paper and buying these things up.”
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Westpac is introducing paid special leave for employees to attend Covid-19 vaccination appointments.
Workers will be able to apply for a half day for each of their jab appointments - totalling one full day of leave.
Institutional business banking general manager Simon Power told Mike Hosking a survey of staff found 85 per cent were likely to get vaccinated - so it was the logical thing to do.
“But for us, the broader picture is that the sooner the sooner we can get this job done, the sooner we’ll be able to open up the borders and hopefully, we will start to see that economic growth even out.”
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Kate Hawkesby and Tim Wilson join Mike Hosking to wrap the week that was.
A bill that would have required all primary and intermediate schools to offer second language tuition from among 10 priority languages has been torpedoed by Labour despite the party originally supporting the bill.
The three debate whether they made any mistakes when they were younger that would come back to bite them, as was the case with Jake Bezzant.
And finally, they rounded the conversation off debating the merits of Naomi Osaka's decision to withdraw from the French Open over media pressure.
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At the end of each week, Mike Hosking takes you through the big-ticket items and lets you know what he makes of it all.
 
The Cyclist Protest: 1/10
"Self-important yobs who think they are above the law.
They did their cause no good at all."
 
The Police at the Cyclist Protest: 4/10
"Hopelessly under-resourced.
In making the one arrest it reinforced the thinking that you can get away with an increasing amount of lawlessness with no real comeback."
 
Global Economic Growth: 7/10
"OECD stats suggest say 6 percent growth this year.
The worst, I think, is behind us."
 
Australia's Economy: 7/10
"Now officially bigger than it was before Covid.
And one of only six countries to turn that trick."
 
Nick Smith: 3/10
"I rest my case."
 
Willie Jackson Meeting with the Gangs: 3/10
"What is it with this government and gangs?"
 
Naomi Osaka: 4/10
"Of course, there is sympathy.
But making yourself the centre of attention and expecting rules to apply to everyone but you, ended the way it was always going to end."
 
Burnout: 4/10
"It's like social media, everyone wants it.
It’s the condition of the age."
 
Crowds Back at Sport: 8/10
"From the NBA, to the NBL, to the Phoenix, and to the Champions League this week.
Crowds are your sporting icing on the cake."
 
The Reds Win in Super Rugby Trans-Tasman: 6/10
"God bless them getting at least one win on the board.
But does it really change a lot? I don’t think so."
 
LISTEN ABOVE FOR MIKE HOSKING'S FULL WEEK IN REVIEW

It's been alleged the National party leadership wanted Jake Bezzant gone during last year’s election.
Concerns were raised about embellishments on his CV, but President Peter Goodfellow didn't want to do anything about it.
The leadership were apparently very unhappy about this.
Judith Collins now says the National party candidate selection process needs some serious tightening.
Former Senior Ministerial Advisor for the National party Brigitte Morten told Mike Hosking the accusations were known within the party.
“I think absolutely everyone knew about these accusations on the CV.”
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There has been something of a wakeup call to our government over a maritime bubble.
One luxury cruise company, Regent Cruises, has just withdrawn a ship that was supposed to travel between here and Australia this year, because of uncertainty.
The New Zealand Cruising Association's chief executive Kevin O'Sullivan told Mike Hosking there has been little to no discussion with government on the issue.
“We feel because there is already a safe corridor between Australia and New Zealand, there’s no reason why can’t be discussing the same options with government for bringing cruise ships back to New Zealand.  We’ve hit something of a brick wall at the moment.”
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President Joe Biden announced Thursday the U.S. will swiftly donate a first tranche of 25 million doses of surplus vaccine overseas through the U.N.-backed COVAX program, promising infusions for South and Central America, Asia, Africa and others at a time of glaring shortages abroad and more than ample supplies at home.
The doses mark a substantial — and immediate — boost to the lagging COVAX effort, which to date has shared just 76 million doses with needy countries.
The announcement came just hours after World Health Organization officials in Africa made a new plea for vaccine sharing because of an alarming situation on the continent, where shipments have ground to "a near halt" while virus cases have spiked over the past two weeks.
Overall, the White House has announced plans to share 80 million doses globally by the end of June, most through COVAX. Officials say a quarter of the nation's excess will be kept in reserve for emergencies and for the U.S. to share directly with allies and partners.
Of the first 19 million donated through COVAX, approximately 6 million doses will go to South and Central America, 7 million to Asia and 5 million to Africa.
"As long as this pandemic is raging anywhere in the world, the American people will still be vulnerable," Biden said in a statement. "And the United States is committed to bringing the same urgency to international vaccination efforts that we have demonstrated at home."
U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the U.S. "will retain the say" on where doses distributed through COVAX ultimately go.
But he also said, "We're not seeking to extract concessions, we're not extorting, we're not imposing conditions the way that other countries who are providing doses are doing. ... These are doses that are being given, donated free and clear to these countries, for the sole purpose of improving the public health situation and helping end the pandemic."
The remaining 6 million in the initial distribution of 25 million will be directed by the White House to U.S. allies and partners, including Mexico, Canada, South Korea, West Bank and Gaza, India, Ukraine, Kosovo, Haiti, Georgia, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, and Yemen, as well as for United Nations frontline workers.
Vice President Kamala Harris informed some U.S. partners they will begin receiving doses, in separate calls with Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador, President Alejandro Giammattei of Guatemala, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Keith Rowley of Trinidad and Tobago. Harris is to visit Guatemala and Mexico in the coming week.
The long-awaited vaccine sharing plan comes as demand for shots in the U.S. has dropped significantly — more than 63% of adults have received at least one dose — and as global inequities in supply have become more pronounced.
Scores of countries have requested doses from the United States, but to date only Mexico and Canada have received a combined 4.5 million doses. The U.S. also has announced plans to share enough shots with South Korea to vaccinate its 550,000 troops who serve alongside American service members on the peninsula. White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said that 1 million Johnson & Johnson doses were being shipped to South Korea Thursday.
The U.S. has committed more than $4 billion to COVAX, but with vaccine supplies short — and wealthy nations locking up most of them — the greater need than funding has been immediate access to actual doses, to overcome what health officials have long decried as unequal access to the vaccines.
The U.S. action means "frontline workers and at-risk populations will receive potentially life-saving vaccinations" and bring the world "a step closer to ending the acute phase of the pandemic," said Dr. Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, which is leading the COVAX alliance.
However, Tom Hart the acting CEO of The ONE Campaign, said that while Thursday's...

A bill that would have required all primary and intermediate schools to offer second language tuition from among 10 priority languages has been torpedoed by Labour despite the party originally supporting the bill.
The Labour-led parliamentary committee examining the bill, originally proposed by ex National MP Nikki Kaye, oppose making 10 languages a priority. It says that te reo Māori and sign language should be the priority languages because they are both official languages.
And it said Cook Island Māori, Niuean and Tokelauan and other Pacific languages needed to be valued and taught.
National says it is a narrow-minded and Labour is too focused on Māori - Pākehā relations.
The education select committee report, chaired by Labour MP Marja Lubeck, said it would be more appropriate to develop a "national languages strategy instead of passing this bill because that would allow for more comprehensive consultation to take place".
That means that unless Labour has a change of heart, it will vote down the bill at its second reading.
The Ministry of Education told the committee that passing the bill without full consultation with Māori would be a breach of the Treaty of Waitangi.

Former Education Minister Nikki Kaye who introduced the second language bill. (Photo / Mark Mitchel)l
It suggested that all schools have te reo as the primary priority language before being able to choose an additional priority language but the committee's report does not address that as a solution.
Officials estimated the annual cost of funding second language tuition ranged between $42 million for one-hour tuition each week to $234 million a year for five hours of tuition a week.
National says there were more than 300 submissions on the bill and the overwhelming majority supported it.
The bill was originally introduced by Kaye, a former National education minister, when in Opposition and was supported by Education Minister Chris Hipkins and Labour as well as the Greens and Act.
The bill says every primary and intermediate school had to choose at least one priority language from among 10 nominated by the Education Minister in the Gazette, and after consultation with the school community.
National education spokesman Paul Goldsmith took over the bill and said he was disappointed that the committee had recommended the bill not proceed.
"The bill doesn't take away the existing requirement of schools to have best endeavours to ensure that education in te reo and tikanga Māori is available.

Education Minister Chris Hipkins. (Photo / Mark Mitchel)
"But making it available doesn't mean it has to be compulsory for everybody to choose it to be a language they go into in depth. That's the difference."
It was right that everyone in school has some engagement with te reo Māori but "taking the next step to really focusing on it as the second language, we fundamentally come from the point of view that you should have a choice".
That could Samoan, Mandarin, Urdu or Punjabi.
"There is universal agreement that learning a second language at a young age is helpful to a whole range of educational and learning neurological pathways," said Goldsmith.
"It has been torpedoed from a very narrow-minded view of the world which is to say there is only one language you can learn and it has to be te reo."
Kaye believed that the bill would lead to a big uptake in te reo learning because schools were not limited to one language to prioritise and that the bill would ensure universal access to te reo learning.

Marja Lubeck, Labour list MP, chairs the education select committee that says the second language bill should not proceed. (Photo / Supplied)
Goldsmith believed the reason for Labour's change was there was what he called "a much more vocal and determined Maori caucus" this term and the Government was in danger of becoming too introspective.
"New...

It's time to revisit Venus, our closest planetary neighbour.
Two new missions to Earth's twin have been greenlit by NASA via the agency's Discovery Program. These missions, which were the two finalists selected from four concepts NASA highlighted in February 2020, will shed light on how Venus became the inhospitable world it is today, despite the fact that it shares many characteristics with Earth.
One mission would focus on the Venusian atmosphere, while the other would map the planet's surface.
Venus may have been the first habitable world in our solar system, including an ocean and climate similar to Earth -- but something happened to turn it into a planet with temperatures hot enough to melt lead.
Venus likely maintained stable temperatures and hosted liquid water for billions of years before an event triggered drastic changes in the planet, according to a 2019 study. The study author, physical scientist Michael Way at the NASA Goddard Institute of Space Science in New York City, also coauthored a 2016 study about climate and oceans on Venus in its past.
Now, Venus is a mostly dead planet with a toxic atmosphere 90 times thicker than ours and surface temperatures that reach 864 degrees Fahrenheit (462 degrees Celsius).
Only two NASA missions have visited Venus -- Pioneer in 1978 and Magellan in the early '90s.
The ocean was first suggested by NASA's Pioneer mission. But given its placement as the second planet from the sun, Venus wasn't considered conducive to sustaining an ocean.
"It is astounding how little we know about Venus, but the combined results of these missions will tell us about the planet from the clouds in its sky through the volcanoes on its surface all the way down to its very core," said Tom Wagner, NASA's Discovery Program scientist, in a statement. "It will be as if we have rediscovered the planet."
The mission DAVINCI+ stands for Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry and Imaging Plus. It would be dedicated to analyzing Venus' atmosphere to determine how it formed and evolved. The initiative would also investigate the possibility of an ocean in Venus' past.
The mission's instruments, including cameras, would be protected from Venus' harsh environment by a descent sphere. It's designed to plunge down through the planet's thick atmosphere and send back the first high-resolution images of unique features on Venus. These features, called "tesserae," may be similar to continents on Earth, which means Venus may have plate tectonics.
The DAVINCI+ mission will be the first US-led mission to study the Venusian atmosphere since 1978.
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Next up, VERITAS -- or Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy -- would map the surface of the rocky planet in an effort to shed light on how it turned out so differently from Earth. Our world is often called Venus' twin because the planets are similar in size, but the modern comparisons stop there.
The mission can also provide insight about the geologic history of Venus. The orbiter, equipped with radar, could create 3D topography, allowing scientists to determine how active Venus is volcanically through plate tectonic processes. The spacecraft could also study infrared emissions coming off the planet's surface.
Both missions will carry technology demonstrations on them, including the Deep Space Atomic Clock-2 to enable autonomous spacecraft maneuvers on VERITAS, as well as the Compact Ultraviolet to Visible Imaging Spectrometer to measure ultraviolet light in the Venusian atmosphere, to be hosted by DAVINCI+.
Program, which is sponsoring these missions, encourages scientists and engineers to help us explore the solar system by designing new, imaginative mission concepts. Since 1992, the program has...