When Jacinda Ardern goes on leave, what sort of shape will her crew be in?

As Key and Obama roamed the dales of Northland, a peacock was kicking a political football

COMMENT: Questioning his "Maori-ness" will backfire on public.

COMMENT: To everyone dreaming of a quick and easy impeachment: What happens the day after?

COMMENT: It was even better getting a kiwi perspective on American politics.

Analysis: Trump criticises the intelligence community and the media for the news reports that ultimately led to national security adviser Flynn's resignation.

COMMENT: The departure of John Key and rise of Bill English as Prime Minister prompted some unexpected reactions.

COMMENT: Alas, poor John, an ominous rumbling noise started in the bowels of the party's massive backbench rump. It could not be ignored.

COMMENT: The contest to become Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister is starting to look like an elaborate wiring diagram.

Donald Trump is the president-elect of the United States of America, and he did it by completely blowing up the electoral map.

COMMENT: He was the slime that oiled the old, deserted machinery of American politics, and got it running.

COMMENT: The theme of the Labour Party conference last weekend was "Backing the Kiwi Dream", writes Claire Trevett.

Perhaps the best feature of the American electoral system is that it gives us two and a half months to recover our composure before the new president takes office.

COMMENT: When the final result's declared, those packed into the bars in the Big Apple will be none the wiser.

It came as something of a shock to get off the plane after a week in New York to hear calls for a state of emergency to be declared in safe little old New Zealand.

COMMENT: Claire Trevett assesses New Zealand's term at the UN's top table.

No man is an island according to John Donne, but poor old National MP Nuk Korako must have felt that way as he stood to defend his member's bill in Parliament this week.

Labour leader Andrew Little's first move on the first day back at Parliament after a month's recess was to announce he had found the silver bullet to solve the housing crisis.

There has been a slight irony in developments around the race to be UN Secretary-General this week.

Trump's loose and provocative talk about the Russians and Clinton's emails seemed beyond even his standards for creating turmoil and controversy.

Key's goal was to make New Zealand pest-free by 2050. The conservationists cheered aloud.

COMMENT: There is no doubt that Isis is barbaric, but so are the military responses of the West that contributed to its creation in the first place.

Trump has called into question whether, as president, he would give Nato the assurance that the full force of the US military has their back.

COMMENT: Donald Trump has left himself with a mighty challenge for the final day of the Republican National Convention.

Today is Labour's centenary, which the party intends to celebrate by releasing its 2016 housing manifesto.

The Shewan report should have been a major victory for Labour.

Prime Minister John Key has done so many u-turns this week he is in danger of coming to the attention of his boyracer-car-crushing minister Judith Collins.