Full Show Podcast: 23 July 2026
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What are the top headlines and show rundown at the start of the Mike Hosking Breakfast?
Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
No fluff, just facts and fierce debate. The Mike Hosking Breakfast with Aveda Retirement Communities. Life your way. News Talk ZB. Morning and welcome. Today, netball hits a wall as contracts for players will not be renewed in age five next week. Nurses, though, are in better shape as Health New Zealand, the target of 1,800 new places, is met for a second year. We've got the Air New Zealand boss with an update on the jet fuel, the bottom lines and the refurbed planes. Laurie Daly is here to talk State of O after 8. Joe's in Italy. Enda is monitoring the Burnham Blitz in the UK. Welcome to the day, 7 past 6. Now, the trouble with numbers is they make you, of course, accountable. Pete Hegseth, $37 billion, allows you not to carry on that very generic idea of whether this is a good or bad war, but hone more in on what actually have we got for our money.
So the war, he tells us, has cost X. So the question is, what's the return? Has it been worth it? Initial answer, of course, is no. Because it isn't over, which means it's going to be 37 and rising. I argued at the very start, if you remember, if Trump was able to rid Iran of nuclear capability and flip the regime, it could well be seen as a victory. None of that has happened. And you can also now argue it never will. Even if this ended tomorrow in a deal, there is no regime change. And at best, they will get a promise from Iran to be good boys. Been there, done that. If that had worked, they wouldn't have gone in back in March, would they? Wars sink presidencies. For Bush in Iraq, especially around Kuwait, it was rocket fuel.
He had numbers in the high 80s. War can make you a hero, but those wars are rare. And this isn't one of them. Trump still has time to get out of this, but the trouble is no one seems to know how. They thought they had a deal. They still might. But unless you can say it's $37 billion and look how much safer we are, you're losing. And America, and more specifically Trump, is losing. The threats are hollow. I mean, the rhetoric is overworked. There is nothing they can do about it, he boasts yesterday, actually. There is. Survive to haunt them another day is what they're doing. Lockheed Martin, RTX and their mates, they'll be loving it because war can be good for business. But for the rest of America, it's inflationary and it's anger-inducing and it's bad for politics.
37 and Pete wants another 87. In fact, for the Pentagon, they want a trillion and a half. It's not a forever war, despite fears, but it is a gargantuan cock-up on Trump's part and an expensive one at that. News of the world in 90 seconds. From our hit-the-ground-running file, the Burnham Express is underway. His new Foreign Secretary is reassuring everyone this morning over Hummus. As a government, I assure you, we will work intensively with others to seek to de-escalate this conflict and find a diplomatic way forward which is in all of our interests. His new Defence Secretary is repeating the noises he made yesterday over military funding. Freedom is hard won and even harder preserved. We in Britain will not be bystanders in this contest.
And domestically, the man himself is mired in a judicial mess that's about to see cop killers released early. It's an appalling crime that was committed. The main perpetrator will not be subject to any early release. But I've spoken to the new Justice Secretary. We will review the policy together. Glass half full, though, he did announce a £2 cap on buses. It's a short-term measure, but short-term measures matter. People really want to see impact in their pockets, and this will do that. We know that there are young people for whom the difference between £3 and £2 is huge. There are people in the poorest demographics for whom this impact is huge. Interesting thing is it's only costing him half a billion pounds, of course, and he's got plenty of... Oh, no, sorry.
No, he doesn't. Then in Ukraine, more insight into the Zelensky moves around the sacking of the defence bloke, which caused the protests, until, of course, he then sacked the military bloke to put the defence bloke in.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What are the top headlines and show rundown at the start of the Mike Hosking Breakfast?
0:03–8:29
2
How is global geopolitics and oil price volatility affecting markets and inflation?
8:29–18:02
3
What’s the latest on KMD Brands, Kathmandu and retail trading updates?
18:02–1:00:45
4
How is the NZ self‑employed economy measured and why does it matter for GDP?
1:00:45–1:30:37
Speakers
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