Retired Four-Star US General Jack Keane  weighs in as Israel and  Hamas pickup the piece in the Gaza. “We haven’t seen the last of Hamas’ rockets …it is tenuous at best. it is not a major victory ….but at the end of her reign as SOS this is a plus for Hillary Clinton.”

Finance Minister Bill English is off to take a first-hand look at the resources sector in Queensland and Western Australia. The trip will include meeting the premiers of Queensland and Western Australia, as well as mining and resources companies and sector groups. English will also visit the Port of Brisbane, Rio Tinto’s Tom Price iron ore mine in the Pilbara …

Breakfast Video  Is the U.S. fiscal cliff a serious downer for the greenback? Not according to Vincent Cignarella from the Wall Street Journal’s Markets Hub.

Breakfast Video  Efforts to end a week-old convulsion of Israeli-Palestinian violence drew in the world’s top diplomats with President Obama dispatching his secretary of state to the region on an emergency mission and the U.N. chief appealing from Cairo for an immediate cease-fire. Israel and Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers have staked tough, hard-to-bridge positions, and the gaps keep alive the …

Breakfast Video  Jerry Seib on The News Hub looks at four ways leverage has tilted–slightly but perceptibly–toward President Obama in the current budget showdown with Congress. Seib points out any negotiator will tell you that the key in a bargaining session is knowing at the outset who has leverage, and where it comes from. “So it is in the great …

Breakfast Video  The push by Asia-Pacific leaders to establish a trading bloc that would cover almost one-third of the global economy threatens to overshadow Washington’s plans for a trans-Pacific economic partnership. The WSJ’s Patrick Barta has the story.

Comment  Auckland Law Professor Jane Kelsey says TPP critics will welcome Thailand’s participation, as it will make an already complex deal even more difficult to conclude and bring Thailand’s well-informed analysts, politicians and NGOs into the multi-country campaign to stop the TPP”. Kelsey said the Thai government’s announcement that it wishes to join the Trans-Pacific partnership negotiations during a visit byPresident …

Mental Health Break  Reggie Brown – Obama personator – has the moves. Here’s the English lyrics – if you can be bothered. Oppa is Gangnam style Gangnam style A girl who is warm and humanly during the day A classy girl who know how to enjoy the freedom of a cup of coffee A girl whose heart gets hotter when …

Breakfast Video  President Obama  extended “the hand of friendship” as the country emerges from five decades of harsh authoritarian rule, but cautioned that the young democracy has “much further to go.” “Instead of being repressed, the right of people to assemble together must now be fully respected,” the president told a subdued crowd at a well-maintained auditorium in an otherwise …

Federated Farmers Grain & Seed is upbeat about the sale of Solid Energy’s agribusiness division of Biodiesel New Zealand which has resulted in the formation of a new company, Pure Oil New Zealand. “After hearing a few weeks ago it was possible Solid Energy could simply shut the doors of Biodiesel, this is the news oilseed rape growers have been …