So what didn’t you hear about on mainstream media this week? What major world event didn’t make the breathless, sweaty web pages of what passes for news in New Zealand? What did our illustrious state broadcaster – that we pay for – decide to leave out on behalf of us all? You know the one, the one that rated itself bias-free.

Or if they did get a passing mention the nitty gritty was entirely missing.

There’s so much that we’ll never know about but let’s have a look at three stories that were going off everywhere – except in the mainstream.

France. Now you may think the French are just professional rioters, and exceptionally good ones at that. No news there. But the latest incarnation is off the charts. Between 200,000 and 250,000 protesters joined the grassroots ‘Let's Block Everything’ movement.

And they gave it a good go. Electrical cables were cut halting trains services, roads were blockaded, and busses torched. 80,000 troops were deployed in response. The reason for the protest – it’s France c’mon – is far less important than the rioters involved in my journalistic view.

But if legacy media won’t or don’t cover events on the ground we must rely on citizen reporters instead. Which is precisely why mainstream media’s in such big trouble. They don’t give us the real skinny.

Nepal. Capital city Kathmandu where many of us buy our clothes. Riots in that generally most peaceful nation have seen a Gen Z fury initially sparked by a state ban of social media apps. Nothing gets those Gen Zed-ers more worked up than not being able to go online.

It’s morphed into a revolt against government corruption, and their swift torching of Parliament and other government buildings and private homes means it’s deadly in intent. The crackdown was equally deadly with over 70 killed, and 2100 injured. Those peaceful Hindus don’t muck around. But this clip should give you some sense of why they cracked down hard.

Vietnam. Don’t mention the war. But have you heard about the 86m bank accounts that have gone ‘poof’ since September 1^st? No? I hadn’t either. This one is truly mind-blowing, and it’s all being done under the facade of eliminating fraud and cybercrime.  Oh, and non-compliance with biometric authentication rules. Funny too that it all seems perfectly aligned with the OECD push for Centralised Digital Currency.

Vietnam is the test for the international rollout, and this space needs to be intensely watched by all of us to see what people are forced to do to get their accounts back. The implications are immense. But you know that, and if you don’t, you better start finding out.

What’s genuinely interesting about this one news-wise is that I couldn’t find one mainstream report on the fact that it’s happened – apart from inside Vietnam and Thailand. And there’s a particularly good reason for that.

So there you have it. This is NOT the six o’clock news with me, Rachel Stewart on Riding Shotgun.

See you next week.

Watch the full video here.