New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern delivers her victory speech after being re-elected in a historic landslide win on October 17, 2020.Lynn Grieveson/Newsroom/Getty ImagesCNN —
Burnout is real – and it’s nothing to be ashamed of. That’s the conclusion trailblazing New Zealand leader Jacinda Ardern seems to have reached after almost six brutal years in office.
Derek Grossman is a senior defense analyst at the think tank RAND Corp. in Santa Monica, California and adjunct professor in the practice of political science and international relations at the University of Southern California. He formerly served as an intelligence adviser at the Pentagon.
During her meeting with Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ summit last month in Bangkok, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern expressed interest in continued cooperation, but also pressed the Chinese president on controversial issues, including Xinjiang, Hong Kong, the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.
The meeting was the clearest sign yet that Wellington has adopted a harder line on Beijing. This will be good news for allies who have questioned whether New Zealand has been the weak link in collective approaches to countering China. But Wellington’s increasingly hard-line stance could antagonize Beijing, risking what has heretofore been a productive partnership.
For years, Wellington has assiduously tried to keep its political and economic interactions with Beijing separate.
Footage of children happily playing in rain has inspired ‘longing for simple childhoods’, says childcare manager in New Zealand
A still from the video showing children gleefully leaping down the slide into a muddy puddle in the middle of a rainstorm. Photograph: Pukekos Educare/Facebook
More than 400 whales were stranded on a New Zealand beach. (Photo: Twitter/ @Quad_Finn)
WELLINGTON: More than 400 whales were stranded on a New Zealand beach on Friday (Feb 10), with hundreds already dead as volunteers tried to refloat the survivors, the Department of Conservation said.
Andrew Lamason, spokesman for the department, said it was one of the largest mass beachings recorded in New Zealand, where strandings are relatively common.
Lamason said 416 pilot whales beached themselves overnight at Farewell Spit in the Golden Bay region at the northern tip of South Island.
He said about 70 per cent had perished and attempts were underway to get the remaining whales offshore at high tide but the outlook was gloomy.
“With that number dead, you have to assume that the rest are in reasonably poor nick as well,” he told Radio New Zealand. “So we’re sort of preparing ourselves for a pretty traumatic period ahead.”
The Gokteik Viaduct in western Shan State, Myanmar, built in 1900 by Pennsylvania and Maryland Bridge Construction. Plans for greater connectivity between India and Southeast Asia will require upgrading infrastructure in east India, Myanmar, and neighboring Bangladesh. Source: Lacest20’s flickr photostream, used under a creative commons license.
CogitASIA – The U.S. administration’s rebalance toward Asia is fundamental to U.S. economic, commercial, and security interests and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is the fulcrum for the economic pivot. Although facing headwinds typical in the end game of trade negotiations, the smart money is on the TPP delivering the most advanced trade agreement ever. Tiếp tục đọc “Indo-Pacific Economic Corridor: Opportunity for U.S., Indian, & ASEAN Statesmanship”→
CVD 