New Zealand's former Covid-19 response minister Chris Hipkins will replace Jacinda Ardern as prime minister after receiving the only nomination from fellow MPs, the ruling Labour Party said on Saturday.
The 44-year-old senior politician must be formally backed by Labour members of parliament on Sunday before he takes over as the country's 41st prime minister, following Ms Ardern's shock resignation on Thursday.
The police and education minister will lead his party's uphill battle to win in the general elections on October 14 as the party lags in opinion polls, criticised by opponents over rising prices, poverty and crime rates.
“The Labour Party caucus will meet at 1pm on Sunday to endorse the nomination and confirm Chris Hipkins as party leader,” said a statement by senior Labour Party member Duncan Webb.
As leader of the governing party, Mr Hipkins will also become prime minister when Ms Ardern steps down.
Ms Ardern stunned New Zealand in announcing her abrupt exit from office, less than three years after securing a second term in a landslide election win.
The 42-year-old, who steered the country through natural disasters, the Covid pandemic and its worst-ever terror attack, said she no longer had “enough in the tank”.
Ms Ardern said her decision to step down was “tinged with sadness” but after having made the announcement, she had “slept well for the first time in a long time”.
Political commentators have lined up to condemn the social media abuse that was increasingly directed at Ms Ardern before her resignation.
Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark said Ms Ardern had “faced a level of hatred and vitriol” that was “unprecedented in our country”.
Her successor is widely seen as a safe pair of hands, with more than 14 years in parliament.
Political commentator Josie Pagani has described Mr Hipkins as “sensible, likeable, tough and capable”.
There was no immediate reaction from the country's main opposition National Party.
The right-wing ACT Party urged him to “deliver on substance instead of snowing New Zealand with spin”, criticising his party's record on the number of welfare recipients, rising food prices and a tight labour market.
The Green Party said it looked forward to working with him to “end poverty, take bold climate action and protect our native wildlife”.
Mr Hipkins's appointment also quashed speculation that Justice Minister Kiri Allan, one of Labour's senior Maori MPs, might have become the country's first Maori prime minister.
She has praised Mr Hipkins as decisive and said she believed he would be “an incredibly strong prime minister”.
Mr Hipkins won plaudits for his near two-year term as the Covid response minister in a country that shut down its borders to keep the coronavirus out, only fully reopening in August last year.
He conceded last year that people were fed up with the strict pandemic restrictions, describing the border closures as “tough going”.
The incoming prime minister describes himself as an “outdoor enthusiast”, keen on mountain biking, hiking and swimming.
Basquiat in Abu Dhabi
One of Basquiat’s paintings, the vibrant Cabra (1981–82), now hangs in Louvre Abu Dhabi temporarily, on loan from the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
The latter museum is not open physically, but has assembled a collection and puts together a series of events called Talking Art, such as this discussion, moderated by writer Chaedria LaBouvier.
It's something of a Basquiat season in Abu Dhabi at the moment. Last week, The Radiant Child, a documentary on Basquiat was shown at Manarat Al Saadiyat, and tonight (April 18) the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is throwing the re-creation of a party tonight, of the legendary Canal Zone party thrown in 1979, which epitomised the collaborative scene of the time. It was at Canal Zone that Basquiat met prominent members of the art world and moved from unknown graffiti artist into someone in the spotlight.
“We’ve invited local resident arists, we’ll have spray cans at the ready,” says curator Maisa Al Qassemi of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
Guggenheim Abu Dhabi's Canal Zone Remix is at Manarat Al Saadiyat, Thursday April 18, from 8pm. Free entry to all. Basquiat's Cabra is on view at Louvre Abu Dhabi until October
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup - Sept 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
SQUADS
India
Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shardul Thakur
New Zealand
Kane Williamson (captain), Martin Guptill, Colin Munro, Ross Taylor, Tom Latham (wicketkeeper), Henry Nicholls, Ish Sodhi, George Worker, Glenn Phillips, Matt Henry, Colin de Grandhomme, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Adam Milne, Trent Boult
The%20specs
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Wonka
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Results
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Evacuations to France hit by controversy
- Over 500 Gazans have been evacuated to France since November 2023
- Evacuations were paused after a student already in France posted anti-Semitic content and was subsequently expelled to Qatar
- The Foreign Ministry launched a review to determine how authorities failed to detect the posts before her entry
- Artists and researchers fall under a programme called Pause that began in 2017
- It has benefited more than 700 people from 44 countries, including Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Sudan
- Since the start of the Gaza war, it has also included 45 Gazan beneficiaries
- Unlike students, they are allowed to bring their families to France
Our Time Has Come
Alyssa Ayres, Oxford University Press
