Biodun.BBC: Jacinda Ardern

Showing posts with label Jacinda Ardern. Show all posts

Thursday, March 12, 2020

BREAKING: New Zealand scraps big Pacific festival over virus fears

Issued on: 13/03/2020 - 01:20Modified: 13/03/2020 - 02:19 GMT/ZULU

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Wellington

by Louise Healy and Biodun Iginla, France24

New Zealand cancelled one of the Pacific's largest cultural festivals on Friday, saying there was too much risk of attendees contracting coronavirus then spreading it throughout vulnerable island nations.

Auckland's annual Pasifika Festival normally attracts more than 60,000 people from across the region and is billed as the biggest Polynesian celebration in the world.

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But Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she feared allowing it to proceed could lead to an outbreak similar to the measles epidemic in Samoa late last year that killed 83 people, mostly babies and toddlers.

"New Zealand has a responsibility, as the gateway to the Pacific, to do what we can to prevent any chance of transmission into the Pacific," she told reporters.

"Because of the ability of their health system to cope with cases, it would be hugely damaging -- we've already seen what happened with measles."

A combination of geographic isolation and under-resourced health infrastructure makes containing outbreaks particularly difficult in the Pacific islands.

Ardern said the festival, due to be held this weekend, would have brought together people from the islands who would have then returned home, potentially dispersing the virus.

"That was a risk there was no appetite for," she said.

New Zealand, most notably Auckland, serves as a hub for Pacific islanders and some epidemiologists criticised New Zealand for not doing enough over the measles outbreak to contain the illness.

French Polynesia recorded the South Pacific's first confirmed case of coronavirus on Thursday when it was revealed parliamentarian Maina Sage had tested positive.

There have been two confirmed cases of the virus in the US state of Hawaii but no others on Pacific islands, with suspected cases in the Marshall Islands, Fiji, Tonga and Palau all testing negative.

New Zealand has had just five confirmed cases and no fatalities.

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Accused New Zealand gunman's letter from jail circulates online

August 14, 2019 13H54 GMT/ZULU

by Louise Healy and Biodun Iginla, BBC News and Reuters, MELBOURNE

MELBOURNE - The gunman accused of killing 51 people in New Zealand has handwritten a letter from jail expressing his political and social views, prompting Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to say that should never have been allowed, media said on Wednesday.

The New Zealand Herald had an image of the six-page letter and envelope from the alleged mosque shooter, Brenton Tarrant, sent from Auckland Prison, which was posted online on the controversial image board 4chan.

It was said to have been in response to a letter sent to him by a person named Alan who is said to live in Russia.

“I think every New Zealander would have an expectation that this individual should not be able to share his hateful message from behind bars,” Ardern was quoted telling reporters in Tuvalu, where she is attending the Pacific Islands Forum.

“Obviously, this is an offender who has a very specific goal in mind, in terms of sharing his propaganda, so we should have been prepared for that.”

Prisoners are allowed to send and receive mail and prison directors can only withhold it in certain circumstances.

“We have made changes to the management of this prisoner’s mail to ensure that our robust processes are as effective as we need them to be,” New Zealand’s Department of Corrections said in a statement quoted in the paper.

The letter mentioned a visit by Tarrant to Russia four years ago, media said.

New Zealand site Newshub said the last two lines of the letter could be read as a call to arms but blanked out what it said.

Tarrant, an Australian, pleaded not guilty to 92 charges stemming from the massacre at two mosques in Christchurch on March 15. He faces trial in May 2020.

Friday, July 19, 2019

BREAKING: Merkel says Trump tweets go against what makes America great

Date created : 19/07/2019 - 15:13 GMT/ZULU

German Chancellor Angela Merkel rebuked Donald Trump's xenophobic tweets, saying that "people from different (origins) contributed to what makes the country great" AFP

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Berlin

by Isabelle Roussel and Biodun Iginla, France24

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday condemned President Donald Trump's xenophobic tweets against four minority Democratic congresswomen, saying the US leader's attacks "go against what makes America great."

"I firmly distance myself from (the attacks) and I feel solidarity towards" the women, she told journalists.

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"In my view, the strength of America lies in that people from different (origins) contributed to what makes the country great."

Trump on Sunday urged a group of four progressive Democratic congresswomen of colour -- all American citizens and three of them US-born -- to "go back" to their countries of origin.

Despite a domestic uproar over the comments which were deemed "racist" by the House of Representatives, Trump repeatedly renewed his attack.

"If you're not happy here, you can leave ... This is about love for America, certain people hate our country," he tweeted on Tuesday, while repeating the same message to a rally on Wednesday.

International condemnation has rained down over the comments, with British Prime Minister Theresa May calling them "completely unacceptable" and New Zealand's leader Jacinda Ardern saying she "completely and utterly" disagrees with him.

While usually refraining from commenting on other countries' domestic politics, Merkel on Friday also had markedly sharp words about Trump's latest attacks.

Questions over racism are particularly sensitive in Germany given its Nazi past, and the government routinely speaks out forcefully in favour of tolerance and diversity.

While Merkel had shared a visibly warm relationship with former US president Barack Obama, her contact with Trump has been formal and firm.

Setting the tone from the start, Merkel in her first phone call with Trump after he took office offered cooperation, but also reminded him of democratic values.

That phone call led some commentators to suggest she had taken on the mantle of the "leader of the free world", a title usually reserved for US presidents.