Humanity is at war with a virus. Jacinda Ardern, New Zealands Prime Minister and possibly the globes most successful Covid general, is this week leading another battle. Ardern placed the entire country into lockdown on Tuesday after the discovery of a single Delta variant infection in Auckland. Her goal is the same now as its been since the pandemic began - identify, isolate and eliminate Covid from day-to-day New Zealand life.

Ive been witnessing this firsthand from my wifes hometown of Ohope, in New Zealands Bay of Plenty, where weve lived since January after moving from California. Watching Ardern perform in daily press conferences this week I couldnt help thinking about Winston Churchill. I know, I know - older white guys always seem to think of Churchill. But loan me three more minutes of your time and you may glimpse a surprising future.

Comparing the two prime ministers fascinates me because, despite being almost unimaginably different people - Churchill was a round, aristocratic conservative with a deep belief in the British Empire while Ardern is a fresh-faced former youth socialist who still gets a packed lunch from her Mum - both have been very effective wartime leaders. And, perhaps strangely, their messages are ultimately very similar.

Churchills speeches used vivid imagery and waves of sound to tap into patriotism and an absolute refusal to quit. Ardern asks Kiwis to be kind and talks of a team of five million in a manner that manages to be both friendly and assertive. Their metaphors and styles reflect very different times and messengers, yet share the same core idea- togetherness and resilience will prevail.

But could these two leaders also share a less triumphant fate?

Just two months after leading Britain to victory over Nazi Germany, Churchill was swept out of office. His Conservative party lost the popular vote for the first time in four decades and suffered its worst vote swing since 1800. The decisive leader and inspiring communicator who helped save his country from an existential threat was gone. Why?

18th June 1945: William Waldorf Astor (1907 - 1966), later 3rd Viscount Astor, with his first wife, ... [+] Sarah Norton and a poster of Winston Churchill during the general election campaign, in which he stood as a Conservative candidate. (Photo by Evening Standard/Getty Images)

After the horror, trauma and destruction of the War, Britain was looking to the future. Its priorities were domestic and largely focused on creating a more equal and fair economy. Churchill had proven wildly ineffective in dealing with those problems in the 1920s and so he was sent packing.

New Zealands Covid war is far from over, but so far Arderns strategy has been successful- only 25 deaths and a better economic growth rate than the U.S., despite the lockdowns. Do New Zealanders recognize this?

Yes. My experience has been that most people here are supportive of her strategy and grateful for its success. I played in a local tennis tournament on Sunday and before the first match someone marched up to me and said, What a great day to be a Kiwi, eh mate!. Noticing my slight pause, he added, Wait, youre not Aussie are you?. When I confessed to being American, he said, Ah, sorry. ..bet youre happy to be here. I really was.

And yet. Over the last eight months as Ive quietly listened to (eavesdropped on?) conversations, read the press and chatted to people here I sense the potential for Ardern to experience a post-pandemic moment similar to Churchill. New Zealand has a lot going for it, but it has important problems too. These problems are being subordinated to the Covid war now, but they could very rapidly lead to dissatisfaction once that battle is seen as over.

Foremost among these is the least affordable housing market in the developed world. It baffles and frustrates Kiwis that a country with vast amounts of open land and massive timber resources should have a housing shortage, but it does. My sister-in-law Sharon Brettkelly, whose podcast The Detail is one of New Zealands most popular, has done a series of fascinating shows looking at both causes and possible solutions. My take - this problem will not be solved soon. Electorates and people being who they are, Id expect Ardern to take a lot of the blame for this, even though the problem has deep roots.

Then there is China, where New Zealand must navigate an exquisitely complicated relationship. China consumes about 30% of New Zealands exports and is the largest destination for its ultra-profitable SunGold kiwi fruit. But of course its not shy about exercising power. For example, Chinese growers ignored New Zealands patent on the SunGold varietal and may now be growing 10,000 acres of the fruit domestically. Does New Zealand challenge this and risk killing the goose that laid the golden kiwi fruit? Or does it look the other way? Similar quandaries exist in both timber and dairy markets. Layer in human rights concerns that matter a lot to Arderns progressive base and one can easily see her falling off this narrow and wobbly policy tightrope.

Finally, like all modern leaders, Ardern faces criticism about immigration. Her strict border controls have kept Covid out but created a huge issue for agricultural and construction industries that depend on labor from the Pacific Islands. Meanwhile, while in opposition Arderns party was outraged about billionaires like Peter Thiel purchasing citizenship, but last year it essentially sold residency to Google co-founder Larry Page. Storm in a tea cup perhaps, but values-centric politicians like Ardern can find these emotive issues difficult to shake.

Ardern has two years until she must face the electorate again. Can she use this time to win final victory against Covid and turn her skills to these other difficult battles? You can be sure she will run a much better campaign than Churchill in 1945 who, out of touch with his people, lamented at one point I have no message for them. But its not assured that in 2023 post-war New Zealand, like Britain two generations ago, wont look for a fresh start.

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Will Jacinda Ardern Suffer Churchills Fate Once The (Covid) War Is Over? - Forbes

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Photo / Pool

OPINION: The Prime Minister's politics including her stance towards the Mongrel Mob and the Taliban can be baffling. Graham Adams reckons answers lie in her past as a Mormon.

Whether it is from politeness or a lack of curiosity, it is rare for journalists or commentators to dwell on Jacinda Ardern's religious history and how it might have shaped her politics.

When the Prime Minister is occasionally asked, she bats the question away with a stock answer: she rejected religion in her mid-20s and never looked back. As far as the public knows, the Prime Minister was brought up as a Mormon but renounced her faith in 2005 and that was that.

This view was encapsulated in her response to a question about whether she had smoked marijuana: "I was once a Mormon and then I wasn't that's how I'll put that."

Ardern has famously described her divorce from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a result of the impossibility of reconciling its anti-homosexual stance with her loyalty to her own gay friends and flatmates.

"There are always going to be things you can't reconcile, but I could never reconcile what I saw as discrimination in a religion that was otherwise very focused on tolerance and kindness," she said.

Now, she says she is "agnostic" and doubts she will ever belong to an "organised religion" again. Nevertheless, she didn't leave the Church until she was in her mid-20s, which means that more than half of her 41 years on Earth was spent in its embrace.

Anyone familiar with the Jesuits' adage "Give me a child until the age of 7 and I will give you the man" will be deeply sceptical about her eagerness to downplay the role of religion in her approach to politics given she spent more than 20 years immersed in it.

Put on the spot during a leaders' debate before the general election last October, she looked uncomfortable when the MC asked both her and Judith Collins: "Will your faith play a role in governance?"

Answering first, Collins bizarrely referred twice to her "sense of humour" but she willingly admitted her faith played a role in her job: "It already does I've always been a liberal Anglican."

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Ardern gave a garbled answer: "I don't subscribe to any particular religion but I was raised in one. And I hope what people can see is that I respect people no matter their belief, no matter their upbringing because I had a similar start in my life so that has shaped the way I treat people of faith One of the reasons I am agnostic now is because I wanted to make sure that my religious beliefs didn't get in the way of anyone else practising what they choose to believe themselves."

The idea that her having personal religious beliefs might get in the way of anyone else's faith is nonsensical. However, she succeeded in dismissing the influence of religion on her politics, passing it off as little more than an early formative experience a "start in my life" which presumably was the point of her answer.

And stating that this experience gave her the ability to empathise with religious believers was presumably intended as a reference to her role in consoling the Muslim community after the mosque attacks in 2019 that catapulted her to international fame with the most celebrated images showing her wearing a hijab.

There are very obvious reasons, of course, why she might have wanted to be cagey about her religious background. After all, Mormons are associated in the popular imagination with magic glasses used to translate divine golden plates into the Book of Mormon, special underwear, and for older generations pairs of clean-cut, bicycle-riding missionaries who would arrive at your door to spread the Word from Salt Lake City, Utah, where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is based.

Yet, despite Ardern minimising her religious upbringing, the evidence that she is a pseudo-religious leader for a secular age is everywhere.

Her assertion last year that when she and Dr Ashley Bloomfield speak to media they are the "single source of truth" recalls an ex-cathedra pronouncement by the Pope.

Ardern may have rejected the formal observances of organised religion but she certainly hasn't shucked off the religious impulse to guide the faithful from the prime ministerial pulpit on matters of moral and ethical behaviour.

Her oft-repeated mantra of "Be kind!" recently updated to "Be kind, be courteous!" with regard to panic-buying is an exhortation that would be roundly jeered at if it were uttered by nearly any other New Zealand politician.

That role comes so naturally to her that she was obviously happy for the Ministry of Health to reflect her exhortatory stance. During lockdown last year, there were flashing signs above motorways and along suburban streets encouraging drivers to "Be kind!".

You don't have to look very far to find evidence of where the Prime Minister's inspiration comes from. If you Google "kindness" and "Mormon" you'll have eight million links at your fingertips.

The importance of kindness ranks highly among Mormon precepts. Even the message of the irreverent musical The Book of Mormon was summed up by one reviewer as "a belief in kindness reigns above being a part of any religion".

In fact, Mormon theology is so intrinsically kind it offers the chance of redemption to even the likes of Adolf Hitler and Vlad the Impaler if they are willing to accept Mormonism in the afterlife. And anyone who is baptised by Mormons even after death as Hitler and Vlad have been retrospectively can be released from Spirit Prison, which is the equivalent of Catholicism's Purgatory. If they accept Mormonism, they are eligible to enter God's blessed realm.

In such a theological framework, very few people are deemed to be inherently evil. The vast majority only need to be shown a better way.

We see shadows of this extremely magnanimous view of humanity repeatedly in Ardern's attempts to appeal to the better natures of groups as diverse as property investors and gang members.

In February, as the housing market was spiralling out of control, Ardern had a recommendation for property investors: "What we want them to think about is: 'How can you contribute to the productive economy in New Zealand?' By going into an overheated housing market, it makes it so much worse for others and you won't necessarily get the long-term benefits that we'd like you to get."

Only a politician detached from worldly reality would imagine this advice might help deter an investor from buying another dwelling in a sizzling market.

The same month, she was quizzed in Parliament by Act leader David Seymour about why the police programme to combat gangs was labelled "Operation Tauwhiro". He pointed out "tauwhiro" means "to tend or care for" and asked the Prime Minister if she actually believed "that violent criminals who sell P need to be tended and cared for".

Ardern replied: "If we want to make a difference to the young people who join gangs in New Zealand we have to demonstrate that there are alternatives for them that they can find a place to grow their potential without joining criminal organisations."

These responses reflect a belief in redemption that often appears hopelessly naive in a politician. Ardern sees the potential for good in everyone which is no doubt a large part of her appeal but the flipside is a reluctance to acknowledge the worst in people.

Consequently, she seemed surprised by public outrage at her personally approving $2.75 million for a drugs programme run by Mongrel Mob members.

Her unrealpolitik caught the eye of the Spectator, which mocked Ardern for offering one of the "Nine Worst Responses to Afghanistan's Fall" from around the world after the Taliban's victory:

"New Zealand's Prime Minister has 'implored' Taliban leaders to uphold human rights, telling a press conference: 'What we want to see is women and girls being able to access work and education' which she insightfully noted 'are things that have traditionally not been available to them where there has been governance by the Taliban.'"

The writer added: "The Taliban's response is as yet unknown."

As another wag put it: "Ardern asks water to stop being wet."

Another unmistakable sign of her otherworldliness can be detected in her dismissing opponents' criticisms as "politicking" or "playing politics" over issues such as Maori co-governance or the management of Covid. This is an extraordinary stance for a politician to take towards other politicians debating policy but Ardern positions herself as floating above the cut-and-thrust of politics.

Consequently, she is very keen not to be seen to be beset by common human frailties such as dishonesty, arrogance or vanity.

When asked during one of the leaders' debates in 2017, "Is it possible to survive in politics without lying?", she not only said it was but claimed she'd "never told a lie in politics".

Only someone determined to convince people she is preternaturally saintly would have so outrageously denied political reality and human nature. Bill English, a devout Catholic who wasn't nearly as ready to bend the truth out of shape as she was, couldn't in all honesty agree.

Humility is also essential to "brand Jacinda". In May last year, a memo from her office suggested ministers need not agree to be interviewed given how popular the Government's Covid measures had been. John Campbell, who interviewed the Prime Minister, said he at first thought it could be a sign of "arrogance" but decided it was more likely that she simply didn't have confidence in her ministers.

Ardern's reaction showed she was more sensitive to a suggestion she might be arrogant than a question about her ministers' competence. She made a point of addressing that issue even though Campbell had dismissed it.

"Arrogance is just, I hope, something people would see as not in my nature," she said plaintively.

She mostly keeps her vanity under wraps not least because she casts herself as a humble servant of the people but slip-ups are perhaps inevitable for a woman from Morrinsville who has been internationally canonised for her crisis management and lauded as "the world's most effective leader".

Addressing the UN in September 2019, she made the extraordinary admission that she saw herself carrying the nation's burdens on her shoulders single-handedly. In her speech she mentioned a young Muslim boy who asked her to keep him safe after the mosque massacres. "My fear is, that as a leader of a proudly independent nation, this is one thing I cannot achieve alone. Not anymore."

The fact she very capably handles the quotidian tasks of a prime minister such as explaining vaccination rollout figures while also wearing the mantle of a secular saint makes her an extremely difficult target for her political opponents to get a fix on.

If she is caught out, she often switches to what she probably imagines is "going high", as Michelle Obama put it, however absurd that might be.

When David Seymour asked Ardern in late June in Parliament if she ever thought she would be reduced to saying "Hey, we're doing better than Africa" in terms of vaccinations, she replied: "When it comes to global health and wellbeing in a global pandemic, how countries like those in Africa are performing is relevant to us. And, as a country who has a stake in the wellbeing of all nations, including developing ones, I imagine that's a consideration most New Zealanders would be proud to take."

In fact, the vast majority of New Zealanders would think her overwhelming responsibility is to advance the interests of those who pay her salary.

Despite her butter-wouldn't-melt image of kindness and care and concern for others, Ardern is a ruthless politician who is cunning as a fox and quick to change tack in response to public criticism.

She is also shameless at stage-managing her public appearances for maximum effect whether it is showcasing her Government's actions at her 1pm press conferences or being covered by a Polynesian ceremonial mat during an official apology for the dawn raids in a highly choreographed piece of political theatre.

The fact she is willing to exploit her status as a pseudo-religious leader was vividly apparent in the Labour manifesto published before last year's election. The cover photo, which was taken at the party's campaign launch at the Auckland Town Hall, shows Ardern in profile gazing towards the heavens while behind her in the choir stalls sits a sea of clapping supporters. A white light illuminates her face. The deliberate religious undertones are unmistakable.

How long the melding of a religious persona with that of a secular prime minister will preserve her position as the nation's most dominant politician is anyone's guess.

However, reaching the Promised Land can't be delayed forever. The poor will always be with us, as Jesus said, but no one would have imagined in 2017 when Ardern promised her "transformational" policies would wash away tears that by 2021 so many more would have joined their ranks.

Eventually her adherents no matter how fervently they believe in their leader's righteousness will come to see that the fabled destination will always remain out of reach. They are steadily drifting away as it becomes more and more apparent her Government is seriously incompetent in battling the scourges that afflict New Zealand including overburdened infrastructure, crippling house prices and children living in poverty.

While the most recent polls showed support moving to National and Act, the outbreak of Delta may have tipped polling figures more in her favour again, if only temporarily. Certainly, she will be hoping that the revival of her 1pm briefings on Covid from the "podium of truth" where she can reprise her role as New Zealand's saviour will reverse the decline.

However, it looks like it will be a much harder sell than last year. As Judith Collins said, echoing a widespread sentiment: "It is not enough for the Prime Minister to lock us in our homes and speak from the podium once a day. New Zealanders don't need sermons we need vaccines in arms right now."

First published by the Democracy Project.Graham Adams is a journalist, columnist and reviewer who has written for many of the country's media outlets including Metro, North & South, Noted, The Spinoff and Newsroom.

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Graham Adams: Is Jacinda Ardern the Messiah? Or just a very crafty politician? - New Zealand Herald

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has come out and asked the Taliban to be nice to women during this period of upheaval.

Of course!

The Taliban have been brutalising women since their founding in 1994. Why didnt anyone think toaskthem to stop? We dont need armies or weapons just a timely press conference from a socialist dictator presiding over her prison state at the arse-end of the world.

The international community is calling on the Taliban to demonstrate a willingness to allow people to leave, that includes foreign nationals,said Ardern, giving the bearded desert terrorists her sternest glare.

Demonstrate that you are going to be an administration that takes into account the wellbeing of women and girls. The whole world will be watching. Its not a matter of trust, its going to be all about the actions, not the words.

Presumably the actions Ardern is referring to are the Taliban fighters going door-to-door, dragging families onto the street where they are massacred as a warning to others.

Religious zealots acting on the belief that God will reward them for violence and slavery are not interested in the distant bleating of a woman theyve never heard of. Ardern wouldnt last five minutes in Taliban-held Afghanistan, and yet the New Zealand leader appears to be under the impression that the world can do business with a pack of terrorists.

She has probably come to this conclusion because China is moving in to take control of the region.

Afghanistan, which is in a transitional process from a republic into a pre-Stone Age theocracy, is about to become the latest autonomous region under Xi Jinpings command.

Plenty of commentators in the West are cheering on Chinas ambition to occupy Afghanistan, mistakenly thinking that it will tie the empires resources up for decades as it did to Europe and America.

That is an unlikely conclusion.

China has many dubious brides, and the Taliban will make a great arranged marriage. Xi Jinping has endless pockets and zero interest in human rights.

Instead of trying to impose globally recognised morality on the Taliban, China will encourage their depravity so long as they keep the blood and explosions away from their infrastructure projects.

The world can expect China to adorn the Taliban with riches beyond their wildest dreams, leaving the world with a well-resourced religious terror group raining havoc across the globe and destabilising Western democracies while China rapes Afghanistans resources.

The region is home to one of the worlds largest Lithium deposits as well as rich veins of Cobalt, Copper, and Gold. So who knows? Maybe allowing the Taliban to slaughter their way to power is in service of the greater good Net-Zero UN Climate Change goals.

It is doubtful that this alliance will break down until China is finished taking what they want. Then, theyll leave the warring tribes of Islam to continue what theyve always done fight over the scraps of empire.

I would just again implore those who made these moves in recent days to acknowledge what the international community has called for human rights and the safety of their people,continued Ardern, who has obviously missed a lot of memos regarding the Taliban.What we want to see is women and girls being able to access work and education. These things have traditionally not been available to them where there has been governance by Taliban.

Its another one of Arderns detached-from-reality statements. Ardern has been known to don a headscarf to win brownie points with the international socialist diversity and inclusion movement, while actual women under oppressive Islamic rule burn theirs on camera in protest.

While it is safe to say that Ardern is a standard-issue idiot, the Biden administration in the US is not. I say administration because its tough to argue that Biden himself knows whats going on in his own mind, let alone the rest of the world.

The fall of Afghanistan is a favour to China, just as the lifting of sanctions on Tehran was a gift to Xi Jinpings Belt and Road oil pipelines.

Officially, the Talibans allies have included China, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and a scattering of the stans. Many of these also happen to be signatories to Chinas dangerous Shanghai Cooperation Organisation pact of non-interference.

If there is a global conflict on the horizon, a well-armed force of unscrupulous murders with no interest in the rules of engagement would be invaluable to China.

While we watch thousands ofciviliansrush at military jets, desperate to escape the rise of a religious dictatorship, it would be prudent to remember that this is bigger than one nation.

The United Nations is of no use. Their votes were bought over the last decade by Chinas debt-trap diplomacy flipping leaders from Africa to the Pacific. The West might have set it up to prevent socialist dictators from pursuing dreams of global power, but it has become a tool to silence dissent against exactly that goal.

Perhaps Ardern imagines that if she says all the right things, the new world order will give her a little throne to sit on?

A trip to meet the new Taliban administration in person would clear up any confusion she has over their adherence to woke ideology.

Alexandra Marshall is an independent writer. If you would like to support her work, shout her a coffee over atKo-Fi.

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Jacinda Ardern asks the Taliban to be 'nice' to women - The Spectator Australia

"It's going all over the place," said another. "It obviously sucks but we're in level 4 - I think that's the right thing to do."

Kilbirnie's Asian Food Specialist and Pak'nSave are also on the list, plus Air New Zealand flight NZ443 from Auckland to Wellington on Thursday afternoon.

Delta has got people on edge, but it's not too scary for Mayor Andy Foster, who's holding his breath.

"So far it's not too bad, but obviously time is going to tell," he said.

At least one of the positive cases travelled from Auckland to Wellington in a private car. They stopped four times along the way - in Tokoroa, Waiouru's service station and public toilets, and Bulls.

Contact tracers have their work cut out for them.

"The majority of those contacts are located in the Auckland and Waikato regions, with small proportion in other areas of the rest of North Island and South Island," said Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay.

The Director-General of Health was alerted to the first Wellington cases before 9am on Friday, but there were no locations of interest on the Ministry of Health website until after 6pm that night.

"It's been very frustrating waiting for these additional locations to be made public," says Mayor Foster.

But Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says getting those locations of interest can be "iterative", and says it's a balancing act of putting out information accurately and quickly.

One of the locations is Countdown in Johnsonville, where last night shoppers were told to leave immediately so it could close for a deep clean.

"We were told to drop what we had and start walking out, and yeah, I was in a bit of a shock afterwards," said shopper Daniel Borrie.

Johnsonville's 1841 bar is another location of interest.

"A 400-gram sirloin [steak] and a beer for $25 has proven too much of a lure for some people - here we are," said owner Jono.

Testing sites were busy on Saturday, as people scrambled to get swabbed in the hopes they can wave goodbye to the virus in this region soon.

Queues were under control though as more pop-up testing centres were set up, including at Te Papa, Sky Stadium and in Hataitai.

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COVID-19: Jacinda Ardern defends pace locations of interest are released to public after Wellington Mayor criticism - Newshub

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Wednesday compulsory mask use for New Zealanders aged 12 and over while visiting essential services currently open during alert level 4 like supermarkets, pharmacies and service stations.

But some confusion has reigned over whether we should be donning masks while exercising outdoors on walks and runs, especially if practising social distancing from others.

Now we know: You don't have to wear a face mask during strenuous outdoor exercise, but you must practice physical distancing of at least 2m from others during these times.

In Thursday's press conference, Ardern and Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield addressed the uncertainty.

"We have not mandated mask use for exercise outdoors in level 4 - our general advice is when you go out, wear a mask," said Ardern.

"But we also want to be practical about [it]... someone, for instance, may be engaging in a very strenuous run where wearing a mask might become difficult - I couldn't speak to personal experience [on that]."

Ardern said in "those circumstances" practising "good, decent social distancing" is a must.

"We know from other countries with Delta that just walking past someone is a risk," she said.

"So generally when you leave the house, wear a mask...but we will be practical there."

Bloomfield pointed to the recent investigation into a case of COVID-19 transmission at Auckland's Jet Park quarantine facility, which was likely caused by room doors being opened simultaneously for just seconds at the same time.

"So we know it can be a very transient exposure," he added.

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Should we be wearing masks while exercising? Jacinda Ardern, Ashley Bloomfield respond to confusion - Newshub

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND - Cheryl Simpson was supposed to be celebrating her 60th birthday over lunch with friends but instead found herself confined to her Auckland home.

The discovery of a single local COVID-19 case in New Zealand was enough for the government to put the entire country into strict lockdown this past week. While others might see that as draconian, New Zealanders generally support such measures because they worked so well in the past.

"I'm happy to go into lockdown, even though I don't like it," said Simpson, owner of a day care center for dogs that is now closed because of the precautions. She said she wants the country to crush the latest outbreak: "I'd like to knock the bloody thing on the head."

Elsewhere around the Pacific, though, Japan is resisting such measures in the face of a record-breaking surge, instead emphasizing its accelerating vaccine program. And Australia has fallen somewhere in the middle.

All three countries got through the first year of the pandemic in relatively good shape but are now taking diverging paths in dealing with outbreaks of the delta variant, the highly contagious form that has contributed to a growing sense that the coronavirus cannot be stamped out, just managed.

Professor Michael Baker, an epidemiologist at New Zealand's University of Otago, said countries around the world are struggling to adapt to the latest threat: "With the delta variant, the old rules just don't work."

The differing emphasis on lockdowns versus vaccines and how effective such strategies prove to be in beating back the delta variant could have far-reaching consequences for the three countries' economies and the health of their citizens.

Japan has never imposed lockdowns against the coronavirus. The public is wary of government overreach after the country's fascist period before and during World War II, and Japan's postwar constitution lays out strict protections for civil liberties.

Before the delta variant, the country managed to keep a lid on coronavirus outbreaks in part because many people in Japan were already used to wearing surgical masks for protection from spring allergies or when they caught colds.

Now, almost everyone on public transportation wears a mask during commuting hours. But late at night, people tend to uncover in restaurants and bars, which has allowed the variant to spread. Hosting the Tokyo Olympic Games didn't help either.

While strict protocols kept infections inside the games to a minimum, experts such as Dr. Shigeru Omi, a key medical adviser to the government, say the Olympics created a festive air that led people in Japan to lower their guard.

New cases in Japan have this month leaped to 25,000 each day, more than triple the highest previous peak. Omi considers that a disaster.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Friday expanded and extended a state of emergency covering Tokyo and other areas until at least mid-September, though most of the restrictions aren't legally enforceable.

Many governors are urging the prime minister to consider much tougher restrictions. But Suga said lockdowns have been flouted around the world, and vaccines are "the way to go."

Daily vaccinations in Japan increased tenfold from May to June as thousands of worksites and colleges began offering shots, but a slow start has left the nation playing catch-up. Only about 40% of people are fully vaccinated.

In Australia, a delta outbreak hit Sydney in June, after an unvaccinated limousine driver became infected while transporting a U.S. cargo air crew from the Sydney Airport. State authorities hesitated for 10 days before imposing lockdown measures across Sydney that have now dragged on for two months.

Early in the pandemic, Australia's federal government imposed just one nationwide lockdown. Now, amid the delta outbreak, it is pursuing a strategy it calls aggressive suppression including strict controls on Australians leaving the country and foreigners entering but is essentially letting state leaders call the shots.

New infections in Sydney have climbed from just a few each week before the latest outbreak to more than 800 a day.

"It's not possible to eliminate it completely. We have to learn to live with it," Gladys Berejiklian, premier of Sydney's New South Wales state, said in what many interpreted as a significant retreat from the determination state leaders have previously shown to crush outbreaks entirely.

"That is why we have a dual strategy in New South Wales," Berejiklian said. "Get those case numbers down, vaccination rates up. We have to achieve bothin order forus to live freely into the future."

The outbreak in Sydney has spilled over into the capital, Canberra, which has also gone into lockdown. Government worker Matina Carbone wore a mask while shopping on Friday.

"I don't know that anyone's ever going to really beat delta," she said. "I think we just have to try and increase our rates of vaccinations and slowly open things up when we think it's safe to do so."

But Australia lags far behind even Japan in getting people inoculated, with just 23% of people fully vaccinated.

Last year, soon after the pandemic first hit, neighboring New Zealand imposed a strict, nationwide lockdown and closed its border to non-residents. That wiped out the virus completely. The country of 5 millionhasbeen able to vanquish each outbreak since, recording just 26 virus deaths.

It went six months without a single locally spread case, allowing people to go about their daily lives much as they had before the pandemic.

But this month, the Sydney outbreak spread to New Zealand, carried by a returning traveler.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern promptly imposed the strictest form of lockdown.

By Sunday, the number of locally spread cases in New Zealand had grown to 72, and the virus had reached the capital, Wellington. Officials raced to track 10,000 more people who might have been exposed.

Ardern has been steadfast.

"We have been here before. We know the elimination strategy works. Cases rise, and then they fall, until we have none," she said. "It's tried and true. We just need to stick it out."

Baker, the epidemiologist, said he believes it is still possible for New Zealand to wipe out the virus again by pursuing the "burning ember" approach of taking drastic measures to stamp out the first sign of an outbreak.

That remains to be seen.

New Zealand doesn't have much of a Plan B. A recent report by expert advisers to the government noted the nation has comparatively few intensive care hospital beds and said an outbreak could quickly overwhelm the health system.

And New Zealand has been the slowest developed nation to put shots in arms, with just 20% of people fully vaccinated.

Excerpt from:

Lockdowns or Vaccines? 3 Pacific Nations Try Diverging Paths - VOA Asia

An RNZAF Hercules at Whenuapai Airbase prepared for a mercy flight to Afghanistan. Photo / Michael Craig

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern warns a mercy dash to Kabul to rescue New Zealanders and Afghan allies might not be able to evacuate everyone they want to.

It comes as the situation in the Afghanistan capital worsens, just days after the Taliban reclaimed control of the country after a 20-year war.

"I am concerned that because of the situation on the ground, that we do need to start working on what the next stage will be, because it does not look like we're going to get everyone out that we want to get out," Ardern said on Saturday.

"There is a certain window everyone is using, to use the secure space available at Kabul airport, but it is an entirely separate issue people's ability to connect safely with the airport."

On Friday it was confirmed the first New Zealanders trapped in Afghanistan since the Taliban dramatically took power have been whisked out of the country on a mercy dash.

American soldiers and other Nato allies are in control of security inside the airport.

But with the Taliban controlling checkpoints in and out of Kabul airport, access has been "extremely difficult", the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade acknowledges.

As disturbing images continue to come in from outside Kabul airport, where thousands of desperate Afghans have been trying to flocking to since the Taliban took control of the war-torn country on Sunday, the New Zealand Government made the urgent decision to send help.

Officials have been contacting individuals stuck in Afghanistan and making arrangements to try to get them out.

A Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) C-130 Hercules aircraft flew out of RNZAF Base Auckland Thursday morning on a mercy dash to Kabul to rescue New Zealanders, interpreters, and others who worked with Kiwi troops fighting the Taliban.

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MFAT says it is aware of 161 New Zealanders and their families in Afghanistan who are eligible to enter New Zealand, "many of whom we are providing consular support".

Staff are also assisting a small number of people who the Government has determined as having worked alongside NZDF, including interpreters, and those who materially assisted in the Operation Burnham inquiry and on police and aid missions.

Ardern said on Saturday New Zealand was working with its partners who were assisting the New Zealand effort now, and New Zealand staff would assist others once they arrived.

"I don't believe we arrived too late. It is an international effort, not just uplifting our people. We are working closely together to pick up one another's citizens and Afghani nationals."

According to the United Nations' refugee agency, about 250,000 Afghans have been forced to flee their homes since late May, most of them women and children.

Both Canada and the United Kingdom have pledged to take in 20,000 Afghan refugees, but Ardern said New Zealand would not yet be making a decision on that.

New Zealand was looking to further increase its refugee quota, but it was too soon to say what the Afghani makeup would be, she said.

"This will be an area where there will be a large number of refugees in the future and that is something we will work through."

Per head of population, New Zealand has one of the lowest rates of refugee acceptance in the world even after the current Government increased the annual refugee quota by 500.

It accepts 1500 refugees a year - or about 0.3 refugees per 1000 people. This ranks New Zealand 95th in the world.

Similar-sized countries like Norway and Ireland accept 11.29 and 1.22 refugees per 1000 residents, ranking them 15th and 69th respectively.

National Party foreign affairs spokesman Gerry Brownlee said it was a "chaotic situation" and not fair to say if anybody should have acted sooner.

"Intelligence clearly was that Kabul would not fall and there would be time for an arrangement with the Taliban.

"It is a horrible situation. I do not think we are able to say anything should have been done sooner, it is just a mess."

On refugees, Brownlee said it would be "some time" before agencies were able to figure out where Afghan people would fall in the international refugee programme.

There were already about 20 million people displaced around the world.

"If you just go to the latest hotspot then you are leaving out others who have been in that situation longer."

More here:

Fall of Afghanistan: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says NZ unlikely to rescue 'everyone we want to' - New Zealand Herald

The whole of New Zealand will be plunged into a three-day lockdown from Wednesday after one case of COVID-19 was detected in Auckland.The largest city in New Zealand and the coastal town of Coromandel, where the case was found, will be placed under lockdown for an extended seven days.

The drastic response comes despite it being the first positive case of coronavirus in the community since February.

Ms Ardern will close schools, businesses and vaccination centres, with only essential shops being allowed to open.

GB News presenter Dan Wootton has condemned the decision and accused Ms Ardern of adopting a strategy of Zero Covid fantasy.

The New Zealander tweeted: New Zealand has just been plunged into a nationwide lockdown with all vaccinations cancelled because of one Covid case.

Thats right, ONE case of a virus we all know we have to learn to live with.

Jacinda Arderns Zero Covid fantasy is nothing short of a never ending nightmare.

Political commentator and senior UK parliamentary assistant, Bella Wallersteiner, urged the people of New Zealand to reject the draconian measures.

She tweeted: All of New Zealand is going into a lockdown because of ONE Covid case Sanctimonious Jacinda Ardern has lost the plot.

Zero Covid is an authoritarian fantasy. If lockdown were the answer, Covid would have been eliminated 17 months ago.

New Zealanders should resist this madness!

Meanwhile, another disgruntled user on the platform simply wrote: Confirmation she completely lost the plot.

New Zealand's Ardern locks down nation over single COVID-19 case. One. Single. Case. Lockdown.

READ MORE:Brexit LIVE: Boris handed six-point blueprint by expert

"While we know that Delta is a more dangerous enemy to combat, the same actions that overcome the virus last year can be applied to beat it again."

Restrictions in New Zealand come into force at level 4 the highest level in the country.

Ms Ardern added: We have made decisions on the basis that it is better to start high and go down levels rather than start too low, not contain the virus and see it move quickly.

"We've seen overseas, particularly in Sydney, unnecessary trips outdoors have spread the virus and communities have not been able to get on top of it.

So I ask New Zealanders to please follow the rules to the letter."

New Zealand has reported around 2,500 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 26 related deaths since the start of the global Covid crisis.

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Jacinda Ardern fury as NZ in lockdown after ONE Covid case: 'Never-ending nightmare' - Daily Express