Number of physicians yearning for a move has increased substantially since the Covid-19 pandemic, recruitment firms say
When Dalilah Restrepo, then a New York-based physician, clicked on an email in 2018 asking if she was “looking for experiencing something abroad”, she was sceptical. “And then I opened it, and I was like … New Zealand? Gosh, that’s a bit drastic.”
Restrepo, who had been in private practice for “10 or 11 years”, was exhausted.
Continue reading...Judith Collins has the look of a defeated woman as Labour heads to likely victory
Long time no see. Jacinda Ardern left it late, but turned up at last night’s fourth and final debate of the election campaign as the prime minister. Ghostly versions of herself made weird, kind of shifty appearances in the previous three debates. God she was terrible, an anxious mess, uptight, easily thrown, unable to say anything memorable or with much conviction. She got better or at least less terrible as the debates dragged on and last night, back at the TVNZ studios where the series began, she was in the ascendant. She looked like she knew what she was doing. She looked like herself.
Who was the person sitting beside her in the mauve lights of the studio, though? Someone who only had a faint resemblance to the National leader, Judith Collins, someone who looked like she had the fight taken out of her and had nothing left to give. God, it was sad to witness. It’s a lie that it’s lonely at the top. It’s a lot lonelier at the bottom, and that’s where Collins seems right now at the end of a campaign that has turned into a nightmare, with the prospect of a sound thrashing on Saturday.
Continue reading...The voices of Cathy Ang, John Cho and Sandra Oh star in this K-poppy, trippy fantasy about a girl who builds a rocket and flies to the moon
Watch your back, Disney; here comes Netflix in Hollywood studio mode, flexing its ambition with an animated family fantasy adventure about a sunny, 13-year-old girl called Fei Fei who flies to the moon in a homemade rocket. It’s a film for the globalised 21st century (and presumably Netflix’s global audience): a Chinese story directed by an American – the veteran Disney animator Glen Keane – and voiced in English by actors of (mostly) east Asian heritage.
Cathy Ang is Fei Fei, who is horrified when her dad (John Cho) brings home a new girlfriend (Sandra Oh) four years after her mum’s death. Fei Fei is a true believer in the mythical goddess Chang’e, who is said to languish on the moon, pining for her mortal lover. Our heroine reasons that if she can prove Chang’e and eternal love really do exist, her dad will have to chuck his girlfriend and devote himself to the memory of her mumThus, as a science whizz, she builds a spaceship. It’s a contrived plot but Keane’s character design is beautifully expressive, adding real emotional force – Fei Fei’s face scrunched in anguish when she realises her dad plans to remarry is very touching.
Continue reading...Leader says she will resign if not re-elected but polls show Labour 15 points ahead
Jacinda Ardern has dominated the final leaders’ debate before New Zealand goes to the polls on Saturday, appearing confident and prime ministerial as she took on a subdued Judith Collins.
In a surprise admission, Ardern said if she was not re-elected, she would resign as Labour leader.
Continue reading...Government declares ‘severe’ state of emergency in Bangkok with protest leaders arrested
Tens of thousands of people, including high-school students, gathered in Bangkok on Thursday, defying a ban announced as part of a crackdown on pro-democracy protests.
Thailand’s prime minister declared a “severe” state of emergency in the capital overnight, as police arrested more than 20 people, including prominent student leaders who have called for monarchy reform. By Thursday afternoon, crowds ignored the ban to assemble at one of the city’s busiest intersections, Ratchaprasong, where they chanted “release our friends” and called police “slaves of dictatorship”.
Continue reading...The ‘yes’ campaign has Jacinda Ardern’s support but opponents say they believe New Zealand’s most vulnerable will be at risk
On Saturday, New Zealanders will be asked to vote yes or no on whether Kiwis enduring “unbearable suffering that cannot be eased” have a legal right to end their life.
For Matt Vickers, the former husband of lawyer and euthanasia campaigner Lecretia Seales, the vote can’t come soon enough.
Continue reading...People call for reforms to monarchy and resignation of prime minister during king’s visit
Thai pro-democracy protesters chanted “my taxes” and raised a symbolic three-finger salute at a passing royal motorcade in a historic show of defiance against the country’s monarchy.
Thousands of people took to the streets of Bangkok on Wednesday to call for democratic reforms, including curbs on the power and wealth of the monarchy. Royalist supporters mounted counterprotests, saying they had assembled to welcome King Maha Vajiralongkorn, who is attending a ceremony in Bangkok to mark the end of Buddhist Lent.
Continue reading...The Guardian follows Parit Chiwarak, known as Penguin, one of Thailand's prominent protest leaders as he helps organise one of the biggest anti-government rallies in years. He and many other young people are risking prison to demand a significant democratic overhaul: they want the power and wealth of the monarchy curbed. Parit said he already faced 18 charges, including sedition, for his involvement in previous demonstrations. More rallies are expected in Bangkok on Wednesday
The country’s MMP electoral system was designed to give more diverse voices entry to parliament
Coalition governments – regarded with horror in many other democracies – have become the norm in New Zealand since the country shifted to the MMP electoral system in 1996, ditching the British “first past the post” system.
MMP – mixed-member proportional – was designed to allow more diverse voices entry to parliament, and award more power to smaller parties in an attempt to dilute the hold that the Labour and National parties had on government.
Continue reading...Scientists’ verdict on £12bn system has refocused attention on what is working elsewhere in cutting Covid-19 transmission rates
The newly released assessment by the UK government’s scientific advisers that the £12bn test and trace programme “is having a marginal impact” in reducing Covid-19 transmission has refocused attention on how other countries are faring with their regimes.
Since test-and-trace programmes were first mooted around the world at the outset of the pandemic – including monitoring via apps or hardware – they have been beset by issues of privacy and public support over both downloading and using apps and also with a wider willingness to abide by isolation measures.
Continue reading...Bar-tailed godwit flies more than 12,000km from Alaska to New Zealand in 11 days
A bird said to have the aerodynamic build of a “jet fighter” has been tracked flying more than 12,000km (7,500 miles) from Alaska to New Zealand, setting a new world record for avian non-stop flight.
The bar-tailed godwit set off from south-west Alaska on 16 September and arrived in a bay near Auckland 11 days later, having flown at speeds of up to 55mph.
Continue reading...Boyband member RM told award ceremony they would always remember sacrifices of US and South Korea in war
K-pop phenomenon BTS are facing a barrage of criticism in China after the South Korean boyband cited their country’s solidarity with the US stemming from the Korean war.
The band’s leader, RM, sparked outrage on social media in China when he cited the “history of pain” shared between South Korea and the US, who fought alongside each other in the 1950-53 conflict.
Continue reading...Opposition leader, who has been on the brink of power several times, claims to have enough support to lead, but doubts persist
Malaysia’s opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, will at last be granted an audience with the king on Tuesday, a meeting his supporters hope could lead to the culmination of his decades-long quest to lead the country.
Anwar stated last month that he had majority support from lawmakers required to form a new government, but an earlier meeting was postponed because the king was in poor health.
Continue reading...As far as polling booth drama goes, Aotearoa’s election has so far yielded none – but early voters are quite keen on the fragrant hand sanitiser
They arrive carrying their own pens. They stop for a dollop of pleasantly lemon-scented hand sanitiser as they enter and exit polling places. And they are turning up to vote ahead of election day in record numbers.
As far as polling booth drama goes, New Zealand’s election has so far yielded none: just the calm, orderly process of 1.15 million people casting early votes – nearly double the number who had voted by this time in advance of the 2017 election.
Continue reading...Diners paid up to £360 to eat onboard in latest sign of public appetite for aircraft experience
Diners have rushed to pay up to £360 per head to eat a meal on a stationary plane, in the latest sign of public appetite to recreate the onboard experience without travelling.
Singapore Airlines launched a waiting list after tickets rapidly sold out for two weekends of sittings onboard two stationary A380 superjumbos, with meals at seats and the chance to watch a movie, albeit no longer in-flight.
Continue reading...The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, became emotional during a speech at a military parade marking the 75th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers' party. Kim removed his glasses and wiped away tears in an indication, analysts say, of mounting pressure on his regime. He said his 'efforts and devotion' had not been enough to help all North Koreans
Rights campaigners voice concerns as Cuba and Pakistan also expected to be elected
China, Russia, Cuba, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are expected to be elected to the board of the UN human rights council on Tuesday, leaving human rights campaigners in the countries aghast and pleading with EU states to commit to withholding their support.
The Geneva-based monitoring NGO UN Watch described the situation as the equivalent of allowing five convicted arsonists to join the fire brigade.
Continue reading...Danish film-maker Mads Brügger’s latest documentary is an absurdly brave look at Kim Jong-un’s regime that has all the intrigue of a spy thriller
Physically, Ulrich Larsen doesn’t stand out. Polite, unassuming, his unmemorable 44-year-old face is how I imagine an efit template might be, what you start with before you add distinguishing features. You get to decide who he is. Perfect for blending in. Or infiltrating the world’s most secretive regime perhaps, which, as it happens, is what he did. Larsen is “the Mole”.
Jim Latrache-Qvortrup is the opposite. Forty-eight, big, bold, bearded, inked, with an expensive-looking set of teeth and an explosive laugh. Ex-military? Better still, he joined the French Foreign Legion at 19. Crime? Tick; he spent eight years in jail for drug dealing. International arms dealer, buying stinger missiles from North Korea for anyone who will have them? Actually no, but he does a very good job of pretending to be one, hardly has to act at all in fact. Latrache-Qvortrup is “Mr James”.
Continue reading...Carrie Lam to consult Beijing in attempt to protect city’s status as international finance hub
Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, has postponed a key annual policy address scheduled for Wednesday, claiming she must consult Beijing on some of her proposals.
The unprecedented delay to the speech was also attributed to plans by the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, to visit Shenzhen to mark the 40th anniversary of the special economic zone on Wednesday, which was announced only on Monday and which Lam would also attend.
Continue reading...Thomas Morel-Fort went undercover to capture the lives of undocumented workers toiling inside the Paris and Côte d’Azur homes of the wealthy
At first glance, French photographer Thomas Morel-Fort’s work has all the trappings of a modern-day fairytale: princesses in lavish Parisian mansions; holidays in hilltop villas on the Côte d’Azur; promises of wealth and prosperity.
But his photographs reveal a grittier reality. Morel-Fort’s lens instead alights on the unseen Cinderellas, the Filipino women hired to cook, clean, iron, babysit and obey any commands that come their way, completely beholden to the whims of their demanding, powerful employers.
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