International
New Zealand PM announces China trade visit
New Zealand Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins announced on Monday a visit to China later this month aimed at boosting trade ties, despite deepening concerns about Beijing’s actions in the Pacific.
“Today I can announce that I’ll be leading a major trade delegation to China at the end of this month,” Hipkins said.
With stops in Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai, it will be the first visit to China by a New Zealand leader since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
It is not yet clear whether he will meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, and an exact date has not yet been announced.
Almost a quarter of New Zealand’s export earnings come from China, making it one of the Western nations most dependent on ties with Beijing.
“Our trade links, underpinned by our recently upgraded free trade agreement, have proven incredibly resilient in recent years,” Hipkins said.
He added that ties with China were among the nation’s most “significant, wide-ranging and complex”.
That close relationship, coupled with aggressive Chinese efforts to develop influence and leverage in New Zealand, has long worried Wellington’s allies.
Hipkins expressed hope that the relationship would remain “stable and consistent”, while vowing to raise issues of concern when necessary.
“Where we have human rights concerns we will raise them, where we have concerns around trade or any other policy issue we will raise those,” he said.
New Zealand has in the past been notably less critical of Chinese influence operations overseas — as well as its threats to Taiwan and its crackdowns in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and elsewhere — than its allies in Washington or Canberra.
Hipkins also announced on Monday that he would be visiting Brussels in the coming weeks and would attend a NATO summit in Lithuania — a nod to the importance of New Zealand’s relationships with fellow democracies.
With New Zealand’s economy slowing and an election planned for October, Hipkins is under pressure to juice the economy.
GDP growth is forecast to come in at a slender one percent this year.
New Zealand currently exports large quantities of wood, meat and dairy products to China, but Hipkins said he wanted to diversify exports to include things like video game-related products.
AFP
International
Trump Pardons 1,500 Political Prisoners
Trump said at a White House signing ceremony that he had granted “full pardons” to more than 1,500 defendants. “We hope they come out tonight, frankly,” he said
US President Donald Trump granted pardons on Monday to more than 1,500 of his supporterswho stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a bid to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
A total of 1,583 people were charged in connection with the assault on Congress by Trump supporters seeking to disrupt the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory.
Trump, just hours after he took office, also ordered that all pending criminal cases against Capitol riot defendants be dropped.
Among those receiving a pardon was Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the far-right Proud Boys, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for directing a military-style assault on the Capitol.
Stewart Rhodes, the leader of another far-right group, the Oath Keepers, had his 18-year prison sentence commuted to time served.
Both Tarrio and Rhodes had been convicted of seditious conspiracy. Describing the rioters as “hostages,”
Trump said at a White House signing ceremony that he had granted “full pardons” to more than 1,500 defendants. “We hope they come out tonight, frankly,” he said.
An incoming White House official announced that the incoming US president, Donald Trump, would order the US government to recognise only two biological sexes.
This ccomes ahead of the presidential inauguration on Monday.
According to the official, it is the policy of the United States to recognise two sexes: male and female.
“What we’re doing today is defining that it is the policy of the United States to recognise two sexes: male and female,” the official stated.
Similarly, Trump said he would eliminate federal government diversity programmes as he takes office.
“The Department of the Treasury — this was a little while ago now — included diversity training that said all white people, regardless of how ‘woke’ they are, contribute to racism.
So, this type of funding, we’re going to end. These diversity programmes, we’re going to end them,” the official said.
Donald Trump has been sworn in as the 47th President of the United States.
Trump was sworn in at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.
The day began with Trump and the First Lady, Melania attending services at St. John’s Church, marking the start of the official inauguration activities.
Despite legal challenges, including an indictment and an FBI raid at his Mar-a-Lago residence, Trump’s supporters celebrated his return to office.
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