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    New Zealand Defeats Ardern’s Party, Electing Conservative Coalition

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    The rightward shift came as voters punished the party once led by Jacinda Ardern for failing to deliver the transformational change that it had promised.After an election campaign of fits and starts, in which neither major party appeared to offer much solace to a weary nation, voters in New Zealand on Saturday ousted the party once led by Jacinda Ardern and elected the country’s most right-wing government in a generation, handing victory to a coalition of two conservative parties.New Zealand’s next prime minister will be Christopher Luxon, a former chief executive of Air New Zealand, whose center-right National Party will lead a coalition with Act, a smaller libertarian party.Addressing a euphoric crowd at his party’s victory event on Auckland’s waterfront, Mr. Luxon thanked supporters and promised a better and more stable future for the country.“Our government will deliver for every New Zealander,” he said, to whoops and cheers. “We will rebuild the economy and deliver tax relief.”The rightward drift ended six years of the Labour government that was dominated by Ms. Ardern, who stepped down early this year.“She’s probably the most consequential prime minister we’ve had since David Lange,” the Labour leader who came to power in 1984, “and, from an international point of view, most charismatic,” said Bernard Hickey, an economic and political commentator in Auckland, New Zealand. “But this election is the landmark of her failure.”For many voters, Ms. Ardern and her successor, Chris Hipkins, failed to deliver on the Labour Party’s promise of transformational change. In the weeks leading up to the election, New Zealanders, buffeted by the currents of global inflation and its larger Asia Pacific neighbors’ economic woes, overwhelmingly cited cost of living as the primary concern driving their vote.The coalition is a return to form for New Zealand, which since moving to a system of proportional representation in 1993 has had only one single-party government — the Labour government elected in 2020 under Ms. Ardern. But it is the first time National, which last governed alone in the early 1980s, has been in coalition with a more conservative partner.With most of the vote counted, support for the Labour Party, which won 50 percent of the vote in 2020, buoyed by the country’s strong response to the coronavirus pandemic, has collapsed to 27 percent. The National Party won 39 percent of the vote, up from 26 percent in 2020. Among the smaller parties, the Green Party took 11 percent of the vote, and Act won 9 percent. But those results could shift slightly after “special” votes were counted, including those of overseas New Zealanders. That could potentially force Act and National into coalition with New Zealand First, a longtime kingmaker that played a role in Ms. Ardern’s ascent, to push the right-wing coalition over the halfway mark.Addressing party members in Wellington, Mr. Hipkins said he had conceded the election to Mr. Luxon and celebrated Labour’s accomplishments on alleviating child poverty and navigating New Zealand through the coronavirus pandemic, the Christchurch massacres and the White Island volcano eruption.“We will keep fighting for working people, because that is our history and our future,” he said.Voters waiting for their ballots at a voting center in Wellington on Saturday.Ivan Tarlton/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe National Party had campaigned on a platform of tax cuts, saying it would offer relief to ordinary families. Critics have questioned the funding for those cuts, which rely heavily on foreign ownership of New Zealand property, and some have said that they disproportionately favor some 300 New Zealand landlords while cutting benefits for disabled people.Inflation, which was at 6 percent in July compared with 6.7 percent one year earlier, appears to be easing, according to the most recent government data, though New Zealanders will most likely endure pain for some time to come, as the country weathers high house and rent prices, a high cost of borrowing and the effects of global shocks.“When it comes to the economy,” said Grant Duncan, a political scientist in Auckland, “we’re a cork bobbing around on an ocean.”The new National-led government, despite being more conservative, was unlikely to make significant changes on many social issues, said Ben Thomas, a former press secretary for the National Party.“Nobody wants to re-litigate abortion or homosexual marriage,” he said. “Unlike the States, where there’s a constant battle to try and roll back progressive legislation, the conservative tradition in New Zealand is ‘We’ve always gone just about far enough.’”But Act may seek to push policy priorities of its own, including a referendum to reconsider the role New Zealand’s Indigenous Maori people play in policymaking.“What they actually want is a referendum which defines away any kind of standing or rights guaranteed to Maori by the Treaty,” Mr. Thomas said, referring to an 1840 agreement that governs New Zealand legislation to this day.He added: “What you might broadly call racial tensions — over race and policy, Maori policy, Treaty policy — are greater than at any point since 2005.”At the same time, the country was still contending with a multibillion dollar recovery from Cyclone Gabrielle, which in February devastated swaths of the country’s North Island, exposing dangerous infrastructure fault lines, said Craig Renney, an economist for the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions.The National Party had not announced any plans for how it would manage New Zealand’s climate vulnerabilities, Mr. Renney said.“Where are we going to be in six years’ time? What are we going to do to tackle some of the really big issues, be it climate change, renting, employment security?” he said. “Those things haven’t been being debated, because the country is tired.”It was unclear whether the new government could easily solve these and other problems, said Dr. Duncan, the political scientist.“I’m not saying they’re going to do a bad job,” he said. “I just don’t have any confidence in them doing a better job.” More

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      What to Know About the New Zealand Election

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      Voters head to the polls this weekend in an election that is likely to show a rightward and populist shift in the country’s politics.New Zealanders are exhausted. Their pocketbooks are threadbare, the dog years of the pandemic have dragged on, and there is a strong sense that the country has never been further off track.And so, when they head to the polls on Saturday, polls show, most will vote to punish the governing center-left Labour Party, which under Jacinda Ardern won a historic majority just three years ago.“There’s a real vibe around of tiredness, frustration,” said Bernard Hickey, an economic commentator. When New Zealanders last went to the polls, they were celebrating their coronavirus wins. From 2021, he said, “it was all downhill.”The opposition center-right National Party is therefore expected to form the next government with some smaller parties, despite what critics describe as a lack of vision for many of the country’s more vexatious issues.Still, New Zealand’s proportional voting system could deliver last-minute twists, and New Zealand First, a small and populist party known for opposing immigration and supporting retirees, may once again become kingmaker, as it did in 2017.Here’s how the campaign has played out, and what to watch for in Saturday’s results.Who are the main candidates?The incumbent leader is Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, who took over from Ms. Ardern early this year and who has spent the penultimate week of the campaign stuck in a hotel room with Covid. Their Labour Party has been in power since 2017.Ms. Ardern’s legacy hangs heavy over New Zealand, where many now ignore her world-leading pandemic response, Mr. Hickey said.“She was a prime minister, who, however you look at it, managed a crisis fairly well,” he said. “And now she’s one of the most reviled politicians in the country, and she can’t walk down the street without protection.”Ms. Ardern, who is pursuing a fellowship at Harvard University, has mostly stayed out of the race. But the “transformational change” that she campaigned on in 2017 has failed to materialize, and many New Zealanders blame her and her party for the difficulties they face, such as inflation or higher mortgage payments.Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, the incumbent leader, took over from Jacinda Ardern in January. He represents the center-left Labour Party.Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesThe main challenger is the National Party’s Christopher Luxon, a former chief executive of Air New Zealand, the country’s national airline, who was elected to Parliament for the first time in 2020.Though Mr. Luxon leads Mr. Hipkins as potential voters’ preferred prime minister, he has mostly failed to energize voters, who see him as bland or corporate.“People are saying that they feel there’s not much difference between the two Chrises,” said Grant Duncan, an independent political scientist and commentator.What are pollsters predicting?With voters scurrying to smaller parties, the National Party was expected to garner 34 percent of the vote, according to a Guardian Essential poll released this week, to Labour’s 30 percent.Mr. Luxon is likely to lead the next government with support from Act, a right-wing libertarian party, and from New Zealand First, which helped catapult Ms. Ardern into the prime minister’s office in 2017.There is a very slim chance of a Labour-led coalition government with Te Pati Maori, the country’s Indigenous rights party, and the Green Party. (Mr. Hipkins has said he will not work with New Zealand First.)What are New Zealanders voting on?Cost-of-living issues, as in many other comparable economies, dominate at the polls.“It may or may not be the government’s fault,” said Ben Thomas, a former press secretary for the National Party, “but it’s the government’s problem.”To battle inflation, New Zealand’s independent central bank has raised rates to a 15-year high of 5.5 percent. That has inflicted considerable pain on homeowners, most of whom are subject to floating mortgage rates. New home loans command rates of at least 7 percent, more than three times what they were in 2020, and many expect rates to go even higher.Inflation remains high, even as it slowed to 6 percent in July compared with 6.7 percent in the same month a year earlier, according to the most recent government data. Food prices jumped 12.3 percent over the same period.New home loans in New Zealand have risen sharply in the past few years, now commanding rates of at least 7 percent.Ruth McDowall for The New York TimesThe proposed solutions from both major parties — like the tax and benefit cuts from the National Party, or the targeted subsidies and financial support from Labour — are unlikely to provide widespread relief, analysts say.“The electoral numbers will fall on what is basically two estranged parents doing a bidding war over pocket money,” Mr. Thomas said.A spate of unusual violent crime and “ram raids” — when a vehicle is driven into the windows of a store so it can be robbed — has haunted voters. The National Party has sought to seize the issue, promising to reintroduce the youth boot camps that the country has previously tried and abandoned.Race has also emerged as an issue. New Zealand has longstanding arrangements with Maori, its Indigenous people, many of which are governed by an 1840 treaty. But some New Zealanders say these go too far. Act, the libertarian party run by David Seymour, has promised a referendum on “co-governance,” the practice of including Maori in policy decisions — a vow that has prompted widespread allegations from the left of racism. Act rejects those claims, saying it just wants equal rights for all citizens.What comes next?New Zealand’s other economic problems — which include an aging population, a crumbling health service, inadequate infrastructure and an economy reliant on dairy and other food exports that is set to be tested by extreme weather events — have defied the efforts of successive governments, said Craig Renney, an economist for the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions.“We still have an economy which, structurally, is a commodity-exporting, low-wage economy,” Mr. Renney said, “supported by a giant housing market where we sell houses to each other.”There is a particular antipathy toward public spending to solve those problems, even as the liabilities of not acting continue to climb, he added. “We have a national debt that is the envy of every developed country in the world,” he said, “yet we have this insistence that there is a debt crisis just around the corner.”Despite these challenges, New Zealand’s trajectory was largely positive, said Shamubeel Eaqub, a New Zealand-based economist. “I’m optimistic about New Zealand,” he said. “I’m not optimistic about our politics.”And while New Zealanders may approach Saturday’s vote with a sense of irritability, after an election campaign that has been characterized by mudslinging and small-target campaigning, there have been few allegations of the misinformation or antidemocratic behaviors that have bedeviled elections elsewhere in the world.“In New Zealand, we don’t stop and think, ‘If you look at all of the indicators and league tables around the world, we’re actually one of the best-governed countries on earth,’ ” said Dr. Duncan, the political scientist. “But if you actually tried to say it to most New Zealanders, they’ll ask you, ‘What are you on?’” More

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      New Zealand Election: After Ardern, a ‘Scary Time’ for Women in Politics

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      Three years after Ms. Ardern won a resounding victory for her Labour Party, the nation will vote in a very different political landscape.The last time New Zealanders voted in a general election, they were choosing between two women who were self-professed feminists. Three years later, in a sign of how sharply the pendulum has swung, they will pick between two men named Chris.Ahead of next month’s polls, and 130 years after New Zealand became the first country to grant women the vote, the political landscape is in many ways unrecognizable from the era of former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, whose pursuit of women’s rights and gun control transformed her country’s image abroad.Issues like pay equity, child poverty and the prevention of domestic violence and harassment have seldom featured in the current campaign. Female politicians across the spectrum now say they face extraordinary abuse from a misogynistic and sometimes scary slice of the population. Some women say they did not seek office because of safety fears. The next government is likely to be significantly less diverse than the one led by Ms. Ardern, and the most conservative in a generation. Polling suggests that Ms. Ardern’s center-left Labour Party, and her successor as prime minister, Chris Hipkins, will be voted out. The current opposition leader, Christopher Luxon, of the center-right National Party, is expected to form a coalition government with Act, a libertarian party.Christopher Luxon and Nicola Willis of the National Party campaigning in Auckland in June.Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images“It feels like politics here is just different,” said Michelle Duff, who wrote a biography of Ms. Ardern and lives in Wellington, New Zealand’s capital. “It does feel like a scary time in politics for women — which is incredibly disappointing, when you think about how hopeful things seemed.”It is a daunting legacy for Ms. Ardern, who became a global liberal icon but whose government was criticized at home for not delivering the transformational change that it promised.After steering New Zealand through multiple crises, Ms. Ardern was re-elected in a landslide in 2020. She was lauded for her response to the coronavirus, but, eventually, public opinion soured over the country’s path to recovery from the pandemic. And even as her personal popularity remained high, her government struggled with the seemingly intractable problems of housing, inflation and rising crime.In January, Ms. Ardern said she would leave politics after five and a half years in office. “I know what this job takes, and I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice,” she told reporters at the time. Since her departure, her party has stumbled. Four top ministers quit suddenly and, in some cases, dramatically, with one facing legal difficulties and another defecting to another party.Chris Hipkins, New Zealand’s prime minister, campaigning in Auckland this month.Fiona Goodall/Getty ImagesWhen Ms. Ardern formally retreated from political life in April, Heather du Plessis-Allan, a conservative political commentator in New Zealand, described her as “one of the worst” prime ministers in the country’s history and questioned whether she had accomplished anything in her tenure.“She’s left behind no achievements worth mentioning,” Ms. du Plessis-Allan wrote.Advocates for women disagree.Under Ms. Ardern, they say, New Zealand extended paid parental leave from about four months to six months, decriminalized abortion, introduced free menstruation products in schools and strengthened pay equity and domestic violence laws. Her government was the most diverse in New Zealand’s history — more than half of the lawmakers in office are women. And the world-leading response to the coronavirus pandemic spared the country the sustained lockdowns that elsewhere forced many women out of paid work to take on more child care responsibilities.“Her leadership will be a story that is just passed on and on, by women, especially,” said Marilyn Waring, a former member of the National Party. “To have been a girl child who was a feminist growing up while Jacinda Ardern was prime minister would have been incredible.”But where some saw inspiration in her “politics of kindness,” others perceived a threat.“As soon as Jacinda showed a different style of leadership which is more feminine in nature than other people have been allowed to be, there was huge pushback,” said Suzanne Manning, the president of the National Council of Women New Zealand. “It’s designed to silence women,” and some decided to stay out of politics over safety concerns, she said.Marama Davidson, the co-leader of the left-wing Green Party, has felt the change.“As a brown woman in politics, things are particularly hostile,” said Ms. Davidson, who is Māori. All her public appearances are now vetted beforehand by security personnel, she said.Marama Davidson, center, the co-leader of the left-wing Green Party, during a teachers’ strike in Wellington in March.Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesNicola Willis, the dynamic deputy leader of the National Party, who is widely expected to helm her party in the future, said the abuse affected women across the political spectrum.“I’ve had all sorts of abuse hurled at me — ‘rotten cow,’ the ‘b-word’, some pretty choice adjectives,” she told the public broadcaster Radio New Zealand last year. “People saying, when I’m being feisty about something, that it must be that time of the month. I’ve learned to laugh most of it off, but, of course, it’s not OK.”Women’s issues, which were at the center of Ms. Ardern’s platform, have scarcely featured in the election campaign of the two main parties. One issue that has — paid parental leave for non-birth parents — has struggled to find momentum or consensus, as lawmakers across the political aisle have stymied one another’s efforts.This worries experts like Ms. Manning, who fear the next government could walk back some hard-won gains that were the result of years of consultation.Ms. Ardern’s steady work on these issues eventually helped to lift more than 75,000 New Zealand children out of poverty, even as her party fell short of its stated goal of 100,000, said Ms. Duff, her biographer. “The symbolic nature of what she’s done shouldn’t be underestimated, either, in terms of inspiring women to get into politics,” she said.Ms. Davidson, of the Green Party, worked closely with Ms. Ardern and had counted her as a colleague and a friend. “Her intentions, her purpose or objectives, her values and vision. I absolutely stand by what she wanted for this country,” she said. “We had different ideas of how to get there.”Ms. Ardern is currently undertaking a fellowship at Harvard University and plans to write a book about her leadership.Speaking on “Good Morning America” this week, she said, of her time as New Zealand’s premier, “I hope it was a call to anyone who is holding themselves back.”For now, she is staying out of the political fray at home.“I’m quite sure she would say that she never achieved what she wanted to,” said Ms. Waring, the former National Party lawmaker. “But she certainly rolled the barrel along.” More

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      Your Wednesday Briefing: Ukraine Cracks Down on Corruption

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      Also, another mass shooting in California and New Zealand’s next leader.No issue is more critical for Ukraine than the billions of dollars and advanced weaponry provided by Western allies.Nicole Tung for The New York TimesA corruption scandal in UkraineSeveral top Ukrainian officials were fired yesterday amid a ballooning corruption scandal, in the biggest upheaval in President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government since the Russian invasion began.There was no sign that the scandal involved the misappropriation of Western military assistance, which is essential for Ukraine’s continued survival. But even a whiff of malfeasance could slow aid. The move suggested an effort by Zelensky to clean house and reassure allies that his government would show zero tolerance for graft.The firings followed a number of allegations of corruption — including reports that Ukraine’s military had agreed to pay inflated prices for food meant for its troops — and general bad behavior. But Ukraine’s cabinet ministry, which announced the firings on Telegram, provided no details about specific reasons.Zelensky said he hoped that punishment would be taken as a “signal to all those whose actions or behavior violate the principle of justice,” and added: “There will be no return to what used to be in the past.”Details: A deputy defense minister was fired, as was a deputy prosecutor general who took a wartime vacation to Spain. A senior official in Zelensky’s office also resigned after he was criticized for using an SUV that was donated for humanitarian missions.Other updates: The U.S. is moving closer to sending tanks to Ukraine, officials said. Germany said it will make its own decision soon.Turkey indefinitely postponed a meeting with Finland and Sweden to discuss their bid to join NATO, amid Turkish anger over recent protests in Stockholm that included the burning of a Quran.The hands on the Doomsday Clock moved closer to midnight than ever, in part because of the war.“Tragedy upon tragedy,” the governor of California tweeted yesterday.Jim Wilson/The New York TimesAnother mass shooting in CaliforniaA gunman on Monday killed at least seven people near San Francisco, less than 48 hours after a gunman killed 11 people in Los Angeles. The back-to-back shootings have shocked California, which has one of the lowest mortality rates from gun violence in the U.S., as well as some of its toughest gun laws.The cases, which bracketed celebration of the Lunar New Year, claimed the lives largely of immigrant victims: Asian Americans in their 50s, 60s and 70s in Monterey Park, a thriving Chinese American suburb of Los Angeles, and Asian and Latino agricultural workers around Half Moon Bay, near San Francisco. The suspects were immigrant Asian men in their 60s and 70s — a rare age bracket for assailants in mass shootings. In Half Moon Bay, officials said the 66-year-old suspect, who was taken into custody “without incident,” may have been targeting his co-workers. And in Monterey Park, police are still looking for a motive. The gunman targeted a dance hall he knew well.Understand the Situation in ChinaThe Chinese government cast aside its restrictive “zero Covid” policy, which had set off mass protests that were a rare challenge to Communist Party leadership.Rapid Spread: Since China abandoned its strict Covid rules, the intensity and magnitude of the country’s outbreak has remained largely a mystery. But a picture is emerging of the virus spreading like wildfire.A Tense Lunar New Year: For millions of holiday travelers, the joy of finally seeing far-flung loved ones without the risk of getting caught in a lockdown is laced with anxiety.Digital Finger-Pointing: The Communist Party’s efforts to limit discord over its sudden “zero Covid” pivot are being challenged with increasing rancor on the internet.Economic Challenges: Years of Covid lockdowns took a brutal toll on Chinese businesses. Now, the rapid spread of the virus after a chaotic reopening has deprived them of workers and customers.Reaction: The White House said it was renewing a push for sweeping gun control measures that would renew an expired assault weapons ban.The U.S.: In the first 24 days of this year, at least 69 people have been killed in at least 39 separate mass shootings. Just yesterday, a gunman in Washington state killed three people in a convenience store. Chris Hipkins, 44, has an unpolished everyman persona and a Mr. Fix-It reputation. Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesHipkins distances himself from ArdernChris Hipkins, who is due to be sworn in as New Zealand’s leader today, is making a respectful, but pointed effort to create space between himself and Jacinda Ardern ahead of the national election in October.He’s trying to rebrand the Labour Party and appeal to centrist, middle-class voters who have cooled on Ardern and her leftist policies. In one example, he seems to prefer calling the country New Zealand, as opposed to Aotearoa, the Maori name favored by Ardern.“I supported Jacinda Ardern as our prime minister, I think she did an amazing job,” he said. “But look: We’re different people, and we’ll have a different style.”Analysis: Hipkins was a top architect of the Ardern government’s key policies and its stringent Covid response. But he has a scrappier and more combative style. Those traits, and his reputation as a practical figure capable of hard work, could resonate with voters outside of cities.From Opinion: Ardern put New Zealand on the geopolitical map, but she failed to keep many of her promises, Josie Pagani argues.THE LATEST NEWSU.S. News The U.S. sued Google, accusing it of illegally abusing a monopoly over the technology behind online advertising.Aides to Mike Pence found classified documents at his home in Indiana last week, one of his advisers said.Health officials proposed offering new Covid-19 booster shots each fall, a strategy long employed against the flu.Other Big StoriesBrazilian authorities said an illegal fishing trafficker ordered the assassinations of a British journalist and an Indigenous rights activist who were killed in the Amazon in June.Eastern Europeans once powered British agriculture. After Brexit, British farmers are strapped for workers.Developing nations are struggling to cover the costs of expensive medical therapies.A Morning ReadChinese developers ran out of money amid a crackdown on excessive debt and a slowing economy. Qilai Shen for The New York TimesHundreds of thousands of Chinese people poured their life savings into apartments that were still under construction. But then, China’s decades-long real estate boom came to a sudden halt. Now, the unfinished structures that dot the country are ugly reminders of dashed dreams and broken promises. “It was a simple dream,” one man said, “to have a home, a family.”ARTS AND IDEASFrom left, Stephanie Hsu, Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan in “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”Allyson Riggs/A24, via Associated PressThe Oscar nomineesIn a year when moviegoers returned en masse to big-budget spectacles — and skipped nearly everything else — Oscar voters yesterday spread nominations remarkably far and wide.The sci-fi movie, “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” led with 11 total nominations. Some of its stars, including Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu, also got acting nods.“The Banshees of Inisherin” and “All Quiet on the Western Front” were tied for second, with nine nominations each. The drama “Tár” received a best picture nod, while the blockbuster sequels “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Avatar: The Way of Water” were also recognized in the category.In some ways, the spread reflected the jumbled state of Hollywood. Movies from streaming services were hot for the last few years, and then not. Studios are unsure about how many films to release in theaters and no one knows whether anything besides superheroes, sequels or horror can succeed. Widening the aperture of films nominated for best picture could also help the Oscar ceremony, which needs a real boost after years of flagging ratings.Here’s a full list of the nominees, the biggest snubs and surprises and our critics’ picks for their top Oscar nominations. The 95th Academy Awards will be on March 12, in Los Angeles.PLAY, WATCH, EATWhat to CookDavid Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.Everyone knows soup is the best food. Here are 24 recipes to prove it. (I’m looking forward to trying this recipe for Taiwanese beef noodle soup, which cooks for about two hours.) What to Read“Cobalt Red” exposes the horrors of mining the cobalt that is used in our smartphones. What to WearHow to pack for a work trip.HealthHere’s why weather changes can worsen pain from old injuries.Now Time to PlayPlay the Mini Crossword, and a clue: Like a tired baby (five letters).Here are the Wordle and the Spelling Bee.You can find all our puzzles here.That’s it for today’s briefing. See you next time. — AmeliaP.S. My colleague David Dunlap explained how The Times keeps reporters safe when they cover deadly viruses.“The Daily” is on the classified documents found in President Biden’s home. We’d like your feedback! Please email thoughts and suggestions to briefing@nytimes.com. More

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      Your Monday Briefing: A Lunar New Year Shooting

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      Also, New Zealand’s next leader and a Lunar New Year travel surge in China.A massacre in California took place hours after a joyous Lunar New Year celebration. Mark Abramson for The New York TimesA Lunar New Year rampagePolice in California are on the hunt for a gunman who killed 10 people in the city of Monterey Park in Los Angeles County on Saturday. The mass shooting happened hours after a celebration for the eve of the Lunar New Year, the most important holiday in many Asian countries. Thousands had attended the event. (Follow our live coverage.)The sheriff of Los Angeles County said yesterday that the authorities were looking for an Asian man between 30 and 50 years old. He opened fire at a dance hall, and witnesses said he seemed to shoot indiscriminately. At least 10 others were injured. The authorities offered no motive for the attack.The mass shooting is the latest tragedy to strike Asian Americans, who have faced rising violence throughout the pandemic. Monterey Park is about 65 percent Asian American, and has been called “the first suburban Chinatown.” It is perhaps best known as the first city in the continental U.S. where a majority of inhabitants have ethnically Asian ancestry.A pattern: This mass shooting is the deadliest in the U.S. since the Uvalde massacre last May, when a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers in Texas. There have been 33 mass shootings in the U.S. so far in 2023, according to a nonprofit research group.Chris Hipkins is set to become New Zealand’s new prime minister.Marty Melville/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesNew Zealand’s next leaderChris Hipkins, who oversaw the country’s unique pandemic approach, is set to become New Zealand’s new prime minister next month. Hipkins, 44, was a clear front-runner to become the leader of the Labour Party after Jacinda Ardern’s surprise resignation last week. As the health minister, and then the minister for New Zealand’s Covid-19 response, he was the face of the country’s stringent, but widely applauded, response to the pandemic.The incoming leader faces a number of major challenges. Voters are looking for respite from inflation, a continuing housing crisis and other entrenched social problems such as crime and child poverty. He could struggle to get beyond his association with pandemic policy, which tainted Ardern’s leadership.Up ahead: In a national election in October, Hipkins will face Christopher Luxon, the leader of the center-right National Party. Analysis: Leaders often resign in parliamentary systems. But Ardern’s departure stands out, my colleague Max Fisher writes: “It was particularly striking to see a leader voluntarily relinquish power at a moment when the world’s strongmen — and even some elected presidents — are clinging ferociously to theirs.”Lunar New Year is the most important holiday on China’s calendar.Gilles Sabrié for The New York TimesChina’s tense Lunar New YearFor many Chinese people traveling for Lunar New Year, the joy of finally seeing loved ones for the holiday without the risk of a lockdown is laced with anxiety. Many are traveling from cities to rural areas, where health care services are woefully underdeveloped. They fear spreading the virus to older relatives.They’re also on the move just weeks after the government lifted its “zero Covid” restrictions. One official said it was “the most challenging spring festival in recent years,” as outbreaks continue to spread. “It’s precisely because we’ve opened up that I feel so tense,” one villager said.But after years of muted celebrations, hundreds of millions of people are aching for reunions. In one sign of national relief, some people on social media are celebrating congestion at travel hubs as a sign of a return to normal — or at least to a new normal.Details: Before the pandemic, the travel rush was the world’s largest annual migration. This year, China expects traffic to nearly double compared with 2022, exceeding two billion passenger trips over the holiday period.Zero Covid fallout: Some Chinese entrepreneurs have left the country, my colleague Li Yuan writes in an analysis. They moved to Singapore, and took their wealth with them.THE LATEST NEWSAsia PacificPakistan’s blasphemy laws are often used to settle personal scores or persecute minorities.Akhtar Soomro/ReutersPakistan tightened its blasphemy laws. Insulting Islam was already punishable by death, but now those who insult people connected to the Prophet Muhammad can face prison time.Some cruise ships have been forced to idle at sea for days because they cannot pass New Zealand’s tight “biofoul” standards, which regulate foreign organisms on a boat’s exterior.One man in Western Australia made a 3,000-mile detour after record floods cut off a bridge.The War in UkraineNATO countries failed to agree on whether to send tanks to Ukraine last week. Germany’s hesitance is born of history. After its Nazi past, the country is committed to promoting “peace,” and it’s long relied on Russian energy.Despite the war, life in Ukraine proceeds almost normally at times. Then, in a flash, a Russian missile can shatter ordinary lives, as one did last week in Dnipro.Around the WorldAbortion rights protesters marched yesterday in Wisconsin.Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York TimesIn cities across the U.S., Americans marched in support of abortion rights on the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s leader, complied with a Supreme Court ruling and fired a top minister who had been convicted of tax fraud.Cholera is surging in Malawi, which nearly wiped out the disease in 2021.U.S. investigators seized more classified documents in a search of President Biden’s home in Delaware.Other Big StoriesJob cuts in the tech industry are proving shocking for younger workers, who have yet to experience a cyclical crash.King Charles III’s coronation is set for the first weekend in May.A 76-year-old woman in Florida fatally shot her terminally ill husband in a hospital because of a pact they’d made, the police said.A Morning Read“Emily embarrasses me,” one American expat in Paris said. Stéphanie Branchu/NetflixAmericans in Paris think “Emily in Paris” is giving them a bad name.“We try so hard not to be the ugly American,” one woman lamented. “Being an American expat in Paris is all about trying to seem vaguely French or invisibly American, and Emily is the opposite of that.”MUMBAI DISPATCHOne film, 27 years of screeningsSimran, a prostitute who goes by the name of the movie’s lead female character, regularly dances in the aisles to the movie’s songs.Atul Loke for The New York TimesIndia’s film industry puts about 1,500 stories on the screen annually. But every day, audiences in Mumbai line up for “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge,” a movie still on the screen after 27 years.The film, known as “D.D.L.J.,” is a boy-meets-girl story set in India in the 1990s, a moment of unbridled optimism when the economy had just opened up. In many ways, the India of today is similar to the one reflected in the movie. The economy is still on the rise. Women are still seeking more freedom. Modernity and conservatism remain in tension.But some of the sense of unlimited possibility has waned since the movie’s 1995 premiere. As the early rewards of liberalization peaked and economic inequities deepened, aspirations of mobility have diminished. Some on Mumbai’s margins buy a ticket to escape into a rosier past, while others still seek inspiration.“I come every day,” said one regular, who goes by Simran, the name of the female lead. She is a prostitute in the waning red-light district nearby. “I like it every day.”PLAY, WATCH, EATWhat to CookLinda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Sue Li. Prop Stylist: Megan Hedgpeth.These black sesame shortbread cookies are snappy, crumbly and not too sweet.What to Watch“After Love,” an intelligent portrait of grief, follows a British woman who discovers her husband has been leading a double life.The CosmosHere’s how to see a green-hued comet pass by Earth for the first time since the Stone Age.VowsFour wedding ceremonies. Three continents. One Indian-Ghanian-American marriage.Now Time to PlayPlay the Mini Crossword, and a clue: Hairstyling goop (three letters).Here are the Wordle and the Spelling Bee.You can find all our puzzles here.That’s it for today’s briefing. See you next time. — AmeliaP.S.: A.G. Sulzberger, The Times’s publisher, discussed the problem of disinformation at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.Here’s Friday’s edition of “The Daily,” on migrants trying to come to the U.S.We’d like your feedback! Please email thoughts and suggestions to briefing@nytimes.com. More