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Society

New Zealand And Beyond: How Anti-Smoking Laws Are Changing

New Zealand has reversed its decision to implement the world's toughest anti-smoking law, to the disappointment of many inside and outside the island nation. But how are other laws aimed at tobacco use faring around the world?

Updated Nov. 27, 2023 at 6:50 p.m.

In 2022, New Zealand announced that the country would enact a pioneering anti-smoking law that would ban the sale of cigarettes to anyone born after 2008. The decision was hailed by health activists as a radical and righteous measure that would help prevent the deaths of millions every year.

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This Happened—November 27: Before Ardern, There Was Clark

Updated on Nov. 27, 2023 at 12:50 p.m.

Helen Clark became the first elected female Prime Minister of New Zealand on this day in 1999.

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What Makes Rugby The Defining Sport Of Modern Democracy

As the Rugby World Cup final approaches, French writer Yves Bourdillon notes that the sport is popular almost exclusively in democratic countries. The reason? Its Anglo-Saxon origins, the complexity of its rules and its values, a miracle of balance between individualism and collective spirit.

-Analysis-

PARIS — The Rugby World Cup has an unusual, if not unique, feature among major national team competitions: all 20 participants are free-market democracies.

The list of countries — South Africa, New Zealand, England, Wales, Ireland, Australia , France, Japan, Scotland, Argentina , Fiji, Italy, Samoa, Georgia, Uruguay, Tonga, Romania, Namibia, Chile and Portugal — can be verified as being among the more or less liberal states that, according to the Freedom House think-tank, account for only one-quarter of humanity.

It's true that some of these democracies, such as Georgia, have room for improvement, or haven't always been so democratic, as in the case of Argentina 40 years ago. And of course there's the unique case of South Africa, which lived under the racist system of apartheid until 1991, before the team's memorable post-apartheid victory in the 1995 World Cup — albeit controversial for other reasons, with suspicions of doping and poisoning of New Zealand's opponents before the final.

But none of the participants in this year's tournament are to be found among the authoritarian regimes of the Middle East , Africa, Asia or Latin America, where rugby is hardly ever played — the number of rugby players never exceeds 0.01% of the population.

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Gimme Shelter! Using Tech To Rethink How We Protect Endangered Species

Human-made shelters don’t always keep creatures out of harm’s way. Can technology help design a better protect birds and possums?

In 2016, Ox Lennon was trying to peek in the crevices inside a pile of rocks. They considered everything from injecting builders’ foam into the tiny spaces to create a mold to dumping a heap of stones into a CT scanner. Still, they couldn’t get the data they were after: how to stack rocks so that a mouse wouldn’t squeeze through, but a small lizard could hide safely inside.

Lennon, then a Ph.D. student at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, aimed to protect skinks, snake-like lizards on which non-native mice prey. When road construction near Wellington displaced a local population of the reptiles, they were moved to a different site. But the new location lacked the rock piles that skinks use as shelter.

So, Lennon and their colleagues set out to create a mice-proof pile of rocks. It proved harder than they thought.

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Society
Ana Flores

Why The Media Deserves A Red Card At The Women's World Cup

Coverage of the Women's World Cup has been more about the athletes' personal lives than sport. Once again, sexism in sport is on fully display.

-OpEd-

The competition for the 2023 Women's Soccer World Cup , which began on July 20 and concludes on August 20 in Australia and New Zealand, has already caused several controversies. Days prior to the first match, the United Nations and the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) estimated that there would be an audience of two million people.

Despite initial enthusiasm for the “Unite for gender equality," the media once again showed its lack of interest, commitment and professionalism to strengthening international guidelines against discrimination .

Weeks before the opening match between New Zealand and Norway, the conglomerates of the Global North revealed what, apparently, is the only reason they have for promoting women's sport: monetary benefits.

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This Happened

This Happened — July 10: Rainbow Warrior Bombing

The Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior was bombed on this day in 1985. The bombing was carried out by agents of the French intelligence service, specifically the "Action Service" division of the Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE).

Get This Happened straight to your inbox ✉️ each day! Sign up here .

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Green
Charlotte Meyer

The World Is Not Ready For 1.2 Billion Climate Refugees

The number of climate refugees is predicted to hit 1.2 billion by 2050, yet states are still not taking enough action. The Global South will be the most affected, but the West will not be spared.

-Analysis-

PARIS — The number of people displaced by environmental disasters is expected to explode in coming years, but governments remain slow to respond.

However, the phenomenon is not new: "Environmental factors have had an impact on migration dynamics since the beginning of humanity," says Alice Baillat, policy coordinator at the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC). "The world population has been distributed on the planet depending on the more or less fertile areas. This is why South Asia and the Bay of Bengal are now among the most populated areas in the world."

But climate change is making the situation far worse. According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, since 2008, an average of 21.5 million people have been displaced each year because of natural disasters. The World Bank expects there to be 260 million climate displaced people by 2030, and up to 1.2 billion by 2050.

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food / travel
Marine Béguin

Austrian Croissant? Danish Feta? CouscousGate? Gastronationalism Is Flaring Everywhere

When its comes to food and national pride, there are few things that get people more riled up than debating the rightful origins of a dish or a delicacy. From hummus (for starters) to couscous (main dish) and the pavlova for desserts, we look at gastronomic feuds around the world.

PARIS — Have you ever enjoyed a croissant with coffee on a Paris sidewalk cafe? That's usually the image the French pastry evokes. But while many people think the croissant comes from France , it was actually created in Austria .

The croissant is one of many hotly contested foods claimed by more than one nation. These disputes can sometimes even lead to geopolitical tensions — the world of gastrodiplomacy .

Gastrodiplomacy, writes French daily Libération , often aims to use food to establish a country’s brand identity abroad. From the croissant to couscous, here's an international look at some of the most disputed dishes around the world.

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Future
Bill Morris

Xenotransplantation Breakthroughs, And The Odd Case Of New Zealand's Island Pigs

The species of pig evolved into ultra-resilient, disease-free predators while isolated on Auckland Island that could be a boon for state-of-the-art xenotransplantation, a medical procedure in which cells, tissues, or organs from one species are transferred into another species, which could reduce the need for human organ donors.

Approximately 300 miles south of New Zealand , the Auckland Islands lie in a belt of winds known as the Roaring Forties. In the late 19th century, sailing ships departing Australasia would catch a ride back to Europe by plunging deep into the Southern Ocean to ride the westerlies home.

But these seas were poorly charted, and weather conditions frequently horrendous.

Sometimes, navigators miscalculated the islands’ position and, too late, found their vessels thrown upon the islands’ rocky ramparts. Ships were torn to pieces and survivors cast ashore on one of the most remote and inhospitable places on the planet. These castaways soon found out they were not alone.

The main land mass in the Auckland archipelago, Auckland Island, was — and still is — home to pigs, initially introduced in the first half of the 19th century by European hunters and explorers, as well as a group of Indigenous New Zealanders fleeing conflict.

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Economy
Shaun Lavelle, Riley Sparks, Ginevra Falciani

Why More Countries Are Banning Foreigners From Buying Real Estate

Canada has become the most recent country to impose restrictions on non-residents buying real estate, arguing that wealthy investors from other countries are pricing out would-be local homeowners. But is singling out foreigners the best way to face a troubled housing market?

PARIS — It’s easy to forget that soon after the outbreak of COVID-19 , many real estate experts were forecasting that housing prices could face a once-in-generation drop. The logic was that a shrinking pandemic economy would combine with people moving out of cities to push costs down in a lasting way.

Ultimately, in most places, the opposite has happened. Home prices in the U.S., Canada , Britain, Germany, Australia and New Zealand rose between 25% and 50% since the outbreak of COVID-19.

This explosion was driven by a number of factors, including low interest rates, supply chain issues in construction and shortages in available properties caused in part by investors buying up large swathes of housing stock.

Yet some see another culprit deserving of particular attention: foreign buyers.

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Geopolitics
Richard Shaw

Jacinda Ardern, Surprise Farewell: The Unique Legacy Of New Zealand's Global Leader

It's rare that the Prime Minister of New Zealand becomes a globally recognized leader. But Ardern, who was the youngest female elected head of government in history, deserved all the positive attention.

Well, no one saw that coming. For those in New Zealand relieved that Christmas is over because it means politics resumes, this week held the promise of a cabinet reshuffle, the possible unveiling of some meaty new policy and, if we were really lucky, the announcement of the date of this year’s general election.

We got the last of these (it will be on October 14). What we also got, however, was the announcement that in three weeks’ time one of the most popular – and powerful – prime ministers in recent New Zealand history will be stepping down.

It isn’t difficult to divine why Jacinda Ardern has reached her decision. As she herself put it:

"I believe that leading a country is the most privileged job anyone could ever have but also one of the more challenging. You cannot and should not do it unless you have a full tank plus a bit in reserve for those unexpected challenges."

She has had more than her fair share of such challenges: a domestic terror attack in Christchurch, a major natural disaster at Whakaari-White Island, a global pandemic and, most recently, a cost-of-living crisis.

On top of that, of course, she has had to chart a way through the usual slate of policy issues that have bedevilled governments for decades in this country, including the cost of housing, child poverty, inequality and the climate crisis. Clearly, the Ardern tank is empty.

But it isn’t just about the policy. Along with other women politicians, Ardern faces a constant barrage of online and in-person abuse – from anti-vaxxers, misogynists and sundry others who simply don’t like her.

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Coronavirus
John Donne Potter

Risks Of Reinfection And Long COVID: The Pandemic Is Not Over

Too many people no longer follow basic protocol: mask wearing, physical distancing and avoiding crowded events. The consequences are an increase in both daily case numbers and long COVID.

The latest Omicron variant BA.5 is fast becoming dominant worldwide , including in New Zealand and Australia . As it continues to surge, reinfection will become increasingly common and this in turn means more people will develop long COVID .

The two most concerning aspects of long COVID are its high prevalence (up to 30% of those infected) and a link between reinfection and a higher risk of harmful outcomes.

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