World News for Students of English

25-01-2023 07:00

Visibly emotional, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced she was stepping down ahead of a general election for later this year.

The 42-year-old said she lacked the energy or inspiration to seek re-election, and so her term as prime minister would conclude by the 7^th of February, 2023. She also said she was stepping down because others could do the job better.

In 2017, Ardern became the world’s youngest female leader when she led her Labor Party to power. During her stunning political career, she led the country through unprecedented crises, and she became a torch-bearer for liberal values across the world. She won international praise and admiration for her responses to the Christchurch mass shooting, the 2019 fatal volcanic eruption, and the control of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Arden’s announcement came as a huge surprise and no successor is apparent.

Difficult words: unprecedented (never done or known before), torch-bearer (a leader in a campaign or movement), successor (a person that follows or takes the job after someone else).

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