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A former Russian Orthodox monk, who denied that the coronavirus existed and defied the Kremlin, was handed a seven-year prison sentence Friday. Nikolai Romanov, 67, who was known as Father Sergiy until his excommunication by the Russian Orthodox Church, urged his followers to disobey the Russian government's lockdown measures and spread conspiracy theories about a global plot to control the masses. A court in Moscow convicted him of inciting hatred. His lawyer immediately announced plans to appeal. Romanov served as a police officer during Soviet times, but after quitting the ranks was convicted of murder, robbery and assault and sentenced to 13 years in prison. He became a monk after his release. When the coronavirus pandemic began, he denied its existence and denounced government efforts to stem the pandemic as “Satan’s electronic camp.” He spread long-debunked conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and described the vaccines developed against the virus as part of a global plot to control the masses via microchips. The monk chastised President Vladimir Putin as a “traitor to the Motherland” who was serving a Satanic “world government,” and denounced the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, and other top clerics as “heretics” who must be “thrown out.” Read more: China's Xi faces public anger over draconian 'zero COVID' Romanov urged followers to disobey the government’s lockdown measures and holed up at a monastery near Yekaterinburg that he founded. He had dozens of burly military veterans enforce his rules while the prioress and several nuns left. The Russian Orthodox Church stripped Romanov of his abbot’s rank for breaking monastic rules and later excommunicated him, but he rejected the rulings. Facing stiff resistance by hundreds of his supporters, church officials and local authorities hesitated for months until finally moving to evict Romanov and detain him. Romanov has been in custody since his arrest in December 2020. In November 2021, he was given a 3½-year sentence after being convicted of inciting suicidal actions through sermons in which he urged believers to “die for Russia,” and breaching freedom of conscience, accusations he denied. The seven-year sentence will run concurrently with the previous sentence.  

Britain’s Treasury chief said Friday that taming inflation is more important than cutting taxes, resisting calls from some in the governing Conservative Party for immediate tax breaks for businesses and voters. At a speech in London, Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt said “the best tax cut right now is a cut in inflation.” The U.K.’s annual inflation rate hit a four-decade high of 11.1% in October, fueling a cost-of-living crisis and a wave of strikes by workers seeking pay raises to keep pace with rising food and energy prices. It has since eased but still reached a painful 10.5% in December and is the highest since the 1980s. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has promised to halve the inflation rate from those levels by the end of the year. Hunt said he wanted Britain to be a low-tax economy but “with volatile markets and high inflation, sound money must come first” — a sign he won’t cut taxes when he makes his annual budget statement in March. The U.K. economy, like others around the world, has been rattled by pandemic restrictions and the shockwaves from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Britain also has suffered the self-inflicted damage of Liz Truss’ brief term as prime minister last year. She resigned in October after her plan for billions in unfunded tax cuts spooked financial markets, drove up the cost of borrowing and sent the pound plunging to a record low against the dollar. Hunt was appointed to steady the economy in the final days of Truss’ seven-week tenure and was kept on by her successor, Sunak. Inflation is higher than in the U.S. and the 20 nations that use the euro currency, with most forecasters expecting the U.K. economy to contract in the first half of 2023. In his speech at the headquarters of news agency Bloomberg, Hunt argued that changes to financial regulations and other rules, made possible by Brexit, will help boost the U.K.’s stubbornly low productivity rate. Three years after Britain formally left the European Union, and more than two years after the split became complete, the Conservative government is still struggling to deliver many of the economic benefits promised by pro-Brexit politicians. Most economists agree that Brexit has weighed down the economy by making it harder for U.K.-based businesses to trade with the 27-nation EU. Hunt said changes “necessitated, energized and made possible by Brexit” would help “make Britain the world’s next Silicon Valley,” a leader in digital technology, green energy and the life sciences. “We need to make Brexit a catalyst for the bold choices that will take advantage of the nimbleness and flexibilities that it makes possible,” he said, arguing that “Britain needs a more positive attitude to risk-taking” and is “too cautious compared to our U.S. friends.” Hunt said Britain will scrap Solvency II, an EU rule that sets out how much money insurers must hold in reserve. Hunt said easing the restriction could unlock up to 100 billion pounds ($124 billion) in investment over a decade for big infrastructure and clean energy projects. Business groups welcomed the tone of Hunt’s speech but said it lacked specifics. Confederation of British Industry chief Tony Danker said it provided “a strong framework for growth,” though Shevaun Haviland of the British Chambers of Commerce said there was “very little meat on the bones” of Hunt’s vision. Opposition Labour Party economy spokeswoman Rachel Reeves said the Conservatives, in power since 2010, “have no plan for now, and no plan for the future.”

The historic centre of the port city of Odesa, in Ukraine, has been inscribed on the UN's cultural body's world heritage list, 11 months since the full-scale Russian invasion. "Odesa, a free city, a world city, a legendary port that has left its mark on cinema, literature and the arts, is thus placed under the reinforced protection of the international community," said UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Director-General Audrey Azoulay Wednesday. "While the war continues, this inscription embodies our collective determination to ensure that this city, which has always surmounted global upheavals, is preserved from further destruction." The decision commits the 194 States Parties of the Convention – which includes Russia – not to undertake any deliberate step that may directly or indirectly damage the world heritage site and to assist in its protection. The historic centre of Odesa has also been inscribed on the more than 50-strong list of world heritage in danger, which gives it access to reinforced technical and financial international assistance. Ukraine may request this, to ensure the protection of the property and, if necessary, assist in reconstruction, if attacked. Given the threats to the city from Russia's armed forces and irregulars, the World Heritage Committee used an emergency procedure provided for by the World Heritage Convention. Read more: French baguettes, Chinese traditional tea-making added to world heritage list As early as the summer of 2022, UNESCO linked international experts with Ukrainian experts to prepare the nomination, with the support of Italy and Greece. Ukraine's President Zelensky made the submission official in October 2022, and the nomination was evaluated over the following weeks. In parallel with the inscription process, UNESCO implemented emergency measures on the ground to help protect the site. Notably, the organisation ensured repairs were carried out following damage inflicted by Russian attacks on the Odesa Museum of Fine Arts and the Odesa Museum of Modern Art. So far, the historic western Ukrainian city has not come under the kind of sustained bombardment that laid waste to the once-thriving port city of Mariupol, hundreds of kilometres to the east.

Russia fired more missiles and self-exploding drones at nearly a dozen Ukrainian provinces early Thursday, causing the first war-related death in Kyiv this year and killing at least 11 people overall, according to Ukrainian authorities. The attacks adhered to Russia's recent pattern of striking power plants and other critical infrastructure about every two weeks. However, the latest onslaught came after Germany and the United States upped the ante in Russia's 11-month war by promising Wednesday to send high-tech battle tanks to Ukraine and green-lighting other allies to do the same. Read more: Ukraine reports more Russian drone attacks The spokesperson for Ukraine’s State Emergency Service, Oleksandr Khorunzhyi, said that in addition to the dead at least 11 people were wounded. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said one person was killed during the attacks, the city’s first such death since New Year’s Eve. Two others were injured, he said. The head of the Kyiv city administration, Serhii Popko, said Ukrainian air defenses shot down 15 cruise missiles heading to the area. The regional prosecutor’s office in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia province said three people were killed and seven injured in a strike on an energy facility. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander of Ukraine's armed forces, said Thursday's volley involved a total of 55 missiles, of which 47 were intercepted. Self-exploding drones swept in overnight before the missile strikes. As air raid sirens echoed across the country, civilians, some tugging pet dogs on leashes, poured into subway stations, underground parking lots and basements to seek shelter. It was the first such barrage of Russian firepower across the country since Jan. 14. Russia has carried out massive strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities since early October, part of a strategy to try to hamper Ukrainian forces and to keep civilians in the cold and dark this winter before what many experts predict could be a springtime offensive as more conscripts reach the battlefields. Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko acknowledged that some sites were hit, resulting in emergency power outages. In Kyiv’s southern Holosiivsky district, Arkadii Kuritsyn, 53, said he heard a loud explosion that blew out windows of several trucks parked next to his scrap metal business and snapped several trees in a nearby wooded area in half. But the strikes did not reach what appeared to be the intended target: a nearby district power plant. The industrial area has witnessed several missile attacks already, due to its proximity to the power station, said Andrii Tarasenko, 36, who works in a factory nearby. “I am not surprised it was targeted again," he said. "We’ve gotten used to it.” In Hlevakha, an urban area about 35 kilometers (about 22 miles) southwest of the capital, a barrage of missiles followed a drone attack that damaged the two-story home of Halyna Panasian. The damage included a deep crater in the courtyard, a large hole in the roof and pieces of debris scattered about the house. “I was in my bedroom when the house was hit. I had to crawl out through the destroyed walls,” Panasian, 59, said of the blast at about 2 a.m. “Such grief: What can I say? How can I have a happy life now? I can’t. I’m so sad. My life is broken.” The attacks came a day after Germany said it would supply 14 high-tech Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine and authorize other European countries to send up to 88 more. The U.S. said it planned to ship 31 Abrams M1 tanks to Ukrainian forces. Along with Germany and the U.S., Britain, Poland, the Netherlands and Sweden are among the nations that have sent or announced plans to supply hundreds of tanks and heavy armored vehicles to fortify Ukraine as it enters a new phase of the war and tries to break through entrenched Russian lines. Gian Gentile, a U.S. Army veteran and senior historian with the Rand think tank, said the M1 Abrams and the Leopards would give Ukraine a “mechanized armored punching force.” The British government said Thursday it would start training Ukrainian troops next week on how to use and fix Challenger 2 tanks. The U.K. is giving 14 of the tanks to Ukraine’s forces, and Defense Minister Alex Chalk said they should arrive in Ukraine by the end of March. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Ukrainian crews will start their training in Germany in coming days on German-made Marders, which are infantry fighting vehicles, while training on the heavier Leopard 2 tanks would start “a little later.” “In any case, the aim with the Leopards is to have the first company in Ukraine by the end of March, beginning of April,” he added. “I can’t say the precise day.” Read more: Russian attacks on Ukraine reported; tank training to start NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg declined to speculate on the timing of the tanks' arrival but told Britain's Sky News the “allies are extremely focused on the importance of speed.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the move to provide Ukraine with modern tanks reflected the West’s growing involvement in the conflict. “Both European capitals and Washington keep saying that the delivery of various kinds of weapons systems, including tanks, to Ukraine, absolutely does not mean the involvement of these countries or the alliance in the hostilities ongoing in Ukraine,” Peskov told reporters. “We categorically disagree with that." “Moscow views everything that has been done by the alliance and the capitals I have mentioned as direct involvement in the conflict,” he added. "We can see it growing.” French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, who happened to be in Ukraine’s Black Sea port city of Odesa on Thursday, in part to meet with Ukraine's foreign minister. told France’s LCI television that Thursday's attacks went beyond retaliation. “What we saw this morning — that is, new strikes on civilian installations — that is not making war. It is making war crimes.”

From Washington to Berlin to Kyiv, a Western decision to send battle tanks to Ukraine was hailed enthusiastically. Moscow sought to downplay it. The Kremlin has previously warned that such tank deliveries would be a dangerous escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, and it has strongly denounced the watershed move by Germany and the United States to send the heavy weaponry to its foe. But it insists the new armor won't stop Russia from achieving its goals in Ukraine. “The potential it gives to the Ukrainian armed forces is clearly exaggerated,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “Those tanks will burn just like any others.” Moscow played down the move in an apparent attempt to save face as the West raised the stakes in Ukraine. Some Russian experts also emphasized that the supply of the deadly armor will be relatively limited and could take months to reach the front. On Thursday, Russia launched a new wave of missile and self-exploding drone attacks across Ukraine. The attack initially appeared to be a continuation of previous attacks rather than retaliation for the announcements on the tanks. President Vladimir Putin, his diplomats and military leaders have repeatedly warned the West that supplying long-range weapons capable of striking deep inside Russia would mark a red line and trigger a massive retaliation. While other weapons like tanks and certain air defense systems have drawn warnings from Russian officials, the wording has been deliberately vague, perhaps to allow the Kremlin to avoid getting cornered by making specific threats. Poland, the Czech Republic and other NATO allies have provided Ukraine with hundreds of smaller Soviet-made tanks from the Cold War era when they were part of the Soviet bloc. Ukrainian armed forces, who have used similar aging weaponry, needed no extra training to use them. They played an important role on the battlefield, helping Ukraine reclaim broad swaths of territory in 11 months of fighting. Read more: Germany says it won't block Poland giving Ukraine tanks As Ukraine's armored units suffered attrition and stockpiles of the old T-72 tanks ran dry in the arsenals of its allies in Central and Eastern Europe, Kyiv has increasingly pushed for delivery of German-made Leopard 2 and U.S. M1 Abrams tanks. After weeks of hesitation, Germany said Wednesday it will provide Ukraine with 14 Leopard 2 tanks and allow other allies willing to follow suit to deliver 88 Leopards to form two tank battalions. The U.S. announced it will send 31 M1 Abrams tanks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his officials, who long have said the country needs hundreds of tanks to counter a foe with a far superior number as well as other weapons, greeted the Western decision as a major breakthrough, voicing hope that more supplies will follow. “The deliveries of Leopard 2 will take our ground forces to a qualitatively new level,” Ukrainian military expert Oleh Zhdanov told The Associated Press. Even though Leopard 2s are heavier than Soviet-designed tanks, they have a strong edge in firepower and survivability. “One Leopard 2 could be equivalent to three or five Russian tanks,” Zhdanov said. But he noted that the promised number of Western tanks represents only the minimum that Ukraine needs to repel a likely offensive by Moscow, adding that Russia has thousands of armored vehicles. “Kyiv is preparing for a defensive operation, and its outcome will determine the future course of the conflict,” Zhdanov said. Russian military analysts were more skeptical about the Western tanks, arguing that while Abrams proved clearly superior to older models of Soviet-built tanks during the war in Iraq, newer Russian models are more closely matched. They also charged that Leopard 2 tanks used by the Turkish army against the Kurds in Syria proved vulnerable to Soviet-era anti-tank weapons. Some Russian online media quickly posted diagrams of the vulnerable points of the Leopard 2. “Hit Leopard as your grandfather hit Tiger and Panther!” one headline said, referring to Nazi tanks in World War II. Andrei Kartapolov, a retired general who heads the defense affairs committee in the lower house of the Russian parliament, argued that both Leopard 2 and Abrams are inferior to Russia's T-90, a modified version of the T-72. Read more: Top US general visits training site for Ukrainian soldiers The latest Russian tank, the T-14 Armata, has been manufactured only in small numbers and so far hasn’t been used in the war. The British Ministry of Defense said in its latest intelligence update that Russia has worked to prepare a small batch of T-14s for deployment in Ukraine, but said it had engine and other problems. Russian observers, meanwhile, noted it could take a significant time for the Western tanks to reach Ukraine, adding that training Ukrainians to use them and properly maintain them would add to the challenge. “It likely means that the Ukrainian military will probably receive a few small batches of tanks that could be incompatible with each other,” Moscow-based defense analyst Ilya Kramnik said in a commentary. Zhdanov, the Ukrainian military analyst, argued that by agreeing to provide Ukraine with tanks, the West crossed an important psychological barrier and could eventually follow up by supplying even more deadly weapons. “Handing over Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine marks a major change in the policy of Western allies, who stopped fearing escalation and are now ready to challenge Russia in the war of resources,” he said. “The West is forced to more widely open the doors to its military arsenals to Ukraine.” Speaking in a video address late Wednesday, Zelenskyy hailed the creation of what he called a “tank coalition” and said Ukraine now will seek more artillery and push for unlocking supplies of long-range missiles and, ultimately, warplanes. Ukrainian officials long have expressed hope for getting U.S. F-16 fighter jets and long-range rockets for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, known as HIMARS, to hit targets far behind the front lines. Such desires drew ominous remarks from Russian diplomat Konstantin Gavrilov, similar to the kind voiced earlier by Putin and others. “If Washington and NATO give Kyiv weapons to strike peaceful cities deep inside Russia and try to seize the territories that constitutionally belong to Russia, it will force Moscow to take harsh retaliatory action,” Gavrilov told a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. “Don’t tell us then that we haven’t warned you.”

Ukrainian officials said Thursday that Russia launched a wave of missile and self-exploding drone attacks on the country. Air raid sirens wailed nationwide. There were no immediate reports of the targets, but Kyiv’s mayor said a Russian missile strike killed one person, the first death from an attack in the capital since New Year’s Eve. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said two other people were injured in the strike.. The head of the Kyiv city administration said 15 cruise missiles were shot down. Serhii Popko said the missiles were fired “in the direction of Kyiv” but did not clarify if the capital itself was a target. Odesa regional governor Maksym Marchenko reported that several facilities of energy infrastructure were damaged not just in the Odesa region, but other regions of Ukraine. That caused “significant problems with electricity supply.” The attacks came after Germany and the United States announced Wednesday that they will send advanced battle tanks to Ukraine, offering what one expert called an “armored punching force” to help Kyiv break combat stalemates as the Russian invasion enters its 12th month. Read more: US military's expanded combat training for Ukrainian forces begins in Germany  Germany said it would supply Ukraine with dozens of Leopard 2 tanks from European countries, while the U.S. said it share Abrams M1 tanks. Training for Ukrainian troops will begin in the coming days. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Ukrainian crews will start their training on German-made Marders, which are infantry fighting vehicles, and training on the heavier Leopard 2 tanks would start “a little later.” “In any case, the aim with the Leopards is to have the first company in Ukraine by the end of March, beginning of April,” Pistorius added. “I can’t say the precise day.”

Ukrainian forces have conducted an organized retreat from a town in the eastern region of the Donbas, an official said Wednesday, in what amounted to a rare but modest battlefield triumph for Russia after a series of setbacks in its invasion that began almost 11 months ago. The Ukrainian army retreated from the salt mining town of Soledar to “preserve the lives of personnel,” Serhii Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s forces in the east, told The Associated Press. The soldiers pulled back to previously prepared defensive positions, he said. Russia claimed almost two weeks ago that its forces had taken Soledar, but Ukraine denied it. Moscow has portrayed the battle for the town not far from the Donetsk province city of Bakhmut, as key to capturing all of Ukraine’s Donbas region, where Russia-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian troops for almost nine years and controlled some territory before Russia’s full-scale invasion. Read more: Top US general visits training site for Ukrainian soldiers Russian President Vladimir Putin cited the safety of ethnic Russians living in Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk province, which together make up the Donbas, as justification for the invasion. Putin illegally annexed the Ukrainian provinces and two others in late September. The withdrawal of Ukraine’s troops from Soledar takes the Russian forces a step closer to Bakhmut, but military analysts say the town’s capture is more symbolic than strategic. The fighting in eastern Ukraine has stood mostly at a stalemate for months. Ukraine’s military has said its fierce defense of Soledar and Bakhmut helped tie up Russian forces. Many of Russia’s troops around Soledar belong to the Wagner Group, a private Russian military contractorand the fighting reportedly has been bloody. Since its invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has prioritized taking full control of the Donbas, where it has backed a separatist insurgency since 2014. Russia has seized most of Luhansk, but about half of Donetsk remains under Ukraine’s control. “Russia is not reducing combat activity in Donbas, leaving a scorched desert where the Russian military manages to advance,” Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said on state television. Read more: Germany says it won't block Poland giving Ukraine tanks Taking control of Soledar potentially allows Russian forces to cut supply lines to Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut, though the strength of Ukraine’s new defensive positions was not known. The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank in Washington, said earlier this month that the fall of Soledar wouldn’t mark “an operationally significant development and is unlikely to presage an imminent Russian encirclement of Bakhmut.” The institute said Russian information operations have “overexaggerated the importance of Soledar,” which is a small settlement. It also argued that the long and difficult battle has contributed to the exhaustion of Russian forces. Perhaps more worrying for Moscow, Western military help for Ukraine is now being stepped up with the delivery of tanks. Elsewhere, Russian forces have continued to pummel Ukrainian areas, especially in the south and east. Russian strikes wounded 10 civilians in the eastern Donetsk province on Tuesday, Pavlo Kyrylenko, the provincial governor, said. Five were wounded when Russian shells slammed into apartment blocks, he said. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said Russian forces had launched four missile strikes, 26 airstrikes and more than 100 attacks from rocket salvo systems between Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning. In addition to Donetsk, the Russian attacks struck settlements in the country’s northeastern Kharkiv and Sumy, northern Chernihiv, easternmost Luhansk, southeastern Zaporizhzhia, and southern Kherson provinces. Two people were killed and three more wounded in Russian shelling of a grocery store in the Kherson province city of Beryslav on Wednesday, according to an online statement by the regional government. On Tuesday, the Russian shelling included 12 attacks on the regional capital, also called Kherson, damaging a maternity hospital, a school, a clinic, port buildings and residential buildings, the statement said. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was a professional comedian and actor before his 2019 election and has become an internationally recognized wartime leader, in the 11 months since Russia invaded his country, turned 45 on Wednesday. His wife, first lady Olena Zelenska, said that while he is the same person she met at age 17, “Something has changed: You smile much less now.” “I wish you to have more reasons for smiling. And you know what it takes. We all do,” she tweeted.

A man fatally stabbed two people and injured five others on a train in northern Germany on Wednesday before being arrested, police said. Germany's Federal Police force said the man used a knife to attack several passengers shortly before a regional train traveling from Kiel to Hamburg arrived at the Brokstedt station. Police spokesman Juergen Henningsen from the nearby city of Flensburg said two of the stabbed people died after the attack. Three people were severely injured and two others suffered minor injuries. No details were given about the identity of the victims. The attacker was also injured and taken to the hospital, police said. Read more: Son of former German president stabbed to death in Berlin Police did not provide any information on the suspect’s identity and said his possible motives were under investigation. They said they were first alerted to the incident shortly before 3 p.m. when several passengers on the train made emergency calls to police. The interior minister of Schleswig-Holstein state, Sabine Suetterlin-Waack, voiced shock at the attack.. “It is terrible,” Suetterlin-Waack told German public broadcaster NDR. “We are shocked and horrified that something like this has happened.” Regional police and the federal police were on the scene and the prosecutor’s office was investigating the attack, NDR reported. The train station in Brokstedt was closed for several hours and train traffic was delayed across northern Germany. Train operator Deutsche Bahn expressed its condolences on Wednesday evening saying that “our deepest sympathy goes to the relatives of the victims. We wish those injured a speedy and complete recovery.”

Chris Hipkins was sworn in Wednesday as New Zealand's 41st prime minister, following the unexpected resignation last week of Jacinda Ardern. Hipkins, 44, has promised a back-to-basics approach focusing on the economy and what he described as the “pandemic of inflation.” He will have less than nine months before contesting a tough general election, with opinion polls indicating his Labour Party is trailing its conservative opposition. New Zealand Governor-General Cindy Kiro officiated the brief swearing in ceremony in front of his friends and colleagues after she earlier accepted Ardern's resignation. “This is the biggest privilege and responsibility of my life,” Hipkins said at the ceremony. “I'm energized and excited by the challenges that lie ahead.” Carmel Sepuloni was also sworn in as deputy prime minister, the first time a person with Pacific Island heritage has taken on the role. She congratulated Hipkins and thanked him for the trust he'd placed in her. After the ceremony, Hipkins said as an aside to reporters: “It feels pretty real now.” Hipkins is known to many by the nickname “Chippy," which fits with his upbeat demeanor and skills as an amateur handyman. Read more: Chris Hipkins confirmed as New Zealand next prime ... He served as education and police minister under Ardern. He rose to public prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he took on a kind of crisis management role. But he and other liberals have long been in the shadow of Ardern, who became a global icon of the left and exemplified a new style of leadership. Ardern last week said she was resigning after more than five years in the role because she no longer had “enough in the tank” to do the job justice. “It's that simple,” she said. On Tuesday she made her final official appearance as prime minister, saying the thing she would miss most was the people because they had been the “joy of the job.” On Wednesday morning, she was greeted with hugs and farewells by dozens of former staff and admirers on Parliament's forecourt as she left the building. Ardern plans to stay on as a backbench lawmaker until April to avoid triggering a special election ahead of the nation’s general election in October. New Zealand’s head-of-state is Britain’s King Charles III, and Kiro is his representative in New Zealand, although these days the nation’s relationship with the monarchy is largely symbolic. Britain's Prince William and wife, Kate, thanked Ardern on Twitter “for your friendship, leadership and support over the years, not least at the time of my grandmother’s death. Sending you, Clarke and Neve our best wishes. W & C” Clarke Gayford is Ardern's fiance and Neve is their 4-year-old daughter.

A hand-drawn map with a red letter X purportedly showing the location of a buried stash of precious jewelry looted by Nazis from a blown-up bank vault has sparked a modern-day treasure hunt in a tiny Dutch village more than three quarters of a century later. Wielding metal detectors, shovels and copies of the map on cellphones, prospectors have descended on Ommeren — population 715 — about 80 kilometers (50 miles) southeast of Amsterdam to try to dig up a potential World War II trove based on the drawing first published on Jan. 3. “Yes, it is of course spectacular news that has enthralled the whole village," local resident Marco Roodveldt said. “But not only our village, also people who do not come from here.” He said that “all kinds of people have been spontaneously digging in places where they think that treasure is buried — with a metal detector.” It wasn’t immediately clear if authorities could claim the loot if it was found, or if a prospector could keep it. Also Read: Missing World War II aircraft found in India after 77 years So far, nobody has reported finding anything. The treasure hunt began this year when the Dutch National Archive published — as it does every January — thousands of documents for historians to pore over. Most of them went largely unnoticed. But the map, which includes a sketch of a cross section of a country road and another with a red X at the base of one of three trees, was an unexpected viral hit that briefly shattered the mid-winter calm of Ommeren. “We’re quite astonished about the story itself. But the attention it’s getting is as well,” National Archive researcher Annet Waalkens said as she carefully showed off the map. Photos on social media in early January showed people digging holes more than a meter (three feet) deep, sometimes on private property, in the hope of unearthing a fortune. Buren, the municipality Ommeren falls under, published a statement on its website pointing out that a ban on metal detection is in place for the municipality and warned that the area was a World War II front line. “Searching there is dangerous because of possible unexploded bombs, land mines and shells,” the municipality said in a statement. “We advise against going to look for the Nazi treasure.” The latest treasure hunters aren't the first to leave the village empty handed. The story starts, Waalkens said, in the summer of 1944 in the Nazi-occupied city of Arnhem — made famous by the star-studded movie “A Bridge Too Far” — when a bomb hit a bank, pierced its vault and scattered its contents — including gold jewelry and cash — across the street. German soldiers stationed nearby “pocket what they can get and they keep it in ammunition boxes,” Waalkens said. As World War II nears its end in 1945, the Netherlands' German occupiers were pushed back by Allied advances. The soldiers who had been in Arnhem found themselves in Ommeren and decided to bury the loot. “Four ammunition boxes and then just some jewelry that was kept in handkerchiefs or even cash money folded in. And they buried it right there,” she said, citing an account by a German soldier who was interviewed after the war by Dutch military authorities in Berlin and who was responsible for the map. The archive doesn't know if the soldier is still alive and hasn't released his name, citing European Union privacy regulations. Dutch authorities using the map and the soldier's account went hunting for the loot in 1947. The first time, the ground was frozen solid and they made no headway. When they went back after the thaw, they found nothing, Waalkens said. After the unsuccesful attempts, the German soldier said “he believed that someone else has already excavated the treasure,” she added. That detail was largely overlooked by treasure hunters who descended on Ommeren in the days after the map's publication. On a recent visit to the village, there were no diggers to be seen as peace and quiet has returned to Ommeren. But the village's brief brush with fame left a sour taste for some residents. Ria van Tuil van Neerbos said she didn't believe in the treasure story, but understood why some did. “If they hear something, they’ll head toward it," she said. "But I don’t think it’s good that they just dug into the ground and things like that.” ___ Mike Corder contributed to this report from The Hague.