Chris Hipkins will replace Jacinda Ardern as prime minister of New Zealand

Chris Hipkins will replace Jacinda Ardern as prime minister of New Zealand

• New Zealand’s former COVID-19 response minister, Chris Hipkins will replace Jacinda Ardern as prime minister. 
• The 44-year-old senior politician must be formally backed by Labour members of parliament to take over as the country’s 41st prime minister, following Ardern’s shock resignation. 
• As leader of the governing party, Hipkins will also become prime minister when Ardern steps down.
• Besides holding the education portfolio, Hipkins is also minister for police and the public service, and leader of the House.

David Crosby, the father of American folk-rock, passes away at 81

• David Crosby, the father of American folk-rock, has passed away at the age of 81. 
• He was influential musical pioneer of the 1960s and 1970s who created a distinctly American brand of folk-rock with the Byrds and later with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. 
• He was born David Van Cortlandt Crosby on August 14, 1941, in Los Angeles. 
• His father was Oscar-winning cinematographer Floyd Crosby of “High Noon” fame. The family, including his mother, Aliph, and brother, Floyd Jr., later moved to Santa Barbara.

Aruna Miller becomes Maryland’s first Indian-American Lieutenant Governor

• Aruna Miller has scripted history by becoming the first Indian-American politician to be sworn in as the Lieutenant Governor in the state of Maryland, adjoining the US capital. 
• Aruna, 58, a former delegate to the Maryland House, made history when the Democrat became the 10th Lieutenant Governor of the state. 
• The Lieutenant Governor is the state’s highest official following the Governor and assumes the role when the Governor is out of state or incapacitated. 
• Miller became Maryland’s 63rd governor, the state’s first and the country’s only current Black chief executive. The newly sworn-in Lt Governor took her oath on the Bhagwat Gita.