Jacinda Ardern awarded top honour for leadership and service to New Zealand.

Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been awarded the "Dame Grand Companion" honour, the second highest honour in the country, for her leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Christchurch mosque attacks, and the White Island volcanic eruption. Ardern, who resigned in January, said she felt "incredibly humbled" to receive the honour but was in "two minds" to accept it as the efforts for which she was getting recognised for "were about all of us rather than one individual."