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All countries signed up to the Paris Agreement have until the end of December to file Biennial Transparency Reports, sharing their progress with the international community. Photo: 123RF The government's first report under the Paris Agreement gives no answers on where it will source 84 million tonnes of planet-heating pollution savings currently missing from it's climate plans. All countries signed up to the Paris Agreement have until the end of December to file Biennial Transparency Reports, sharing their progress with the international community. New Zealand's was published on Wednesday. It said "the scale of emission reductions required to meet the target is greater than what can be achieved in an economically feasible way through domestic action alone". But it did not say how the go...

A damaged school building in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, on 19 December after the campus was struck by debris from the reported interception of a projectile from Yemen. Photo: JACK GUEZ / AFP Israel's "long hand" will reach the leaders of Yemen's Houthi movement, Defence Minister Israel Katz has vowed, after unleashing airstrikes on several areas of the Arab country overnight. The Israeli airstrikes killed nine people, said Al Masirah TV, the main television news outlet run by the Iran-aligned Houthis, who control much of the country. Seven of those were in the port of Salif and two in the Ras Issa oil facility, both located in the western province of Hodeidah. The strikes also targeted two central power stations south and north of the capital, Sanaa, it added. "I warn the leaders of the ...

Rescue teams dig for survivors trapped in crumpled buildings in Port Vila on 18 December. Photo: AFP There are conflicting reports of the official death toll from a massive earthquake in Vanuatu as rescue teams continue to scour the rubble for survivors. On 17 December, the Vanuatu National Disaster Management Office reported 14 deaths. It said four people had been confirmed dead by the hospital, six others were killed in a landslide and four others died in a collapsed building. But on Wednesday, the disaster management office reported only nine people had been confirmed dead by the hospital and made no mention of the deaths it had earlier attributed to the landslides and collapsed buildings. One consistent figure is the more than 200 people injured, with the hospital saying many patien...

John Marsden was one of Australia's greatest writers of children's and young adult literature. Photo: ABC Central Victoria: Larissa Romensky Acclaimed Australian author John Marsden, whose young adult novels were read and beloved across the world, has died aged 74. Marsden wrote the internationally best-selling Tomorrow book series, which sold millions of copies and was adapted for film and television. He won many major awards for children's and adult fiction, and in 2006 received the Lloyd O'Neil Award for contributions to Australian publishing. Following the news of his death, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Marsden "wanted young Australians to read more and his writing made that happen". "Vivid, funny, quintessentially Australian, he wrote with a real love for our land and a tru...

By Lainey Priestley of Former Green Party candidate Jack Brazil. Photo: Otago Daily Times / Gregor Richardson A Dunedin shooting victim, social justice campaigner and former Green Party candidate has been arrested in Ireland after allegedly looting a shoe store during mass riots in Dublin last year. However, he claims he has an alibi. Former 2020 Green Party candidate Jack Brazil was arrested in Ireland on Tuesday (local time) for the alleged looting of a Footlocker store in Dublin last year, Irish media reported. He allegedly committed the burglary on 23 November 2023, during the Dublin riots - an incident that involved widespread looting and disorder in the city in response to a knife attack on young children, the Irish Mirror reported. He appeared in Dublin Distr...

Follow Our Changing World on Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts The bright green Hägglund, a staple of Antarctic transport, is pulled up alongside a crack in the sea ice. The crack runs for hundreds of metres, pointing towards Mount Erebus in the distance. Nearby a group of Weddell seals are hanging out on the ice - mostly mums with pups taking advantage of the crack to gain access to the sea below. A group of NIWA scientists are also taking advantage. They've used a pit saw to make a rectangular hole out of the crack, just large enough for a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to fit neatly into. At Cinder Cones, the team use a natural crack in the ice to make a hole for the ROV (remotely operated vehicle). Photo: Claire Concannon / RNZ A thin yellow tet...

By Sam Tobin, Reuters Andrew Tate (L) and Tristan Tate (R) in December 2023. Photo: DANIEL MIHAILESCU / AFP British police can seize nearly 2.7 million pounds (NZ$5.9 million) from internet personality Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan over unpaid tax, a London judge ruled. Britain's Devon and Cornwall Police took legal action at Westminster Magistrates' Court against the Tates and an unnamed third person earlier this year. The force's lawyers said the Tates had not paid any tax on around 21 million pounds of revenue from online businesses between 2014 and 2022 and that funds in seven accounts should be forfeited. Judge Paul Goldspring said in a written ruling that the Tates had been liable to register with the tax authorities and declare and pay tax on revenue in Britain and/or Ro...

By Dee Ninis of This screengrab taken from handout video footage posted on the Facebook account of Michael Thompson on 17 December, 2024 shows people inspecting a damaged car trapped underneath a collapsed building in Vanuatu's capital Port Vila after a powerful earthquake hit the Pacific island. Photo: MICHAEL THOMPSON / AFP The death toll from Vanuatu's earthquake disaster continues to rise, with international search and rescue operations underway to help people hit by the initial quake and its aftershocks. On Tuesday afternoon, a powerful earthquake struck 30 kilometres off the west coast of Efate, the main island of Vanuatu. At a magnitude of 7.2 and a depth of just 50km, the earthquake damaged many buildings and injured dozens of people in Port Vila, the Pacif...

Photo: NZ Defence Force / Sergeant Maria Eves The search for people trapped in rubble and landslides is continuing to day as the New Zealand Defence Force arrives in Port Vila. The Defence Force was delayed arriving into Vanuatu after a fault on one of the older Hercules plane. Labour said it was embarrassing, but a new Hercules plane has landed in Port Vila and a second is on the way to Noumea. More than 300 after shocks have been felt since the big quake on Tuesday. And the official death toll was revised down to 9, though it was expected to rise. Two Chinese nationals were among the dead. Follow RNZ's liveblog for the latest updates: Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday. Source link...

By Leah Douglas and Tom Polansek, Reuters A digitally-colorized microscopic image of Avian Influenza A (H5N1) virus particles (seen in gold), grown in epithelial cells (green). Photo: CDC/ Cynthia Goldsmith, Jacqueline Katz, Sherif R Zaki The US has reported its first severe human case of bird flu in a Louisiana resident who is hospitalised in critical condition after suspected contact with an infected backyard flock. The illness shows increased risks from the virus that previously caused eye redness, or conjunctivitis, in infected farm workers. H5N1 bird flu still represents a low risk to the general public, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said. CDC has confirmed 61 human cases since April, mostly in workers on dairy farms where the virus infected cattle. Workers c...