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☆ Family Goes Missing After Heavy Rains Drench Western Australia
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-12 | by ( Natasha Frost | More About Natasha Frost | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

One car was driven by an “elderly driver” on his own, while the other is believed to have had “an elderly driver and five other occupants of which four are children” aged between 7 and 17, according to a statement from the police. The missing people, a family, are understood to have been returning home to the remote Aboriginal community of Tjuntjuntjarra, 400 miles to the northeast. “Concerns are held for the occupants of these two vehicles due to serious weather conditions” that have hampered the search effort, with low clouds occluding an aerial search, a spokesman for the police said. Photographs posted to social media by the Rawlinna station, Australia’s largest sheep ranch, showed submerged farm equipment as Craig Chandler, an overseer at the station, took to a kayak to salvage homestead chickens and get around the property. “The Nullarbor is soaking it in and will be totally rejuvenated from this deluge, but I’m not so sure our buildings, belongings and bits and bobs will be so lucky,” according to a post on the station’s Facebook page on Monday.

Persons: ”, Craig Chandler Organizations: Meteorology Locations: Tjuntjuntjarra, “

Latam, a Chilean airline, provided no specifics about the technical problem that it said had caused the disturbance. One passenger, who said she was a former flight attendant, told The New Zealand Herald that there had been a “quick little drop” during the flight, Latam Airlines Flight 800. Aircraft tracking information from Flight Aware showed a gap of roughly an hour for which no data was available. The plane, a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, was met at Auckland International Airport by 14 emergency vehicles, including seven ambulances, according to the city’s ambulance service, Hato Hone St. John. Ambulance crews treated about 50 people at the scene, including the person in serious condition; the others were in “moderate to minor condition,” the service said.

Organizations: Latam, New Zealand Herald, Aircraft, Boeing, Auckland International Airport, Hato Hone St, John . Ambulance Locations: Auckland, New, Chilean, Hato Hone

☆ Dozens Killed in Papua New Guinea Violence, Official Says
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-18 | by ( Natasha Frost | More About Natasha Frost | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At least 53 people were killed in fighting in the remote highlands of Papua New Guinea, where deadly violence between more than a dozen tribal groups has been escalating, a senior security official said. George Kakas, the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary acting superintendent, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the death toll from the incident in Enga Province was likely to rise. “These tribesmen have been killed all over the countryside, all over the bush,” Mr. Kakas told the broadcaster. “Police and defense forces have had to go in to do their best to quell the situation at their own risk.”Bodies were found across a field, along roads and near a river, Mr. Kakas said. Video footage and photos shared on social media, whose authenticity could not immediately be confirmed, showed dozens of bodies piled onto the back of an open truck.

Persons: George Kakas, Mr, Kakas Organizations: Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, “ Police Locations: Papua New Guinea, Royal Papua, Enga Province

Image Antoinette Lattouf said the Australian Broadcasting Corporation unlawfully dismissed her amid outside pressure. Credit... Peter MorrisThe ABC, publicly funded and with an obligation to represent all stripes of Australian life, is confronting the collision of two contentious issues. First, how do news outlets and their employees cover hot-button topics in a time of stark political divides and strong personal brands? And second, as its journalists allege, has Australia’s beleaguered public broadcaster been so weakened by underfunding and right-wing political attacks that it will not stand up for its journalists, especially people of color and women? “I was embarrassed that a group of 156 lawyers could laugh at how easy it was to manipulate the ABC,” Mr. Lyons said, according to multiple sources.

Persons: Antoinette Lattouf, Peter Morris, underfunding, John Lyons, Lyons, ABC “, Mr, David Anderson Organizations: Australian Broadcasting Corporation, ABC, Melbourne Locations: Israel

☆ Capping 5 Years of Speculation, Jacinda Ardern Gets Married
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-13 | by ( Natasha Frost | More About Natasha Frost | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

She steered New Zealand through volcanic eruptions, terrorist attacks and a pandemic, won her party a record-breaking majority and, at age 37, became the world’s youngest female head of government. On Saturday, they finally got their answer, when the couple released official wedding portraits to the news media. The ceremony, which took place at the Craggy Range vineyard, in New Zealand’s spectacular Hawke’s Bay, follows one canceled effort and more than five years of media speculation. In January 2019, a BBC interviewer made headlines when she pressed Ms. Ardern on whether she and Mr. Gayford would marry, or whether she would consider proposing to Mr. Gayford if he did not pop the question, prompting accusations of sexism. Since then similar questions have dogged Ms. Ardern.

Persons: Jacinda Ardern, Clarke Gayford, fiancé, Ardern, Gayford Organizations: New Locations: New Zealand, New

New Zealand’s new right-wing government has said it will repeal a law that would have gradually banned all cigarette sales in the country over the course of several decades. It would have gradually introduced changes in retail cigarette sales and licensing over several years until tobacco could eventually no longer be legally sold in New Zealand. By Jan. 1, 2027, the law would have made it illegal to sell tobacco products like cigarettes, to anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 2009, according to the government. The law would then have gradually raised the smoking age, year by year, until it covered the entire population. But last week, the new government said in published agreements between the three coalition partners that it would repeal the law, without explaining why.

Persons: Jacinda Ardern Locations: New Zealand

☆ In New Zealand’s Crackdown on Crime, What Part Can Maori Wardens Play?
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-28 | by ( Natasha Frost | More About Natasha Frost | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As tempers flared on a recent evening in a nightlife district in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, Joanne Paikea sensed an altercation — or even an arrest — brewing. “Bro, you know the cops are behind us,” she said, describing her efforts to soothe the surging tension between two groups. “So you’re either going to listen, or get arrested. The role of policing has recently come under the microscope in New Zealand, where lurid crime stories have dominated headlines. Shootings, gang tensions and scores of ram raids — when miscreants smash into stores with cars to loot them — have rattled the peaceful nation and became an important issue in last month’s election.

Persons: Joanne Paikea, “ Bro, ”, you’re, Paikea Organizations: New Locations: Auckland , New, New Zealand

Eighty years ago, the United States military attacked the island of Betio, part of the Tarawa atoll in what is today the archipelago nation of Kiribati, to wrest it from Japanese control. But its location would allow the United States to move northwest: first to the Marshall Islands, then to the Mariana Islands and eventually to Japan itself. These were the “leapfrogging” tactics the Allies used in the Pacific to weaken Japan’s control of the region, as well as to establish bases to launch further attacks. On Betio, the United States military had expected an easy conquest by air and sea, a so-called amphibious assault involving about 18,000 Marines and an additional 35,000 troops. But awaiting them were heavy Japanese fortifications, including concrete bunkers and cannons along the sandy fringes of the atoll and some 5,000 troops, nearly a quarter of them enslaved Korean laborers, on the front line.

Persons: Betio Organizations: United States Locations: Betio, Kiribati, United States, Marshall, Mariana Islands, Japan, Pacific

☆ No, 11,200 Climate Refugees Aren’t Heading to Australia
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-11 | by ( Natasha Frost | More About Natasha Frost | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Pacific island nation of Tuvalu once comprised 11 islands. For decades, Tuvalu’s leaders have warned about the effects of the world’s emissions on this tiny place. “It’s a matter of disappearing from the surface of this earth,” Kausea Natano, the prime minister, said in September on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. And so when Mr. Natano and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia announced a bipartisan agreement this week between their nations that would help Tuvalu mitigate the effects of climate change, many anticipated a wholesale offer of climate-based asylum for Tuvalu’s approximately 11,200 citizens. At least in the short term, the truth is rather less dramatic.

Persons: “, Kausea Natano, Natano, Anthony Albanese Organizations: United Nations General Assembly, Australia, Pacific, Forum Locations: Tuvalu, Tuvalu’s, Cook, Australia

☆ How a Storied National Airline Became Reviled in Its Own Country
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-23 | by ( Natasha Frost | More About Natasha Frost | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Barely three years after its entire fleet was grounded, Qantas Airways has never been more profitable. But as Australia’s national airline has emerged stronger from the pandemic, it has alienated its most important constituency: Australians. They are aghast at how government protectionism has made Qantas by far the biggest airline in Australia and pushed up the price of travel. They cannot square how Qantas unfairly laid off hundreds of workers, then handed out enormous paychecks to its chief executive and board directors. Now, as the baying for blood intensifies, labor unions and lawmakers are calling on the company’s board to resign en masse.

Persons: ”, Geoffrey Thomas, “ We’re Organizations: Qantas Airways, Australians, Qantas Locations: Australia, Perth

☆ After Jacinda Ardern, a ‘Scary Time’ for Women in New Zealand Politics
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-22 | by ( Natasha Frost | More About Natasha Frost | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The last time New Zealanders voted in a general election, they were choosing between two women who were self-professed feminists. Three years later, in a sign of how sharply the pendulum has swung, they will pick between two men named Chris. Issues like pay equity, child poverty and the prevention of domestic violence and harassment have seldom featured in the current campaign. Female politicians across the spectrum now say they face extraordinary abuse from a misogynistic and sometimes scary slice of the population. Some women say they did not seek office because of safety fears.

Persons: Chris, Jacinda Ardern Organizations: Zealanders, New Zealand

☆ Meet a 25-Million-Year-Old Koala You Could Cuddle Like a Cat
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( Natasha Frost | More About Natasha Frost | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Standing around three feet high, the modern koala is roughly 25 pounds of claws and teeth, tufty ears and fluffy white marsupial tummy. You could give one a hug — experts suggest that they prefer it if you don’t — but you wouldn’t want to carry it around all day. Now imagine that same koala, or one quite like it, weighing in at a much more manageable (and potentially cuter) six pounds. Researchers at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, believe that such a creature, named Lumakoala blackae, once made its home in the country’s Northern Territory some 25 million years ago, most likely spending its days snacking on soft leaves and the occasional insect. Their research, based on the discovery of fossilized molars at the Pwerte Marnte Marnte fossil site in the Australian outback, was published in the journal Scientific Reports this month.

Persons: Lumakoala blackae Organizations: Flinders University Locations: Adelaide, Australia, Northern Territory

It was billed as a modest proposal that would help heal the traumas of history and unite the country. Australia would change its Constitution to recognize the original inhabitants of the land and enshrine an advisory body in Parliament for Aboriginal people, giving them a greater say on issues that affect their lives. But over the past year, the proposal has exposed racial fault lines and become ensnared in a bitter culture war, in a country that has long struggled to reckon with its colonial legacy. And now, public polling suggests, a referendum on the matter — which will be held on Oct. 14 — is likely to fail. That result, according to Thomas Mayo, an Indigenous leader, would mean “Australia officially dismissing our very existence.”

Persons: entrench, Thomas Mayo, ” Locations: Australia

☆ 4 Australians Are Rescued After 36 Hours on Surfboards at Sea
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( Natasha Frost | More About Natasha Frost | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The arrival of the first wave, smashing against the wooden boat, set off a desperate scramble for gear: knives, warm clothing, headlamps, water. The second wave sent the passengers diving overboard, as the boat tipped forward into the ocean. But a storm swept through, knocking the boat off course and ultimately scuttling the vessel. “When the first one came in, Jordy was like, ‘All right, guys, this could be serious,’” Mr. Foote said in a video posted to social media. Multiple Australian and Indonesian crews led the effort, with assistance from local fishermen, private vessels and even a private airplane chartered by family members and the Australian government.

Persons: Elliot Foote, Will Teagle, Jordan Short, Steph Weisse, Jordy, Mr, Foote Organizations: Indonesian Locations: Indonesia, Nias, North Sumatra, Indonesian

☆ World Cup Picks Up Baton for Women’s Sports in Australia
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-05 | by ( Natasha Frost | More About Natasha Frost | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Fans celebrated in central Melbourne this week after a national triumph: The Matildas, the Australian women’s soccer team, had defeated Canada, the reigning Olympic champion, 4-0. It was a glorious victory after a dismal start to the Women’s World Cup for one of the two host teams. In Federation Square, Australians held up gold and green scarves and bellowed, “Up the Matildas!”Two years earlier, the same city had seen a similar outpouring of support for the Australian women’s cricket team. Inside Melbourne Cricket Ground, more than 86,000 people had gathered to watch the final of the Women’s T20 World Cup, while 1.2 million people tuned in from elsewhere in Australia. For Ellyse Perry, an Australian sporting legend who has represented the country in both the cricket and soccer World Cups, the 2020 match — the largest crowd ever to watch a women’s cricket match — was a milestone for women’s sports in Australia.

Persons: Ellyse Perry, — Organizations: Canada, Olympic, Square, Australian, Inside, Inside Melbourne Cricket Locations: Melbourne, Australian, Inside Melbourne, Australia

☆ Australia Will Return Looted Sculptures to Cambodia
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-03 | by ( Natasha Frost | More About Natasha Frost | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

An ancient gilt bronze Buddhist sculpture that traveled a circuitous and legally questionable route from a rice paddy in southern Cambodia to the capital of Australia will soon be headed back to its homeland. Over about 15 years, it traveled from a rural area near the Vietnamese border to the hands of Douglas A.J. In 2011, he in turn sold it and two smaller accompanying statues to the National Gallery of Australia, where they have resided ever since. Now, after an extensive investigation into the work’s provenance, the gallery will return the sculptures in no more than three years to Cambodia, giving the government time to prepare an appropriate place for them in Phnom Penh, the capital. At a ceremony last week in Canberra, Australia’s capital, Susan Templeman, a special envoy for the arts, described the handover in terms of reparations.

Persons: ”, Douglas A.J, Susan Templeman Organizations: National Gallery of Australia Locations: Cambodia, Australia, Phnom Penh, Canberra

☆ Colonization Was the ‘Luckiest Thing’ to Happen to Australia, Ex-Leader Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Natasha Frost | More About Natasha Frost | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A former prime minister of Australia has stirred a storm of outrage by describing colonization as “the luckiest thing that happened to this country” and praising Britain for being a better overlord than other nations ahead of a contentious referendum on Aboriginal representation in the country. “I do hold the view that the luckiest thing that happened to this country was being colonized by the British,” the former prime minister, John Howard, 84, told The Australian newspaper in an interview this week. “Not that they were perfect by any means, but they were infinitely more successful and beneficent colonizers than other European countries.”Mr. Howard’s remarks were denounced on social media, with some people calling him “ignorant,” “racist” and “evil.”Australia is no longer a British colony, even as it retains King Charles III as its head of state, and Aboriginal Australians continue to face the harrowing effects of colonialism, including significant hardship and discrimination.

Persons: John Howard, Mr, Howard’s, King Charles III Organizations: Australian, Aboriginal Australians Locations: Australia, Britain, British

☆ Fiji’s Leader Declines Invitation to China, Saying He Tripped and Fell
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Natasha Frost | More About Natasha Frost | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Fiji’s uneasy relationship with China has hit an unusual roadblock, in the form of an office door. In a video posted to social media on Tuesday, the Pacific island nation’s prime minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, said he was declining an invitation to visit China this week because he had tripped while looking at his phone, striking his head on a door at the entrance to a government building. “I do not know whether my head is hurt more than the door, or the door hurt more than my head,” Mr. Rabuka said. He was wearing a shirt flecked with bloodstains, which he pointed out to viewers, and had a bandage on his head. Because his doctor would have to change the bandage on Friday, he said, “I have had to inform China that I will not be able to undertake the trip coming up tomorrow night.” China had invited Mr. Rabuka to the city of Chengdu, where he was to have met with Xi Jinping, the country’s leader, at the World University Games.

Persons: Sitiveni Rabuka, ” Mr, Rabuka, “, China, Xi Jinping Organizations: World University Games Locations: China, Chengdu

☆ A Yiddish Haven Thrives in Australia
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Natasha Frost | More About Natasha Frost | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

“Mir kumen on, mir kumen on! Un fest un zikher undzer trot!”Late on a recent Friday night, dozens of voices joined in this Yiddish anthem — “We are coming, we are coming! And our step is firm and true!” — and soared from a conference center among gum trees and kookaburras outside Melbourne, Australia. Today, Yiddish is most commonly used in ultra-Orthodox communities in places like Brooklyn or Jerusalem. But in Melbourne, snatches of it can be heard on certain streets, around multigenerational dinner tables, on stages and in classrooms.

Persons: “ Mir kumen, — Organizations: Australia Locations: Melbourne, Australia, Brooklyn, Jerusalem, Sof, Eastern Europe

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