A mistrial has been declared in a rape trial that began before a Christchurch District Court jury on Tuesday.The defendant, Benjovi Channi Toa, 33, has been remanded on bail for a pre-trial callover on May 13, when a new trial date…

Koalas are officially an endangered species at a higher risk of extinction in two states and a territory.

Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley announced the species' listing would move from vulnerable to endangered in line with recommendations from the Threatened Species Scientific Committee.

"Today I am increasing the protection for koalas in NSW, the ACT and Queensland listing them as endangered rather than their previous designation of vulnerable," Ms Ley said in a statement.

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Ms Ley explained prolonged drought, followed by the "Black Summer" bushfires of 2019/2020, and impacts of disease and land clearing over the past 20 years have led to a decline in the population.

More than 60,000 koalas were killed or affected by the Black Summer bushfires, a report found in 2020.

It's estimated nearly one-third of the east coast population were lost in the three years from 2018 to 2021.

Ms Ley said the announcement follows a $50 million commitment to koala conservation and protection.

"We are taking unprecedented action to protect the koala, working with scientists, medical researchers, veterinarians, communities, states, local governments and Traditional Owners," she said.

Decision 'a double-edged sword'

International Fund for Animal Welfare Wildlife Campaign Manager Josey Sharrad said the decision is a "double-edged sword".

"We should never have allowed things to get to the point where we are at risk of losing a national icon," Ms Sharrad said.

"If we can't protect an iconic species endemic to Australia, what chance do lesser-known but no less important species have?

"The bushfires were the final straw.

"This must be a wake-up call to Australia and the government to move much faster to protect critical habitat from development and land-clearing and seriously address the impacts of climate change."

READ MORE: Fresh hope Tasmanian tiger could be resurrected

WWF-Australia conservation scientist Dr Stuart Blanch has called on federal and state governments to commit to doubling koala numbers on the east coast by 2050.

"Koalas have gone from no-listing to vulnerable to endangered within a decade. That is a shockingly fast decline," Dr Blanch said.

"Today's decision is welcome, but it won't stop koalas from sliding towards extinction unless it's accompanied by stronger laws and landholder incentives to protect their forest homes.

"Koala numbers have halved in the past 20 years and new SLATS data shows land clearing is continuing in Queensland at an alarming rate. We must turn this trend around."

The koala population in south-east Queensland is projected to shrink to just 8000 in 2032, when Brisbane hosts the Olympic Games.

Police have released CCTV vision of a hit-and-run that occurred in Melbourne last month in a bid to identify the unknown driver.

A 21-year-old was riding a skateboard in Brunswick West on January 18 when he was hit by a white car and dragged approximately 20m.

"The Brunswick West man heard a vehicle approach him from behind before the car accelerated and collided with him, causing him to mount the bonnet," police said in a statement.

The driver failed to stop and is still outstanding.

It's believed the driver was behind the wheel of an early 2000s white Nissan Pulsar.

The skateboarder was rushed to hospital with serious injuries.

He is still recovering from a broken ankle and wrist.

Any witnesses, or anyone who recognises the car or its driver, is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has said there could be different vaccination rules for visitors to the state and those that are there long-term, after National Cabinet agreed to not impose a booster mandate on international arrivals.

Mr Andrews had earlier this week flagged that Victoria might impose additional restrictions on tourists who had not received a third jab, putting him at odds with the Federal Government.

But after National Cabinet agreed that would be hard to police, Mr Andrews changed his position, saying that there could be different rules for tourists.

READ MORE: Booster required to be fully vaccinated

Mr Andrews had also pushed for changing the definition of "fully vaccinated" in Australia to include a third dose.

But National Cabinet instead decided to move away from the term "fully vaccinated" overall.

Instead, people will need a booster shot within six months of their second dose to be considered "up to date".

READ MORE: National Cabinet agrees to transition to Phase D of COVID-19 roadmap

This will not apply to international arrivals

Federally, the only third jab mandate will remain for aged care, though states and territories can impose their own.

Aged care will see further changes, with leaders endorsing advice from the AHPPC to expand visitor access to loved ones.

https://omny.fm/shows/the-9news-lunch-podcast/feb-11-a-new-job-for-gladys-berejiklian-and-the-rb/embed?style=cover

Next steps

New South Wales is set to lead the way into "Phase D" of the COVID-19 pandemic roadmap, which will entail the removal of remaining restrictions.

The timeline of this phase will differ between states and territories, but NSW is already preparing to remove its mask rules and density limits at the end of February.

Business leaders are also meeting for a summit in Sydney today to discuss revitalising the city centres of the CBD and Parramatta.

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Two options being floated to boost foot traffic are more al fresco dining, and free public transport.

Meanwhile, NSW, Queensland and Victoria will work with the Federal Government to establish a plan for restarting the cruise industry.

The multi-billion-dollar sector has been effectively shut down during the entire pandemic, with cruise ships having played a key role in transporting COVID-19 around the world.

Cruise Lines International Association managing director Joel Katz said it was "positive news".

"There are long lead times to get the ships back up and running so we need to see some genuine and concrete actions coming out of the government, so we can move forward and get the ships back by the middle of the year," he said.

"We've got the advantage of best practice from around the world.

"Cruising has been operating in many countries for a long time, so we have developed really robust plans informed by that practice and we need to get the ships back up and running."

The disappearance of a Western Australian man is "out of character" police said, revealing they have serious concern for his welfare.

Matthew Eves was last seen travelling through the Burringurrah Community in the state's Gascoyne region on January 2 after leaving Perth.

He was intending to return to Kununurra where he usually lives and works.

However the 44-year-old failed to arrive at his destination, which sparked a widespread land and air search around Burringurrah.

Inquiries with service stations and roadhouses along the most likely routes Mr Eves took have not yielded information into his whereabouts.

Police said the have spoken to Mr Eves friends and family and all are concerned as they have not heard from him since his disappearance.

This is "out of character", they said.

Anyone with information about Mr Eves is being urged to come forward.

He is described as having a "solid build" is 171 cm in height and was last seen wearing a blue t-shirt and black shorts.

He is driving a white Mitsubishi utility registration WL5977.

The vehicle has "plumber" style racks, a light bar spotlight on the grill and two smaller rear facing spotlights on the back of the cab.

It's a frigid Friday in Ukraine's Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, and dozens of journalists in fluorescent yellow vests are frantically elbowing each other as they vie for camera position in a town where no one has lived since 1986.

Chernobyl has been abandoned since the world's worst nuclear disaster here three decades ago. But with tens of thousands of Russian troops amassing on Ukraine's border with Belarus just a few miles away, the ghost town is now playing host to security forces training for war.

Ukraine is using Chernobyl to prepare for another potential cataclysm.

READ MORE: This is Europe's 'most dangerous moment' in decades, UK PM says

Russian President Vladimir Putin has consistently denied that the Kremlin is planning an incursion into Ukraine. Russia's deployments in Belarus are ostensibly linked to joint exercises due to begin on Thursday. However, satellite photographs show Russian camps being established close to the border with Ukraine, hundreds of miles from where the exercises are taking place.

If Russia were to invade Ukraine, the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is a possible conduit to Kyiv. American and NATO officials say President Putin is steadily increasing his military presence in Belarus from 5000 troops in January to an estimated 30,000 sometime this month.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday that the deployment into Belarus is Russia's biggest since the Cold War, and many of those forces are just a two-hour drive from Kyiv.

Propaganda battle

The air is thick with sulfur as national guard troops clear the town of imagined enemy soldiers, firing hundreds of rounds of live ammunition into plywood cutouts in the windows of surrounding buildings.

A sniper fires into an orange target high in an apartment block. A mortar is launched into a snowy clearing. An armoured vehicle trundles past roadblocks to confront assailants held up in the second story of a building.

More than 35 years ago, an explosion at the Vladimir Lenin Nuclear Power Plant forced a region-wide evacuation, sending radioactive fallout billowing across Europe. Thirty-one people died in the blast, while millions were exposed to dangerous radiation levels. Estimates of the final death toll from long-term health problems are as high as 200,000.

Now, in training for war, Ukraine has brought the world's media along to see.

Denys Monastyrsky, Ukraine's internal affairs minister, told journalists that security forces were using the Chernobyl exercises to demonstrate how far they have come in urban combat tactics since Russia annexed Crimea and pro-Russian separatists seized a swathe of eastern Ukraine nearly eight years ago.

"All these scenarios are taken and summarised from the cases that have occurred since 2014," Mr Monastyrsky said.

The spectacle, however, is also an attempt by Kyiv to match the glitzy propaganda effort coming out of Moscow.

On the diplomatic front, Russia has repeatedly accused NATO of being the party responsible for the crisis, arguing the alliance's eastward expansion poses an existential threat. Russia's Defense Ministry, meanwhile, is pumping out propaganda videos worthy of a Hollywood production, with tank columns driving at maximum speed across the frozen steppe and ground-attack fighters swooping into bases in southern Belarus.

The exact nature of Russia's threat to Ukraine remains unclear and a point of contention.

Ukrainian officials have spent much of the past few weeks playing down the US estimation that a Russian invasion could be "imminent," concerned that the dire language was causing panic and destabilising the economy.

"We have the same facts, but the different perception, or a different estimation," Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov told CNN after watching the exercises in Chernobyl.

The White House is no longer calling a potential invasion "imminent" due to concerns, they say, that the term suggests Putin has already made a decision to invade Ukraine.

Nonetheless, Ukraine admits that Russia's military buildup in Belarus is worrying.

'Only a fool would start a war'

War is far from the minds of many Ukrainians who live near the border where Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia meet.

"They've been saying 'a war is coming' for five years now," said one man who asked not to be named.

"Only a fool would start a war," he said. "There won't be any winners."

At the Three Sisters Cafe, named for the three former Soviet republics, 64-year-old Masha pours espresso in paper cups for the weary drivers who wander in.

Truck after truck is waiting to cross into Russia. Some are stuck for days, slowed by COVID-19 restrictions. They have few options but to wait and sip a hot drink from the cafe.

Masha is convinced: No war is coming here.

"It ain't gonna happen," she yells, waving her hand in the air. "Will Putin go to war with civilians? He won't do that. Never in his life. It's all lies, politics. We don't even think about it."

She works in the cafe, she says, to supplement her pension, which is the equivalent of about $106 a month. She is less concerned with the geopolitical games being played by world leaders than the hardships of everyday life.

"If I could, I would have the Parliament dissolved," she said. "They should have given the people proper pensions. So that people won't be beggars, paupers."

Peter Vujcic, a Serb truck driver old enough to remember war in his own country, is also unconcerned.

Mr Vujcic spoke to CNN while on his way to the Serbian capital, Belgrade, shortly after crossing Belarus' border with Russia. He said he's seen military hardware coming back and forth in the Belarus, but he's not worried about it.

"Everything will be fine," he said with a smile, leaning out of his cab window.