An Auckland family who were allowed to cross the city’s southern checkpoint by a “compassionate police officer” were later told they would be arrested if they attended their niece’s funeral.The woman and two others were forced to…

Australia's koala population is on a rapid decline with an estimated 30 per cent loss of the national animal since 2018, according to a new report.

New South Wales has suffered the largest koala population loss with a 41 per cent decline, but every region saw a drop in numbers of the animal.

The ACT and Queensland saw a decline of 37 per cent in koala population.

LIVE UPDATES: Premier's warning despite drop in NSW cases

The total population of koalas across Australia is estimated to be between 32,065 to 57,920 – down from 45,745 to 82,170 in 2018.

Australian Koala Foundation Chair Deborah Tabart said the horror bushfires that occurred in NSW and Victoria during the summer of 2019-20 had contributed to the downfall.

"The terrible bushfires of 2019-20 of course contributed to this outcome, however, they are certainly not the only reason we are seeing Koala populations on the decline," she said.

"We have witnessed a drastic decrease in inland populations because of drought, heatwaves, and lack of water for Koalas to drink.

READ MORE: Koala bushfire survivor spotted in wild with joey

"I have seen some landscapes that look like the moon – with dead and dying trees everywhere."

Land clearing could also be a factor as to why koala populations have plummeted.

"We know that offsets don't work and we also know that displaced koalas die," Ms Tabart said.

"Urgent action to stop land clearing in prime koala habitat is required if we are to save our beloved national animal from peril."

A man has been arrested after allegedly slashing a woman with a knife while she took a walk at the Gold Coast earlier this morning.

Police said a 34-year-old woman was walking along the beach near the intersection of Marine Parade and Powell Crescent in Kirra at 5.20am today when a 20-year-old man allegedly tried to grab her.

The woman was able to resist the alleged attack, however she suffered a six centimetre knife wound to her left forearm as a result, police said.

READ MORE: Gold Coast home destroyed by fire was premises for candle business

The man fled the scene but was later arrested by police and taken into custody.

The woman was taken to Robina Hospital for treatment where is in a stable condition.

Anyone who saw the incident or was in the area around the time have been asked to contact Policelink or call 131 444.

The city of Paris is unveiling a monumental artwork built around an actual monument: the Arc de Triomphe completely wrapped in silver and blue fabric.

The installation by late artist couple Christo and Jeanne-Claude, who conceived the project in 1961, will open on Saturday.

Visits will take place for almost three weeks. At weekends, the Arc de Triomphe’s traffic-heavy roundabout will be entirely pedestrianised.

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Visitors to the famous Napoleonic arch, which dominates the Champs-Elysees Avenue, will not only be able to see the gleaming fabric, but to touch it too — as the artists had intended.

Those climbing the 50 metres to the top will step on it when they reach the roof terrace.

At a press conference on the project entitled “Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped,” France’s Culture Minister Roselyne Bachelot called it “a formidable gift offered to Parisians, the French and beyond, to all art lovers”.

Ms Bachelot added that it was “a posthumous testimony of artistic genius.”

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Bulgarian-born Christo Vladimirov Javacheff met Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon in Paris in 1958 and they later became lovers.

The idea for the artwork was born in the early '60s, when they lived in Paris. Jeanne-Claude died in 2009, and Christo in May last year.

The monument was to be wrapped last fall, but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed it.

Christo "wanted to complete this project. He made us promise him that we will do it,” the couple’s nephew, Vladimir Yavachev, told The Associated Press.

The $22 million project is being financed through the sale of Christo’s preparatory studies, drawings, scale models, and other pieces of work, Mr Yavachev said.

Passersby on Thursday looked up in awe.

READ MORE: Victoria records 567 new COVID-19 cases

“It makes me think of a big grey elephant placed in Paris on the Champs-Elysee" said 47-year-old Thomas Thevenoud, who works nearby.

“You really rediscover the beauty of the form," said 39-year-old Parisian Agnieszka Wojel. “I couldn’t stop taking pictures because it’s extraordinary… We are very lucky.”

The artists were known for elaborate, temporary creations that involved blanketing familiar public places with fabric, including Berlin’s Reichstag and Paris’ Pont Neuf bridge, and creating giant site-specific installations, such as a series of 7,503 gates in New York City’s Central Park and the 24.5-mile “Running Fence” in California.

Mr Yavachev said he plans to complete another one of their unfinished projects: a 150-metre-tall pyramid-like mastaba in Abu Dhabi.

“We have the blueprints, we just have to do it,” he said.

Hot, dry weather on Sunday has added to the challenges facing California firefighters who are battling to keep flames from driving further into a grove of ancient sequoias, where the base of the world’s tallest tree has been wrapped in protective foil.

Fire officials warned that stronger winds were also contributing to “critical fire conditions” in the area of the KNP Complex, two lightning-sparked blazes that merged on the western side of Sequoia National Park in the Sierra Nevada.

The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning through Sunday, saying gusts and lower humidity could create conditions for rapid wildfire spread.

LIVE UPDATES: Victoria records 567 new coronavirus cases

The fires forced the evacuation of the park last week, along with parts of Three Rivers, a foothill community of about 2,500 people. Crews have been bulldozing a line between the fire and the community.

More than 88 square kilometres of forest land have been blackened.

The National Park Service said Friday that flames had reached the westernmost tip of the Giant Forest, where it scorched a grouping of sequoias known as the “Four Guardsmen” that mark the entrance to the grove of 2,000 sequoias.

Firefighters wrapped the base of the General Sherman Tree, along with other trees in the Giant Forest, in a type of aluminium that can withstand high heat. It wasn’t immediately known how the Four Guardsmen, which received the same treatment, fared, fire spokeswoman Katy Hooper said on Saturday.

READ MORE: Strong winds push California wildfire closer to Lake Tahoe

The General Sherman Tree is the largest in the world by volume, at 1,487 cubic metres, according to the National Park Service. It towers 84 metres high and has a circumference of 31 metres at ground level.

Firefighters who were wrapping the base of the sequoias in foil and sweeping leaves and needles from the forest floor around the trees had to flee from the danger on Friday, Ms Hooper said. They returned on Saturday when conditions improved to continue the work and start a strategic fire along Generals Highway to protect the Giant Forest grove, Ms Hooper said.

READ MORE: California's largest ever wildfire destroys hundreds of homes

Giant sequoias are adapted to fire, which can help them thrive by releasing seeds from their cones and creating clearings that allow young sequoias to grow. But the extraordinary intensity of fires — fuelled by climate change — can overwhelm the trees.

“Once you get fire burning inside the tree, that will result in mortality,” Jon Wallace, the operations section chief for the KNP Complex, said.

The fires already have burned into several groves containing trees as tall as 61 metres and 2,000 years old.

To the south, the Windy Fire grew to 72 square kilometres on the Tule River Indian Reservation and in Giant Sequoia National Monument, where it has burned into the Peyrone grove of sequoias and threatens others.

The fire also had reached Long Meadow Grove, where the Trail of 100 Giant Sequoias is a national monument. Fire officials haven’t yet been able to determine how much damage was done to the groves, which are in remote and hard-to-reach areas.

Historic drought tied to climate change is making wildfires harder to fight. It has killed millions of trees in California alone. Scientists say climate change has made the West much warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.

More than 7,000 wildfires in California this year have damaged or destroyed more than 3,000 homes and other buildings and torched well over 7,770 square kilometres of land, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison insists France would have known of Australia's "deep and grave concerns" with the scrapped submarine deal that has sparked a major diplomatic crisis.

France has accused Australia of concealing its intentions to back out of the $90 billion contract for majority state-owned French company Naval Group to build 12 conventional diesel-electric submarines.

Mr Morrison blamed the switch on a deteriorating strategic environment in the Indo-Pacific and said the French-built fleet would not have met Australia's needs.

READ MORE: Christian Porter resigns as cabinet minister

He has not specifically referred to China's massive military build-up, which has gained pace in recent years.

"The capability that the attack-class submarines were going to provide was not what Australia needed to protect our sovereign interests," Mr Morrison said.

"They would have had every reason to know that we have deep and grave concerns that the capability being delivered by the attack-class submarine was not going to meet our strategic interests and we have made very clear that we would be making a decision based on our strategic national interest," he added, referring to the French government.

The new AUKUS alliance between Australia, the US and the UK announced last week is expected to deliver an Australian fleet of at least eight nuclear-powered submarines.

French President Emmanuel Macron will soon speak with US President Joe Biden after diplomatic relations hit a new low.

Mr Morrison flies to the US today for a meeting with Mr Biden and the leaders of India and Japan that make up the Quad security forum.

France responded to the contract cancellation, which Mr Morrison has said will cost his government at least $2.4 billion, by recalling its ambassadors from Australia and the United States.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Saturday denounced what he called the "duplicity, disdain and lies" surrounding the sudden end of the contract and said France was now questioning the strength of the alliance.

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Mr Macron would speak with Mr Biden in the coming days in what will be their first contact since the crisis erupted, an official said on Sunday.

The phone call was at the request of Mr Biden, French government spokesman Gabriel Attal said, adding that there was "shock" and "anger" at first but it was now time to try to move forward.

What's at play in this affair, this crisis … are strategic issues before being commercial issues," Mr Attal said in an interview on BFMTV.

"The question is … the forces present, the balance, in the Indo-Pacific where part of our future is at play, and our relations with China."

The deal by the United States reflects the American pivot toward the Indo-Pacific region, seen as increasingly strategic as China bolsters its influence there. Yet France feels the deal steps on its feet in a region where it has long had a strong presence that it, too, is working to bolster, in addition to a five-year contract with Australia.

"France is a country of the Indo-Pacific," Attal said, noting the French territory of New Caledonia, the French citizens living in the region and the French military forces based there.

The Indo-Pacific was also an issue for Europe, he said.

Macron will be seeking explanations from Biden about what led to a "major rupture in confidence," the spokesman said.

"There was a moment of shock, of anger … now, we must advance."

France won the contract in 2016 over offers from Germany and Japan. The Shortfin Barracuda was to be a nuclear submarine design adapted to be powered by diesel on the surface and battery underwater.

Japan was particularly disappointed because then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott had promised the close defence ally the contract before he was deposed by his own party in 2015.

The government has talked down media reports of ructions between the partners in the French submarine project and delays on the original delivery date of 2027.

There have been concerns of a defence capability gap emerging that the ageing Australia-made Collins class conventional submarines could not fill.

Australia's first nuclear submarines are not expected to be delivered until close to 2040.

Defence Minister Peter Dutton said his government was prepared to lease nuclear submarines from the United States while Australia's fleet was being built.

Mr Dutton and Foreign Minister Marise Payne are in the United States for annual meetings with their US counterparts and their first with the Biden administration.

China has denounced the sharing of US and British nuclear technology as irresponsible.

A volcano on Spain's Atlantic Ocean island of La Palma has erupted after a week-long build-up of seismic activity, prompting authorities to speed up evacuations for some 1000 people.

The Canary Islands Volcanology Institute reported the eruption on Cumbre Vieja, which last erupted in 1971, just before 3.30pm on Sunday (12.30am on Monday AEST).

Huge plumes of black-and-white smoke shot out from a point in the volcanic ridge where scientists had been closely following the accumulation of molten lava below the surface. Tinges of red could be seen at the bottom of the black jets that shot rocks into the air.

READ MORE: French would have known about Australia's 'deep and grave' submarine concerns, PM says

https://twitter.com/involcan/status/1439596728483725316

Huge plumes of black-and-white smoke shot out from a point in the volcanic ridge where scientists had been closely following the accumulation of molten lava below the surface. Tinges of red could be seen at the bottom of the black jets that shot rocks into the air.

La Palma, with a population of 85,000, is one of eight islands in Spain's Canary Islands archipelago. At their nearest point to Africa, they are 100km from Morocco.

After days of what scientists call "an earthquake swarm," authorities on La Palma had already started to evacuate residents with reduced mobility on Sunday shortly before the ground broke open.

While government experts had earlier in the day said an eruption was not imminent, there was an intensification of earthquakes near the surface of the island, which belongs to the Canary Islands archipelago.

Authorities ordered the evacuation of residents with reduced mobility from villages near the centre of the seismic activity as a preventative measure. Some will be taken in at a military outpost on the island.

A 3.8-magnitude quake was recorded Sunday as vibrations from the seismic activity were felt on the surface.

The Scientific Committee of the Volcano Risk Prevention Plan said that stronger earthquakes "are likely to be felt and may cause damage to buildings."

The committee of scientific experts also singled out a stretch of the island's south-west coast for the risk of rockfalls.

READ MORE: Christian Porter resigns as cabinet minister

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Emergency services had been ordered to be prepared to evacuate about 1,000 people if necessary, authorities said.

La Palma has been on alert this week after geologists reported an accumulation of molten rock under Cumbre Vieja.

Before a volcano erupts, there is a gradual increase in seismic activity that can build up over a prolonged period.

The area near the southern tip of the island is sparsely populated. Residents of the five nearby villages had already been told to be on alert and ready to leave their homes in case of an eruption.

A magnitude 3.8 quake was recorded before the eruption as vibrations from the seismic activity were felt on the surface.

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Christian Porter has resigned from his cabinet post as Minister for Industry, Science and Technology.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison told a media conference this afternoon Mr Porter tendered his resignation to him, which was accepted.

Mr Morrison said Mr Porter resigned because he was unable to share further information regarding who paid for his legal bill in a defamation trial against the ABC.

READ MORE: Blind trust paid part of former Attorney-General Christian Porter's legal bills in ABC case

"The inability for him to be able to practically provide further information because of the nature of those arrangements, if he were able to do that, that would allow Mr Porter to conclusively rule out a perceived conflict," Mr Morrison said.

"And as a result of him acknowledging that, he has this afternoon taken the appropriate course of action to uphold those standards by tendering his resignation as a minister this afternoon, and I have accepted his resignation."

Five days ago Mr Porter updated his parliamentary register of interests, declaring that his legal bill was paid by "a blind trust known as the Legal Services Trust".

Mr Porter did not reveal how much the blind trust had contributed, and said he had no access to the information of who funded the trust.

A spokesperson for Mr Porter said taxpayers funds were not used.

Mr Morrison thanked Mr Porter for his service as a cabinet minister and as the former Attorney General.

READ MORE: Prime Minister Scott Morrison to travel to the US next week

"I want to thank Minister Porter to his service in my government, I want to thank him for his service as the Minister for industry, science and technology, and I want to thank him for his role as Attorney General for several years, not only under my government but under my predecessor," Mr Morrison said said.

"I want to thank him for the role that he performed as Leader of Government Business in the House of Representatives also.

"Minister Porter will be returning to the back bench where he will continue to serve as the member for Pearce. But I thank him for his service in our government to the people of Australia."

Angus Taylor has been appointed the acting Minister Science and Technology, performing those responsibilities together with his responsibilities for the Minister of energy and emissions reduction.

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In a three-page statement released this afternoon, Mr Porter thanked Mr Morrison and cabinet colleagues for their strong support.

He also used his statement to criticise the ABC before addressing the legal bill dispute and the toll the allegations against him have had on his family.

"Facing a false allegation is an experience that places your family, friends and staff under enormous and cruel pressure. It has resulted in constant abuse and ongoing threats," he wrote.

Mr Porter said he understood the questions raised in the media about the financial arrangements to help fund the now settled litigation.

"I consider that I have provided the information required under the Members' Register of Interests. I also considered that the additional disclosures I provided under the Ministerial Standards were in accordance with its additional requirements," he said.

https://twitter.com/Fi_Willan/status/1439474950306287618?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

"However, after discussing the matter with the Prime Minister I accept that any uncertainty on this point provides a very unhelpful distraction for the Government in its work."

"Ultimately, I decided that if I have to make a choice between seeking to pressure the Trust to break individuals' confidentiality in order to remain in Cabinet, or alternatively forego my Cabinet position, there is only one choice I could, in all conscience, make. Consequently, I provided the Prime Minister with my resignation earlier today. It is effective immediately."

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