Photojournalism's power on display at Auckland's World Press Photo Exhibition
Donald Trump may dismiss much of the media as 'fake news', but it was the power of images that arguably secured his second presidential term.
When the Republican nominee rose with a bloodied face after the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, photos like Jabin Botsford's for the Washington Post likely
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NZ Herald
2 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Not only are rising seas causing people to leave, but warming waters are forcing out tuna
By morning's end, the pair had caught eight tuna - a haul far smaller than when Petaia's father taught him to fish 30 years earlier. 'We have to spend longer and go farther to get them,' the 48-year-old said as the fishermen unloaded their catch. 'I'm not sure there will be any tuna left by the time I'm my uncle's age,' added Smoliner, 22. Tuna is a pillar of life in the Pacific, where for centuries people have braved the ocean to bring back yellowfin, skipjack, bigeye and albacore for their families. In recent decades, as global demand for tuna has soared, Pacific Island nations including Tuvalu have propped up their struggling economies by selling licences to allow international fishing companies to trawl their vast exclusive economic zones. These seas provide as much as one-third of the world's tuna supply. But climate change is warming the world's oceans at an accelerating rate, threatening livelihoods. Scientists predict that climate change will push tuna away from Pacific Island nations and towards the high seas, where wealthier countries with large fishing fleets - China, Japan, South Korea and the United States - will catch them without paying licence fees. It is yet another climate danger for a country - population 10,000 - whose existence is already threatened by rising seas, increasingly powerful storms, and a potential exodus of people. 'It's ironic that the ocean, which has been the sustainer of our livelihood and economy, suddenly poses all these threats to us,' Tuvalu's Prime Minister, Feleti Teo, said in an interview here. Ranol Smoliner, right, and his uncle Kauaka Petaia fish for tuna in the Pacific Ocean near Funafuti, Tuvalu, in early April. Photo / Carolyn Van Houten, the Washington Post This low-lying atoll nation has become a premonition of climate change. Its leaders have made desperate pleas - including one delivered while thigh-deep in water - about the existential threat of rising sea levels. The potential exodus of fish threatens to strip Tuvalu and other Pacific Island nations of the very money they need to fight the impacts of global warming. About 60% of Tuvalu's locally generated government revenue comes from fees foreign countries pay to fish for tuna in its waters, Teo said. That revenue has plunged by about 40% over the past five or so years, denting the tiny nation's overall budget by almost 6%. Scientists say it's hard to know how much of that recent drop is due to climate change as opposed to natural migration linked to ocean cycles. But scientific modelling suggests Tuvalu could lose one-quarter of its tuna by 2050. Efforts are under way to help Tuvalu and 13 of its neighbours track how tuna populations are shifting and to demand remuneration. They were recently awarded more than US$100 million ($166m) from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to help adapt. 'Pacific Island countries are fighting hard to establish our rights to be compensated for fish that are caught in the high seas,' Teo said. 'If we are able to definitively assert that the stock that used to occur in our EEZ is now in the high seas as a result of climate change, then that will strengthen our case.' Warming waters are also bleaching local corals, depleting reef fish that Tuvaluans depend on for food. Some of the fund grant will go towards fish aggregation devices: floating structures that help lure larger ocean fish, including tuna, closer to shore for locals to catch. Coral bleaching also disrupts the natural wave protection of atolls like Tuvalu and the replenishment of their shores, said Arthur Webb, who led the Tuvalu Coastal Adaptation Project to reclaim swathes of desperately needed land in the capital. Each day, a dredging machine in Funafuti's lagoon sucks up sand and pumps it onto reclaimed areas. Sand is also pumped into large bags that are stacked to form protective seawalls. The new land is left to settle before building, which has yet to begin. Tuvalu's ring-shaped land mass covers only 26sqkm and is less than 1.5km across at its widest point, sometimes narrowing to a mere 18m. Photo / Carolyn Van Houten, the Washington Post Tuvalu is roughly 1.5m above mean sea level. Its waters are now rising by about 2.5cm every five years - well above the global average - and estimated to reach 60 to 90cm by 2100, according to Moritz Wandres, an oceanographer with the Pacific Community. By 2060, once-in-50-year floods are predicted to occur every five years, rendering Tuvalu uninhabitable without large-scale adaptation efforts, Wandres said. King tides already routinely inundate much of Funafuti, where motorbikes splash through the water seeping up through the sandy ground. Tuvalu is preparing. It has amended its constitution to protect its statehood and maritime zones, even if it no longer has any land. And it announced a plan to clone itself in the metaverse, preserving its history and culture online. In 2023, Australia provided a more tangible escape plan when it created special visas, at least in part, to help up to 280 Tuvaluans per year escape the wrath of climate change. More than 80% of Tuvalu's population - or 8750 people - has applied for the visa, according to official Australian figures released last week. The predicted decline in tuna will only hasten the outflux. 'This is our only resource,' said Laitailiu Seono, a Fisheries Department officer, as he carved up tuna to be dried and sold. 'That's why we really want to look after them. No fish, no job.' Compounding Tuvalu's anxieties, the US Trump Administration has dealt Pacific Island nations another blow, suspending US$60m per year in South Pacific Tuna Treaty funds for the region - part of a long-standing deal to guarantee US fishing access. During his presidency, Joe Biden promised to double the tuna treaty funds in a bid to counteract China's efforts to woo Pacific Island countries. Instead, Teo said, Tuvalu had yet to receive roughly US$7m it had been counting on: 'A big hole in our projected revenue'. Children play on a seawall surrounding reclaimed land in Funafuti. Tuvalu, a low-lying island nation endangered by rising seas, is building up swathes of land for housing, even as many inhabitants contemplate leaving. Photo / Carolyn Van Houten, the Washington Post At the same time, President Donald Trump's decision to open up the 400,000-square-mile (1,100,000sqkm) Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument to commercial fishing suggested he could scrap the treaty altogether. Like other Trump Administration moves - pulling out of the Paris climate agreement, cutting US Agency for International Development funding and climate financing, and potentially putting travel restrictions on some Pacific countries, including Tuvalu - abandoning the treaty would hurt America's strategic interests and boost that of its stated rival, China, said Alan Tidwell, director of the Centre for Australian, New Zealand, and Pacific Studies at Georgetown University in the US. 'If the US pulls out totally from the Pacific, then someone has to fill that role,' agreed Teo, whose nation is one of only three in the region that still recognise Taiwan instead of China. 'And we know who is eager.' A State Department spokesperson said in an emailed statement that the department 'will continue … to align its activities and programmes with the foreign policy priorities of the president and the secretary.' When Kauaka Petaia returned to shore, his son Siuele was there to help him unload the tuna. The 27-year-old said he had no desire to follow in his father's footsteps. Instead, he would soon head to Australia to work in a meatpacking plant, where the pay is more certain. 'By 2030 or 2050,' he said, 'I don't know if tuna fishing will still be a job in Tuvalu.'
NZ Herald
4 hours ago
- NZ Herald
A boom in homes, cars, and flights contrasts with empty shops and restaurants
On one hand, wealthy and well-educated Argentines are enjoying Milei's economic policies that translated into greater buying power, which in turn led to more trips abroad and big-ticket purchases at home. For others, the story is quite different: spending on food, clothing and dining out is declining and 60% of Argentines anticipate making fewer purchases in the coming months, according to LatAm Pulse, a survey conducted by AtlasIntel for Bloomberg News. Those concerns come as unemployment for salaried, formal jobs has hit a four-year high, while wages adjusted for inflation have declined in recent months. A 'For Sale' sign stands outside a house in Buenos Aires. Photo / Erica Canepa, Bloomberg via the Washington Post 'I'm barely making it to the end of the month,' says Valeria Ruiz, a 44-year old single mother-of-two who cleans homes and recently added a travel agency gig to boost her monthly income to 600,000 pesos (US$465), less than what she previously earned in retail with just one salary. In the past year, Ruiz has cut out restaurants. She now hunts for the cheapest brands of milk, pasta and yogurt at the supermarket. 'Things are harder now because the job market isn't like it was before: I always used have a lot of work, but everything has absolutely halted.' Ruiz isn't alone: 84% of the Argentines say they've changed their consumption habits due to the economy, including cutting back on clothing purchases and dining out, according to a survey by pollster Management & Fit. Meanwhile, 67% of them have a negative outlook on the economy, according to AtlasIntel. A survey by Argentina's statistics agency of supermarkets and wholesalers found 27% of store owners have a negative view on the state of business, versus only 7% who say it's positive. So far, voters' economic pessimism hasn't dented Milei's high approval ratings. He's managed to bring down inflation, revive mortgage lending and lift currency controls for individuals - all popular moves across society. But to tame inflation, the President has leaned on a stronger exchange rate that fuels demand for durable goods and favours wealthier Argentines, while making restaurants, local vacations and weekend shopping increasingly expensive for many others. The numbers are impacting Argentina's outlook: Economists in June trimmed forecasts for this year to 5% growth after steadily increasing projections in the five prior months - a solid rebound after two years of contractions. Economic activity in May sputtered though, posting the third negative monthly print of the year, albeit mild. A restaurant prepares for its dinner service in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Photo / Erica Canepa, Bloomberg via the Washington Post Auto sales rose 78% in the first six months of the year compared to the same period in 2024, as purchases of Porsche, Audi and BMW more than doubled, with Toyota and Volkswagen selling the most units. Home sales both in the city and province of Buenos Aires were up about 50% through May, and the number of Argentines travelling abroad rose 64%, according to industry reports and government statistics. Delta, American, Latam Airlines and Aerolineas Argentinas have added or plan to launch Argentina flights to meet rising demand later this year. Meanwhile, spending at restaurants in the city of Buenos Aires dropped in five of the past six months, and supermarkets haven't seen activity bounce back to pre-Milei levels yet. The number of vacant shops in the city rose in the first four months this year to the highest level, 896, since at least 2022. On average, only 43% of hotel rooms nationwide were occupied this year through May, consistently down from the same time span in past years and even lower than pre-pandemic levels. 'This is what happens with fixed exchange rate regimes - they boost durable goods consumption, appreciate the currency, and bring inflation down quickly,' said Marcos Buscaglia, co-founder of Buenos Aires-based consultancy Alberdi Partners. The parallel market peso has appreciated by 57% in real terms since Milei took office 18 months ago. 'On top of that, you have trade liberalisation pushing dollar prices even lower.' The opening of Argentina's economy allowed Flavio Ortega, a car dealership salesman in the elite Puerto Madero neighbourhood, to fill his showroom with imported cars and start selling volumes he hadn't moved since 2018. Purchases of BMWs more than doubled in the first six months of the year. Photo / Erica Canepa, Bloomberg via the Washington Post For the past five years, tight import restrictions meant the 45-year-old Ortega could barely display two cars at a time - a set-up that discouraged buyers. But auto imports in June alone were up almost 250% from a year ago. 'In 2025, with imports back, we're able to showcase up to 13 vehicles worth as much as $80,000 each - and we've already doubled last year's sales,' he said. Gaston Aybar closed 40% more real estate transactions in the first half of the year compared to same time in 2024. A stronger peso, lower interest rates that made mortgages more accessible and Milei's tax amnesty programme that convinced Argentines to declare dollar-denominated assets late last year are driving sales. The realtor says mortgages are making it possible for middle-class Argentines to buy or upgrade their homes, even though it comes with tighter monthly budgets. 'Today is a moment when people are trying to invest in something that's lasting,' says Aybar, 49. 'People with some basic savings are asking themselves, 'Do I spend it on a car, vacation or do I cut back spending and take out a mortgage?' There's a shift in people's thinking to bet on housing.'
RNZ News
18 hours ago
- RNZ News
Australian Prime Minister says easing of curbs on US beef not prompted by Trump
By Sam McKeith , Reuters The review had been in the works for 10 years, Albanese said (file image). Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says a decision to ease rules on US beef imports was not prompted by US President Donald Trump. This week, Trump said the US would sell "so much" beef to Australia , after Canberra announced the relaxation of restrictions, potentially smoothing trade talks with Washington. In place since 2003, the curbs were due to concerns about bovine spongiform encephalopathy - or mad cow disease - which could kill cattle, as well as people who eat infected beef. When asked if the easing had anything to do with Trump, Albanese said: "No, this has been a process that has been there for 10 years, the review process." "This wasn't a political decision," Albanese said to Australian Broadcasting Corp television, adding that Trump had not raised the issue with him in a phone call. The comments come after US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins called the easing a win for Trump. In April, Trump singled out the beef trade disparity with Australia, after Australia's beef exports to the US surged last year, reaching AU$4 billion (NZ$4.36b) amid a slump in US beef production. By contrast, Australia's agriculture minister said the rules were relaxed, after a "rigourous science and risk-based assessment" concluded US measures to monitor and control cattle movement were effectively managing biosecurity risks. News of Australia changing its policy was first reported by the Australian Financial Review . The report said Australia would use the easing of rules to argue its case for the US to wind back 50 percent tariffs on steel and aluminium, and Trump's threat to impose a 200 percent tariff on pharmaceuticals. The National Party - part of Australia's conservative opposition coalition - said "biosecurity should not be political" and called for an independent scientific panel to review the decision. A loosening of beef import rules is not expected to boost US shipments significantly, because Australia is a major beef producer and exporter, whose prices are much lower, according to analysts. Last year, Australia shipped almost 400,000 metric tons of beef worth US$2.9b (NZ$4.82b) to the United States, with just 269 tons of US product moving the other way. - Reuters
