Good morning, this is Helen Sullivan bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Friday 13 December. Top stories Police and the New Zealand defence force have launched a mission to recover the bodies of people believed to have died in Monday’s eruption on White Island. Eight members of the country’s armed forces are due to deploy at first light – despite the risk that the volcano could erupt again – in the hopes of recovering eight of the 16 bodies believed to be on the island. The operation started after a prayer was held at sea, which was calm and flat this morning, with no sign of wind. On Thursday a volcanologist said the volcano’s state of unrest had increased since the eruption and there was now a 50% to 60% chance of another eruption in the next 24 hours. Follow the mission on our live blog. Voting in Britain’s “most important election in a generation” has entered its final hours. There have been reports of long voting queues across London as excited first-time voters weighed up their options and the European press weighed in with takes including: “Brutal, packed with untruths, uninspiring”, and calling the choice between “socialism or Brexit” a “Hamlet-like dilemma.” The exit poll, unveiled on the stroke of 10pm (9am AEST) as voting closes, will be the first moment of Britain’s election night to produce a tangible sense of where the voters stand. Here are the four most likely possible outcomes – from a thumping Tory win to a Jeremy Corbyn coalition. Follow the latest with our live blog. Between updates, check out some important pictures of dogs tied up outside polling stations. The House judiciary committee bore down on a vote to advance impeachment against Donald Trump on Thursday with a meandering debate, punctuated by moments of partisan repartee – and fleeting mentions of Bill Clinton and Stormy Daniels – over proposed amendments to two articles of impeachment levelled against the president. Fury erupted earlier over a Republican member naming the alleged whistleblower who triggered the congressional investigation. Meanwhile Trump tweeted that Greta Thunberg, who has been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, had an “anger management problem” and should “chill”. For 72 days residents of the NSW town of Tenterfield have been told to boil their drinking water. Straight from the tap it reeks of bushfire smoke and heavy doses of chlorine. The community’s filtration system, built in 1932, cannot cope with turbidity levels in the Tenterfield dam that have been measured at 60 times the World Health Organisation’s limits. The town’s swimming pool has been closed indefinitely through weeks of extreme heat. Australia People are asking how long the bushfires and smoke in NSW and Queensland will last. The short answer is: the fires and smoke will continue. For the next three months, the below-average rainfall means no relief from the drought, and not enough to put out or prevent fires. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner is examining complaints that people’s private information was handed to debt collectors under the botched robodebt scheme. BHP has bucked shareholder pressure to quit the Minerals Council of Australia and will remain a member of the lobby group despite disagreeing with it over the importance of putting a price on carbon emissions. The world |