Floods and foul language down under
A mix of sobering and surprising stories in this week’s Pacific Dispatch...
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CapeTalk's Lester Kiewit speak to news correspondent Katie Macdonald in Sydney, Australia.
Listen below:
New South Wales has been hit by severe flooding, with several people missing and four deaths reported so far.
The devastation has been attributed to climate change.
"There's power that's been cut to thousands of homes... 9,000 homes have actually been evacuated... the emergency services have carried out about 670 rescues."
- Katie Macdonald, International News Correspondent
Meanwhile, New Zealand’s government has scrapped Jacinda Ardern’s net zero plans, saying 'economic pressures' require a new approach to tackling climate change.
Macdonald says the current conservative government there is likely to be more pro fossil fuels, and is looking at other ways of dealing with the issue.
"One government in, they're out... next government comes in and does something else."
- Katie Macdonald, International News Correspondent
And in a surprising twist, Australians have been knocked off the top spot in online swearing - beaten by both the UK and the United States.
A University of Queensland study analysed over 1.7 billion words online, across 20 English-speaking countries to examine the frequency of 597 'vulgar' terms.
"Apparently we save it for face-to-face interactions..."
- Katie Macdonald, International News Correspondent
Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the discussion.