Air New Zealand on Monday said it was ending a ban on staff having visible tattoos after facing criticism that the policy discriminated against Māori employees.

Some New Zealanders with Māori heritage have tattoos on their arms or face to represent their genealogy previous uniform rules restricted them from applying for certain positions such as flight attendant roles.

Culture and rights advocates groups said the policy was discriminatory and noted Air New Zealand already draws on the Māori language in marketing campaigns and logos on its planes.

According to a Baylor University study, a mysterious mass has been discovered hundreds of miles beneath the largest crater in our solar system, the Moon’s South Pole-Aitken basin.

Lead author of the study Peter B. James says the mass is approximately five times the size of Hawaii, and may contain metal from the asteroid that formed the crater.

James says the basin is one of the best natural laboratories for studying catastrophic impact events which shaped all of the rocky planets and moons to this day.

A battle between a South Australia-based developer and local council over Queensland land clearing regulations was moved to Australia’s highest court.

The court will decide whether local governments can enforce their own rules to protect the environment even where the state has not imposed clearing restrictions.  
 

The dispute between Fairmont Pty Ltd and Moreton Bay Regional Council concerns a housing scheme north of Brisbane and has implications for one-fifth of the total land in Queensland.

Queensland firefighters were worried about bushfire season as time was running out for hazard reduction.

Heaving rainfall caused sodden grounds and green undergrowth which prevented hazard-reduction burns from being carried out.

There was also worry that the lush growth would dry out during the winter and become fuel for potential fires in August and September.

Chair of the ABC, Ita Buttrose, is prepared to meet with Prime Minister Scott Morrison following raids of the ABC’s Sydney headquarters by the Australian Federal Police.

The raid was sparked by a number of stories in 2017 alleging unlawful killings by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan.

Ms Buttrose complained to the Communication minister, Paul Fletcher, last week saying the raid was “clearly designed to intimidate".

Scott Morrison will today announce funding of $2.8 million to a school-based mental health program, after pledging to reduce youth suicide during the election.

The funding commitment will expand the online footprint of Batyr Australia, a preventative mental health organisation created by University students.

Batyr has previously focused on early intervention through storytelling at school, however Morrison says the funding will help the organisation deliver front-line services for at-risk young people.

The US State Department implemented its latest screening measure, requiring Australian’s to provide details of their social media accounts from the last five years.
 

Starting this month, Australians submitting an online application for the non-immigrant DS-160 visa are required to reveal whether they’ve used sites such as Reddit, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, as well as nominate their usernames.
 

These changes will affect students looking to study in the US, specialist workers and journalists.

German boat captain Pia Klemp faces prison in Italy for aiding illegal immigration after she saved people from drowning in the Mediterranean in 2017.

Klemp accused Italian authorities of organising a ‘show trial’ and could be looking at up to 20 years in prison.

Italian Deputy Prime Minister, Matteo Salvini, sought to stop migrant rescue ships from docking on Italian shores and in January made headlines with the forced evacuation of hundreds of asylum-seekers from Italy’s second-largest refugee centre.