Second group of Manus refugees resettled in the USA

A group of asylum seekers who were detained on Manus Island have been moved to the United States for resettlement.

According to local media, the group of about 40 men, most of whom were from Afghanistan and Pakistan, left the Papua New Guinean island on Tuesday.

They were the second group of refugees to be resettled in the US following a resettlement deal between the Australian government and Obama administration.

Calls for Germany to stop exporting arms

Germany’s government is being called to stop exporting arms to Turkey after German made Leopard tanks were being used against the Kurdish YPG by  Turkish armed forces.

There were reports last week which stated the German government was going to approve a request from Turkey to retrofit Leopard 2 tanks to better protect them from explosives.

Zed Announcers' Top Tens For 2017

In no specific order:

#10 Jim Ottaway: Deep Space Blue
#9 Alice Cooper: Paranormal
#8 Monster Zoku Onsomb: Kraka Boom
#7 Jungle Giants: Quiet Ferocity
#6 Go Go Sapien: Love in other dimensions
#5 Dreamtime: Strange pleasures
#4 Dr Bombay: Spit you out
#3 Basement Spacemen: Landed
#2 Bad//dreems: Gutful
#1 The Stress Of Leisure: Eruption bounce

Zed Announcers' Top Tens For 2017

Ordered from least to most favourite:

#10 No Class: Boot Boys
#9 Glue: Glue
#8 Chelsea Wolfe: Hiss Spun
#7 Death Church: Black Books
#6 Master Blaster: Pass Out
#5 Total Ruin: Demo
#4 Shackles: Lifeless Paradise
#3 Poverty and Spit: Poverty and Spit
#2 Battery Humans: Battery Humans
#1 Robber: Robber

Falls Festival

- 2017’s New Years Eve found me falling off a roof. How fitting that my introduction to 2018 would be at Byron Bay’s leg of The Falls Music and Arts Festival. Sharing the site and programmers of bigger sister festival Splendour In The Grass, Falls is provides a lush, green, safe haven for music lovers to ring in the new year with 16,000 of their closest friends.

Amazon rainforest in danger of proposed law to build roads through jungle

The most remote and pristine parts of the Amazon rainforest are now under threat from a new proposed law that would allow a network of roads to be built through Peruvian owned parts of the jungle.

The proposed law, which emphasises the developments of roads as a ‘priority’ and ‘in the national interest’, came just hours after Pope Francis’s visit to Peru, in which he expressed concern for the wellbeing of the Amazon rainforest and its indigenous peoples.

LGBT+ murders in Brazil reach record high levels

New research has revealed at least 445 LGBT+ Brazilians have died as victims of homophobia in 2017, following a 30 per cent increase of reported deaths from the previous year.

LGBT+ activist Luiz Mott, attributed such homophobic violence to the prominence of the countries ultra-conservative politicians and televised evangelical programming that often equates homosexuality with the devil.

At odds with its reputation for being an inclusive nation, Brazil is one of the world's most violent countries, with over 62,000 homicides reported in 2016.

Papua New Guinea Government assures Australia on growing Chinese influence

Papua New Guinea’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Rimbink Pato, recently assured Australia that PNG will still have good relations with Australia despite growing relations with China.

This came after Australia’s International Development Minister, Concetta Fierravanti-Wells showed concern for the investment and aid by the Chinese, questioning the benefits of certain Chinese projects in the Pacific.