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An Australian-grown pumpkin has set a new record for the heaviest in the Southern Hemisphere at the 2021 Giant Pumpkin and Watermelon Festival in Kyogle in northern New South Wales. Video via ABC The Atlantic giant pumpkin grown by Dale Oliver weighed in at 867 kilograms. Festival organiser John Leadbetter said it was a great achievement for Oliver and the festival. While it did produce a record-breaking pumpkin this year, entries to the festival were down due to unfavourable growing conditions. "It's just been too hot for it. We had hot, dry weather, and then we went to hot, humid weather, and they don't like that. They like to be dry and cool," Leadbetter said. What does it take to grow a giant pumpkin? Oliver, who set an Australasian record with a 743-kilogram pumpkin in 2015, said growing giant gourds involved a lot of work. "People are changing the way they're growing them nowadays," he said. While growers are able to control some elements, weather conditions are uncontrollable. "The weather's your biggest battle here," he said. "When we get them hot spells they stop growing, and it'll send them into maturity. Photo: Screengrab / ABC Oliver grew the record-breaking pumpkin at his nursery at Knockrow, north of Ballina, on the far north coast of NSW. He said while some people do eat the flesh from giant varieties, they are usually fed to cattle. "I'll take it home because I've got a few rellies who want to get photos with their babies, and we'll get the seed out of it because a few guys want the seed," he said. The previous Southern Hemisphere record of 860kg was held by South African Piet Lotz, set in March last year. The world's heaviest pumpkin, measuring 1190.49kg, was grown by Mathias Willemijns in Belgium in 2016. - ABC

By Nellie Peyton From teenagers coding in their bedrooms to graduates spurning scarce entry-level jobs to set up businesses, young people are having to innovate to enter the labour market in 2021 against tough odds. Young people are looking at innovative ways of making money within a labour market affected by Covid. Photo: 123rf Adesola Akerele had just landed an internship at a television production company in London when the coronavirus hit and her dream job was gone. But as the pandemic halted studies and wiped out employment opportunities for millions of young people around the world, the 23-year-old graduate found a silver lining - using the lockdown to launch her career as an independent screenwriter. Akerele had always wanted to write about the experience of being Black in Britain, and as global anti-racism protests spread last year, she found people wanted to listen. "The pandemic gave me something I didn't have before: time to write and develop my own ideas," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. From teenagers coding in their bedrooms to graduates spurning scarce entry-level jobs to set up businesses, Akerele belongs to Generation Covid - young people who will have to innovate to enter the labour market in 2021 against tough odds. One in six young people have stopped working since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, and about half reported a delay in their studies, according to a survey by the United Nations' International Labour Organisation (ILO). Labour experts say it is too soon to know exactly how this will impact the generation's lifelong career prospects, but that their path to work is unlikely to be conventional in 2021 and beyond. "Young people are being more entrepreneurial and looking at career and employment as well as education in a more non-traditional way," said Susan Reichle, president and CEO of the International Youth Foundation, a US-based non-profit organisation. "The traditional sort of first jobs in the service industry, in the hospitality industry are just not there." Bhargav Joshi was hired at the start of the year as a commis chef at a high-end Italian restaurant in Mumbai. When he was laid off due to Covid-19, he took his chef skills into his parents' kitchen and opened his own takeaway. "It's been five months since I started. I have managed to break even and that is a big accomplishment for me," Joshi said. The shift towards entrepreneurship and gig work was underway even before the pandemic among youth, who are three times as likely to be unemployed compared with people aged over 25, according to the ILO. With so many applicants chasing so few jobs, screenwriter Akerele realised she could benefit more from pursuing independent projects and freelance work than sending off applications. In October, she signed with an agency to work on a TV show about the young Black British experience. Reichle said many young people lacked the means to launch their own companies or pursue creative projects, but with more government support they could. Digital tools Kimberly-Viola Heita, 21, thought 2020 would be the year she became a student radio presenter and formed a new political society at the University of Namibia. She was excited for her classes and debates with peers, but when the coronavirus forced the school to close many of her classmates went home to rural areas with minimal internet access. Online learning became a luxury. Instead of disconnecting, Heita took the political science society of nearly 100 students onto WhatsApp messenger, which became a source of debate, motivation and support, she said. "Last year has forced us to innovate, collaborate and discover resilience we didn't know we had," Heita said. As jobs and education moved online during the pandemic, digital skills became in more demand than ever - a trend which will likely continue, said Drew Gardiner, a youth employment specialist at the ILO. "Young people very much want to get the coding skills, the artificial intelligence skills, but also simpler stuff, like online work translating and editing," he said. Training in such skills is not always readily available, but initiatives are springing up around the world to meet demand. Aisha Abubakar, a 33-year-old in northern Nigeria, took part in Click-On Kaduna, a World Bank pilot project last year that trained young people in digital marketing, graphics and design and how to access remote online work. Abubakar is an interior designer, but did not know how to find clients before the course, she said. Now her business is flourishing and she has also set up an informal mentoring programme via WhatsApp to help other women in her community digitize their small businesses. Community engagement Out of 12,000 young people surveyed by the ILO, about half said they had become vulnerable to anxiety or depression since the start of the pandemic, with those who had lost their jobs the most affected. "The uncertainty that the situation has created about their futures is raising really big red flags for us," said Nikita Sanaullah, senior policy officer on social and economic inclusion at the European Youth Forum. In many European countries youth have a harder time accessing social services such as unemployment benefits because they have not banked enough work hours, said Sanaullah. As youth lose their incomes, they may also lose housing, she said. "This was a big challenge even before this crisis occurred," she said, adding that despite their difficulties, young people were perhaps becoming more engaged in social activism. In San Francisco, 17-year-old James Poetzscher found an unusual way to help when he started making online maps of air pollution as a hobby. When wildfires engulfed California in August, he took his project one step further and built an air-quality data portal for government and non-profit organisations to use - from his bedroom. He knows finding a job will be tough, but plans to continue doing his research on air pollution and climate change. "Regardless of age, we can all make a difference," he said. - Reuters

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un celebrated his birthday with a long wish-list of new weapons. People watch a television screen showing news footage of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attending the 8th congress of the ruling Workers' Party held in Pyongyang, at a railway station in Seoul on January 6, 2021. Photo: Jung Yeon-je / AFP It included more accurate long-range missiles, super large warheads, spy satellites and a nuclear-powered submarine. The military plans announced during one of the biggest political events in North Korea in the last five years may sound threatening - and it is indeed a threat. But it's also a challenge. The timing of this message is key as it comes as US President-elect Joe Biden prepares to take office. Kim, who has also now been promoted to Secretary General (the highest rank of the ruling Worker's Party), is struggling to be heard outside his own country amidst the current tumult in the US. But if the incoming US administration harbours any hopes of preventing Kim's nuclear ambitions, now might be the time to listen. "Kim's announcements no doubt are meant to emphasise to the incoming US administration that a failure to take quick action will result in North Korea qualitatively advancing its capabilities in ways deleterious to US and South Korean interests," said Ankit Panda, author of Kim Jong-un and the Bomb, adding that Biden's administration should take this seriously. Kim and Donald Trump met three times, but they failed to reach any agreement to end North Korea's nuclear weapons programme or the current crippling economic sanctions imposed on Pyongyang by the US and the UN. The questions being asked on the Korean peninsula are whether Biden can do any better, and whether he should take Kim's threat seriously. "I think the president-elect should take that at face value and, as soon as possible, clarify his perspective on what objectives his administration will seek in potential negotiations with North Korea," Panda said. "If Kim sees no shift from the traditional US emphasis on comprehensive and total nuclear disarmament before any sanctions can be eased, I'd think he'll simply push ahead with testing and other activities," he said. In his speech to the thousands of delegates at the Workers' Party Congress, Kim described the US as his country's "biggest enemy" - but he also added that he did not "rule out diplomacy". The summits may have failed, but they have been glorified in technicolour in the main hall of the party Congress as an "event of the greatest significance in the history of world politics". So there is wiggle room if Biden wishes to use it. But Duyeon Kim, Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said the US would have to make the first move and any deal will come at a cost. "Kim Jong-un's price for the US is ending combined military drills with Seoul, removing sanctions, and refraining from making human rights criticisms before talks. Washington won't do these unconditionally," Duyeon Kim said. "Even if negotiations resumed, Kim's price is high for any deal because he's been suggesting Cold War-style arms control talks in which both sides take mutual and reciprocal steps. But that doesn't make sense because there's no parity between US and North Korean nuclear arsenals." It is my understanding that Trump and Kim Jong-un came close to a deal at their second meeting in Hanoi in February 2019. Photo: AFP or licensors But that deal is no longer on the table, and Kim is now negotiating with a very different president. What Kim is doing with this speech is trying to prove he has the upper hand. He's resetting the starting point for talks - it's no longer about giving up his current arsenal, it's about preventing him from building a new and improved one. More fire and fury? It's not exactly a huge surprise that Kim harbours ambitions to expand his nuclear arsenal. But what came as a surprise to many was that he announced a detailed list of his goals: longer-range missiles better missiles hypersonic missile military reconnaissance satellites solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles new unmanned aerial vehicle new nuclear warheads tactical nuclear weapons Of course, any new weapon will have to be tested, and with tests come tension. Everyone on the Korean peninsula remembers the threat of "fire and fury" promised by Trump in 2017 after three long-range missile tests by North Korea. South Korea is desperate to avoid a repeat of this ramped-up rhetoric and brinkmanship. But Kim is laying down the gauntlet and perhaps wondering if he will get a reaction. In his speech, he even discussed how far he would like his long-range missiles to fly. He wants them able to hit targets up to 15,000km away. This range would make Pyongyang more than capable of hitting the US. A screen grab taken from a KCNA broadcast on October 10, 2020 shows what appears to be new North Korean intercontinental ballistic missiles during a military parade on Kim Il Sung square in Pyongyang. Photo: KCNA / AFP North Korea launched what is known as the Hwasong 15 in late 2017 and claimed then that the missile could reach any part of the US while carrying a nuclear warhead. But it's not known if it has the technology needed to protect a nuclear warhead as it re-enters the atmosphere to deliver the weapon to its target. As for the dream of a nuclear-powered submarine, analysts believe that may be a long way off for the regime. However, North Korea "has proven remarkably resilient in the past", Panda said. Kim has managed to make significant advances to its current nuclear programme despite a series of deepening economic crises. "Even if Kim can't accomplish the entirety of his agenda, we should not bet against his will to push through and begin testing and manufacturing some of the systems he named," Panda said. Crackdown amid reports of food crisis The big question is, how will Kim pay for his ambitions as his country faces one of the bleakest economic situations in decades. Could this wish-list be an empty threat? Five years ago, Kim promised his people economic prosperity. Those plans are now in tatters. He opened the party Congress with an admission of failure. The word "sorry" would not have been heard from his father or grandfather - but the young leader is now used to making apologies and was even seen in tears at a military parade in October as he outlined the stark situation facing his people. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as seen from a KCTV broadcast on October 10, 2020, pausing as he makes a speech prior to a military parade on Kim Il Sung square in Pyongyang. Photo: STR / KCTV / AFP North Korea's borders were closed nearly a year ago to prevent the spread of Covid-19 from neighbouring China. Pyongyang still denies having a single confirmed case of the virus, although there are many unconfirmed reports which claim Covid-19 has spread within the secretive state. The border blockade has affected trade with China which is now down by almost 80 percent. A series of typhoons and floods have devastated vital crops and houses. NK News website reported empty supermarket shelves in North Korea's capital Pyongyang, and the prices of simple goods such as sugar have shot up, according to South Korea's spy agency. Diplomatic sources have told me about certain goods piled up at the border, including medical supplies. At best they are delayed. At worst they are not getting into the country at all. And, of course, strict economic sanctions remain in place. North Korea is more cut off from the world than ever before. Internally, there are signs that there is a crackdown on informal markets which had sprung up across the country as households tried to make extra money. These small signs of capitalism had been tolerated for years - but now the state wants this money too. Peter Ward, a PhD Candidate at the University of Vienna, studies the North Korean economy closely and said this predated the pandemic and that "some of it dates back to before Kim Jong-un took power". "But the level of hostility toward market actors and the emphasis on restoring state retail we have seen since 2019 is notable and worrisome," he said. So what can be done? South Korea has been more than hinting that the Biden administration should signal to Pyongyang that it is willing to talk. US President Donald Trump (centre) and South Korean President Moon Jae-in (second from left) visit an observation post in the Joint Security Area at Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea on June 30, 2019. Photo: Brendan Smialowski / AFP President Moon Jae-in said again in his New Year address that he was willing to meet North Korea's leader "anytime and anywhere". But Kim rejected this olive branch, and often dismisses Seoul as a player in these discussions. He batted away suggestions of aid or collaboration on Covid-19 medications and vaccines. Jeongmin Kim, an analyst from NK News, said it was "time Seoul lowered its expectations". "This party congress made it even clearer to President Moon that North Korea is not interested in the symbolic, small stuff like inter-Korean cooperation," said Jeongmin Kim. "But as with the US, North Korea did not close the doors completely on Moon's face, but left it conditional: almost saying, let's see how you behave. "It is a tall order, siding less with the US and holding hands with North Korea. Mr Moon can't do that. "But because North Korea left it as conditional and did not sever ties completely, Seoul will likely hold on to that hope and probably go ahead with what it can do - continued olive branches about public health co-operation to at least manage the risk of things blowing up, until Moon's term is over in 2022." So all roads to a deal appear to lead through Washington. The new administration has a growing and demanding list of priorities; North Korea is just one of them and is struggling to get any attention. However, most analysts believe that if the US president-elect fails to respond quickly, North Korea will take action, probably by testing ballistic missiles. Kim Jong-un has set the stage. His message now is, "Your move, Mr Biden." - BBC

Congressional Democrats began a push on Monday US local time to force President Donald Trump from office, introducing one article of impeachment accusing him of inciting insurrection over a violent attack on the Capitol last week. US President Donald Trump. Photo: AFP The resolution noted that Trump addressed a rally shortly before his supporters mounted the attack and says he made statements that "encouraged and foreseeably resulted in" the lawless actions at the Capitol. The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives is expected to take up the matter as early as Wednesday. Passage would make Trump, a Republican, the only president in US history to be impeached twice. Thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol last week, forcing lawmakers who were certifying Democratic President-elect Joe Biden's election victory into hiding in a harrowing assault on the heart of American democracy that left five dead. The violence came after Trump urged supporters to march on the Capitol at a rally where he repeated false claims that his resounding defeat in the 3 November election was illegitimate. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, many of her fellow Democrats and a handful of Republicans say the Republican president should not be trusted to serve out his term, which ends on 20 January. "In protecting our Constitution and our Democracy, we will act with urgency, because this President represents an imminent threat to both," Pelosi wrote to her fellow House Democrats on Sunday. Earlier, Republicans blocked an effort to immediately consider a resolution asking Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the US Constitution's never-used 25th Amendment to remove an unfit president. The House is expected on Tuesday to vote on the resolution calling for use of the 25th Amendment, which allows the vice president and the Cabinet to remove a president who is incapable of fulfilling his duties. Pence and his fellow Republicans have shown little interest in invoking the amendment. Pelosi said Democrats are calling on Pence to respond within 24 hours after passage of the legislation that calls on him to mobilise Trump's cabinet to remove Trump under the 25th amendment. "As our next step, we will move forward with bringing impeachment legislation to the floor. The president's threat to America is urgent, and so too will be our action," she said. Dozens of people who attacked police officers, stole computers and smashed windows at the Capitol have been arrested for their role in the violence, and officials have opened 25 domestic terrorism investigations. Trump acknowledged that a new administration would take office on 20 January in a video statement after the attack but has not appeared in public. Twitter and Facebook have suspended his accounts, citing the risk of him inciting violence. Representative Jim McGovern, the chairman of the House Rules Committee, said he expected the impeachment article to come to the floor for debate as soon as Wednesday, and he thought it would pass. "What this president did is unconscionable, and he needs to be held to account," McGovern told CNN. Pence was in the Capitol along with his family when Trump's supporters attacked, and he and Trump are currently not on speaking terms. Pence's office did not respond to questions about the issue. A source said last week he was opposed to the idea of using the 25th Amendment to oust Trump. Pelosi had said the House could vote to impeach Trump on the charge of insurrection if Pence did not act. Aides to House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, who voted against recognizing Biden's victory, did not respond to a request for comment. House Democrats impeached Trump in December 2019 for pressuring Ukraine to investigate Biden, but the Republican-controlled Senate voted not to convict him. Even if the House impeaches Trump again, the Senate, which is currently controlled by Republicans, would not take up the charges until 19 January at the earliest, Trump's last full day in office. - Reuters

US officials pressed law enforcement authorities to safeguard President-elect Joe Biden's Washington inauguration from any further violence by supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump who stormed the US Capitol last week. US President-elect Joe Biden. Photo: AFP Biden's inaugural committee said on Monday US local time that the theme of the 20 January ceremony would be 'America United', even as the country grappled with the fallout of the assault on Congress by Trump's supporters. The US National Park Service said it would suspend tours of the Washington Monument, a major tourist site, through 24 January due to safety concerns from threats to disrupt the inauguration. In a letter to Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf made public on Sunday, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser called for a fresh approach to security after what she called last week's "unprecedented terrorist attack." Bowser said the city was submitting a request for a "pre-disaster declaration" to allow for federal assistance and asked Wolf to cancel public gathering permits through 24 January. A pro-Trump mob confronts US Capitol police outside the Senate Chamber of the Capitol building on 6 January in Washington DC. Photo: Getty Images via AFP US House of Representatives Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff told CBS This Morning he expected law enforcement to ensure a safe event. He said the threat of more violence in the last nine days of Trump's term was a reason to swiftly remove the incumbent, who fired up thousands of loyalists in a speech before Wednesday's storming of the Capitol. "There's certainly a danger that the president will continue to incite his followers to further violent activity, aimed at stopping the peaceful transition of power," Schiff said. The assault on the Capitol to challenge the certification of Biden's victory in the November election sent lawmakers scrambling into hiding and left five people dead. Dozens of people have been charged in the violence and hundreds more cases are expected. Far-right social media users have discussed actions tied to Inauguration Day for months, but the storming of the Capitol "energised" the online chatter, Anti-Defamation League chief executive Jonathan Greenblatt said last week. Greenblatt, whose organisation tracks hate groups, said on Twitter that among the online posts were those by a group calling itself the 'Million Militia March', which had issued calls to action on a new social media platform call Wimkin. Despite evidence of a fair election, Trump has challenged the validity of Biden's substantial electoral victory. The Presidential inaugural Committee said in a statement on Monday its theme "reflects the beginning of a new national journey that restores the soul of America," echoing Biden's campaign pledge to heal the country's divisions. The committee has told Americans not to travel to the inauguration and said Washington's National Mall would be covered with 191,500 flags of different sizes, to represent the missing crowds. A US presidential inauguration traditionally draws hundreds of thousands of visitors to the US capital, but the ceremonies have been scaled back dramatically because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Biden, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, former presidents Barack Obama, George W Bush and Bill Clinton and their spouses, will lay wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery following the swearing-in ceremony, the committee said. Trump said last week he would not attend the ceremony, a decision the president-elect supported. - Reuters