A magnitude 6.4 earthquake has struck Kermadec Islands region north of New Zealand and this is coming from the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

The quake, which was revised from an initial magnitude of 6.6, was at a depth of 10 km (6.21 miles), the USGS said.

The U.S. tsunami warning system said the earthquake is not expected to generate a tsunami.

The Kermadec Islands are a subtropical island arc in the South Pacific Ocean 800–1,000 km (500–620 mi) northeast of New Zealand’s North Island, and a similar distance southwest of Tonga.

The islands are part of New Zealand, 33.6 km2 in total area and uninhabited, except for the permanently manned Raoul Island Station, the northernmost outpost of New Zealand.

They are an immediate part of New Zealand, but not part of any region or district, but instead an Area Outside Territorial Authority.

The climate of the islands is subtropical, with a mean monthly temperature of 22.4 °C in February and 16.0 °C in August.

Rainfall is approximately 1,500 mm (60 in) annually, with lower rainfall from October to January.

OCP Ecuador, the operator of Ecuador’s privately held heavy crude pipeline, suspended pumping crude on Saturday as a preventative measure after it ruptured in the Amazon and began cleaning and repairs.

The burst happened late on Friday in the Piedra Fina zone, an area in Ecuador’s Amazon where regressive erosion caused the OCP pipeline and the state-owned SOTE pipeline to halt pumping in December, forcing the government to declare force majeure over its oil exports and production.

“OCP Ecuador S.A. informs that the pumping of crude oil has been stopped as a preventive measure and that it will be restarted when the conditions are right,” the company said in a statement.

Remedial action includes containing the spilt crude so it cannot contaminate bodies of water, the company said. Repairs had also begun on the tube, it said.

Regressive erosion has advanced steadily in the area since 2020, threatening pipelines and causing problems for water sources for Ecuador’s largest hydroelectric plant and a highway.

OCP Ecuador said the pipeline burst in an area that is not directly exposed to rivers, and that it had controlled the oil flow. However, Indigenous organization CONFENIAE said communities were already being affected.

“The impact of the oil spill has reached the Kichwa community of Panduyaku in the province of Sucumbíos,” CONFENIAE said in a message on Twitter, along with a video showing crude contamination in a river.

Both pipelines burst in 2020 due to erosion, causing an oil spill in the Coca river and affecting numerous Amazon communities.

Energy Minister Juan Carlos Bermeo said he was keeping an eye on the situation.

OCP Ecuador has employed measures to make sure neither the flow of oil nor the country’s export of crude is affected, it said.

A storm hit coastal areas in northern Germany overnight, disrupting train services and prompting flood warnings including in the port city of Hamburg, emergency officials said on Sunday.

Hamburg’s famous fish market was flooded as water levels in the Elbe river that flows into the North Sea rose by 5.2 meters (17 ft) above normal levels, Reuters reported.

The German weather service had warned of hurricane-force wind in the north that could reach speeds of almost 100 kilometers (60 miles) per hour.

Firefighters in Hamburg responded to 450 emergency calls in the night between Saturday and Sunday.

Fallen trees that had blocked railways and roads were cleared and two men were rescued after a barge got stuck under a bridge in the northern city, emergency services said in a statement.

German public broadcaster NDR said several communities near the city of Wismar east of Hamburg experienced power outages.

Authorities are rushing to prevent an oil spill in eastern Thailand from damaging fragile corals, after officials said on Sunday (Jan 30) the leak that began last week was drifting towards more coastal areas.

Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment Varawut Silpa-archa said it was crucial to try to prevent the main mass of oil from reaching the shore at Ao Prao, a small bay on Koh Samet, which is a popular resort island.

“If the oil reached inside this area it could impact the beach and cause heavy damage to the shallow water corals,” Varawut said.

The oil began leaking from a pipeline owned by Star Petroleum Refining Public Company Limited (SPRC) late on Tuesday.

Before it was brought under control, an estimated 50,000 litres of oil escaped into the ocean 20km from the coastline of eastern Thailand.

Mae Ramphueng Beach in Rayong province was declared a disaster area after some oil came ashore there late on Friday.

The latest satellite image from the government’s Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA) showed the oil spill has spread to cover 67 sq km area of the sea.

Most of the oil had formed a thin film rather than a thick oil slick, navy spokesman Vice Admiral Pokkrong Monthatphalin told reporters, citing aerial photographs.

Shoppers in South Korea are getting pickier when it comes to a product’s environmental impact. They’re looking for labels like “low-carbon” or “organic”.

There are more gifts to meet those demands from “low-carbon” apples and shine muscat grapes to Hallabong tangerines.

Some people are also looking for gifts that keep their loved ones healthy.

“Because of the current situation, I can’t visit my parents or spend time with them this holiday. I also have an uncle and can’t visit him either. So I’m out here to get them gifts, something that’s healthy and eco-friendly.”

With the rise of mindful shoppers, food and beverage companies are working to improve their packaging and reduce plastic waste.

“In this gift set, the usual yellow product lid has been removed and the plastic tray to hold the products is partially made out of re-used plastics to make it more eco-friendly. “

The company says it will keep working to make food packaging more sustainable.

“CJ CheilJedang is making continuous efforts to reduce the amount of plastic used in holiday gift sets. And in this Lunar New Year, we’ve been able to reduce it by 387 tons.”

Large retail outlets and department stores are also trying to make their packaging more sustainable using eco-friendly or biodegradable ice-packs and insulated thermal bags.

“In line with customers’ eco-friendly practices from Chuseok last year, we’ve been using insulated thermal bags made out of thrown away clothes and uncoated recycled paperboard gift boxes.”

With gifts now going “green”, there’s nothing better than knowing that your shopping is helping the environment.

Mount Ngauruhoe is an active stratovolcano that is considered to be the youngest vent in the Tongariro Volcanic Complex which is located on the Central Plateau, better known as the North Island Volcanic Plateau, within the central part of the North Island of New Zealand.

Considered also to be the youngest and historically as well the most active volcano, Mount Ngauruhoe has been active for at least 2500 years, while with its 2,291 meters (7,516 feet) above sea level is a desolate place that has almost no living thing on it.

There are legends about how the volcano got its name, however, the most common one is that the volcano was named by Ngātoro-i-rangi, who was an ancestor of the local Māori iwi, Ngāti Tūwharetoa.

Due to the location of Ngauruhoe between the active volcanoes of Mount Tongariro to the north and Mount Ruapehu to the south, since records started being taken, there have been some 60 eruptions from the mountain, the last one occurring in 1975.

Since Mount Ngauruhoe has not erupted since then, it is quite unusual because it has been erupting on average once per decade.

Perhaps one of the better examples why this volcano mountain became popular in recent years is due to Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, showing it as the fictional Mount Doom.

Even though the popularity for this uniquely alluring place rose more in recent years, the first ascend was in March 1839 when J. C. Bidwill ascended from the north-western side describing it as one of “the most terrific abyss” he had ever seen.

It is not far from the true, since Mount Ngauruhoe certainly gives each climber one of the most terrifying experiences, and reaching the top is always something that should be seen as a great achievement.

Today, this mountain consists of alternating layers of ash scoria, and andesitic lava flows, with loose scree slopes on its steep sides which form the classic volcano shape, and it gives Mount Ngauruhoe the very distinguishable and very easy-to-recognize landscape.

Gwrych Castle was built in the early 1800s as the home of Lloyd Hesketh Bamford-Hesketh.

It is said that Queen Victoria visited once before taking the throne.

It had a total of 128 rooms, including 28 bedrooms, an outer hall, an inner hall, two smoke rooms, a dining room, a drawing room, a billiards room, an oak study, and a range of accommodations for servants.

During World War II, it housed 200 Jewish refugees, and was later open to the public as a theme park complete with a zoo.

Gwrych Castle was built between 1810 and 1825 by Lloyd Hesketh Bamford-Hesketh (1787–1861), in memory of his mother Frances Lloyd and her ancestors.

It incorporated an earlier house that had been in the ownership of the Lloyds since the late-medieval period.

From 1894 until 1924, Winifred, Countess of Dundonald, the Hesketh heiress, owned the estate and it became the residence of the Earls of Dundonald (family name of Cochrane).

The countess left the castle in her will to King George V and the then Prince of Wales (who later became Edward VIII).

However, the gift was refused and the castle passed to the Venerable Order of Saint John.

In 1928, the 12th Earl of Dundonald purchased the castle for £78,000 (equivalent to £4,700,000 in 2019), selling the contents to meet the cost.

Gwrych Castle became known as “The Showpiece of Wales” and attracted many visitors.

It was also used as a training venue for the English World Middleweight boxing champion Randolph Turpin in the early 1950s.

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The castle closed to the public in 1987, and it started to decline.

It was bought in 1989 by Nick Tavaglione, an American businessman, for £750,000.

However, his plans to renovate the building were not carried out.

As a result, the castle was extensively looted and vandalised, and became little more than a derelict shell, although it was used in 1996 as the backdrop for Prince Valiant, a film starring Edward Fox, Joanna Lumley and Katherine Heigl.

It is currently open for guided and self-guided tours, but part of the site is closed as unsafe.

On 13 June 2018, Gwrych Castle and its estate was sold to Gwrych Castle Preservation Trust, a registered charity, enabled by a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund.

In August 2020 it was rumoured that ITV had chosen the castle for the filming of the 20th series of I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!

This was confirmed on 27 August after Gwrych publicly confirmed this on their social media sites.

Giovanna Fletcher was crowned the first-ever Queen of the Castle at the end of the series.

In 1994, arsonists had destroyed power-lines by setting an old caravan alight. After the trust secured enough funds to pay for it, in June 2021 a new transformer and pole were installed.

In August 2021, ITV confirmed that I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! would be returning to Gwrych for the second time, ensuring that further funds would help restore the castle.

A north-easter with hurricane-force wind gusts battered much of the East Coast on Saturday, flinging heavy snow that made travel treacherous or impossible, flooding coastlines, and threatening to leave bitter cold in its wake.

The storm thrashed parts of 10 states, with blizzard warnings that stretched from Virginia to Maine. Philadelphia and New York saw plenty of wind and snow, but Boston was in the crosshairs. The city could get more than 2 feet (61 centimeters) of snow by the time it moves out early Sunday.

Winds gusted as high as 83 mph (134 kph) on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. More than 22 inches (45 centimeters) of snow had fallen by midafternoon on part of Long Island, and Bayville, New Jersey, had 19 inches (48 centimeters).

The wind scoured the ground bare in some spots and piled the snow into huge drifts in others.

Forecasters watched closely for new snowfall records, especially in Boston, where the heaviest snow was expected later Saturday. The Boston area’s modern snowfall record is 27.6 inches, set in 2003.

New York City and Philadelphia were far from setting all-time records but still saw significant snowfall, with at least 7.5 inches (19 centimeters) in New York’s Central Park and at the Philadelphia airport.

Many flights at airports serving New York, Boston and Philadelphia were canceled Saturday, according to FlightAware. More than 4,500 flights were canceled across the U.S., though airports in the Northeast didn’t report evidence of mass strandings, given that the storm was anticipated and many airlines called off flights in advance.

Amtrak canceled all its high-speed Acela trains on the busy Boston-to-Washington corridor and canceled or limited other service.

In suburban Boston, a bundled-up Nicky Brown, 34, stood at the doors of Gordon’s liquor store in Waltham, waiting for it to open.

“My boyfriend is out driving a plow, and I had a bunch of cleaning to do at home, and I want a drink while I’m doing it,” she said, as she called the store to find out if it planned to open at all. “It’s a good day to stay inside and clean.”

Video on social media showed wind and waves battering North Weymouth, south of Boston, flooding streets with a slurry of frigid water.

Other video showed a street underwater on Nantucket and waves crashing against the windows of a building in Plymouth.

Over 120,000 homes and businesses lost power in Massachusetts, with failures mounting. No other states reported widespread outages.

Climate change, particularly the warming ocean, probably influenced the strength of the storm, atmospheric researchers said.

Much warmer ocean waters “are certainly playing a role in the strengthening of the storm system and increased moisture available for the storm,” said University of Oklahoma meteorology professor Jason Furtado. “But it isn’t the only thing.”

The storm had two saving graces: Dry snow less capable of snapping trees and tearing down power lines, and its timing on a weekend, when schools were closed and few people were commuting.

Parts of 10 states were under blizzard warnings at some point: Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey, along with much of the Delmarva Peninsula in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.

The National Weather Service considers a storm a blizzard if it meets the following conditions: It has snowfall or blowing snow and winds of at least 35 mph (56 kph) that reduce visibility to a quarter-mile or less for at least three hours. In many areas, Saturday’s storm met those criteria.

Rhode Island, all of which was under a blizzard warning, banned all nonemergency road travel.

In West Hartford, Connecticut, a tractor-trailer jackknifed on Interstate 84, closing several lanes.

Ocean City, Maryland, recorded at least a foot (30 centimeters) of snow.

Maryland State Police tweeted that troopers had received more than 670 calls for service and responded to over 90 crashes by midmorning.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul advised people to stay home and warned of below-zero windchills after the storm passes.

The state had declared a state of emergency Friday evening.

“This is a very serious storm, very serious. We’ve been preparing for this. This could be life-threatening,” Hochul said. “It’s high winds, heavy snow, blizzard conditions — all the elements of a classic nor’easter.”

Police on Long Island said they had to help motorists stuck in the snow. In Philadelphia, few drivers ventured onto streets covered in knee-high drifts.

Hardy New Englanders took the storm in stride.

Dave McGillivray, race director for the Boston Marathon, jokingly invited the public to his suburban Boston home on Saturday for a free snow-shoveling clinic.

“I will provide the driveway and multiple walkways to ensure your training is conducted in the most lifelike situation,” he said.

Washington and Baltimore got some snow but were largely spared.

The worst of the nor’easter was expected to blow by Sunday morning into Canada, where several provinces were under warnings.