People in flood-hit New Zealand are bracing for more heavy rain this week following new severe weather alerts. At least four people have died and a state of emergency order continues in Auckland, which on Friday experienced its worst downpour on record. About 350 people needed emergency accommodation, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said. He added there had been significant damage across Auckland and the North Island. The newly-appointed PM also highlighted climate change’s role in the extreme weather event.

“It’s a 1-in-100-year weather event, and we seem to be getting a lot of them at the moment. I think people can see that there’s a message in that… Climate change is real, it’s with us,” Mr Hipkins said on Monday. He told national broadcaster TVNZ: “We are going to have to deal with more of these extreme weather events in the future. “We need to be prepared for that. And we need to do everything we can to combat the challenge of climate change.”(BBC)…[+]

The bodies of two men caught in an avalanche on Sunday have been found in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. Extensive searches took place after the incident, which happened on the east slope of Mount Hakuba Norikura. Japanese authorities have not revealed their identity but confirmed they were from a group of five foreign skiers. Local police said they believed the men were off-piste skiing separately from the rest of the group when the avalanche took place. Police official Tomohiro Kushibiki told news agency AFP that the two men were found “in cardio-respiratory arrest” on Monday, a term often used in Japan before a death can be confirmed by a doctor.

The three other skiers were able to safely make it down the mountain. A warning for snow and avalanches remains in place for the area, after a cold snap last week which covered much of the region in snow. Nagano Prefecture, which hosted the 1998 Winter Olympics, is popular with tourists in the winter season, attracting many skiers from both Japan and abroad.(BBC)…[+]

Boris Johnson has said Vladimir Putin threatened him with a missile strike in an “extraordinary” phone call in the run-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The then-prime minister said Mr Putin told him it “would only take a minute”. Mr Johnson said the comment was made after he warned the war would be an “utter catastrophe”. The claim is made in a BBC documentary on Mr Putin’s interactions with world leaders over the years. The Kremlin spokesman said it was a “lie”. Mr Johnson warned Mr Putin that invading Ukraine would lead to Western sanctions and more Nato troops on Russia’s borders.

He also tried to deter Russian military action by telling Mr Putin that Ukraine would not join Nato “for the foreseeable future”. But Mr Johnson said: “He threatened me at one point, and he said, ‘Boris, I don’t want to hurt you but, with a missile, it would only take a minute’ or something like that. Jolly. “But I think from the very relaxed tone that he was taking, the sort of air of detachment that he seemed to have, he was just playing along with my attempts to get him to negotiate.”(BBC)…[+]