claim to have halted two cargo ships at one of the world's biggest coal export ports. A total 32 people were arrested and charged with "marine-related" offences on Saturday and early Sunday at the Port of Newcastle, a major deepwater gateway north of Sydney, police said.Several activists engaged in "unsafe practices" on the water during the protests, New South Wales state police said, warning that they had a "zero-tolerance" approach to threats to public safety or the safe passage of vessels.

Organisers Rising Tide said the weekend protests, in which flotillas of kayaks entered shipping channels, had forced two coal ships to turn around instead of entering the port. Nearly 100 people in 50 kayaks entered the shipping channel again on Sunday, it said. Greenpeace said activists climbed the side of coal ship Yangze 16 on Sunday and displayed a banner reading: "Phase out coal and gas." Police landed in a helicopter on the ship's deck in the early afternoon and detained two activists after the seven-hour action, the environmental group said. "As the world's third-largest fossil fuel exporter, Australia plays an outsized role in the climate crisis," said Joe Rafalowicz, climate activist at Greenpeace Australia Pacific. (Bssnews)