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Sydney traffic congestion.

When it is suddenly announced that an eight-lane toll road is about to be tunnelled underneath a neighbourhood, it is no surprise that the community springs into action.

Queensland Environment Minister Dr Steven Miles has announced that the state will ban single-use plastic shopping bags by 2018. About 800 million plastic bags are used there every year.

The government has been considering a ban for more than a year. Miles said Queensland would push ahead and not wait for Victoria and NSW to come on board for an east-coast ban.

For years, those who had hoped and prayed for his death were repeatedly disappointed by a photo, a news clip or a commentary in that unmistakable style.

The rumours always proved unfounded. Fidel Castro, who had dodged some 600 attempts on his life orchestrated by the CIA, was very much alive and making the most of his twilight years.

There were no rumours this time. His brother Raul, voice quavering with emotion, read out a brief statement on TV and a sombre stillness descended on the Cuban archipelago.

LNG tanker.

鈥淒espite the fact that Australia鈥檚 on the verge of becoming the world鈥檚 largest exporter of LNG [Liquified Natural Gas], there鈥檒l be no new revenues from the primary tax on oil and gas for the next two decades and perhaps even longer,鈥 Tax Justice Network (TJN) researcher Jason Ward said on October 10.

The Zika virus, borne by the mosquito Aedes aegypti, was declared by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on November 18 to no longer be a global emergency, to the dismay of many health workers around the world. This decision will minimise the amount of research and public vigilance against Zika infection.

Australian Greens leader Richard Di Natale has pledged to introduce a private senator鈥檚 bill by the end of the year for a 鈥渟ugar tax鈥 which he estimates would claw $500 million from the country鈥檚 shopping list each year.

The legislation which Di Natale has hailed as an 鈥渙besity prevention strategy鈥, has raised ire among his own ranks who have labelled the policy a 鈥渃aptain鈥檚 call鈥.

The Age on November 26 contained a on 鈥淢elbourne鈥檚 Trump-land鈥, which is apparently located in Narre Warren North.

A water protector at Standing Rock defies the militarised police.

鲍辫诲补迟别:听The US聽Army Corps of Engineers denied the Dakota Access pipeline company a permit to drill underneath the Missouri River on December 4聽. The decision officially halts聽construction of the US$3.8 billion oil pipeline that has faced months of resistance from the Standing Rock Sioux in North Dakota and members of more than 200 indigenous nations from across the Americas, as well as their non-Native allies.

Fidel Castro meeting with Malcolm X.

Black Lives Matter, the US anti-police brutality group formed to oppose racist police killings, mourned the death of former Cuban president and revolutionary leader Fidel Castro in reflecting on his life. In it,聽the group discussed the lessons it has learned from his struggle against racism and imperialism.

Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) Executive Committee Member Duran Kalkan paid tribute to Fidel Castro and the Cuban revolution at the PKK鈥檚 38th anniversary celebrations in Medya Defence Zones, .

Fidel Castro.

Late Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro long warned that capitalism was threatening to destroy human civilisation through ecological destruction, with the poor of the global South its first victims.