Will Australia Get To Keep Its Pandas?

PANDA DIPLOMACY
Two of China's most fluffy, bamboo loving diplomats have been a hot topic of conversation this week during high level talks between Australian politicians and China's foreign minister. Meet Wang Wang and Fu Ni. While they're not your typical diplomats they're the subject of some big diplomatic discussions at the moment. You see, China actually owns almost all of the giant pandas in the world, and for decades the government has loaned them out to other countries as a sign of friendship, which is something called panda diplomacy. Wang Wang and Fu Ni here arrived on loan to Australia back in 2009, but that loan is set to run out this year. So our Foreign Minister Penny Wong has been trying to convince her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, to let them stay longer, and well, things are looking positive. But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves, it's likely that if pandas do stay, Wang Wang and Fu Ni could actually get swapped out for different pandas that might have a better chance of breeding.
NT FLOOD
A one in 100-year flood is headed for the remote community of Borroloola in the Northern Territory. Heavy rainfall from ex-Tropical Cyclone Megan is causing the McArthur River to rise, with predictions it could peak above 18-metres! So far, about 250 people have been evacuated from the area to Darwin, and authorities are dropping food and water to those who are still there.
WORLD HAPPINESS REPORT
Are you feeling happy? Because new data from the annual World Happiness Report has ranked Australia in the top 10 happiest countries in the world! That's up two places from last year, coming in just behind Switzerland with Finland taking the top spot for its seventh year in a row! Yeah, there's a big happiness gap between older and younger people, and not just in Australia. Experts say that the wellbeing of young people across the globe has fallen. In fact, they reckon some kids are already experiencing the equivalent of a mid-life crisis but they hope their findings can help governments turn things around.
PUGGLES
First up to Sydney's Royal National Park! Where scientists are celebrating the arrival of the first platypus baby since they disappeared from the area 50 years ago. You see, last year 10 platypuses were released into the waters here, a project that was the first of its kind, and it's already started paying off! There are big hopes there'll be more baby puggles popping up soon.
OLD EASTER EGG
Now to the UK, where a very old Easter egg has just been sold at auction for about 400 dollars. The egg, which aside from a few tears in the paper, looks in pretty good nick, considering it's more than 80 years old! The only question now is: would you eat it?
OLD TORTOISE
And finally to a very old tortoise named Johnathan. So old in fact, he holds the record for the world's oldest land animal at 192 years old! Yeah, I know. Hard to think from looking at him, he hardly looks a day over 190. Jonathan lives on the island of St Helena, which is a small island in the South Atlantic Ocean where French ruler Napoleon was sent to live in exile, and later died there too.
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For the past 55 years, Behind the News has been helping to break down current issues and events for young people all around the world. The program is a high-energy, fun way for people to learn about the stories we see in the news while providing background information that isn’t usually given by other news bulletins.