Archive March 12, 2025

Australian police have confirmed that a surfer who went missing was “taken by a shark” after search and rescue teams recovered a surfboard scarred with “bite marks” from the area of the attack.

The victim – identified by Australian media as 37-year-old Steven Payne – was mauled by a shark while surfing at Wharton beach in a remote area of Western Australia, police said late on Tuesday.

It marks Australia’s fourth reported fatal shark attack in recent months.

“I can confirm that our search is a recovery, not a rescue”, Western Australia Police Force Senior Sergeant Christopher Taylor said, noting that the surfer’s body has not been recovered.

“A surfboard with evidence of bite marks was recovered from the water”, Western Australia Police said in a separate statement on Tuesday.

According to media reports, a shark was spotted just moments before the attack in the water off Wharton beach and screams were heard coming from the area where the man was surfing at about midday.

Australia’s 7News network said the victim was in chest-deep water about 50 metres (164 feet) from the shore with two other surfers when he was attacked. Police said the other surfers were unable to do anything to help.

In February, a shark killed a 17-year-old girl swimming off an eastern Australian island, while a 28-year-old surfer was fatally bitten in South Australia a month earlier.

On December 28, a shark fatally bit a 40-year-old man in the neck as he was spearfishing off Queensland.

The United States Department of Education has announced it will lay off almost half of its employees as President Donald Trump moves to fulfil his campaign promise to dismantle the agency.

The department said on Tuesday that it would reduce the size of its workforce to roughly 2, 183 employees by placing staff on administrative leave from March 21.

It said it would continue to provide “all statutory programs” falling under its purview, including student loans and funding for special needs students.

The cuts follow similar rounds of firings undertaken as part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s drive to radically streamline the federal bureaucracy.

“Today’s reduction in force reflects the Department of Education’s commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers”, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement.

“I appreciate the work of the dedicated public servants and their contributions to the Department. This is a significant step toward restoring the greatness of the United States education system”.

In an interview with Fox News later on Tuesday, McMahon, the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, confirmed that the layoffs were a step towards abolishing the department.

“Actually, it is because that was the president’s mandate”, she said.

“His directive to me clearly is to shut down the Department of Education, which we know we will have to work with Congress to get that accomplished”.

McMahon said that the cuts took aim at “bureaucratic bloat” and that the department’s “outward facing programs”, such as grants, would be preserved.

Trump campaigned on abolishing the Department of Education, which he claimed had been infiltrated by “radicals, zealots and Marxists”, and passing responsibility for education to individual states and local school districts.

In an exchange with reporters last month, the US president said that he had told McMahon that he wanted her to “put herself out of a job”.

Education in the US is already mostly provided by states and local communities, with the federal government only providing about 8 percent of the total funding for elementary and secondary schooling.

‘ Wrecking ball ‘

Established in 1979 by the US Congress and former President Jimmy Carter, the department’s primary functions include providing financial aid to schools, overseeing student loan programmes, and enforcing civil rights protections.

Republicans have railed against the department since its inception, arguing that education policy should be handled at the state and local level.

Former US President Ronald Reagan repeatedly called for the dismantling of the department but ultimately failed to win the backing of Congress before leaving office in 1989.

The National Education Association, the largest teachers union in the US, condemned the Trump administration’s move, accusing it of taking a “wrecking ball” to the futures of some 50 million students.

“The real victims will be our most vulnerable students”, National Education Association President Becky Pringle said in a statement.

Voting was extended by half an hour past a 22: 00 GMT deadline on Tuesday amid high voter turnout at several of the 72 polling stations across the mineral-rich island, where 40, 500 people were eligible to cast their ballot.

There were no exit polls, and a final tally of the vote could take between three and five hours to complete, Greenland’s election authority said.

Official results will not be certified for weeks as ballot papers make their way to the capital, Nuuk, from remote settlements by boat, plane and helicopter.

Images and video clips shared on social media showed people queueing in the ice and snow outside polling stations in Nuuk up to 45 minutes before voting closed. Earlier in the day, long queues were also reported at voting centres.

Since taking office in January, Trump has promised to make Greenland – a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark – part of the US, saying it is vital to US security interests.

The vast island, with a population of just 57, 000, has been caught up in a geopolitical race for dominance in the Arctic, where melting ice caps are making its rich resources of rare earth metals more accessible and opening new shipping routes.

Greenland’s prime minister, Mute Bourup Egede, called the election last month, saying the country needed to be united during a “serious time” that is unlike anything Greenland has ever experienced.

While Trump has been outspoken about his desire to control Greenland, both Russia and China have also intensified military activity in the Arctic region.

Greenland is a former Danish colony and a territory since 1953. It gained some autonomy in 1979 when its first parliament was formed, but Copenhagen still controls foreign affairs, defence and monetary policy and provides just under $1bn a year to the economy.

In 2009, Greenland won the right to declare full independence through a referendum, even though it has not done so out of concern that living standards would drop without Denmark’s economic support.

Julie Rademacher, a consultant and former adviser to Greenland’s government, said that early on, the election campaign focused on the anger and frustration aimed at historical wrongdoings by former colonial ruler Denmark.

“But I think the fear of the US imperialist approach has lately become bigger than the anger towards Denmark”, Rademacher said.

The Reuters news agency spoke to more than a dozen Greenlanders in Nuuk, all of whom said they favoured independence, although many expressed concern that a swift transition could damage the economy and eliminate Nordic welfare services like universal healthcare and free schooling.

“We don’t want to be part of the US for obvious reasons, healthcare and Trump”, said Tuuta Lynge-Larsen, a bank employee and Nuuk resident, adding that this election was especially important.