Abbott, who was prime minister from 2013 to 2015, was one of the most vocal climate sceptics in parliament and had held his seat of Warringah in Sydney’s northern suburbs for a quarter of a century.

But amid a groundswell of activism on climate change among his affluent beachside electorate and a strong challenge from independent candidate and former Olympian Zali Steggall, Abbott was unable to hold on.

While the national election remained too close to call — with the conservative coalition government of Prime Minister Scott Morrison doing better than expected — Abbott admitted his defeat, less than three hours after polls closed.

“I can’t say that it doesn’t hurt to lose,” he told supporters, but added, “I’d rather be a loser than a quitter”.

“It’s often said that all public lives end badly, but I’m certainly not going to let one bad day spoil 25 great years,” he said.

The contest in Warringah had become so heated that an Abbott volunteer was stabbed in the stomach with a corkscrew late Friday while putting up campaign posters, with the Liberal candidate saying it reflected the ugliness of the election campaign.

Steggall said earlier Saturday she believed she could win and was running in the election to give locals a choice.

“After 25 years there are a lot of people that are ready for different representation and a different style of politics,” she told reporters after voting.

During voting on Saturday near Abbott’s surf club, the site of one of the polling stations, anti-fossil fuel campaigners set up a “democracy sausage” stand — a election day tradition — with signs “fry sausages not the climate” and “let’s snag some climate action”.

Voters entering the polling booth were greeted by volunteers wearing bright orange “I’m a climate voter” t-shirts and “25 years of climate denial: Vote Abbott out” signs.

Locals emerging from the ocean with their surfboards beside the station said they were voting for a change in direction.

“It’s time for Tony to go,” 32-year-old surfer Aidan Street told AFP.

At another polling station, Abbott was surrounded and questioned by students who skipped school early this year to protest against government inaction on climate change.

Australia is one of the world’s worst per capita greenhouse gas polluters, due to heavy use of coal-fired power and a relatively small population of 25 million.

The first hearing on two lawsuits filed in Oakland, California challenging the declaration adjourned after dealing with procedural issues, with the judge giving no indication of when a ruling may be handed down.

About 20 states, including Democratic strongholds New York and California, along with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), environmental groups and border communities are involved in the suits, which claim the emergency declaration violates the constitution.

“We are hopeful that today’s hearing stressed what is truly at stake with Trump’s border wall — the endangerment of communities and destruction of our environment,” said Gloria Smith, managing attorney at the Sierra Club, one of the plaintiffs.

Trump made the construction of a wall to stem illegal immigration from Latin America central to his successful 2016 campaign for the presidency.

But despite saying Mexico would pay for the barrier, he’s had to ask Congress for $3.6 billion in funding to make the project happen, along with an additional $2.5 billion to fight drug traffickers.

The tug-of-war over funding for the barrier caused a record 35-day federal government shutdown beginning on December 22, 2018, and lawmakers have thus far allocated only $1.4 billion to pay for fencing and other barriers along the border.

Following the hearing, Dror Ladin, staff attorney at the ACLU’s national security project said, “It was striking to hear the government claim out loud in court that Congress never denied Trump funding for his wall. That is patently wrong.”

The lawsuits question the urgency of Trump’s emergency declaration, and asks the court to halt wall construction work that the Defense Department said could start as soon as May 25.

It also claims the government violated environmental protections by failing to assess the impact of the wall’s construction in California and New Mexico.

Among the plaintiffs’ evidence are statements Trump made at his press conference following the emergency declaration where he said, “I could do the wall over a longer period of time,” and “I didn’t need to do this, but I would rather do it much faster.”

Washington announced last week it had taken possession of the North Korean-registered bulk carrier M/V Wise Honest — a year after it was detained in Indonesia — citing sanctions-violating activities.

The seizure came amid heightened tensions after Pyongyang conducted weapons drills involving short-range missiles in recent weeks, and with nuclear talks deadlocked since the collapse of the Hanoi summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un earlier this year.

In a letter sent Friday to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Kim Song — Pyongyang’s permanent representative at the UN — said the incident was “an unlawful and outrageous act”, according to North Korea’s state news agency KCNA.

“This act of dispossession has clearly indicated that the United States is indeed a gangster country that does not care at all about international laws,” the letter said.

The North Korean representative asked Guterres to “take urgent measures as a way of contributing to the stability of the Korean peninsula and proving the impartiality of the UN”.

Earlier this week, Pyongyang had slammed the seizure as an “outright denial” of the spirit of a statement signed by Kim and Trump at their first summit in Singapore last year.

North Korea is sanctioned under multiple UN Security Council resolutions for its nuclear and missile programmes, and lifting of some of the measures was a key demand from Pyongyang at the second Trump-Kim summit in February that ultimately broke down without a deal.

But that has not stopped Oscar Chong from going out for his daily workout, despite four days of warnings from the authorities to avoid strenuous physical activity outside.

“I’m addicted to exercise. If I don’t work out on a daily basis, I don’t feel well. It actually helps release my creativity, among many other things. If I just stayed home, I’d be staring at the walls, staring at my computer screen, and ideas are never born that way,” Chong, a graphic designer, told AFP.

The trim 51-year-old was taking a break from his interval workout in the capital’s largest park, the Bosque de Chapultepec — which the authorities actually closed at one point this week, to hammer home the message that running or cycling in the middle of an air pollution alert was not a good idea.

The sprawling city — a metropolitan area of more than 20 million people — has been blanketed in a thick cloud of smog since last weekend.

Authorities blame the problem on dozens of wildfires that have broken out across central Mexico in recent weeks, and the lack of wind or rain to disperse the resulting particles.

However, experts agree the city’s chronic pollution problems are also at fault.

Mexico City is prone to air pollution, both because of the mountains that surround it — trapping smog overhead — and its more than five million cars.

But the wildfires have undoubtedly made matters worse. They have sent the levels of PM2.5 soaring — tiny particles produced by any fire that are the deadliest air pollutant.

Authorities declared a pollution alert from Tuesday to Friday, after the micro-particle level hit 158 micrograms per cubic meter.

That is the equivalent of smoking more than seven cigarettes a day, according to a widely cited study by US doctors Richard and Elizabeth Muller.

On Friday, the level fell slightly, leading the authorities to call off the alert. But breathing the air was still equivalent to smoking nearly five cigarettes a day, according to the 2015 study, which compared deaths from air pollution and smoking.

The “goal of this calculation is to help give people an appreciation for the health effects of air pollution,” the Mullers wrote.

“Of course, unlike cigarette smoking, the pollution reaches every age group.”

‘Feels horrible’

The gray cloud of smog has scrambled people’s routines in the sprawling mega-city.

Officials are urging residents to avoid physical activity outdoors, and children, the elderly and those with respiratory illnesses to remain inside.

They have canceled school and sporting events. The football league moved a key semi-final match to Queretaro, some 200 kilometers (125 miles) to the northwest.

Many residents who can afford it have decided to do the same, skipping town until the pollution dies down — though many traditional getaway spots outside the city are polluted, too.

That includes the picturesque colonial city of Puebla, 135 kilometers to the southeast, which is dealing with an extra dose of pollution thanks to the nearby Popocatepetl volcano, which has been spewing ash into the sky.

Other residents have little choice but to ride out the smog, which stings many people’s eyes and throats.

“I’ve been trying not to go out. It smells like something burned,” Nicte Munoz, 38, said from behind a surgical mask on her way to the environmental organization where she works.

“It’s not at all good for our health. It feels horrible when you’re going up the stairs and suddenly you can’t walk or breathe,” said Diana Mariscal, 21, a communications student from the central city of Pachuca who was visiting for the weekend.

Authorities have shut down large construction sites, restricted the use of older vehicles and ordered certain polluting industries to cut emissions by 30 to 40 percent. They have even shut down some of the city’s beloved street-food stands to reduce smoke.

But Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum and President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador — close allies in the leftist ruling party Morena — have faced criticism over the government’s slow reaction.

And none of the authorities’ anti-pollution measures amount to anything if they are not enforced, underlined Chong.

“Take the restrictions on older cars, for example,” he said.

“The (emissions) verification centers are full of corruption, and always have been. There may be a system designed to attack the pollution problem, but the reality is, it’s not. Pollution just continues, one way or another.”

Addressing inmates at the main Welikada prison, Sirisena promised financial support to re-integrate them in society, but made no reference to monk Galagodaatte Gnanasara, whose release was demanded Friday by the Buddhist hierarchy.

Sri Lanka has declared two days of holidays for nation-wide celebrations of Vesak, or the commemoration of the birth, enlightenment and passing away of the Buddha.

Those who benefited from the amnesty had been serving short jail terms for minor offences and none had been convicted of murder or rape, officials said.

The 762 released Saturday included several women.

“An increase in the prison population is a sign of the declining moral value of any country,” Sirisena said in a nationally televised ceremony.

He said Sri Lanka’s prison system was designed to accommodate 11,000 inmates but as of Saturday there were 24,332 convicts as well as remand prisoners in judicial custody.

Many Buddhist leaders had urged Sirisena to grant a special amnesty to monk Gnanasara on Vesak day.

Since December, Gnanasara has been serving concurrent jail sentences extending up to six years over his disruptive behaviour in court and intimidating a woman litigant.

He has long been accused of instigating hate crimes against minority Muslims in the Buddhist-majority country. The monk has denied involvement in anti-Muslim riots in 2014 that left four people dead.

His Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), or Buddhist Force, was not linked to the recent anti-Muslim riots that came after the April 21 suicide bombings blamed on Islamic extremists.

Gnanasara had maintained close ties with Wirathu, an extremist monk based in Myanmar, whose hate speech has stoked religious tensions in that country.

Wirathu visited Sri Lanka as a guest of Gnanasara shortly after the 2014 anti-Muslim riots at Sri Lanka coastal town of Aluthgama, and the duo vowed to fight what they called the threat to Buddhism from Islamic jihadists.