The G20 snappers have done it again. First we had that instantly iconic shot of Angela Merkel and Donald Trump facing off across a table in Canada in 2018, and now this one from Bali is going straight to the pool room as well.

Can you name everyone here? If not, here’s the Getty caption (deep breath):

The world’s population hit eight billion this week, about 11 years after reaching seven billion.

It’s now expected to be another 15 years before we reach nine billion.

But while the world’s population is measured in ever-growing billions, the latest statistics for New Zealand’s population were revealed today. According to Stats NZ, and as of September 30, New Zealand had a population of 5,127,400. Yup, we’re now a team of over 5.1 million.

Stats NZ said the population could be broken down into 2,543,500 males and 2,583,800 females, while the median age of males and females was 37.1 and 39.1 years, respectively.

The National Party’s plan to send youth offenders to boot camps is back on the agenda, leader Christopher Luxon announced on a visit to Hamilton West today.

It’s reminiscent of National’s 2017 election campaign, when then-prime minister Bill English pledged to send serious offenders aged between 14 and 17 to military camps organised in Waiouru. That was criticised by some at the time as being “heartless”.

Under the new policy, 14-year-olds would be safe but serious youth offenders aged 15 to 17 would be sent to boot camp Young Offender Military Academies for a dose of discipline, mentoring and intensive rehabilitation.

“A ram-raid every 15 hours shows that Labour’s soft-on-crime approach is failing,” Luxon said. “No place is immune from the youth crime wave, but some are being hit harder than others. For example, 20% of all recent ram-raids were in the Waikato. Gang membership in the Waikato is up 70% over the past five years and gangs are recruiting nearly three times faster than police.”

Other tenets of National’s new plan include creating a new young serious offender category that would target the ringleaders of crimes like ram-raids – including those as young as 10. Other possible penalties for those in this offender category (alongside boot camps) include electronic monitoring or being subjected to a supervision order.

Police would also be given stronger powers to tackle crime and funding would be provided to community organisations and other non-government agencies to break the cycle of offending.

“National’s combatting youth offending plan targets the most serious repeat young offenders and will disrupt crimes like ram-raids by removing the ringleaders, some of whom have gang connections,” said Luxon.

National’s leader came under some criticism yesterday for his comments around school truancy. In his regular morning interview with Newshub’s AM, Christopher Luxon blamed school leaders and parents for falling school attendance rates.

Now, his potential future coalition buddy David Seymour has weighed in – and it seems he’s on the same page.

Rupert Murdoch’s mood on Donald Trump’s viability as a returning president in 2024 was clear enough in a pair of front pages on the New York Post, the tabloid owned by his News Corp, in response to last week’s midterm results.

Today, just hours after Trump confirmed that he would seek the Republican nomination, the Post swung from big statement to a very small story, aka massive and derisory troll. The only mention on the front page was a basement trail reading, “Florida man makes announcement”. That directed readers all the way to the last news page, the 26th. Here is the report, in full:

With just 720 days to go before the next election, a Florida retiree made the surprise announcement that he was running for president. Avid golfer Donald J Trump kicked things off at Mar-a-Lago, his resort and classified-documents library. Trump, famous for gold-plated lobbies and for firing people on reality television, will be 78 in 2024. If elected, Trump would tie Joe Biden as the oldest president to take office. His cholesterol levels are unknown, but his favourite food is a charred steak with ketchup. He has stated that his qualifications for office include being a “stable genius”.

Trump also served as the 45th president.

Read more on Murdoch and Trump, Murdoch and the world and Murdoch and New Zealand in this story published today.

New Trade Me figures show average house prices in the capital have dipped by over $120,000 since their peak back in March. The latest 7% price drop in Wellington over the year to October brings average prices to $871,050.

“What goes up must come down, and following the meteoric price increases seen in the Wellington market over the past few years, October marked a massive turning point for the region,” said Trade Me property sales director Gavin Lloyd.

But while the Wellington region may have become more affordable less expensive, Wellington City itself remained the most expensive district with an average asking price of $972,900, followed by Porirua ($970,600) and Kāpiti Coast ($912,800).

Meanwhile, in Auckland, the average asking price in October was $1,147,950, up 2% on the month prior – though down 3% year on year. “The most expensive district in the Auckland region last month was Waiheke Island ($1,864,600), followed by North Shore City ($1,381,450), and Rodney ($1,332,600),” said Lloyd.

In the regions, it was a “mixed bag”, according to Lloyd. While some areas saw comparable price drops to Wellington, several regions were on the up. Taranaki, for example, registered a new record average asking price of $687,600 in October, while the West Coast was up 17% and Northland was up 12%.

The Herald’s Claire Trevett is reporting that a meeting between prime minister Jacinda Ardern and Chinese president Xi Jinping at the Apec summit in Thailand “is now locked in and expected to be on Friday or Saturday”. It will be the first face-to-face meeting between Ardern and Xi since the prime minister’s brief visit to China in 2019. Ardern is also understood to have what’s known as a “pull-aside” sorted with US vice president Kamala Harris, who is attending instead of president Biden.

Xi has met with Biden, Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and French president Emmanuel Macron over the last few days.

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