Four 16-year-old girls were among 30 climate change protesters arrested in Sydney, & more in news in 5.

– With AAP.

1. Four 16-year-old girls were among 30 climate change protesters arrested in Sydney.

Four teenage girls and dozens of other protesters demanding government action on climate change have been arrested in Sydney’s CBD.

The Extinction Rebellion protesters were arrested and bundled into a mobile “custody unit” on Monday afternoon after they allegedly failed to move on when asked to do so by police.

Police say 30 people were arrested. Organisers say four girls aged under 16 were among them.

Here is some of the coverage of the protest. Post continues after video.

“Alleged offences committed range from obstructing traffic to disobeying reasonable direction,” NSW Police said in a statement.

Assistant Commissioner Mick Willing said police respected the right of groups to protest but “we have a responsibility to the community and local businesses to ensure they can go about their normal activities without being impacted on or put at risk”.

“Unfortunately, despite the warnings issued by local police and our colleagues from across the country, this group continue to set out to break the law and put themselves and others at risk,” Mr Willing said in a statement.

Hundreds of people marched from Belmore Park along Pitt Street before several protesters locked themselves in a fake water tank on Broadway.

Sisters Luka, 10, and 12-year-old Maddie Brett-Hall alongside Ember Henninger, also 10, from the Blue Mountains were angry at being told by the government to “just be kids” but who felt their voices weren’t being heard.

Extinction Rebellion media spokesman David Kohn, who was among those arrested, said climate action needed to be taken worldwide.

“We’re demanding the government declare a climate emergency,” the 28-year-old said.

“We want them to take climate action now; we want zero emissions by 2025 and we want citizens’ assemblies to guide that transition.”

Australian writer Jeff Sparrow compared the Extinction Rebellion protests to the Greensboro sit-ins in the United States in the 1960s against segregation during the American civil rights movement.

Sparrow told the crowd scientists’ warnings on climate change meant silmultaneous “massive disruption” was needed.

“We need disruption of our transport system, we need disruption of our housing system, we need disruption of the economy to move it into a carbon-neutral phase.”

2. “Calculated execution.” Wife and her lover are found guilty of murdering husband.

The point-blank murder of a Tasmanian tattoo artist planned by his wife and carried out by her lover was the culmination of a “chilling betrayal”.

Bradley Scott Purkiss, 47, and Margaret Anne Otto, 43, were on Monday found guilty by a Hobart Supreme Court jury of murdering Dwayne ‘Doc’ Davies.

Mr Davies, 47, was lured by his good friend Purkiss to a property at rural Elderslie on May 26, 2017 under the guise of looking at Harley-Davidson motorbikes.

There he was shot in the back and head at close range.

Purkiss then buried Mr Davies’ body in a shallow bush grave at nearby Levendale.

“The crime was a cold, calculated execution,” crown prosecutor Madeleine Wilson told the court.

“(It was) a crystallisation of a plan to kill Mr Davies … a chilling betrayal of a friend and a husband.”

Otto wasn’t there when her husband was killed but helped plan his murder, the jury found after a lengthy five-week trial and about five hours’ deliberation.

Mr Davies’ father Glen Davies, who lost two sons in the space of six months, said Otto was part of the family.

“I considered her my daughter,” he told the court, adding his family home now resembled a “death house” with photographs of both his sons on the walls.

“It’s inconceivable to think she had evil in her.”

Mr Davies and Otto shared a 20-year relationship. Otto and Purkiss had an affair a year before the murder.

“It’s impossible to conceive, Dwayne loved Margaret so much,” Mr Davies’ sister Kelly Goss wrote in a statement read out to the court.

“Now I don’t know what’s real and what’s not.”

Otto’s lawyer, Greg Melick, told the court she was scared to leave Mr Davies, who was abusive and forced her to have sex with other men and that his drug habit was sending their family bankrupt.

Mr Melick said Otto thought her husband would receive a warning and she never contemplated murder.

Purkiss and Otto are expected to be sentenced on Wednesday.

“He was no saint or no angel but he was my son and I loved him very much,” Glen Davies said.

“Parents are not meant to bury their children.”

3. Save the Children Australia urges government to help over 40 kids in Syrian camps.

Australian women and children languishing in camps in northeast Syria must be urgently moved as a US withdrawal paves the way for a Turkish invasion, a leading charity says.

Save the Children Australia has urged the federal government to help more than 40 children in the camps – most under the age of five – as the region braces for a Turkish assault.

The White House said on Monday US forces would move aside, clearing the way for a long-threatened Turkish military operation across the border targeting the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia.

The charity's chief executive Paul Ronalds said there was always a limited window of opportunity for Australia to accept help from the US to repatriate the women and children.

"With the news that the US will withdraw its forces that window is rapidly closing," he said on Monday.

"We urge the Australian government to urgently move the Australian children and women in the camps to safety, with a view to repatriating them."

He said the children had lived through conflict, bombardment and acute deprivation.

"These children are innocent victims of the conflict and must be treated as such. They, along with the Australian women, must be moved to safety as an immediate priority."

4. US businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri refuses to answer questions about alleged Boris Johnson intimacy.

US businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri has repeatedly refused to answer questions about whether or not she had an intimate relationship with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson when he was mayor of London.

The Sunday Times has reported that when Johnson was mayor he failed to declare close personal links to Arcuri, who received thousands of pounds in public business funding and places on official trade trips.

Speaking to ITV, Arcuri said she had bonded with Johnson when he was mayor of London over classical literature and that they discussed French philosopher Voltaire.

But asked repeatedly about whether she had an affair with Johnson or intimate relations with him, she either sidestepped the question or openly refused to answer.

"I really am not going to answer that question," Arcuri told ITV.

"It's really categorically no one's business what private life we had or didn't have.

"And categorically more important, Boris never ever gave me favouritism, never once did I ask him for a favour, never once did he write a letter of recommendation for me."

Arcuri said that after they first bonded over literature and discussed venture capital for the technology sector, she and Johnson began sending text messages and then he would visit her office at her apartment in London, sometimes on his way home.

"There was plenty of office space for him to come visit," Arcuri said.

He visited around five or perhaps 10 times, she said, and "I didn't think it was awkward at all".

She quipped she once offered Johnson the chance to have a go on her dancing pole but he refused.

"He sat down with his tea and started muttering," she said.

Johnson has denied there was any impropriety in the relationship.

The government of London said in September it had referred Johnson to Britain's police watchdog for potential investigation over allegations of misconduct involving Arcuri.

5. Cricket trailblazers inspire Aussie women.

Rachael Haynes has lauded Belinda Clark's "trailblazers" as her own side attempts to break their world record on Wednesday.

Australia's 110-run defeat of Sri Lanka on Monday in Brisbane was their 17th-straight one-day international victory.

That equalled the run of Clark's side between 1997-1999, which until now has stood as the longest in women's cricket in the 50-over format.

The teams play their third and final game at Allan Border Field on Wednesday, and Haynes, fresh off a maiden international century on Monday, is aware of the significance.

"I'm pretty sure not all of our team was alive back then, but that era and that generation of cricketer were so formidable," she said.

"They really created the standard of what's expected in this team."

Australia have been ruthless since their last ODI loss to England in Coffs Harbour almost exactly two years ago.

The vice-captain said that attitude was borne during Clark's time at the helm more than 20 years ago.

"If we get past that milestone it'll be a pretty wonderful achievement and not lost on us," Haynes said.

"They certainly laid a terrific foundation for us and I think about that all the time.

"They fought extremely hard ... they were certainly trailblazers and laid a fantastic path for us."

Haynes and her teammates will move into WBBL action immediately after the series finishes, with next March's T20 World Cup the ultimate goal.

She said players had taken it on themselves to return to their states and franchises, and find ways to improve.

"We're always pushing what we're capable of," she said.