Key events21m agoHeavy rain falls over NSW fireground29m agoGood morning37m agoAustralia not among nations in Red Sea task force1h agoWelcomeFilters BETAKey events (4)US (3)23s ago15.39 EST
Assistant Commissioner of Queensland Fire and Emergency Services, Kevin Walsh is speaking about the floods situation on ABC TV.
He says the services will be rotating crew to relieve the local emergency services. Walsh continues:
We are sending in almost 60 SES volunteers and also some additional fire and rescue swift-water technicians and they’ll be on the ground today and they’ll be assisting with our continuing operations.
The evacuation of the community of Wujal Wujal is still under way:
You would have seen the ADF assist being the Queensland Police Service in that evacuation. So that will continue today. And there are still other pockets apart from Wujal Wujal that we will be assisting with relocating them to safety. So there’s a lot of isolated communities up in the Cape but we will continue to assist police and Australian Defence Force.
8m ago15.32 ESTChristopher Knaus
American officials monitored pro-Assange protests in Australia for “anti-US sentiment”, warned of “increasing sympathy, particularly on the left” for the WikiLeaks founder in his home country and derided local media’s “sensationalist” reporting of the explosive 2010 cable leaks, previously classified records show.
Documents released by the US state department via freedom of information laws give new insight into how the US embassy in Canberra and its security team reacted to WikiLeaks’ release of 250,000 embassy cables in late 2010.
They show the embassy’s regional security office (RSO) monitoring and reporting on pro-WikiLeaks rallies held across Australian capital cities, feeding information to Washington via the embassy.
Read the full story here:
US officials monitored pro-Assange protests in Australia for ‘anti-US sentiment’, documents revealRead more21m ago15.19 ESTHeavy rain falls over NSW fireground
Thunderstorms that have doused a major bushfire in north-west NSW have been a mixed blessing, bringing much-needed rain but also making for erratic fire behaviour, Australian Associated Press reports.
While some residents welcomed the change, others faced a renewed emergency warning and were told to shelter as the oncoming fire approached.
The emergency warning was issued about 6.30pm yesterday, at which point the out-of-control Duck Creek Pilliga forest blaze was burning about 17km south of Narrabri and 21km west of Boggabri.
The warning was downgraded soon after to a watch and act as heavy rain fell across the region.
The Rural Fire Service said:
Thunderstorms have moved across the fireground, initially causing some erratic fire behaviour and lightning strikes. Rain is now falling across parts of the fireground.
Shane Allan, whose parents own Bohena pet motel on the Newell Highway south of Narrabri, said the family had evacuated the animals and was preparing…
2023-12-19 15:32:06
Original from www.theguardian.com
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