What we learned today, Sunday 15 December
We are now wrapping up the live blog for the day. This is what made news today:
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, condemned “disgusting” Islamophobic graffiti spotted in Sydney’s west overnight, with police investigating a potential hate crime in Chester Hill.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has warned the Coalition’s nuclear plan will result in a $4tn hit to Australia’s economy over the next 25 years.
Huge swathes of the country will bake as a severe heatwave is set to continue across much of Australia, with a total fire ban issued for most of Victoria for Monday and “quite horrendous” fire conditions forecast.
Sunday marked the 10th anniversary of the siege at the Lindt cafe in Sydney, where Man Haron Monis took 18 people hostage over 17 hours.
Australian fashion week has been confirmed to go ahead in 2025 after weeks of doubt after its former operator announced it was withdrawing from the event.
The body of a swimmer has been found in waters off Sydney’s Northern Beaches, after a search was conducted this morning. Yet to be formally identified, authorities believe the person was a man in his 50s.
Take care and stay cool in the sweltering heat out there.
Updated
BoM provides update on severe heatwave across Australia
Dean Narramore, senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, has provided an update on the severe heatwave and extreme fire dangers across much of Australia.
The BoM defines as heatwave as three consecutive days in which both the maximum and minimum temperatures are well above average for the time of year, which Narramore said was occurring across large parts of the country:
[There are] severe to extreme heatwaves across much of northern Australia, and then low to severe heatwave conditions through much of south-eastern Australia as well, including some of our more populated capital cities.
While the south-east will get some relief in the coming days, heat will continue for much of this week across northern Australia.
Today we’re expecting, in large parts of central and eastern inland Australia well above 40C, even getting up into the mid 40s in some locations. In Adelaide, looking at temperatures of 40 degrees today …
That’s going to move into another very hot day on Monday, with temperatures in the mid to high 40s through large parts of NT, Queensland, inland NSW, and even getting into northern parts of Victoria as well, with 46C at Mildura, 41C at Melbourne, some of the suburbs could get hotter than that.
Severe Weather Update Sunday 15 Dec 2024: Severe heatwave and extreme fire dangers for much of Aus.
— Bureau of Meteorology, Australia (@BOM_au) December 15, 2024
Video current: 12:00pm AEDT Sunday 15 December 2024.
For the latest forecasts and warnings go to our website https://t.co/4W35o8iFmh or the BOM Weather app. pic.twitter.com/Uz2JuYc2fQ
Updated
Campers told to fully extinguish their fires
Chris Hardman finishes on the total fire bans across the state:
Those total fire bans mean no fires in the open. If anybody is camping on public land – more than 20% of our bushfires are caused by unattended campfires.
Before midnight tonight, put your fires out. Put it out with water. Do not throw earth over it. Put it out so it’s cool to touch. If it’s not cool to touch, it’s definitely not cool to leave …
The best way we can avoid fires is stop them starting in the first place.
Updated
‘Dry woollen blankets can save your life’
Chris Hardman continues with advice for those caught in a fire:
If you’re living in an area and you’re told it’s too late to leave and shelter in place, it’s important to know what to do under those circumstances.
We use language like “shelter in place”. But what does that actually mean? What it means is that you’ve got to be very proactive before the firefront gets there, putting out embers, putting out spot fires, moving around your property
When the fire front gets close, get inside. Radiant heat can kill you … Dry woollen blankets can save your life. Keep moving around the house. Don’t go into the centre of the house where you could get trapped if your house starts burning around. Know what’s going on outside of you, and as soon as that fire front passes, please make sure you get out of the house immediately.
Updated
‘If your plan is to leave, leave early’
Chris Hardman, chief fire office of Forest Fire Management Victoria, said teams were on standby in critical areas across the state, with 54 aircraft contracted for firefighting:
In the west of the state, where there is harvesting activities occurring that generates increased fire risk, we have moved aviation assets aircraft into those areas to mitigate those risks as quickly as possible.
He continues with safety advice for people who those who will be near forested areas including the Grampians, Wombat state forest, the Great Otway national park and Lower Glenelg national park:
These are areas in the highest fire risk part of Victoria tomorrow. We know when there is a forest fire or a bushfire, that it can throw embers ahead of the fire, and quite often houses are not necessarily burning down because of direct flame impacts, but because of embers flying through the air.
It’s really important that you prepare your properties: clean your gutters, clean up around the properties. Is still not too late …
If you’re living in those areas, if your plan is to leave, leave early. It is really important that you’re not leaving during the heat of the day.
Updated
Victorians warned to stay hydrated in extreme heat
On the extreme heat forecast in Victoria tomorrow, Jason Heffernan says:
We need to make sure that people stay hydrated. Tomorrow is a day for looking after your mate, looking after your neighbour, looking after your friend. It will be hot, it will be unpleasant. We need to make sure that we get through, keep hydrated, find a cool place to keep yourself cool, whether that be in a public place or otherwise inside with the air conditioner.
Updated
‘Adhere to the total fire ban’
Jason Heffernan urges the public to be proactive in preparing for the conditions:
Know what you are going to do tomorrow in an extreme fire day – you will need to take action to protect your life and your property, such will be the conditions that we will have.
If fires do start in the landscape, they will be hard to suppress. They will spread very quickly, and fire resources will be focused on fire suppression, and so we’re going to need community to do their bit as well in giving us a hand to making sure that you are ready for tomorrow’s conditions …
We go into the day with no fires in the landscape that any of the major fires that we are looking at. So I would like to keep it that way.
Please, people: adhere to the total fire ban. We want to make sure that we give our firefighters and our communities the best chance on what will be an extremely challenging fire day tomorrow for Victoria.
Updated
‘An extreme fire day across Victoria’
Jason Heffernan, chief officer of the Country Fire Authority, is up next, discussing concerning temperatures and fire conditions:
It will be quite an extreme fire day across Victoria, sufficiently so that the majority of the state tomorrow will find themselves in a total fire ban … the Mallee, the Wimmera, the northern country, north central, south west, central, west and South Gippsland …
Extreme conditions are likely and potentially due to come back into the state on Tuesday, and we will talk more about total five bans on Tuesday, which are likely to be for the more north-western parts of the state.
Heffernan said fire conditions would be “quite horrendous”, particularly across parts of the state’s west and south-west:
We are concerned about all parts of the state, and certainly today … is the day to make sure that you have your bushfire survival plan.
Updated
Cool change expected Monday evening for Melbourne
Efron said a cool change was expected to push into the south-west of Victoria early on Monday afternoon:
[It will] then move east into the evening, so reaching the Melbourne area around 8 to 9pm – looking at quite a dramatic drop in temperature, about 15C in an hour.
That cool change won’t make its way into the east of the state throughout Monday. Residents there will have to wait until early Tuesday for some relief.
Updated
Monday to be ‘classic fire weather day’ in Victoria
Victorian authorities are speaking at a press conference on the extreme heat and elevated fire danger facing parts of the state tomorrow.
Michael Efron, senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, begins with an update on the elevated fire weather conditions and above-average temperatures expected across the state on Monday.
Today we’re seeing a warm to hot day across the state – temperatures in the low to mid 30s across a lot of the state, even pushing into the high 30s and low 40s through the north. But given the relatively light winds today, not a major concern in terms of fire weather.
Efron warned that Monday would be a “classic fire weather day” across Victoria:
We’re going to see northerly winds … especially over western and central districts throughout the morning, and that will lead to extreme fire danger over those western and central parts. We’ll see temperatures pushing into the low 30s quite early in the day, and then as we head into the afternoon, pushing into the low to mid 40s across much of the state, even hitting 46C at Mildura.
Melbourne [is] expecting a top of 41C, our hottest day since February last year, and our first 40 in December for five years.
Updated
Victoria’s Country Fire Authority has declared a total fire ban tomorrow for several Victorian districts, including Melbourne and Geelong:
A Total Fire Ban has been declared for the Mallee, Wimmera, South West, Northern Country, North Central, Central (includes Melbourne and Geelong) and West and South Gippsland fire districts – Monday 16 December 2024. Stay informed: https://t.co/D9u6UDx9VH pic.twitter.com/XXo48Eeeic
— cfa_updates (@CFA_Updates) December 15, 2024
Australian swimmers win bronze at world short course championships
Alex Perkins and Matt Temple nabbed bronze medals on a day dominated by US sensation Gretchen Walsh at the world short course swimming championships in Budapest, AAP reports.
Perkins took bronze in the women’s 100m butterfly final, while Temple also finished third in the equivalent men’s event.
Walsh, a 21-year-old American, has broken eight world individual records over the week, lifting her fifth gold medal of the week in the 100m fly.
While Walsh won in 52.71 seconds, Queenslander Perkins forged on way behind in what felt almost like another race even though her 55.10 was in itself an Oceania record, to finish third behind Dutchwoman Tessa Giele (54.66).
The 24-year-old Perkins said it was a privilege to have been racing against Walsh:
I been really proud of how I have gone about things … and to compete against the likes of Gretchen Walsh …
I don’t think anyone’s going to come close to her for a while to come.
The 25-year-old Victorian Temple also played his part in a record-breaking affair as he came home third in 48.71s behind Frenchman Maxime Grousset (48.57) and Swiss Noe Ponti, who broke Caeleb Dressel’s 100m fly record in 47.71.
Updated
Body of swimmer found in Sydney
NSW police have found the body of a swimmer in waters off Sydney’s Northern Beaches, after a search was conducted this morning.
The body was pulled from the water at about 11.30am this morning, after emergency services were called to Newport Beach after reports of a concern for welfare for a man who was swimming in waters nearby.
The body is yet to be formally identified; however, he is believed to be aged in his 50s.
Officers from Northern Beaches Police Area Command and Marine Area Command conducted the search, with support from Surf Life Saving NSW, PolAir, Marine Rescue and a Westpac Life Saver Rescue Helicopter.
A report will be prepared for the coroner.
Updated
Minns condemns 'disgusting' Islamophobic graffiti
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, has condemned the Islamophobic graffiti seen in Chester Hill this morning.
Police are investigating the incident, after three pieces of Islamophobic graffiti were seen at an underpass in the multicultural western Sydney suburb.
Minns said that such vandalism was “disgusting” and “designed to incite hatred”:
Vandalism like this that is aimed at particular religions is designed to incite hatred and is completely abhorrent.
This racism and Islamophobia is disgusting and corrosive to the very fabric of the successful multicultural state that we have built here in New South Wales.
Division and conflict from around the world cannot be allowed to be imported on to the streets of Sydney.
I would encourage anyone with information related to these incidents to report them to Crime Stoppers and those responsible will face the full force of the law.”
Updated
Olivia Newton-John’s Grease jacket fetches $750,000 at auction
A black leather motorcycle jacket worn by Olivia Newton-John in Grease has sold at auction in Beverly Hills for $476,250 (A$749,646).
Worn in the final scene of the 1978 musical where Newton-John and John Travolta performed You’re the One That I Want and We Go Together as Sandy and Danny, the jacket was expected to sell for between $80,000 and $100,000.
Newton-John had saved the jacket for over 40 years, and had previously sold it at a charity auction in 2019 for $243,200, to raise money for her cancer centre. The buyer intended to give the jacket back and “returned [it] to her in a moving tribute”, according to the listing.
The jacket was among dozens of items from Newton-John’s estate sold by Julien’s Auctions in California. Also auction was a blue Steinway baby grand piano that sold for $158,750 (A$249,882), and a Recording Industry Association of America Platinum Record Award for “Physical” ($16,250, A$25,578).
Newton-John died in 2022 after a recurrence of breast cancer.
Updated
Some tips on keeping cool from the Victorian Department of Health amid the heatwave that will bring sweltering temperatures to much of Australia today and into early next week.
The hot weather is here. Look after yourself and others.
— Victorian Department of Health (@VicGovDH) December 14, 2024
Stay cool in the heat by following these simple steps.
Learn more: https://t.co/ZkzERaJ5SE#ExtremeHeat #HeatHealth pic.twitter.com/XFz06crrlk
Ministers visit UK for annual security talks
The foreign minister, Penny Wong, and defence minister, Richard Marles, are headed to the United Kingdom on Sunday for Aukmin talks with their British counterparts, the first since the Starmer government took office.
It is the second set of Australia-UK ministerial talks on security this year, after Wong and Marles hosted counterparts from the Sunak government in Adelaide in March.
The ministers announced they would also visit Naval Base Devonport, where the UK trains naval personnel and conducts submarine maintenance, before travelling to Strasbourg and Brussels for meetings with the European Union and Nato.
Marles said:
In an increasingly complex strategic environment, it is critical we collaborate with partners as old and close as the United Kingdom …
Together we will continue to advance and strengthen our defence relationship, including through discussions on the updated agreement on defence and security cooperation, signed in Canberra earlier this year.”
Updated
More details on fatal crash in NSW
NSW police have provided more details about a fatal crash in Armidale on Saturday afternoon that left one dead and three injured when a car collided with a group of several cyclists.
One of the cyclists, a man in his 60s, died at the scene and is yet to be formally identified.
Three other cyclists – aged 57, 39 and a teenage boy – were treated at the scene by paramedics before being taken to John Hunter hospital and Armidale hospital in a stable condition.
After crashing into the cyclists, the car continued and hit a tree. The driver of the vehicle, a woman in her 30s, was trapped and released shortly after emergency services arrived on the scene. She was airlifted to John Hunter Hospital in a critical condition.
A crime scene has been established and police are are urging any witnesses or anyone with dashcam footage to contact local police or Crime Stoppers.
Updated
Chalmers: Coalition’s nuclear plan will result in $4tn hit to economy
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has warned the Coalition’s nuclear plan will result in a $4tn hit to Australia’s economy over the next 25 years, based on its assumption that the economy will be smaller with less need for energy.
Chalmers conceded the mid-year budget update, expected to be released on Wednesday, would reveal bigger deficits than the May budget.
Chalmers said the Coalition’s nuclear proposal was a recipe for shrinking the economy to $294bn by 2050. He told Sky News:
What we saw from the opposition was a recipe for lower growth, a smaller economy, less energy and higher prices, and it raised more questions than it answered …
In terms of the lost output between now and then for people who rely on the national energy market, it’s about $4tn.
Read Karen Middleton’s full story here:
Updated
Coalition making ‘nuclear look cheap’ by basing costing on less industry: Bowen
The minister for climate change and energy, Chris Bowen, has said that only way the coalition could “make nuclear look cheap” was to base their costings on less Australian industry.
Bowen posted a graph to social media on Sunday morning showing the coalition’s nuclear plan projected a drastic drop in energy use by heavy industry from 2030 onwards.
Updated
Islamophobic Graffiti spotted in western Sydney
Police have closed off a main street in Chester Hill, in Sydney’s west, after three pieces of Islamophobic graffiti were spotted overnight.
A photo provided to Guardian Australia of the underpass on Hector Street shows two pieces of graffiti reading “Fuck Islam” and one reading “Cancel Islam”.
Police have cordoned off the underpass, established a crime scene and are investigating the incident.
Chester Hill has a high proportion of Muslim residents, with the underpass close to an area with a large number of Halal restaurants and grocers.
Police said they had only just been notified, and that inquiries were ongoing.
Updated
Two men sentenced over 622kg drug haul
Two men have been sentenced over a failed plot to import 622kg of methamphetamine into Australia by hiding them inside a shipment of toilet rolls.
The men were sentenced on Thursday to a combined maximum of 16 years and six months’ imprisonment, police said in a statement on Sunday morning.
For attempting to possess a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drugs, the pair pleaded guilty in July and October 2024, police said.
The county court of Victoria sentenced one of the duo, a 33-year-old Hong Kong national, to 11 years’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of seven years and six months. A 31-year-old Malaysian national was sentenced to five years and six months’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of three years.
They were arrested in October 2023 as part of Operation Improcco, a multi-agency investigation led by the Victorian Joint Organised Crime Taskforce, with members from the Australian Federal Police, Australian Border Force and Victoria police.
The taskforce located and seized 622 green and gold tea packages inside a shipment that arrived in Melbourne via sea cargo on 4 October 2023. The packages, each weighing 1kg and containing a white crystalline substance, were concealed within a pallet of toilet paper.
Two Chinese nationals, who were also arrested in relation to the investigation, remain before the courts and will face trial next year.
Updated
Third Test against India continues
In cricket, the rain has cleared in Brisbane and day two of the third test match against India has begun at the Gabba. You can follow live on our sport blog here:
Australian fashion week to go ahead in 2025 after future secured
Australian fashion week will go ahead in 2025 after weeks of doubt after its former operator announced it was withdrawing from the event.
The fate of the event was thrown into limbo after IMG, the New York firm that had owned and operated the event for almost two decades, announced last month that it was withdrawing.
Australian fashion week will take place from 12 to 16 May next year at Carriageworks, Sydney. Event founder Simon Lock has been confirmed to play a crucial role in delivering the event.
The NSW arts minister, John Graham, said the week was an essential showcase of one of the country’s largest creative industries. He said:
The industry has come together swiftly, pulling together its great expertise, to ensure that fashion week can go ahead in 2025. The NSW government is pleased to confirm its continued support of the event.
Australian fashion week chair, Marianne Perkovic, thanked the NSW government and the “entire fashion industry” for their commitment and collaboration:
Fashion week 2025 will mark a crucial milestone in the journey towards a truly industry-led event for Australian fashion. Our consultation has reinforced that the AFC is best positioned to lead this transformation, much like its successful international counterparts. A further announcement will be made on other appointments soon.
Updated
Extra $1.8bn for veterans in mid-year budget update
An extra $1.8bn in payments to veterans will be included in the mid-year budget update, with the federal government saying the additional funds explain a “slippage” in the budget since May.
It said the need to take “decisive action” to clear a “backlog” of 42,000 veterans’ claims would put more pressure on government coffers, given $6.5bn was already included in the 2024-25 budget to deal with the issue.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said:
We’re doing the right thing by our veterans and that will have an impact on the budget.
Supporting those who served our country is our responsibility. We’re paying veterans what they’re entitled to.
Pressures on the budget are intensifying, estimates variations like payments to veterans are a big part of the story and you’ll see that in the mid-year update.
Updated
Nuclear ‘a distraction from what Australia needs’
Asked whether Labor would consider dropping a moratorium on nuclear power if voters supported it, Anthony Albanese said that would “make no sense” to do so, and reminded reporters that the national ban on nuclear energy had been introduced by John Howard’s government.
John Howard introduced the moratorium on nuclear energy because it doesn’t make any sense here. And last term, Peter Dutton, Barnaby Joyce, Angus Taylor, are all on the record with quotes saying, ‘It’s too costly, it takes too long, and it’s a distraction from what Australia needs.’
They, in their own words, wrote this off. What you have here is a National party tail wagging the Coalition dog, and Peter Dutton being too weak to stand up to the ideologues who dominate the Coalition, too weak to stand up to them and say, “No, this does not make sense for Australia” …
Every energy expert in this country is saying it doesn’t make sense and that’s why Friday’s so-called release of costings didn’t last an hour.
Updated
Nuclear plan ‘doesn’t stack up’, PM says
Anthony Albanese said the Coalition did not consider nuclear energy as an option while previously in government because “it doesn’t stack up”:
There is not a single private investor coming forward saying they want to invest in nuclear because it doesn’t stack up. It does not make sense for Australia …
Peter Dutton has been opposition leader for two and a half years. He hasn’t come up with a single cost-of-living measure and now he’s come up with the most expensive form of new energy that somehow he says will make things cheaper.
Well, I’ll listen to the CSIRO, I’ll listen to the Australian Energy Market Operator, who all say that the most expensive form of new energy will increase people’s power bills by $1,200 – which is why on Friday, there was no mention about the impact on consumers, none whatsoever, because Peter Dutton isn’t concerned with that.
He just wants to stop investment in renewables as part of his ongoing culture war because this is a guy who always seeks to divide, never seeks to bring the country together. That’s been his whole record in public life for two decades.
Updated
‘I want an Australia that seizes the opportunity of clean energy’
Anthony Albanese criticised the Coalition’s nuclear energy plan:
What the opposition has declared on Friday with an energy plan that is based upon 40% less energy being produced – that means 40% less economic activity is what they are planning for. We want to attract industries, like green steel, green aluminium. We want to attract manufacturing here driven by clean energy. Tasmania is in a really strong position to do that along with other parts of the country to take advantage of what we have.
What they are saying is that the Coalition with their nuclear energy plan want a smaller economy, they want less jobs, they want less growth, they want less activity going forward, and it’s there in their own documentation … I want an Australia that seizes the opportunity of clean energy, that seizes the opportunity of growth creating those jobs.
Updated
PM on salmon farming in Tasmania
Anthony Albanese is in Launceston,, Tasmania. Asked whether he viewed it as a mistake to visit Macquarie Harbour on Tasmania’s west coast yesterday while the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, is deciding on the future of the salmon farming industry there, Albanese said:
I don’t make a mistake by complying with the law. I support jobs on the west coast. I support the salmon industry, and I’ll continue to do so, and I was welcomed very strongly.
Environment groups have requested that licences for salmon farming be revoked in Macquarie Harbour after finding that fish farms are the greatest threat to the survival of the endangered Maugean skate.
Albanese:
What I’m doing is supporting industry and also supporting good outcomes for the skate. That’s why we’re funding the oxygenation at Macquarie Harbour. That’s why we’re funding the captive breeding program that’s been very successful. That’s why we’re following the science.
Updated
Pseudolaw ideas causing havoc in custody disputes
Self-declared sovereign citizens, who believe Australia’s laws do not apply to them, are having a serious impact on the family court, experts say.
This year my colleague Ariel Bogle has tracked almost a dozen family court judgments where adherents are using “legal argumentation” that has no legal basis – often predicated on a belief in the illegality of or corruption of government.
Pseudolaw ideas about children and the court are shared openly in groups on the messaging app Telegram, and taught in online Zoom sessions, she reports.
You can read the full story here:
Updated
Severe heatwave bakes eastern Australia
Huge swathes of the country will continue to swelter as a severe heatwave is set to continue across much of Australia until the middle of next week.
The Bureau of Meteorology has heatwave warnings in place for all states and territories on the Australian mainland.
Temperatures between 5C and 12C above average are expected through most of South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and NSW, as well as parts of the southern Northern Territory and southern Queensland.
Senior meteorologist Miriam Bradbury said Monday would be the hottest day for Victoria, NSW and Tasmania, with temperatures up to 16C above average:
Adelaide is forecast to reach 40C on Sunday, and Melbourne is forecast to reach the high 30s or even 40C on Monday. Were this to occur, it will be the warmest day in Melbourne since January 2023 and the warmest December day since 2019.
Other parts of Victoria and NSW could be in the low to mid 40s. Inland NSW could even reach the high 40s on Monday. Along with the heat, windy conditions and a lack of rain are likely to lead to a spike in fire danger during Sunday and Monday for much of the east and south-east.
Updated
‘Tragedy and trauma can visit anybody’
Louisa Hope, one of the Lindt Cafe siege survivors, told the ABC that the fateful day remained vivid in her memory:
It is still amazing to me – miraculous, really – that I didn’t die that day.
Being a survivor of a victim of terrorism is slightly different to being a survivor of other violent crime. Other violent crime is usually personal. But of course, the terrorist is not interested in me personally … They’re really interested in hurting the state or our collective sense of security.
The siege made her “very aware” of “how “tragedy and trauma can visit anybody and can be part of all of our lives”, Hope said, adding:
I think that, certainly for myself, it’s given me hope that we can actually survive the worst. You just don’t know when you’re having a cup of coffee in a cafe … and your life can change.
Updated
Tenth anniversary of Sydney Lindt cafe seige
Today marks the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the siege at the Lindt cafe on Martin Place, where Man Haron Monis took 18 people hostage over 17 hours, AAP reports.
At gunpoint, Monis forced hostages to call police and media organisations, falsely warning that he had placed bombs around the city, including in his backpack, and that it was an attack by Islamic State. Images of the terrified hostages standing at the windows for hours were widely broadcast.
Monis eventually fatally shot cafe manager Tori Johnson, while barrister Katrina Dawson was killed by stray police bullet fragments in the final moments of the siege.
After the tragedy, a sea of flowers washed over Martin Place, as family, friends and onlookers remembered the pair who were killed.
Ten years on, a permanent exhibition is embedded into the concrete in Martin Place, with small flowers set into the pavement behind glass frames. On Monday, the NSW government erected a commemorative exhibition, displaying photos of the sea of flowers behind panels.
Updated
Good morning
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. Donna Lu here, coming to you from a sunny Melbourne to take you through the news today.
It’s 10 years ago today that the Lindt cafe siege began at Martin Place in Sydney, where Man Haron Monis took 18 people hostage. The victims of the tragedy, cafe manager Tori Johnson and barrister Katrina Dawson, have been remembered by a commemorative exhibition erected by the NSW government.
Another heatwave is set to bake swathes of the country’s interior in the coming days, bringing temperatures above 40C and the warmest summer in years for much of south-east Australia.
And the end of Bashar al-Assad’s rule in Syria has led to “pure joy and awful sadness” as Syrians in Australia express cautious optimism for their homeland’s future.
Tips and thoughts are welcome at Donna.Lu@theguardian.com.
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