Four years since deadly bushfires destroyed swathes of southeastern Australia, killing 33, the country is once again on high alert, bracing for what weather experts say will be the hottest, driest period since the so-called Black Summer.

Council of the City of Sydney

Australia prepares for summer bushfire threat

Fighting fire with fire. These proactive burn-offs by the NSW Rural Fire Service are hoping to destroy any fuel that a bushfire could consume. Australia's Bureau of Meteorology declared an El Nino event for the country on Tuesday, a hot, dry summer in the forecast and with it, higher risks of widespread bushfires. Here's firefighter Elizabeth Goss. One of the reasons why we're doing strategic hazard reductions is to reduce the fuel loading and to mitigate the impact and severity of fires if and when they do come into a particular area. Fresh in the minds of the country is the black summer of four years ago. Relentless bushfires ripped through 24 million hectares, destroyed 3,000 homes, killed 33 people and an estimated 3 billion native animals. This year's threat comes after three wet summers since, brought on by La Nina, which has put a stop to preparations to cut back new growth. As RFS Commissioner Rob Rogers told Reuters. We just had rain after rain after rain events, so we're quite behind. So for last year, for example, we only did 24% of the preparation work we wanted to do for hazard reduction, so considerably behind. But experts believe as new vegetation growth spurred by the heavy rain dries out, it could create perfect conditions for bushfires to take hold. A sizzling start to spring this month has already brought heat records to many parts of Sydney. Some regional schools have closed due to the bushfire risk a month out from the official season begins. But authorities believe the chance of a repeat black summer is low. We're not on the back of a four year drought, which is where we were then, but it's a different risk and it's certainly the most significant risks that we face since 1920 and we're taking it very seriously. It's a race against time to train volunteers too. The service relies on over 75,000, but many did not return after the summer of 2019-2020. I don't think anybody came out of that season the same as when they went in and I think that's important to consider is that firefighters, we deal with a lot, but at the same time we need to stand together and look after each other.

Pope Francis has suggested in a letter to five conservative cardinals that there could be ways to bless same-sex unions within Catholicism and suggests that such blessings could be studied if they are not confused with sacramental marriage.

Città del Vaticano

Pope says Catholic Church could bless same-sex marriages

Republican Kevin McCarthy has been ousted as the Speaker of the House of Representatives in an extraordinary showdown. Those who voted him out include Democrats and members of his own party.

Washington

McCarthy ousted as U.S House Speaker

Thai police arrested a teenage gunman suspected of killing two foreigners and wounding five people on Tuesday in a shooting spree at a luxury Bangkok mall, the latest high-profile gun violence to rock the country in recent years.

Bangkok

Tourists killed in Thailand mall shooting, teen arrested

Sam Bankman-Fried's fraud trial got underway with jury selection on Tuesday (October 3), nearly a year after his now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange's collapse shocked markets and tattered his reputation. 

New York

Bankman-Fried Trial

Bankman-Fried's fraud trial begins in New York

The United Nations Security Council has authorized the deployment of a multi-national security force to Haiti. It's designed to help the Haitian police battle heavily armed gangs that have become increasingly powerful there. It's not clear when the force will arrive, or who, other than Kenya, will contribute to it.

UN approves international force to aid Haiti

U.S. House Republican Matt Gaetz has filed a motion to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Gaetz and other hardline Republicans were angered that McCarthy relied on votes from the Democrats to pass a last-minute temporary deal to avert a government shutdown.

Republican files motion to oust U.S House Speaker

At least three people have been killed and several others injured in a shooting attack at a shopping mall in Thailand's capital Bangkok. The Prime Minister said police arrested the suspected gunman. Police said the suspect is 14 years old.

Three killed in Bangkok mall shooting

It's day two of the Conservative Party conference in the United Kingdom and disagreements over the economy have taken centre stage. The government has ruled out pre-election tax cuts despite the urging of some from the party fringes.

Manchester

UK Tories rule out pre-election tax cuts

Thirty-one-year-old Sam Bankman-Fried heads to trial in New York in what prosecutors say is one of the largest fraud cases in U.S history. He is accused of misusing money made from his cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, ultimately leading to its collapse.

Crypto on trial, as Sam Bankman-Fried faces fraud charges

Happening before the cameras, the world saw a combative Trump at a civil fraud trial in New York. The state's attorney general is accusing him of inflating the value of his assets by billions of dollars to secure massive loans.

Trump Arrest

Trump 'combative' during first day of fraud NYC trial

The scientists who provided the foundational research that lead to mRNA vaccines — the first vaccines against COVID-19 — have won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Philadelphia

Nobel prize to scientists who laid groundwork for COVID vaccines

Locals have told of the frantic moments when they rushed to help a woman who'd been attacked by a shark off the jetty at Beachport in the state's south east. The woman is in a stable condition in hospital with wounds to her foot, leg and hand.

Beachport

Woman seriously injured in SA shark attack

The property market is continuing to soar with house prices set to hit a new record high. It's putting home ownership further out of reach for first homebuyers.

Adelaide

House prices continue to rise, hit record highs

EU ministers convened in Kyiv on Monday in their first ever meeting outside the bloc. They marked their support for Ukraine after both a pro-Russian candidate won an election in Slovakia and the U.S. Congress left Ukraine war aid out of its spending bill.

Kyiv

Ukraine Invasion

Kyiv brushes off U.S, Slovakia wobbles in EU visit

Moderate U.S. Republicans and Democrats approved a spending deal just hours before a U.S. government shutdown deadline on Saturday. The bill, presented by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, has further infuriated hardline Republicans already seeking to push him from his post.

Speaker McCarthy risked his job to avoid shutdown

U.S. President Joe Biden is pressing congressional Republicans to back a bill to provide more aid to Ukraine, after the stopgap-funding bill that kept the government open left aid to the country out. 

Biden calls on Republicans to back Ukraine spending bill

Early voting for the Voice to Parliament referendum begins in half of Australia's states and territories today, with the remaining jurisdictions to follow tomorrow. It's less than two weeks before the country's first referendum in almost 25 years. 

Canberra

Voice to Parliament

Voice referendum pre-polling underway

More than a dozen people have been killed in a fire in adjoining nightclubs in Murcia in southeast Spain, emergency services have confirmed, adding that rescuers were still searching for people unaccounted for after the blaze.

Murcia

Nightclub fire in Murcia kills at least 13 people, more missing

In Ukraine, new legislation goes into effect on Sunday mandating women with medical backgrounds to register for military service. The country is preparing for what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is describing as 'a long war'. 

Ukraine mandates military service for female medical personnel

Pakistani security forces have cracked down on Pakistan Taliban armed group, also known by the acronym TTP. The group is blamed for rising violence in the country. It includes remnants of al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS), and has intensified attacks recently.

Islamabad

Pakistan: Taliban crackdown after terror blast

Dianne Feinstein, the longest-serving female member of the United States Senate, has died at the age of 90.

Dianne Feinstein: Longest-serving woman in U.S senate dies

A United Nations spokesperson says the UN is sending a humanitarian team to Nagorno-Karabakh this weekend as more than 100,000 refugees have now arrived in Armenia from neighbouring Nagorno-Karabakh. It comes after Azerbaijan retook control of the enclave in a military offensive.

Baku

More than 100,000 flee Nagorno-Karabakh region

The consumer and competition watchdog is calling for a major overhaul of Australia's childcare system. A draft report by the ACCC has found Australian parents pay almost twice the OECD average for childcare despite large government subsidies for the sector. 

ACCC calls for enforceable caps on childcare fees

The United Nations is sending a mission to the Nagorno-Karabakh region- its first access there in nearly 30 years. The mission is to identify the humanitarian needs of residents there.

Zangilan

Fears 100,000 refugees fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh

Ethnic Armenians fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh — 90,000 of them and counting — just keep coming. They mourn the lives they left behind, traumatized by the conflict they're fleeing in the contested region that is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.

Goris

UN mission to visit Nagorno-Karabakh after military offensive

A Nevada grand jury indicted Duane (Keefe D) Davis in the fatal drive-by shooting of rapper Tupac Shakur in 1996. Davis, who was a witness to the Las Vegas shooting, was arrested 27 years after the hip-hop icon was killed.

Los Angeles

Witness to Tupac Shakur's killing indicted for murder

The New York City area is under a state of emergency after the remnants of tropical storm Ophelia dumped 15 centimetres of rain, flooding roads and subway tunnels.