The east coast set to be hit by severe storms. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the federal government is considering a coal request by Ukraine. Spanish international Jenni Hermoso testifies in court against former Federation President Luis Rubiales.
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TRANSCRIPT
- The east coast set to be hit by severe storms
- Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the federal government is considering a coal request by Ukraine ...
- Spanish international Jenni Hermoso testifies in court against former Federation President Luis Rubiales.
Large parts of Australia's east coast continue to be struck by wild weather heading south.
Already dealing with the aftermath of a week-long battering of severe weather, Queensland's southeast faces the prospect of thunderstorms on Wednesday.
Australian Defence Force troops have been deployed across the state to help with recovery efforts while authorities continue work to restore power to about 8000 homes.
Authorities were hoping to get power restored by Friday but Queensland Police Assistant Commissioner Ben Marcus now says the work is more likely to be completed on the weekend.
"The hope was to have all power restored by the fifth, which is this Friday. It may now be Saturday or Sunday. That's effectively because we lost a couple of days due to wet weather. What I will do though, is I'll say when I was up at Tamborine Mountain on New Year's Day when it was really raining hard, there were still 300 Energex workers working on the lines. They weren't in the buckets or up ladders but they were still working towards clearing it. That number's back up to a thousand."
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the federal government is considering a request from Ukraine for more coal to the region to keep its electricity running over winter.
Russia has targeted energy infrastructure in Ukraine, which has requested Australian shipments of coal so citizens don't freeze over colder months.
Mr Albanese says the government was considering the request.
"Look, we'll give consideration, I note the comments of he ambassador from Ukraine, who was talking about next October. Next winter was what he was talking about in today's Australian Financial Review."
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has been in contact with the Ukrainian embassy following the request in December.
The number of casualties from the powerful earthquakes that struck western Japan has risen to 57, with officials warning even more quakes could lie ahead.
Aftershocks continued to shake Ishikawa prefecture and nearby areas a day after a magnitude 7.6 tremor slammed the area on New Year's Day.
The damage was so great that it could not immediately be assessed but Japanese media reports have said tens of thousands of homes have been destroyed.
Water, power and cell phone services were still down in some areas.
Despite the widescale damage, Richard Walker from the department of earth sciences of the University of Oxford, says the aftermath of the shock shows Japan has become more resilient to earthquakes.
"The critical infrastructure is seemingly, it's still early days, but it seems as though there's been quite a lot of resilience to that earthquake shaking in terms of those large infrastructure, critical infrastructure type things."
According to reports from South Korea, the leader of the opposition Lee Jae-myung has regained consciousness after undergoing successful surgery following an assassination attempt made against him.
Surgeons operated on Mr Lee for more than two hours to repair a major blood vessel in his neck that was sliced when an assailant lunged and stabbed him with a knife.
Democratic Party floor leader Hong Ik-pyo has condemned the attack made against the opposition leader, launching an investigation into the attack and tightening up security measures around politicians.
Jin Jeong-hwa, a South Korean YouTuber who was at the scene of a stabbing, recalls the events as they happened.
“Yes, at that moment, he approached asking to take a picture and extended his arm towards Lee. Then suddenly he attacked Lee with the knife. The police noticed him after he stepped back and they took him away and subdued him on the asphalt road. I think about four or five police subdued him.”
Spanish national football women's team member Jenni Hermoso has testified in court that a kiss shared by her and former President of the Spanish Federation Luis Rubiales was not consensual.
The incident took place during the celebrations after the FIFA Women's World Cup final in Sydney, where Spain had beaten England.
Following the outrage caused by the kiss, Mr Rubiales was forced to resign from his post, with FIFA launching an investigation into the incident and imposing a three-year ban from all football-related activities on the disgraced official.
A judge will now decide if there are grounds for Mr Rubiales to be tried for sexual assault.
Leaving a Madrid courthouse, the Spanish national has said that she has received overwhelming support.
"Everything went well. I just wanted to say Happy New Year. The judicial process will continue its course, and thanks for the support that many of you have given to me. I wish things go well."
