TRANSCRIPTS
- Homes destroyed as fires burn across New South Wales...
- Mediators Qatar and Egypt call for next steps in Gaza ceasefire...
- Australia's bowlers dominate on day three of the Ashes.
Australians are being warned to stay alert as a widespread heatwave, powerful winds and lightning create the perfect conditions for dangerous fires.
The New South Wales Hunter and mid-north coast regions are on high alert as strong winds are expected to fan existing fires.
In Sydney and throughout New South Wales, temperatures topped 40 degrees on Saturday, with central and western parts of Queensland and W-A also sweating through balmy conditions.
Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Dean Narramore says Australians in affected areas should remain on alert.
"Also with this hot, dry and windy conditions, dry lightning is also a risk with some of our storms through New South Wales. That could ignite more fires across the state and there's already a number of fires ongoing through the Hunter and the mid-north coast. So make sure we need to watch out for that."
In Tasmania, crew are continuing to battle an out-of-control fire on the state's east, which has already burnt over 700 hectares.
Multiple homes have been destroyed near major urban centres in New South Wales as fires rip through bushland in heatwave-fuelled conditions.
Emergency warnings were issued for residents near fires on the New South Wales Central Coast and in the Hunter region on Saturday as dozens of blazes burned across the state.
At least 12 homes were believed destroyed by a bushfire at Koolewong, not far from built-up areas on the Central Coast.
Several more properties were thought to be affected at Bulahdelah, north of Newcastle, although fire assessors were yet to survey the full extent of the damage.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said there are 300 vehicles, 9 aircraft and over 1100 firefighters deployed by the RSF in an effort to extinguish 75 fires, 19 of which are uncontained.
"Look this is obviously a confronting day, particularly for the Central Coast. This is a warning for everybody to follow the advice from the RFS, from New South Wales police, from fire and rescue. We need to do everything we possibly can to protect lives over the next 12-24 hours as wind directions change, as weather patterns change."
Mediators of the Gaza ceasefire, Qatar and Egypt, have called for the withdrawal of Israeli troops and the deployment of an international stabilisation force to ensure the full implementation of the truce.
The measures were contained in the US and UN-backed peace plan, but there has yet to be agreement on how to move beyond the first phase of the deal.
Israel and Hamas accuse each other of breaching the terms of the truce.
Egypt's Foreign Minister, Badr Abdelatty, says the international stabilisation force should deploy along the yellow line buffer zone in Gaza to verify the ceasefire.
"We need international forces to be deployed alongside the so-called yellow line in order to verify and to monitor the upholding of the ceasefire. The mandate should be, from our point of view, of a peacekeeping rather than peace enforcing. You know, and this is very, very important issue."
A trio of Nobel Prize winners in medicine say they were hopeful their discoveries could lead to new treatments.
The work by Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi uncovered a key pathway the body uses to keep the immune system in check, called peripheral immune tolerance.
Experts called the findings critical to understanding autoimmune diseases such as Type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.
At an awards ceremony in Stockholm, Fred Ramsdell says he hopes the 2025 Nobel Laureate in Medicine prize leads to more support for medical research.
"I certainly hope the actual prize discovery leads to therapies for people, and we’re clearly working on that. And I feel optimistic about that. But I think the bigger issue and the bigger legacy aspect for me is that people recognise the value of basic research and supporting things that may take many years and a lot of time to come to fruition, and continuing to support that."
In separate projects over several years, the three scientists — two in the U-S and one in Japan — identified the importance of what are now called regulatory T cells.
Scientists are currently using those findings in a variety of ways: to discover better treatments for autoimmune diseases, to improve organ transplant success, and to enhance the body’s own fight against cancer, among others.
In cricket, Mitchell Starc has made a late-career bid for all-rounder status on day three of the second Ashes test.
Tailender Starc scored a half-century and grabbed two wickets at the Gabba to push Australia to the brink of victory.
Teammate Michael Neser says although Starc might not admit it, "he is the greatest lefty of all time".
"He's a special player. He doesn't like to admit it, but he is the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time), the greatest lefty of all time. He does it with the ball, the bat, and to be next to him witnessing what he does is just amazing."
Australia enter day four with a 43-run lead.
