WA firefighters battle an out-of-control blaze south of Perth; more than 200 kidnapped students and staff released in Nigeria, and in sport, Ferrari's Carlos Sainz wins a dramatic Australian Grand Prix.
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TRANSCRIPT
- WA firefighters battle an out-of-control blaze south of Perth
- More than 200 kidnapped students and staff released in Nigeria
- Ferrari's Carlos Sainz wins a dramatic Australian Grand Prix.
WA firefighters are battling an out-of-control blaze after residents were urged to leave immediately, with a bushfire emergency warning issued for the state's south-west region.
The Department of Fire and Emergency Services have issued an alert as bushfires ravage the area after a fire started in an area of state forest west of Nanga Townsite.
Affected areas include Pinjarra Williams Road to the north, Scarp Road and Farley Road to the east, Tallathalla Road to the south and South Western Highway to the west.
This resident said he had made preparations for when the fire nears his home.
"I've got a thousand litre water tank with pump and also got another pump, which is in the swimming pool, pump into the house and also got a tractor with a front end loader on it. But yeah, I would think it's probably still five kilometres or something like that, six kilometres maybe. It's a bit hard to tell when it smokes. See it better at night when it's the red hotspots and glow. Yeah, there's quite a chance, a possibility that if the wind changes or something, we could get embers and we could get fires into this area."
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More than 200 students and staff abducted from a school in northern Nigeria have been released.
The kidnapping was the first mass kidnapping in the country since 2021 when more than 150 students were taken from a high school in Kaduna.
Kaduna governor Uba Sani says the country's National Security Adviser coordinated the release of the children.
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Russia has lowered flags to half-mast as the country begins to process a mass shooting near Moscow that has left at least 137 people dead, among them children.
President Vladimir Putin declared a national day of mourning after pledging to track down and punish all those behind the attack.
In a national address he said the entire Russian people are grieving with those who lost their loved ones.
This woman escaped the Crocus City Concert Hall, where the attack took place.
"It is very hard. Because we came home yesterday and ambulance came, and they gave a sedative drug. And you close your eyes and you see it, when you are left alone, you hear it. And today I express my condolences to everyone. It's a misfortune, it's a grief."
Russian authorities say eleven suspects have been arrested, including four gunmen.
The so-called Islamic State group's Afghanistan affiliate ISIS-K has claimed responsibility, but Mr Putin has said the four gunmen were arrested while fleeing to Ukraine.
Ukraine has strongly denied any involvement in the attack, accusing Mr Putin of using it to increase support for his war effort.
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Former MP Tim Wilson will contest the Victorian electorate of Goldstein at the next federal election, after being pre-selected in the seat he lost to teal Independent Zoe Daniel.
A former minister in Scott Morrison's coalition government, Mr Wilson suffered a 13.1 per cent swing against him in the former safe seat in 2022.
The Victorian Liberal Party has confirmed 300 party members chose him out of three potential candidates.
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The construction industry's top representative body says Australia needs to consider migrant workers to address chronic tradie shortages.
Research by BuildSkills Australia says 90,000 extra construction workers need to be found in the next three months in order for the government to meet its target of 1.2 million new homes by 2029.
The head of Master Builders Australia, Denita Wawn, more needs to be done to attract people to the industry over the long-term, especially women.
She says Australia should look overseas in the short-term.
"We need to be looking at migration solutions and particularly quick migration solutions around how are we using effectively our free trade agreements. And also recognising this is not an Australian-specific problem, this is a worldwide problem, and we're seeing poaching occurring at a rapid rate, particularly between English-speaking Western democracies. So the issue then is, how do we attract people from a wider base, including non-English-speaking countries, and assisting them with their English-language skills."
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And in sport,Ferrari's Carlos Sainz has made a remarkable comeback from surgery to win a dramatic Australian Grand Prix.
It comes after Red Bull superstar Max Verstappen's bid to equal his own Formula One record went up in smoke.
Two weeks after he was sidelined from the Saudi Arabian race due to appendicitis, Sainz claimed the third win of his F1 career, and the first at Albert Park.
The Spanish star took the chequered flag ahead of Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, with McLaren's Lando Norris finishing third.
