A daily 5 minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability.
Welcome to SBS News in Easy English. I'm Greg Dyett.
The New South Wales government has made disaster declarations for 17 council areas across the state as it battles continuing floods.
Premier Dominic Perrottet says there have been 1000 flood rescues so far and over 6000 telephone calls for assistance.
"There are 26 evacuation orders in place. 26 evacuation orders affecting 40,000 people. If there is an evacuation order in place, please follow the instructions and leave, unless it is not safe to do so."
A severe weather warning is in place for heavy rain and high winds along the New South Wales coast from Newcastle to Bega, which could cause widespread damage and flooding.
The Bureau of Meteorology said the severe weather is likely to begin this evening, and some areas could record up to 200 millimetres of rain in a six-hour period.
In Queensland, eight people have been confirmed dead, with two others still missing, as hundreds are rescued from floodwaters that are unlikely to fall for days.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says in the past two to three days, Brisbane has received 80 per cent of its annual rainfall.
The United Nations top humanitarian official says at least one hundred and sixty thousand people have been internally displaced across Ukraine, fleeing for safety.
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths says aerial attacks and fighting in urban areas are damaging critical civilian facilities and disrupting essential services such as health, electricity, water and sanitation.
Mr Griffiths says the rate of civilian casualities in these early days of fighting is alarming.
"Already, the upheavals in recent days are deepening a preexisting humanitarian crisis. Eight gruelling years, the conflict in eastern Ukraine had already left three million people in need of humanitarian assistance.
The United Nations' Refugee Agency says at least half a million people have left Ukraine and crossed into neighbouring Poland, Moldova, Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia.
Russia has more than doubled its interest rate to 20 per cent in a bid to halt a slump in the value of its currency, as Moscow's stock market remains closed for a second day.
The Bank of Russia raised the rate from 9.5 per cent after its currency, the rouble, fell due to sanctions from the United States and its European allies.
Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to the sanctions with an order preventing citizens from transferring money outside of Russia, including to pay debts.
The latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change not only highlights the dangerous disruption of global warming, but also the inequality that comes with it.
In the last 100 days, since the United Nations Climate Conference, the richest one per cent of the world's population had emitted the same amount of carbon that the population of the continent of Africa does in one year.
Oxfam Australia's Acting Chief Executive Andrea Spinks says the issue of inequality is at the heart of the climate crisis.
"Showing us over and over again that it is the world's most vulnerable population, it is those that are least contributing to the climate crises that are bearing the brunt of it."
Another 18 people in Victoria have died with COVID-19 as the state records 6,879 cases.
There are 255 people in hospital, 41 are in intensive care with five requiring ventilation.
The governing bodies for world and European football have suspended Russian football clubs and national teams from all competitions.
It means the Russian men's team will not play their World Cup play-off matches next month and the women's team have been banned from the Euro 2022 competition.
I'm Greg Dyett and this is SBS News in Easy English.
