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TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to SBS News In Easy English. I'm Catriona Stirrat.
Evacuation centres have been established on the Gold Coast, in anticipation of Cyclone Alfred that is expected to make landfall in the next day or so.
The region - along with Brisbane and Queensland hinterland - is expected to face the worst of the strong winds, with Brisbane Mayor Adrian Schrinner predicting at least 20,000 properties could be impacted by the category two storm.
But the danger stretches far further afield, from Double Island Point in Queensland to Yamba in northern New South Wales, south of Byron Bay.
Qantas, Virgin and Jetstar have cancelled all flights to and from Ballina airport.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns says they will be ready when the cyclone crosses the coast.
"The SES, the Bureau of Meteorology, emergency services in New South Wales have been working hard to pre-position, and ensure we're in a position where we can get emergency service workers on the ground ready to go. But it's still a huge ask for the New South Wales community, particularly those that live on the Northern Rivers, to prepare for the worst. We hope for the best, but we have to prepare for the worst."
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Western Australia Police have charged a 16-year-old boy over an alleged online threat to a mosque in south-west Sydney.
The teen allegedly threatened to "Christchurch 2.0 this join[t]" in an apparent reference to the 2019 terror attack in which an Australian man killed 51 people in New Zealand.
In a statement, police said the teenager had been charged with creating false apprehension to the existence of threats of danger.
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Hamas has welcomed an alternative proposal for the reconstruction of Gaza by a group of Arab leaders at an emergency summit in Egypt.
Egypt’s plan foresees rebuilding Gaza by 2030, with the first phase involving the removal of unexploded ordnances and clearing more than 50 million tons of rubble.
The proposal also involves Hamas ceding power to an interim administration of political independents until a reformed Palestinian Authority can assume control.
The draft plan has been given a lukewarm reception by Israel and the White House - but UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres says there is no sustainable future for Gaza that is not part of a viable Palestinian state.
"Any transitional arrangements must be designed to achieve unified Palestinian governance, within an agreed and limited time frame... There can be no recovery without an end to the occupation, no justice without accountability for violations of international law and no sustainable reconstruction without a clear and principled political horizon."
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NASA says two astronauts stranded in space are now just a few weeks away from finally returning to Earth.
The space agency says replacements are on the way to the International Space Station so that Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams can come home later in March.
Wilmore and Williams have now spent nine months in space.
They had originally expected to be gone just a week or so when they launched last June aboard Boeing’s new Starliner capsule, making its crew debut after years of delay.
That was SBS News in Easy English. I'm Catriona Stirrat.
