Good afternoon. Australia has recorded the driest September on record and October is off to a scorching start with fire bans in four states and the Northern Territory.
A property has been lost to a bushfire in Victoria’s Gippsland, while evacuation warnings have been issued for Tasmania’s Mount Tanner and Leeka. Authorities are also warning high winds could worsen fire conditions in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales.
The national average rainfall in September was just 4.83mm, while the mean temperature was 2.43C above average.
Top news
Victorian cabinet reshuffle | Jacinta Allan was sworn in as the state’s new premier today and she revealed a total cabinet overhaul. Read who moved to which portfolios.
Tasmanian government in crisis | Australia’s only Liberal administration is on the brink of collapse after the attorney general, Elise Archer, resigned last Friday. What’s going on? Read this explainer.
AFL pips NRL in grand final ratings | An average of close to 3.4 million viewers on Channel Seven, as well as 441,000 on 7Plus, watched Collingwood’s tense victory over Brisbane, while 2.9 million viewers tuned in to watch Penrith down the Broncos on television and 605,000 on streaming.
Four children dead in NT crash | A four-wheel drive collided with a road train near a small town in the Katherine region on Friday afternoon, in what was the deadliest road crash in the Northern Territory in 15 years. And in Western Australia, at least one teenager has died after a car rolled on a dirt track north-west of Kalgoorlie yesterday afternoon.
Brisbane man charged with murder | Police allege a 49-year-old man picked up and threw a 74-year-old man off his balcony head-first on Sunday. The 74-year-old was rushed to hospital but died. The accused man was allegedly “aggressively seeking items” from units before knocking on the door of the alleged victim and his partner.
Republicans feud over US shutdown deal | Simmering hostility between Republicans over the bipartisan deal that averted a government shutdown descended into open political warfare, with a rightwing congressman saying he would move to oust the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy.
Deadly nightclub fire in Spain | At least 13 people have been killed in a fire in adjoining Spanish nightclubs, amid fears the death toll could rise further as rescue workers continued to search for those still unaccounted for. The fire broke out in the early hours in the two-storey Teatre nightclub, also called Fonda Milagros, on the outskirts of the southern city of Murcia.
Tom Hanks says AI used without consent | The actor has warned fans that an ad for a dental plan that appears to use his image is in fact fake and was created using artificial intelligence.
Sapling planted at Sycamore Gap removed by UK National Trust | Kieran Chapman, 27, planted the sapling metres from where the Sycamore Gap tree previously stood at Hadrian’s Wall in an effort to “restore people’s faith in humanity”. But the National Trust thought otherwise, digging up the sapling.
In pictures
It was tough weekend for football fans from Brisbane, but it made for some great pictures. Here’s a photo gallery of what some pundits are calling the greatest AFL grand final of the century so far, and a separate gallery of the NRL thriller.
What they said …
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“A no vote will be a blow to our relationship, especially perceptions of Aust[ralia] in our general public.” – Ralph Regenvanu, a Vanuatuan MP
Australia’s Pacific neighbours are paying close attention to the upcoming Indigenous voice referendum. And Peter Garrett writes on how recognising Indigenous Australians in the constitution and listening to them will make a positive difference.
In numbers
CoreLogic’s national home value index recorded a 0.8% rise in September.
Before bed read
A common migrant experience to Australia is anglicising names to fit in. Minoli Wijetunga writes that her full name – which is 40 letters long – is her identity, and immigrants shouldn’t have to change theirs to fit into Australia’s systems.
Daily word game
Today’s starter word is: DENI. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.
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