Welcome, readers, to Afternoon Update.
Queenslanders living in the menacing path of Tropical Cyclone Alfred have been urged to evacuate now, with officials warning it will be too late by Thursday evening. The category 2 storm is expected make landfall early on Friday between the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast.
“By that stage we need people to bunker down and ride out the significant wind as the cyclone crosses, and then we will deal with what comes on Friday,” Mike Wassing, the NSW SES commissioner, said. The storm is also set to unload heavy rain on the Northern Rivers region in New South Wales.
On Wednesday, 10-metre waves hit the Tweed coastline and gale force winds over 100km/h battered Byron Bay, where thousands are already without power.
Flights have been cancelled to and from Ballina, and hundreds of schools closed in threatened areas (122 in NSW and more than 600 in Queensland as of Wednesday afternoon). Emergency centres have been set up and Anthony Albanese confirmed the ADF had been engaged to help.
Follow Guardian Australia’s Tropical Cyclone Alfred coverage here, including a guide on how to prepare and what to do if it’s too late to leave.
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In pictures
Photographer Juno Gemes has spent the past 50 years documenting Aboriginal Australian culture and the fight for justice. Gemes’ images have been compiled into the book Until Justice Comes: Fifty Years of The Movement for Indigenous Rights – Photographs 1970-2024. Warning: this gallery has images of people now deceased.
What they said …
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“We had to push the boundaries while we could”
In the 1970s the Australian government recruited a team to make short films that would advertise the nation overseas – but then they began capturing reality. In a new documentary, Australia: An Unofficial History, director Phillip Noyce recalls the heyday of Australian cinema.
In numbers
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams – retired navy captains and repeat space flyers – have insisted over the months that they are healthy and committed to the mission as long as it takes.
Before bed read
The emerging evidence of how our gut microbiomes influence our overall health has seen a surge in interest in how to achieve a healthy gut. But, as Natasha May points out, social media’s gut feeling is all wrong.
Daily word game
Today’s starter word is: RASE. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.
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