Good morning!
It's Tuesday, March 8. Let's get stuck into it.
One thing you’ll be hearing about today: Flooding in NSW
- Tens of thousands of residents in some south-western Sydney suburbs were told to evacuate overnight
- That came after the SES ordered residents in parts of Camden to evacuate by midnight
- SES spokesperson Sandie Smythe said the situation developed so rapidly, authorities had no time to issue warnings and moved straight to evacuation orders
- "We've had a mass amount of rain that's fallen in an already saturated and previously flooded catchment so it's been a quick and emerging situation," she said
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The weather bureau warned of more heavy rain, flooding and possible landslides for large parts of coastal NSW and inland as far as the Blue Mountains as a new coastal low bares down on the state
Another thing you need to know: Ukraine and Russia have met for a third round of peace talks
Here's the lowdown:
- After two earlier meetings ended with no agreements, there's been a bit of progress
- "There were some small positive shifts regarding logistics of humanitarian corridors," Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak said
- But there were no agreements about ending the war altogether
- "Our expectations from the talks have failed, but we hope that we would be able to make a more significant step forward next time," Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said
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Russia and Ukraine's foreign ministers will meet at a diplomacy forum in Turkey's coastal province later this week
News while you snoozed
- Police in Thailand have confirmed to the Australian embassy and Shane Warne's family that the cricketer died of natural causes
- Queensland has recorded its 13th flood-related death after a man's body was found in the Condamine River at Warwick
- Queen Elizabeth II has returned to her normal in-person duties after recovering from COVID-19, meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at Windsor Castle. She tested positive for the virus two weeks ago
The news Australia is searching for
- The Queen: British newspaper The Times is reporting that Queen Elizabeth II has decided to make Windsor Castle — where she's been spending a lot of her time over the past two years because of the pandemic — her permanent home, rather than living at Buckingham Palace. But she'll occasionally pop by from time to time for special occasions
- Food waste: Google has cut food waste at one of its cafes by switching to slightly smaller bowls. Emily Ma, head of Google’s Food for Good program, told Fast Company switching to bowls that were shallower by one inch made a big difference. "That unconsciously led to people taking a little less food — 30 to 50 per cent less — and that actually downstream led to 30 to 70 per cent less waste," she said.
- International Women's Day: That's today. The theme is "gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow".
One more thing: Bull sharks are 'on the chomp' at the Gold Coast
Floodwater is flowing from river mouths into popular surfing points and Daryl McPhee, an associate professor of environmental science at Bond University, warns that's creating a prime environment for bull sharks
"Bull sharks are very good at feeding in dirty water — there's a lot of concentration of fish from the river system washed down.
"My suggestion is to put off [getting in the water] until things clear."
Surf reporter Terry "Tappa" Teece has noticed an increase in bull shark activity over the past week, saying "blokes [were] being bumped" off their boards near Snapper Rocks.
"There's been quite a few around … they're on the chomp a bit."
He said bull sharks were "like garbage collectors".
"They bump everything to find out if it's a tasty morsel or not — and you don't want to get bumped."
We're done ... for now
But we'll be back this evening with more!
ABC/wires
