Hi there. It's Thursday, October 13 and you're reading The Loop, a quick wrap-up of today's news.
Let's start here: The flooding situation in Australia's south-east
Residents across parts of New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania are experiencing wet and windy conditions and, in some towns, evacuations as major floods threaten Australia's south-east.
Here's what you need to know right now:
- In Victoria, Emergency Management commissioner Andrew Crisp said there was essentially a "Watch and Act" warning over the whole state as it soaks under heavy rains. He said all Victorians — and especially those in areas subject to emergency warnings, such as Rochester, Barnadown, Seymour and Euroa — needed to listen to emergency services and evacuate if instructed
- In New South Wales, hundreds of people in Forbes in the state's Central West are being ordered to evacuate ahead of forecast major flooding. The State Emergency Service has issued an evacuation order for the central business district and the town's south, east, west, north east and north-west to leave by 8pm
- In Tasmania, several people have been rescued in the state's north, and residents from Latrobe to Liena and Meander to Hadspen are urged to evacuate as the Mersey and Meander Rivers rise amid increasing rainfall
If you need it, here's where to find emergency assistance and information:
- For emergency assistance, contact the SES on 132 500
- If your life is at risk, call triple-O immediately
- Roads and bridges may be impacted by flash flooding. You can find the latest NSW evacuation orders here, the latest Victorian evacuation orders here, and the latest Tasmanian evacuation orders here
- For the latest weather updates, visit the Bureau of Meteorology.
Today we heard about more 'kamikaze drones' hitting Ukraine
Russia has intensified its attacks on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, with a settlement in the Kyiv region hit by air strikes on Thursday morning.
The governor of the region, Oleksiy Kuleba, said on the Telegram messaging app that, based on preliminary information, the strikes were caused by Iranian-made loitering munitions.
These weapons are often known as "kamikaze drones".
Ukraine's military said its current air defences had shot down dozens of incoming Russian missiles and Shahed-136 drones in the past few weeks.
Iran denies supplying the drones to Russia, while the Kremlin has not commented.
News you might have missed
- Benjamin Hoffmann, the man who killed four people in a "prolonged and vicious" shooting spree through Darwin three years ago, will spend the rest of his life in prison after being sentenced to life without parole. During his hour-long, drug-fuelled rampage in June 2019, Hoffmann killed four people and seriously injured a young woman. Most of his victims were not known to him
- You might have noticed the payment system known as Osko crashed on Wednesday night, and was down for around five hours. Today the Reserve Bank admitted "an internal system engineering issue" had caused the outage, which meant delays in processing some payments. The Osko system allows customers to send money online almost immediately and is used by 85 Australian banks.
Here's what Australia has been searching for online
- Alex Jones. The American conspiracy theorist has been ordered to pay $US965 million ($1.5billion) in damages to numerous families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting for falsely claiming they were actors who faked the tragedy. It's the second, multi-million-dollar verdict against Jones in just over two months, and he says he won't pay up. Here's the emotional moment the families of the victims reacted as the verdict was handed down
- Des Hasler. The NRL coach has been sacked by the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles, with immediate effect. The club lost its last seven NRL matches to fall out of finals contention. In total, Hasler has coached the Sea Eagles in 303 matches, across two stints, just short of Bob Fulton's club record of 307.
One more thing: A robot has 'given evidence' in UK parliament
Here's a headline I didn't expect to read: A humanoid robot has spoken to the UK parliament about its ability to create art, despite reportedly having to be rebooted in the process.
The creators of the android robot, named Ai-Da, say it is the world's first ultra-realistic AI robot artist.
Ai-Da appeared before the communications and digital committee of the upper house of the UK parliament, the House of Lords.
"I am, and depend on, computer programs and algorithms. Although not alive, I can still create art," Ai-Da said when asked how its creations differed from those produced by humans.
Ai-Da has created a series of works, including a painting of the late Queen Elizabeth II, and the works have been shown in exhibitions and galleries.
The robot was created by robotic creators Engineered Arts, with AI algorithms written by experts at the University of Oxford.
You're up to date!
We'll be back tomorrow to round up more news.
ABC/wires
