Flash floods inundated swathes of Indonesia’s capital and nearby towns after torrential rainfall, killing at least nine people and forcing thousands of people to evacuate. “As of 4pm today, there are 19,079 displaced residents who have been evacuated at temporary shelters throughout Jakarta,” said governor Anies Baswedan. “The rain in Jakarta has stopped, now we […]

Thousands of people are fleeing a vast “tourist leave zone” in Australia amid forecasts of ferocious bushfire conditions in coming days. Since September, Australia’s bushfire crisis has killed at least 18 people and destroyed more than 1,200 homes. The crisis escalated again this week, as blazes tore through communities in New South Wales (NSW) and […]

Sydney’s Lord Mayor has defended the decision to press ahead with the city’s New Year’s Eve fireworks display, despite calls it should have been cancelled due to the bushfire crisis. Speaking earlier on Tuesday, Clover Moore said the celebration would “give hope to people”. Parts of Australia have been ravaged by bushfires intensified by high […]

Australian military aircraft and vessels will be deployed to help emergency services in the fire-ravaged states of New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria. Thousands of people fled to beaches in the south-eastern states on Tuesday as emergency-level fires spread. In Mallacoota, Victoria, around 4,000 people sought shelter on the coast. Two more people have been […]

Mallacoota is a tourist town in Victoria, Australia, some 500km (310 miles) east of Melbourne. Around 1,000 people live there, but the population swells at Christmas, as Australians head to the coast to enjoy their holidays, But on Tuesday morning – as bushfires swept the region – thousands of people fled to the beach for […]

A third Australian firefighter has died battling blazes in New South Wales, while in Victoria thousands of visitors who ignored warnings to leave a holiday region are now trapped by bush fires. The fireman died and two others suffered burns when a truck rolled over as they fought a blaze in Green Valley, near the […]

Volunteer firefighters in New South Wales will get compensation for loss of earnings after spending time away from jobs to battle bushfires in the state, Australia’s federal government says. The offer of up to A$6,000 ($4,200; £3,200) for privately-employed volunteers follows weeks of wrangling. PM Scott Morrison – who had previously rejected the idea – […]

Thousands of koalas are feared to have died in a wildfire-ravaged area north of Sydney, further diminishing Australia’s iconic marsupial, while the fire danger accelerated on Saturday in the country’s east as temperatures soared. The mid-north coast of New South Wales was home to up to 28,000 koalas, but wildfires in the area in recent […]

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is refusing to scale down the coal industry amid the debate on climate change, saying such a move would be “reckless” and “job destroying”. It has prompted Kevin Rudd, the former prime minister, to say the current government has “failed miserably”. Australia accounted for a third of the world’s coal […]

“We’re doing it because it’s a passion. It’s a brotherhood,” says Daniel Knox. “When that photo was taken of me, I had done a 15-hour shift out there.” He is one of the thousands of Australians who’ve dropped their ordinary lives to battle the nation’s raging fire crisis. He’s part of the New South Wales […]