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At least 13 ferocious bushfires are burning at emergency level across the eastern Australian state of New South Wales (NSW), with one blaze just 20 kilometres outside Sydney. NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) had issued an emergency warning for a bushfire burning at South Turramurra on Sydney's upper north shore. After a massive aircraft dropped phosphate-based red and pink fire retardant on homes being threatened by the raging flames near the bushland, it was later downgraded to advice level. Police declared the area a crime scene as they investigate how the fire started. According to RFS, there are more than seven dozen fires burning across the state, with 46 still out of control, on Tuesday evening. Sydney and nearby regions continue to brace for what officials are calling ‘catastrophic fire danger,’ with hot and dry weather, temperatures in the high 30s Celsius and strong winds of up to 80 kilometres per hour. More than 600 primary to high schools are closed across NSW, the most populous state in Australia. The state has seen dozens of devastating bushfires since last week, forcing the authorities to declare a state of emergency for a week. Another ‘very large bushfire’ near Sydney at an emergency level was at Gosper Mountains, some 120 kilometres from city, which is ‘burning through forested country,’ and is being helped by hot, dry and strong winds, according to fire authorities. Blazes categorized as ‘emergency,’ the highest in the alert level, mean the fire is spreading quickly and it is too late to leave. More than 3,000 firefighters, hundreds of fire trucks and 80 aircraft have been deployed or are on standby, according to RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons. ‘We still have many hours yet of these strong dry winds to dominate and influence weather and fire behaviour,’ Fitzsimmons said in a press conference on Tuesday evening. ‘We've still got the southerly change expected to move through later tonight, across the fire grounds still burning up in northern NSW.’    He also said several properties have been destroyed and the number was expected to increase and that several people were injured, including a firefighter who had a case of severe smoke inhalation. Sydney and much of NSW has been choked by dust and smoke, with very little visibility in many areas and no sign of rain relief, which has hampered efforts by the firefighters. Some of the fire danger region includes national parks, threatening local wildlife. According to Koala Conservation Australia, fires in the past weeks have already killed 350 koalas and destroyed a few major koala habitats, especially in the state's north-east. Since last week, when the latest round of bushfires started, at least three people have died and some 100 people including 20 firefighters have been injured. More than 150 homes have been damaged and almost 1 million hectares of land have burnt already, close to combined total for the last three fire seasons. In catastrophic fire conditions, ‘fires start and take hold, will grow and develop extremely quickly and will burn very aggressively,’ Fitzsimmons said on Tuesday. A state of emergency gives the Rural Fire Service and its commander extensive power to mobilize all state resources, manage evacuations, shut down gas, electricity, oil and water services, as well as stop, start, or make use of any businesses, facilities, or premises. Meanwhile, in Queensland, 57 bushfires are burning but none are at emergency level, with more than 1,500 firefighters on the ground and 40 aircraft on stand by. The state has also announced a state of emergency in large parts of Queensland, but the situation is not considered catastrophic. Also, Rally Australia, the final round of the World Rally Championship this year, due to take place this weekend, has been cancelled due to the threat of bushfire near the venue in northern NSW.

Sydney residents were warned of “catastrophic” danger and a state of emergency was declared yesterday as Australia girded for a fresh wave of devastating bushfires.  For the first time, Australia’s largest city and the surrounding area faced the top level of fire warning — with authorities warning “lives and homes will be at risk”.  “There is nothing built or designed to withstand ... catastrophic” conditions, said Shane Fitzsimmons, commissioner of the rural fire service for New South Wales state, which encompasses Sydney.   High temperatures and strong winds were expected to create tinderbox conditions today, prompting state premier Gladys Berejiklian to declare the seven-day state of emergency.  More than 350 schools will be closed, a broad fire ban has been put in place and the military is providing logistic support for firefighters. Three people have died, thousands have been displaced and more than 150 homes destroyed by dozens of out-of-control blazes in the state’s north.  In the last few months, roughly 11,000sq km — an area larger than Jamaica or Kosovo — has been scorched, according to the New South Wales fire service.  Conditions eased yesterday and some residents were able to return home, although a heavy haze lingered over many fire-hit regions.  The Blue Mountains to Sydney’s west, the wine-producing Hunter Valley to the north as well as the Illawarra region to the city’s south are expected to be the hardest hit.  In the town of Rainbow Flat, emergency services were cutting down trees and trying to open roads to get livestock away from the potential path of the fires.   “Tomorrow is about protecting life, protecting property and ensuring everybody is safe as possible,” said Berejiklian. Some communities faced the threat of fresh blazes even as they picked up the pieces from the last one.  In Old Bar, firefighters were back-burning to starve the fire of fuel, while helicopters dropped water from overhead. “There (are) unburned pockets of land, so we have actually... burnt it out so it doesn’t pose a threat in the next couple of days,” said firefighter Brett Slavin.  Shirley Murphy, 82, returned from evacuation and said she was “very lucky” to have her home still standing.  “You can rebuild a home but you can’t rebuild lives.” Months of drought have sapped moisture from the earth and vegetation across much of eastern Australia, creating dangerous conditions for the outbreak and spread of wildfires.  Many fires have been burning since October, which according to Paul Read, an expert at Monash University, was “much earlier than usual and will get worse as summer gets closer”.  As well as the direct risk from fire, Read said there will be a broader risk associated with smoke haze. “An air quality index (AQI) above 300 is considered hazardous to everybody, not just the vulnerable,” he said, adding that level had already been breached in multiple locations, including Sydney. Haze was reported as far away as New Caledonia, almost 1,500km across the Coral Sea.  The severity of the fires so early in the season has sparked arguments about the threat from climate change and fresh criticism of the conservative government’s refusal to curb the use of fossil fuels.  Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack, leader of the rural National Party in the governing coalition, drew ire for suggesting now was not the time to talk about the climate. “We don’t need the ravings of some pure, enlightened and woke capital-cities greenies at this time, when (people) are trying to save their homes,” he said.

* Two Australian states declare a state of emergency * Temperatures to soar across Australia's east coast * Authorities warn people to evacuate * Threat comes after three people died in weekend fires Authorities declared a state of emergency across a broad swath of Australia's east coast on Monday, urging residents in high risk areas to evacuate ahead of looming ‘catastrophic’ fire conditions. Bushfires burning across New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland states have already killed three people and destroyed more than 150 homes. Officials expect adverse heat and wind conditions to peak at unprecedented levels on Tuesday. Bushfires are a common and deadly threat in Australia’s hot, dry summers but the current severe outbreak, well before the summer peak, has caught many by surprise. ‘Everybody has to be on alert no matter where you are and everybody has to be assume the worst and we cannot allow complacency to creep in,’ NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney. The country's most populous city has been designated at ‘catastrophic fire danger’ for Tuesday, when temperatures as high as 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit) are forecast to combine with powerful winds for potentially deadly conditions. It is the first time Sydney has been rated at that level since new fire danger ratings were introduced in 2009. Home to more than 5 million people, Sydney is ringed by large areas of bushland, much of which remains tinder dry following little rain across the country's east coast in recent months. ‘Tomorrow is about protecting life, protecting property and ensuring everybody is safe as possible,’ Berejiklian said. Lawmakers said the statewide state of emergency - giving firefighters broad powers to control government resources, force evacuations, close roads and shut down utilities - would remain in place for seven days. On Monday afternoon, the fire service authorised use of the Standard Emergency Warning Signal, an alarm and verbal warning that will be played on radio and television stations every hour. NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons urged people to evacuate before conditions worsened, warning that new fires can begin up to 20km (12 miles) ahead of established fires. ‘Relocate while things are calm without the pressure or anxiety of fires bearing down the back door,’ he said. Authorities stressed that even fireproofed homes will not be able to withstand catastrophic conditions, which Fitzsimmons described as ‘when lives are lost, it's where people die’. More than 100 schools will be closed on Tuesday. On Monday afternoon, rescue services were moving large animals from high risk areas, while health officials warned that air quality across NSW will worsen as winds blow smoke from the current mid-north coast bushfires south. The fires have already had a devastating impact on Australia's wildlife, with about 350 koalas feared dead in a major habitat. CLIMATE CHANGE DEBATE Australia's worst bushfires on record destroyed thousands of homes in Victoria in February 2009, killing 173 people and injuring 414 on a day the media dubbed ‘Black Saturday’. The current fires, however, come weeks ahead of the southern hemisphere summer, sharpening attention on the policies of Australia's conservative government to address climate change. Environmental activists and opposition lawmakers have used the fires to call on Prime Minister Scott Morrison, a supporter of the coal industry, to strengthen the country's emissions targets. Morrison declined to answer questions about whether the fires were linked to climate change when he visited fire-hit areas in the north of NSW over the weekend. Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack on Monday accused climate activists of politicising a tragedy at the expense of people in the danger zones. ‘What we are doing is taking real and meaningful action to reduce global emissions without shutting down all our industries,’ McCormack told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio. ‘They don't need the ravings of some pure, enlightened and woke capital city greenies at this time, when they're trying to save their homes.’

Sydney is facing a ‘catastrophic’ fire threat, authorities said on Sunday, as firefighters in eastern Australia raced to prepare for worsening conditions after ferocious bushfires devastated communities. Fires have killed three people and razed more than 150 homes since Friday, but cooler weather overnight provided a welcome reprieve for firefighters and residents. Authorities were assessing the damage on Sunday, with more than 100 fires still burning across New South Wales and Queensland, including several blazes that remained out of control. Wider swathes of the states -- including greater Sydney -- are now bracing for perilous fire conditions predicted for the coming days, as is Western Australia state. It is the first time Sydney has been warned of a ‘catastrophic’ fire danger, the highest possible level, since the grading system was introduced in 2009. Massive fires tore through several towns on Friday and Saturday. The mayor of Glen Innes, where two people died, said residents were traumatised and still coming to terms with their losses. ‘The fire was as high as 20 foot (six metres) and raging with 80 kilometres-an-hour (50 miles-an-hour) winds,’ Carol Sparks told national broadcaster ABC. Five people reported missing have been found, but the unpredictable nature of the disaster means officials have not ruled out the possibility that others could still be missing, NSW Rural Fire Service spokesman Greg Allan told AFP. In Old Bar, which was spared the worst when the wind changed direction, hectares of bushland had turned charcoal and small pockets of flames continued to smoulder. Peter McKellar, 75, was clearing debris from his property as his neighbour's home sat in ruins. ‘The firies (firefighters) saved ours,’ he told AFP. ‘They are doing a wonderful job. They're angels.’ High temperatures, low humidity and strong winds forecast from the middle of the week are predicted to fuel blazes that authorities have warned they will be unable to contain ahead of time. ‘We are ramping up for probably another 50 trucks full of crews to be deployed into New South Wales on Monday night ahead of conditions on Tuesday,’ NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shan Fitzsimmons told reporters in Taree, one of the worst-hit areas. ‘We have seen the gravity of the situation unfold... What we can expect is those sorts of conditions to prevail across a much broader geographic area as we head into Tuesday.’ - 'Primed to burn' - In Queensland, where a state of emergency has been declared, more than 1,200 firefighters were battling over 50 active fires on Sunday. ‘Queensland does not usually have a fire season like we've experienced this year and last year,’ Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told reporters. With thousands of people forced to flee from their homes, Australia's government was offering immediate emergency assistance payments of up to Aus$1,000 (US$685) to those affected and extended financial support for anyone unable to work as a result. Many residents are now returning to their scorched communities to assess the extent of the fire-inflicted damage, amid warnings it could take months for them to rebuild their lives. Emotions were running high at an evacuation centre in Taree, with one man breaking down in tears as he was embraced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison. ‘People are under a lot of pressure,’ Morrison told reporters. ‘The level of optimism, despite the circumstances, is quite inspiring.’ Morrison, whose government has downplayed the threat of climate change, was also heckled about the issue at a fire command centre in nearby Wauchope. ‘Climate change is real, can't you see,’ the Australian newspaper reported a man as yelling before he was escorted out of the building. Bushfires are common in Australia but the country has experienced a dramatic start to what scientists predict will be a tough fire season -- with climate change and weather cycles contributing to the dangerous combination of strong winds, high temperatures and dry conditions. The current disaster has not wreaked the human devastation of Australia's worst recent bushfires, the Black Saturday fires that killed 173 people in Victoria state in 2009, with some experts attributing that to better early warning systems. But Ross Bradstock, from the Centre for Environmental Management of Bushfires at the University of Wollongong, described the situation as ‘unprecedented’ for the affected regions, which have rarely -- if ever -- experienced such severe fires. ‘Sadly, given the weather forecast for the coming week, the crisis may worsen and extend southward into landscapes primed to burn via extreme dryness,’ he said.

Catastrophic bushfires in eastern Australia have killed at least three people and forced thousands from their homes, with the death toll expected to rise as firefighters struggle towards hard-to-reach communities. In the normally picturesque coastal town of Forster – one among dozens hit along the eastern seaboard – vast plumes of smoke shot out from multiple blazes as water bombers swooped in overhead. And in Bobin, around 60km (35 miles) north of Forster, the whole town was scorched with some fires soaring 10m (30ft) along the tree canopy. Some homes were completely burned to the ground in the small rural town, and in one just a fireplace could be seen among the smouldering rubble. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that, if needed, the military could be called on to help some 1,300 firefighters who are tackling around 100 separate blazes. Several people are still unaccounted for and 30 more have been injured – mostly firefighters working for hours on end in smoky, smouldering scrubland and blazing forests of towering eucalyptus. “My only thoughts today are with those who have lost their lives and their families,” Morrison said, as hundreds of civilians also volunteered to help their hard-hit neighbours. A body was found in a burnt-out building near the east-coast town of Taree, police said, while another victim was found in a car and a woman died despite medics trying for several hours to save her. As hot and windy weather eased slightly on Saturday, the number of most serious fires fell to just a handful from an unprecedented 17 on Friday. But within an area spanning almost 1,000km (600 miles), schools were burned and at least 150 homes were destroyed, while authorities were forced to evacuate detention centres and old people’s homes. It was a narrow escape for Don Russell, with the fire coming within meters of his home in Taree. “They’ve done a top job, them fellas,” Russell said after a crew of six firefighters brought the blaze under control. His next-door neighbours were not so lucky, however – their home went up in flames yesterday afternoon. No one was home. “It used to be God’s country, but it ain’t any more,” said another neighbour, 72-year-old Dave Scott. New South Wales’s rural fire service said an emergency warning was in place for four fires among the dozens raging across the state. Bushfires are common in Australia and a vast corps of firefighters had already been tackling sporadic blazes for months in the lead-up to the southern hemisphere summer. But this was a dramatic start to what scientists predict will be a tough fire season – with climate change and weather cycles contributing to the dangerous combination of strong winds, high temperatures and dry  conditions. “We’re experiencing tinderbox-like conditions across much of the state and all it takes is one spark to start a fire that may burn for days,” said Queensland’s acting fire commissioner Mike Wassing. Meanwhile, New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian warned that next week’s weather forecast “could mean we’re not through the worst of it”. Morrison, whose government has played down the threat of climate change, sought to deflect questions about what impact it may have had. “Australia has been battling ferocious fires for as long as Australia has been a nation, and well before. And we will continue to do so,” he said.

* Two people dead in fires * Authorities warn of continued high fire danger * Thousands evacuated from Sunshine Coast tourist destination Two people have died, five are missing and at least 150 homes have been destroyed as bushfires rage across eastern Australia, authorities said on Saturday. The New South Wales Rural Fire Service (NSW RFS) confirmed two people had been killed by a fire near Glen Innes, more than 550 km (340 miles) north of Sydney. One body was discovered in a vehicle and a woman died after being found suffering from burns on Friday. Five other people remain unaccounted for on Saturday afternoon, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison saying he feared the number of deaths could rise. ‘These fires have already claimed two lives ... and as we get access to further areas that have been cut off we are expecting worse news again,’ Morrison said during a televised news conference in Sydney on Saturday. Morrison said reserve members of Australia's armed forces may be used to assist emergency services and that support payments were being made available for those directly affected by fires. This is one of Australia's worst bushfire seasons and it is occurring even before the start of the Southern Hemisphere summer, with parts of the country already crippled by severe drought. NSW RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said little reprieve in fire conditions could be expected over the next week or throughout the summer months of December, January and February. ‘The forecast for the balance of the season continues to be driven by above-normal temperatures (and) below-average rainfall to dominate over the coming months,’ Fitzsimmons said. On Friday, state fire authorities issued a record number of emergency warnings, with 17 fires declared to be at an emergency level with high winds and dry-conditions fanning the flames. There were 81 fires burning across the state on Saturday afternoon, 36 of them uncontained, with an emergency warning on four of them. Further north, in Queensland, thousands of residents near the resort town of Noosa, on the Sunshine Coast, spent the night in evacuation centres. Queensland Premier Anastasia Paluszek said authorities were still accessing if it was safe for nearly 2,000 people to return home. ‘These fires can change very quickly, it is very dry at the moment and the winds will pick up this afternoon,’ Paluszek told reporters. Meanwhile in Western Australia, one fire was declared at an emergency level on Saturday afternoon and authorities warned of high fire risk throughout the state, the Department of Fire and Emergency Services said.

Australian firefighters warned they were in “uncharted territory” as they struggled to contain dozens of out-of-control bushfires across the east of the country yesterday.   Around a hundred blazes pockmarked the New South Wales and Queensland countryside, around 19 of them dangerous and uncontained.  “We have never seen this many fires concurrently at emergency warning level,” New South Wales Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told public broadcaster ABC. “We are in uncharted territory.”   Bushfires are common in Australia and firefighters have already been tackling sporadic blazes for months in the lead up to the southern hemisphere summer.  But this is a dramatic start to what scientists predict will be a tough fire season ahead — with climate change and unfavourable weather cycles helping created a tinderbox of strong winds, low humidity and high temperatures. So far there have been no reports of fatalities, although there was one unconfirmed report of a building being set alight. The fact the blazes were spread along a roughly 1,000-km (620-mile) stretch of the seaboard left emergency services struggling to cope, even with the help of around 70 aircraft.  In New South Wales, authorities said fires had breached containment lines and forced the closure of the Pacific Highway linking Sydney and Brisbane in two places, although one area has since reopened.  On Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, police ordered the total evacuation of Tewantin, a suburb of 4,565 people.  “Please LEAVE immediately, there is imminent threat to homes,” they warned. In some areas, residents were stuck and told to simply “seek shelter as it is too late to leave”.  Local radio stopped normal programming and provided instructions about how to try to survive fires if trapped at home or in a vehicle.  Across the central coast, residents took to social media to post photos and videos of smoke-laden tangerine skies and flames engulfing storeys-tall eucalypts within sight of their homes.   Authorities said some of the fires were creating their own weather conditions — pyrocumulus clouds that enveloped entire towns. Meanwhile, high winds flung embers and burnt debris far ahead of the fires’ front lines, depositing the dangerous detritus on the balconies and front yards of unsuspecting residents.  Firefighters moved from spot to spot trying to put out small fires caused by the falling debris. Strong winds and high temperatures are expected to ease into weekend offering the chance of some respite.  But a prolonged drought and low humidity levels will continue to make circumstances combustible. “It’s a very dynamic, volatile and dangerous set of circumstances,” said Fitzsimmons.  Earlier this month some of the same fires cloaked Sydney in hazardous smoke for days, giving the city a higher concentration of particles per million than cities like Bangkok, Jakarta or Hong Kong.  That prompted health authorities to warn Sydneysiders with respiratory problems to avoid outdoor physical activity. Swathes of Australia have gone months without adequate rainfall, forcing farmers to truck in water at exorbitant cost, sell off livestock or leave their land to lay fallow.  On Wednesday, Australia’s government announced a package of low-cost loans worth around A$1bn (US$690mn), designed to help drought-stricken farmers struggling with the latest “big dry”.

Australia's ‘backpacker tax’ illegally targeted some foreign workers, a court ruled Wednesday, leaving people who spent time in the country on holiday working visas in line for tax rebates. From 2017, Canberra applied a 15 percent levy for every dollar earned for two categories of working holiday visas linked to seasonal labour. In a landmark decision Wednesday, a Brisbane court ruled the levy -- dubbed the ‘backpacker tax’ -- cannot be applied to a British woman due to a double taxation treaty between Australia and the UK. Similar agreements are also in place with the United States, Germany, Finland, Chile, Japan, Norway and Turkey according to international accounting firm Taxback.com. ‘That is a disguised form of discrimination based on nationality,’ judge John Logan said. Australians begin paying tax once their annual income exceeds Aus$18,200. That was also the previous threshold for the working holiday visas. The Australian Tax Office said it was considering whether to appeal the decision. It added the ruling only affects a minority of working holiday makers ‘who are also residents, and only those from countries affected by a similar clause in the double tax agreement with their home country’. In the case decided Wednesday, the British woman lived mainly in a Sydney sharehouse and stayed for the most part in the state of New South Wales -- meaning she was considered a ‘resident’ for tax purposes in Australia. According to the ATO website, others -- who travel from place to place -- can be classed as ‘foreign residents’ for taxation. ‘In our view it was very clear, when the tax was introduced in 2016, that it discriminated against foreign workers and breached several international tax agreements,’ Taxback.com CEO Joanna Murphy told the ABC. The public broadcaster estimates up to 75,000 backpackers could be in line for a refund worth hundreds of millions of dollars following Wednesday's decision. The government had originally sought to implement a levy of up to 32.5 percent, but this was met with outcry by farmers who rely on working-holiday makers for seasonal labour.

An artist who goes by the pseudonym ‘what’ has won the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize, one of Australia's most coveted honours, claiming 150,000 dollars (102,000 US dollars) in prize money. The artist won for his life-size, technicolour oil painting of The Go-Betweens guitarist Robert Forster, the Moran Arts Foundation said in a statement on Wednesday. The artist beat close to 1,000 entries this year to claim the prize, which was established in 1988 and is considered Australia's richest art prize. The thirty finalists will each receive 1,000 dollars. The artwork ‘is intriguing for its lack of solid form... like a technicolour apparition; neither concrete shape nor exact likeness,’ judges Kelly Gellatly and Nigel Milsom said. ‘The artist has used an array of coloured broken brushstrokes as both decoration and form, while skilfully rendering three-dimensional space. For the judges, this work embodies the endless possibilities of contemporary portraiture and painting.’  The artist was born in Queensland in 1972. His practice covers painting, performance, sculpture and installation. This is his first major art prize. ‘That's highly unexpected... That is a life-changing sum,’ the artist said after he was announced the winner. He said it was the third time he had painted the musician. ‘Robert was so important to me as a baby artist in Australia. Great music. Wearing lipstick, wearing dresses,’ what said. The Doug Moran prize is awarded to original work by an Australian artist of an Australian subject, painted at least partly from life. Organisers say the award is also the richest prize in portraiture in the world.

* Google misled Android users about location data, regulator says * Regulator seeks unspecified damages, public declarations * Regulator has called for sweeping law reform for big tech An Australian regulator has filed a lawsuit against Alphabet Inc's Google, accusing it of misleading smartphone users about how it collected and used personal location data, advancing a global crackdown on the world's biggest tech firms. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said the local Google unit did not tell users of its Android operating system for almost two years that they needed to switch off two settings - not one - if they did not want the company to keep their information. ‘Google's conduct caused users to understand that personal data about their location was not being obtained ... by Google when in fact personal data was being obtained,’ the ACCC wrote in a Federal Court filing on Tuesday, which it published on its website. ‘The misleading information provided by Google meant that users were not able to make an informed choice.’ A Google spokeswoman said the company would defend the matter, that the company was reviewing the ACCC's allegations and that it would continue to engage with the regulator. The lawsuit is the first of several the ACCC said it would pursue against the local arms of global technology companies like Google and social media firm Facebook Inc when it called for tougher laws concerning privacy and content-sharing. Already European Union countries have seized on the bloc's new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules to rein in big technology companies. In January, a French regulator fined Google 50 million euros ($55.5 million) for breaches of privacy laws. Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner is also investigating Google over a complaint alleging breach of privacy laws, while Facebook agreed in July to a record-breaking $5 billion fine in the United States to resolve privacy concerns dating back to its use of people's data in the 2016 presidential election. The Australian lawsuit against Google is seeking unspecified penalties and orders requiring the publication of corrective notices by Google, the ACCC said. The Australian regulator said in its lawsuit that Google failed to make clear that people should turn off two location-based settings, ‘Location History’ and ‘Web & App Activity’, to stop the company collecting and using data from either. Google further misled consumers - and breached Australian consumer law - by telling them the only way to prevent the company from collecting their location data was to stop using its main services like Google Search and Google Maps, the regulator said. ‘We want declarations that the current behaviour should not continue,’ ACCC Chair Rod Sims told reporters in Sydney. ‘We want significant penalties and ... we want Google to have to let people know what has gone on, so that people have a greater awareness of what data is actually being collected here and what it is being used for.’ The matter is scheduled for a case management hearing on Nov. 14, according to the Federal Court website.

The Australian government said on Saturday it is increasing the number of visas for skilled workers willing to migrate to the country's regions in a bid to ease pressure on major cities, where populations are growing twice as fast as elsewhere. The government will increase the intake under its regional migration programme to 25,000 from 23,000, according to a statement issued by the Prime Minister Scott Morrison's office. That does not mean, however, that Australia will be taking more immigrants. Morrison's conservative government cut the annual immigration intake to 160,000 people as of July 1, versus 190,000 before. The 25,000 visas for those willing to live in smaller cities and regions are part of the annual migration cap. Nearly a third of Australia's resident population were born overseas, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD. Australia, a highly urbanised country with one of the highest population growth rates in the OECD, has about two-thirds of its population living in the capitals of states and territories, according to the 2016 government census data. Between 2017 and 2018 the number of people living in those cities increased at twice the rate the number of people living outside them, recent government data show. Capital city growth accounted for 79% of Australia's total population growth. ‘We're using our migration programme to back our regions to grow to take the population pressure off our major capital cities and by supporting strong regions we're creating an even stronger economy for Australia,’ Morrison said. Migrants willing to live in locations outside of Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane will have access to priority processing and international university graduates who live in these locations will be eligible to apply for more time in Australia on a post-study work visa.

* Australia faces growing drought risk * Environmental group criticises govt plan Australia will invest A$1 billion ($678.70 million) to revamp water infrastructure in rural and regional communities in the drought-stricken New South Wales. The federal and the New South Wales governments will spend A$650 million to upgrade the Wyangala Dam in the state's central west and A$480 million to build new Dungowan Dam near Tamworth, the government said in a statement on Sunday. ‘Our response to the ongoing drought impacting rural and regional communities is comprehensive and committed,’ Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in the statement. ‘It deals with immediate needs for financial assistance in and longer-term investments to build drought resilience for the future.’ Australia, which has enjoyed economic growth for a generation, has its livelihoods now at a growing risk from drought, worsened by climate change, a predicament more familiar to developing countries. New South Wales, a southeastern state with Sydney as its capital, has grappled with drought since mid-2017, according to the government estimates. Nearly the whole state, which has an area more than three times the size of the United Kingdom, remains in some drought category. The state also has been hit by spring fires, further straining the communities in the region. Two people were killed and more than 50 homes were destroyed in the latest bushfires, which are yet to be contained. Australia's conservative government has been slow in addressing the country's increasing climate challenges, arguing often that stronger environmental action would cripple the economy. The Nature Conservation Council, an environmental advocacy group in New South Wales, criticized the government's slow actions and the dam plans, saying they don't provide water security as they deprive people downstream of water. ‘Building new dams is like paying off your house loan with a credit card, we're just getting deeper and deeper into water debt,’ Nature Conservation Council spokesman James Tremain told Reuters. ‘It's not addressing the fundamental issue and that is that we extract too much water from our rivers and we have done nothing to acknowledge or address climate change, which is exacerbating the problem.’

More than 20 homes have been destroyed by spring fires in Australia, officials said on Wednesday, straining communities already suffering under the region's worst drought conditions in living memory. Blazes in New South Wales (NSW) state have ravaged more than 80,000 hectares (198,000 acres) of land this week alone, and state fire service officials said they were monitoring about 25 fires ahead of what's shaping up to be a long bushfire season. ‘I'm extremely concerned ... this is going to be a horrible bushfire season,’ state premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney. Most of the homes were lost in the northern towns of Busbys Flat, Rappville and Casino, part of a major agricultural area. Large areas of eastern Australia are experiencing severe drought. Several rural centres could run out of drinking water next year unless rains come. Australia's air temperature has warmed over the past century, according to a state of the climate report in January, increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme events like drought and fires. Rob Rogers, NSW Rural Fire Service deputy commissioner, said fire crews from other states were coming to help so firefighters did not get worn out so early in the season. ‘In light of how long some of those crews have been going, we've called for interstate support,’ he said. Fire services are also monitoring blazes in the state of Queensland, while high-risk fire alerts have been issued in the Northern Territory and Western Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said. ‘Our thoughts are with those who have lost a great deal, fortunately there's been no loss of life,’ Morrison said. Fires have been raging in Australia for several weeks, despite it only being mid-spring. Usually, fires are more severe in summer. Queensland vineyard owner Robert Davidson was at home in early September when a damaged powerline set his plum orchard ablaze before flames tore through four blocks of vineyards reserved for a fledgling wine brand. ‘It's bone dry. It's like a ticking time-bomb out there. Normally we'd be doing controlled burns and now we're burning for all the wrong reasons,’ he told Reuters.

President Donald Trump treated Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison to a lavish White House visit yesterday celebrating their countries’ “unbreakable bond.” Meeting on the South Lawn under clear blue skies, Trump promised Morrison a state dinner later that will “be quite something.”  An honour guard, military band and 19 gun salute kicked off the visit, with the two leaders and their wives watching from a podium, before walking up to the White House’s South Portico balcony.   “Australians and Americans understand each other like few other peoples,” Morrison replied to Trump, adding that he and the Republican had also “established a very early understanding.”  The rare event — only the second state-level visit under Trump and the first for an Australian premier here since John Howard in 2006 — will feature similar mutual appreciation throughout the day. Trump and Morrison agree on curbing asylum seekers, playing down climate change fears, pushing back against Iran, and excluding China’s Huawei from their 5G phone markets.  This is “one of our strongest and most enduring relationships anywhere in the world,” a senior Trump administration official said Thursday, asking not to be identified.  A more complicated issue is the growing challenge to both countries from China and the shocks from Trump’s trade war with the US economic superpower rival.  In June, Morrison warned of smaller economies suffering collateral damage and of the global system coming “under real pressure.”   However, at the White House he indicated broad agreement with the US push against China, saying “we need to make sure that we all compete on the same playing field.”  China can’t have “special rules,” he said.  Trump’s relations with the previous Australian premier, Malcolm Turnbull, got off to a bad start.   But Morrison will cement his place in a growing conservative club — also including the likes of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson—  drawn into Trump’s orbit.   In addition to yesterday’s festivities, Morrison and Trump are due to reunite tomorrow for a visit at a new Australian-owned factory in Wapakoneta, Ohio, that the White House says will “demonstrate the strong trade and investment relationship.” Trump has defied controversy over his push to prevent illegal immigrants and asylum seekers from crossing the Mexican border. Similarly, Morrison, a former immigration minister, has worked to make Australia less attractive to would-be asylum seekers.   His Liberal-National coalition also has much in common with Trump’s climate change skepticism, rejecting overwhelming scientific warnings to encourage lucrative fossil fuel industries. Australia is the world’s largest coal exporter.  Australia has joined Trump’s coalition to patrol the Strait of Hormuz. One area that Trump especially appreciates is trade where the United States enjoys a surplus. The trade conflicts proliferating under Trump have bypassed Australia.   The administration official said that co-operation between Australia’s space agency and Nasa on a return to the Moon and joint efforts to ensure “stable and secure” access to rare earth metals will be on the agenda.  But the relationship gets more complicated over how to deal with China.  Under Trump, the United States has embarked on what some are comparing to a new Cold War with its rival economic superpower.  Huge trade tariffs and growing competition in the military-strategic sphere are sending ripples through the entire Pacific region.  As China rises, there are even worries in some quarters that Australia may not always be able to rely on its US security umbrella.   A hard-hitting report from the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney in August said the US military is an “atrophying force” that is “dangerously overstretched” and “ill-prepared” for a confrontation with China.

One of three Australians recently revealed to be detained in Iran was identified by her family yesterday as a Melbourne University (MU) lecturer. Academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who specialises in Middle Eastern politics with a focus on Gulf states, has been held for a “number of months” in Iran on charges that remain unclear. “Our family thanks the government and the University of Melbourne for their ongoing support at this distressing and sensitive time,” a statement released by Australia’s foreign affairs department on behalf of the family said. “We believe that the best chance of securing Kylie’s safe return is through diplomatic channels.” Canberra first confirmed last week that three of its citizens had been seized by authorities in Tehran. Perth-based travel-blogging couple Jolie King and Mark Firkin, who has been documenting their journey from home to Britain on social media, were revealed as two of those arrested. Moore-Gilbert is the last of the three to be named. Her arrest is unrelated to that of the couple, whose charges also remain unclear. Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne last week said Moore-Gilbert has been held for “a number of months”, while King and Firkin for “a number of weeks”. “The government has been making efforts to ensure they are being treated fairly, humanely and in custom to international norms,” she told parliament last week. Payne said diplomacy presented the “best chance” for their release, with the foreign affairs department in talks with Iranian counterparts about  both cases. News of the arrests came after Canberra announced it would contribute a frigate and surveillance aircraft to a US-led mission to protect shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, with tensions high in the Gulf region. Payne said the cases of those detained were not related to  diplomatic tensions. The Australian government last week updated its travel advice for Iran to “reconsider your need to travel” and “do not travel” to areas near the border with Iraq and Afghanistan. Britain’s the Times newspaper has reported all three are being held in the same prison in Tehran where a British-Iranian aid worker, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, has been jailed since 2016 on spying charges. The detentions have come amid a growing standoff between Western powers and Iran after the United States withdrew from a deal that imposed curbs on Iran’s nuclear programme and then imposed sanctions on it, aiming to halt its oil exports.

Police launched an investigation on Tuesday into whether the bushfires that have destroyed dozens of properties and forced hundreds of people to flee their homes on Australia's Queensland coast overnight were deliberately lit. Queensland police announced a special task force to investigate the origins of 80 bushfires that have ravaged south-east Queensland for the past five days with no respite in sight. Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll said in a statement Tuesday that some of the fires were ‘deliberately or recklessly lit with the intention of causing damage or worse.’  ‘Arson is a very serious offence that can lead to life imprisonment and police will be relentless in investigating any suspicious fires,’ Carroll said. ‘Some of them have been purposeful and malicious. Some fires have clearly just gotten away from kids thinking they're having fun,’ she later told reporters. Police said they were questioning two 14-year-old girls and a 12-year-old boy over separate fires. Another three teenagers are being questioned over a fire that's threatening beachside properties in the popular tourist town of Noosa. Noosa was on high alert as fires whipped up by high winds hit the nearby Peregian Beach settlement destroying at least two homes overnight, Queensland Fire Emergency Services said. More than 100 fire crews fought the blaze which broke out near Peregian late Monday. Sunshine Coast acting mayor Tim Dwyer said the situation was ‘very very tricky’ but residents were heeding warnings and moving to safe places. A dozen schools were closed in south-eastern Queensland and a thousand properties were without electricity as authorities cut power for safety reasons. Hundreds of firefighters were also battling 58 bushfires in northern New South Wales for the fifth day, with fresh outbreaks overnight near the resort town of Yamba, near the border with Queensland. The fires began Thursday whipped by strong winds, embers leaping large distances spreading flames beyond control of the firefighters. Even coastal rainforests are tinder dry after a warmer than usual winter and three years of intense drought. So far 26 homes have been destroyed on Australia's east coast in the earliest start to the bushfire season on record. Firefighters say it could take several weeks to bring the fires under control as no rain is predicted for weeks.

Australian firefighters battled more than 100 bushfires across two eastern states on Sunday as authorities warned that parts of the country could expected a severe bushfire season this summer. ‘We've never seen this before in recorded history, fire weather has never been as severe this early in spring,’ said Andrew Sturgess, an inspector with the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES). The fires in the states of Queensland and New South Wales, many out of control, have destroyed at least 20 properties, with authorities saying that number is likely to increase once damaged areas can be inspected. No deaths have been reported, but a 66-year-old volunteer firefighter remains in a critical condition in hospital after sustaining serious burns on Friday. In Queensland 71 fires were burning on Sunday, although none posed an immediate threat to major population centres. In New South Wales, parts of which are facing the worst drought in living memory, 57 fires were burning, with the largest having burnt through more than 56,000 hectares(138,000 acres)of land. Weather officials said they did not expect a reprieve from the hot and windy conditions fanning the fires until Wednesday and there is little chance of rain. Sturgess said the dangerous spring fire conditions should be considered an ‘omen’ or ‘warning’ as to the damage bushfires may cause in the north eastern state over the summer months of December, January and February. Australia's east coast has endured two years of below average rainfall, creating drought conditions in wide parts of the country.

Australian firefighters battled strong winds and fast-moving blazes yesterday as they worked to contain out-of-control bushfires that have destroyed at least 21 homes across two states on the country’s east coast. More than 100 fires were burning in the states of Queensland and New South Wales yesterday, with the nation’s weather bureau forecasting little reprieve for firefighters due to dry conditions caused by drought and little rainfall over winter. In the northeastern state of Queensland, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said 51 fires were active on yesterday and 17 homes had been destroyed, with the risk posed by fires remaining high for several days despite temperatures cooling. “We are not out of this yet, the conditions are incredibly dry,” Palaszczuk told  journalists. In New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, more than 65 bush and grass fires were burning yesterday, with the state’s Rural Fire Service (RFS) placing an emergency warning on three fires. “More than 500 firefighters continue to protect homes work to control fires in difficult conditions,” the RFS said in a  statement. The first week of the Australian spring hasn’t historically been a period of high fire danger but the country’s east coast has suffered through two years of below average rainfall, creating drought conditions in wide parts of the country. Hot temperatures, low humidity, dry conditions and strong winds stoked blazes on Friday, with Shane Fitzsimmons, the RFS commissioner, describing it as one of the worst fire days on record. “Working with the Bureau of Meteorology, looking through our data records, we can’t find records where fire danger ratings have been this high this early in the year in the history of data available,” the Australian Broadcasting Corporation quoted  Fitzsimmons as saying.

An Australian man venturing into the skies for a first flying lesson has been forced to make an "amazing" solo landing after his instructor blacked out mid-flight. Max Sylvester's wife and three kids watched from the ground as air traffic control talked him through safely landing the Cessna two-seater at Perth's Jandakot airport on Saturday. The 30-something had issued a panicked mayday call from an altitude of 1,900 metres, after his instructor slumped onto his shoulder and could not be woken. "Do you know how to operate the aeroplane," the air traffic controller in Perth asked urgently, according to a recording of their exchange. "This is my first lesson," Sylvester responded, adding that he had never landed an aircraft before. Realising the enormity of the task at hand, the tower responded: "The first thing that we are going to do is make sure that the wings stay level." He was instructed to maintain altitude and to make a pass above the runway to get a sense of the terrain and become more at ease. "You're doing a really great job," the operator reassures the trainee as someone more familiar with the aircraft was rushed to the tower. "I know this is really stressful. But you're going to do an amazing job and we're going to help you get down to the ground, OK?" Some twenty minutes later, the plane made a heart-stoppingly bumpy landing. "You did it mate!" exclaimed the air traffic controller. "Well done. That's amazing!" The instructor was taken to hospital in a stable condition and Sylvester received his first solo flight certificate from the instructor's employer, Air Australia International. "This could have gone way, way bad," Air Australia International owner Chuck McElwee said, according to public broadcaster ABC. "But everything worked out right, and it worked right, mostly because of the cooperation of the tower."

Thousands of people protested in cities and towns across Australia Sunday against the government's efforts to deport a Tamil family back to Sri Lanka. The asylum seeker family of four, including two children aged 4 and 2 born in Australia, are being held in a detention centre on remote Christmas Island while a last-minute appeal against their deportation is heard this week in a Melbourne court. The parents say their family will face persecution as Tamils if they return to Sri Lanka. Greens leader Richard Di Natale accused the government of cruelty in deporting the family, who are supported by the community in the remote Queensland village of Biloela where they had lived for the past four years. "This is senseless cruelty, this is cruelty for the sake of being cruel," Di Natale told a rally in Melbourne, the Australian Associated Press reported. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has refused to budge despite mounting pressure from the community and opposition politicians to let the family stay.  Dutton said Friday that the parents arrived illegally by boat and successive courts had ruled the family did not qualify as refugees so they were "not owed protection" by Australia. Priya, Nadesalingam and their Australian born children Kopika, 4, and Tharunicaa, 2, were at the centre of dramatic scenes on Friday when migration officials bundled them onto a midnight government flight from Melbourne to Sri Lanka. They were offloaded in the far-northern city of Darwin after a court granted an injunction against the deportation, but Saturday they were then flown to Christmas Island. Speaking by phone to the national broadcaster ABC by phone from Christmas Island Sunday, Priya said they were all alone in the centre and the children were constantly crying. The family's lawyer, Carina Ford, said she understood they were the only inmates of the Christmas Island detention centre. She said keeping them behind bars so far away made it more difficult to present their case in a Melbourne court before the injunction ends on Wednesday. The case centres on 2-year-old Tharunicaa, who has not been assessed for a protection visa.