4.49pm EST
16:49
Just in case you were wondering how the beaches on the NSW south coast were faring after all this wild weather:
Updated
at 5.10pm EST
4.39pm EST
16:39
The last thing Krystle Henry and Matt Bridges thought they would be dealing with in the hours before the birth of their son was a complex logistical problem caused by catastrophic flooding across the state of Queensland.
Roughly 24 hours before a scheduled caesarean at Brisbane’s Mater Mothers’ hospital, the family woke up on Monday to find themselves cut off by flood waters.
Though their two-year-old daughter had been thrilled at the unfolding crisis, Bridges said the water came as a shock:
The floods really snuck up on us. There was heavy rain on Saturday night, then we went to get coffee – our last as a family of three – on Sunday morning. We went to the bottom of the road and it was cut off. On both ends.
You can read the full report below:
Updated
at 4.52pm EST
4.22pm EST
16:22
Mehdi is free.
After nearly nine years in Australia’s immigration detention system, Mehdi Ali has flown out of the country to be resettled in the US.
Mehdi – who this year became the public face of, and a powerful advocate for, the refugees and asylum seekers detained in Melbourne’s Park Hotel – arrived in Australia as a 15-year-old seeking sanctuary.
A member of Iran’s routinely persecuted Ahwazi Arab minority, he was sent to Australia by his family, arriving by boat with his cousin, then 16-year-old Adnan Choopani, in 2013.
Mehdi was sent to Australia’s detention centre on Nauru, an experience that was, in his words, “a complete trauma”. He watched, helpless to intercede, as a fellow refugee burnt himself to death, he was beaten by guards employed to protect him; and jailed without charge. The school he went to, the one light in a dark existence, was suddenly shuttered.
You can read the full story below:
Updated
at 4.33pm EST
