Australian officials yesterday announced a new warning for “catastrophic” bushfires, under which residents would be urged to abandon their homes rather than stay and fight the flames.
The scrapping of the controversial “stay or go” policy, which left homeowners to make their own decision on whether to flee an approaching blaze, follows February’s so-called “Black Saturday” fires in which 173 people died.
CODE RED
Victoria state Premier John Brumby said the new fire danger rating system acknowledged that when weather conditions were at the most extreme level — termed Code Red (Catastrophic) — lives would be in danger.
“There is no house that can be guaranteed to be 100 percent safe on such a day,” he told reporters.
Authorities will not be able to force people to leave their homes, but residents of bushfire-prone areas will now be strongly urged to seek safety elsewhere early on a Code Red day, he said.
“A Code Red (Catastrophic) day will also carry the warning that: people may die or be injured; thousands of homes or businesses may be destroyed; and well prepared, well constructed homes may not be safe during a fire,” he said.
SUMMER
As Australia enters into the southern hemisphere summer, Brumby said it was crucial that the lessons of the Feb. 7 fires remained “fresh in the minds of all Victorians.”
“The task for us all is to work together to be as fire-safe and as fire-ready as possible, to protect lives in a fire season that’s shaping up to be every bit as bad or worse than the season we’ve just experienced,” he said.
It is expected that at least one day this summer will reach the Code Red level seen on Feb. 7 when entire towns and more than 2,000 homes were destroyed in the blazes, Australia’s worst natural disaster of modern times.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in