Month: July 2025

Dry and sunny Friday forecast gives residents and SES volunteers chance to assess damage after vigorous coastal low wreaks havoc on east coast

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After days of torrential rain and damaging winds, a break in the wild weather has provided a much-needed reprieve for residents of New South Wales.

A “vigorous coastal low” wreaked havoc on Australia’s east coast this week, drenching catchments, leaving thousands without power, causing flight cancellations and fuelling dangerous ocean swells with waves as high as 13 metres.

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ACCC says asking e-commerce platforms to act is more effective than traditional enforcement, given operators are mostly overseas and difficult to identify

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Australia’s consumer regulator has put Shopify and Meta on notice, urging the e-commerce and social media platforms to take action against online “ghost stores” pretending to be local businesses in order to dupe shoppers.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) on Thursday issued a public warning about ghost stores and announced it had written to Shopify and Meta after an investigation by Guardian Australia identified more than 140 of these sites.

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Wildfires also have also been reported in Halkidiki, Spain and Germany

More than 1,500 people were evacuated from hotels and homes overnight on Crete as firefighters are fighting a fast-spreading wildfire on the southern coast of the Greek island.

Over 230 firefighters are involved fighting multiple outbreaks posing a “very difficult” overall picture for the emergency services, the Greek fire brigade said in an update on Thursday morning.

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