Extreme fire danger warnings for Victoria as heatwave sweeps through south-east Australia

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Cool change expected to push through state late on Saturday, bringing intense rain and thunderstorms across the wider region into next week

Extreme fire danger alerts are in place in parts of Victoria, as swathes of south-east Australia continue to swelter through a heatwave sweeping across the region.

However, the weather system driving the warm conditions is expected to bring a cool change by late on Saturday for much of Victoria, before it triggers intense rain and thunderstorms by the end of the weekend and into the middle of next week.

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Trump’s picks of loyalists for financial posts ensures his economic agenda is unimpeded

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Howard Lutnick and Scott Bessent, commerce and Treasury nominees respectively, are sure to ignore economist’s warnings and follow Trump’s lead

Certain events happen during every presidential campaign. The parties crown their candidates. The candidates debate on live TV, with millions watching. Tens of millions heads to the polls. And at some point in this process, Jamie Dimon will be tipped as the next Treasury secretary.

Sure enough, the veteran boss of JPMorgan Chase – Wall Street’s de facto ambassador to the world – was, indeed, linked with the role this time around as the Kamala Harris and Donald Trump campaigns mulled their options in the final stretch of the 2024 presidential election.

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Trump picks hedge-fund investor Scott Bessent for treasury secretary

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Job is one of most powerful in Washington with huge influence over US economy and financial markets

Donald Trump nominated Scott Bessent, a longtime hedge-fund investor who taught at Yale University for several years, to be his treasury secretary, a statement from Trump confirmed on Friday. The job is one of the most powerful in Washington, with huge influence over America’s gigantic economy and financial markets.

The move to select Bessent is the latest as the president-elect starts to pull together the administration for his second term in the White House. The process so far has been marked largely by a focus more on personal and political loyalty to Trump than expertise and experience.

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Trump selects key Project 2025 figure Russ Vought to head budget office

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Vought, who led Office of Management and Budget during Trump’s first term, deeply involved in rightwing manifesto

Donald Trump has chosen Russ Vought, a key architect of Project 2025, the controversial conservative plan to overhaul the government, to be director of the US Office of Management and Budget, a powerful agency that helps decide the president’s policy priorities and how to pay for them.

Vought, who was OMB chief during Trump’s first term, would play a major role in setting budget priorities and implementing Trump’s campaign promise to roll back government regulations.

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Live briefing: Israeli strikes kill at least a dozen health workers in Lebanon – The Washington Post

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  1. Live briefing: Israeli strikes kill at least a dozen health workers in Lebanon  The Washington Post
  2. Israel kills Hezbollah leader who planned elaborate attack on U.S. soldiers in Iraq  NBC News
  3. Israel Strikes Across Lebanon After Ordering Evacuations of Southern Towns  The New York Times
  4. Aiming to enable return of displaced Israelis, IDF pushes deeper into south Lebanon  The Times of Israel
  5. Israel pounds southern Lebanon and Beirut outskirts, killing five medics  Reuters
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Terms of Proposed Lebanon Cease-Fire Begin to Take Shape, Officials Say – The New York Times

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  1. Terms of Proposed Lebanon Cease-Fire Begin to Take Shape, Officials Say  The New York Times
  2. Israel said demanding to keep France out of Lebanon deal over perceived hostility  The Times of Israel
  3. Israeli officials demand the right to strike Hezbollah under any cease-fire deal for Lebanon  The Associated Press
  4. US envoy to meet Netanyahu in push for cease-fire with Hezbollah  VOA Asia
  5. Even if Israel and Lebanon Sign a Deal Soon, Many Loose Ends Will Remain  Haaretz
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What to Know About the Methanol Poisonings in Laos – The New York Times

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  1. What to Know About the Methanol Poisonings in Laos  The New York Times
  2. 6 Tourists, Including 1 American, Now Reported Dead from Suspected Methanol Poisoning in Laos  PEOPLE
  3. Free shots and beer buckets in party town at centre of suspected methanol deaths  Yahoo! Voices
  4. What is methanol and how does it affect the body?  BBC.com
  5. Alcohol poisoning in Laos leaves 2 tourists hospitalized  The Associated Press
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