Australia news live: properties lost as Tasmania’s Dolphin Sands bushfire continues to burn; ‘severe’ heatwave hits NSW

From 36m ago 21.52 GMT Tasmania fire authorities battling bushfires, some property losses reported Tasmania’s fire authorities are continuing to respond to numerous bushfires today after dangerous weather conditions on Thursday. Officials said efforts are now focused on the Dolphin Sands area and Glenlusk, near Hobart, with fires burning at Abels Bay, Colebrook, Levendale and Rhyndaston. A vegetation fire at Dolphin Sands, on Tasmania’s east coast. Photograph: Triabunna Fire Brigade Simon Pilkington, the southern regional chief for Tasmania fire service, said weather conditions were unpredictable for much of yesterday and “unfortunately for much of the day we were not able to safely deploy aircraft to assist firefighting efforts”. He went on: A slight improvement in the weather late yesterday afternoon meant we were able to downgrade many of the alerts and warnings. We are aware of property losses in Dolphin Sands, and will be completing rapid impact assessments this morning to confirm the extent of this, when safe to do so. Today’s weather is expected to be more favourable for firefighting. Residents are urged to stay up-to-date with advisories at TasAlert.com. Fires continue to burn at Dolphin Sands on Tasmania’s east coast. Photograph: Triabunna Fire Brigade Share Updated at 21.58 GMT

14m ago 22.15 GMT Philip Oltermann Four countries to boycott Eurovision 2026 as Israel cleared to compete Ireland, Spain, Slovenia and the Netherlands will boycott next year’s Eurovision after Israel was given the all-clear to compete in the 2026 song contest despite calls by several participating broadcasters for its exclusion over the war in Gaza. No vote on Israel’s participation was held on Thursday at the general assembly of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the body that organises the competition. View image in fullscreen Singer Yuval Raphael, from Israel, holds the national flag during a dress rehearsal for the Grand Final of the 69th Eurovision song contest, 16 May 2025. Photograph: Martin Meissner/AP Instead, participating broadcasters voted only to introduce new rules designed to stop governments and third parties from disproportionately promoting songs to influ