Grassfire emergency in Sydney as homes under threat, baby hospitalised after horror coffee attack: Australia news live

A water-bombing aircraft has now been deployed as fire crews desperately try to contain the raging grassfire in Sydney's southwest.

Motorists have been told to avoid the area around Horningsea Park and Edmondson Park, with Camden Valley Way and Bringelly Road between Talana Hill Drive and Skyline Crescent shut off by authorities.

Trains are also not running between Glenfield and Leppington on the T2 Inner West and Leppington line, the ABC reported.

Here's a video from NSW RFS revealing the challenging conditions crews are facing as they battle the out-of-control blaze in Sydney's Horningsea Park.

Eighty firefighters and 20 crews are on scene, with strong winds, as seen in the video below, hampering efforts to contain the fire.

A major operation is underway in Sydney's southwest as scores of firefighters tackle a raging grassfire threatening homes.

"Firefighters are working to contain the fire and prevent it spreading to nearby properties," Fire and Rescue NSW said.

The out-of-control blaze is nearby homes in Horningsea Park with authorities concerned strong winds could blow embers to nearby vegetation.

Well this is a clever way to deter tourists.

With communities in some of Europe's most popular tourist spots becoming increasingly frustrated with the number of visitors swamping their neighbourhoods, locals are fighting back.

We saw tourists squirted with water pistols in Barcelona earlier this year and now locals in Spain's Hio have found their own way to disrupt visitors.

Dozens of locals repeatedly crossed three pedestrian crossings, meaning traffic from the incoming road simply could not pass, leading to a huge build up of visitors wanting to get to the beach.

“This is not tourist phobia – it’s about locals’ right to live in peace,” said Mercedes Villar, the leader of the Hio residents’ association behind the protest, The Telegraph reported.

Pacific leaders have backed an Australian policing initiative, dealing a big blow to China’s strategic goals in the region.

The Pacific Policing Initiative (PPI), endorsed on Wednesday by leaders at the 53rd Pacific Islands Forum in Tonga, is a $400m pledge from Canberra to build up policing capabilities across the region over the next five years.

Among the initiative’s proposals are multi-country police units, four training centres in the Pacific and a Brisbane-based co-ordination hub.

Anthony Albanese said in a statement the scheme built on “a long history of Pacific police forces working together to strengthen regional peace and security”.

“Pacific leaders are working together to shape the future we want to see – improving capability, co-operation and interoperability among Pacific police forces benefits all Pacific countries and the security of our communities,” the Prime Minister said.

“This is a Pacific-led, Australia-backed initiative, harnessing our collective strengths. We are stronger together.

“The security of the Pacific is the shared responsibility of the Pacific region and this initiative benefits each of our nations.”

China continues Pacific push amid strategic struggle

Last year, China signed a policing pact with the Solomon Islands, sparking concerns of Beijing’s growing influence.

Uniformed Chinese police have also popped up in Kiribati, with both Kirabati and Chinese officials keeping it under wraps until Reuters exposed it in February.

- NCA NewsWire

A witness has recalled the horrifying moment a man threw a cup of hot coffee over a baby leaving the child with severe burns.

The baby and her mother were in an inner-city Brisbane park on Tuesday when the random attack took place. An off-duty nurse who lives near the park heard the mum's screams and came rushing to help.

"My baby, my baby," the mother cried, the nurse told Seven News. She guided the mum and child to her apartment where she placed him in a cold shower until paramedics arrived.

Police are continuing to search for the man responsible and have released vision of a man they would like to speak to. That vision can be seen in one of our earlier blog posts.

Inflation has slowed to 3.5 per cent in the year to July, according to fresh data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

That's a significant drop from the three-decade high of 8.4 per cent at the end of 2022, but still a way to go before hitting the Reserve Bank of Australia target of 2 - 3 per cent.

Housing - like rent and building costs - remained a driver of high inflation, while electricity prices were found to have fallen to 5.1 per cent.

This is due to energy rebates, like the first installment of the federal government's, and state-specific ones like the $1000 hand out in Queensland.

But economist Harry Murphy Cruise, from Moody’s Analytics, warned the drop in electricity prices is 'smoke and mirrors' and could end up hurting Australia's fight against the rising cost of living.

"Where we’ll end up all depends on what households do with the savings. If they’re used to get ahead on mortgage repayments or top up rainy day funds then the government will be successful in lowering inflation at the same time as providing cost-of-living relief," he said.

"On the other hand, if the savings are spent through the economy, the RBA’s fight against inflation will get a whole lot harder."

If the latter, he expects inflation to remain at 3.5. per cent until the end of the year and homeowners can expect a rate cut in 2025.

Sticking with the wild weather battering Australia's southeast, here are some destructive wind speeds recorded early this morning which Weatherzone described as "remarkable".

In Tasmania, Mount Read recorded a wind gust of a staggering 156km/h shortly after 5am. In Hobart at Mount Wellington, a wind gust of 143km/h was recorded just before 9am.

On the mainland, NSW and Victoria both recorded wind speeds of 128km/h at Thredbo and Mount Buller.

Residents across the state are being rged to stay alert to the wild conditions.

There were wild winds across Victoria last night and hundreds of trees fell across the state.

One of those was into a Glen Waverley house and remarkably no one was injured.

Take a look at this photo from the ABC's Ashmitaa Thiruselvam to see how lucky the residents were.

Well this is certainly a unique way to use a drone. Australia's toll operator Transurban says it's reaching hard-to-clean places inside its tunnels with a drone that has a hose attached.

Showing off video of the drone in action, the move didn't go down too well with viewers who suggested a worker on the back of a truck would be a much simpler solution.

"I couldn't think of a bigger waste of money," one person bluntly said.

See what you think below.

There's an update in the horrific coffee attack on a baby that left the child with serious burns on Tuesday.

Queensland Police have obtained CCTV of a man running from Brisbane's Hanlon Park where the attack happened, as well as further footage of the same man running down a nearby street.

Police are looking to identify the man seen in the video, which can be watched below.

Well this is a worrying sign of things to come. We're still in winter and fire crews are already battling bushfires.

It's the result of unseasonable heat and strong winds which have left firefighters tackling wintertime bushfires in New South Wales, while residents in Victoria have been warned to brace for strong winds.

The Rural Fire Service has been called to a one-hectare grass fire at Yatte Yattah, near Lake Conjola, 170kms south of Sydney on Wednesday morning. That fire is being controlled as at 6.30am, according to information from the fire service.

About 30kms north, firefighters have control of a small bushfire at Worrowing Heights, near Vincentia.

Read more here.

A 23-year-old man has been charged after he allegedly threw a water bottle at an umpire during Carlton's clash with St Kilda on Sunday.

Victoria Police identified the Northcote man before charging him with recklessly cause injury, discharge a missile and unlawful assault and will front court in November.

The incident left goal umpire Steven Piperno bleeding and he was later replaced. The incident was widely condemned in the AFL world. Bryan Taylor called the alleged incident an “absolute disgrace”.

A baby is in hospital in Brisbane after reports a man poured hot coffee on the little boy in a suburban park.

Police say the man then fled the scene, where the baby and his mother had been having a picnic in the park.

At Queensland Children’s Hospital the nine-month-old had surgery for burns to his face and chest, Channel 9 reports.

The incident happened at 12pm on Tuesday, at Hanlon Park in the suburb of Greenslopes.

The mother and baby were sitting on a picnic rug when a stranger approached them and poured the hot coffee on the child.

Queensland Police expect to be able to circulate a description of the attacker on Wednesday.

The little boy was taken to hospital in a stable condition. The family told Nine they are traumatised and want the attacker caught.

Police confirmed early on Wednesday morning there had been no arrests.

- NCA NewsWire

We see what you did there ATP Tour. That TikTok trend is everywhere at the minute.

Australia's number one Alex De Minaur is through to the second round of the US Open after surviving a scare in the third set, defeating Marcos Giron 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.

De Minaur is enjoying the best stretch of his career with two successive Grand Slam quarter-finals appearances. He sadly had to pull out of Wimbledon at that stage of the tournament due to injury but hopes to put that disappointment behind him at Flushing Meadows and continue his stellar run.