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NXIVM head Keith Raniere was sentenced to 120 years in prison this week for turning some female followers into sex slaves. Ex-follower and whistleblower Sarah Edmondson spoke to RNZ and said "the world is now a better place" with Raniere behind bars. Keith Raniere. Photo: Keith Raniere Conversations / Youtube Raniere was last year convicted of racketeering, sex trafficking, child pornography possession and other crimes. The punishment was handed down on Tuesday by a District Judge in Brooklyn after a sentence hearing where former members of the cult spoke out against him. As leader of the group, Raniere recruited women as slaves and forced them to have sex with him - and even branded some of his inner circle with his own initials. Edmondson, a former follower, has has since written a book about her experiences - Scarred: The True Story of How I Escaped NXIVM, the Cult That Bound My Life. "It's closure after over three years of incredibly painful, traumatic, challenging, arduous time spent trying to shine light on this guy and his atrocities and it feels like all of that work has paid off," she said. Edmondson publicly denounced NXIVM in 2017, revealing that she had been invited to join "DOS" - or Dominus Obsequious Sororium - a secret smaller group operated by Raniere and Smallville actor Allison Mack. DOS was operated out of Mack's home in Albany, New York, and Edmondson said it was here that she was branded with Raniere's and Mack's initials. Actress Allison Mack, who was involved with the NXIVM cult, arrives at court with her lawyer. Photo: Johannes Eisele/ AFP Describing Raniere as "sociopathic, narcissitic and sex-addicted", Edmondson believes the outcome of NXIVM was what the leader had in store all along. "Knowing what we know now, I believe that when he started this company, I say that loosely, in 1998 this was always his goal. "His intentions were always bad, he was just really smart at creating a really good personal development program that was an excellent shroud for his desires." She said the main reason Raniere was eventually caught was because he got "greedy and sloppy" - and others had tried and failed to bring him down in the past. "I think that if he hadn't started DOS and putting his initials on women's bodies he'd still be operating and his abuses would be harder to pinpoint," she said. "Many people before me have gone to the FBI and to the local law enforcements to say there's something shady going on here, and unfortunately the people who came forward then had law enforcement go after them." Former members of NXIVM speak outside the court after Keith Raniere was sentenced to 120 years in prison. Photo: AFP After Edmondson made her initial allegations, hundreds of loyal members and thousands who were loosely affliated with NXIVM left the group. "I ran the Vancouver centre and what we had there was a very special community of likeminded people wanting to work on their goals and be the best versions of themselves and supporting each other in their goals and dreams. "And when we found out, it was a huge shock. In fact, we're still finding out the atrocities he committed because he kept it so hidden and so secret." But with Raniere now facing a lifetime in prison, Edmondson said he might now be able to use some of the techniques he taught group members. "One of the tools he taught us was to look at any particular area of your life that you were unhappy with and you could always ask yourself, how did I cause this, how did I participate, or his words were 'how did I author this'", she said. "So the irony is, he's got 120 years to sit there and figure out how he authored himself being in prison."

A record 90 million Americans have voted early in the US presidential election, data showed, as President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden campaigned across the country to try to sway the few remaining undecided voters. Barack Obama greets Joe Biden at a rally in Flint, Michigan. Photo: AFP The high number of early voters, about 65 percent of the total turnout in 2016, reflects intense interest in the contest, with three days of campaigning left. Concerns about exposure to the coronavirus at busy Election Day voting places on Wednesday have also pushed up the numbers of people voting by mail or at early in-person polling sites. The Republican president is spending the closing days of his re-election campaign criticising public officials and medical professionals who are trying to combat the coronavirus pandemic even as it surges back across the United States. The US has set a new record for coronavirus cases confirmed in a single 24-hour period. It has reported just over 100,000 new infections to surpass the record total of 91,000 posted a day earlier. Opinion polls show Trump trailing former vice president Biden nationally, but with a closer contest in the most competitive states that will decide the election. Voters say the coronavirus is their top concern. Trump has repeatedly claimed without evidence that mail-in ballots are susceptible to fraud and has more recently argued that only the results available on election night should count. In a flurry of legal motions, his campaign has sought to restrict absentee balloting. "I don't care how hard Donald Trump tries. There's nothing - let me say that again - there's nothing that he can do to stop the people of this nation from voting in overwhelming numbers and taking back this democracy," Biden said at a rally in Flint, Michigan, where he was joined by former president Barack Obama for their first 2020 campaign event together. [h[ Obama praises Biden's character Obama compared Biden's character favourably with Trump's. "It used to be that being a man meant taking care of other people... not looking for credit but trying to live right," he said. "When you elect Joe, that's what you'll see reflected from the White House." Photo: AFP Taking the stage, Biden tore into his opponent, saying it was time for him to "pack his bags and go home". "We're done with the chaos, the tweets, the anger, the failure, the refusal to take any responsibility," he added. Trump held four rallies on Saturday in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, where the campaigns are seeking to win over undecided voters in areas like the suburbs of Philadelphia and the "Rust Belt" west of the state. "If we win Pennsylvania, it's over," Trump told a large rally in Reading before moving to another big gathering in Butler. Officials in several states, including Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, say it could take several days to count all of the mail ballots, possibly leading to days of uncertainty if the outcome hinges on those states. A federal judge in Texas has scheduled an emergency hearing tomorrow on whether Houston officials unlawfully allowed drive-through voting and should toss more than 100,000 votes in Democratic-leaning Harris County. At a small, in-person rally in Newtown, Pennsylvania, Trump mocked his opponent for his criticism of the administration's record of fighting Covid-19, which has killed more people in the United States than in any other country. "I watched Joe Biden speak yesterday. All he talks about is Covid, Covid. He's got nothing else to say. Covid, Covid," Trump told the crowd, some of whom did not wear masks. Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Pennsylvania. Photo: AFP He said the United States was "just weeks away" from mass distribution of a safe vaccine against Covid-19, which is pushing hospitals to capacity and killing up to 1000 people in the US each day. Trump gave no details to back up his remarks about an imminent vaccine. Jobs and fracking In his closing arguments, Biden has accused Trump of being a bully, criticised his lack of a strategy to control the pandemic, which has killed nearly 229,000 Americans; his efforts to repeal the Obamacare healthcare law; and his disregard for science on climate change. He has offered his own made-in-America economic platform, a contrast with Trump's "America First" approach, saying he will get the wealthy to pay their fair share and make sure earnings are distributed more equitably. In an effort to highlight what he says is Biden's plan to ban hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to extract fossil fuels, Trump signed an executive order yesterday that calls on the US Department of Energy to commission a study about the potential harm caused by banning or restricting the practice. The order also reinforces a prior law, directing federal agencies to produce reports about decisions that are detrimental to the fracking industry. Fracking for natural gas is a major source of jobs in western Pennsylvania. Biden denies intending to ban fracking if he wins the White House. Study points finger at Trump's rallies Stanford University economists released an estimate that Trump rallies held from June to September led to more than 30,000 additional Covid-19 infections and possibly as many as 700 deaths. The study was based on a statistical model and not actual investigations of coronavirus cases. The paper, which did not cite disease experts among its authors, has not been peer-reviewed. Public health officials have repeatedly warned that Trump campaign events could hasten the spread of the virus, particularly those held in places where infection rates were already on the rise. Determining the actual impact of those rallies on infection rates has been difficult due to the lack of robust contact tracing in many US states. Donald Trump gives out caps at a rally in Pennsylvania. Photo: AFP Amesh Adalja, an infectious diseases expert at the Johns Hopkins Centre for Health Security, described the report as "suggestive." "I would just say it's suggestive but hard to completely isolate the specific impact of one event without robust contact trace data from the cases," Adalja said. Biden's campaign, which has sharply limited crowd sizes at events or restricted supporters to their cars, quickly seized on the Stanford findings. "Trump doesn't even care about the very lives of his strongest supporters," Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement. Trump's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report. At one Biden rally in Detroit today, social distancing broke down as supporters crowded toward the stage to hear Obama speak. - Reuters / BBC

Prime minister Boris Johnson has ordered England back into a national lockdown as the United Kingdom passed the milestone of one million Covid-19 cases and scientists warned the virus was spreading faster than their worst predictions. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson addresses a press conference in London to announce a new lockdown. Photo: AFP The United Kingdom, which has the biggest official death toll in Europe from Covid-19, is grappling with more than 20,000 new coronavirus cases a day and scientists have warned the "worst case" scenario of 80,000 dead could be exceeded. Over the past seven days, the UK has averaged almost 23,000 new cases a day, and 237 deaths. Johnson told a media briefing at 10 Downing Street that "no responsible prime minister can ignore the message of those figures". He said: "No one wants to be imposing these kind of measures anywhere." He had hoped that with "strong local action" the government could get the rate of infection down in targeted areas. But the virus was spreading "even faster than the reasonable worst case scenario" of scientific advisers. The prime minister said the overrunning of the NHS would be a "moral disaster". Doctors and nurses would be "forced to choose which patients to treat... who would live and who would die," he said. The lockdown will start on Thursday and end on 2 December, Johnson said. Takeaway outlets will be allowed to stay open but pubs, bars and restaurants will have to close, the prime minister said. People will be allowed to leave home for: education, work, if they cannot work from home, exercise and recreation outdoors, medical reasons, to shop for food and essentials and to care for others. Unlike the first national lockdown, schools, colleges and universities will be allowed to stay open. "We cannot let this virus damage our children's futures even more than it has already," Johnson said. He said the government will extend its emergency coronavirus wage subsidy scheme. Parliament will debate and vote on the measures on Wednesday. Christmas will be "perhaps very different" this year, Johnson said. "But it's my sincere hope and belief that by taking tough action now, we can allow families across the country to be together," he added. The prime minister also promised a massive expansion in the deployment of rapid turnaround coronavirus tests. Cases rising rapidly England's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty said there was a "significant rate of increase" in virus cases across the entire country. He said the prevalence of Covid has been going up "extremely rapidly" over the last few weeks" - having been "very flat" due to social distancing measures in the spring and summer. Prof Whitty said England has "very little headroom" when it comes to the spread of the virus. The virus was not being constrained to one age group, and was spreading into older age groups - people over the age of 60. He added there was a rise in the number of hospital admissions in England in "virtually every age group in older adults". "If we do nothing, the inevitable result will be that these numbers will go up and they will eventually exceed the peak we saw in spring of this year." England's chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty Photo: AFP / UK government Chief science adviser Sir Patrick Vallance told the media briefing that experts created scenarios on the assumption the R rate stays at one over the course of the winter. "What is clear from all the scenarios is the potential for this to be twice as bad or more compared to the first wave." Before the news conference, the government said total confirmed Covid-19 cases had risen 21,915 in the past day to 1,011,660. Johnson held a cabinet meeting yesterday after government scientists warned the outbreak was going in the wrong direction and that action was needed to halt the spread of the virus if families were to have any hope of gathering at Christmas. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run their own pandemic policies. Johnson was criticised by political opponents for moving too slowly into the first national lockdown, which stretched from 23 March to 4 July. He fell ill with Covid in late March and was hospitalised in early April. A warning sign for pedestrians in Bradford. Covid cases in England are rising at a faster pace than experts' worst predictions. Photo: AFP Europe locked down The measures will bring England into alignment with France and Germany by imposing nationwide restrictions almost as severe as the ones that drove the global economy earlier this year into its deepest recession in generations. A national lockdown would represent a dramatic change of policy for the prime minister, who has been saying for months that it will not be necessary. Two weeks ago he defended his strategy of a patchwork of local restrictions by saying he wanted to avoid the "misery of a national lockdown". Currently, areas of England are subject to one of three tiers of coronavirus restrictions. The prime minister was hugely critical of labour for suggesting one. Several Conservative backbenchers are opposed to national measures. Calum Semple, professor of outbreak medicine at the University of Liverpool and member of the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), said the second wave of Covid-19 was a reality. "And, unlike the first wave, where we had a national lockdown which protected huge swathes of society, this outbreak is now running riot across all age groups," he told the BBC. A new lockdown would heap more pressure on finance minister Rishi Sunak and the Bank of England to increase their already huge support for the UK economy, the world's sixth-biggest. The economy slumped a record 20 percent in the spring and has been struggling to maintain its recovery. So far the United Kingdom has reported 46,555 Covid-19 deaths - defined as those dying within 28 days of a positive test. A broader measure of those with Covid-19 on their death certificates puts the toll at 58,925. - Reuters / BBC

A Greek Orthodox priest has been shot and seriously injured at a church in the centre of the French city of Lyon by an assailant who then fled, a police source and witnesses said. Police guard the scene of the shooting in Lyon. Photo: AFP The priest was fired on twice at around 4pm as he was closing the church, and he was being treated on site for life-threatening injuries, the source said. Witnesses said the church was Greek Orthodox. Another police source said the priest was of Greek nationality, and had been able to tell emergency services as they arrived that he had not recognised his assailant. The incident came two days after a man shouting "Allahu Akbar!" (God is Greatest) beheaded a woman and killed two other people in a church in Nice. Two weeks ago, a schoolteacher in a Paris suburb was beheaded by an 18-year-old attacker who was apparently incensed by the teacher showing a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad during a class. While the motive for the latest attack was not known, government ministers had warned that there could be other Islamist militant attacks. President Emmanuel Macron has deployed thousands of soldiers to protect sites such as places of worship and schools. Prime Minister Jean Castex, who was visiting Rouen, said he was heading back to Paris to assess the situation. Security and emergency personnel at the scene of the shooting which comes two days after three people were murdered at a church in Nice. Photo: AFP The Nice attack took place on the day Muslims celebrate the Prophet Mohammad's birthday. Many Muslims around the world have been angered about France's defence of the right to publish cartoons depicting the Prophet. A third person has been taken into police custody in connection with that attack, a police source said yesterday. The suspected assailant was shot by police and remains in a critical condition in hospital. Macron took to Arabic-language airwaves yesterday, saying he understood the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad may shock some people but that there was no justification for acts of violence. In an interview with Al Jazeera released, Macron said his position had been misconstrued: that he never supported publication of cartoons seen as insulting by Muslims, but had defended the right of free expression. "I understand and I respect the fact that people might be shocked by these caricatures, but I will never accept any justification for acts of violence over these caricatures," Macron said. The teacher killed on 16 October, Samuel Paty, had showed cartoons in class to prompt discussion of free speech. - Reuters

Sir Sean Connery, the Scottish actor best known for his portrayal of James Bond, has died at the age of 90, his family has said. Politicians and actors are among those paying tributes to Sir Sean Connery. Photo: Getty Images He was the first to bring the role to the big screen, appearing in seven of the spy thrillers. Sir Sean died peacefully in his sleep in the Bahamas, having been "unwell for some time", his son said. His acting career spanned five decades and he won an Oscar in 1988 for his role in The Untouchables. Sir Sean's other films included The Hunt for Red October, Highlander, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and The Rock. Jason Connery said his father "had many of his family who could be in the Bahamas around him" when he died overnight in Nassau. Much of Bond film Thunderball had been filmed there. He said: "We are all working at understanding this huge event as it only happened so recently, even though my dad has been unwell for some time. "A sad day for all who knew and loved my dad and a sad loss for all people around the world who enjoyed the wonderful gift he had as an actor." His publicist Nancy Seltzer said: "There will be a private ceremony followed by a memorial yet to be planned once the [Covid-19] virus has ended." He leaves wife Micheline and sons Jason and Stephane. Sean Connery with wife Micheline at an awards event in 2005. Photo: AFP Sir Sean 'defined an era' Daniel Craig, the current James Bond, said Sir Sean was "one of the true greats of cinema". "Sir Sean Connery will be remembered as Bond and so much more," he said. "He defined an era and a style. The wit and charm he portrayed on screen could be measured in mega watts; he helped create the modern blockbuster. "He will continue to influence actors and film-makers alike for years to come. My thoughts are with his family and loved ones." In reference to Sir Sean's love of the game, he added: "Wherever he is, I hope there is a golf course." The Swiss industrial heir Gunter Sachs, right, walks with Prince Alfons von Hohenlohe, left, Sean Connery and Prince Walter Rupprecht von Einsiedel to a golf party in Marbella, Spain, in April 1968. Photo: AFP Dame Shirley Bassey, who sang the themes to three Bond films including Goldfinger, paid tribute saying: "I'm incredibly saddened to hear of Sean's passing. My thoughts are with his family. He was a wonderful person, a true gentleman and we will be forever connected by Bond." Sir Sean, from Fountainbridge in Edinburgh, had his first major film appearance in 1957 British gangster film No Road Back. He first played James Bond in Dr No in 1962 and went on to appear in five other official films - and the unofficial Never Say Never Again in 1983. Sir Sean Connery in Dr No. Photo: © Eon Productions He was largely regarded as being the best actor to have played 007 in the long-running franchise, often being named as such in polls. He was knighted by the Queen at Holyrood Palace in 2000. In August, he celebrated his 90th birthday. Bond producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli said they were "devastated by the news" of his death. They said: "He was and shall always be remembered as the original James Bond whose indelible entrance into cinema history began when he announced those unforgettable words 'the name's Bond... James Bond'. "He revolutionised the world with his gritty and witty portrayal of the sexy and charismatic secret agent. He is undoubtedly largely responsible for the success of the film series and we shall be forever grateful to him." Sean Connery and Honor Blackman in Goldfinger. Photo: © Eon Productions Supporter of Scottish independence Sir Sean was a long-time supporter of Scottish independence, saying in interviews in the run-up to the 2014 referendum that he might return from his Bahamas home to live in Scotland if it voted to break away from the rest of the UK. Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: "I was heartbroken to learn this morning of the passing of Sir Sean Connery. Our nation today mourns one of her best loved sons. "Sean was born into a working class Edinburgh family and through talent and sheer hard work, became an international film icon and one of the world's most accomplished actors. Sean will be remembered best as James Bond - the classic 007 - but his roles were many and varied. "He was a global legend but, first and foremost, a patriotic and proud Scot - his towering presence at the opening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 showed his love for the country of his birth. Sean was a lifelong advocate of an independent Scotland and those of us who share that belief owe him a great debt of gratitude." Alex Salmond, former first minister of Scotland, who was close friends with Sir Sean, described him as "the world's greatest Scot, the last of the real Hollywood stars, the definitive Bond". He said: "Sean Connery was all of these things but much more. He was also a staunch patriot, a deep thinker and outstanding human being." He added: "'Scotland Forever' wasn't just tattooed on his forearm but was imprinted on his soul." - BBC

The British Government is considering a month-long lockdown across England in the hope that measures could be eased before Christmas. A man passes a notice warning of the current 'high' alert level for covid-19, taped at the entrance to a newsagent on Old Compton Street in Soho in London, England Photo: AFP A new "stay at home" order could be announced on Monday, with schools, colleges and universities exempt. Documents seen by the BBC suggest the UK is on course for a much higher death toll than during the first wave unless further restrictions are introduced. Deaths could reach more than 4000 a day, one of the models suggests. This figure is based on no policies being brought in to slow the spread of the disease, but most of the models peak at about 2000 a day. At the height of the pandemic during the spring, deaths in the UK reached more than 1000 a day. Infection rates are currently soaring across much of Europe, prompting new forms of lockdown in Belgium, France and Germany. The papers, understood to be part of a presentation by the government's pandemic modelling group SPI-M shown to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, feature several different projections of the likely course of the disease. All models predict that hospitalisations are likely to peak in mid-December, with deaths rising until at least late December before falling from early January. And a separate document circulating in government - based on NHS England modelling from 28 October - warns that the NHS would be unable to accept any more patients by Christmas, even if the Nightingale hospitals are used and non-urgent procedures cancelled. The document warns that south-west England and the Midlands will be the first to run out of capacity, potentially within a fortnight. These latest papers come after official documents from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) revealed that Covid is spreading much faster in England than the predicted "worst case" scenario. This scenario had estimated 85,000 deaths from Covid during winter. But in the Sage documents - dated 14 October and published on Friday - scientists estimated that, by mid-October, there were between 43,000 and 74,000 people being infected with coronavirus every day in England. Their report said: "This is significantly above the profile of the reasonable worst-case scenario, where the number of daily infections in England remained between 12,000-13,000 throughout October." Scientists advising the government have been arguing for a short, planned lockdown - called a "circuit-breaker" - since 21 September, when there were around 5000 confirmed cases a day. 'Too late' Labour's shadow business minister Lucy Powell told BBC Breakfast suggestions of a national lockdown had come "too late", as she argued a circuit-breaker over half-term would have been more effective. Powell said the party had been calling for a circuit-breaker "for a few weeks now". She added: "The government's dithering on this now means we've missed the half-term holiday when it could have had most impact. "We could have saved more of the economy and reduced the impact of [lockdown] with a shorter, earlier circuit-breaker that coincided with half term." Theatre performers, creatives and technicians gather in Parliament Square to take part in the ‘Survival in the Square' creative demonstration to highlight the plight of live events industry shut down due the Covid-19 pandemic Photo: AFP But UK Hospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls said a national lockdown would be "absolutely devastating" for her industry. She told the programme: "If we are to get through another national lockdown in hospitality... then we are going to need significant additional help to be able to get through this. "People have borrowed up to the hilt, people have spent money in order to get Covid-secure. There is no spare capacity in the tank to be able to fund a lockdown - even for three to four weeks." Her concerns were echoed by Federation of Small Businesses chair Mike Cherry, who said another lockdown would be "incredibly frustrating" as small businesses and businesses across the UK had "spent thousands" in making sure their premises were safe for employees and customers. Prof John Edmunds, a member of Sage, confirmed that the situation in the country is worse than the reasonable worst-case scenario produced by Sage. "We've been significantly above that reasonable worst-case scenario for some time actually," he said. "It is really unthinkable now, unfortunately, that we don't count our deaths in tens of thousands from this wave." Asked if restrictions would have to be more severe than the circuit-breaker previously proposed by scientists, Edmunds said: "Decisions are horrible - they are very difficult - but putting them off doesn't make them any easier, in fact it makes them more difficult. "If we are going to put the brakes on the epidemic now, then we're going to have to put the brakes on harder and longer to bring the cases down to what might be an acceptable level." He said that Christmas could be made "relatively safe" if coronavirus cases are brought down sharply with such "stringent" restrictions. Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson Photo: AFP Meanwhile, another Sage member, Prof Calum Semple, said the government's current three-tier system in England "hasn't worked particularly well". He said a national lockdown, with full compliance, "would see a dramatic fall in hospital admissions" in four weeks' time. Prof Semple suggested there should be a review at four weeks and there could be a "bit of easing around the festive activities" but that a lockdown would give officials "time to test, trace and isolate processes really up to scratch". The current estimate of the R number in the UK - the number of people each infected person passes the virus on to on average - is between 1.1 and 1.3, indicating that cases are still growing. On Friday, 274 deaths were announced, meaning that since the start of the pandemic 46,229 people have died within 28 days of a positive test. The government's current strategy is focused on local restrictions to control the virus. Every area of England is now in one of three coronavirus alert categories - medium (tier one), high (tier two) or very high (tier three). Scotland has five levels of restrictions. Scotland's new tiered system of restrictions will come into force at 6am on 2 November, and Wales remains under a 17-day "firebreak" lockdown until 9 November. Pubs and restaurants in Northern Ireland were closed for four weeks starting on 16 October, with the exception of takeaways and deliveries. Schools were closed for two weeks. - BBC

Analysis - The Australian bushfires royal commission's final report issues a stark warning of a future marked by extreme weather impacts from climate change, writes ABC national science and environment reporter Michael Slezak. Residents defending a property from a bushfire at Hillsville, north of Sydney, in November 2019. Photo: AFP The commissioners described their task, at the very top of the report, as "looking to the future". And they have been very clear about what that means. "Extreme weather has already become more frequent and intense because of climate change; further global warming over the next 20 to 30 years is inevitable," they say. And as for what that means for fire regimes, they don't mince their words. "Catastrophic fire conditions may render traditional bushfire prediction models and firefighting techniques less effective," they say. The report notes there's essentially nothing we can do about "locked in" warming, set to occur over the next two decades. But what happens after that is up to us. Warming "beyond the next 20 to 30 years is largely dependent on the trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions", it says. Evacuees walking to the beach to board a navy ship to escape fires at Mallacoota, Victoria, on 3 January 2020. Photo: AFP/ Australian Department of Defence/ Helen Frank The commissioners also highlight evidence that avoiding or mitigating risks is much more cost effective than responding to disasters after they happen - an approach they unequivocally state is not adequate. "We need to do much more than put out fires. A resilient nation will seek to mitigate the risk of disasters through a wide range of measures, and it will attend to all of the complex and sometimes long-term consequences," they say. Many commentators, including former fire chiefs, cross bench politicians and conservation groups, have argued the implication from the findings is clear: that greenhouse gas emissions must be quickly reduced to net zero. But of the report's 80 recommendations, the commissioners do not make any aimed at trying to stop global warming. Their only climate-related recommendation calls for climate models to be created that can provide projections for smaller geographical areas - making them more useful for local disaster preparedness. A house destroyed by a bushfire outside Batemans Bay in New South Wales on 2 January, 2020. Smoke from wide ranging fierce bushfires reached as far away as Brazil. Photo: AFP Arguably, making recommendations about Australia's greenhouse gas emissions or trajectory was outside the inquiry's terms of reference. But that hasn't stopped others drawing their own conclusions. "The Bushfire Royal Commission has laid out the facts in no uncertain terms: climate change drove the Black Summer bushfires, and climate change is pushing us into a future of unprecedented bushfire severity," said Greg Mullins, former commissioner of Fire and Rescue NSW and founder of Emergency Leaders for Climate Action. "The Federal Government absolutely must act on the root cause of worsening bushfires in Australia, and take urgent steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This clearly means no new coal or gas, and a rapid transition to renewable energy." 'Roadmap to nowhere' The Australian Minister for Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor has previously argued the only way to bring down emissions without sacrificing economic growth is through technological development. "There are only two ways to suppress emissions. Either through some form of taxation, or you improve the activities," he said last month. This map from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology shows the drying trend in southern Australia. Photo: Supplied/ Australian Bureau of Meteorology "That's why the Government has undertaken to develop, fund and drive a low emissions technology road map." That roadmap does not indicate when Australia's emissions will reach net zero, as required under the Paris Agreement, and was labelled a "roadmap to nowhere" by the Federal Opposition. Mullins told the ABC the royal commission was one of a long list of bushfire inquiries that made climate change central to its findings, with final reports by NSW, South Australia, Victoria and the ACT all pointed to climate change making things worse. "I'm surprised how strong the report is. It would have been great if there were more recommendations on climate change but they've spelled it out chapter and verse. Together with all the other state inquiries that said exactly the same thing, there's no dodging the issue now," he said. A firefighter protecting a residential area from bushfires north of Sydney on 7 December, 2019. Experts said the last Australian bushfire season arrived earlier and with more intensity because of climatic changes and prolonged drought. Photo: AFP Besides the climate-related recommendation, there are 79 others that have been widely hailed as fundamentally important to preparing the country for worsening fires and other disasters we're going to see over the coming years and decades. But whether they will all be implemented is the important question - and one the commissioners spent some time considering. They note this is just one of about 240 natural disaster inquiries that have been held in Australia - and "while many recommendations have been faithfully implemented and have led to significant improvements, others have not". They also said that in many cases, accepted recommendations weren't always clearly implemented. Minister for Emergency Management David Littleproud announced yesterday the Government had accepted all 80 of the report's recommendations. Implementing them through the federation - and in cooperation with the private sector - will be a mammoth task, but one there is no doubt the will to achieve. Since the message about climate change throughout the report didn't result in specific recommendations, that will require something else. -ABC

Flowers and candles have been placed outside the church in the southern French city of Nice where three people were stabbed to death. People light candles outside the Notre Dame Basilica in Nice where the attack was carried out. Photo: AFP President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday's stabbings were an "Islamist terrorist attack". Security is being stepped up throughout France. The 21-year-old Tunisian suspect arrived in the city the night before the attack, his brother told the BBC. Meanwhile, France's interior minister said more militant attacks were likely. "We need to understand that there have been and there will be other events such as these terrible attacks," Gerald Darmanin said. "We're at war against an ideology, Islamist ideology." Security has been increased at places of worship and schools across France following two similar attacks within two weeks. Earlier this month a teacher was beheaded in a Paris suburb after showing controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad to some of his pupils. Macron's subsequent defence of the right to publish the cartoons has stoked anger in several Muslim-majority countries. Following the latest attack, police shot and wounded the suspected knifeman, who had only recently arrived in Europe. He is said to be in a critical condition in hospital. Police prevent access to the scene of the killings. Photo: AFP Macron has ordered that the number of soldiers being deployed to protect public places - such as churches and schools - rises from 3000 to 7000. Meanwhile, police investigating the attack have made a second arrest. Two die inside church The two women and a man were attacked inside the basilica in the morning before the first Mass of the day. Two died inside the church. One of them, a 60-year-old woman who has not been named, was "virtually beheaded" close to the font, according to the French chief anti-terrorism prosecutor. French media have named one victim as 55-year-old Vincent Loquès, a devout Catholic who had reportedly worked at the basilica for more than 10 years. Loquès was opening the building when the attacker slit his throat, police say. The third victim was named by the Brazilian foreign ministry as Simone Barreto Silva, a 44-year-old mother of three born in Salvador on Brazil's north-eastern coast. She had lived in France for 30 years. She fled to a nearby cafe with multiple stab wounds but died shortly afterwards. "Tell my children that I love them," she told those who tried to help her, according to French media. Simone Barreto Silva, a 44-year-old mother of three died in the attack. Photo: AFP On Friday morning, priest Philippe Asso stood on the church steps with other mourners before walking in with a wreath to the victims. Others gathered outside the church to pay their respects. Nice resident Frederic Lefèvre, 50, said he knew Loquès. "This is a tragedy once again," he said. "We're a free country, we have demonstrated freedom to all countries of the world. Today, this freedom is closing in on us. Life needs to be lived for everyone." Marc Mercier, 71, called the killings a "catastrophe". "It's appalling. It's been years that we've been saying that fear should shift to the other side [attackers] but it is still the same." The suspect Police sources named the man as Brahim Aouissaoui. Prosecutors said he had arrived by boat to the Italian island of Lampedusa as a migrant last month and after quarantining had been ordered to travel on. He arrived in Nice by train and had no papers except for a Red Cross document from Italy, investigators said. A Tunisian official said he had not been listed as a suspected militant. Speaking to the BBC at the family home near the Tunisian port city of Sfax, Brahim Aouissaoui's older brother, Yasine, said the pair had spoken on Wednesday night. "He was sleeping the night before [the attack] on the stairs of some building in the area where he had been shot," he said. "He told me that in the morning he would try to find someone he knew to help him." Yasine also described his brother as "a friendly person" who "never showed extremism". The suspect's mother, Gamra, said: "May God show the truth." Witnesses said the attacker repeatedly shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) before being shot by police. A Koran, two telephones and a 30cm knife were found on him, French chief anti-terrorist prosecutor Jean-François Ricard said. Two men have now been arrested by police investigating the attacks. The first, a 47-year-old man believed to have been in contact with the suspect, was detained by police late on Thursday, French media reported. The second, aged 35, was arrested yesterday. He had also had contact with Aouissaoui, police sources told AFP. France has raised its national security alert to the highest level. Anti-France protests growing Meanwhile, thousands of Muslims in countries around the world have held protests to vent their fury at France over its perceived animosity towards Islam. Anti-French rallies erupted after Friday prayers in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Lebanon and other countries. Protesters called for a boycott of French products and condemned President Emmanuel Macron. He has become a target in several Muslim-majority countries for his recent comments about Islam. Macron has called Islam a religion "in crisis" and defended the right of a magazine to publish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammed. The backlash intensified after a suspected Islamist extremist killed a French teacher who showed the cartoons in class. Macron said the teacher "was killed because Islamists want our future", but France would "not give up our cartoons". Muslims saw Macron's remarks as an insult, as depictions of the Prophet Muhammad are widely regarded as taboo in Islam. The protests continued amid heightened tension after the attack in Nice. - BBC

EU officials warned Europe to be ready for wider Covid restrictions as infections surged across the continent, France and Germany prepared curbs almost as strict as their spring lockdowns and cases soared across the United States. A worker cleans a bin in front of a closed cafe in Toulouse, on the second day of France's new lockdown. Photo: Alain Pitton/NurPhoto Europe and the United States have emerged as the current danger zones for Covid-19, which was first identified in China in December, in a global crisis in which more than 44.94 million people have been infected and 1,178,943 have died. "Given the very dynamic situation in all of Europe, we need to equally reduce contact in almost all European countries," German Health Minister Jens Spahn told journalists after a video conference of EU health ministers that he chaired. EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides echoed the call. "We need to pull through this, where needed, with restrictions on everyday life to break the chain of transmission," she told the video conference. France and Germany announced new lockdowns this week as infections on the continent passed the 10-million milestone and hospitals and intensive care units filled up again. Bars, restaurants, sports and cultural events have been restricted or closed in several other European countries. Belgium, one of Europe's worst-affected countries, recorded an average of 15,316 new infections per day in mid-October. Italy and Austria recorded their highest daily number of infections to date on Friday. Checkpoints have been set up across Portugal to stop unauthorised travel during a five-day movement ban which began on Friday. Russia has seen coronavirus cases swell in recent weeks and reported 18,283 new infections on Friday, the highest tally recorded since the pandemic began, and 355 deaths. Poland reported a fourth consecutive daily record for new cases. Britain resisted the idea of a new national lockdown, even as a survey showed soaring infections. 'American fiasco' Gloom over the rising infections has hit financial markets. US stocks fell, dragged down by a slide in shares of tech heavyweights following their quarterly results, with a record rise in coronavirus cases and nerves over the presidential election adding to a downbeat mood globally. Illustrating the difficulty in reining in the virus without destroying the economy, Britain's "eat out to help out" discount scheme to boost spending at restaurants, cafes and pubs over the summer helped spread the coronavirus, according to a new study. European Central Bank policymakers said governments must be selective in shutting down economic activity to combat the pandemic and need to keep spending up to support businesses and families. "We must try to defeat the virus without totally shutting down the economy because the consequences in terms of loss of economic activity are very, very intense," ECB Vice President Luis de Guindos said. A record surge of infections in the United States is pushing hospitals to the brink of capacity and killing up to 1000 people a day before the November 3 election, in which handling of the pandemic has become the main issue. A man is administered a Covid-19 test in New York City. Photo: AFP The United States broke its single-day record for new coronavirus infections on Thursday, reporting at least 91,248 new cases, as 21 states reported their highest daily number of hospitalized patients since the pandemic started, according to a Reuters tally of publicly reported data. "We're going in the wrong direction," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, a leading White House task force member and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The surge has revived some of the worst images of the first wave of the virus in March, April and May, with people on ventilators dying alone in isolation and medical staff physically and mentally exhausted. Among the hardest hit states are those most hotly contested in the election campaign between Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden, such as Ohio, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Trump has downplayed the virus since the pandemic began, ridiculing Fauci and mocking social distancing and the wearing of masks. He has repeatedly told campaign rallies the country is "rounding the turn" on the pandemic to the delight of his mostly non-mask wearing supporters but infuriating Democrats. "The virus is a global scourge, but it has been an American fiasco, killing more people in the United States than in any other country," said an interim report by Democratic staff of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis. The World Health Organisation's (WHO) top emergency expert, Mike Ryan, told a virtual briefing in Geneva that early voting in the United States seems to have gone well from a health point of view. "From what we observe, the early voting process seems to have been been undertaken with great care," he said.

A record surge of coronavirus cases in the United States is pushing hospitals to the brink of capacity and killing up to 1000 people a day, the latest figures show, with much of the country's attention focused on next week's presidential election. Wisconsin National Guard members operate a testing centre in Milwaukee. Wisconsin, a battleground state in the US presidential election, has been hard hit by Covid-19. Photo: AFP The United States recorded its 9 millionth case today, nearly 3 percent of the population, with almost 229,000 dead since the outbreak of the pandemic earlier this year, according to a Reuters tally of publicly reported data. The country broke its single-day record for new coronavirus infections yesterday, reporting at least 91,248 new cases, as 17 states reported their highest daily number of hospitalised Covid-19 patients since the pandemic started, according the tally. Photo: AFP More than 1000 people died of the virus, marking the third time in October that milestone has been passed in a single day. The number of hospitalised Covid-19 patients has risen over 50 percent in October to 46,000, the highest since mid-August. Among the hardest hit states are those most hotly contested in the campaign between Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden, such as Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The surge has revived some of the worst images of the devastating first wave of the virus in March, April and May, with people on ventilators dying alone in hospital isolation and medical staff physically and mentally exhausted. "Our hospitals cannot keep up with Utah's infection rate. You deserve to understand the dire situation we face," Utah Governor Gary Herbert said on Twitter, echoing officials in other states and public health experts. Saliva tests for Covid-19 being produced at a factory in Draper, Utah. Photo: AFP Utah was among 14 states to report record increases in deaths this month and among 30 states to report record increases in cases. In the battleground state of Wisconsin, hospitals in Green Bay warned that President Trump's rally there could make the outbreak worse. "It is more important now than ever to avoid large crowds, especially here in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where we are seeing some of the most rapid spread of Covid-19 in the United States," a joint statement from several hospitals said. 'Not quite prepared' "We are having some of the largest outbreaks that we've had during the entire pandemic. And nine, 10 months into this pandemic, we are still largely not quite prepared," said Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health in Providence, Rhode Island. "We don't have the kind of testing that we need. There are a lot of problems with large outbreaks happening in many, many different parts of the country. And of course, we're going into the fall and winter, which will, of course, make things very, very difficult," Jha told Reuters in an interview. Trump has repeatedly played down the virus, saying for weeks that the country is "rounding the turn," even as new cases and hospitalisations soared. He maintained his upbeat tone in a tweet today, saying the country was doing much better than Europe had in confronting the pandemic. Biden and fellow Democrats in Congress have criticised the president for his handling of the health crisis. Joe Biden has centred his challenge for the presidency on Donald Trump's poor handling of the pandemic. Photo: AFP In the US House of Representatives, Democrats released a report today condemning the Trump administration's pandemic response as being "among the worst failures of leadership in American history". The failures had forced at least 6 million Americans into poverty and left millions more jobless, it said. "The virus is a global scourge, but it has been an American fiasco, killing more people in the United States than in any other country," said the 71-page interim report by Democratic staff of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, which was created in April. Scientists overruled or sidelined, Democrats say Based on dozens of Democratic-led probes conducted during the panel's first six months, the report said investigators identified more than 60 instances in which Trump administration officials overruled or sidelined top scientists to advance the president's political interests. The subcommittee found over $US4 billion of potential fraud in programmes to help struggling small businesses and accused the administration of directing funding for critical supplies to companies that had political connections or lacked experience, often without competition. "The administration's response to this economic crisis has benefited larger companies and wealthy Americans, while leaving behind many disadvantaged communities and struggling small businesses," the report said. After his hospitalisation with Covid-19 in early October, Trump resumed the large campaign rallies that draw thousands of supporters packed together, many not wearing masks. The Trump campaign says the rallies are safe and that masks and social distancing are encouraged. President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania last month. Photo: AFP A CNN investigation found that 14 out of 17 counties surveyed showed an increased rate of new Covid-19 cases one month after hosting Trump rallies. The report presented the health data without drawing a causal link. Rates of infection in eight of the 14 counties had been decreasing one month before the rallies, it said. In 10 counties, the new rates of infection were growing faster than the overall rate for the state. The report studied counties in 13 states including election battlegrounds of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Florida. - Reuters / BBC