From The Daily Oz.
I'm Sam Becauselowski, I'm billiefit Simon's.
It is Friday, the fifth of December. Here's what's making headlines this evening.
Several heat wave warnings and firebands are in place as extreme weather continues to impact large parts of Eastern Australia. Homes and properties in Victoria and Tasmania have been damaged after high temperatures and strong winds swept through both states on Thursday. Firefighters in northwest Victoria are working to contain a three hundred and seventy hectare bushfire, while conditions have eased slightly in Tasmania, where nineteen homes were damaged in
fires this week. Communities across New South Wales are also facing extreme heat, with an emergency warning issued for a fire near Dubbo. Severe conditions are expected to continue in New South Wales tomorrow as temperatures saw into the low forties in some parts of the state. A strong cold front is forecast to cross Victoria and New South Wales on Sunday morning. Meanwhile, Southeast Queensland is bracing for severe storms this weekend.
Victoria police have shifted focus in their search for Desi Freeman with investigators now working to locate the alleged police killer's body. Freeman has been on the runs since the twentieth of August after he allegedly shot dead two police officers in Porpunker, about three hundred kilometers northeast of Melbourne. The officers were executing a search warrant at the fifty six year old's home at the time of the shooting.
Hundreds of police have been involved in the manhunt, with more than four hundred officers deployed in the hours and days after the killings. Police confirmed on Friday that specialist resources, including dogs and drones have now been deployed for a targeted search of Mount Buffalo National Park. The area was previously searched with the aim to locate Freeman. However, teams have since focused their search on identifying and locating his body.
No trace of Freeman has been located as yet. That's according to Victoria Police.
The death toll from catastrophic flooding in parts of Asia last week has surged past fifteen hundred, with hundreds of people still unaccounted for. Rescue teams are racing to reach survivors isolated by the disaster. The updated death toll came as meteorologists warned of renewed rainfall across areas of Indonesia
already reeling from deadly floods. Authorities said eight hundred and thirty six people were confirmed dead in Indonesia, four hundred and seventy nine in Tri Lanka, and one hundred and eighty five in Thailand, as well as three in Malaysia. Many villages in Indonesia and Tri Lanka remained buried under mud and debris, with eight hundred and fifty nine people still unaccounted for in both countries.
And today's good news for your Friday afternoon. A university in the US will spend an anonymous donation valued at seventy five million Australian dollars on student fees. The gifts will cover the tuition of senior year students enrolled in the University of Washington's Medical Lab Science program. The UNI said the donation is big enough to support students over the next fifty years. Professor and Department chair doctor Jeffrey Baird, said it has been a long standing dream to provide
more financial support to students. We are deeply grateful to the donor whose transformative generosity is making this and our program's growth possible.
That's the latest from the dally Os newsroom. If you're looking for something else to listen to, check out today's Deep Dive, where we take a closer look at the local music missing from your Spotify rap this year.
We'll be back on Monday morning with another deep dive. We've got Billy's interview with National's leader David Little Proud, But until then, have a stellar weekend. My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda Bunjelung Calcuttin woman from Gadigal Country.
The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadigal people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and torrest Rate island and nations.
We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past and present.