A fruit shop owner who risked his life to disarm one of the gunmen during an antisemitic terror attack in Australia’s Bondi Beach is being hailed a hero for his actions.
Authorities said two gunmen, a 50-year-old man and his 24-year-old son, killed at least 15 people and wounded many more during a Hanukkah celebration at the famous Sydney beach. The 50-year-old gunman was also killed and the 24-year-old was hospitalized in “serious condition,” New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said.
Following the deadly shooting on Sunday, videos emerged on social media that showed a man crouched behind a parked car along Campbell Parade, a main street that runs parallel to Bondi Beach. One video shows him jump up and tackle one of the suspects, who had just fired his weapon toward something out of view.
The man, who local Australian media identified as 43-year-old fruit seller Ahmed al Ahmed, then wrestles the gun away and points it at the gunman, who backs away.
Local outlet 7News reported that al Ahmed suffered two gunshot wounds.
The outlet spoke to a man called Mustapha, who said he was his cousin.
“He’s in hospital and we don’t know exactly what’s going on inside,” he said.
“We do hope he will be fine. He’s a hero 100%,” he said.
Police officers stand guard at a cordoned zone following the mass shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, on Monday, Dec. 15, 2025.
Brent Lewin / Bloomberg via Getty Images
The startling footage of the encounter has gone viral, and Ahmed was feted online for his bravery and lifesaving quick thinking, with many people saying he likely saved several lives.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns hailed al Ahmed a “genuine hero.”
“In all of this evil, in all of this sadness, there are still wonderful, brave Australians that are prepared to risk their lives to help a complete stranger,” Minns told a press briefing late Sunday.
U.S. President Trump, during an event at the White House on Sunday, said the man’s actions “saved a lot of lives.”
“It’s been a very, very brave person, actually, who went and attacked frontally one of the shooters, and saved a lot of lives,” Mr. Trump said, adding the man “is right now in the hospital, pretty seriously wounded.”
Officials said 16 people are dead after gunmen targeted the attendees of a Jewish community event on Sunday in Australia’s Bondi Beach. Another 40 people were hospitalized with injuries, including a child and two officers, according to police. Two of the suspects were identified as a father and a son, according to Mal Lanyon, the police commissioner of New South Wales.
The 50-year-old father was killed, and the son — identified as 24-year-old Naveed Akram, a Pakistani national based in Sydney, according to a U.S. intelligence briefing and a driver’s license provided by Australian police — was in custody in critical but stable condition, Lanyon said.
Australian officials and international leaders have condemned it as an antisemitic terrorist attack.
Police said they expect the death toll to climb. Here is what we know so far.
Gunfire broke out at a Hanukkah celebration
The attack took place during a Jewish holiday celebration held to mark the first day of Hanukkah. More than 1,000 people were on the beach, in a suburb of Sydney, when shots rang out, said New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon, who officially declared the shooting a “terrorist incident.”
Numerous Australian officials have characterized the shooting as targeted. New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said it “was designed to target Sydney’s Jewish community.”
“This is a targeted attack on Jewish Australians on the first day of Hanukkah — which should be a day of joy, a celebration of faith — an act of evil antisemitism, terrorism, that has struck the heart of our nation,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at a news conference.
Video footage recorded by civilians showed frightened crowds of beachgoers fleeing the area as gunshots went off in the background.
Neither officials nor police have identified the victims of the attack. Chabad, a global organization representing a branch of ultra-Orthodox Judaism, said Rabbi Eli Schlanger, with Chabad of Bondi, was among the dead, the Associated Press reported. Schlanger had been a key organizer of the Hanukkah event on Bondi Beach, according to the organization.
2 suspects identified as father and son
Australian authorities said two gunmen were suspected of carrying out the deadly mass shooting, a rare occurrence in a country where gun violence is uncommon.
Lanyon said the deceased suspect was previously known to the New South Wales police force. In addition to the 50-year-old gunman killed at the scene of the attack, another was hospitalized with serious injuries, he said. The surviving gunman, the 24-year-old son, has been taken into custody. The commissioner later said officers were not looking for an additional suspect.
Six licensed firearms were found at the scene, Lanyon said, adding that they all belong to the father. The police commissioner added that the older suspect had a gun licence for about ten years.
“We will look at the motives behind this attack and I think it is important as part of the investigation,” he said.
A man has been lauded as a hero and praised by the police commissioner for tackling one suspect and disarming him in dramatic video footage recorded by a bystander along Campbell Parade, a main street that wraps around Bondi Beach. In the footage, the man could be seen crouched in hiding behind a parked car before wrestling the suspect and taking his weapon.
Australian news outlets have identified the man seen disarming the suspect as fruit shop owner Ahmed al Ahmed, citing his relatives.
Officers found explosive devices
Shortly after the shooting took place, officers who responded to the scene discovered a vehicle along Campbell Parade and believed there were several improvised explosive devices inside of it, Lanyon said. The vehicle was linked to the deceased gunman, according to the police commissioner. A rescue bomb disposal crew was at the scene.
Rising antisemitism in Australia
Although Australia rarely experiences mass shootings, after implementing stringent gun reform laws in the wake of a deadly 1996 massacre in Tasmania’s Port Arthur, antisemitic incidents have been on the rise in the country since the war in Gaza began in 2023.
The Australian government appointed special envoys in 2024 to address spiking antisemitism, as well as Islamophobia, in its communities. But attacks still happened this year. One, in July, involved an arsonist who set fire to the door of a synagogue in Melbourne, while worshippers were inside.
World leaders react
The attack on Bondi Beach drew widespread condemnation from leaders across the globe.
In the U.S., Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke out against antisemitism in a social media post, which said: “Antisemitism has no place in this world. Our prayers are with the victims of this horrific attack, the Jewish community, and the people of Australia.”
Rubio joined officials from numerous countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Finland, New Zealand, India, Qatar and Pakistan, who similarly shared remarks expressing sympathy for the victims and solidarity with Jewish communities, as well as denouncing antisemitism.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was among the officials in his country who responded publicly to the attack in Australia. In a statement released by his office, Netanyahu criticized Albanese for supporting a Palestinian state and said such support fuels antisemitism.
“Your call for a Palestinian state pours fuel on the antisemitic fire,” Netanyahu’s statement read, quoting a letter that the Israeli prime minister said he wrote to Albanese in August. “It rewards Hamas terrorists. It emboldens those who menace Australian Jews and encourages the Jew hatred now stalking your streets.”
The American Jewish Committee, an advocacy group and charity organization, said the attack “comes after repeated warnings, including from the Australian Jewish community itself,” adding that “allowing antisemitic rhetoric and demonstrations to go unchecked can—and does—lead to violence and death.”
A police detective walks near houses vandalized with anti-Israel slogans in the Sydney suburb of Woollahra, Australia, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. Credit – Mark Baker—Associated Press
Two gunmen shot at a crowd of beachgoers in Sydney, Australia, killing at least 12 people and wounding at least 30 during a Jewish holiday event at Bondi Beach on Sunday, in what Australian authorities are calling a terrorist attack.
The attack, which targeted an event marking the first day of Hanukkah at the popular tourist destination, is the latest and most deadly in a string of antisemitic incidents that have blighted Australia since the onset of the war in Gaza in October 2023.
The subsequent sixteen months were sullied by firebombing, arson, graffiti, and hate speech incidents that prompted Mike Burgess, the Director-General of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), to proclaim that his top priority in terms of threat to life is antisemitism.
Figures from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) show that antisemitic incidents in Australia have reached historically high levels, at “almost five times the average annual number before October 7, 2023.” The group documented 1,654 anti‑Jewish incidents across Australia between Oct. 1, 2024, and Sept. 30, 2025, in addition to 2,062 incidents nationwide the year before.
Yad Vashem, Israel’s official Holocaust memorial center, has repeatedly raised concerns about a dangerous rise in antisemitic attacks in Australia, including in personal meetings with the premiers of Victoria and New South Wales.
Following an arson attack on a synagogue in Melbourne in July, the center said that “not enough is being done.” It called on Australian authorities to “implement robust educational initiatives to combat hatred and to teach about the dire dangers of unchecked antisemitism.”
Jewish leaders from the world’s seven largest diaspora communities convened in Sydney earlier this month to call for action against antisemitism in Australia.
Speaking in the wake of the deadly attack on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he had warned his Australian counterpart that the country’s policies were fueling antisemitism.
“Three months ago I wrote to the Australian prime minister that your policy is pouring oil on the fire of antisemitism,” he said, referring to a letter he sent to Anthony Albanese in August following Canberra’s announcement that it would recognise Palestinian statehood.
“Antisemitism is a cancer that spreads when leaders are silent and do not act,” Netanyahu added during a televised public address at an event in southern Israel.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the Bondi Beach attack on Sunday, calling it “evil” that was “beyond comprehension,” and convened a meeting of the country’s national security council.
“This is a targeted attack on Jewish Australians on the first day of Hanukkah, which should be a day of joy,” Albanese said, adding, “An attack on Jewish Australians is an attack on every Australian.”
Below is a timeline of antisemitic incidents in Australia over the last two years.
May 25, 2024: Antisemitic graffiti at Jewish school
Mount Scopus Memorial College, one of Australia’s largest and oldest Jewish schools in Melbourne’s east, was targeted in an antisemitic vandalism attack when the phrase “Jew die” was spray‑painted on the exterior fence of the school’s Burwood campus.
Police in Victoria launched an investigation and appealed for public assistance, releasing CCTV footage of a person of interest riding a bicycle near the scene. The graffiti was widely condemned by politicians and community leaders as a deeply troubling act of hatred that has no place in Australian society, and raised concerns about rising antisemitism and student safety.
Oct. 13, 2024: Jewish-owned bakery defaced
A popular Jewish‑owned bakery in Sydney’s inner‑city suburb of Surry Hills was defaced with antisemitic graffiti and a threatening note, heightening concerns about rising hate incidents. Avner’s Bakery, owned by local TV chef Ed Halmagyi, had an inverted red triangle—a symbol associated with both Nazi persecution and used by some extremists to mark Jewish targets— spray‑painted on its window.
Police said the offensive graffiti was reported at the Bourke Street premises, and a handwritten note reading “Be careful” was found slipped under the door. Halmagyi shared the note on social media, calling the incident “Being Jewish in Sydney, 2024 edition,” and NSW Police launched an investigation. Community leaders condemned the attack as a troubling expression of antisemitic intimidation.
Oct. 17, 2024: Brewery arson
The front door of the Curly Lewis Brewing Company, a popular brewery near Bondi Beach in Sydney’s east, was deliberately set on fire in the early hours of the morning. CCTV and court documents show two men poured accelerant underneath the front door and ignited it before fleeing; the blaze self‑extinguished after a short time thanks to the building’s sprinkler system, but caused significant damage to the entrance.
Police later linked the arson to a broader investigation into antisemitic attacks in Sydney, although authorities say the brewery was likely mistakenly targeted instead of a nearby kosher deli, Lewis’ Continental Kitchen. Two men — Guy Finnegan and Craig Bantoft — later pleaded guilty to the fire charge, with officers investigating whether they were acting on instructions from an unknown figure.
Oct. 20, 2024: Kosher deli attack
The kosher deli Lewis’ Continental Kitchen in Sydney’s Bondi suburb was deliberately set alight in an antisemitic arson attack, causing extensive damage. As part of a broader task force investigation into a series of antisemitic incidents, police charged former biker gang member Sayed Moosawi in March 2025 with allegedly directing two men to torch both Lewis’ Continental Kitchen and nearby Curly Lewis Brewing Company to distract police resources; Moosawi denied the charges and was released on bail.
Australian authorities later said intelligence from the national security agency found credible evidence that Iran’s government played a role in the Oct. 20 attack on the kosher deli, a claim that led Canberra to expel Iran’s ambassador and accuse Tehran of undermining social cohesion through antisemitic violence.
Nov. 21, 2024: Rampage in Jewish community
In a brazen antisemitic attack in Woollahra, a leafy eastern suburb of Sydney that has a significant Jewish community, a car was set on fire, and multiple vehicles and buildings were vandalised with anti‑Israel and antisemitic graffiti in the early hours of the morning. Police said about 10 cars, including one torched vehicle, were spray‑painted with slogans such as “f*** Israel,” while properties and a nearby restaurant were also defaced. Fire crews extinguished the blaze, and authorities estimated more than $100,000 in damage.
The incident drew condemnation from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, NSW Premier Chris Minns and local leaders. Albanese called it a “deeply troubling” and “disgusting” act of hate and vowed police would investigate. The attack was investigated under a strike force handling a string of antisemitic incidents in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
Dec. 6, 2024: Synagogue arson
In the early hours before dawn, masked men broke into the Adass Israel Synagogue in the Ripponlea suburb of Melbourne and firebombed the place of worship, pouring accelerant inside and setting it alight, causing extensive damage to the building and its interior. The blaze, which drew dozens of firefighters, was later treated by police as a suspected terror attack and became a central focus of a Joint Counter‑Terrorism Team investigation involving Victoria Police, the Australian Federal Police, and national security agencies. Community members inside at the time fled as flames spread, and Jewish leaders described the attack as a shocking escalation of antisemitic violence in Australia.
Prime Minister Albanese condemned the attack as an “outrage” and pledged support for the Jewish community. In August 2025, authorities charged two men in connection with the synagogue firebombing as part of the broader terrorism‑linked probe. Days later, Albanese said intelligence assessments showed the Iranian government had directed the attack, prompting diplomatic action and highlighting growing concerns about foreign influence behind some antisemitic incidents on Australian soil.
Dec. 7, 2024: Netanyahu blames Australian government
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly linked the recent wave of antisemitic attacks in Australia to what he described as the Australian government’s “anti‑Israel” stance at the United Nations, including Canberra’s vote for a resolution critical of Israel’s policies. Netanyahu said that support for such U.N. positions made it “impossible to separate” antisemitic violence, such as the firebombing of a Melbourne synagogue, from Australia’s diplomatic position on the Israel‑Palestine conflict. His comments drew criticism from Australian officials, who rejected the suggestion that government policy was to blame for the attacks.
Dec. 9, 2024: Antisemitism task force launched
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) announced the launch of a dedicated antisemitism task force, known as Special Operation Avalite, to investigate a spate of antisemitic threats, violence and hate incidents across the country. The unit, established in the wake of the Dec. 6 firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne and other attacks, is staffed with counterterrorism investigators and works with state and territory police to target high‑harm antisemitism against Jewish communities and public figures. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the task force would enhance national efforts to hold perpetrators accountable.
Dec. 11, 2024:Jewish neighborhood attacked again
The eastern Sydney suburb of Woollahra, which has a large Jewish community, was attacked for the second time in as many months as police found a car set on fire and multiple homes and buildings vandalised with antisemitic and anti‑Israel graffiti, including a misspelled slogan reading “Kill Israiel.” Officers established a crime scene on Magney Street and were seeking two male suspects seen fleeing the area. New South Wales Premier Chris Minns and Prime Minister Albanese condemned the attack as a “hate crime” and “outrage,” with police pledging increased patrols and investigation under a broader antisemitism task force.
Jan. 7, 2025: Worshippers threatened
A 20‑year‑old man was charged after allegedly making threatening gestures toward worshippers near the Chabad North Shore synagogue and Kehillat Masada synagogue in Sydney’s north‑west suburb of St Ives. Police allege the man made a gun‑like hand gesture at pedestrians exiting the synagogues on Link Road on Jan. 4, prompting reports to police and a subsequent arrest at a home in North Turramurra. He was charged with stalking or intimidating with intent to cause fear of physical harm and was granted conditional bail to appear in Hornsby Local Court later in January. The alleged threat came amid a broader wave of reported antisemitic incidents across Sydney.
Jan. 10, 2025: Hitler graffiti
The Allawah Synagogue in southern Sydney was vandalised early Friday with multiple swastikas and other antisemitic graffiti, including the words “Hitler on top,” sprayed on the exterior walls of the place of worship. NSW Police said the incident occurred around 3:55 a.m. and released CCTV footage showing two people in dark clothing near the synagogue. State Premier Chris Minns condemned the act as a “monstrous” hate crime, and police launched a hate‑crime investigation under Operation Shelter. Jewish community leaders called for swift arrests, saying the attack was deeply troubling and had no place in Australia’s multicultural society.
Jan. 11, 2025: Synagogue vandalized
Newtown Synagogue in Sydney’s inner west was vandalised with red swastikas and other Nazi‑linked graffiti, and police said vandals attempted to set the building on fire by pouring an accelerant that burned briefly before going out. Officers released CCTV images showing two people of interest and counterterrorism detectives took over the investigation, calling it an escalation in antisemitic crime. On the same day, a house in Sydney’s east was also defaced with antisemitic graffiti, prompting a broader police response. New South Wales Premier Chris Minns condemned the incidents as unacceptable and heightened police scrutiny under a broader antisemitism probe.
Jan. 16, 2025: Task force makes first arrest
The Australian Federal Police’s (AFP) Special Operation Avalite made its first arrest in Sydney when a 44‑year‑old man from Blacktown was charged with allegedly posting death threats to members of a Jewish organisation on social media. He was charged with using a carriage service to make a threat to kill and to menace, harass or cause offence — offences that carry up to 10 and five years’ imprisonment, respectively — and was granted watch‑house bail ahead of a Downing Centre Local Court appearance later in February. The AFP seized electronic devices and documents during a search of his home as part of the ongoing investigation into high‑harm antisemitic conduct.
Jan. 17, 2025:Cars set alight
Two cars were set on fire, and four vehicles in total were damaged, while a house was vandalised with red paint in the Sydney suburb of Dover Heights in an antisemitic attack. The property was formerly owned by Alex Ryvchin, the co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ).
Jan. 19, 2025: Hate crime laws announced
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns announced a suite of tougher hate‑crime and anti‑protest laws aimed at strengthening protections against antisemitism and racial hatred. The legislative package included new offences targeting harassment, intimidation or blocking of people entering or leaving places of worship, penalties for displaying Nazi symbols near sacred sites, and expanded police powers to give “move‑on” directions to protesters in or near places of worship. Minns said the measures were necessary to ensure people of faith can practise their religion free from intimidation and to address a recent spate of antisemitic attacks in the state.
Jan. 21, 2025: Childcare center defaced
A childcare centre in Sydney’s east was set alight and sprayed with antisemitic graffiti early Tuesday, causing extensive damage to the unoccupied building less than 200 metres from the Maroubra Synagogue. The words “F*** the Jews” were found amid the vandalism, and police established a crime scene as part of an ongoing hate‑crime investigation. NSW and federal leaders condemned the attack as “despicable” and “horrifying,” and authorities continued efforts to identify and arrest suspects. Police also charged a woman in connection with a Dec. 11 antisemitic vandalism incident in Sydney’s east. In response to the escalation of antisemitic attacks, Prime Minister Albanese convened a national cabinet meeting to coordinate a whole‑of‑government response to the rising wave of antisemitism.
Jan. 29, 2025: Potential terror threat
New South Wales police confirmed that a caravan found in Dural, in Sydney’s northwest, containing a significant quantity of explosives and antisemitic‑linked material was under investigation as a potential terror threat after it was reported to authorities earlier in January. Officers from state and federal counter‑terrorism units, including the Australian Federal Police and ASIO, treated the discovery as an escalation amid a wave of antisemitic incidents targeting Jewish sites. Police said the caravan was first noticed on Jan. 19, with the explosive material capable of a large blast radius, and included a note referencing Jewish targets. Authorities later determined the plot was likely a fabricated plan orchestrated by organised crime figures to distract police resources rather than a credible terror attack, with investigators calling it a “fake terrorism plot.”
Feb. 12, 2025: Threats to Jewish patients
Two nurses at Bankstown‑Lidcombe Hospital in Sydney’s west were suspended and their nursing registrations barred nationwide after a video circulating on TikTok and other social platforms appeared to show them threatening to kill Jewish or Israeli patients and saying they would refuse to treat them if they presented for care. The clip, which unfolded during an online conversation with an Israeli social media user, drew widespread condemnation from political and health leaders, with New South Wales officials calling the remarks “vile, disgusting and unacceptable.” NSW Police and health authorities launched a criminal investigation into possible offences, including using a carriage service to menace, harass or threaten to kill, and both nurses were stood down pending that probe.
July 4, 2025: Arson attack on Shabbat
About 20 worshippers attending a Shabbat dinner at the East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation were forced to evacuate through a rear exit after a man poured flammable liquid on the front door and set it alight, prompting firefighters to extinguish the blaze. No one was injured, and police later arrested a 34‑year‑old Sydney man, Angelo Loras, charging him with arson, reckless conduct endangering life, criminal damage by fire, and possession of a controlled weapon; he was remanded in custody. Authorities were also investigating whether the synagogue arson was linked to a separate disturbance that night at an Israeli‑owned restaurant in the city’s central business district, where protesters clashed with patrons and police. The incident was condemned by federal and state leaders as a targeted act of violence amid a broader pattern of antisemitic attacks in Australia.
Dec. 14, 2025: Bondi Beach terror attack
Sunday’s attack at Bondi Beach, Sydney, on the first day of Hanukkah killed at least 12 and injured 30 people, including two police officers.
At least 11 people were shot and killed in an attack targeting a Jewish gathering on Sunday, the first day of Hanukkah, on Australia’s Bondi Beach, according to Australian government officials and police.
One of two gunmen identified in the shooting was also dead, and the second was hospitalized “in serious condition,” police said. Another 29 people were taken to hospitals with injuries, including two officers and a child.
The shooting took place at a celebration called Hanukkah by the Sea, held to mark the beginning of the Jewish holiday observed from sundown on Sunday until Monday, Dec. 22. More than 1,000 were at the beach when gunfire broke out, said New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon at a news conference on Sunday. Lanyon called the attack a “terrorist incident.” New South Wales is the Australian state where Bondi Beach is located, in a suburb of Sydney.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said the attack “was designed to target Sydney’s Jewish community.” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has also characterized the shooting as “a targeted attack on Jewish Australians.”
“This afternoon, there has been a devastating terrorist incident at Bondi and the Hanukkah by the Sea celebration,” said Albanese at a news conference he convened in the wake of the shooting. “This is a targeted attack on Jewish Australians on the first day of Hanukkah, which should be a day of joy, a celebration of faith, an act of evil antisemitism — terrorism — that has struck the heart of our nation.”
Lanyon said police found an explosive device in a car, linked to the deceased suspect. A rescue bomb disposal crew was at the scene on Bondi Beach, he said.
Police were not releasing more information on the gunmen implicated in the shooting, according to Lanyon, although he said at Sunday’s conference that officers were investigating whether a third gunman was involved.
Images and video footage have emerged from the scene of the attack, showing the injured being wheeled away on stretchers by first responders. One video appeared to show someone wrestling with one of the suspected gunmen and taking his weapon from him, according to Minns, who paid tribute to that individual.
“The scenes in Bondi are shocking and distressing,” said Albanese in a statement. “My thoughts are with every person affected.”
Mass shootings in Australia are rare. But researchers have recorded dramatic upticks in antisemitic incidents in the country since the Oct. 7, 2023, assault by Hamas terrorists on Israel triggered the war in Gaza, along with spikes in hate incidents against Muslim groups.
In response, the Australian government appointed special envoys last year to address antisemitism and Islamophobia in its communities. However, attacks have continued to happen since then. In July, an arsonist set fire to the door of a synagogue in Melbourne, another major Australian city, seven months after a different synagogue in the same city was burned by criminals in a blaze that injured one worshipper.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
Two gunmen attacked a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday, killing at least 11 people in what Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called an act of antisemitic terrorism that struck at the heart of the nation.
The massacre at one of Australia’s most popular and iconic beaches followed a wave of antisemitic attacks that have roiled the country over the past year, although the authorities didn’t suggest those episodes and Sunday’s shooting were connected. It is the deadliest shooting in almost three decades in a country with strict gun control laws.
One gunman was fatally shot by police and the second, who was arrested, was in critical condition, authorities said. Police said one of the gunmen was known to the security services, but that there had been no specific threat.
At least 29 people were confirmed wounded, including two police officers, said Mal Lanyon, the police commissioner for New South Wales state, where Sydney is located.
Police said officers were examining a number of suspicious items, including several improvised explosive devices found in one of the suspect’s cars.
The shooting targeted a Jewish celebration
“This attack was designed to target Sydney’s Jewish community,” New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said. He said it was declared a terrorist attack due to the event targeted and weapons used.
The violence erupted at the end of a hot summer day when thousands had flocked to Bondi Beach, including hundreds who had gathered for the Chanukah by the Sea event celebrating the start of the eight-day Hanukkah festival.
Chabad, an Orthodox Jewish movement that runs outreach centers around the world and sponsors public events during major Jewish holidays, identified one of the dead as Rabbi Eli Schlanger, assistant rabbi at Chabad of Bondi and a key organizer of the event.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry confirmed the death of an Israeli citizen, but gave no further details.
Police said emergency services were called to Campbell Parade in Bondi about 6:45 p.m. responding to reports of shots being fired. Video footage filmed by onlookers showed people in bathing suits running from the water as shots rang out. Separate footage appeared to show two men with long guns firing from a footbridge leading to the beach.
One dramatic clip broadcast on Australian television showed a man appearing to tackle and disarm one of the gunmen, before pointing the man’s weapon at him, then setting the gun on the ground.
Minns called the unidentified man a “genuine hero.”
Witnesses fled and hid as shots rang out
Lachlan Moran, 32, from Melbourne, told The Associated Press he was waiting for his family nearby when he heard shots. He dropped the beer he was carrying and ran.
“You heard a few pops, and I freaked out and ran away. … I started sprinting. I just had that intuition. I sprinted as quickly as I could,” Moran said. He said he heard shooting off and on for about five minutes.
“Everyone just dropped all their possessions and everything and were running and people were crying and it was just horrible,” Moran said.
Local resident Catherine Merchant said “it was the most perfect day and then this happened.
“Everyone was just running and there were bullets and there were so many of them and we were really scared,” she told Australia’s ABC News.
Australian leaders express shock and grief
Albanese told reporters in the Australian capital, Canberra, that he was “devastated” by the massacre.
“This is a targeted attack on Jewish Australians on the first day of Hanukkah, which should be a day of joy, a celebration of faith. An act of evil, antisemitism, terrorism that has struck the heart of our nation,” Albanese said.
He vowed that the violence would be met with “a moment of national unity where Australians across the board will embrace their fellow Australians of Jewish faith.”
King Charles III said he and Queen Camilla were “appalled and saddened by the most dreadful antisemitic terrorist attack.”
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on X that he was horrified, and his “heart is with the Jewish community worldwide.” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the “ghastly terrorist attack.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was being updated on the “appalling attack.” Police in London said they would step up security at Jewish sites.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a post on X that “the United States strongly condemns the terrorist attack in Australia targeting a Jewish celebration. Antisemitism has no place in this world.”
Antisemitic attacks have roiled Australia
Australia, a country of 28 million people, is home to about 117,000 Jews, according to official figures. Antisemitic incidents, including assaults, vandalism, threats and intimidation, surged more than threefold in the country during the year after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel launched a war on Hamas in Gaza in response, the government’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Jillian Segal reported in July.
Throughout last summer, the country was rocked by a spate of antisemitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne. Synagogues and cars were torched, businesses and homes graffitied and Jews attacked in those cities, where 85% of the nation’s Jewish population lives.
Albanese in August blamed Iran for two of the attacks and cut diplomatic ties to Tehran. The authorities didn’t make such claims about Sunday’s massacre.
Israel urged Australia’s government to address crimes targeting Jews. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he warned Australia’s leaders months ago in a letter about the dangers of failing to take action against antisemitism. He claimed Australia’s decision — in line with scores of other countries — to recognize a Palestinian state “pours fuel on the antisemitic fire.”
“Your government did nothing to stop the spread of antisemitism in Australia … and the result is the horrific attacks on Jews we saw today,” Netanyahu said.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Australia’s government should “fight against the enormous wave of antisemitism which is plaguing Australian society.”
Shooting deaths in Australia are rare
Mass shootings in Australia are extremely rare. A 1996 massacre in the Tasmanian town of Port Arthur, where a lone gunman killed 35 people, prompted the government to drastically tighten gun laws and made it much more difficult for Australians to acquire firearms.
Significant mass shootings this century included two murder-suicides with death tolls of five people in 2014, and seven in 2018, in which gunmen killed their own families and themselves.
In 2022, six people were killed in a shootout between police and Christian extremists at a rural property in Queensland state.
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McGuirk reported from Melbourne, Australia, and Graham-McLay from Wellington, New Zealand. Associated Press writer Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.
Kristen Gelineau | The Associated Press, Charlotte Graham-mclay | The Associated Press and Rod Mcgurk | The Associated Press
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australian accident investigators on Thursday released dramatic images of a skydiver’s parachute becoming entangled on an airplane’s tail, leaving him dangling at 4,500 meters (15,000 feet.)
The skydiver, Adrian Ferguson, used a hook knife to cut himself free and sustained minor leg injuries during the incident on Sept. 20 that began at Tully Airport in Queensland state. The pilot and 16 other parachutists on board the Cessna Caravan that day were not hurt.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau released the video with its report on its investigation into the mishap.
The plane had reached the desired altitude where the skydivers were planning to execute a 16-way formation jump. A 17th parachutist was at an open door waiting to record video as the others jumped.
Ferguson was leaving the plane when the ripcord of his reserve chute became snagged on a wing flap, the report said.
The chute released and immediately jerked Fergson backward. He knocked the camera operator clear from the plane and into a free fall. Ferguson’s legs then struck the trail’s horizontal stabilizer before the chute tangled around it and left him dangling.
Ferguson used a knife to cut 11 lines that enabled him to fall from the plane with part of the torn chute.
He released his main chute, which fully inflated despite becoming entangled with remnants of the reserve chute, and he landed safely.
Meanwhile, most of the other skydivers had jumped. The pilot was left with two skydivers aboard battling to control the plane with part of the chute still tangled around the tail.
The pilot made a mayday call and was prepared to bail out wearing an emergency chute. But Brisbane air traffic authorities decided he had enough control of the plane to land safely at Tully. It landed without incident.
“Carrying a hook knife — although it is not a regulatory requirement — could be lifesaving in the event of a premature reserve parachute deployment,” the bureau’s chief commissioner Angus Mitchell said.
Social media platform Reddit on Friday launched a legal challenge against Australia’s social media ban for under 16s.
Under the law, which took effect on Wednesday, people under the age of 16 are no longer allowed to have their own accounts on 10 major social media platforms including Reddit, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook and YouTube.
In a High Court filing, Reddit argued the ban infringed on free political speech and posed privacy risks.
In a post on the platform, Reddit said it took youth safety online seriously and the court action was not an attempt to avoid compliance.
“That said, we believe there are more effective ways for the Australian government to accomplish our shared goal of protecting youth.”
The new law had “the unfortunate effect of forcing intrusive and potentially insecure verification processes on adults as well as minors,” the company said.
It would isolate teens from being able to engage in age-appropriate community experiences and create “an illogical patchwork of which platforms are included and which aren’t,” Reddit added.
The law was applied to Reddit inaccurately, the company said.
“Unlike other platforms included under this law, the vast majority of Redditors are adults, we don’t market or target advertising to children under 18, and had an age rating of ’17+’ in the Apple App Store prior to the law.”
Reddit said there were more targeted, “privacy-preserving measures” to protect young people online without resorting to blanket bans.
Australia’s Health Minister Mark Butler accused Reddit of putting profit over safety.
“Across our history, when our governments have taken strong action to protect citizens against highly addictive, highly damaging products, they’ve usually been challenged in the courts by the companies that profit most from them,” he said.
“But the idea that this is some action by Reddit to protect the political freedoms of young people is a complete crock.”
The government would “fight this action every step of the way,” Butler said.
“It’s action we saw time and time again by Big Tobacco against tobacco control, and we’re seeing it now by some social media or big tech giants taken against these world leading social media reforms that are going to do so much to improve the social skills, the learning skills, and, importantly, the mental health of young Australians.”
Butler said other governments and communities around the world were watching Australia as the first country in the world to impose such a ban.
“They want it to be a success, and if it is a success, I’m very confident they’ll follow seat and take the same sorts of actions to protect their young citizens as well.”
The regulation, passed with the support of almost all major parties in parliament at the end of 2024, aims to protect young people from risks such as cyberbullying, problematic consumption and distressing content.
Affected companies were given a year to introduce age verification measures, and violations will result in hefty fines of up to $49.5 million Australian ($33 million).
Messaging services such as WhatsApp, email, online games and educational offerings are exempt.
Numerous teenagers reported that their accounts were still active after the law came into force, or that they had managed to circumvent the regulation on its first day.
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australian authorities on Thursday demanded some of the world’s biggest social media platforms report how many accounts they have deactivated since a ban on accounts for children younger than 16 became law.
Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube and Twitch all said they would abide by Australia’s world-first law that took effect on Wednesday, Communications Minister Anika Wells said.
But the tech companies’ responses to eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant’s first demand for data will likely indicate their commitment to ridding their platforms of young children.
“Today the eSafety Commissioner will write to all 10 platforms who are considered age-restricted social media platforms and she will ask them … what were your numbers of under 16 accounts on Dec. 9; what are your numbers today on Dec. 11?” Wells said.
The commissioner would reveal the platforms’ responses within two weeks. The platforms would be required to provide monthly updates for six months.
The companies face fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars ($32.9 million) from Wednesday if they fail to take reasonable steps to remove the accounts of Australian children younger than 16.
Wells said the European Commission, France, Denmark, Greece, Romania, Indonesia, Malaysia and New Zealand were considering following Australia’s lead in restricting children’s access to social media.
“There’s been a huge amount of global interest and we welcome it, and we welcome all of the allies who are joining Australia to take action in this space to draw a line to say enough’s enough,” Wells said.
Sydney-based rights group Digital Freedom Project plans to challenge the law on constitutional grounds in the Australian High Court early next year.
Inman Grant said some platforms had consulted lawyers and might be waiting to receive their first so-called compulsory information notice Thursday or their first fine for noncompliance before mounting a legal challenge.
“That could be a strategy that they have in and of themselves: we’ll say we’re complying but then we’ll do a crappy job using these technologies and we’ll let people get through and have people claim it’s a failure,” Inman Grant told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Inman Grant said her research had found that 84% of children in Australia aged 8-12 had accessed a social media account. Of those with social media access, 90% did so with the help of parents.
Inman Grant said the main reason parents helped was because “they didn’t want their children to be excluded.”
“What this legislation does … is it takes away that fear of exclusion,” Inman Grant said.
With the world’s first social media ban for teenagers under 16 now in effect in Australia, its initial political architect is celebrating a new less-digital era for millions of children — and sharing that the legislation was personally inspired by his wife, for their four children.
“She read a book called ‘The Anxious Generation,’ by Jonathan Haidt,” said Peter Malinauskas, the premier of the state of South Australia. “And I will never forget the night she finished reading the book and she put it down on her lap and she turned to me and said, ‘You better do something about this!’”
Within seven months, and with strong public support, that idea fast became law across the land, winning support from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Ten major apps including TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit and Facebook have complied to bar everyone 16 and under from their accounts and from setting up new accounts.
“Heaven forbid they might talk to one another a bit more, pick up the phone and have a chat rather than just being obsessed with the screen,” said Maulinauskas.
The ban puts the onus of responsibility on social media companies rather than parents with a penalty of up to $33 million if found to be in breach. It allows for each company to decide how best to adhere, which must be “multi-layered,” using more than one kind of identity verification, which could include traditional methods including national IDs and passports but also artificial intelligence — controversial over possible inaccuracies — to scan facial features for age.
Malinauskas readily admits there will be growing pains.
“People will find ways around it and lots of things will go wrong, and that’ll be highlighted in coming days and weeks in Australia,” he said, “but on balance, this is a reform that parents want so they can do their job more easily.”
He says officials from North America, Europe and Asia have been speaking with him about advancing similar legislation in Canada, the United Kingdom and Japan. Malaysia is already on track to be the next country to ban those under 16 from social media in 2026.
Yet in Australia, the law already faces a legal challenge. The country’s High Court accepted a legal challenge from two 15-year-olds who assert the ban violates their freedom of communication. The case could be heard as early as February.
Malinauskas blames those companies for putting all children through “a global experiment” over the past decade with “social media addiction and overuse because many of these platforms have had addictive algorithms.”
“I’m really proud, really proud that we’ve been able to see South Australia and then Australia lead a reform that’s going to make a big difference to young people’s lives,” he said.
“And the reason why politicians are looking at it is because parents know something’s not right. You know, there is no better judge of what’s in the best interest of a child than a parent, right?”
Suffolk, England – For parents Daisy Greenwell and Joe Ryrie, freedom means looking up at the world around them instead of down at their phones, and they’re determined to pass that sense of non-digital liberty on to their children.
Their daughter started asking for a smartphone when she was just eight years old, because her classmates were getting them. The pressure to have a phone at such a young age surprised Greenwell, and pushed her to look more closely at the trend.
She found a growing body of research suggesting that heavy smartphone use may negatively impact young people’s mental health.
The more she read, the more concerned she became, so Greenwell decided to take action. She posted a question on Instagram: What if we could switch the norm? What if parents united to create a “smartphone-free childhood?”
The response was immediate.
“That post went viral,” she told CBS News. “Thousands of parents joined the group overnight.”
Daisy Greenwell and Joe Ryrie are the co-founders of Smartphone Free Childhood. The grassroots parent-led movement now has chapters in 39 countries.
CBS News
Within a couple weeks, Greenwell said there were smartphone-free childhood groups in every county in England. One year later, the grassroots campaign has expanded far beyond the U.K. borders.
The group — Smartphone Free Childhood — now has chapters in 39 countries.
For Greenwell, Ryrie and the thousands of families who’ve joined the movement, the goal is simple: More time outdoors, and a childhood lived offline as much as possible.
In the U.S., the movement even inspired a cautionary viral advertisement, highlighting the dangers of giving children unrestricted access to the internet. A parent in the ad tells their child: “There’s a box in the corner with all the pornographic material ever made. I’m trusting you not to look in there, okay?”
The backlash against youth consumption of social media has drawn the attention of governments globally. On Wednesday, Australia became the first country in the world to enact a ban on social media accounts for children under the age of 16. The law compels huge tech companies such as Meta and TikTok to enforce age restrictions, or face hefty fines.
In the U.K., national Culture Minister Lisa Nandy said the government would be keeping a “close eye” on Australia’s social media ban, but added that there were no current plans to replicate the legislation.
At a grassroots level, however, parents who join Greenwell and Ryrie’s movement are asked to sign a pact: No smartphones for the kids before they turn 14, and no social media before 16.
“This isn’t an anti-tech movement, it’s a pro-childhood movement. We’re not saying no smartphones ever. We’re just saying children don’t need unrestricted internet access in their pockets 24/7,” Ryrie told CBS News.
When asked what she’d tell busy working parents who rely on phones for convenience, Greenwell acknowledged the challenge.
“It’s really tough,” she said. “But delaying the smartphone is free, it’s simple, and it gives your child the best chance to thrive.”
Many families are turning to basic “brick phones” as alternatives — devices that allow calls and texts, but limit internet access. Sales of such “dumb” devices have risen 150% among 18-24 year olds in the United States, according to a study by the peer-reviewed journal Partners Universal Innovative Research Publication.
Despite the momentum, Greenwell says there’s still a cultural norm to disrupt, and available data highlights that point. One in four British kids between the ages of 5 and 7 already own a smartphone, according to the U.K.’s independent media regulator Ofcom.
Greenwell said she believes real change can be driven from the community level.
“If children know several classmates are also delaying smartphones, the peer pressure dissolves,” she told CBS News. “It becomes easier for families to wait a few years. A brick phone in the meantime isn’t that hard. We can do this.”
SYDNEY, Nov 29 (Reuters) – Anthony Albanese became the first Australian prime minister to tie the knot while in office when he married his partner Jodie Haydon in a private ceremony on Saturday.
The wedding was widely expected to be held this year after Albanese proposed to Haydon on Valentine’s Day last year. But the date and details of the ceremony were kept tightly under wraps.
The couple married at a small ceremony in the presence of family and close friends at The Lodge in the capital city Canberra, the prime minister’s office said in a statement.
“We are absolutely delighted to share our love and commitment to spending our future lives together, in front of our family and closest friends,” Albanese said in the statement released to the media.
Haydon has accompanied Albanese to several events over the years and was also with him during his election campaign in 2022 and in May this year, when his Labor party won with a thumping majority.
Haydon wore a dress by Sydney designer “Romance was Born”, while the prime minister wore a suit from MJ Bale.
Ms Haydon’s five-year-old niece, Ella, was flower girl, and the prime minister’s dog, Toto, was the ring bearer.
Guests were served beer in a special can made by Willie the Boatman whose brewery is in Sydney’s Inner West.
After the ceremony, Albanese and Haydon walked back down the aisle to Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours)”. Their first dance was to “The Way You Look Tonight” by Frank Sinatra.
The couple will honeymoon in Australia from Monday until Friday of next week, with all expenses paid privately by Albanese and Haydon, his office said.
(Reporting by Praveen Menon; Editing by Stephen Coates)
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The Australian government said young children will be banned from social media next month as scheduled despite a rights advocacy group on Wednesday challenging the world-first legislation in court.
The Sydney-based Digital Freedom Project said it had filed a constitutional challenge in the High Court on Wednesday to a law due to take effect on Dec. 10 banning Australian children younger than 16 from holding accounts on specified platforms.
Communications Minister Anika Wells referred to the challenge when she later told Parliament her government remained committed to the ban taking effect on schedule.
“We will not be intimidated by legal challenges. We will not be intimidated by Big Tech. On behalf of Australian parents, we stand firm,” Wells told Parliament.
Digital Freedom Project president John Ruddick is a New South Wales state lawmaker for the minor Libertarian Party.
“Parental supervision of online activity is today the paramount parental responsibility. We do not want to outsource that responsibility to government and unelected bureaucrats,” Ruddick said in a statement.
“This ban is a direct assault on young people’s right to freedom of political communication,” he added.
The case is being brought by Sydney law firm Pryor, Tzannes and Wallis Solicitors on behalf of two 15-year-old children.
Digital Freedom Project spokesperson Sam Palmer could not say whether an application would be made for a court injunction to prevent the age restriction taking effect on Dec. 10 before the case is heard.
Technology giant Meta last week began sending thousands of Australian children suspected to be younger than 16 a warning to downland their digital histories and delete their accounts from Facebook, Instagram and Threads before the ban takes effect.
The government has said the three Meta platforms plus Snapchat, TikTok, X and YouTube must take reasonable steps to exclude Australian account holders younger than 16 or face fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($32 million).
Malaysia has also announced plans to ban social media accounts for children under 16 starting in 2026.
Malaysian Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said this week his Cabinet approved the move as part of a broader effort to shield young people from online harm like cyberbullying, scams and sexual exploitation. He said his government was studying approaches taken by Australia and other countries, and the potential use of electronic checks with identity cards or passports to verify users’ ages.
WELLINGTON (Reuters) -The New Zealand government announced on Thursday an inquiry into the disappearance of the Phillips children, who were hidden by their fugitive father in dense bush without discovery for several years.
“The inquiry will look into whether government agencies took all practicable steps to protect the safety and welfare of the Phillips children,” Attorney-General Judith Collins said in a statement.
Tom Phillips disappeared with his children in late 2021, in a case that drew national attention for his ability to evade arrest.
In September, Phillips was shot dead in a standoff with police following a robbery at a small rural store. A police officer was also shot multiple times in the standoff but he was later discharged from hospital.
One of Phillips’ children was with him during the shooting and the other two children were later found at a campsite in the remote wilderness. Police have said they believe people in the area helped Phillips, but no arrests have been made.
The inquiry, which will determine whether agencies could take steps to prevent or resolve similar situations more quickly or effectively, will deliver a final report in July 2026. The inquiry will be conducted in private.
(Reporting by Lucy Craymer in WellingtonEditing by Matthew Lewis)
SYDNEY (Reuters) -A constitutional challenge against Australia’s social media ban on children younger than 16 has been filed in the nation’s highest court, two weeks before the world-first law is set to take effect.
A campaign group called the Digital Freedom Project said on Wednesday it launched proceedings in the High Court of Australia in a bid to block the law, with two 15-year-olds, Noah Jones and Macy Neyland, as plaintiffs in the case.
More than one million accounts held by teenagers under 16 are set to be deactivated in Australia when the ban on platforms including YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat and Meta’s Facebook and Instagram starts on December 10.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Digital Freedom Project said the ban “robs” young Australians of their freedom of political communication, an implied right in the constitution. Australia does not have an express right to free speech.
“The legislation is grossly excessive,” the statement said.
Neyland said the law would ban young people from expressing their views online.
“Young people like me are the voters of tomorrow … we shouldn’t be silenced. It’s like Orwell’s book 1984, and that scares me,” she said.
The Digital Freedom Project’s president is John Ruddick, a member of the Libertarian Party in the New South Wales state Parliament.
After news of the legal challenge broke, Communications Minister Anika Wells told Parliament the centre-left government, led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, would not be intimidated by threats and legal challenges.
“Despite the fact that we are receiving threats and legal challenges by people with ulterior motives, the Albanese Labor government remains steadfastly on the side of parents, and not of platforms,” Wells said.
Australian media has reported that YouTube also threatened to launch a High Court challenge on the grounds the ban burdened political communication.
Governments and tech firms around the world are closely watching Australia’s effort to implement the ban, one of the most comprehensive efforts to police minors’ social media access.
The ban was passed into law in November 2024 and is supported by the majority of Australians, according to opinion polling.
The government said research showed the over-use of social media was harming young teens, including causing misinformation, enabling bullying and harmful depictions of body image.
Companies that fail to comply with the ban could face penalties of up to A$49.5 million ($32.22 million).
($1 = 1.5361 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Christine Chen in Sydney; Editing by Michael Perry)
If you were traversing the ancient Tethys ocean some 115 million years ago and encountered gigantic lamniform sharks, you’d most definitely need a bigger boat.
Lamniformes, an order of sharks that includes the great white of Jaws infamy, evolved around 135 million years ago and may have begun as wee, shallow water-dwelling creatures—around 3 feet long. But over time, they evolved into massive, fearsome fish that ruled the world’s oceans, for example the extinct megalodon that might have surpassed 50 feet long.
Previous evidence suggested that lamniformes swelled in size to hit the top of the marine food chain around 100 million years ago. Now, fossilized vertebrae found in Australia push this timeline back some 15 million years. These vertebrae appear to have belonged to a type of lamniform called a cardabiodontid, a hefty mega-predatory shark that swam among huge marine reptile neighbors such as plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs while dinosaurs roamed land.
SHARK SPINE: Fossilized vertebrae belonging to a massive, 115-million-year old shark. Photo by Mikael Siversson.
This ancient ocean beast weighed more than 3 tons and measured between around 20 and 26 feet long, scientists reported in Communications Biology. According to statistical analysis of data from almost 2,000 modern sharks, the authors suggest that this ancient shark ballooned in size relatively early in its evolutionary history, about 20 million years after lamniformes emerged.
“This discovery changes the timeline for when sharks started getting really big,” said study author Mikael Siversson, a paleontologist at the Western Australian Museum, in a statement. “It turns out, they evolved a giant body size much earlier than we originally thought and were already top predators in shallow seas.”
The cardabiodontid vertebrae were discovered at a dig site called the Darwin Formation in northern Australia, which was once part of a shallow shelf bordering the Tethys ocean that sat between modern-day Australia and Europe. The same site has also revealed ancient marine reptiles, ray-finned fish, and other types of sharks.
The shark fossils were a rare find: Their skeletons are made of rubbery cartilage and don’t tend to stick around, so most known shark remnants are teeth. But these vertebrae were partially mineralized, keeping them relatively well preserved over the millennia.
Overall, the recent cardabiodontid findings reveal “a lot about how ancient food webs worked” Siversson said, and show “just how important Australia’s fossil sites are for understanding prehistoric life.”
An Australian senator who has long campaigned for the Islamic women’s garment known as the burqa to be banned in the country has been suspended from parliament for a week for her protest on Monday in which she wore the full body covering into the chamber and refused to remove it.
Pauline Hanson of the anti-immigration One Nation party was accused of racism by fellow lawmakers when she walked into the parliament wearing a burqa on Monday. Hanson called the move — which she has now done twice in a decade — a protest against her colleagues’ refusal to allow her to introduce a bill that would ban burqas and other face coverings in public.
Once inside, Hanson refused to remove the burqa, leading the Senate to be suspended for the remainder of that day.
The protest was met by outrage by some of her fellow senators, with Australian Greens leader Larissa Waters calling it a “middle finger to people of faith.”
“It is extremely racist and unsafe,” Waters added.
Independent Senator Fatima Payman looks on as One Nation party leader Pauline Hanson wears a burqa in the Senate chamber at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Nov. 24, 2025.
AAP/Mick Tsikas/REUTERS
On Tuesday, the Senate voted 55 to five on a motion that condemned Hanson’s actions as being “intended to vilify and mock people on the basis of their religion” and calling them “disrespectful to Muslim Australians.”
Following the motion, Hanson was barred for seven consecutive Senate sitting days, which will mean her suspension will continue when parliament comes back into session in February of next year after its holiday break.
Speaking to Sky News Australia, Hanson rejected accusations that her protest had vilified or mocked Muslims.
“At the end of the day this is Australia. It is not the Australian cultural way of life. I just want equality for all Australians and I don’t want to see the suppression or oppression of women in this country,” she told the news channel.
Hanson previously wore a burqa to Parliament in 2017, but this week was the first time she was punished for it. When she did it in 2017, she said it was to highlight what she called security issues posed by the garment, which she linked to terrorism.
California could see an early start to the annual flu season, as a combination of low vaccination rates and late mutations to the virus may leave the state particularly exposed to transmission, health experts say.
Already, there are warning signs. Los Angeles County recently reported its first flu death of the season, and other nations are reporting record-breaking or powerful, earlier-than-expected flu seasons.
Typically, flu picks up right after Christmas and into the New Year, but Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, regional physician chief of infectious diseases at Kaiser Permanente Southern California, said she expects increases in viral activity perhaps over the next two to three weeks.
“We’re expecting an early and likely sharp start to the flu season,” Hudson said.
Last year’s flu season was the worst California had seen in years, and it’s not usual for there to be back-to-back bad flu seasons. But a combination of a decline in flu vaccination rates and a “souped-up mutant” is particularly concerning this year, according to Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious diseases expert at UC San Francisco.
“That may translate into more people getting infected. And as more people get infected, a proportion of them will go to the hospital,” Chin-Hong said.
The timing of this new flu subvariant — called H3N2 subclade K — is particularly problematic. It emerged toward the end of the summer, long after health officials had already determined how to formulate this fall’s flu vaccine, a decision that had to be made in February.
H3N2 subclade K seems to be starting to dominate in Japan and Britain, Hudson said.
“It looks like a bit of a mismatch between the seasonal flu vaccine strains” and the new subvariant, Hudson said.
It remains unclear whether subclade K will reduce the effectiveness of this year’s flu shot.
In California and the rest of the U.S., “things are quiet, but I think it’s just a calm before the storm,” Chin-Hong said. “From what we see in the U.K. and Japan, a lot more people are getting flu earlier.”
Chin-Hong noted that subclade K is not that much different than the strains this year’s flu vaccines were designed against. And he noted data recently released in Britain that showed this season’s vaccines were still effective against hospitalization.
According to the British government, vaccinated children were 70% to 75% less likely to need hospital care, and adults were 30% to 40% less likely. Flu vaccine effectiveness is typically between 30% to 60%, and tends to be more effective in younger people, the British government said.
Even if there is some degree of mismatch between the vaccine and circulating strains, “the flu vaccine still provides protection against severe illness, including hospitalizations,” according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
“Public Health strongly encourages everyone who has not received the flu vaccine yet this year to receive it now, especially before gathering with loved ones during the holidays,” the department said in a statement.
But “while mismatched vaccines may still provide protection, enhanced genetic, antigenic and epidemiological … monitoring are warranted to inform risk assessment and response,” according to scientists writing in the Journal of the Assn. of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Canada.
Because the vaccine is not a perfect match for the latest mutated flu strain, Chin-Hong said getting antiviral medication like Tamiflu to infected patients may be especially important this year, even for those who are vaccinated. That’s especially true for the most vulnerable, which include the very young and very old.
“But that means you need to get diagnosed earlier,” Chin-Hong said. Drugs like Tamiflu work best when started within one to two days after flu symptoms begin, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.
There are now at-home flu testing kits that are widely available for sale for people who are showing signs of illness.
Also worrying is how the flu has surged in other countries.
Australia’s flu season came earlier this year and was more severe than usual. The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners said that nation saw a record flu season, with more than 410,000 lab-confirmed cases, up from the prior all-time high of 365,000 that were reported last year.
“This is not a record we want to be breaking,” Dr. Michael Wright, president of the physician’s group, said.
Hudson noted Australia’s flu season was “particularly hard on children” this year.
L.A. County health officials cautioned that Australia’s experience isn’t a solid predictor of what happens locally.
“It is difficult to predict what will happen in the United States and Los Angeles, as the severity of the flu season depends on multiple factors including circulating strains, pre-existing immunity, vaccine uptake, and the overall health of the population,” the L.A. County Department of Public Health said.
The new strain has also thrown a wrench in things. As Australia’s flu season was ending, “this new mutation came up, which kind of ignited flu in Japan and the U.K., and other parts of Europe and Asia,” Chin-Hong said.
On Friday, Japan reportedly issued a national alert with flu cases surging and hospitalizations increasing, especially among children and the elderly, accompanied by a sharp rise in school and class closures. The Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun said children ages 1 through 9 and adults 80 and up were among the hardest-hit groups.
Taiwanese health officials warned of the possibility of a second peak in flu this year, according to the Central News Agency. There was already a peak in late September and early October — a month earlier than normal — and officials are warning about an uptick in flu cases starting in December and then peaking around the Lunar New Year on Feb. 17.
Taiwanese officials said 95% of patients with severe flu symptoms had not been recently vaccinated.
British health officials this month issued a “flu jab SOS,” as an early wave struck the nation. Flu cases are “already triple what they were this time last year,” Public Health Minister Ashley Dalton said in a statement.
In England, outside of pandemic years, this fall marked the earliest start to the flu season since 2003-04, scientists said in the journal Eurosurveillance.
“We have to brace ourselves for another year of more cases of flu,” Chin-Hong said.
One major concern has been declining flu vaccination rates — a trend seen in both Australia and the United States.
In Australia, only 25.7% of children age 6 months to 5 years were vaccinated against flu in 2025, the lowest rate since 2021. Among seniors age 65 and up, 60.5% were vaccinated, the lowest rate since 2020.
Australian health officials are promoting free flu vaccinations for children that don’t require an injection, but are administered by nasal spray.
“We must boost vaccination rates,” Wright said.
In the U.S., officials recommend the annual flu vaccine for everyone age 6 months and up. Those age 65 and up are eligible for a higher-dose version, and kids and adults between age 2 and age 49 are eligible to get vaccinated via the FluMist nasal spray, rather than a needle injection.
Officials this year began allowing people to order FluMist to be mailed to them at home.
Besides getting vaccinated, other ways to protect yourself against the flu include washing your hands frequently, avoiding sick people and wearing a mask in higher-risk indoor settings, such as while in the airport and on a plane.
Healthy high-risk people, such as older individuals, can be prescribed antiviral drugs like Tamiflu if another household member has the flu, Chin-Hong said.
Doctors are especially concerned about babies, toddlers and young children up to age 5.
“Those are the kids that are the most vulnerable if they get any kind of a respiratory illness. It can really go badly for them, and they can end up extraordinarily ill,” Hudson said.
In the United States, just 49.2% of children had gotten a flu shot as of late April, lower than the 53.4% who had done so at the same point the previous season, according to preliminary national survey results. Both figures are well below the final flu vaccination rate for eligible children during the 2019-20 season, which was 63.7%.
Among adults, 46.7% had gotten their flu shot as of late April, slightly down from the 47.4% at the same point last season, according to the preliminary survey results, which are the most recent data available.
“Before the COVID-19 pandemic, flu vaccination coverage had been slowly increasing; downturns in coverage occurred during and after the pandemic. Flu vaccination levels have not rebounded to pre-pandemic levels,” according to the CDC.
The disparaging of vaccinations by federal health officials, led by the vaccine-skeptic secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has not helped improve immunization rates, health experts say. Kennedy told the New York Times on Thursday that he personally directed the CDC to change its website to abandon its position that vaccines do not cause autism.
Mainstream health experts and former CDC officials denounced the change. “Extensive scientific evidence shows vaccines do not cause autism,” wrote Daniel Jernigan, Demetre Daskalakis and Debra Houry, all former top officials at the CDC, in an op-ed to MS NOW.
“CDC has been updated to cause chaos without scientific basis. Do not trust this agency,” Daskalakis, former director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, added on social media. “This is a national embarrassment.”
State health officials from California, Washington, Oregon and Hawaii on Friday called the new claims on the CDC website inaccurate and said there are decades of “high quality evidence that vaccines are not linked to autism.”
“Over 40 high-quality studies involving more than 5.6 million children have found no link between any routine childhood vaccine and autism,” the L.A. County Department of Public Health said Friday. “The increase in autism diagnoses reflects improved screening, broader diagnostic criteria, and greater awareness, not a link to vaccines.”
Hudson said it’s important to get evidence-based information on the flu vaccines.
“Vaccines save lives. The flu vaccine in particular saves lives,” Hudson said.
Many Australians are waiting years to see public medical specialists. In some cases, the wait stretches more than six years for a neurologist or over three and a half years for urgent neurosurgery. Doctors warn these delays are causing “irreversible complications” and even life-threatening conditions. Under the taxpayer-funded Medicare system, patients can see public specialists at little or no cost with a referral from a general practitioner. Yet demand far exceeds capacity. Health authorities insist they are adding more specialists and improving referrals, but shortages persist, especially in the most understaffed specialties.
Tonga has been given a tough draw at next year’s Rugby League World Cup, including a showdown with arch-rivals Samoa at Parramatta.
The Kristian Woolf-coached Tongans have been drawn in Group C, which means they play matches against Group B sides England, Samoa and Lebanon.
Their round-three showdown with Samoa on November 1 at CommBank Stadium is set to be a sellout after 44,682 fans watched the Samoans beat Tonga 34-6 at Suncorp Stadium in this year’s Pacific Cup.
Defending World Cup champions Australia will kick off the 10-nation men’s tournament against Pacific Cup holders and Group A rivals New Zealand on October 15 at Allianz Stadium.
The Kangaroos, who swept England 3-0 in the recent Ashes series, will then play the remaining Group A sides Fiji and the Cook Islands in the following weeks.
Group A’s four sides play each other once in the three round-robin clashes ahead of the semi-finals, and the final at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday, November 15.
The semi-finals will be held at Newcastle’s McDonald Jones Stadium and Sydney’s Allianz Stadium.
Group B and C feature three teams apiece, but sides in each will play three games against those in the opposite group.
Tonga, PNG and France make up Group B.
Tonga have been handled a difficult draw in the men’s tournament. (Getty Images: Matt King)
The top two sides from Group A go through to the semi-finals, while the six teams in Groups B and C will form a ladder of their own, with the top two playing semis.
That makes Tonga’s task, which includes clashes against England in Perth on October 17 and their showdown with Samoa, tougher than any other team’s.
World Cup titles for men, women and wheelchair will be contested in Australia and Papua New Guinea, with 14 nations and 26 teams playing 53 matches across 31 days.
The Women’s World Cup boasts eight sides with Australia, Samoa, England and Wales in Group A. Group B consists of New Zealand, PNG, France and Fiji.
Each team will play three matches against the other teams in their group. The top two teams from each group will progress to the semis.
Australia and Samoa will open the tournament at CommBank Stadium on October 16.
The same two-group format applies in the Wheelchair World Cup, with England, Ireland, Wales and the USA in Group A and Australia, Scotland, France and New Zealand in Group B.
All the wheelchair showdowns will be held at Wollongong’s WIN Entertainment Centre.
Australian Rugby League (ARLC) chairman Peter V’landys said the World Cup would build on the success of both domestic and international rugby league.
“Rugby League World Cup 2026 couldn’t come at a better time on the back of record-breaking NRL and NRLW seasons, a successful Ashes series, and the most exciting Pacific Championships ever,” he said.
“Representing your country is the ultimate honour and doing so in a World Cup is the ultimate stage. The talent, skill, physicality, passion and raw emotion on display will be something like we have never seen before.
“This will be the best and most successful Rugby League World Cup on record.”
Dozens of Topanga residents gathered in the town’s Community House to hear Assistant Fire Chief Drew Smith discuss how the Los Angeles County Fire Department plans to keep Topangans alive in a fierce firestorm.
In the red-brick atrium, adorned with exposed wood and a gothic chandelier, Smith explained that if a fire explodes next to the town and flames will reach homes within minutes, orchestrating a multi-hour evacuation through winding mountain roads for Topanga’s more than 8,000 residents will just not be a viable option. In such cases, Smith told attendees at the town’s Oct. 4 ReadyFest wildfire preparedness event, the department now plans to order residents to shelter in their homes.
“Your structure may catch on fire,” Smith said. “You’re going to have religious moments, I guarantee it. But that’s your safest option.”
Wildfire emergency response leaders and experts have described such an approach as concerning and point to Australia as an example: After the nation adopted a similar policy, a series of brush fires in 2009 now known as Black Saturday killed 173 people, many sheltering in their homes.
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Some in the bohemian community of nature lovers, creatives and free spirits — who often pride themselves on their rugged, risky lifestyle navigating floods, mudslides, wildfires and the road closures and power outages they entail — are left with the sinking realization that the wildfire risk in Topanga may be too big to bear.
Water tanks called “pumpkins” are available to helicopters to be used during a fire at 69 Bravo, an LAFD Command Center along Saddle Peak Road in Topanga.
They see the shelter-in-place plan as a perilous wager, with no comprehensive plan to help residents harden their homes against fire and no clear, fire-tested guidance on what residents should do if they’re stuck in a burning home.
“Do we need to have some way of communicating with first responders while we are sheltering in place? Would the fire front be approaching us and we’re just on our own?” asked Connie Najah, a Topanga resident who attended ReadyFest and was unsettled by the proposal. “What are the plans for helping people through this season and the next season while we’re waiting to have widespread defensible space implementation?”
No fire chief wants to face the scenario of a vulnerable town with no time to evacuate. But it is a real possibility for Topanga. Smith, speaking to The Times, stressed that the new guidelines only apply to situations where the Fire Department has deemed evacuations infeasible.
“If we have time to evacuate, we will evacuate you,” Smith said.
Emergency operations experts say not enough has been done in their field to address the very grim possibility that evacuating may not always be possible — in part because it’s a hard reality to confront. It’s not a small problem, either: Cal Fire has identified more than 2,400 developments around the state with at least 30 residences that have significant fire risk and only a single evacuation route. Topanga is home to nine of them.
“We’re pretty isolated. We’re densely populated. Fuel and homes are intermixed. It’s an extremely dangerous area.”
— James Grasso, president of the Topanga Coalition for Emergency Preparedness
Recent fires, including the 2018 Camp fire in Paradise and Woolsey fire in Malibu, have made the issue too hard to ignore.
In Topanga, Najah has a ham radio license so she can stay informed when power and cell service inevitably go down. The elementary school relocates out of town during red-flag days. A task force including the Topanga Coalition for Emergency Preparedness, the Fire Department and other emergency operations agencies publishes a Disaster Survival Guide and distributes it to every household.
“The survival guide was born out of necessity,” said James Grasso, president of TCEP, who also serves as a call firefighter for the county Fire Department. “We’re pretty isolated. We’re densely populated. Fuel and homes are intermixed. It’s an extremely dangerous area, particularly during Santa Ana wind conditions.”
The guide had instructed residents to flock to predetermined “public safe refuges” in town, such as the baseball field at the Community House or the large parking lot at the state park, to wait out fires. If residents couldn’t make it to these, there were predetermined “public temporary refuge areas” within each neighborhood, such as street intersections and homes with large cleared backyards, that provide some increased chance of survival.
But when the Fire Department determined the spaces were not capable of protecting the town’s entire population from the extreme radiant heat, it pivoted to sheltering in place — the last and most dangerous option listed in the old guide.
Connie Najah, a 16-year resident of Topanga, points out photographs from the Topanga Disaster Survival Guide of places that were once considered “public safe refuges” to be used during a fire.
The survival guide’s old plan was consistent with what emergency response experts and officials have argued across the globe, but it failed to meet typical safety standards for such an approach.
The report argued that, due to tightly packed combustible structures amid an accumulation of flammable vegetation, “nearly all” communities are “unsuitable” for sheltering in place.
David Shew, a trained architect and firefighter who spent more than 30 years at Cal Fire, said that for a shelter-in-place policy to be viable, a community would need to undertake significant work to harden their homes and create defensible space — work that has not been done in most California communities.
It’s “not really safe for people to just think, ‘OK, I’ve done nothing but they told me to just jump in my house,’” he said.
And once a house ignites, suggestions that Smith offered up at ReadyFest like sheltering in a bathroom are of little use, said Mark Ghilarducci, a former director of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.
“Under certain circumstances, your home could potentially provide a buffer,” he said. But if a house is burning and surrounded by fire in the wildlands, “you’re in a position where you are essentially trapped, and your bathroom’s not going to save you.”
Smith said, however, that the Fire Department had done its own analysis of the Topanga area and determined that the fire dynamics in the area are too extreme for Topanga’s proposed public shelter spaces to be effective.
“There is no way that we can 100% eliminate the fire risk and death potential if you live in a fire-prone area.”
— Drew Smith, assistant fire chief at the Los Angeles County Fire Department
During hot, aggressive fires like the Woolsey, Franklin and Palisades fires, Smith said, “for 30 to 100 people, you need a minimum of clear land that’s 14 acres, which is 14 football fields.” Many of the safety areas in the survival guide, such as an L.A. County Public Works water tank facility, are barely larger than 1 acre.
The department argues sheltering in place, although far from guaranteeing survival, eliminates the risk of residents getting trapped on roadways, unable to see, with almost no protection.
“There is no way that we can 100% eliminate the fire risk and death potential if you live in a fire-prone area,” Smith said.
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1.Topanga resident James Grasso, president of Topanga Coalition for Emergency Preparedness, walks toward a baseball field that was once declared a public safe refuge to escape to during a fire at the Topanga Community Center.2.Connie Najah stands on a portion of Peak Trail that was at one time considered a public temporary refuge area during fires in Topanga.
Regardless of what residents (or emergency response experts) think of the department’s approach, the safest thing residents can do, experts say, is to always, always, always follow the department’s orders, whether that’s to evacuate, find a safety zone or shelter in their homes. The department’s plan to keep residents alive depends on it.
Still, the history of shelter-in-place policies — and their more aggressive companion, “stay and defend,” which involves attempting to actively combat the blaze at home — looms heavy.
After more than 100 bush fires swept through southeast Australia in 1983, killing 75 people in what became known as Ash Wednesday, Australian fire officials adopted a “stay or go” policy: Either leave well before a fire reaches you, or prepare to stay and fend for yourself. If you’re living in a high fire hazard area, the philosophy goes, it is your responsibility to defend your property and keep yourself alive amid strained fire resources.
Around the same time, California considered the policy for itself after dangerous fires ripped through the Santa Monica Mountains, Ghilarducci said. State officials ultimately decided against it, choosing instead to prioritize early evacuations. Cal Fire’s “Ready, Set, Go!” public awareness campaign became the face of those efforts.
In 2009, an explosive suite of brush fires broke out, yet again, in southeast Australia and seemed to confirm California’s worst nightmare: 173 people lost their lives in the Black Saturday tragedy. Of those, 40% died during or after an attempt to defend their property, and nearly 30% died sheltering in their homes without attempting to defend them. About 20% died while attempting to evacuate.
Afterward, Australia significantly overhauled the policy, placing a much greater emphasis on evacuating early and developing fire shelter building standards.
Nearly a decade later, California confronted its own stress test. The Camp fire ripped through Paradise in the early morning on Nov. 8, 2018. The time between the first sighting of the fire and it reaching the edge of town: one hourand 39 minutes. The time it took to evacuate: seven hours.
Among the miraculous stories of survival in Paradise were the many individuals who found refuge areas in town: a predetermined safety zone in a large, open meadow; the parking lots of stores, churches and schools; a local fire station; roadways and intersections with a little buffer from the burning trees.
But the same day, the intensity of the Woolsey fire in the Santa Monica Mountains — similarly plagued with evacuation challenges — unsettled fire officials. It’s in these conditions that Smith doubted Topanga’s refuge sites could protect residents.
Stuck without many options, the Fire Department began slowly thinking about refining the policies that proved disastrous for Australia. The Palisades fire brought a renewed urgency.
Just a month before ReadyFest, L.A. County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone stirred anxiety among emergency response officials when he appeared to endorse a stay-and-defend policy,telling KCAL-TV, “We’ve always told people that when the evacuation order comes, you must leave. We’ve departed from that narrative. With the proper training, with the proper equipment and with the proper home hardening and defensible space, you can stay behind and prevent your house from burning down.”
The department later clarified the statement, saying the change only applies to individuals in the Santa Monica Mountains’ community brigade who have received significant training from the department and operate under the department’s command. (The brigade is not intended as a means for members to protect their own homes but instead serve the larger community.)
Now, residents worry the policy to shelter in place is coming without enough preparation.
A worker stops traffic that has been reduced to one lane on a portion of Topanga Canyon Boulevard for underground cable installation Nov. 19.
A Times analysis of L.A. County property records found that roughly 98% of residential properties in Topanga were built before the state adopted home-hardening building codes in 2008 to protect homes against wildfires.
However, a significant number of Topangans have opted to complete the requirements regardless. Various fire safety organizations in the Santa Monica Mountains have visited more than 470 of Topanga’s roughly 3,000 residential properties to help residents learn how to harden their homes. These efforts are, in part, why the National Fire Protection Assn. designated the mountain town as a Firewise Community in 2022.
There are some relatively simple steps homeowners can take, such as covering vents with mesh, that can slightly reduce the chance of a home burning. But undertaking a comprehensive renovation — to remove wood decks, install noncombustible siding and roofing, replace windows with multipaned tempered glass, hardscape the land near the house and trim down trees — is expensive.
A report from the community development research nonprofit Headwaters Economics found a complete home retrofit using affordable materials costs between $23,000 and $40,000. With high-end materials that provide the best protection, it can cost upward of $100,000.
“We’re not the only rural community. All over the state, people are having to deal with this.”
— Connie Najah, 16-year resident of Topanga
Many Topangans have taken up the challenge, anyway. Grasso, who lost his home in the 1993 Old Topanga fire, has slowly been hardening his property since the rebuild. He’s even built a concrete fire shelter against a hillside with two steel escape doors and porthole windows.
Researchers have found comprehensive home hardening and defensible space can reduce the risk of a home burning by about a third, but not bring it down to zero. (Albeit, none have tested Grasso’s elaborate setup.)
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1.Nancy Helms stands on top of “dwarf carpet of stars,” a succulent plant that surrounds a large area of her home as a fire prevention method on Rocky Ledge Road in Topanga.2.Ryan Ulyate uses metal sculptures of plants and cactus outside his home in Topanga. He has eliminated any brush or flammable plants near his home and surrounds it in gravel to prevent his home from catching fire.3.Ryan Ulyate shows a vent opening that he covered with metal filters to prevent embers from entering his home if a fire occurs in Topanga.
Wildfire safety experts hope the state someday adopts building standards for truly fire-proof structures that could withstand even the most extreme conditions and come equipped with life-support systems. But any such standards are years away, and the L.A. County Fire Department has to have a plan if a fire breaks out tomorrow.
For Grasso, fire risk is a risk like any other, like the choice to drive a car every day. In exchange for the beauty of living life in Topanga, some folks will learn to accept the risk and do what they can to mitigate it: Harden a home, fasten a seat belt. Others — especially those unable to take the drastic steps Grasso has been able to — will deem the beauty of life in Topanga not worth the risk of getting trapped by flames.
“The amount of money it takes to get to this point is too cost-prohibitive for us at this moment,” Najah said. “It’s really a tough place to be in. … It’s not going to be easy, and we’re not the only rural community. All over the state, people are having to deal with this.”
Times assistant data and graphics editor Sean Greene contributed to this report.
