Across the country, in Western Australia, officials were responding to two emergency bushfires that had destroyed two homes and damaged another. The fires have sparked increasingly acrimonious debate over climate and fire-prevention policies, with the ruling conservative Liberal Party and the minor opposition Australian Greens exchanging barbs. "What we want is a consensus moving forward on how to come up with a plan that adapts Australia to a warming climate." By Wednesday afternoon, insured losses from 450 fire-related claims in NSW and Queensland was estimated at $34.28 million, according to the Insurance Council of Australia. "We will not have all these fires contained and locked up for many, many weeks," NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told reporters in Sydney.

Source: Dhaka Tribune November 13, 2019 10:19 UTC