Australia news LIVE: Ley mulls Coalition front bench overhaul; Bradfield in the balance as amid informal vote surge; 3500 make insurance claims after wild weather

Sydney Morning Herald

5 days ago

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7.03am
Some NSW schools reopen after floods as cleanup continues
By Christopher Harris
NSW is cleaning up after major flooding which inundated about 10,000 homes last week. About 3500 have made claims across the mid north coast and the upper Hunter region, The Insurance Council of Australia says.
About 32,000 people in 14 towns across the upper Hunter and mid north coast were isolated yesterday.
Insurance Council of Australia chief executive Andrew Hall said as people returned to their properties, insurance claims were climbing at 1000 a day.
'This is our fourth flood for 2025... they're underscoring each and every month, we have 220,000 homes which have been built in high-risk flood zones,' he told the ABC's Radio National program.
The frequency of floods across the East Coast coupled with the steep increase in building costs of about 40 per cent in recent years, was driving up insurance costs, he said.
'They're becoming a real challenge to provide affordable insurance to,' CEO said.
He said Australia needed to have a flood defence plan which could help local governments deliver timely flood studies and reduce the devastation communities face.
The Department of Education says 60 schools will remain closed while 120 will reopen this morning.
6.58am
Russia and Ukraine swap hundreds of prisoners
By Christopher Harris
Russia and Ukraine swapped hundreds more prisoners on Sunday, the third and last part of a major exchange that reflected a rare moment of cooperation in otherwise failed efforts to reach a ceasefire in the more than three years of war.
Hours earlier, the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and other regions came under a massive Russian drone-and-missile attack that killed at least 12 people and injured dozens. Ukrainian officials described it as the largest aerial assault since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Russia's Defense Ministry said each side exchanged 303 soldiers, following the release of 307 combatants and civilians each on Saturday, and 390 on Friday — the biggest total swap of the war.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed Sunday's exchange, saying on X that '303 Ukrainian defenders are home.' He noted that the troops returning to Ukraine were members of the 'Armed Forces, the National Guard, the State Border Guard Service, and the State Special Transport Service.'
Nataliya Borovyk, the sister of released Ukrainian soldier Ihor Ulesov, was overwhelmed when she learned of her brother's return.
'My uncle had to calm me down and put me in a taxi so I could get here,' she told The Associated Press. 'A moment like that stays with you forever.'
Borovyk said the family had been waiting anxiously for news, and that she had hoped her brother might be released in the first part of the exchange on Friday.
'We were worried about all the guys. He wasn't there on Friday, but I was here — I at least greeted them, I stood there until the very end and waited, (hoping) maybe he would appear after all.'
In talks held in Istanbul earlier this month — the first time the two sides met face to face for peace talks — Kyiv and Moscow agreed to swap 1000 prisoners of war and civilian detainees each. The exchange has been the only tangible outcome from the talks.
AP.