A highly mutated new variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 has countries on alert as scientists scramble to understand how far it has spread and how well our immunity will defend against it.

The new variant, called BA.2.86 and nicknamed Pirola by variant hunters on social media, has more than 30 amino acid changes to its spike protein compared with its next closest ancestor, the BA.2 subvariant of Omicron, according to Dr Jesse Bloom, who studies viral evolution at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle.

"This makes it an evolutionary jump comparable in size to that which originally gave rise to Omicron," Bloom posted on his lab's website.

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The World Health Organisation designated BA.2.86 a "variant under monitoring" last week, a designation that encourages countries to track and report the sequences they find.

A variant under monitoring that causes more severe disease or evades existing vaccines or treatments can be upgraded to WHO's list of variants of interest or variants of concern. XBB.1.5, XBB.1.16 and EG.5 are listed as variants of interest. WHO has not designated any variants of concern.

Only six sequences of BA.2.86 have been reported in four countries, but epidemiologists are worried they could represent many more because worldwide monitoring of variants has dropped off.

The variant was spotted by scientists in Israel on Sunday. Since then, Denmark has reported three sequences. Two more sequences were reported in the US and in the United Kingdom, respectively.

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https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1692255671687794902



"It is unusual for corona to change so significantly and develop 30 new mutations. The last time we saw such a big change was when Omicron appeared," said Morten Rasmussen, a senior researcher at the Statens Serum Institut, in a news statement on the variant.

The three cases in Denmark are in people in different parts of the country who do not appear to have had contact with each other, according to the institute.

SSI scientists stressed that it's still too early to say anything about the severity or contagiousness of the new variant. They are in the process of growing the virus variant to test it against human antibodies.

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Dr Mandy Cohen, director of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said Friday that the new variant shouldn't be cause for alarm.

"I think what we are seeing is our detection mechanisms that we've put in place are working, right?" she told CNN.

"We are more prepared than ever to detect and respond to changes in the COVID-19 virus.

"We are tracking this new lineage. It has mutations that do make it distinct from other lineages circulating. And then the question becomes, what does that mean?" Cohen said.

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"Is it going to increase? Are we going to see more cases? Or is it going to fizzle out and not be a variant of concern?"

In a new threat assessment on the variant Friday, the UK's Health Security Agency said that the fact that these sequences are in four different countries in people without recent travel histories "suggests that there is established international transmission."

The sequences that have been found are very similar to each other, which may indicate that they emerged recently and are spreading quickly, the report says, though the UKHSA notes that it has low confidence in this assessment until more sequences become available.

Researchers at the University of Michigan, the lab that found the sequence from the US, gave no information about the patient it came from, saying the case was being investigated by the state's health department.

In March, the White House quietly polled about a dozen COVID-19 experts who follow the evolution of the coronavirus to ask about the likelihood of a highly mutated variant emerging within the next two years. Most experts pegged the odds of that happening somewhere between 10 per cent and 20 per cent.

The XBB descendant EG.5 is currently the dominant variant in the US, causing an estimated 20 per cent of all new COVID-19 cases in this country. The next most common variant, FL.1.5.1, has grown quickly and is now causing about 13 per cent of all new cases, according to the CDC's variant tracker.

Worker shortages "across the economy" could open up new opportunities for Australians young and old, with the government urging people to consider vocational education to fill crucial skills gaps.

Skills and Training Minister Brendan O'Connor said the demand for workers had probably increased due to the pandemic.

"Wherever you look, professions and trades, every sector has some areas of demand," he told Weekend Today.

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But the most in-demand workers were for the trades and the care economy.

"The great thing about taking a vocational and training pathway to the labour market is there are so many opportunities for young people to acquire skills that are in need now and that will be needed in the future," he said.

"Half the jobs that are in demand require vocational education and training."

O'Connor said the government had more to do in opening up training and upskilling the country.

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"I'm negotiating now with the states and territories to add a further 300,000 fee-free TAFE and VET places," he said.

"There are so many areas that need a supply of skills, whether it's the energy sector that's going through a transformation, our care economy, disability care, aged care, the health sector generally and many other places.

"What people don't fully understand is there are still real shortages in the traditional trades. Motor mechanics, sparkies, plumbers, boiler makers.

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"Our message is university is a great pathway to the labour market, but so too is the VET pathway."

While the government is also working on skilled migration pathways to increase the worker pool, O'Connor said his focus was on training young and mature-age workers.

"If we ensure that we've got a skilled and knowledgeable labour market, work force, then we will ensure that our economy will continue to grow, and that's really important for everybody, because that means that our capacity as a country to look after ourselves is much greater," he said.

The Chinese military has launched drills around Taiwan as a "stern warning" over what it called collusion between "separatists and foreign forces," its defence ministry said, days after the island's vice president stopped over in the US.

Taiwanese Vice President William Lai's recent trip to Paraguay to reinforce relations with his government's last diplomatic partner in South America included stops in San Francisco and New York City. The mainland's ruling Communist Party claims democratic Taiwan as part of its territory and says it has no right to conduct foreign relations.

A spokesperson for China's Eastern Theater Command said in a brief statement that the military exercises involved the coordination of vessels and planes and their ability to seize control of air and sea spaces.

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It was also testing the forces' "actual combat capabilities," Shi Yi said. The drills in the waters and airspace to the north and southwest of Taiwan were a warning over provocations from pro-Taiwan independence forces and foreign forces, he added.

The command released footage of the drills online that showed soldiers running, as well as military boats and planes.

State media CCTV reported that missile-equipped boats and fighter jets were involved in the operation and that units worked together to simulate the surrounding of Taiwan.

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Taiwan's defence ministry said on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that its forces detected 42 Chinese military aircraft starting from 9am on Saturday (11am AEST). It said 26 of them crossed the midline of the Taiwan Strait, an unofficial boundary considered a buffer between the island and the mainland. Eight vessels also took part in the joint combat patrol, it said.

Taiwan deployed aircraft and vessels and activated land-based missile systems in response to the drills and was closely monitoring the situation, the ministry said.

The ministry also strongly condemned what it called the "irrational, provocative moves" in a separate statement. It said its military would stand ready in the face of the threats posted by the Chinese army, adding that its forces have "the ability, determination and confidence to safeguard national security."

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It posted a video on Facebook that showed previous military drills and said the Chinese military exercises reflected a militaristic mentality.

Taiwan and China split in 1949 following a civil war that ended with the ruling Communist Party in control of the mainland. The self-ruled island has never been part of the People's Republic of China, but Beijing sees Taiwan as a breakaway province to be retaken by force if necessary.

China's official Xinhua news agency on Saturday reported that an unnamed official in China's Taiwan Work Office strongly condemned what it called further collusion between Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party and the US and said it was a "new provocative move."

The official pointed to the stopovers in the US, an interview Lai gave to news outlet Bloomberg and his meeting with US officials in Paraguay, the report said. The official said Lai had used "Taiwan independence" rhetoric in the interview.

The official also accused Lai of using his stopovers in the US to sell out the interests of Taiwan to seek gains in the island's election, and described him as a "troublemaker who will push Taiwan to the dangerous brink of war," the report added.

Lai is his party's candidate for the 2024 presidential election in January.

Taiwan's foreign minister, Joseph Wu, wrote on the X platform that China "has made it clear it wants to shape" the island's national election, and attached the command's statement and the Xinhua report in his post. "It's up to our citizens to decide, not the bully next door," he wrote.

China's largest military drills in recent years were in response to former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan last August. It fired missiles over the island in a significant escalation and the military exercises disrupted trade lanes in the Taiwan Strait and forced airplanes to reroute their flights.

In April, Chinese forces held large-scale combat readiness drills in the air and waters around Taiwan in response to President Tsai Ing-wen's meeting with current US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

An incident has occurred on the Kosciuszko Chairlift at Thredbo on a wild, windy Saturday afternoon in the Australian snowfields.

"Thredbo can confirm there was an isolated incident affecting a single chair on Kosciuszko Chairlift at approximately 2:20pm on Saturday 19 August 2023 caused by a freak gust of wind," the resort said in a statement.

"There were no major injuries caused, and the three guests involved are being looked after by the team.

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"No other guests or chairs were affected. Thredbo is committed to the safety of our guests and our people.

"The incident is currently being thoroughly investigated by SafeWork NSW and an independent engineer. Thredbo assures guests that their safety is paramount and that we will continue to apply our high standards of safety and risk management."

The Kosciuszko Chairlift is Australia's longest chairlift at almost two kilometres in length and is 33 years old.

The four-seater lift replaced the old double chair in 1990, and is used year round by skiers and snowboarders in winter, and hikers and mountain bikers in summer.

It is believed the incident may have occurred at the top station, where there is little distance from the cable to the ground.

A wind gust of 65 km/h was recorded shortly before the incident at the weather station located near the cahirlift's top station.

This is not the first chairlift incident in recent years at Thredbo, which in 2022 was named Australia's best ski resort for the fifth consecutive year.

In 2019, a skier was bruised but otherwise unhurt after a chair dropped off the Gunbarrel Chairlift, a four-seater like the Kosciuszko Chairlift.

The head of Maui's emergency management agency has resigned, citing health reasons, a day after he defended the silence of the island's siren system last week during the deadliest US wildfire in more than 100 years.

No details were released about Maui Emergency Management Agency Administrator Herman Andaya's health. His resignation was effective immediately, and his role will be filled "as quickly as possible," Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said.

The death toll from the wildfires that ignited August 8 has increased to at least 114 people – including children – mostly around Lahaina, an economic and cultural hub obliterated by the infernos.

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The number of people killed is expected to rise as searchers – many grieving their own fire losses – keep digging through the charred remains of more than 2000 burned homes and businesses. "Probably still over 1000" residents remain unaccounted for, Hawaii Governor Josh Green told CNN on Wednesday.

Now, scrutiny is mounting over the official wildfire preparations and response, including the role of the local electricity provider and the siren system.

As the deadly fires spread, no one tried to activate Maui's 80-alarm, all-hazard outdoor siren system, a spokesperson for the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency said last week.

Andaya was asked Wednesday whether he regretted not sounding the alarms, which are part of a larger statewide network.

"I do not," he told reporters, saying he worried their alarms would have sent many residents inland "into the fire."

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Before Andaya's resignation was announced, state Senator Angus McKelvey – who represents Lahaina and lost his own home in the fires – blasted Andaya's response as "insulting".

"I've heard the line that people would have panicked and ran up to the mountains because it's a tsunami siren. It's insulting to think that people would be that clueless, that they wouldn't know that sirens blasting was because of the fire," McKelvey told CNN on Thursday.

"These are not tsunami sirens. They're disaster sirens."

It's still not clear why the siren system wasn't used. Narratives about its silence have shifted, with Green telling CNN some sirens were broken.

The governor has asked the state attorney general to review the fire and officials' response, including the alarms' silence.

Feds will help investigate as fires rage on

‌The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' National Response Team will help local authorities determine the cause of the disaster, the agency said in a statement.

The team includes "one electrical engineer from the ATF Fire Research Laboratory, two Certified Fire Investigators (CFI) and a CFI candidate from the Honolulu Field Office, and one Arson and Explosives Group Supervisor from the Seattle Field Division," the statement said.

The most destructive blaze on Maui, the 884-hectare Lahaina fire, was 90 per cent contained as of Thursday night, Maui County posted on Facebook.

Other wildfires still burning on Maui island include the 437-hectare Olinda fire, which was 85 per cent contained as of Thursday night, and the 82-hectare Kula fire, which was 80 per cent contained, according to Maui County.

It will be a "multi-year operation" to respond to the wildfires on Maui, the commander of the military's task force said Friday – a process that's only in its earliest stages.

The focus right now is to locate and identify human remains in the area affected by the fire, according to Brig. Gen. Stephen Logan, commander of Combined Joint Task Force 5-0, which is coordinating the Defense Department's response.

"We want to be able to treat them in a dignified manner and give some closure to the families," Logan told reporters on a call on Friday afternoon.

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Crews have searched roughly 45 per cent of the 13-square-kilometre area affected, Maui County's mayor told CNN on Thursday.

Combing the ashes of what used to be homes, businesses and historic landmarks has been arduous. And identifying those killed won't be easy, as remains are largely unrecognisable and fingerprints rarely found, the governor said.

Authorities have asked relatives of the missing to provide DNA samples so a genetics team can help identify remains.

At least 40 canines from 15 states have joined in the search, said Jeff Hickman of the Hawaii Department of Defense.

The next phase will be to make sure the area affected by the fire has been deemed safe. The fire tore through both residential and industrial areas, leaving the risk for different types of hazards across the sites.

"Each one may have some type of propane tank, there could be some type of live electricity rolling through, some other utilities, there could be paints, thinners, hazardous materials that were used in the construction of the building that has now been consumed by fire," Logan said.

Only after areas are deemed safe can emergency responders allow locals to return to their homes and businesses to see what can be salvaged.

Power company faces scrutiny

‌While the cause of the fires hasn't been determined, Hawaiian Electric – the major power company on Maui – is under scrutiny for not shutting down power lines when high winds created dangerous fire conditions.

And a company that runs a sensor network on Maui detected major utility grid faults hours before the fires started, it said.

Hawaiian Electric said publicly in 2019 it would and determine how to help keep residents and infrastructure safe. But between 2019 and 2022, Hawaiian Electric invested less than $245,000 on wildfire-specific projects, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing regulatory filings.

Hawaiian Electric also didn't seek state approval to raise rates to pay for safety improvements until 2022, and the rate hike has yet to be approved, the Journal reported.

The company has spent roughly $84 million since 2018 on maintenance and vegetation management in Maui County, including trimming and cutting down trees and upgrading equipment, it told CNN in a statement.

"There are many elements of wildfire mitigation that don't get counted specifically as mitigation activities, including vegetation management, grid hardening and pole replacement and routine line and equipment inspections," the company said.

A sensor network run by Whisker Labs detected an "increasingly stressed utility grid" on Maui beginning late August 7 and into the next morning, the company's CEO Bob Marshall told CNN on Wednesday.

"Through the overnight hours, when all the fires ignited, we measured 122 individual faults on the utility grid," Marshall said. A fault – a short circuit or partial short circuit – could cause electric current to leave its intended path, which could lead to a fire, Marshall said.

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Video taken at the Maui Bird Conservation Center in Makawao appears to show a power pole faulting just before 11 p.m. on August 7. Soon after, what appears to be flames are seen in the video, first reported by The Washington Post.

The sensor system provided "verification that, indeed, this was very likely caused by a fault on the utility grid," Marshall said.

The Makawao fire was hours before and miles away from the fire that decimated the historic portions of Lahaina in Western Maui. But sensors detected faults on the grid before that fire, too, Marshall said.

A class-action lawsuit filed over the weekend alleges the wildfires were caused by Hawaiian Electric's energised power lines that were knocked down by strong winds.

The company and its subsidiaries "chose not to deenergise their power lines after they knew some poles and lines had fallen and were in contact with the vegetation or the ground," the suit alleges.

‌Firefighters battled blazes as their own homes burned

‌When ferocious winds hurled flames across and quickly overwhelmed crews on August 8, some firefighters knew their own homes could burn.

"The people that were trying to put out these fires lived in those homes – 25 of our firefighters lost their homes," Bissen said Wednesday.

Now, some search crew members are working despite immense personal grief.

"Realise that the responders that are going out there are recovering their loved ones and members of their families," Pelletier said.

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Maui firefighter Aina Kohler was on the front lines that day and stuck to her mission to save lives – even as her house burned to the ground, she told CNN affiliate KITV. By the time flames reached her home, she said, firefighters had run out of water.

"That was honestly the most disheartening thing of my life. I felt the supply, and I'm like: It's limp. Just leaving a house to burn because we don't have enough water is like something I've never experienced before," she said.

Two of Kohler's fellow firefighters also lost their homes while battling the fires, she said.

"They watched their homes burn as they fought the fire for other homes in their neighborhood," Kohler said. "That hit really hard."

NSW Police Force detectives have charged three men after searching a drug laboratory near Goulburn.

Officers from the State Crime Command's Drug and Firearms Squad established Strike Force Crear to investigate the alleged supply of prohibited drugs, in particular methylamphetamine, throughout Sydney.

Strike force detectives – with assistance from the Public Order and Riot Squad – executed a search warrant at a property at Marulan early on Thursday morning.

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Two men – both aged 49 – were arrested inside.

During the search, police found a large inactive clandestine laboratory located within a large industrial shed at the back of the property.

Officers found and seized items that can be used to manufacture drugs, including approximately 16 kg of methylamphetamine oil.

The lab was then dismantled by specialist police from the Chemical Operations Team.

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A second search warrant was executed at a home at Rossmore on Sydney's southwestern outskirts later in the morning, where several items were seized including 10 kilograms of methylamphetamine, electronic devices and documents relevant to the investigation.

The total value of the methylamphetamine seized is estimated to be $6.5 million.

Following further inquiries, a 55-year-old man was arrested at a home in St Clair shortly before 11am.

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A third search warrant was then executed at the home, where officers located more than $18,000 cash.

The two 49-year-old men were taken to Goulburn Police Station, where one of the men was charged with knowingly direct activities of criminal group and take part manufacture large commercial quantity prohibited drug.

The second man was charged with participate in criminal group contribute criminal activity and take part manufacture large commercial quantity prohibited drug.

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Both men appeared at Goulburn Local Court on Thursday where they were formally refused bail to reappear at the same court on Wednesday, 27 September.

The older man was taken to Penrith Police Station and charged with participate in criminal group contribute criminal activity and manufacture commercial quantity prohibited drug.

He appeared at Penrith Local Court on Friday where he was formally refused bail to reappear at the same court on Friday, 13 October 2023.

Investigations are continuing.

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A NSW Police district has jokingly listed its last Holden Commodore for sale on Facebook marketplace after retiring it.

Ryde Police Area Command listed its last-ever Commodore for $4900 on Thursday, after announcing its retirement earlier in the month.

The ad says the car was "driven by one elderly female driver to church", and claimed the car "never went over 80km/h".

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Police said they listed the car as a joke after multiple people asked if they could buy it, and included a funny nod to the absurdity of the request in the ad.

"[the car] Is a real head-turner, especially with the lights on.

"Serious buyers only, I know what I have."

And, just to make sure no one thought they'd be able to buy it, the post finished with the hashtag of #NotActuallyForSale.

The Commodore was replaced with a Hyundai Santa Fe after reaching 190,000km.