Renters are being forced to live in sweltering and unsafe conditions during the summer months, with inside temperatures reaching 30 degrees every day in some homes, new research has found.

Substandard homes and rising energy costs mean many renters are being left to suffer miserably, according to the report from advocacy group Better Renting.

Temperatures inside 77 rental homes across Australia were tracked by researchers over the course of this summer, from December last year to the end of February.

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On average, indoor temperatures were above 25 degrees for 40 percent of the time, or over 9 hours a day, and above 30 degrees for an hour a day.

According to the World Health Organisation, 18-24 degrees is the safe range for indoor temperatures.

However, the study found four states, NSW, Queensland, Northern Territory and Tasmania, recorded maximum indoor temperatures above 40 degrees, with the highest temperature reaching 51.8 in Tasmania. 

The highest temperature recorded in NSW was 46.4 degrees, and 42.1 degrees in Queensland.

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Many renters were avoiding using air conditioning because of high energy costs, or were unable to cool their homes despite turning on cooling appliances, the report found.

A lack of insulation was identified as a problem in many of the rental homes.

Heat radiating down from uninsulated ceilings meant some renters felt like they were being 'cooked from above'.

"It's hell. I feel extremely restricted in terms of what I can do and where I can go in the house," one Victorian renter, Archie, was quoted as saying.

"So the main living room, my bedroom and the kitchen are too hot to use.

"I have a portable AC that I put in my room and it's the only way I can use the room and actually get some sleep." 

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The rising cost of living meant renters were often stuck living in unhealthy conditions, Better Renting Executive Director Joel Dignam said.

"Everyone needs a healthy home. Governments have a responsibility to act so that renters can afford to keep their home at a healthy temperature. 

"This doesn't just mean another pre-election cash splash, it should mean introducing minimum energy efficiency standards to ensure that rental homes are decent to live in."

"When your rent and your energy costs are going up, one thing people cut back on is cooling. 

"But when you're in a substandard home, this means suffering in excessive indoor heat. Even in this milder summer, we saw worrying indoor temperatures. 

"As temperatures, energy costs and rents continue to go up, governments need to act to keep renters safe in their homes."

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Parts of Australia could be at risk of a flash drought in 2023, with increasing signs the country could be hit by an El Niño weather event, meteorologists are warning.

The dry, warm weather predicted would be a stark contrast to the La Niña event Australia has been experiencing, which led to record-breaking rain and flooding in eastern Australia last year.

La Niña is almost over, according to Weatherzone meteorologist Ben Domensino, who predicts the Bureau of Meteorology will declare the event has come to an end in the Pacific Ocean later this month.

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He has said the Pacific Ocean will then remain "in a neutral state" for a few weeks.

"This is guaranteed because La Niña can't flip straight from La Niña to El Niño without first passing through a neutral phase," Domensino explained.

The meteorologist has said it is very unlikely La Niña will return again in 2023, as it has in the past few years.

He has said predictions show it is possible that weather conditions will remain neutral for the rest of the year, or that they will be an El Niño event, with it too soon to say either "is a firm favourite".

"While it is still too early to have high confidence about El Niño later this year, most international forecast models currently favour its development this winter.

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An El Niño event would increase the likelihood of unusually dry and warm weather over large areas of Australia, as well as the probability of drought and bushfires.

Domensino has explained that the El Niño coming after the wetter weather brought by the past three La Niña events would would help to offset dry and warm influence of El Niño.

But flash droughts, which the Bureau of Meteorology defines as "a type of drought that has undergone rapid intensification that has devastating impacts on agriculture," do bring risks.

"Rapid transition into drier conditions, which can happen when El Niño immediately follows La Niña, can lead to vegetation moisture stress," Domensino has warned.

Flash droughts can also increase the risk of grass and crop fires, due to this type of vegetation drying out faster than forested areas.

There are already sings that rainfall has been waning over parts of eastern Australia in the last few months, coinciding with the breakdown of La Niña.

READ MORE: Residents told 'leave immediately' as bushfire rages north-east of Melbourne

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Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, have been asked to vacate their home in Britain, suggesting a further fraying of ties with the royal family amid preparations for the coronation of his father, King Charles III.

Frogmore Cottage, on the grounds of Windsor Castle west of London, had been intended as the couple's main residence before they gave up royal duties and moved to Southern California.

The Sun newspaper reported that Charles started the eviction process on January 11, the day after the publication of Harry's explosive memoir Spare.

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"We can confirm The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been requested to vacate their residence at Frogmore Cottage," a spokesperson for the couple said in statement.

Disclosures Harry made in "Spare" deepened the rift between him and his family. The book included his account of private conversations with his father, and his brother, Prince William.

After they left Britain, Harry and Meghan had said Frogmore Cottage would remain their base when they visited the U.K.

In September 2020, a spokesman announced the couple had repaid $4.2m in British taxpayers' money that was used to renovate the home when they were working members of the royal family.

The money "fully covered" the cost of the renovation, the spokesman said.

With AP

A firefighter was missing inside a building in downtown Buffalo, New York, on Wednesday and was believed to have been trapped by falling debris from a blaze that led to an explosion that sent flames and smoke billowing into the street.

Video recorded by bystanders showed teams of firefighters outside the building being knocked over and enveloped in a cloud of ash, then flailing to regain control of spraying hoses.

Rescuers were trying to reach the spot where the missing firefighter was believed to be trapped, officials said.

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"Certainly our thoughts and hopes and prayers are that the firefighter will make it out of this fire," Mayor Byron Brown said. "This is a difficult day in the city of Buffalo, and certainly we are asking for prayers."

Firefighters responded to the building, which held a theatrical costumes shop, in a downtown commercial district at about 10am, Fire Commissioner William Renaldo said.

"Quickly thereafter there was a mayday call," Renaldo said. "There was a structural collapse, an interior collapse. Firefighters had to evacuate. And unfortunately one of our firefighters was trapped and is still trapped, and we're still trying to make our way to that firefighter as we speak."

Renaldo said at a briefing that firefighters had not had any contact with their missing colleague since the firefighter became trapped.

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Asked if the firefighter might still be alive, Renaldo said. "There is a possibility, yes. We're keeping that hope."

The cause of the fire was under investigation.

Renaldo said his department was investigating a report that workers had been seen with torches near the building, which was being renovated.

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It looks like a peaceful paradise at first glance. But this lush forest is hidden away within the most heavily guarded border in the world.

It may seem strange to see Greta Thunberg protesting against wind turbines, but this week the Swedish climate activist has joined Indigenous and environmental groups in Norway to do just that.

Dozens of protestors, including Thunberg, have blocked access to Norwegian government buildings in Oslo to protest against two wind farms built on Sámi reindeer grazing grounds.

On Wednesday morning, 10 people including Thunberg were removed by police from the entrance of the ministry of finance, according to a spokesperson for the Oslo police district.

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The Sámi people, the only recognised Indigenous group within the European Union, say their centuries-old tradition of reindeer herding is jeopardised by the wind farms in the Fosen region in Central Norway.

Among the largest onshore windfarms in Europe, they are made up of 151 wind turbines that stretch 87 metres high.

"The constructions are stealing the reindeer's grazing land," Maja Kristine Jåma, a reindeer herder and Sámi politician, told CNN.

The reindeer are also affected by the infrastructure around the turbines, including roads, she said.

"It disturbs them a lot," she said.

Jåma and others are calling for the turbines to be torn down and the reindeer grazing lands restored.

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"Indigenous rights, human rights, must go hand-in-hand with climate protection and climate action. That can't happen at the expense of some people," Thunberg told Reuters on Monday.

The fight over the wind turbines has been long running.

In October 2021, the Sámi people secured a legal victory. Norway's Supreme Court ruled that the wind farm permits were invalid because the turbines violated the protected cultural rights of Sámi people by infringing on reindeer grazing lands.

But nearly a year and a half on, the turbines are still operating.

"So far, the government has not even acknowledged the Supreme Court's ruling on the violation of human rights or offered an apology to the Reindeer Sámi," Eirik Larsen, political adviser to the Sámi Parliament in Norway, told CNN.

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The Norwegian government said it is assessing how to secure the Sámi's rights in Fosen.

"The Supreme Court has considered that the permits that have been granted are invalid, but it does not follow from the judgment that the wind turbines must be taken down," Elisabeth Sæther, State Secretary in the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum, told CNN.

Sæther added that the government has been consulting with reindeer herders and the Sámi Parliament to find solutions "that make it possible for reindeer herding and the wind turbines to operate side by side".

What's happening in Norway is part of a growing conundrum when it comes to the green transition: How to implement climate policies without riding roughshod over Indigenous rights and the environment.

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Wind energy is an important plank in Norway's green energy transition. The country's electricity generation is already almost completely renewable.

In 2020, more than 90 per cent of its electricity was generated using hydropower and wind, which has increased 10-fold in the last decade, accounted for 6.5 per cent.

Norway, which remains a major oil and gas producer, has pledged to reduce its levels of planet heating pollution to 55 per cent below 1990 levels by 2030.

"But you cannot have a green shift that violates human rights or Indigenous rights," Jåma said.

"These constructions threaten our way of living and our way of engaging in our culture as reindeer herders."

Jåma calls what's happening "green colonisation," a term the Norwegian government told CNN was "misleading and incorrect".

Steve Trent, CEO and Founder of the Environmental Justice Foundation, told CNN, "The Sámi did not cause the climate crisis".

"Their traditional ways of life — which they have practiced for millennia — should not be jeopardised by efforts to resolve it," he said.

"Our efforts to roll back global heating must be equitable and fair."

The Sámi people, whose traditional lands — Sapmi — span northern parts of Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia, already live on the frontline of the climate crisis.

The Arctic is warming as much as four times faster than the rest of the world and the temperature changes are making it harder for reindeer to feed, as increased rainfall means layers of ice freeze over their food.

"Indigenous Peoples are asked to give up their lands for the wind industry, mining, and other purposes to save the world from a crisis mainly created by others," Larsen said.

A woman who killed her daughter and another woman in a car park crash has claimed she is innocent, despite being found guilty.

Linda Britton drove her car into her daughter Skye Luland and Kazzandra Widders during a fight between the families outside Nambucca Plaza shopping centre in Nambucca Heads in September 2019.

The 56-year-old claimed she was trying to split the women up but instead crushed them both to death.

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"I lost my daughter that night … and another girl," Britton said.

"I didn't want anyone to get hurt."

Britton was found guilty of manslaughter at trial and today faced a sentence hearing.

She told 9News she was innocent.

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"They attacked us, they were violent, they hit us with weapons," she said.

Kazzandra's mother Karen Walker said she wondered if Britton "has a heart".

"You destroyed my family," Walker told the court.

"You've left us with grief and pain and you can't even look at me."

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"I'd like to see her go to jail and never come back … my daughter's never coming back."

The killer's lawyer argued Britton was a desperate mother caught up in the violence.

Britton faces up to 25 years behind bars when she is sentenced in Downing District Court next month.

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People living in some remote parts of the Northern Territory will be evacuated due to flooding, with major and local roads expected to be impacted.

About 700 people in Kalkarindji, Dagaragu, Palumpa, Pigeon Hole and Yarralin, about 500km south of Darwin, will be flown to Katherine and taken by bus to Darwin.

An emergency declaration has been issued for the area amid a deluge of rain.

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NT Police Commander Danny Bacon said the emergency was the result of flooding in the Victoria River.

"Police have commenced evacuations of Pigeon Hole and Dagaragu communities," he said.

"There's up to about 700 residents within that particular region."

He said 70 vulnerable people within those areas have been identified.

An emergency operation centre is open 24 hours a day as the wet weather continues.

"We're asking residents of those particular communities to leave their animals … animals will not be evacuated, (teams) will attend to feed those animals," he said.

The NT government said the upper Victoria River had reached major flood levels today.

"Earlier predictions were that the river would reach moderate flood level, however that has now been exceeded."

Regional Controller, Commander Daniel Bacon said: "Access roads to the communities have been cut. Daguragu has been isolated by floodwaters for two days and inundation of these communities is likely tonight.

"A decision has been made for the safety of the residents to evacuate."

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Shenagh Gamble said a tropical low had brought heavy rain and strong winds to the area.

She said 100mm-150mm of rain fell last night.

About 60mm is on the way tonight, with isolated falls over 160mm possible in parts.

Gamble said the river had risen quickly and is at major flood level of over 16m.

"We expect that that river will keep rising to at least 17.5m"

A flood watch is current for much of the Top End.

A boy who was hit by a train on the way to school in Adelaide is fighting for life with his family by his side.

Rhyle Abiado, 11, was struck by a train at Tambelin Railway Station in Evanston Gardens in the city's north yesterday morning.

Today his uncle Rudy Huan said Rhyle's parents were with him in hospital and are "very stressed".

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"We are going to visit tonight to support my nephew," Huan said.

Rhyle's classmates and teachers at Trinity College saw the horrific accident.

Paramedics worked on Rhyle by the side of the railway line before he was taken to the Women's and Children's Hospital in a critical condition.

READ MORE: 'Terrible' train collision kills dozens, injures over 100 in Greece

The school says it "continues to work closely with the family".

Transport Minister Tom Koutsantonis has refuted calls for automatic pedestrian gates at the station despite 17 being installed along the same line.

"I think it's important to understand that passive crossings are used across Australia, they're designed to an Australian standard and we don't have unlimited funding," Koutsantonis said.

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Meanwhile another person was hit by a train in the city today.

An elderly woman was rushed to the Royal Adelaide Hospital with critical injuries after being hit by a city-bound service at East Grange in the city's west.

Passengers were held on board for 45 minutes.

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A passenger train carrying hundreds of people collided at high speed with an oncoming freight train in a fiery wreck in northern Greece, killing 32 and injuring at least 85, officials said Wednesday.

Multiple cars derailed and at least three burst into flames after the collision near the town of Tempe on Tuesday just before midnight.

Rescue crews illuminated the scene with floodlights before dawn on Wednesday as they searched frantically through the twisted, smoking wreckage for survivors.

Survivors said several passengers were thrown through the windows of the train cars due to the impact.

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They said others fought to free themselves after the passenger train buckled, slamming into a field next to the tracks near a gorge about 380 kilometres north of Athens where major highway and rail tunnels are located.

"There were many big pieces of steel," Vassilis Polyzos, a local resident who was one of the first people on the scene, said.

"The trains were completely destroyed, both passenger and freight trains."

He said dazed and disoriented people were escaping out of the train's rear cars as he arrived.

"People, naturally, were scared — very scared," he said.

"They were looking around, searching; they didn't know where they were."

The trains crashed just before the Vale of Tempe, a gorge that separates the regions of Thessaly and Macedonia. Costas Agorastos, the regional governor of the Thessaly area, told Greece's Skai television the two trains crashed head-on at high speed.

"Carriage one and two no longer exist, and the third has derailed," he said.

Rescuers wearing headlamps worked in thick smoke, pulling pieces of mangled metal from the cars to search for trapped people.

Others scoured the field with flashlights and checked underneath the wreckage. Several of the dead are believed to have been found in the restaurant area near the front of the passenger train.

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Hospital officials in the nearby city of Larissa said at least 25 of those hurt had serious injuries.

"The evacuation process is ongoing and is being carried out under very difficult conditions due to the severity of the collision between the two trains," Vassilis Varthakoyiannis, a spokesperson for Greece's firefighting service, said.

The possible cause of the collision was not immediately clear. Two rail officials were being questioned by police but had not been detained.

Passengers who received minor injuries or were unharmed were transported by bus to Thessaloniki, 130 kilometres to the north. Police took their names as they arrived, in an effort to track anyone who may be missing.

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A teenage survivor who did not give his name told reporters that just before the crash he felt strong braking and saw sparks and then there was a sudden stop.

"Our carriage didn't derail, but the ones in front did and were smashed," he said, visibly shaken.

He added that the first car caught fire and that he used a bag to break the window of his car, the fourth, and escape.

Rail operator Hellenic Train said the northbound passenger train from Athens to Thessaloniki, Greece's second-largest city, had about 350 passengers on board.

Agorastos described the collision on state television as "very powerful" and said it was "a terrible night."

"The front section of the train was smashed. … We're getting cranes to come in and special lifting equipment clear the debris and lift the rail cars. There's debris flung all around the crash site."

Officials said the army had been contacted to assist.

Hellenic Train, which has added highspeed services in recent years, is operated by Italy's FS Group, which runs rail services in several European countries.

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