Good morning. It's Wednesday 6 July, and here's a round-up of the latest news.
NSW rains move north
The heavy rain that's battered Sydney is moving north.
The Hunter region and the Mid-North Coast of New South Wales are expected to be affected by the weather system, with parts of the latter possibly getting 125 millimetres of rain in six hours on Wednesday.
Rivers are rising in the Hunter, with major flooding occurring at Bulga and Wollombi.
Evacuation orders have been issued for communities in Budgewoi and Tuggerah Lakes on the Central Coast, and an evacuation has been set up at The Entrance.
There's widespread flooding in western Sydney.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will tour flood-hit areas with New South Wales premier Dominic Perrottet on Wednesday.
Anthony Albanese to attend Pacific forum
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he will attend a forum for Pacific nations in Fiji next week, despite the flood crisis in New South Wales.
Mr Albanese says the event in Suva is important, and the security pact China signed with the Solomon Islands in April shows what can happen if Australia ignores the Pacific Islands.
Having just returned from a trip to Europe, he says his ministers are doing their jobs in Australia when he is overseas, and Australia cannot afford to be isolated from its national interests.
Senior British cabinet ministers resign
Two of Britain's most senior cabinet ministers have resigned in a move that's further threatened , following months of scandals.
Treasury Chief Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid resigned within minutes of each other, after a day in which the Prime Minister was forced to acknowledge he lied about the way he handled allegations of sexual misconduct by a senior member of his government.
The former ministers said they couldn't continue to serve in a government that lacked "integrity and competency".
The Prime Minister's critics say he failed to treat the allegations of sexual misconduct seriously.
Nick Kyrgios to appear in court
He has been summoned to appear at the ACT Magistrates Court on 2 August in relation to one charge of common assault.
In a statement to SBS News, a spokesperson from ACT Policing said: “ACT Policing can confirm a 27-year-old Watson man is scheduled to face the ACT Magistrates Court on 2 August in relation to one charge of common assault following an incident in December 2021.”
Australia's Nick Kyrgios is through to the Wimbledon quarter-finals. Source: AAP / Alberto Pezzali/AP
Kyrgios is currently competing at Wimbledon, where he's made the quarter-finals.
No 'magic solution' to Australia-China relationship
The Chinese government says there is no magic solution that would repair the Australia-China relationship.
It's been reported that Foreign Minister Penny Wong will meet with her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, at a Group of 20 meeting in Indonesia later this week.
It would be the first meeting between an Australian Foreign Minister and the Chinese Foreign Minister since 2019.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhou Lijian says China hopes Australia will look to find common ground with China.
Finland and Sweden one step closer to joining NATO
The 30 existing NATO members have signed off on the accession protocols for Finland and Sweden to join the alliance.
To officially join the alliance, all 30 NATO members must now pass a vote through their domestic parliaments to let Finland and Sweden join.
Turkey has threatened to scuttle Finland and Sweden joining unless the two countries if they fail to fully meet demands to extradite terror suspects with links to Kurdish groups that are outlawed in Turkey, or the network of an exiled cleric accused of a failed 2016 coup in Turkey.
But the two countries have signed a memorandum of understanding with Turkey, and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says he's confident everything will proceed as planned.
