Your afternoon Briefing: ‘Enough to blow up a block’

Your 5pm Briefing is ready, featuring the latest on power outages in Victoria and the discovery of a huge suburban drug lab.

Hello readers and good afternoon.

A Sydney home was turned into a drug lab by its tennants.

‘Enough to blow up the block’

A huge suburban drug lab in Sydney, big enough to blow up an entire residential block, was in the middle of cooking ice when detectives arrived.

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Yallourn North, a coal powered, steam driven, power station in the Latrobe Valley, Gippsland, Victoria.

Power cut to 160,000 Victorians

Rolling power outages and bushfires have been triggered by extreme heat in Victoria and blazes are ravaging Tasmania. Greens leader Richard Di Natale has blamed an over-reliance on coal and energy policy failures for the bushfires and the increased risk of bushfires near his family home.

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ctivist group Whistleblowers, Activists and Citizens Alliance put the signs up this morning

Far-left activists’ Cook protest

Far-left activists have put up signs reading “Rest in Piss Australia Day” and “Abolish Australia Day” at the historic Cooks’ Cottage in inner east Melbourne.

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Indiana Tea House on Cottesloe Beach, Perth

Twiggy eyes dining institution

Perth mining magnate Andrew Forrest wears a lot of hats outside chairing FMG but is he about to add restaurateur to the list?

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MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - JANUARY 23: Shuai Zhan of China and Samantha Stosur of Australia in the women's semi final match against Barbora Strycova and Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic during day 10 of the 2019 Australian Open at Melbourne Park on January 23, 2019 in Melbourne, Australia.]. (Photo by Michael Dodge/Getty Images)

The latest in sport

Follow our live blog of day 12 of the Australian Open, as Aussie Samantha Stosur shoots for a final slot alongside Shuai Zhang in the women’s doubles, and world No 1 Novak Djokovic takes on Lucas Pouille for the chance of a men’s singles final against Rafael Nadal.

Follow our live coverage of day two of the day/night Test between Australia and Sri Lanka at the Gabba.