Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison declared a national emergency Wednesday to speed up the delivery of aid to parts of the country's east coast that have been devastated by widespread, record floods for several weeks.
What they're saying: The national emergency declaration will "ensure all our emergency powers are available and that we cut through any red tape we might face in delivering services and support on the ground,” Morrison said in the press release.
The first person to receive a heart from a genetically modified pig died on Tuesday, two months after the experimental operation, the University of Maryland Medical Center announced.
Driving the news: The hospital said David Bennett's condition began to deteriorate several days earlier but did not identify an exact cause of death.
The legendary lost ship Endurance was found — in remarkably good condition — 10,000 feet underwater off the Antarctic Coast, where it sank in 1915, National Geographic announced this morning.
Why it matters: This is one of history's most famous shipwrecks. Irish explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, trying to reach the South Pole, abandoned the wooden Endurance after it was trapped in ice. The ship was crushed by ice and sank.
Some 60,000 Sydney residents were under evacuation orders as heavy rains and flash flooding linked to climate change pummeled much of Australia's largest city on Tuesday, per Australian emergency services.
The big picture: The severe weather has lashed Australia's east coast since late last month, killing at least 20 people. An Australian Bureau of Meteorology official told a briefing Tuesday that Sydney faced a "tough" 48 hours due to heavy rains, and minor to major flooding was occurring from the state of Queensland's border to Victoria's.
