At least ten people are dead and three others are missing as Typhoon Goni slammed the Philippines on Sunday. The storm has been named the world’s strongest storm of the year and reached a super typhoon category bringing violent winds and intense rainfall to the Philippines’ main island of Luzon. Schools that have been empty since the start of the pandemic are being used as emergency shelters, with over 390,000 people fleeing their homes to safer ground.

Both Donald Trump and Joe Biden have begun making their final campaigns to voters just days out from the US Presidential Election. President Trump visited five swing states on Sunday, warning of “bedlam” if no clear winner emerged quickly from the election. Biden was joined by Barack Obama on the campaign trail in Michigan, with the former President calling the election a matter of “life or death”.

A new report by Deloitte Access Economics has shown that the Australian economy will shrink by 6 percent and lose almost a million jobs by 2070 if nothing is done about climate change. Deloitte Australia chief economist Chris Richardson says the COVID-19 pandemic has shown the cost of overlooking catastrophic risks. He said if we don’t address climate change, “by 2050 Australia will experience economic losses on par with COVID every year, [which would] compromise the economic future of Australia.”

Australia marked its first 24 hours of no COVID community transmissions or deaths in almost five months on Sunday. This comes as the state of Victoria emerges from a months-long lockdown with a rolling 14-day average of 2.2 cases. 

The damage from the hail storm that hit Brisbane on Saturday is expected to cost $1 billion. The storm left 95,000 houses without power and saw cricket ball-sized hailstones severely damage cars and houses. The Insurance Council of Australia has declared a catastrophe for damages caused by the hailstorm, which has been declared the worst hailstorm Brisbane has seen since 2014.

The Queensland Labor Party led by Annastacia Palaszczuk has been re-elected as a majority government over the weekend. Palaszuzuk has become the first female politician in the country’s history to win three elections. Opposition leader Deb Frecklington conceded defeat on Saturday night but vowed to remain leader of the Liberal-National Party.