An eco-influencer has slammed Taylor Swift fans for making plastic friendship bracelets. Along with increased sales, there have been reports of businesses and craft stores running out of beads due to the sudden surge in demand, especially in Eras Tour locations. Taking to Instagram with her latest crusade, the 32-year-old said she saw that friendship bracelets were trending on her social media feed, and felt she had to speak up about the trend which has taken Swifties by storm. Another penned: ‘Can we stop shaming individuals and start holding accountable the huge corporations actually destroying the world? A third said: The difference is people don’t throw away bracelets. And I’m pretty sure that you can recycle them if you do wanna throw them away. How do we think we’ll ever not be swimming in plastic? But it seems these friendship bracelets are the hottest trend of the summer, with even the likes of Princess Charlotte and Olympian Sky Brown sporting them. Charlie continued and said: ‘Can we not make friendship bracelets out of colourful string instead? Fans of the pop billionaire have been trading bright and colourful beaded bracelets at the Eras Tour – which are almost always made from brightly-coloured plastic beads. Taylor Swift is playing in London and my feed is full of people making friendship bracelets. We all know there’s a global plastic epidemic and yet we do things like this anyway. And I already had a bunch of beads and string from when i was a child and most of the non-letter beads aren’t even plastic. Charlie captioned her video: Please can we stop making plastic cool? What do you think about the Taylor Swift friendship bracelet trend? There was even a ‘great bead shortage’ in Brisbane according to the Courier Mail, with businesses unable to keep up with the huge demand. The phenomenon has resulted in an unprecedented boom in sales – with data from eBay showing a 15,200 per cent increase in sales for friendship bracelets and Hobbycraft’s increasing by 500 per cent. The clip racked up thousands of likes and was viewed 73,000 times, however, Charlie recieved criticism for her opinion. Charlie said on her Instagram page: ‘Please can we stop making plastic cool? Charlie Gill, from Manchester, makes content on sustainable living and urges her followers to reuse clothing instead of buying new garments, and resist new trends which might encourage the use of single-use plastic. A fourth commented: ‘Ok I will stop every type of arts and crafts now. One Instagrammer wrote: ‘It’s not like I throw them away. I even wear my favourite one a lot.

High wind speeds have so far prevented helicopters from assisting with the search. Brisbane Airport is preparing to reopen after cyclone warnings closed it down. Surfers Paradise alone has experienced a dramatic drop of eight metres while ocean surges continue to hammer the coastline. The Himawari-8 Japanese weather satellite has captured these stunning images of the ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred as rumbled towards Bribie Island about 1pm on Saturday. We hope that it’s under but we’ve said right from the beginning of Cyclone Alfred that we would prepare for the worst and we would hope for the best. I think if you come through town, there’s an enormous amount of resources in town and we’re ready for the possibility of it overflowing. NSW Premier Chris Minns says the government is doing everything it can to assist the city’s residents as they battle through a second devastating flood in just three years. Lismore’s levee could be breached at any moment as the Wilsons River continues to swell in the midst of ongoing downpours. It’s close. In all candour, the latest models are it’s right on 10.8 metres, which could be just under or just over in various parts,’ Minns says. Vast tracts of the Gold Coast’s sparkling sands have been washed away after being pummelled by ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred. Two lifesaving towers have been destroyed after being savaged by the storm. Surf Life Saving Queensland confirmed that ‘100% of the Gold Coast is affected’ with beaches remaining closed while the city’s council works to assess the destruction.

The airport has advised staff that the transport hub will be ‘back to normal’ on Sunday morning. Turns out the Queensland capital was saved by a string of eight islands sheltering the approach to Brisbane along Moreton Bay. The Gold Coast, which hugs the eastern seaboard without any protection, has no such islands to shield it. So what happened to fearsome Cyclone Alfred? Tropical Cyclone Alfred reached southeast Queensland’s offshore islands around midnight last night as a Category 1 tropical cyclone,’ a bureau spokesperson confirmed. The Bureau of Meteorology rainfall map reveals almost the entire NSW coastline copped at least a sprinkling leading into what is shaping as a wet weekend all-round. Instead, it became a tropical low front with the island string saving the capital. Gold Coast Airport also hopes to return to regular services on Sunday. It was pitched as the Battle of Brisbane as millions of nervous residents sandbagged their homes and braced for impact as a ferocious category two cyclone thundered towards them. As the cyclone hammered into North Stradbroke, Moreton and Bribie Islands in the early hours of Saturday it lost even more of its ever-diminishing fury – and ceased to be classified as a cyclone at all. Work is underway now to restart operations at Brisbane Airport,’ a spokesperson says. Only for everyone to wake up on Saturday to little more than a thunderstorm. Millions of residents across Australia’s eastern seaboard are giving their umbrellas a workout today as storms ripple along the nation’s east coast. Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred delivered massive deluges in excess of 100mm throughout southeast Queensland and northern NSW’s coastal fringe overnight. On interacting with the islands, the system stalled and began weakening. This will take some time as airlines re-position aircraft from around the country and staff are stood up. The tropical storm had already been weakening as it made its slow approach to the city at little more than ‘walking speed’ – or about 6km/h – and was reduced to a category one system overnight. And they weren’t the only ones in for a dousing. The protection offered by the islands is one of the reasons Moreton Bay colony was established on the site 200 hundred years ago in 1825 after the environment at the original location at Redcliffe was found to be unsuitable. Passengers are still being urged to check with their airline for flight confirmation details before making their way to the airport as staff work to clear the backlog of grounded travellers. Please do not come to the airport until you have a booking on a flight that is confirmed to depart. But the city managed to avoid the full force of the storm’s brutal onslaught after the system shifted course and headed further north towards Bribie Island.

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Coles is beginning to reopen its supermarkets across southeast Queensland and northern NSW after Cyclone Alfred fizzled out into a tropical low system. Authorities say the motorist was forced to abandon his four-wheel drive after trying to cross Wild Cattle Creek Bridge, near Old Coramba Road in Megan, 23km northeast of Dorrigo, about 2.20pm on Friday. High winds ripping through the area have also prevented authorities from conducting a helicopter search for the driver. So still heavy rainfall for the remainder of today and overnight tonight,’ he says. We are continuing to work closely with government, local authorities, and emergency services to ensure we can reopen as soon as it is safe to do so,’ a Coles spokesperson says. The forecast comes as the Bureau of Meteorology predicts the final remnants of Alfred will have petered out in the state’s north in the same time frame. Bureau meteorologist Mick Logan says the heavy rainfalls in the storm’s key impact zones will ease throughout Saturday before largely wrapping up by the end of the weekend. It is already business as usual at Coles’ Toowoomba outlets and store managers are actively assessing other locations. Heavy falls of up to 60mm are then expected to douse the city’s west come Monday morning. Gentle showers are expected to settle across Sydney on Saturday evening with more drizzle throughout Sunday. There was a short period of time where (police) were able to engage with him,’ he says. He was last seen disappearing under the water as he was hauled downstream. Sydney will be kissed by the fringe of ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred with heavy thunderstorms predicted to roll over the city across the weekend. However, his position inside the flooded river prevented any emergency services from getting close to him and unfortunately he has been washed downstream. Although the risk of flooding will remain as the deluge washes through the region’s river systems, he says authorities should be able to assess the full impact of the storm by Monday morning. The grocery giant says it is gradually opening up its stores on a case-by-case basis after taking power outrages and staff availability into account. Attempts to locate the man have been hampered by increasingly wild weather across the state’s north, with road access to the location now completely cut off by floods. Acting commander of Coffs Harbour Police District Guy Flaherty says emergency services are currently trying to access the area so they could resume the search. Police are desperately trying to resume their search for a 61-year-old man washed from a bridge by raging floodwaters in the state’s north.

There will still be water in the river systems moving down through those areas. The Bureau continues to warn heavy rainfalls may lead to flash flooding throughout parts of the Northern Rivers, Mid North Coast and Northern Tablelands on Saturday ‘and is expected to increase through inland parts of the warning area during Sunday’. Six-hourly rainfall totals between 70 and 130mm are likely, increasing to around 200mm about the Border Ranges,’ the agency says. Ex-Cyclone Alfred may have been downgraded to a tropical low on Saturday, but authorities have warned the weather system will still wreak havoc on parts of southeast Queensland and northern NSW. Lismore residents are being warned that the worst is yet to come as flood waters threaten to cut off the northern NSW city. He described Saturday as ‘D-Day’. Lismore Mayor Steve Krieg says it is distressing news for a community still trying to rebuild in the wake of the devastating 2022 floods. If our levee overtops especially, our town’s in a lot of trouble – just emotionally, financially, people are really struggling before this cyclone,’ he says. NSW SES Commissioner Mike Wassing warns the region will continue to cop a battering even though ex-Cyclone Alfred has been downgraded. Mr Wassing says the NSW SES has responded to more than 5200 disaster-related incidents since the storm started bearing down on the east coast. The Bureau of Meteorology predicts that major flooding is likely to occur around lunchtime and that the city’s 10.6m levee could be breached by mid-afternoon. The Wilsons River that snakes through the inland centre has already swollen to 9.04m and is still rising. We’re still seeing very strong winds – more importantly, we’re still seeing very heavy rainfalls, and therefore river rises, flash flooding and continued inundation of many areas,’ he says. They have also performed more than 30 flood rescues in the past 24 hours alone, with one man missing after he was washed from a bridge near Dorrigo.