A special forces soldier involved in the operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has been charged after he allegedly made a bet on the operation ahead of time.

Gannon Ken Van Dyke allegedly placed $46,000 worth of wagers on Polymarket betting that Maduro would be out of office by January 31.

When Maduro was captured by US troops on a raid on January 3, Van Dyke allegedly made $573,000.

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While the details of his involvement in the operation are not known, he was pictured holding a rifle on the warship where Maduro was taken after his capture.

The 38-year-old has been charged with three counts of violating the Commodity Exchange Act, one count of wire fraud and a count of an unlawful monetary transaction.

Combined, the counts could result in 60 years behind bars.

"Our men and women in uniform are trusted with classified information in order to accomplish their mission as safely and effectively as possible, and are prohibited from using this highly sensitive information for personal financial gain," Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said.

"Widespread access to prediction markets is a relatively new phenomenon, but federal laws protecting national security information fully apply."

Van Dyke will appear in court today.

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"Gannon Ken Van Dyke allegedly betrayed his fellow soldiers by utilising classified information for his own financial gain," FBI assistant director in charge James C Barnacle Jr said.

"Van Dyke profited more than $400,000 by trading various outcomes related to Venezuela after learning of the operation because of his role as a US Army soldier."

After his successful bets, Van Dyke allegedly transferred the winnings to a foreign cryptocurrency vault, then a brokerage account.

He then allegedly asked Polymarket to delete his account, claiming he had lost access to his email address.

In a statement, Polymarket said they had referred the suspicious behaviour to the Department of Justice.

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"When we identified a user trading on classified government information, we referred the matter to the DOJ and cooperated with their investigation," the statement said.

"Insider trading has no place on Polymarket. Today's arrest is proof the system works."

Apparent insider trading on prediction markets has been rife in recent months.

On Polymarket, 150 accounts bet more than a million dollars that the US would strike Iran the next day.

As predicted, the war with Iran began the next day.

Meanwhile, betting app Kalshi has refused to pay out $77 million in winnings to punters who bet Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would be out of office by March 1.

Khamenei was killed by a US and Israeli bombing strike hours before the deadline was reached.

But those bets pale in comparison to the profits made on the stock and commodities markets in recent months.

A series of trades worth $800 million was made minutes before a Truth Social post from Donald Trump sent markets swinging.

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A "super El Niño" gathering strength in the tropical Pacific Ocean raises the likelihood of warmer and drier weather for large parts of Australia in coming months.

El Niño — the climate condition when seas are unusually warm — can upturn usual weather patterns in winter and spring.

This year's El Niño could become one of the most powerful on record, with forecasters predicting it could reach a "super" level, reports Weatherzone.

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What's driving the meteorological phenomenon is a huge slab of warm water sitting up to 250 metres below the central equatorial Pacific Ocean.

"These above-average sub-surface temperatures have strengthened in the last couple of months, with anomalies exceeding 6 degrees in some areas," Weatherzone said.

"It's possible that these warm sub-surface waters will upwell towards the surface in the coming weeks and months, which could kick off El Niño."

The possibility of El Niño developing is also backed by consensus in global weather forecast modelling.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Climate Prediction Centre's latest forecast shows there is a 25 per cent chance of a very strong El Niño in the latter half of this year.

READ MORE: Why it's unseasonably warm in southern parts of Australia at the moment

What will happen in Australia?

While El Niño can happen without any major weather changes, it makes some conditions more likely in winter and spring.

Records over the past decade show huge parts of eastern Australia usually experience less rainfall and higher-than-average seasonal temperatures outside tropical regions during El Niño.

Mornings in winter and spring can be unusually cool due to clearer skies.

Spikes in temperature also bring greater evaporation, and together with lower rainfall, raises the risk of drought in some parts.

Lower snow depths in alpine regions also raises the chance of a shorter ski season.

But meteorologists at Weatherzone say even with a stronger El Niño, these conditions in coming months are far from certain.

"It is important to point out that stronger events do not always mean bigger weather impacts and even a weak El Niño can cause significant weather and climate impacts in Australia."

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Microsoft has announced its largest-ever technology investment in Australia, with chief executive Satya Nadella committing $25 billion to expand AI infrastructure, strengthen national cybersecurity and train three million Australians with AI skills by 2028.

Nadella made the announcement during a visit to Sydney, where he met with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and toured Australian businesses already putting artificial intelligence to work.

In an exclusive interview with 9News, Nadella said Australia's readiness for AI had impressed him.

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"There's no sort of time lag between what may be happening on the west coast of the United States or the east coast of China and what's happening in Australia," he said.

The $25 billion commitment covers capital and operational expenditure to expand Azure AI supercomputing and cloud infrastructure across Australia by the end of 2029.

The investment is backed by a Memorandum of Understanding with the Australian government.

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On the question many Australians are asking, whether AI will cost them their jobs, Nadella was direct.

"The state of AI, and quite frankly even for the foreseeable future, is more about what I'll call task level automation inside of jobs," he said.

He pointed to a conversation with an Australian start-up building a medical scribe tool as an example.

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"One of the things he was describing to me was how much it's benefiting the physicians by reducing their paperwork burden and helping them spend more time with patients."

Microsoft will also expand its cybersecurity partnership with the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), with the Microsoft-ASD Cyber Shield program set to cover additional federal agencies.

Since launching in 2023, the program has secured more than 38,000 government accounts and identified 35 previously unknown vulnerabilities.

On skills, Microsoft has committed to training three million Australians with AI-ready workforce skills by 2028 — tripling its previous goal of one million people across Australia and New Zealand, which was achieved ahead of schedule.

A new program, Microsoft Elevate for Educators, launches today to help teachers build confidence using AI in classrooms.

Asked whether Australia could become an AI powerhouse, Nadella said the technology would amplify what the country already does well.

"AI is more an accelerant to the comparative advantage of countries and companies that already have that going," he said.

"Australia today is a powerhouse on many fronts, and those fronts will get more amplified because of their use of AI."

Microsoft also becomes a founding industry partner of the Australian AI Safety Institute under the announcement.