A record crowd descended on Dan Cowper’s property in Turakina last weekend to experience the annual Suzuki Extreme 4×4 Challenge. “I’d say we’d have probably 3000 to 4000 people which would be a bit more than last year, so couldn’t…

Police are investigating whether a fight over a girl led to a teenager being fatally stabbed in Sydney's west early this morning.

The 16-year-old boy was at a gathering with other young people at a home on Australis Drive, Ropes Crossing, when he was stabbed around 3am this morning.

When emergency services arrived, police attempted to revive the teenager before paramedics arrived but he died at the scene.

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Detective Chief Inspector Paul Tickner said police believe three offenders fled the scene following the stabbing.

They have not identified the offenders yet.

Tickner alleged the fight may have occurred over a girl.

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"Young boys probably with hormones running through their system and somebody thought they had to defend the right of their girlfriend at the scene and that has led to a young boy being killed," Tickner said.

"They shouldn't be carrying knives in the first place."

Tickner added the stabbing is not believed to be gang-related.

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Police located a kitchen knife in a drain nearby and are investigating whether it was the weapon used in the stabbing.

Tickner said the teenager had "his whole life ahead of him" and condemned the violence.

President Joe Biden on Friday brushed off economic warnings from Tesla CEO Elon Musk and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon as he touted May's jobs report, saying the nation is likely to see more moderate gains as his administration struggles to get a handle on high inflation.

The President argued the nation is entering a new phase of "stable, steady growth" amid its recovery from the coronavirus pandemic as he touted Friday's jobs report that showed the US added 390,000 jobs in May and the unemployment rate stayed at 3.6 per cent.

Biden pointed to new investments and jobs added from Ford, Chrysler and Intel when asked about Musk's recent comments that he has a "super bad feeling" about the economy and wants to cut about 10 per cent of jobs at Tesla and Dimon's warning that the economy is headed for a "hurricane."

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"While Elon Musk is talking about that, Ford is increasing their investment overwhelmingly. I think Ford is increasing investment building new electric vehicles, 6000 new employees – union employees, I might add – in the Midwest. The former Chrysler corporation ..they are also making similar investments in electric vehicles. Intel is adding 20,000 new jobs making computer chips," Biden said.

"So, you know, lots of luck on his trip to the moon," the President said about the SpaceX CEO.

Musk responded to that barb in a tweet, linking to a 2021 NASA news release announcing its partnership with SpaceX for its Artemis program to develop a commercial moon lander and saying, "Thanks Mr. President!"

As the President touted last month's jobs report and projected confidence in the nation's economic trajectory, he also acknowledged many Americans "remain anxious" about high gas and food prices.

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Biden again placed blame on Russian President Vladimir Putin's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, while also saying, "I understand that families who are struggling probably don't care why the prices are up. They just want them to go down."

The President assured the American people he was doing "everything I can on my own to help working families during this stretch of higher prices," but urged Congress to pass proposals he has put forward to lower costs.

The tempering of expectations about economic gains from the President comes as inflation is running at a near-four-decade high and concerns about a recession are mounting.

In order to help get inflation under control, the Federal Reserve said it would hike its interest rates by a half-percentage point – the largest jump in 22 years.

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"We aren't likely to see the kind of blockbuster job reports month after month like we had over this past year, but that's a good thing. That's a sign of a healthy economy," the President argued.

Earlier this week, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen acknowledged she had failed to anticipate how long high inflation would continue to affect Americans.

Yellen told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that she was "was wrong then about the path that inflation would take," when asked about her comments from 2021 that inflation posed only a "small risk."

A number of top economic aides to the President have been taking to the airwaves to push the message that Biden is focused on bringing down consumer prices in an attempt to boost the President's low approval ratings.

The White House recently launched a month-long effort to signal heavy focus on the economy less than six months out from this fall's midterm elections.

A young man washed off rocks while fishing at a remote South Taranaki beach began swimming to shore before another wave pushed him under, a local councillor who lives at the beach says.The man hasn’t been seen since.Brian Rook…

Multiple neighbourhoods in Shanghai were placed back under lockdown only a day after city-wide restrictions were lifted, as China's stringent zero COVID-19 strategy continues to haunt the financial hub.

Shanghai lifted its two-month lockdown on Wednesday, allowing most of its 25 million residents to leave their communities.

But nearly two million people were still confined to their homes in areas designated as "high risk" by the government.

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At a news conference Thursday, Shanghai officials said seven new COVID-19 cases were detected in the city's Jing'an and Pudong districts, resulting in four neighbourhoods being swiftly sealed off and designated as "medium-risk areas" – meaning residents will be confined to their homes for 14 days.

Their 26 close contacts and 106 secondary contacts had been placed in government quarantine, and more than 470,000 people had been tested, according to officials.

The reversion to lockdown is the latest reminder that despite the easing of restrictions, the government's zero COVID-19 policy – comprised of mass testing, extensive quarantine and snap lockdowns – will continue to dominate everyday life.

While Shanghai's businesses and shops were allowed to reopen and subway and buses resumed services, residents still need a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours to use public transport and enter public spaces.

The sense of joy and relief from the lifting of the lockdown among residents soon turned into mounting frustration as long lines formed at testing sites across the city throughout Wednesday and Thursday.

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Some stretched for hundreds of metres in the blazing summer heat, and others lasted late into the night, according to videos posted by residents on social media.

A testing site put up a notice warning residents the wait could take four and a half hours.

Shanghai officials on Thursday acknowledged and apologised for the long wait, citing a lack of resources and facilities – despite authorities having built more than 10,000 testing sites and trained thousands of workers to swab throats.

Some of the testing sites had not been put into operation, while others only opened for a short period of time in the day and were understaffed, officials said, vowing to improve the situation.

Many residents are still haunted by fears of a renewed lockdown.

On Thursday morning, crowds were filmed fleeing from the International Finance Centre mall in the Lujiazui financial district after it suddenly stopped people from entering or exiting – a common practice at venues where positive cases are found, according to videos circulating on social media.

The mall later issued a notice saying it had reopened at 12.30pm after carrying out a full disinfection, without confirming whether there had been a positive COVID-19 case at the site.

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Shanghai's poorly managed lockdown led to widespread food shortages and lack of access to medical care, causing an outpouring of anger and frustration among residents.

But China's leader Xi Jinping has vowed to carry on with the zero COVID-19 policy, even as the rest of the world learns to live with the virus and move on from the pandemic.

On Thursday, the People's Daily – the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece – declared on its front page that "the battle to safeguard Shanghai has achieved major phased achievements" under the leadership of Xi.

"Shanghai is actively exploring new mechanisms for normalized prevention and control in the mega-city, and accelerating the return of economic and social development to the normal track," it said.

Police have revealed one of their own has died following a crash in Tapapa yesterday. Constable Shannon Alexandra Rastrick has been named as the person who passed away after the single-vehicle crash on State Highway 5 yesterday…

Damages from the February floods that devastated parts of Queensland and New South Wales have been totalled at $4.3 billion, the fourth highest damage bill from a natural disaster in Australia's history.

The devastation is costing twice the amount billed during the 2011 floods in Queensland and has surpassed damages from the 1989 Newcastle earthquake.

Only 1999's eastern Sydney hailstorm ($5.57 billion), Cyclone Tracey hitting Darwin in 1974 ($5.04 billion) and Cyclone Dinah in 1967 ($4.69 billion) cost insurers more, the Insurance Council of Australia said, using values normalised to 2017.

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Insurance premiums are being pushed up substantially in the wake of the disaster, with 216,465 damage claims made so far.

Karen Kiddy from Paddington in Brisbane said despite not being impacted by the floods, she was shocked to find her latest insurance bill had jumped more than $5000.

"The lady told me that every renewal now with Westpac has automatic flood cover," Kiddy said.

The ICA said climate change was increasing the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, impacting the availability and affordability of insurance.

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"Insurance is a matter for the insurance companies and through the federal government," Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said.

With flood events expected to become increasingly common due to climate change, all levels of government are now considering what can be done to mitigate future impacts.

The deployment of the military was considered a crucial aspect of the federal government's disaster response to the flood disaster, but Labor Senator Murray Watt said a more strategic approach was needed for the utilisation of troops.

"We want to take a good look at how much we rely on them and whether there are other ways we can make sure people get the support they need while not putting too much pressure on the Defence Force" Watt said.

But the premier and Brisbane's lord mayor, Adrian Schrinner, said the deployment of troops was crucial during Queensland's time of need.

"The army has a seat at the table and that's absolutely critical," the premier said.

Schrinner said the army provided a boost of hope for those struggling to clean their flooded homes and streets.

"When the Defence Force personnel turned up you could see it was a sense of relief," he said.

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The state agency investigating the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde has determined that the commander facing criticism for the slow police response was not carrying a radio as the massacre unfolded, a Texas state senator said on Friday.

Sen. Roland Gutierrez told The Associated Press in a brief telephone interview that a Texas Department of Public Safety official told him school district police Chief Pete Arredondo was without a radio during the May 24 attack by a lone gunman at Robb Elementary School that left 19 students and two teachers dead.

Seventeen more people were injured

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Authorities have not said how Arredondo was communicating with other law enforcement officials at the scene, including the more than a dozen officers who were at one point waiting outside the classroom where the gunman was holed up.

Arredondo heads the district’s small department and was in charge of the multi-agency response to the shooting.

He has not responded to multiple interview requests from AP since the attack, including a telephone message left with district police Friday.

The apparently missing radio is the latest detail to underscore concerns about how police handled the shooting and why they didn't confront the gunman faster, even as anguished parents outside the school urged officers to go inside.

The Justice Department has said it will review the law enforcement response.

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Focus has turned to the chief in recent days after Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said Arredondo believed the active shooting had turned into a hostage situation, and that he made the “wrong decision” to not order officers to breach the classroom more quickly to confront the gunman.

Gutierrez, who represents Uvalde, complained on Thursday that Arredondo was not informed of panicked 911 calls coming from students trapped inside a classroom where the gunman had holed up.

The Democrat called it a “system failure.”

Police radios are a crucial source of real-time communication during an emergency and, according to experts, often how information from 911 calls is relayed to officers on the ground. It’s unclear who at the scene was aware of the calls.

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Uvalde police did not respond to questions about the calls on Thursday.

The news emerged amid tensions between state and local authorities over how police handled the shooting and communicated what happened to the public.

The gunman in Uvalde, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, spent roughly 80 minutes inside the school, and more than an hour passed from when the first officers followed him into the building and when he was killed by law enforcement, according to an official timeline.

Ramos slipped through an unlocked door into adjoining fourth-grade classrooms at 11:33, authorities said.

He rapidly fired off more than 100 rounds.

Officers entered minutes later, exchanging fire with Ramos, and by 12:03 there were as many as 19 officers in the hallway outside the classroom, McCraw said.

Authorities have not said where Arredondo was during this period.

Officers from other agencies urged the school police chief to let them move in because children were in danger, according to two law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not been authorised to discuss the investigation publicly.

A US Border Patrol tactical team used a school employee’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman around 12:50pm, McCraw said.

Law enforcement and state officials have struggled to present an accurate timeline and details of the shooting and how police responded, sometimes providing conflicting information or withdrawing statements hours later.

State police have said some accounts were preliminary and may change as more witnesses are interviewed.

Gutierrez said Friday that a Texas Department of Public Safety official told him that the Uvalde-area district attorney, Christina Mitchell Busbee, a Republican, had directed the agency to not release more information about the shooting investigation to the senator or the public.

The Department of Public Safety on Friday referred all questions about the shooting investigation to Busbee, who has not returned telephone and text messages seeking comment.

Gutierrez said on Thursday that many people should shoulder some blame in the Uvalde shooting, including the Texas governor.

“There was error at every level, including the legislative level. Greg Abbott has plenty of blame in all of this,” he said.

More than 30 people have died with COVID-19 in New South Wales and Victoria as new research shows doing CPR with face masks works.

NSW recorded 6594 COVID-19 cases and 18 virus-related deaths.

There are 1227 hospitalisations and 28 ICU admissions.

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Meanwhile in Victoria, the state recorded 16 virus-related deaths and 8445 new cases.

There are 509 people in hospital and 29 in ICU.

CPR with face masks deemed effective

As COVID-19 deaths remain stubbornly high in Australia, new international research has found it may be possible to perform mouth-to-mouth CPR while wearing a face mask to keep the virus at bay.

Mouth-to-mouth ventilation where a rescuer presses their mouth against the patient's mouth and blows air into their lungs is an integral part of life support.

"At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, CPR training in the Czech Republic and elsewhere was limited to either tuition in chest compressions alone (hands-only CPR) or schooling in bag-mask ventilation, due to concern about infection," the study said.

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Czech researchers tested masks, specifically a reusable FFP2 three-layer nanofibre self-sterilising respirator, while monitoring chest rising when performing mouth-to-mouth CPR.

Monitoring the chest rising was how researchers tested the effectiveness of transferring oxygen.

The study found more than 90 per cent of the breaths resulted in chest rising.

Dr Vaclav Vafek concluded performing mouth-to-mouth while wearing a face mask was effective more than 90 per cent of the time.

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"We cannot predict how serious the pandemic will be in the autumn and what the COVID-19 measures will be like then," Vafek said.

"Using this technique however, we will be able to continue to provide vital training in mouth-to-mouth resuscitation."