A person has died after a crash in Ōrewa, north of Auckland. A police spokesperson said a vehicle collided with two other vehicles and a building on Cammish Lane. The person died at the scene. The crash was reported to…

The global economy is being brought to the edge of a precipice by crisis upon crisis.

As the first World Economic Forum to be held in person since 2020 opened in Davos, Switzerland on Monday, the International Monetary Fund said the economy faces "perhaps its biggest test since the Second World War".

"We face a potential confluence of calamities," IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva said in a statement.

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She warned that Russia's invasion of Ukraine has "compounded" the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, weighing on the economic recovery and fanning inflation as the cost of food and fuel jumps.

Rising interest rates are adding to pressure on countries, companies and households with big piles of debt.

Market turbulence and ongoing supply chain constraints also pose a risk.

And then there's climate change.

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The head of the International Energy Agency urged countries to make the right investment choices in response to the fossil fuel shortages triggered by Russia's attack on Ukraine.

"Some people may well use Russia's invasion of Ukraine as an excuse for … a new wave of fossil fuel investments," IEA chief Fatih Birol said during a discussion in Davos.

"It will forever close the door to reaching our climate targets."

The scale of the economic challenge was underscored by a new report from the OECD on Monday, showing that the combined GDP of the G7 countries shrank by 0.1 per cent in the first quarter of the year, compared with the previous three-month period.

"We cannot solve the problems if we focus on only one of the problems," German economy minister Robert Habeck said.

"If none of these problems are solved, I fear, we will see a global recession — with huge implications, not only for the climate, for climate protection, but for global stability."

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To limit economic stress, the IMF is calling for government officials and business leaders meeting in Davos to discuss lowering trade barriers.

But as countries battle growing dismay about the cost-of-living crisis at home, some are heading in the opposite direction, implementing restrictions on trade in food and agricultural products that can exacerbate shortages and push up prices globally.

Earlier this month, India's decision to ban the export of wheat sent the price of the grain soaring, even though it's a relatively small exporter.

Indonesia banned most exports of palm oil in April to protect domestic supplies, but will lift the ban this week.

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Speaking during a visit to Tokyo, President Joe Biden said Monday that a recession was not inevitable and he reiterated that the White House was considering removing some Trump-era tariffs on Chinese goods, which Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said do more harm than good for American consumers and businesses.

"The biggest unturned stone the administration has is to lift the Trump tariffs on China. It wouldn't be huge, but it would be larger than any other option they have," Jason Furman, who previously served as President Barack Obama's top economic adviser, said.

He told CNN Business that the United States "is in the least bad shape of any economy in the world".

Consumers are worried about inflation, but they still have a big pot of savings, and spending remains strong.

"I'm more worried about recession risks about one year and further in the future," he said.

"I think the Fed should be trying for a soft landing. I don't know that they'll succeed."

Meanwhile, China could see its economy shrink this quarter because of the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns in Shanghai, Bejiing and dozens of other cities, and the fallout of a real estate crisis.

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The country's central bank delivered the biggest cut on record on Friday to a key interest rate after housing sales collapsed.

Zhu Ning, a professor at the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance, said he believed that authorities still had ample options to tackle the series of challenges facing the world's second biggest economy.

"China still has a lot of room if it wants to — to lower interest rate, to give monetary stimulus to the economy," he said.

An 18-year-old man has been charged with attempted robbery and a slew of other offences after CCTV footage captured a stolen Mercedes ploughing into the glass doors of a Queensland service station.

The Gold Coast man is allegedly responsible for a "series of incidents" in Coomera on Monday, which involved four separate crashes in different suburbs.

The 18-year-old has been charged with a total of six offences, including attempted robbery, driving while drunk or on drugs, driving on a suspended license, willful damage and dangerous driving.

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Police allege he stole a white Mercedes-Benz station wagon from Nerang yesterday at around 2pm.

"During the course of the next several hours, police received reports from the public of the vehicle allegedly being driven erratically, at high speeds and dangerously," police said.

"At around 4.30pm the vehicle entered the driveway of an Alexander Drive, Highland Park petrol station and after doing several laps it was driven, at speed, into the glass front doors, smashing them."

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Police allege around 10 minutes later, the man was involved in a hit and run crash after colliding head-on with another car.

Twenty minutes later, it's alleged the man drove the stolen car into the driveway of a Highland Park home, slamming into the garage before reversing and crashing into a parked car.

Police believe the man then parked behind another vehicle in Southport, before exiting the Mercedes and threatening a man and woman inside the car.

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He allegedly demanded they exited the car, "kicking out at their vehicle" and retreating back to the stolen Mercedes when they refused.

The man allegedly dumped the car at Surfers Paradise around 6pm before fleeing on foot.

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"Multiple police units saturated the area, including the dog squad, and he was taken into custody soon after on Surfers Paradise Boulevard," police said.

The man has been denied bail and will appear in Southport Magistrates Court today.

Police said nobody was injured during the spree and thanked members of the public for directing their pursuit of the man.

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will likely be left dealing with sky-high petrol prices just months into government when the halving of the fuel excise ends.

The excise cut – which slashed the tax on every litre of fuel from 44.2 cents to 22.1 cents – is due to expire on September 28, a commitment Albanese has already agreed to.

It was the policy of then-treasurer Josh Frydenberg and formed the centrepiece of the Morrison government's pre-election federal budget focused on addressing the soaring cost of living.

READ MORE: Vet warning after 'unusual' paralysis tick found in Sydney neighbourhood

In real-world terms, if a motorist was filling up a 40-litre fuel tank on average they would save around $10 per tank or $250 over the entire six months.

But economists predict that motorists will bear the brunt of global factors forcing up the price of oil.

Already, hikes to the price of petrol sold at Australian retailers have effectively consumed any savings gained by the excise cut.

In a research note released yesterday, CommSec's chief economist Craig James said petrol seems "set to return to record levels".

"Australia's wholesale petrol price lifted by 9.1 cents a litre last week," James said. 

"The record Australian average unleaded pump petrol price was 212.5 cents a litre in the week to March 20 and currently prices are just over 13 cents from record highs."

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According to the Australian Institute of Petroleum, the national average unleaded petrol price rose by 14.1 cents in just seven days, marking the third biggest increase on record.

The national average price for unleaded is sitting at an eight-week high of 199.1 cents per litre.

Australia takes its wholesale or terminal gate fuel price from Singapore MOGAS, which spiked nine per cent last week to record its highest ever price.

Fundamentally, retailers are paying more for fuel which will then be passed on to consumers, regardless of how much government tax is being imposed on every litre poured.

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Yesterday, incoming Treasurer Jim Chalmers acknowledged the price of fuel is severely impacting household budgets, but stopped short of promising an extension to the fuel excise cut.

"That will make life harder for people. They are also getting punished at the petrol pump, of course, at the moment with petrol prices going back up again," he said.

"Obviously we'll have a look at the conditions at the time when it comes off.

"We'll have a budget not long after that and if there's more that we can do to ease the cost of living pressure on people, we'll do that."

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Andrew O'Keefe has checked into a rehabilitation centre after being released on bail.

The former TV personality left Silverwater jail in Sydney last night and travelled north to the facility.

The 50-year-old stopped at a service station on his way and told 9News: "I feel well".

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O'Keefe had been in custody since he was arrested in January and charged with assaulting and choking a woman.

In February he pleaded guilty to a separate charge of drug possession.

The conditions of his bail include staying at the rehab centre for six months full-time, taking any medication prescribed to him and regularly seeing a psychiatrist and psychologist.

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Exclusive: A Sydney vet has warned pet owners in the city's Inner West to be extra vigilant after she discovered deadly paralysis ticks attacking a cat in "highly unusual" circumstances.

Finding two small, eight-legged parasites on a "very sick" male cat in her Glebe clinic was puzzling, Dr Emma Hall said, because the nasty arachnids are usually only found in Sydney's Northern Beaches and the South Coast.

Chopin the cat had not been taken out of the Inner West, Dr Hall said, which led the vet to speculate ixodes holocyclus, the Australian paralysis tick, may now be circulating in Inner West neighbourhoods.

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Hall wondered if floods have driven bandicoots, possums and other traditional tick-carrying hosts into the area. Tick eggs on leaf mulch dispersed by flood waters could also be to blame, Hall said.

"I've worked at multiple Sydney clinics … and I've never treated an animal for tick paralysis who hasn't left the Inner West," Hall said.

"Finding one (on Chopin) was highly unusual, two even more so."

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Cats in the Inner West would be especially vulnerable to a tick insurgency, Hall said, because the tiny bloodsuckers are simply not on the radar of owners in the area.

"It's something cat owners are not usually worried about (but) if these ticks are related to the floods then I think we're definitely going to see more in the Inner West."

Paralysis ticks bite and burrow into animals, gorging for days and releasing toxins which often cause severe breathing difficulty and can lead to blindness and death.

"They are definitely fatal if they're not removed," Hall said.

The signs a pet is under attack can often be vague, until it is too late.

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Hall said owners should watch for "a change in voice" and any odd breathing behaviours, unusual levels of salivating, coughing or vomiting.

Often a cat or dog will need to be hospitalised and ventilated while "riding out" the effects of the potent tick toxins.

"If we think that it could be a tick, then we'll search for it," Hall said, "but sometimes we don't end up diagnosing it until they become very weak in their hind legs."

She said it's often necessary for vets to shave a pet "from top-to-toe" to find the hidden parasites, which can be as small as 2mm in diameter or ballooning up to 1cm when fully engorged with blood.

Owners are often reluctant to shave their cat or dog if there is "not a high suspicion" the animal has ticks, Hall said.

Hall and her team had to shave large sections of Chopin once the ticks were found, but he is now recovering well.

Inner West cat owners should closely monitor their pets and even consider using tick prevention medicine if they want to be extra-vigilant, Hall said.

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How to search your pet for paralysis ticks

The RSPCA has issued a handy instruction guide to help you look for ticks.

1. Search your pets thoroughly daily. Use your fingertips to feel through the coat. Ticks or tick craters can be felt as lumps on the skin's surface.
2. Most ticks are found forward of the front legs, especially on the face, neck and ears. However, it is important to search your entire pet.
3. Start at your pet's nose and slowly examine the face, forehead and ears (outer and inner surface of the ear flap). Also search the eyes and lips and the skin/fur around the eyes and lips. Carefully examine all skin folds.
4. Remove any collars and search the neck area thoroughly.
5. Search the shoulder area and front legs. Remember to check between each toe and under surface of the front feet. Don't forget to check under the 'armpits'.
6. Examine the chest area, all along the back, sides, belly, groin area, around the tail and anus and the thighs, back legs, in between the back-leg toes and feet.

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