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A Gold Coast home, which fire crews say was used for making candles, has been destroyed by fire this morning.

Fire crews were called to the home on Broadbeach Road in Carrara about 10.30am and found a fire in the garage spewing a plume of black smoke.

Neighbours said the occupant of the home tried to save his van by reversing it out of the garage but lost consciousness in the driver's seat.

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He was taken to hospital by paramedics.

Station manager Karl Nihot said crews knew before they left the station that the home was well involved by the amount of smoke, which was visible from Nerang.

When crews arrived the fire was already spreading into the main structure of the two-storey home.

"The fire got hold pretty quickly," Mr Nihot said.

"Because of the fuel load in that area it rapidly spread and got into the main property through the upper level."

He said the priority for firefighters then became a neighbouring property on the north-western side that was also at risk of catching alight.

It was undamaged.

Neighbour Winfried Muller told 9News he believed the house had recently been renovated.

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Japan is drawing a red line around an island chain also claimed by China, pushing back at Beijing's increasingly aggressive military posturing, and setting the stage for a potential showdown between the region's two biggest powers.

In an exclusive interview with CNN, Japanese Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi said the Senkaku Islands, known as the Diaoyu Islands in China, are unquestionably Japanese territory and would be defended as such, with Tokyo matching any Chinese threat to the islands ship for ship, and beyond if necessary.

Japan has been expanding its self-defence forces, adding state-of-the-art F-35 fighter jets and converting warships to aircraft carriers for them.

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It is also building new destroyers, submarines and missiles, all the while noting its military expenditure still pales in comparison with China's increased military spending.

"Against Chinese action to Senkaku Islands and other parts of the East China Sea… we have to demonstrate that the government of Japan is resolutely defending our territory with the greater number of Japanese coast guard vessels than that of China," Mr Kishi said.

"There is no territorial dispute relating to the Senkaku Islands between Japan and other countries," he added.

Tensions over the uninhabited rocky chain — 1900 kilometres southwest of Tokyo but only a third of that distance from Shanghai — have simmered for years, and claims over them date back centuries.

When tensions spiked over the islands in 2012, it sparked a groundswell of nationalist sentiment in China.

Public protests broke out in dozens of Chinese cities, with Japanese-branded cars smashed, Japanese stores and restaurants vandalised, and debris hurled at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing.

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At the governmental level, China has been just as strident as Mr Kishi is in claiming the island chain.

"The Diaoyu Island and its affiliated islands are an inherent part of China's territory, and it is our inherent right to carry out patrols and law enforcement activities in these waters," China's Foreign Ministry said in a statement last year.

China has been backing its claims in the region with its ships, and by establishing new laws that give its coast guard expanded powers.

According to Japanese authorities, Chinese Coast Guard vessels have ventured into Japanese territorial waters, or within 22.2 kilometres of Japanese land, a total of 88 times between January 1 and the end of August.

While in the contiguous zone, waters between islands but not within 19.3 kilometres of shore, there have been 851 Chinese incursions.

Experts say China's strategy is to put its forces in places in and around contested areas and exert Beijing's law and authority over them.

Such action makes the Chinese claims seem like due course.

"Exercising coastal state rights is an important step in corroborating sovereignty through practice," said Alessio Patalano, professor of war and strategy at King's College in London.

Mr Kishi has taken notice.

"There are actions that continue to challenge an integral part of Japan's sovereign territory. These actions are making it a fait accompli," he said.

That "integral" Japanese territory extends even closer to another possible flashpoint in the Japan-China relationship.

Taiwan's importance to Japan

Japan's westernmost island is at the very end of a string of Japanese possessions paralleling the Chinese coast and extending south some 1125 kilometres from the main island of Kyushu, through the military hub of Okinawa and the resort island of Ishigaki, to the tiny island of Yonaguni.

With its population of fewer than 2000 people, Yonaguni sits only 110 kilometres from Taiwan, the democratically governed island over which Beijing claims sovereignty.

Taiwan and mainland China have been governed separately since the end of a civil war more than seven decades ago.

However, Beijing continues to view Taiwan as an inseparable part of its territory even though the Chinese Communist Party has never governed it.

China has been stepping up its military pressure on Taiwan.

In June, it sent over two dozen warplanes near the island, prompting Taiwan to alert its air defences.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping says Taiwan must be brought under Beijing's control and has not ruled out the use of force in making that happen.

That, said Mr Kishi, has Tokyo in a constant state of vigilance.

When Tokyo released its annual defence white paper in July, it contained its strongest language ever on Taiwan, saying "stabilising the situation surrounding Taiwan is important for Japan's security."

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At the time, Mr Kishi said it should be monitored with "a sense of crisis."

In his interview with CNN, he gave specifics.

"What's happening in Taiwan is directly linked to Japan," he said, noting the island sits astride his country's "energy lifeline."

"Ninety per cent of energy that Japan uses is imported through the areas around Taiwan," Mr Kishi said.

It's a vulnerability that Tokyo has to mitigate.

"What could happen in Taiwan could likely be an issue for Japan, and in that case, Japan will have to take the necessary response to that situation," Mr Kishi said, while stressing that tension should be diffused through dialogue, not violence.

But Tokyo isn't just using words to back up its claims.

It's also beefing up its military defences, putting missiles and troops on Yonaguni and planning to do the same to nearby Ishigaki in the near future.

"This is to demonstrate our strong will to defend our southwestern area of Japanese territory," Mr Kishi said.

In that regard, Tokyo has a key ally in its corner, the United States.

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Tokyo and Washington share a mutual defence treaty, meaning the US is obligated to defend Japanese territory.

US President Joe Biden reaffirmed that security commitment shortly after his inauguration in January, with a White House statement specifically mentioning the Senkakus.

Mr Kishi said this week that alliance is being strengthened, and in commenting on the Senkakus situation, said Washington has Tokyo's back.

"We will continue to conduct bilateral training with the US and multilateral training with other partners to strengthen our posture and contribute to the peace and stability of this region," he said, noting that naval exercises have been held or scheduled with partners including France, the United Kingdom and Germany.

While lining up partners, Japan is also improving its own arsenal, including developing and acquiring weapons systems that can strike areas well beyond Japanese territory.

Without saying what areas those longer-range systems might target, the Japanese defence minister said it was important for the country's military to have the right equipment to defend it from any threat.

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SpaceX has successfully launched four civilians into space in an historic mission from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

This is the first flight into space without a professional astronaut on board.

Instead, the fully automated Crew Dragon spacecraft mission – known as Inspiration4 – is carrying an entrepreneur, a childhood cancer survivor and two sweepstake winners.

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https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1438260789148667908?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Centre was dramatically illuminated with spotlights against the night sky, and when the SpaceX rocket's nine engines fired up just after 10am AEST, it flooded the surrounding wetlands with a blaze of light as it soared into the upper atmosphere and made a dramatic, ghostly light show overhead.

After reaching orbital speeds — more than 27,000km/h — the capsule carrying the four passengers detached from the rocket and began to manoeuvre toward its intended orbit.

For the next three days, the passengers will float around the capsule as it circles around the planet once every 90 minutes, while the passengers float and take in panoramic views of Earth.

To cap off the journey, their spacecraft will dive back into the atmosphere for a fiery re-entry and splash down off the coast of Florida.

Splashdown is currently slated for Sunday morning, but that could change if weather or other issues prompt an earlier or later return.

The capsule is stocked with enough food and supplies for about a week.

The Crew Dragon spacecraft will reach an altitude of 575 kilometres, slightly higher where the Hubble Space Telescope currently sits.

A seat on board reportedly cost about $75 million, even though the exact figures have not been released.

One of those with a spot is entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, the 38-year-old American businessman who is also the flight's private benefactor.

He believes space should be more accessible.

"Because it's so expensive, space has been the exclusive domain of world superpowers and the elite that they select," he said.

"It just shouldn't stay that way."

Cancer survivor Hayley Arceneaux has become the first person to wear a prosthesis in space with most of her left thigh bone replaced with a titanium rod.

The seat she is in has been adjusted to accommodate her knee.

And at just 29, Ms Arceneaux will become the youngest American to have flown into space.

The final two seats have gone to two people who won them in a competition.

They are geoscience professor and pilot Sian Proctor, 51, and data engineer Chris Sembroski, 42, a former Air Force missileman.

The crew has spent the past six months taking on a training regimen with SpaceX.

The three-day journey will see the quartet free-flying through Earth's orbit, whipping around the planet while the passengers are buoyed by microgravity.

And yes, for all three days in space, the passengers will all have to share a special zero-gravity-friendly toilet located near the top of the capsule.

No showering will be available, and crew will all have to sleep in the same reclining seats they will ride in during launch.

This is far from the first time civilians have travelled to space.

Though NASA has been averse to signing up non-astronauts for routine missions after the death of Christa McAuliffe, a New Hampshire school teacher who was killed in the Challenger disaster in 1986, a cohort of wealthy thrill-seekers paid their own way to the International Space Station in the 2000s through a company called Space Adventures.

American investment management billionaire Dennis Tito became the first to self-fund a trip in 2001 with his eight-day stay on the International Space Station, and six others came after him.

They all booked rides alongside professional astronauts on Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

This mission, however, has been billed as the beginning of a new era of space travel in which average people, rather than government-selected astronauts and the occasional deep-pocketed adventurer, carry the mantle of space exploration.

– With CNN

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New South Wales has recorded 1351 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 and another 12 people have died with the virus.

From 6pm tonight the Lismore and Albury local government areas will both go back into lockdown after new cases were detected in the region, while 12 other regions will be released from stay-at-home orders from 1pm.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard said twelve people have died with coronavirus in NSW in the past 24 hours, bringing the total death toll since June 16 to 210.

There have now been 266 in total since the start of the pandemic.

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Ten of the 12 were unvaccinated, Mr Hazzard said.

"The range of the ages reflects the fact that this is a is severe disease and can impact you at all ages," Mr Hazzard said.

"For those who are still reluctant to go and get vaccines … that is the way forward.

"You need to go and get vaccinated."

The new deaths over night include:

• A man in his 40s from western Sydney died at Nepean Hospital.
• A man in his 60s from western Sydney died at Northern Beaches Hospital.
• A man in his 60s from south-western Sydney died at Northern Beaches Hospital.
• A woman in her 80s from western Sydney died at Westmead Hospital.
• A woman in her 80s from western Sydney died at Westmead Hospital.
• A woman in her 70s from western Sydney died at Nepean Hospital.
• A man in his 70s from south-western Sydney died at Campbelltown Hospital.
• A woman in her 60s from south-western Sydney died at home.
• A man in his 50s from western Sydney died at Westmead Hospital.
• A man in his 90s from western Sydney died at Westmead Hospital. He is the second death associated with the Hardi Guildford Aged Care Facility.

Mr Hazzard said he is not worried about a staffing shortage in hospitals once the vaccine mandate comes into effect.

He said hospitals will suffer fewer shortages than if hospital staffs were unvaccinated and needed to be taken offline after contracting the disease.

He said for health staff, there was no alternative to not being vaccinated.

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"You have an obligation to your patients. Patients come into our hospitals on the expectation they'll be kept safe," Mr Hazzard said.

"If you're in a position where you're putting your colleagues or your patients at risk, you probably can't

Lockdown for two new towns

The Lismore and Albury lockdown will take effect from 6pm today and will last at least seven days.

"Can I express my sadness to the local community that having been free of that for a little while they have to go back into lockdown," Health Minister Brad Hazzard said.

"It is for your safety and the community's safety more broadly."

He urged locals in Lismore and Albury to come forward for testing.

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Mr Hazzard said the government was working to health advice to change the lockdown period from the standard 14 days to seven.

"In the normal course, more often than not, health determines it will be 14 days but at this case, looking at the issues, Health has determined that seven days will be appropriate but I'm just warning the community that it may be long," Mr Hazzard said.

"We need everybody in those two communities with any symptoms at all to come forward and get tested because that will allow Health to make well structured decisions based on the information available."

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NSW Deputy Chief Health Officer Dr Marianne Gale has denied the Lismore LGA is going into lockdown because of its high number of anti-vaxxers.

The northern NSW area has one of the lowest vaccine take-up rates in the state.

But Dr Gale said the lockdown was simply because of the exposures in a school and the community at large.

"The main reason is really because of that case," she said.

"I'm sure if it was in another LGA, we would have made the same decision."

She said the vast majority of people in Lismore were embracing vaccination.

READ MORE: NSW LGAs of Albury, Lismore to enter seven-day lockdown

Health officials are also considering a lockdown in the Northern Tablelands town of Glen Innes after a positive coronavirus case.

"It's no different to cases in Albury, that were identified yesterday and Lismore was last night," Deputy Premier John Barilaro said.

"We'll do that in a measured way before a knee-jerk reaction about locking down an area."

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NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard has spoken about a TikTok personality who contracted coronavirus after speaking at an anti-lockdown protest.

Jon-Bernard Kairouz put pressure on the NSW government after he correctly predicted the case numbers on a daily basis the night before they were announced.

Mr Kairouz is now in hospital with COVID-19.

When asked if he had sympathy for Mr Kairouz, Mr Hazzard paused for a long time.

"Look, I would say I have sympathy for anyone who gets COVID," Mr Hazzard said.

"COVID may kill you.

Taste of freedom

Twelve country local government areas in NSW will have their lockdown lifted today.

They are Bega Valley, Blayney, Bogan, Cabonne, Dungog, Forbes, Muswellbrook, Narrabri, Parkes, Singleton, Snowy Monaro and the Upper Hunter Shire LGAs.

Deputy Premier John Barilaro urged people in those LGAs to remain vigilant despite lockdown lifting.

"If you do visit a local government area in lockdown, the reality is those stay-at-home orders come back with you so the reality is minimise mobility," he said.

"Vaccination continues to be the key in regional and rural New South Wales."

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