The MPI has confirmed 80,000 birds will be culled at an Otago farm.

Eastern Australia will be battered with a fresh deluge of severe storms and heavy rainfall over the next few days.

A band of rain and thunderstorms is rolling across southern Queensland, inland NSW, central and eastern Victoria and much of Tasmania, with more wild weather expected this week.

Senior meteorologist Dean Narramore from the Bureau of Meteorology warned the rainbomb may bring flash flooding for large parts of the eastern states.

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"With those storms, we could see flash flooding, particularly through southern Queensland and northern NSW, with those storms [brings] heavy rainfall rates, and that could also lead to dangerous driving conditions," he said.

"If you're out and about through country parts of Victoria and north-east parts of NSW and southern Queensland, and some of these storms, if you're directly underneath them, could bring down trees and power lines, lead to localised power outages and also cause inundation for homes, properties and businesses."

Western and central NSW, eastern Victoria and inland Queensland are forecast to be hit with more heavy storms and showers this afternoon.

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More rain is also predicted for the east coast of NSW and Canberra, though the showers will quickly clear tonight and tomorrow.

The high-pressure system will then move to south-east Australia.

"Another round of showers and thunderstorms for north-east NSW and southern Queensland could be severe as well," Narramore added.

These areas, along with north-east Victoria and even parts of northern Queensland, could see up to 100mm of rainfall over the next three days. This could result in further flash flooding in impacted areas.

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Large parts of Tasmania are also warned to watch for flooding as the rainfall continues to batter the north-east.

"With all this weather around eastern Australia in the coming days, make sure you stay up to date with the latest forecasts and warnings by our website, app and social media," he continued.

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"If the storms get really bad, listen to all advice from emergency services near you."

Early summer storms have pounded Queensland and NSW this week, with major flooding across Brisbane, the Gold Coast and in Sydney.

Flash flooding in Brisbane left Roma Street unrecognisable as suburbs across the city quickly went under on Sunday.

A flash of heavy rain forced planes to divert, streets to flood and ceilings to collapse in Sydney on the first day of summer too.

The winning aurora displays have been captured from rare locations in Australia, southern Europe, the southern states of the US, the Chilean Patagonia and more.

A young couple have been spared jail for a hateful neo-Nazi graffiti spree at a major university campus despite a magistrate labelling their behaviour as abhorrent.

Christopher Carrig, 20, and Taylor Bayly, 20, were sentenced today over the vandalism at Macquarie University in the early hours of January 25, 2024.

The pair were ordered to reimburse the university for the cost of the damage.

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Carrig was also sentenced over an anti-Semitic incident in which he intimidated a 20-year-old man at a bus stop, who he targeted for being Jewish.

The encounter was filmed and posted to social media.

During the interaction, Carrig told the man to remove a Jewish kippah – or skullcap – he was wearing and ordered him to kiss his shoes, Sydney's Burwood Local Court heard.

The 20-year-old also told the man: "It's quite low for a Jew to be waiting for the bus. Can't you call uncle Goldstein and ask him to bring you a BMW?"

Carrig's lawyer Rylie Hahn said her client had recently experienced significant trauma with the tragic deaths of two family members.

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"His mother and sister recently and tragically passed away," she said, adding that incident meant the young man had to move out of his family home.

Police located the bodies of the woman and her teenage daughter in July at an address in Marsfield in Sydney's north, prompting a major forensic investigation.

About a week before the bodies were discovered, a police search of Carrig's home revealed what a prosecutor today described as "more or less a shrine to the Third Reich".

Carrig was given some of the Nazi paraphernalia by his late mother, the court heard.

At the time of spray-painting the Nazi slogans at Macquarie University, both Bayly and Carrig were intoxicated and were acting in response to a socialist poster they had seen, Magistrate Mark Whelan was told.

The pair admitted to blackening their faces and entered the northern Sydney campus before they graffitied offensive symbols, including swastikas, across 24 locations.

The slogans included "f— Antifa scum" and "Heil Hitler", as well as references to the Australian neo-Nazi group National Socialist Network.

Carrig and Bayly, who have been in a relationship for about three years, have matching tattoos of the numbers "14" and "88" behind their ears, which carry neo-Nazi associations and were clearly visible as they faced court.

The two numbers are common white-supremacist code, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Mr Whelan sentenced Bayly to serve a 15-month community corrections order, while Carrig was handed a two-year intensive corrections order in lieu of a full-time jail sentence.

The magistrate described the offending as "abhorrent".

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The ongoing supply chain strike has cost Woolworths a whopping $50 million in lost food sales over the past 12 days.

In an update to investors, the grocery giant said the 12-day strike by the United Workers Union (UWU) has already resulted in huge losses and sales will continue to plummet if it is not resolved.

"The full financial impact at this stage is unknown. It will be dependent on the duration and extent of the ongoing industrial action across the affected sites, and the time taken to rebuild inventory ahead of the Christmas trading period," Woolworths said in an ASX statement.

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Woolworths chief executive Amanda Bardwell apologised to customers for the continuing strike action and said the company is working to resolve it.

"We sincerely apologise to all of our customers for the inconvenience caused by the inconsistency of supply across some product lines in some of our stores in Victoria, southern NSW and ACT," Bardwell said.

"We are working hard to try and improve the situation and would like to thank our customers for their understanding and for treating our teams with respect."

Woolworths said negotiations with the UWU remain unresolved.

It said workers are demanding pay increases "materially above inflation" at a time when customers are facing cost of living pressures.

In response, UWU national secretary Tim Kennedy said Woolworths could end the strike now if they wanted.

"Warehouse workers have been engaged in good faith negotiations for almost seven months as they have raised concerns about the punitive framework that expects workers to achieve a 100 per cent benchmark, 100 per cent of the time, pushing them into unsafe work practices as they rush to meet deadlines," he said in a statement.

"They are also fighting for a fair pay rise.

"In terms of shortages on shelves and Woolworths' statements about the impact of the strike, we have consistently said that Woolworths is in a position to end this strike right now by agreeing to a reasonable outcome with workers – and they should do so today."

Woolworths today lodged an application with Fair Work to stop striking workers from blocking access to distribution centres as stock runs low across the country.

The grocery giant is seeking orders from the workplace regulator to prevent the United Workers Union (UWU) stopping employees from entering the Melbourne south regional distribution centre and three other sites in Victoria and NSW.

The application alleges UWU members are in breach of the good faith bargaining requirements of the Fair Work Act.

"The application comes after the UWU refused to give any assurance of safe passage for team members seeking to return to work at our Melbourne south regional distribution centre yesterday and this morning," Woolworths said in a statement.

"A majority of the team at the site had indicated they wished to return to work to begin being paid, which will help increase supply of essential food and grocery products such as nappies, toilet paper and drinks to Woolworths' Victorian stores."

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Woolworths claims UWU created an "unsafe environment for team members who had shown up to work".

"The majority of our team members at this site are not members of the UWU," the statement continued.

"We will again be attempting to operate the MSRDC today, and we will follow the advice of the Victorian police to ensure the safety of our team."

The application has not been listed for hearing yet.

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Union members commenced industrial action at the Woolworths distribution centres to demand better pay and conditions.

The strike has now neared two weeks and as a result supermarket shelves have been left empty ahead of a busy pre-Christmas period.

Workers are demanding a pay rise above inflation, seeking an immediate 25 per cent increase and a further 30 per cent over the next two years.

They are also wanting the productivity "framework" scrapped, which forces them to meet 100 per cent adherence to a speed-related metric known as pick rates.

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The happiest residents in Australia have been revealed – and they don't live in Sydney or Melbourne.

A woman who admitted to drinking and who was driving well over twice the speed limit when she smashed into a golf cart, killing a bride who had just got married at a South Carolina beach, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Jamie Lee Komoroski pleaded guilty at the Charleston County courthouse to reckless homicide, felony DUI causing death and two counts of felony DUI causing great bodily injury before her sentencing.

Also hurt in the 2023 crash was the groom, Aric Hutchinson, who cried in court as he recalled the last moments he spent with Samantha Miller – some of their only moments as husband and wife.

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"On the golf cart, she told me she didn't want the night to end and I kissed her on the forehead and then the next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital," Hutchinson said.

Komoroski, 27, was sentenced to the maximum of 25 years in prison for felony DUI causing death by Judge Deadra Jefferson at the Charleston County courthouse.

She also was sentenced to 15 years in prison for each count of felony DUI causing great bodily injury and 10 years for reckless homicide.

The sentences will all run at the same time.

Police said Komoroski drank at several bars on April 28, 2023, and was driving at 105kph on a narrow Folly Beach road with a speed limit of 40kph when she slammed into the golf cart leaving a wedding.

Her blood-alcohol level was 0.26 per cent, which is more than three times the legal limit to drive.

The 34-year-old bride died still wearing her wedding dress.

The groom suffered a brain injury and numerous broken bones.

The cart was thrown 91 metres by the crash.

After pleading guilty, Komoroski said she realised now she was addicted to alcohol and selfishly didn't care how her actions affected others.

She promised to spend the rest of her life helping addicts and warning of the dangers of drinking and driving.

She said she was "devastated, deeply ashamed and sorry" for what she did.

"I wish I could go back and undo this terrible tragedy. But I cannot. I will live the rest of my life with intense regret for what happened that night," she said.

She said all her work will be dedicated to Miller's memory.

"I pray God stands by the side of my victims and their families and loved ones for the rest of their lives," Komoroski said.

A number of friends and family of both Miller and Komoroski spoke at the hearing, which lasted nearly three hours.

Komoroski's supporters asked the judge to be lenient because she is young, remorseful and can still do good.

Many of Miller's family asked for a harsh sentence, saying they can never get her back and that the decisions Komoroski made that night were selfish and permanently scarred many lives.

Komoroski looked at most of Miller's family, including Hutchinson, as they spoke, occasionally wiping away tears.

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Hutchinson said he sees more doctors and therapists than he can count because of his physical injuries and the mental anguish of the crash, and that he thinks about it every single day.

"I wish I had died that night. I wish I had seen it coming. I'd have jumped off the golf cart so you would only have run me over," Hutchinson said.

Hutchinson won $863,000 in legal settlements from three bars that served Komoroski as well as her insurance firm and the company she rented her car from.

Before the sentencing, Miller's father told Komoroski he was disgusted that she appeared to never take responsibility.

He told her she could apologise, but he wouldn't listen to a word.

"The rest of my life I'm going to hate you and when I arrive in hell and you come there, I will open the door for you," Brad Warner said.

"You have ruined so many people's lives."

Telcos will soon be required to verify messages sent from brands under a new initiative launched by the Australian government to crack down on scammers.

Under the initiative, a national SMS sender ID register will be established, requiring text messages sent from trusted brands like CommBank, Linkt, or MyGov to be verified.

If the sender ID is not on the register, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) will either block the SMS or include a warning.

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Communications Minister Michelle Rowland emphasised the tool was crucial in protecting Australians from "increasingly sophisticated and organised scammers".

"We've all received scam messages on our phones purporting to be from reputable sources – and it's costing Australians millions of dollars every year," Rowland said.

"This mandatory register will enable these messages to be blocked or flagged as a scam – better protecting consumers from being cheated.

"In this way, the register will also help restore trust in communications received from legitimate organisations and make Australia an even harder place for scammers to operate."

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The federal government provided $10 million for the tool in the 2023-24 Federal Budget.

The government anticipates the register will be open for registration of sender IDs from late 2025, following close consultation with telcos and the companies being impersonated.

More than $11 million has been lost due to text message scams this year, according to Scamwatch.

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The prime suspect in Melbourne's unsolved Easey Street double murders in 1977 has touched down in Doha, Qatar, as he returns to Australia.

Perry Kouroumblis, 65, was approved for extradition from Italy in late October.

Overnight, he was transferred from a maximum security prison in Rome into the custody of Victoria Police detectives.

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Kouroumblis is due to land in Melbourne this evening.

Police are set to formally question him over the murders of Suzanne Armstrong and Susan Bartlett on Easey Street, Collingwood, 47 years ago.

Kouroumblis left Melbourne in 2017, after previously consenting to provide a DNA sample during a re-investigation of the case.

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He was considered a person of interest, but has never been charged.

He gave his own consent to the extradition to Australia in September, and his lawyer at the time said he maintained his innocence of the murders.

Armstrong and Bartlett, 27 and 28, were found dead in their home on January 13, 1977.

They had both suffered stab wounds and Armstrong had been raped.

Her infant son was found unharmed in his cot.

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The top United Nations court has taken up the largest case in its history, hearing the plight of several small island nations helpless in combating the devastating impact of climate change that they feel endangers their very survival. They demand that major polluting nations be held to account.

After years of lobbying by island nations who fear they could simply disappear under rising sea waters, the UN General Assembly asked the International Court of Justice last year for an opinion on "the obligations of States in respect of climate change".

Vanuatu Attorney-General Arnold Kiel Loughman said the stakes "could not be higher" as the "survival of my people and so many others is on the line".

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"As the principal legal officer of my country, I have come before this court because domestic legal remedies are unable to address a crisis of the scope and magnitude," he said on Monday during the opening session of two weeks of hearings.

"States have obligations … to act with due diligence, to prevent significant harm to the environment, to prevent, to reduce the emissions and provide support to countries like mine to protect the human rights of present and future generations," he said.

Any decision by the court would be non-binding advice and couldn't directly force wealthy nations into action to help struggling countries. Yet it would be more than just a powerful symbol since it could be the basis for other legal actions, including domestic lawsuits.

In the decade up to 2023, sea levels have risen by a global average of around 4.3 centimetres, with parts of the Pacific rising higher still. The world has also warmed 1.3 degrees since preindustrial times because of the burning of fossil fuels.

Vanuatu is one of a group of small states pushing for international legal intervention in the climate crisis but it affects many more island nations in the South Pacific.

Cynthia Houniuhi, the head of the Pacific Island Students Fighting Climate Change that initiated the case, said climate change was undermining "the sacred contract" between generations.

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"Without our land, our bodies and memories are severed from the fundamental relationship that define who we are. Those who stand to lose are the future generations. Their future is uncertain, reliant upon the decision making of a handful of large emitting states," she told the court, referring to China, India and the United States.

Joie Chowdhury, senior attorney at the Centre for International Environmental Law, said that the conduct of major polluters responsible for the climate crisis and its catastrophic consequences is unlawful under multiple sources of international law.

Vanuatu's climate change envoy Ralph Regenvanu told the court that since 1990, emissions have increased by more than 50 per cent, reaching an all time high in 2023.

"A handful of readily identifiable states have produced the vast majority of historic and current greenhouse gas emissions," he said.

"Yet other countries, including my own, are suffering the brunt of the consequences."

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The Hague-based court will hear from 99 countries and more than a dozen intergovernmental organisations over two weeks. It's the largest lineup in the institution's nearly 80-year history.

Last month at the United Nations' annual climate meeting, countries cobbled together an agreement on how rich countries can support poor countries in the face of climate disasters. Wealthy countries have agreed to pool together at least $US300 billion ($510 billion) a year by 2035 but the total is short of the $US1.3 trillion ($2 trillion) that experts and threatened nations say isneeded.

"For our generation and for the Pacific Islands, the climate crisis is an existential threat. It is a matter of survival, and the world's biggest economies are not taking this crisis seriously. We need the ICJ to protect the rights of people at the front lines," said Vishal Prasad, of Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change.

Fifteen judges from around the world will seek to answer two questions: What are countries obliged to do under international law to protect the climate and environment from human-caused greenhouse gas emissions? And what are the legal consequences for governments where their acts, or lack of action, have significantly harmed the climate and environment?

The second question makes particular reference to "small island developing states" likely to be hardest hit by climate change and to "members of "the present and future generations affected by the adverse effects of climate change".

The judges were even briefed on the science behind rising global temperatures by the UN's climate change body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, ahead of the hearings.

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