He is accused of having murdered his wife before staging it to look like a suicide.

Banned NRL star Talatau Junior Amone has been charged with assault after allegedly spitting on a woman during an argument at a pub.

The former St George Illawarra player was arrested yesterday following reports of an alleged assault at a licensed premises on Keira St in Wollongong earlier that day.

"It is alleged a man and a woman – known to each other – were involved in an argument about 2am on the same day before the man spat at the woman," NSW Police said in a statement today.

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Following an investigation, Amone was arrested at an address in Vermont Rd in the Wollongong suburb of Warrawong about 6.15pm.

The 22-year-old was taken to Wollongong police station, where he was charged with one count of common assault and initially refused bail.

He appeared via video link at Wollongong Local Court today, when he was granted release on the condition that he not go near or contact the woman or enter any licensed premises.

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He was also issued with an apprehended domestic violence order.

The case is listed to return to the same court on August 16.

The ex-Dragons five-eighth had his $500,000 contract terminated in 2023 and is unable to be registered in the NRL until at least 2026 after a hammer attack on a tradesman.

In June, Amone was sentenced to a 24-month intensive correction order after he and his father confronted the man, who had parked on a neighbouring property in Warrawong, in November 2022.

Amone smashed the man's car windscreen with the hammer before climbing onto a roof and chasing the victim.

The man fled, jumping across to another rooftop before falling from the building, hitting an air-conditioning unit on the way down.

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732)

Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Further violence has broken out across northern England following an alleged fatal knife attack in the town of Southport.

A surprising number of Aussies have owned up to stealing a shopping trolley or basket from the supermarket, with some even admitting they did it out of spite.

A survey of 1062 people from comparison site Finder, revealed 16 per cent have taken a trolley or basket from the shops in the past 12 months. This equates to 3.3 million of the national population.

Gen Z were the worst offenders, with 30 per cent admitting to doing it, compared to 21 per cent of Gen Y and 10 per cent of Gen X.

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The research found six per cent couldn't be bothered to put their trolley or basket back, while the same amount were fuelled by frustration, often thanks to inflated costs in the shopping aisles.

Three per cent said it was to save money on bag fees, while another three per cent said it was for use on future shopping trips.

Another three per cent said they did it just so they could take it for a cruise with friends.

And two per cent haven't returned a basket or trolley so they could more comfortably walk their groceries home.

But whatever the reason for stealing a shopping trolley or basket from the supermarket, Finder money expert, Rebecca Pike said you can bet the supermarkets will act if the trend continues.

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"Grocers will take more extreme measures to protect their property," she said.

Pike said supermarkets are cracking down on theft in supermarkets.

"Anti-theft technology has been installed in many supermarkets as the cost of living continues to wreak havoc," she said.

"Multiple security measures have been enforced to stop shoppers in their tracks."

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The Australian share market has been battered by a horror morning, with the ASX 200 slumping almost 3 per cent.

That equates to $77 billion lost off the market, with a few hours yet to go.

It follows a 2.1 per cent fall on Friday, making it the worst two-day streak in years.

READ MORE: Australia's terrorism threat level raised to 'probable'

The big four banks are down three per cent, while Qantas fell 4.3 per cent.

It comes amid international fears the US the economy could be slowing too fast, pointing to a potential hard landing or even a recession.

Financial markets worldwide are adjusting, with tech giants like Microsoft and Apple seeing their huge gains from earlier this year corrected.

READ MORE: The Sydney mansions that have been sitting empty for years

US employers added just 114,000 jobs in July — 35 per cent fewer than expected — and unemployment, now at 4.3 per cent, is the highest since October 2021, the US Labour Department reported Friday.

"Things are deteriorating quickly,'' said Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter.

The sharp downturn in US hiring shook financial markets around the world. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 610 points, or 1.5 per cent. The S&P 500 tumbled 1.8 per cent.

The sturdy US economy has been a key driver of global economic growth and the US jobs market has been the fuel, giving Americans the confidence and financial wherewithal to keep spending.

READ MORE: Interest rate rise looks off the agenda as Reserve Bank meets

The unemployment rate's jump to 4.3 per cent in July crossed a tripwire that historically has signaled recession — though economists say the gauge probably is not reliable in the post-pandemic economy.

Hiring may have been disrupted by Hurricane Beryl, which slammed the Texas economy last month. And ZipRecruiter's Pollak noted employers have cut worker hours and made temporary layoffs — suggesting that they are optimistic a rate cut may turn things around.

"They are just slowing hiring and putting people on temporary layoff, furlough," Pollak said.

"They want to get back to business. They see lots of opportunities to expand. They they just need rates to be (lower).''

With Associated Press.

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The federal government today raised Australia's National Terrorism Threat Level from "possible" to "probable".

A threat level of "probable", under the current system, says there is a greater than fifty per cent chance of an onshore attack or attack planning in the next twelve months.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the move following a meeting of the national security committee and cabinet this morning. He stressed that "probable" does not mean "inevitable".

READ MORE: World's largest iceberg caught spinning in mysterious ocean trap

Intelligence experts say the decision to raise the threat level was not triggered by any single ideology or issue, but reported an overall rise in polarisation in Australia and other Western nations.

The terror threat level was last changed in 2022 when it was lowered to "possible".

Albanese said he sought to reassure Australians that "probable does not mean inevitable and it does not mean it is intelligence about an imminent threat or danger."

"But the advice that we have received is that more Australians are embracing a more diverse range of extreme ideologies and it is our responsibility to be vigilant," he said.

"To be clear, this is the same threat level that was in place in Australia for more than eight years before it was lowered in November of 2022.

"At that time, we said as a government, it's does not mean the threat from terrorism is extinguished.

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"Since then we have seen a global rise in politically motivated violence and extremist. Many democracies are working to address this including our friends in the United States and in the United Kingdom."

Speaking alongside Albanese, the director-general of Australia's domestic intelligence service ASIO, Mike Burgess, said that the country's security environment is "more volatile and more unpredictable".

"More Australians are embracing a more diverse range of extreme ideologies and more Australians are willing to use violence to advance their cause.

"Politically motivated violence now joins espionage and foreign interference is our principal security concerns."

Burgess also stressed that "probable does not mean inevitable", but radical and inflammatory views "are being normalised."

"This trend increased during Covid and gained momentum after the terrorist attacks on Israel, and accelerated during Israel's military response… Individuals are embracing anti-authority ideologies, conspiracy theories, and diverse grievances.

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The world's biggest iceberg has become trapped, stopping in its tracks during a mammoth journey north from Antarctica.

Known as A23a among science circles, the iceberg is more than twice the size of the Australian Capital Territory, Greater London and three times the size of New York City.

The iceberg is believed to weigh almost one trillion tonnes and first broke free from the Antarctic coastline in 1986.

READ MORE: Bungled restoration of historic Spanish church raises eyebrows with 'caricature-like' cherub

But almost immediately after making its great escape, A23a got bogged in the muddy depths of the Weddell Sea and stayed put for 34 years.

It then re-floated in 2020 and resumed its journey north, towards the warmer air and waters of the South Atlantic where many smaller icebergs break down to an eventual nothing.

But in April this year, A23a entered the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) a powerful force that pumps the ocean waters and whatever is in them (no matter its size) north to what should have been the gigantic iceberg's eventual demise.

However when A23a entered the ACC, it suddenly stopped again. 

Only, it isn't bogged this time, in fact, there is at least 1000 metres of water between its base and the ocean floor.

A23a is laying idle, floating on the spot just north of South Orkney Island and randomly turning anti-clockwise at about 15 degrees a day.

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Why is this happening?

A23a has become caught in a Taylor Column and could stay stuck for a number of years, delaying the eventual breakdown all icebergs on that same northern route endure.

Open University researcher, Professor Mark Brandon told BBC News icebergs are often seen as transient things; they fragment and melt away.

But not this one.

"A23a is the iceberg that just refuses to die," he said.

A Taylor Column is a type of vortex first described in the 1920s by physicist, Sir Geoffrey Ingram Taylor.

The Cambridge academic was a pioneer in the field of fluid dynamics and showed how a current that meets an obstruction on the seafloor can – under the right circumstances – separate into two distinct flows, generating a full-depth mass of rotating water between them, BBC News reported.

In the instance of A23a, the obstruction is a 100km-wide bump on the ocean bottom known as Pirie Bank.

The Taylor Column vortex sits on top of the bank and for now A23a is caught in its web.

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The British Antarctic Survey's Professor Mike Meredith said Taylor Columns can also form in the air and are seen in clouds moving above mountains and can be any size.

A23a has been slowly spinning on the spot for a few months now, but it is unknown how long it will remain trapped.

But when Professor Meredith placed a scientific buoy in a Taylor Column above another bump to the east of Pirie Bank, the instrument remained in place, slowly rotating and floating on the spot, four years later.

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The bold makeover of an historic 16th century church in Spain has left heritage groups seething and drawing comparisons to the infamous 'monkey Christ' restoration of 2012.

The Ermita de Nuestra Señora del Mirón, which is located in the north-eastern city of Soria and built in 1725, recently received a colourful paint job.

Heritage preservation group, Soria Patrimonio, shared before-and-after photos of the controversial restoration on X, formerly Twitter.

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The white of the church has now been painted with dusky pink stripes. Of particular affront to the group is the over-enthusiastic paintwork on the cherubim.

The restoration has been judged to have left the cherubim looking stunned and "caricature-like" with their newly bright red lips and dark eyebrows.

"What have they done to the Ermita de Nuestra Señora del Mirón?" the group asked.

"It's a listed building, but even if it weren't, any work on a monument such as this had to be subject to minimum guarantees."

"We've ended up with the decorative elements being outlined and the cherubs – which were white before – becoming caricature-like."

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Spanish news outlets have been quick to make the comparison to the botched restoration of the "Ecce Homo" fresco, in the northern Spain town of Borja, which resulted in global news coverage.

In 2012, a local amateur artist decided the circa 1930 depiction of Christ at the Sanctuary of Mercy church needed restoration, but the face she produced immediately was judged to look like a monkey.

Another Spanish restoration attracted similar ire in 2020, with the sculpture on the exterior of an ornate office building in the city of Palencia judged to look like a cartoon after the work was done.

Referring to the Soria church's restoration, the online newspaper El Confidencial ran the story with the headline: "Another Ecce Homo, but with Cherubs?"

ACRE, the professional association of conservators and restorers in Spain, has waded into the debate, saying more oversight of historic restorations is needed.

"There needs to be multidisciplinary teams to avoid these kinds of efforts," Acre said in a statement. 

"There needs to be weekly inspections to keep track of the works and to prevent invasive and disrespectful alterations." 

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We've never been more desperate for housing stock in Sydney and most of us can only dream of one day living in a mansion.

Yet, dotted across Sydney, are sprawling homes worth up to tens of millions of dollars which have been left vacant to slowly decay for years.

Urban explorer Craig Irving has been photographing abandoned houses for decades, since the early 2000s, and has been documenting his finds on his Facebook page Histografixx.  

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Irving said many people would be surprised to know just how many opulent homes were sitting empty in the country's most expensive real estate market.

In many cases, the properties had been bought by developers looking to subdivide the estates and reap the profits, Irving said.

However, sometimes the developments went sour or, in other cases, simply took years and years to come to fruition, he said.

It's estimated that there are 140,000 "inactive" or vacant homes in Australia, according to data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in August last year.

The state with the highest number of vacant homes is New South Wales, with 22,000 empty properties in Sydney alone.

One of those properties is the grand estate of Durath in West Pennant Hills on Sydney's upper north shore, which sold for $42 million in 2015. 

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The historic home, which sits on 5000 square metres of prime land near Cherrybrook station, was sold to Toplace, the building arm of beleaguered Sydney developer Jean Nassif's company.

Toplace was placed into administration last year.

"The property has been sitting empty for nine years and it's probably one of the most fascinating homes I have ever photographed," Irving said.

Photos taken by Irving earlier this year show vines creeping up the windows and onto the roof of the luxury property. 

"There is a little bit of vandalism but not a great deal compared to what I normally see because it's on a residential street so neighbours still live around it," Irving said.

Further into the outskirts of north west Sydney, there were many expensive properties that had been snapped up for developments in Rouse Hill that were still yet to see the light of day, Irving said.

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One of the Rouse Hill properties recently visited by Irving was sold for $7.5 million in 2019 and has been vacant for the past five years.

The white, Spanish-style mansion sits on two acres and is in the process of being subdivided into house and land packages.

Photos show the pool in the backyard filled with swampy water and surrounded by a tangle of weeds and overgrown grass.

Just across the road, a $33 million dollar property had been sitting empty for the past 18 months, Irving said.

"That one sits on five acres, and there is a development application in to build lots of tiny houses on it," he said.

While it was often not financially viable for developers to rent out the properties while they were waiting on building projects to take off, a few did try, Irving said.

But it doesn't always work out.

"One of the properties I recently photographed was a huge, eight bedroom house, absolutely massive," Irving said of the $10 million western Sydney property.

"It's owned by a developer, and they tried to rent it out. It's currently on the market for rent, but it's been vandalised and trashed. 

"Windows have been smashed and things have been ripped out of it."

Over in St Leonards, in Sydney's lower north shore, sits a 100-year-old federation home which has been vacant for about two years, Irving said.

The property developer bought all of the houses on the same street, with this particular house selling for $7.68 million in 2015.

"The house was being used as a daycare but now it's been abandoned," Irving said.

Photos show the front of the property all but obscured by an overgrown yard.

Irving said his photos of abandoned or vacant houses evoked strong reactions on social media, with his audience often becoming fascinated in the backstory of why the houses had been left empty. He is currently collating his photographs into a book.

Contact reporter Emily McPherson at em********@******om.au