A Russian-born married couple who live in Brisbane have today been charged with allegedly accessing military material for sharing with Russia.

Army Private Kira Korolev, 40, and her 62-year-old husband Igor Korolev, who works as a labourer, were arrested at a Brisbane home yesterday.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw earlier today gave details of their arrests – the first time charges have been laid under new counter-espionage laws introduced six years ago.

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"They have been charged with one count each of preparing for an espionage offence, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years imprisonment," he said.

He said the woman – an ADF information systems technician – had taken non-disclosed travel to Russia while on leave from the army.

The AFP allege the couple worked together to access Australian Defence Force material that related to Australia's national security interests.

ASIO director-general Mike Burgess, speaking alongside Kershaw, said the arrests came after a "lengthy and complex investigation" by law enforcement agencies.

Kershaw said the arrests were the culmination of an operation by the counter-foreign interference task force, which includes AFP, ASIO and other federal agencies.

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"We allege the woman was undertaking non-declared travel to Russia, whilst she was on long-term leave from the Australian Defence Force," he said.

"We allege that whilst she was in Russia, she instructed her husband, who remained in Australia, on how to log into her official work account from their Brisbane home.

"We allege her husband would access requested material and would send to his wife in Russia. We allege they sought that information with the intention of providing it to Russian authorities.

"Whether that information was handed over remains a key focus of our investigation."

The couple have lived in Australia for more than 10 years.

The woman obtained Australian citizenship in 2016 and he became a citizen four years later.

Burgess answered reporters' questions about the vetting procedures for people working in the ADF and other sensitive government branches.

"I respectfully suggest that vetting is not a solution that stops problems because it depends on what you say 'How is it missed?'

"If you meet the requirements to get a security clearance, you will get one but that doesn't mean to say the security journey stops at this point.

"In this case, because of defence and security awareness, ASIO and the task force and the AFP were able to intervene and control this operation."

Burgess said spying was not a "quaint" notion and could have "catastrophic real-world consequences".

"Espionage is real. Multiple countries are seeking to steal Australia's secrets."

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, speaking from Queensland, said the charges showed law enforcement agencies were continually vigilant. 

He said anyone who sought to harm Australia would be brought to account.

The couple will appear before Brisbane Magistrates Court today.

Facing calls from within his own party to drop out of the presidential race, today's high-stakes media appearances by Joe Biden were meant to reassure Democrats and voters he was still up to another four years in the job.

Instead, the concerns will only grow deeper after he made two embarrassing gaffes: mixing up Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, just hours after he referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as President Putin.

His first formal solo news conference after the disastrous presidential debate was to be another make-or-break moment on the world stage.

LIVE BLOG: Follow key updates as Biden faces press conference

Asked about what he thought of Harris' capabilities to potentially fill his shoes, Biden said: "I wouldn't have picked Vice President Trump to be Vice President did I think she was not qualified to be President. Number one, I will start there."

Earlier, he mistakenly referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as "President Putin".

"I want to hand it over to the president of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination – please welcome President Putin," Biden said.

READ MORE: What happens if Joe Biden drops out of his re-election race?

The president's last similar outing came nearly eight months ago when he took questions from reporters after his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in California.

At that news conference, Biden called on reporters from four organisations, one of whom asked two questions.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre jumped in to end the news conference after the fourth reporter, though Biden proceeded to answer an additional nine questions.

Biden's most recent joint news conference was during the G7 summit last month.

Biden says he's 100 per cent in, even if some aides have private doubts.

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While Biden has expressed confidence in his chances, his campaign today acknowledged they are behind, and a growing number of the president's aides in the White House and the campaign privately harbour doubts that the president can turn it around.

But they're taking their cues from Biden, expressing that he is in the race 100 per cent — unless and until he isn't, and there appeared to be no organised internal effort to convince the president to step aside.

One reporter today quizzed Biden about his 2020 campaign position as a "bridge candidate" to pass the torch to a younger generation.

"What changed was the gravity of the situation I inherited in terms of the economy, our foreign policy and domestic division," he said.

"What I realised was my long time in the Senate had equipped me to have the wisdom to know how to deal with the Congress, to get things done.

"I got more major legislation passed that no-one thought would happen and I want to finish … to get that finished."

He suggested he'd remain in the race with democracy "under siege", citing the conservative Supreme Court and the spectre of presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump's return to the presidency.

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"But the other reason why I didn't want to hand off to another generation, I have to finish this job," he said.

"I've got to finish this job because there's so much at stake".

His allies were well aware heading into the week there would be more calls for him to step down, and they were prepared for it.

It really is not clear how many lawmakers – or movie stars – it would take for Biden to reconsider his decision or if that number even exists.

Reported with AP, CNN

An entire pod of 77 pilot whales has died after becoming stranded on a beach on a remote Scottish island in what is believed to be the biggest mass stranding in the UK for decades.

Locals sighted the pod on the isle of Sanday in Orkney on Thursday morning.

The British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) was called in to assist the whales at about 10.45am on Thursday (7.45pm Thursday AEST).

LIVE UPDATES: Follow key updates as Joe Biden gives press conference

"BDMLR's regional team was immediately mobilised with response equipment to make their way over to the island, whilst we waited for more information on the situation from the small number of medics already on Sanday," the group reported in a statement on their website.

By the time medics arrived, the whales had evidently been stranded for several hours already and only 12 of the 77 animals were still alive.

The medics began health assessments and gave first aid to the surviving animals as the incoming tide approached, in the hopes they could be refloated.

READ MORE: Why do whales beach themselves?

Medics also believe there was a "high likelihood" the whales inhaled water with the incoming tide, further injuring them were unable to be refloated.

Medics also believe there was a "high likelihood" the whales inhaled water with the incoming tide, further injuring them.

The medics were forced to euthanise the remaining animals.

The Scottish Marine Animals Stranding Scheme (SMASS) is now attempting to recover as many of the whales' bodies as possible to conduct post-mortems, in an attempt to understand the reason for the mass stranding.

"There are no obvious indications as to why they all stranded," BDMLR reported.

"It may be some time before full results are available due to the huge task of conducting these examinations."

Australians with their eyes trained skyward may catch a glimpse of a "once-in-a-lifetime" stellar event in the coming months.

A pair of stars named T Coronae Borealis is set to explode, lighting up the southern hemisphere skies for the first time in 80 years.

T Coronae Borealis, also known as the Blaze Star, periodically undergoes something called a nova, where the star periodically bursts in brightness as it partially explodes.

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"We can predict when this will happen based on the star's brightness over time, and anytime over the next few months to two years, it could happen," Melbourne astrophysicist Dr Sara Webb explained.

"It's in the constellation Corona Borealis and if you keep an eye on that patch of sky you might notice when the 'new star' appears."

The Coronae Borealis constellation is visible in Australia between May and September in the evening sky.

The constellation is 3000 light years away and usually only visible using a telescope.

However, when the Blaze Star explodes, it rapidly increases in brightness to around a magnitude +3, making it easily visible even in light-polluted areas.

LIVE UPDATES: Follow key updates as Joe Biden gives press conference

It's as if a brand new star appears in the night sky, before fading away a few nights later.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime event that will create a lot of new astronomers out there," Dr Rebekah Hounsell, an assistant research scientist specialising in nova events at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre, said.

"It'll fuel the next generation of scientists."

T Coronae Borealis is what is known as a white dwarf – a star whose internal fire has burnt out and is now essentially a dead star, which has been dramatically compressed.

The white dwarf is an Earth-sized remnant of a dead star with a mass comparable to that of our sun.

However, it is in orbit with another star – a red giant.

The white dwarf is extracting hydrogen from its red giant neighbour, which builds up until a runaway thermonuclear reaction occurs.

This causes an explosion which makes the white dwarf shine 1500 times brighter than usual, briefly lighting up our night sky.

"There are a few recurrent novae with very short cycles, but typically, we don't often see a repeated outburst in a human lifetime, and rarely one so relatively close to our own system," Hounsell said.

"It's incredibly exciting to have this front-row seat."

A 52,000-year-old woolly mammoth has had its entire genetic code mapped in a move it's hoped will further efforts to bring the giant ancient beasts back to life.

It is the first time such a feat has been achieved for any ancient fossilised remains.

It's hoped the same strategies could also be used on other ancient DNA samples, such as Egyptian mummies, in the future.

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While many ancient DNA samples of fossilised ancient animals and people exist, most specimens consist of very small, scrambled DNA fragments.

However, this particular woolly mammoth discovered in Siberia happened to be freeze-dried by the weather soon after it died, preserving its DNA in a glass-like state.

The fossilised chromosomes extracted from the mammoth are around one million times longer than most ancient DNA fragments.

A team of US and Italian researchers set out to create a 3D map of these chromosomes in the same way scientists reconstruct the human genome.

"This is a new type of fossil, and its scale dwarfs that of individual ancient DNA fragments – a million times more sequence," study co-author Erez Lieberman Aiden, director of the Centre for Genome Architecture at Baylor College of Medicine, said.

Aiden thought that if the right ancient DNA sample could be found – one with the 3D organisation of the fragments still intact – it would be possible to use the same strategies as used on modern-day humans to assemble the ancient genomes.

The researchers tested dozens of DNA samples over the course of five years, before landing on an unusually well-preserved woolly mammoth excavated in northeastern Siberia in 2018.

The researchers extracted DNA from a skin sample taken behind the mammoth's ear.

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Using a technique called Hi-C, they were able to detect which sections of DNA were likely to be located close together and to interact with one another in their natural state in the nucleus.

"Imagine you have a puzzle that has three billion pieces, but you don't have the picture of the final puzzle to work from," co-author Marc A. Marti-Renom, a structural genomicist at the Centre Nacional d'Anàlisi Genòmica in Barcelona, said.

"Hi-C allows you to have an approximation of that picture before you start putting the puzzle pieces together."

They were then able to use the genomes of modern-day elephants as a template to assemble that of the ancient species, which roamed the Earth's northern hemisphere for at least half a million years.

The analysis revealed that woolly mammoths had 28 chromosomes – the same number as present-day Asian and African elephants.

They also found the woolly mammoth's skin cells had distinctive gene activation patterns compared to those of its closest relative, the Asian elephant, including for genes potentially related to its woolly-ness and cold tolerance.

The scientists say that the next step for the woolly mammoth is to examine the epigenetic patterns of tissues other than the skin.

"These results have obvious consequences for contemporary efforts aimed at woolly mammoth de-extinction," M. Thomas Gilbert, a paleo-genomicist at the University of Copenhagen, said.

The results of the international study have been published in the scientific journal Cell today.

Gale force winds and rain deluges of up to 100mm will sweep over millions of Australians next week as a major polar outbreak brings severe weather to several states.

A large pool of cold air from waters near Antarctica will spread across south-eastern Australia from this weekend, Weatherzone has warned.

Temperatures are set to plummet into next week, with the probability of non-alpine snowfalls "from Tasmania to northern New South Wales".

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The air mass will also create a low pressure system over the Tasman Sea that is forecast to linger into next week.

It's likely to bring damaging winds from Saturday to Tuesday in Tasmania, Victoria, and NSW, as well as heavy rain, Weatherzone said.

Gale force winds with gusts exceeding 90km/hr will sweep Tasmania and eastern Victoria on Sunday and Monday, with the damaging winds extending to NSW on Monday.

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They could possibly range up to Sydney and Illawarra.

"The fierce winds that are predicted to hit southeastern Australia from this weekend have the potential to topple trees after a prolonged wet period has led to a soggy landscape," Weatherzone said.

"While winds should continue to be strong across eastern Australia on Tuesday, they should ease below damaging strength as the low moves further east over the Tasman Sea."

READ MORE: Beer bottles thrown during road rage on Bruce Highway

Heavy rain will also hammer Tasmania and Victoria from the weekend into early next week.

Forecasts are uncertain but both states should see falls of 30mm to 60mm in parts, with the potential for more than 100mm in some areas.

Weatherzone said the low pressure system could also bring heavy swell and dangerous surf along the east coast, with offshore waves larger than five metres near Tasmania, and four metres off Victoria and southern NSW.

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Two Australian nationals and their Filipina companion have been killed in a hotel in a popular resort city south of the Philippine capital, with police trying to identify and track down the suspects, officials say.

A hotel worker found the bodies of the victims, whose hands and feet were tied, in a room at the Lake Hotel in Tagaytay city, south of Manila, on Wednesday, according to a police statement.

The Australian male victim's throat was slit with a sharp object that may have caused his death while the two women apparently may have been suffocated using a pillow, Tagaytay police chief Charles Daven Capagcuan told The Associated Press. Ongoing autopsies would verify those initial indications, he said.

READ MORE: Men fined $17k for what they dumped outside charity

Capagcuan said the motive for the killings was not immediately clear and added some valuables of the victims, including their cellphones, were not taken by the suspect.

"We were shocked by this incident," Tagaytay Mayor Abraham Tolentino said, apologising to the families of the victims.

"We're very sorry to our Australian friends. We will resolve this as soon as possible."

The victims were believed to be a man in his 50s from Australia, his Philippine-born partner and her Filipina relative.

Investigators were interviewing witnesses and examining security cameras at the hotel which could help identify the suspect or suspects, Tolentino said without elaborating.

Investigators were interviewing witnesses and examining security cameras at the hotel, including footage that showed a man wearing a mask and a hoodie and carrying a sling bag who walked out of the victims' room a few hours before their bodies were discovered, Capagcuan said.

A Filipino relative of the Australian woman told the AP that the Australian couple flew from Sydney to the Indonesian resort island of Bali for a vacation then headed to the Philippines on Monday to visit her two children from a previous marriage in the country.

The Australian couple was supposed to fly back to Australia on Wednesday, the day they were killed, but decided to briefly take a vacation in Tagaytay, said the relative, who asked not to be identified for security reasons.

Tagaytay, about 60 kilometres south of Manila, is popular among local and foreign tourists who flock there for its cool weather and to view one of the world's smallest active volcanos nestled in the middle of a lake.

Tolentino told the AP that the remains of the Australian man would be flown back to Sydney and the two women would be buried in the Philippines as requested by their relatives. The government would pay for the women's funeral and burial, he said.

A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was providing consular assistance to the families of the two Australians and expressed condolences to their families.

No other details were provided "owing to our privacy obligations", the spokesperson said.

A horrifying road rage incident that played out north of Brisbane has been captured on film.

Two cars were seen swerving within centimetres of each another on the Bruce Highway near Beerburrum yesterday afternoon.

The driver of a white hatchback could be seen throwing a beer bottle at the other car while moving through traffic.

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Ron, a Gold Coast resident and witness, told 9News "it could have been catastrophic".

He said he was in front of the pair of cars when he looked in the rear-view mirror and saw a person hanging out of one car.

A person in one of the cars was standing up and allegedly abusing another car.

"I couldn't imagine anything much more stupid than that on the road at 110km/h," he said.

Ron's wife filmed the road rage on her phone as he drove.

Police are searching for the two drivers involved in the incident and are appealing for anyone who witnessed the exchange to come forward.

Anyone with information can contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

More than 100 teenagers have trashed a rental property in Melbourne's north-east, causing $12,000 worth of damage.

The property, described as a "serene retreat" in South Morang, was rented to a group of teenagers reportedly using a stolen credit card.

9News understands the teenagers organised a party at the weekend and charged a $20 entry fee.

READ MORE: Man arrested after alleged carjacking and hit-run in Melbourne

Images obtained by 9News show windows smashed, holes in walls and doors destroyed.

In the days following, SMK Cleaning Group owners Codie Benson and Kylie Robinson were called to help clean the rental.

The cleaners told 9News they had never seen anything like it before.

"It made my stomach sick, there was the vomit, there was wee, there was poo, there was blood on the couch. I don't know what happened that night," Robinson said.

"We found like $12,000 of damage, we've got a skip full of rubbish we have had to throw out."

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Neighbour Marialuisa Lo Piccolo said she was afraid the party was going to spill into their yard.

"It's frightening," she said.

Victoria Police said they were called to the property and asked the teenagers to move, which they did without incident.

Police are continuing to investigate.

Two men have been fined $17,000 for illegally dumping expired food outside a charity store in Sydney's west.

The pair were first caught on camera discarding about 40 boxes of Cheetos Puff snacks from a white van outside the Salvation Army store at Chester Hill in February.

A council investigation found the products expired last year and issued the driver a $2000 fine for transporting excess waste to an unlawful waste facility.

READ MORE: Man refused bail after three kids killed in Sydney house fire

The same driver came back to the store with a friend in May, where they unloaded 60 boxes of yoghurt dips, which had expired in 2022, at the entrance.

This time, council issued them a $15,000 fine.

"I cannot believe someone would stoop so low, to donate out-of-date goods to a charity trying to assist those in need," Canterbury-Bankstown Mayor Bilal El-Hayek said.

"They have no shame and obviously don't realise the dire consequences of providing the expired products."

Lifeline commercial operations general manager Mark Jeffery said it was disappointing that charities were left to pay for the disposal of junk illegally dumped outside their stores.

"It's become a bigger problem with waste management, tip fees going up," he said.

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With illegal dumping costing ratepayers $300 million each year, councils across the state were given greater powers to penalise offenders in April.

Corporations could face a fine from $15,000 to a maximum of $50,000 while individuals could see $25,000 to $75,000.

The most serious of offences have risen to $10 million.

"The fines have changed dramatically, there's some fines that have doubled five, six times," El-Hayek said.

"Hopefully this will deter people."

A new state government grant will allow councils to also install security cameras at dumping hotspots to catch those doing the wrong thing. 

Residents are encouraged to report instances of illegal dumping by calling Council on 9707 9000.