There is a severe weather warning for south-east Australia today, with damaging wind gusts of up to 100km/h forecast in multiple states.

The Bureau of Meteorology warned a "vigorous cold front" is expected to bring damaging winds, widespread showers and hail.

There are severe weather warnings for parts of New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and the ACT.

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A wind speed of 94km/h was recorded at 8.49pm yesterday at Nowra on the NSW South Coast and similarly damaging gusts are likely for parts of the Snowy Mountains and southern parts of the ACT over coming hours.

In eastern Victoria, a 139km/h wind gust was recorded at Wilsons Prom Lighthouse at 4.17am today, the bureau said.

The state's Gippsland region should expect winds of about 90 km/h, with showers or thunderstorms likely to develop in the late evening today and continue through early tomorrow morning.

In Melbourne, the State Emergency Service responded to more than 100 request for help as the wild winds swept across the city.

The bureau issued a gale warning for the following parts of Tasmania: Far North West Coast, Central North Coast, Upper East Coast and Lower East Coast.

The strong winds are also making temperatures feel much cooler.

Melbourne has a forecast top of 13 degrees today, but with the wind-chill factored in the 'feel like' temperature should make it 10 degrees or less.

Temperatures will get even colder during the week in the Victorian capital as winds turn more southerly after the passage of the cold front. Melbourne's top should reach just 12 degrees tomorrow.

– With Weatherzone





Immune system changes, blood clotting, and molecular alterations are all factors scientists say we need to understand as the new space race continues.

New studies have looked at the changes undergone by an all-civilian crew aboard a SpaceX voyage, as well as astronauts who had spent 180 days to a year on the International Space Station.

"Spaceflight is known to induce molecular, cellular, and physiological shifts in astronauts and poses various biomedical challenges to the human body," the authors said in a release.

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"As more people venture into space, understanding the health risks associated with space exploration is key for the preparation of long-duration, lunar, and potentially Martian missions.

"However, current frameworks for aerospace medicine lag behind advances in precision medicine on Earth, which highlights the need for the rapid development of space medicine databases, tools and protocols."

Studies found that even short-range spaceflight resulted in "broad-ranging molecular changes".

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"Although more than 95 per cent of markers were found to return to baseline in the months after the mission had ended, some proteins, genes, and cytokines appear to be still activated in the recovery period after spaceflight and persisted after flight for at least three months," the authors said.

But the short-range flights, such as the three-day SpaceX mission in Inspiration4, "did not pose a significant health risk for the crew".

The researchers also reported that females returned to baseline faster for gene expression changes and chromatin states.

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Also, they found that fibrinogen and IL-8 are also affected in a sex-specific manner, indicating that blood clotting and immune system regulation were important for future studies on precision astronaut medicine .

"Leveraging the datasets, tools, and resources in SOMA (Space Omics and Medical Atlas) may help to accelerate precision aerospace medicine, improve health monitoring and risk mitigation, and provide baseline data for upcoming lunar, Mars, and other space missions," the authors said in the release.

See the research online here.

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Laced with one of the hottest chillies in the world and topped with a real scorpion, it's being called Australia's hottest burger.

The "Scorpion Death Wish" is so hot, you need to sign a waiver to get your hands on it. 

9News Queensland reporter Pat Heagney did just that and ended up with a faceful of tears, a glass of milk and a round of applause. 

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"We had to have it lab tested in Thailand to make sure it was safe," Burger Urge chief commercial officer Tom Webb told 9News.

" … It certainly is Australia's first scorpion burger and probably the first scorpion burger on earth."

Des and Charlie, two of Brisbane's bravest, were the first to put their taste buds to the test at Burger Urge in the inner-north suburb of Windsor.

They were "nervous but excited" but the burger bested both of them.

The burger has a salad base, two beef patties, Moruga Scorpion chilli purée, the "Death Wish" sauce and is of course topped with the giant Asian forest scorpion.

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It's hard to get an idea of just how hot it is without doing some calculations.

On the Scoville scale, measuring chilli heat, Sriracha sauce is about 2500 units, Tabasco is 5000 and jalapenos clock in at up to 8000.

Thai chilies can hit 50,000-100,000 while the much-feared ghost pepper can top out beyond 1 million.

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Burger Urge says the sauce alone on the Scorpion Death Wish hits 2 million, with the total burging burning in at a terrifying 2.3 million units.

The burgers are available nationwide only this Saturday and next Saturday.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed China's premier will visit Adelaide in a matter of days, sparking hopes the city will get the go-ahead for new pandas to replace existing duo Wang Wang and Funi, who are due to depart when Adelaide Zoo's lease for them ends in November.

Since their arrival in 2009, the two pandas have captured the hearts of South Australians and tourists alike, becoming iconic figures at the Adelaide Zoo.

Their impending departure has disappointed visitors, but the possibility of new pandas taking their place has emerged as a glimmer of hope for the zoo. 

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Deputy Premier Susan Close remained tight-lipped about the matter when asked today.

"I'm not going to say anything before an official announcement but we all know how much South Australians love their pandas," she said.

Meanwhile, Albanese confirmed Premier Li Qiang's upcoming visit to Adelaide, hinting at the potential for panda diplomacy during the trip. 

"My government is pro-panda. We like panda bears, and so do Australians, I reckon," he said.

9News understands Li is set to attend a lunch at Adelaide Zoo, with talk of the pandas on the menu.

Adelaide Zoo said it had no update regarding the future of pandas, but was encouraged by ongoing discussions with the China Wildlife Conservation Association.

This article was produced with the assistance of 9ExPress.

Thousands of customers have asked for financial assistance from their energy providers as Australians feel the cost-of-living pinch.

AGL Australia has revealed 10,000 customers joined its financial hardship program in the past year, while Energy Australia gets 1,000 bill relief calls every weekday.

Crystal Noronha has worked in the AGL call centre for 11 years and says she is increasingly hearing from customers in need.

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"There's a lot of distress in their voice, there's anxiety," Noronha said.

"Some hide away from sharing their difficulties, but we're here to help them."

Customers don't need to be dealing with extreme financial hardship to see some relief as everyone is eligible for some help.

Gavin Dufty, from charity St Vincent De Paul, said energy companies have ways to help their customers.

"Every energy company has a legal obligation to provide support for all households regardless," Dufty said.

Assistance will depend on the provider and the customer's circumstances but can include bill extensions or paying in smaller amounts more often.

In some instances, they could waive the debt completely.

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From July 1, every household will be given $300 credited into their energy account from the federal government to help provide bill relief.

The government also has a free website where customers can compare energy plan prices to find the cheapest one.

The information provided on this website is general in nature only and does not constitute personal financial advice. The information has been prepared without taking into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on any information on this website you should consider the appropriateness of the information having regard to your objectives, financial situation and needs.

A mum whose heart shut down after delivering twins has survived thanks to teamwork across two Melbourne hospitals.

Alexandra Judd, 37, was kept alive by an advanced form of life support reserved for ICU's sickest patients.

Just after her twins Violet and Esther were delivered via caesarean at maternity hospital Frances Perry House last month Judd, from Hampton, almost died.

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"My last recollection is somebody saying 'she needs to be intubated' and that was it," she said.

Obstetrician Professor Mark Umstad said she "became acutely short of breath and then deteriorated very quickly".

She was transported from the maternity hospital to the Royal Melbourne's intensive care unit right next door.

Husband Tim was told to prepare for the worst, and rushed to the hospital.

"The real seriousness hit when the ICU called me and said 'you need to come over here right now'," he said.

"She's the sickest patient we have in the ICU right now."

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Doctors put her on ECMO, an advanced form of life support.

"Her heart was not pumping, we said 'we need to use something else here'," Dr James Anstey from Royal Melbourne Hospital Intensive Care said.

"Without this extra support Alex wouldn't have survived."

Two days later she started rousing, receiving the first of many visits from her newborns, a rarity in ICU.

"It was amazing. They came together and I was able to hold them," she said.

Judd had suffered a rare stress-induced cardiac condition.

"We call it 'broken heart syndrome'. It's seen after major traumas," Dr Anstey said.

After a month in hospital the new mum and the twins went home to meet big three-year old brother Louie.

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"Everyday I was starting to get a sense of how lucky I was that I was around to see the girls," she said.

The family is sharing their story to showcase the teamwork of Royal Melbourne Hospital and Frances Perry staff and to demonstrate why medical equipment like she was able to benefit from is so critical.

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A woman who escaped an attack on a Queensland walking trail has warned others not to exercise alone.

Alana, who did not wish to have her surname published, had been walking with headphones on along Mt Coot-tha's Maculata trail on Friday when she was struck.

"He pushed me from behind with force," she told 9News Queensland.

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"I fell to the ground and hit my head, so I think I blacked out for a bit.

"He held me down and the pressure, I just felt either his foot or hands holding me down."

Former NRL player Arana Taumata found the 31-year-old concussed on the ground and helped her to safety.

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Her predator had left the scene when he heard Taumata coming.

Police have increased their presence on Mt Coot-tha and have started conducting patrols on horseback and trail bikes.

Detectives are yet to identify Alana's attacker.

"It's just a frightening thing to think that you can't walk alone with your headphones in and it's just not safe," she said.

"It can happen to anyone, which is a really unfortunate thing."

Alana is the second woman to report an assault on the trails in the past month.

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has accused Peter Dutton of an "extraordinary abandonment" of Australia's climate credentials after the opposition leader refused to release his party's 2030 emissions targets until after the federal election.

Dutton announced on Sunday that the Coalition would ditch the government's legislated 43 per cent emissions reduction target by 2030 if it takes office next year.

Today, Albanese described the decision as "a rather extraordinary abandonment of any pretence of having a climate policy" that he said would harm Australia's relationships with key allies.

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"His nuclear fantasy will result in higher power prices and more unstable energy grid and rising emissions," the prime minister said.

"No 2030 target means walking out of the Paris Agreement. That is very clear. And if you walk out of the Paris Agreement, you're left standing with Libya, Yemen, and Iran. That is not the company that Australia should want to keep.

"We know that the consequences of that for our relationships in our region and around the world with our closest allies will be ones that are regrettable, to say the least."

Earlier today, Dutton ruled out providing any detail on what goal a Liberal-National government would pursue instead of the 43 per cent cut.

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"We'll make those decisions when we are in government … we'll look at the prevailing economic conditions after the next election, and we'll make an announcement in due course," the opposition leader said.

To support its policy, the opposition has claimed the government will fall short of its own emissions target.

The latest update, released in December, had Australia on track for a 42 per cent emissions drop – one per cent shy of the legislated target.

However, that forecast did not include a raft of new measures announced this year, including the Future Made in Australia initiatives that were in the federal budget, and Albanese said they mean the country is "very much on track" to meet the 2030 goal.

The Coalition's promise to walk away from that target has set up the potential for another election where climate action is a primary issue, something Albanese said voters did not want after 2022's poll.

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"Australians … know climate change is real," he said.

"They have experienced it with bushfires, with floods, with increased numbers of, and intensity of, extreme weather events, which is what the science told us would happen here and around the world."

The Liberal Party lost a raft of seats it has traditionally held to mainly independent and some Labor candidates at the 2022 election, a trend that was largely put down to differing climate policies.

Dutton brushed off concerns his policy would help those MPs retain their seats. 

"Do I think that they're in touch with average families who are struggling to pay their power bills at the moment? No, I don't," he said.

The federal election is due to be held by next May.

The man believed to have been murdered outside a home in Melbourne's south-east overnight has been identified. 

Police have said they believe the death followed a "targeted incident" after they were called to Ashleigh Street in Frankston just after 11.30pm.

Matt Salau, a 30-year-old from Heatherton, was found with critical injuries and died at the scene.

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Neighbours told 9News they heard a man running from the house screaming he had been stabbed.

"It's terrifying," resident Jasmine said. 

"Quite sad but I am not surprised from type of commotion that we hear," another said.

Residents said the street has become a "hot spot" for drugs, which has left some elderly neighbours and young families installing shutters and too afraid to leave their homes.

"It's the same corner where drug deals have been going on night after night," neighbour David said.

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"We are sick of seeing people walking like zombies down the street."

Police said the exact circumstances around the man's death are yet to be determined but believe both parties are known to each other.

Ashleigh Street was earlier closed in both directions as police investigated the incident.

Anybody with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or online.

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The accused is due to appear in court tomorrow after homicide investigation.