People have queued outside the Bank of England's headquarters in London and at post offices around the United Kingdom to get their hands on the first UK banknotes featuring the portrait of King Charles III.

The portrait of the king will appear on all four banknotes issued by the Bank of England — £5, £10, £20 and £50 — with no other alterations to the existing designs.

The notes will coexist alongside those featuring his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, whom he succeeded as monarch on her death in September 2022.

READ MORE: Amanda Knox reconvicted of slander in Italy for accusing innocent man of roommate's 2007 murder 

Coins and stamps bearing the image of Charles have already been rolled out.

People may not notice the new notes immediately in their change or withdrawals from ATMs, not least because so many transactions are now done cashless.

Though cash payments have declined over the years, they remain particularly important for lower income households and those who get welfare benefits at their local Post Office. In 2023, legislation was passed as part of to protect access to cash.

In line with guidance from the Royal Household, the new notes will only be printed to replace those that are worn, and to meet any overall increase in demand — the approach aims to minimise the environmental and financial impact of the change.

There are more than £4.6 billion Bank of England notes in circulation, worth about £82 billion pounds ($158 billion).

"This is a historic moment, as it's the first time we've changed the sovereign on our notes," said Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey.

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"We know that cash is important for many people, and we are committed to providing banknotes for as long as the public demand them.

"Bringing these new notes into circulation is a demonstration of that commitment."

In April, Charles was presented with the first banknotes bearing his portrait and praised them as "very well designed" while expressing his surprise at being only the second monarch to feature on them.

Although the Bank of England started to produce banknotes in the 17th century, Charles' mother, Queen Elizabeth II, was the first British monarch to be given the honour in 1960 on a £1 note.

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People will be able to snap up the new-look currency at selected Post Office branches across the UK.

"Our local customers come into our branch every day to withdraw or deposit cash for their daily needs, so we were excited to be one of the first branches to have the new banknotes available," said Karen Stonham, branch manager at the Portsmouth Post Office in southern England.

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A Victorian judge will refer federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton to the national security watchdog over failure to disclose reports about the imprisonment of a terrorist.

Convicted terrorist Abdul Nacer Benbrika was released from prison in December under more than 30 strict conditions, after a push to keep him behind bars due to community safety risk was abandoned.

Benbrika, now aged in his 60s, is subjected to supervision and a curfew for one year.

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Part of the reason the Commonwealth opted for a supervision order over continuing detention was a report buried by the Home Affairs department under the former Coalition government.

The report wasn't given to Benbrika's defence team during legal proceedings that resulted in him staying behind bars after his prison sentence expired due to him being deemed a risk to the community.

It found the methods used to assess the future risk a person poses to the community were no better than flipping a coin.

Victorian Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth said it was "clearly a document that should have been disclosed" and revealed four other reports critical of the assessment tool had not been disclosed.

In written reasons released on Wednesday, the judge said she would refer former home affairs minister Dutton, who was in charge of the Australian Federal Police in that role, to the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor to decide whether to investigate further.

She said the statutory requirement that the minister in charge of the AFP disclose exculpatory material was a "fundamental safeguard to ensure the protection of individual liberty under what is very unusual and draconian legislation".

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"What happened in this case should never have happened, and should not be repeated in the case of Mr Benbrika or any other person the subject of a post-sentence order application," Hollingworth wrote.

"The non-disclosure of the various expert reports amounts to serious interference with the administration of justice."

She said it would be up to the INSLM to decide if any further investigations will be conducted "to get to the bottom of why the various expert reports were not disclosed to Mr Benbrika" and whether the non-disclosure had wider implications.

"It seems from the INSLM report that the AFP minister [Dutton] has engaged in similar non-disclosure in relation to other terrorist offenders," she wrote.

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"The wider implications of the AFP minister's conduct in terrorist proceedings are a matter more appropriately considered by the INSLM than by a court hearing an individual application."

Dutton's office has been contacted by AAP for a response.

Benbrika spent almost 20 years behind bars after he was convicted over plots to attack the MCG during the 2005 AFL grand final and Melbourne's Crown Casino.

He has to wear an ankle monitoring bracelet and cannot leave Victoria without approval, with police to be given extensive powers to monitor his electronic communications.

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An Italian court has reconvicted Amanda Knox of slander, even after she was exonerated of the brutal 2007 murder of her British roommate while the two were exchange students in Italy.

The court found on Wednesday that Knox had wrongly accused an innocent man, the Congolese owner of the bar where she worked part time, of the killing. But she will not serve any more jail time, given the three-year sentence counts as time already served.

Knox, who had returned to Italy for only the second time since she was freed in 2011 to participate in the trial, showed no visible emotion as the verdict was read aloud.

EXPLAINED: What to know about the latest trial involving Amanda Knox

But her lawyer, Carlo della Vedova, said shortly afterward that "Amanda is very embittered".

Knox had written on social media ahead of the hearing that she hoped to "clear my name once and for all of the false charges against me. Wish me luck".

The slaying of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher in the idyllic hilltop town of Perugia fuelled global headlines as suspicion fell on Knox, a 20-year-old exchange student from Seattle, and her new Italian boyfriend of just a week, Raffaele Sollecito.

Flip-flop verdicts over nearly eight years of legal proceedings polarised trial watchers on both sides of the Atlantic as the case was vociferously argued on social media, then in its infancy.

Knox's retrial was set by a European court ruling that Italy violated her human rights during a long night of questioning days after Kercher's murder, deprived of both a lawyer and a competent translator.

Earlier in the hearing, Knox had asked the eight Italian judges and civil jury members to clear her of the slander charge.

In a soft and sometimes breaking voice, Knox had told the court that she wrongly accused Patrick Lumumba under intense police pressure.

"I am very sorry that I was not strong enough to resist the pressure of police,'' Knox told the panel in a nine-minute prepared statement, sitting alongside them on the jury bench.

"I didn't know who the murderer was. I had no way to know."

The case continues to draw intense media attention, with photographers massing around Knox, her husband Christopher Robinson and their legal team as they entered the courtroom about an hour before the hearing.

A camera knocked her on the left temple, her lawyer Luca Luparia Donati said. Knox's husband examined a small bump on her head as they sat in the front row of the court.

Despite Knox's exoneration and the conviction of an Ivorian man whose footprints and DNA were found at the scene, doubts about her role persisted, particularly in Italy. That is largely due to the accusation she made against Lumumba.

Knox is now a 36-year-old mother of two small children. She returned to Italy for only the second time since she was freed in October 2011, after four years in jail, by a Perugia appeals court that overturned the initial guilty verdict in the murder case against both Knox and Sollecito.

She remained in the United States through two more flip-flop verdicts before Italy's highest court definitively exonerated the pair of the murder in March 2015, stating flatly that they had not committed the crime.

In the fall, Italy's highest Cassation Court threw out the slander conviction that had withstood five trials, ordering a new trial, thanks to a 2022 Italian judicial reform allowing cases that have reached a definitive verdict to be reopened if human rights violations are found.

This time, the court has been ordered to disregard two damaging statements typed by police and signed by Knox at 1.45am and 5.45am as she was held for questioning overnight into the small hours of November 6, 2007.

In the statements, Knox said she remembered hearing Kercher scream, and pointed to Lumumba for the killing.

Hours later, still in custody about 1pm, she asked for pen and paper and wrote her own statement in English, questioning the version that she had signed.

"In regards to this 'confession' that I made last night, I want to make clear that I'm very doubtful of the verity of my statements because they were made under the pressure of stress, shock and extreme exhaustion," she wrote.

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A family has been left heartbroken after their two-year-old son drowned in a dam near Geelong last night.

Luka Huddle's body was found in dam waters by police after he went missing from the family property in Lara about 5.30pm.

Emergency services tried to revive the two-year-old but he died at the scene, with his distraught mother, Karin Huddle, nearby.

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His mother spoke to media this morning and said she felt "numb" with grief.

Luka had been playing outside while she was feeding the horses in the moments before his disappearance.

She believed he had wandered off with his dog, Poppy.

When Poppy came back to the property wet, she ran to the dam.

"Poppy was wet. That's what alerted me," Huddle said.

"I ran to the damn and we couldn't find him. We had police help."

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Luka was found unresponsive with the assistance of rescue crews.

Huddle said she was still in "shock" and said her son could have fallen into the dam.

"He loved swimming and he wasn't afraid of water. He was so water-safe," she said.

"He would have never gone into the water."

Speaking this morning, Huddle was supported by her mother and her two horses.

One of those horses was named Finley, Luka's "pride and joy".

"(Finley) loves Luka and it's going to hurt him," she said.

"He knows there's something not right."

Huddle hoped by addressing media, she could shine a light on the need for "adequate" fencing.

"The fence is so poor," she said.

"Fencing in this area, it's disgusting… and atrocious."

Luka was Huddle's only child, she described him as a little boy with an infectious smile.

"He was cheeky, mischievous and adventurous," she said.

"He had the biggest smile on his face every morning.

"I don't have a lot of words for how I feel, I am very angry at the fences and at myself."

It's understood the dam is located on private property.

Experts are testing a smartphone gadget that is capable of identifying a person's risk of developing skin cancer in their eyes.

The camera clips onto a smartphone and then sends a photo of the person's eye to a specialised app that measures the amount of UV damage the eye has sustained.

Medical experts are now testing if the prototype is as effective as its desktop counterpart, which was also invented by the same team at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney.

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A trial of the product will start soon with 100 participants.

Professor Minas Coroneo from the Prince of Wales Hospital said his team developed the tool as a biomarker for sun exposure after a separate ophthalmologist documented a link to non-cancerous growths on the eye's surface, called a pterygium, and a cancer diagnosis years later.

"He had lots of people with pterygium and he noticed they got the Pterygium in their late teens and then skin cancer ten years later," Coroneo said.

"We've developed this as a biomarker for sun exposure." 

READ MORE: Australian economy records weakest growth in almost three years

Australia has the highest levels of melanoma in the world, with around 16,800 people diagnosed with skin cancer every year.

Melanoma can be cured by surgery 90 per cent of the time if it's caught early, according to the Melanoma Institute Australia.

Australia's economy is on the verge of crawling to a standstill, with gross domestic product rising by just 0.1 per cent in the first three months of the year.

New national accounts data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics confirmed the weak growth – the lowest quarterly figures since September 2021, when the economy went backwards.

"GDP growth was weak in March, with the economy experiencing its lowest through-the-year growth since December 2020," ABS head of national accounts Katherine Keenan said.

READ MORE: Australian TV and radio star John Blackman dies aged 76

"GDP per capita fell for the fifth consecutive quarter, falling 0.4 per cent in March and 1.3 per cent through the year."

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the weak figures were a result of high interest rates, but that even the small growth justified the government's economic approach.

"Over the past year, around three-quarters of OECD economies have recorded a negative quarter while Australia has avoided one to date," he said.

"Against this difficult global backdrop, Australia recorded faster annual growth than most major advanced economies – faster than Canada, Italy, the United Kingdom, Japan and Germany.

"Since the election, Australia has also recorded faster employment growth than any major advanced economy."

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In a clear sign Australians are doing it tough, households saved an average of just 0.9 per cent of their income during the March quarter – down from 1.6 per cent in December – even though wages grew.

It means savings have stayed at under 2 per cent for an entire year for the first time since March 2008, during the Global Financial Crisis.

"People are under pressure and we see that in the savings ratio and in other indicators as well," Chalmers said.

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Economists had been expecting either very weak or no growth, with Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock telling Senate estimates earlier today she didn't expect GDP to increase.

"I would say that we are in a position where the economy is very weak," she said.

"We've got… people cutting back on discretionary expenditure, but we've still got the labour market growing, and that's a very important point to remember – that the unemployment rate is rising gradually but employment is still growing."

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Canstar finance expert Steve Mickenbacker said today's figures, while potentially bringing interest rate cuts closer, have made Bullock's job more difficult.

"The March quarter GDP growth rate has made the already tough job for the Reserve Bank even trickier, potentially setting the economy on the path to recession," he said.

"The Reserve Bank's narrow runway has become skinnier, with March quarter CPI growth rising to 1.4 per cent and GDP growth falling to 0.01 per cent.

"The Reserve Bank will be treading a delicate tightrope between avoiding recession and keeping the credit card genie contained.

"It's early to call, but an economy in recession and with high inflation awakens memories of 1970s stagflation that put central bankers between a rock and a hard place, either tolerating higher inflation or triggering job losses.

"It took the world a long time to recover way back then.

"Impending tax cuts and the minimum pay rate decision could throw a lifeline to the economy and haul it back to healthier growth, but will at the same time add to inflationary pressures."

A video has emerged showing a shocking road rage incident in Sydney.

The video, sent into 2GB, was shot by a passenger in a car on the way to the NRL match between the Bulldogs and the Roosters on April 5.

After an apparent disagreement in traffic earlier, a white car pulls ahead of the group and puts the brakes on in the middle of the road.

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https://omny.fm/shows/ben-fordham-full-show/he-s-got-a-knife-terrifying-audio-of-road-rage-att/embed

A man wearing a black hoodie or raincoat gets out of the car, and, swinging his arms, runs toward his targets.

"Please don't get out of the car, please don't get out of the car," a woman's voice is heard saying.

The man rushes up to the window as the car he is dashing towards takes off, apparently ripping the open door off the knife-wielder's car.

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"He had a knife, call the police," one person is heard saying.

The driver, Brad, apparently had to drive up on the footpaths occasionally as the man pursued them, Brad's grandmother told 2GB.

His own car sustained some damage.

2GB said the man, who had been driving a rented car that didn't belong to them, had not yet been arrested.

NSW Police confirmed to 9news.com.au it was investigating an alleged road rage incident on Yerrick Road in Lakemba on April 5.

Anyone with information or dashcam or CCTV footage of the incident is urged to contact Campsie Police or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

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Australian radio and television great John Blackman has died at the age of 76.

Blackman was best known for his 28-year voice-over role as the puppet Dickie Knee on Hey Hey It's Saturday.

The Melbourne media personality had been fighting bone cancer at the time of his death. It was his second battle with the disease.

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Nine's entertainment editor Richard Wilkins said Blackman was remembered for his "sparkling wit".

"I had the pleasure of working on Hey Hey, many times over the years, and John was an integral part of the family," Wilkins said.

"Back in the day, he was a huge part of it and of course, his jaw was removed after this invasive skin cancer and more recently (bone) cancer that got the better of him.

"(He had) a sparkling radio career, Cecile, his beautiful wife gets all of our thoughts and prayers today… John Blackman, the name itself radiates warmth, lovely memories and funny times."

Tributes have begun to flow following news of the 76-year-old's death.

"(It's) very sad to hear of the death of John Blackman. He was a constant through my radio career," veteran 3AW broadcaster Neil Mitchell said.

"Top class broadcaster."

In a statement, Nine and 3AW remembered Blackman as "a cherished voice in Australian media".

"Throughout his illustrious career, John demonstrated an unwavering commitment to his craft," the statement read.

"His remarkable versatility and enduring presence in the industry underscored his exceptional talent.

"Colleagues and fans alike admired his professionalism and the genuine kindness he exuded both on and off the microphone.

"John Blackman's legacy is one of laughter, dedication, and a profound impact on Australian media.

"As we remember his remarkable journey, we celebrate the indelible mark he left on our hearts and the entertainment landscape.

"He will be deeply missed, but his voice will continue to echo in our memories."

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Veteran broadcaster's 'sparkling' career 

Born on July 14, 1947, Blackman grew up in Mount Waverley, a suburb in Melbourne, and attended Syndal Primary School.  

He left school, and home, at age 16 to work a string of jobs. 

These included a cash van salesman for a cigarette distributor and a sales representative for a perfume company. 

In 1969, at the age of 22, he shunned his sales roles for a career in radio.

He joined regional New South Wales station 2GN Goulburn, taking on a multitude of roles as an announcer, newsreader, copywriter, salesman and record librarian.

By 1970, Blackman moved stations, picking up on-air shifts with 2CA Canberra. 

A year later he moved back to Melbourne to try his hand at the "big time" at 3AW.

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As well as working in radio, during the early 1970s Blackman was the voiceover man and character voice for Dickie Knee – a polystyrene head with black hair and a blue cap on a stick – on the morning variety television show Hey Hey It's Saturday. 

"Hey Hey has been a good vehicle for me. It's a phenomenon, in a way," Blackman told The Age in 1983.

"It's something that grew by accident. Daryl (Somers) and Ossie (Ernie Carroll) alluding to me in the booth and then letting me have more say. 

"I think that's what has given Hey Hey its flavour; there is this disembodied voice interrupting throughout the program.

"At that hour of the morning our minds are a bit fuzzy and the viewers' minds are, too, and they sit there saying, 'Did he really say that?'" 

He has also appeared in other television shows such as Blankety Blanks, Personality Squares and The Paul Hogan Show.

In December 1972, Blackman married Cecile, a businesswoman and entrepreneur once described as the business brain behind Dickie Knee. 

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The couple had a daughter, Tiffany, who was born three months premature and blind.

"Two years ago she went off to London, all by herself, for five months," Blackman told friend and broadcast journalist Peter Mitchell in 1997.

"That just knocked me out. She's incredibly independent. You look at other 22-year-olds and they bitch and complain about all sorts of things. 

"She had a job with Myer before they went through downsizing and she would trot off to work each morning with her cane. I'd think 'God, she's got to get on a tram and cross busy intersections!' Tiff is the bravest person I know, without a doubt."

In 1975 Blackman travelled to Sydney to join 2UE as a "floating announcer". 

Eight months into the job Blackman quit. He returned to Melbourne.

At the time, the radio industry was transitioning from playing music to a talk show format. Initially, it proved a punish for ratings.

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In the early 1980s, the tide turned for Blackman. 

His moment in television was nearing, with Nine, the broadcast network behind Hey Hey and the publisher of this website, moving the show from its breakfast spot to Saturday night primetime.

"I think it could be that I take risks. If there's a line or a possible joke, rather than think who I am going to offend, I will jump straight into it," Blackman said of the move at the time.

"I used to worry about people I offended and then thought that if I was going to go through life doing that, I'm really going to be just a mediocre performer.

Despite his popularity on Hey Hey, Blackman's first career love was radio.

He topped the radio ratings on 3AW Breakfast with Bruce Mansfield, aka Uncle Roy, for five years from 1981 to 1986.

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However, he would quit the station and his high-profile job in April 1986 to join the then-new CBC Network.

"I am jaded, joked out and I must do everything to ensure the future of my wife Cecile and my beautiful daughter," he told The Sydney Morning Herald at the time.

The CBC Network was a short-lived experiment between 2UE in Sydney and 3AK in Melbourne and included sharing select programs across the two states. 

It was a bust for Blackman. By December 1986, his contract was not renewed.

For the three years between 1987 to 1990, Blackman co-hosted a breakfast show on 3UZ with Coodabeen Champions member Ian Cover. 

Later, Blackman would be joined by his Hey Hey colleague, Wilbur Wilde.

By 1990, Blackman stepped away from radio, his voice absent from the airways for seven years.

When returned in 1997 he joined the breakfast team at 3AK.

During the 2000s, Blackman joined Triple M Adelaide where he co-hosted The John Blackman and Jane Reilly Breakfast Show for three years.

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Battle with cancer

The entertainer faced his first serious health scare on Christmas Eve in 2007 when he suffered a sudden seizure at his Melbourne home. He was 60.

Scans revealed a tumour in his brain larger than a golf ball. He underwent a five-hour surgery to remove the mass. The tumour was benign.

Two years later, after his recovery, Blackman reprised his role as Dickie Knee in two Hey Hey television specials. He was involved in two follow-up anniversary shows.

In August 2018, Blackman lost his jaw to an aggressive form of skin cancer, known as basal-cell carcinoma. 

He was diagnosed with the disease after discovering what he thought was "just a little pimple" on his chin.

He had his jaw removed and replaced with a part of his thigh bone following a marathon 10-hour operation.

"I sound awful and I probably look awful but believe it or not I'm a very, very healthy," he told 9News.

"To me, it's still the same John Blackman voice just how it comes out is slightly different.

"They didn't take out the voice box, they didn't take out the motor, just the exhaust sounds a little woofy."

Blackman is survived by his wife Cecile and daughter Tiffany.

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Victoria's bird flu outbreak has widened to a fourth poultry farm, in what authorities said was expected due to ongoing investigations.

Agriculture Victoria has today confirmed a farm near Meredith, west of Melbourne, has tested positive to the avian influenza.

"This detection is not unexpected and is the result of comprehensive and ongoing surveillance activities within the restricted and control areas," the department said in a statement.

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The latest detection comes just a day after Farm Pride Foods' site in Lethbridge near Meredith confirmed its own positive test.

The poultry farms, three near Meredith and one near Terang, all have high pathogenicity of two different strains of the virus. 

Three of those contaminated farms are within the restricted and control areas and one is where movement restrictions were already in place.

"All properties have been placed in quarantine and all poultry will be safely disposed of," Agriculture Victoria said in its latest update.

"The sites will be cleaned and cleared of the infection."

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The bird flu is a highly contagious viral disease among the species that has led to major population deaths across the globe.

Australia recorded its first human case of the flu on May 22, when a child caught a severe case of the inflection while in India and reported feeling sick in Victoria.

The child has since recovered and Victoria Health, at the time, soothed community concern by assuring the transmission was rare. 

Poultry farmers, backyard flock and bird owners are urged to report any cases of unexplained bird deaths to the VicEmergency Hotline on 1800 226 226.