Neil Finn’s band has just revealed a second taste of their new album Gravity Stairs.

Instead, Lance Tengu left the dog badly injured and it had to be put down by a vet.

Assyrian Orthodox Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was stabbed on Monday night in what's being investigated as a terrorist attack by the NSW Government.

Police were called to Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley, near Fairfield, at 7pm after reports of a stabbing.

Four people were injured with non-life-threatening injuries, including the Bishop.

READ MORE: Sydney church stabbing was 'religiously motivated', ASIO boss says

A 16-year-old teenager was arrested at the scene and taken to an undisclosed location by Police.

The NSW Government confirmed the incident was being treated as a terror attack on Tuesday morning.

Who is Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel?

The bishop immigrated from Iraq to Fairfield in Sydney, Australia as a child in the 1970s.

He was ordained as a priest in 2009 and became the bishop of Christ the Good Sheperd Chruch in Wakeley, in 2011.

Emmanuel is extremely well-known in his sect of the Assyrian Church, which is considered a conservative branch of Orthodoxy.

The Bishop runs youth groups and international religious talks, as well as being heavily involved in the Assyrian community.

READ MORE: Police declare stabbing of Bishop at Western Sydney church a 'terrorist act'

The bishop has gained a mass following on social media, including 158,000 followers on Instagram and 203k subscribers on YouTube, where the church posts videos and live stream his sermons.

He gained media attention during the COVID-19 pandemic after sharing controversial views on the vaccine, as well as the state's lockdown laws.

In a personal message on the Church's website, Emmanual says his mission is to tell the truth.

"In our time and age, we believe the most important and fundamental insight is coming into the truth," it reads.

"The world bombards the human race with so much information, quite often we lose our orientation in discerning the lie from the truth."

The bishop is in a stable condition, the church announced in a statement this morning. 

It's understood the religious leader had been receiving threats for two weeks leading up to the attack. 

READ MORE: Bishop and priest stabbed, 15-year-old boy in custody after Sydney church attack

What is Assyrian Orthodox?

Assyrian Orthodox is a denomination of Christianity, however, it has a long and complicated history.

It can be traced back to Mid-Second Century Mesopotamia, known today as Iraq, Syria and southern Turkey.

Its followers have faced persecution a number of times, most notably in the 7th and 14th centuries.

READ MORE: Timeline: How the Bondi Junction Westfield stabbing attack unfolded

The church was nearly made extinct again by the Turkish Government during the First World War.

In 2024, the Assyrian church is a minority community within the Christian church.

Other Orthodox denominations include Eastern Orothdox, Copic Orthodox, Ethiopian Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox and Eritrean Orthodox.

A global coral bleaching event has been declared as reefs around the world, including the Great Barrier Reef, suffer from the impact of the warming climate.

Scientists from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coral Reef Watch declared the mass event on Monday (US time, Tuesday AEST).

It's only the fourth global bleaching ever recorded, but the second in the past ten years.

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"From February 2023 to April 2024, significant coral bleaching has been documented in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres of each major ocean basin," NOAA Coral Reef Watch coordinator Derek Manzello said.

The organisation said mass coral bleaching had been detected all across the globe since early last year, including in reefs off the coasts of Mexico, US, Brazil, the Middle East, Fiji, Vanuatu and much of Africa.

It also pointed to Australia's Great Barrier Reef, 75 per cent of which has been bleached, the Marine Park Authority said earlier this month.

The University of Queensland said the situation was "devastating" and "dire and developing rapidly".

"Recent visits to sites in the southern and northern sections of the Great Barrier Reef reveal a common story: the reef is now experiencing its fifth mass bleaching and mortality event in just nine years," the university's Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg.

"Reports are coming in thick and fast, making it clear that this is no 'ordinary event'. It was the most widespread event on the Great Barrier Reef ever."

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The NOAA warned that the bleaching would have major economic impacts as well as the more obvious environmental consequences.

"As the world's oceans continue to warm, coral bleaching is becoming more frequent and severe," Manzello said.

"When these events are sufficiently severe or prolonged, they can cause coral mortality, which hurts the people who depend on the coral reefs for their livelihoods."

An extensive range of investigative powers will be deployed by Australian authorities after the attack on a Sydney priest was declared an attack of terrorism.

New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb overnight designated the stabbing a "terror incident" and then informed the Premier Chris Minns.

A 16-year-old boy is in custody after Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was stabbed during a service at the Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm overnight.

READ MORE: Police declare stabbing of Bishop at Western Sydney church a 'terrorist act'

Under NSW law, the definition of a terrorist act includes when an "action is done with the intention of advancing a political, religious or ideological cause".

Terrorism expert and security analyst Greg Barton told Today this morning why "intent" was key.

"The critical thing about definition with terror is, is motivation and intent," he said.

"So it's not just personal anger … It's believing you're part of a system and you're going to bring about change … Often by provoking more violence."

In a joint press conference with the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, the heads of ASIO and the AFP said they supported the declaration of a terrorist event.

Albanese said he had "every faith" in the country's law enforcement and security agencies, but understood people felt uneasy in the wake of the the mass stabbing at Bondi Junction in Sydney last Saturday.

READ MORE: Bishop and priest stabbed, 15-year-old boy in custody after Sydney church attack

"I understand that people are feeling uneasy. And that's understandable," he said.

"Given the atrocity that occurred on Saturday and then this incident last night." 

AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw said the attack would have an impact on Australian communities.

"This attack will have a significant impact on the Australian community, and I would like to reassure the Australian community that the AFP, together with its law enforcement partners, particularly under the joint counterterrorism team, is working to investigate this incident from all angles," he said.

"The AFP, together with ASIO and New South Wales police, will continue to investigate how this incident occurred, and the individual involved."

Director-general of domestic intelligence agency ASIO Mike Burgess explained why the church attack has been determined a terrorist attack compared with Saturday's attack.

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"Simple answer is to call it a terrorist act you need indications of, well, information or evidence that suggest actually the motivation was religiously motivated or ideologically motivated," Burgess said.

"In the case of Saturday, that was not the case.

"In this case, the information we have and the police have before us, indicates that is strongly the case.

"That is why it was called an act of terrorism."

Neil Fergus, chief executive of the Sydney-based consultancy Intelligent Risks, told Today this morning authorities would be trying to establish whether the alleged church attacker was part of a wider network.

"What we need to determine and what the public needs to know is was this a lone actor?" Fergus said.

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"Was this a person who may have been radicalised by somebody else, but was he operating alone, or are there other people out there who are effectively accomplices?"

The AFP and ASIO have the powers to obtain warrants for monitoring communications between the alleged attacker and his circle of friends.

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has told a French national he is "welcome" to stay in Australia after he fought off the Bondi Westfield attacker with a bollard.

Video emerged of construction workers Damien Guerot and Silas Despreaux stopping Joel Cauchi on a stationary escalator in an attempt to end his murderous rampage on Saturday afternoon.

Guerot was standing at the top of the escalator with the bollard and later wielded a metal cafe chair as he and other bystanders sprinted after Inspector Amy Scott towards Cauchi, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

READ MORE: What we know about the victims of the Bondi Junction shopping centre stabbing spree

Guerot is dealing with an Australian visa application but Albanese told reporters this morning that he was welcome here.

"You are welcome to stay for as long as you like," Albanese said.

"This is someone who we would welcome becoming an Australian citizen, although that would of course be a loss for France.

READ MORE: Bondi Junction killer had 'long history' of mental health issues, interest in weapons

"We thank him for his extraordinary bravery.

"It says a lot about the nature of humanity at a time when we are facing difficult issues that someone who is not a citizen of this country stood bravely at the top of those escalators and stopped this perpetrator from getting onto another floor and potentially inflicting further carnage on citizens."

He thanked Guerot for his "extraordinary efforts".

Five women and one man were killed in the attack, which also left a dozen injured.

Those victims have been identified as Yixuan Cheng, Pikria Darchia, Faraz Tahir, Ashlee Good, Dawn Singleton and Jade Young.

Cauchi was shot dead by NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott.

Two visitors at Lake Mead National Recreation Area were captured on video destroying ancient rock formations and park rangers are seeking the public's help in identifying the suspects.

Video shows two visitors who scaled towering russet-colored rock formations along the park's Redstone Dune Trail and were shoving wide slabs of sandstone to the ground.

A young girl screams as the stone topples and crumbles to dust.

READ MORE: Police declare stabbing of Bishop at Western Sydney church a 'terrorist act'

Damage to the federally-protected formations, which were shaped over time out of 140 million-year-old sand dunes, is irreversible. Recreation area spokesperson John Haynes called the destruction "appalling."

"Why on earth would you do this to this area that's so beautiful? It's one of my favorite places in the park and they're up there just destroying it. I don't understand that," Haynes told CNN affiliate KVVU.

The video was taken the evening of April 7, according to KVVU. Park rangers urged anyone who was on the trail at the time or who may have information to submit a tip.

The men are suspected of vandalism, the recreation area said in a social media post. If caught, the suspects could face federal charges, jail time or large fines, Haynes told KVVU.

The vast recreation area covers 1.5 million acres of breathtaking mountain views, canyon trails and two vital reservoirs that extend across the Nevada and Arizona border.

Water sports at the Lake Mead reservoir are a major draw for the park's six million annual visitors, but extreme drought in the West has caused the lake's water levels to plummet in recent years, exposing sunken boats and several sets of human remains.

Due to the park's vast size, visitors play a large part in helping rangers monitor the area. Haynes encouraged visitors to take videos of any unusual activity and report it to park authorities.

"It's really important for you to just let us know," Haynes said.

Political and religious leaders in NSW are in crisis control after a Christian bishop was stabbed during a service at a church in western Sydney.

NSW Premier Chris Minns held a meeting with faith leaders from multiple western Sydney religious communities at 10.30pm on Monday.

All leaders "endorsed and supported a unanimous condemnation of violence in any form, called for the community to follow first responder and police instructions, and called for calm in the community", Minns said.

READ MORE: Bishop stabbed, multiple others injured during church service in western Sydney

"We're calling on everyone to act with kindness and respect for each other.

"Now is the time to show that we are strong and united as a NSW community."

There were intense scenes outside the Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley on Monday night after Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was stabbed as he delivered a sermon.

READ MORE: Donald Trump arrives at court for the start of jury selection in his historic hush money trial

Police officers were injured as they clashed with angry groups, who were still in the area late into the night.

The leaders at the Minns meeting were Bishop Antoine-Charbel Tarabay, Maronite Bishop of Australia; Hafez Alameddine, Lebanese Muslim Association president; Bishop Robert Rabbat, Bishop of the Melkite Church; Sheikh Shadi Alsuleiman, Australian National Imans Council president; Archbishop Zaia Mar Malis, Archbishop of Assyrian Community; Kamalle Dabboussy, Australian Federation of Islamic Councils CEO; Minister for Multiculturalism Steve Kamper; NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cook; Premier's Department secretary Simon Draper; and Multicultural NSW chief executive Joseph La Posta.

The Christ The Good Shepherd Church also called for calm and asked people to go home in a statement released late last night.

A Christian bishop has been stabbed and multiple worshipers injured in an attack at a church in Sydney's west.

Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was giving a sermon at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley when he was attacked just after 7pm on Monday.

Emmanuel was promoted as giving an Assyrian Bible preaching that was also being streamed online.

READ MORE: Sydney woman's scary encounter with Bondi stabber weeks before attack

A man was taken into custody and huge crowds quickly gathered outside the church, some people clashing with police.

The four men injured in the stabbing were aged in their 60s, 50s, 30s, and 20s.

Two were taken to Liverpool Hospital: a man in his 50s in a serious condition with multiple cuts, believed to be Emmanuel, and a man in his 30s who also suffered multiple lacerations.

A man in his 20s was treated at the scene for cuts to his hand, and may still be taken to hospital.

The man in his 60s suffered cuts to his arms.

A police officer was also later taken to Westmead Hospital with head injuries.

There were reports the emergency department at Liverpool Hospital was in lockdown, but health authorities have been unable to clarify.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C5yE9dfyEuh/

The Christ The Good Shepherd Church released a statement just before 11pm confirming the bishop and a father were among the injured and asking people to leave the area.

"Dear brothers and sisters, our beloved Bishop, His Grace Mar Mari Emmanuel, and Father Isaac have been admitted to hospital. They are in a stable condition," the church said.

"We ask for your prayers at this time. It is the bishop's and father's wishes that you also pray for the perpetrator.

"We also kindly ask anyone at the church premises to leave in peace, as our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ teaches us."

READ MORE: Sixth victim of Bondi stabbing spree named

Major operation under way

Police said a major operation had been launched in Wakeley, and footage showed officers clashing with a crowd that had gathered outside the church.

Hundreds of people surrounded the church and nearby streets were shut down.

Police were seen using a ladder to break down a door in order to reach ambulance workers who were sheltering behind it.

Riot police deployed pepper spray on the crowd outside the church and there were reports multiple officers had been injured.

Paramedics treated dozens of people for exposure to pepper spray and there were still a significant number of people in the area about 10pm.

Premier disturbed, mayor calls for calm

Premier Chris Minns described the scenes at the church as "disturbing".

"My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and first responders who are working to keep us safe," he said in a statement.

"It's important that the community remain calm and continue to listen and act to the directions of police and emergency services.

"We are a strong community in NSW and it's important that we all stick together, particularly in the face of adversity."

Fairfield Mayor Frank Carbone urged the community to "please stay calm".

"I know there is a lot of emotion involved, the bishop is well loved, and I think the best thing the community can do is just say a prayer for the bishop," he told 9News.

"We don't want to see anyone else get injured"

"Please clear the area, let the police do their work, I know this is what the bishop would have wanted."

Carbone said he first heard about the "horrific scenes" on social media.

"It's terrible that such a thing could happen anywhere – doesn't matter if it's a church or shopping centre," he said, referencing the deadly stabbing attack at Bondi Junction at the weekend. 

"Our community comes here to Fairfield, we're a diverse community, they come here to escape violence from overseas, they're a very peaceful community, and to have someone do this during a sermon is horrific."

He added that he is "hearing the bishop is doing well". 

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Australia released a statement condemning the attack and said they were praying for Emmanuel's recovery.

"The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Australia unequivocally condemns tonight's attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel in the strongest possible terms," IH Kauser, the national president and Grand Imam of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Australia, said.

"We extend our deepest sympathy to all those injured in the attack and wish them a speedy and complete recovery."

Emmanuel is popular but divisive among the Orthodox community, and many of his sermons are shared online.

He attracted attention during the coronavirus lockdown in June 2021 when he criticised the restrictions and vaccine mandates.

There is no indication what sparked tonight's attack.

NSW Police confirmed a man had been taken into custody.

READ MORE: Sydney woman's scary encounter with Bondi stabber weeks before attack

"Officers arrested a male and he is assisting police with inquiries," a statement said.

"The injured people suffered non-life threatening injuries and are being treated by NSW Ambulance paramedics.

"A large police response is under way and the public is urged to avoid the area."

The attack comes just days after six people were stabbed to death in Sydney's Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre.

There is no indication these two events are linked. 

Donald Trump arrived on Monday at a New York court for the start of jury selection in his hush money trial, marking a singular moment in American history as the former president and current White House hopeful answers to criminal charges.

It's the first criminal trial of any former US commander-in-chief and the first of Trump's four indictments to reach trial. Because he is also the presumptive nominee for this year's Republican ticket, the trial will produce the head-spinning split-screen of a presidential candidate spending his days in court and, he has said, "campaigning during the night."

At the outset of Monday's court proceedings, Judge Juan M Merchan denied a defence request to recuse himself from the case. Additional legal arguments and housekeeping matters were expected before the formal start of jury selection.

When it finally does begin, scores of people are due to be called into the courtroom to start the process of finding 12 jurors, plus six alternates. Trump's notoriety would make the process of picking a jury a near-herculean task in any year, but it's likely to be especially challenging now, unfolding in a closely contested presidential election in the city where Trump grew up and catapulted to celebrity status before winning the White House.

Merchan has written that the key is "whether the prospective juror can assure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law".

The trial amounts to a historic courtroom reckoning for Trump, whose norm-shattering presidency was shadowed from start to finish by investigations and who now faces four separate indictments charging him with crimes ranging from hoarding classified documents to plotting to overturn an election.

Yet the political stakes are less clear given that a conviction would not preclude him from becoming president and because the allegations in this case have been known to the public for years and are seen as less grievous than the conduct behind the three other cases against him.

No matter the outcome, Trump is looking to benefit from the proceedings, presenting himself as the victim of politically motivated prosecutions designed to derail his candidacy. He's lambasted judges and prosecutors for years, a pattern of attacks that continued up to the moment he entered court on Monday, when he said: '"This is political persecution. This is a persecution like never before."

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

Prosecutors say he was trying to conceal an alleged effort to keep salacious — and, he says, bogus — stories about his sex life from emerging during his 2016 campaign.

The charges centre on $130,000 in payments that Trump's company made to his then-lawyer, Michael Cohen. He had paid that sum on Trump's behalf to keep porn actor Stormy Daniels from going public, a month before the election, with her claims of a sexual encounter with the married mogul a decade earlier.

Prosecutors say the payments to Cohen were falsely logged as legal fees in order to cloak their actual purpose. Trump's lawyers say the disbursements indeed were legal expenses, not a cover-up.

Trump himself casts the case, and his indictments elsewhere, as a broad "weaponisation of law enforcement" by Democratic prosecutors and officials. He maintains they are orchestrating sham charges in hopes of impeding his presidential run.

After decades of fielding and initiating lawsuits, the businessman-turned-politician now faces a trial that could result in up to four years in prison if he's convicted, though a no-jail sentence also would be possible.

The trial of an ex-president and current candidate is a moment of extraordinary gravity for the American political system, as well as for Trump himself. Such a scenario would have once seemed unthinkable to many Americans, even for a president whose tenure left a trail of shattered norms, including twice being impeached and acquitted by the Senate.

The scene inside the courtroom may be greeted with a spectacle outside. When Trump was arraigned last year, police broke up small skirmishes between his supporters and protesters near the courthouse in a tiny park, where a local Republican group has planned a pro-Trump rally Monday.

Trump's attorneys lost a bid to get the hush-money case dismissed and have since repeatedly sought to delay it, prompting a flurry of last-minute appeals court hearings last week.

Among other things, Trump's lawyers maintain that the jury pool in overwhelmingly Democratic Manhattan has been tainted by negative publicity about Trump and that the case should be moved elsewhere.

An appeals judge turned down an emergency request to delay the trial while the change-of-venue request goes to a group of appellate judges, who are set to consider it in the coming weeks.

Manhattan prosecutors have countered that a lot of the publicity stems from Trump's own comments and that questioning will tease out whether prospective jurors can put aside any preconceptions they may have. There's no reason, prosecutors said, to think that 12 fair and impartial people can't be found amid Manhattan's roughly 1.4 million adult residents.

The process of choosing those 12, plus six alternates, will begin with scores of people filing into Merchan's courtroom. They will be known only by number, as he has ordered their names to be kept secret from everyone except prosecutors, Trump and their legal teams.

After hearing some basics about the case and jury service, the prospective jurors will be asked to raise hands if they believe they cannot serve or be fair and impartial. Those who do so will be excused, according to Merchan's filing last week.

The rest will be eligible for questioning. The 42 preapproved, sometimes multi-pronged queries include background basics but also reflect the uniqueness of the case.

"Do you have any strong opinions or firmly held beliefs about former President Donald Trump, or the fact that he is a current candidate for president, that would interfere with your ability to be a fair and impartial juror?" asks one question.

Others ask about attendance at Trump or anti-Trump rallies, opinions on how he's being treated in the case, news sources and more — including any "political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions" that might "slant" a prospective juror's approach to the case.

Based on the answers, the attorneys can ask a judge to eliminate people "for cause" if they meet certain criteria for being unable to serve or be unbiased. The lawyers also can use "peremptory challenges" to nix 10 potential jurors and two prospective alternates without giving a reason.

"If you're going to strike everybody who's either a Republican or a Democrat," the judge observed at a February hearing, "you're going to run out of peremptory challenges very quickly."