Inflation slowing is good news for many Aussie households but economists fear it may not be quite enough for the Reserve Bank of Australia to hold on its next rate decision.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics' latest data showed on a 12-month basis from June this year inflation grew by 6 per cent, down from 7 per cent in the prior quarter.

Impact Economics' lead economist Dr Angela Jackson told 9news.com.au the annualised rate of inflation is running at 3.2 per cent which is close to the Reserve Bank of Australia's target range of 2 to 3 per cent.

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"It is really good news for Australian households in terms of facing cost of living pressures," she said, noting it puts pressure on the Reserve Bank to ease interest rate rises given the financial impact on households.

But the composition of the inflation data has changed which could also cause concern for the central bank.

"We are seeing weaker inflation in terms of goods, supply issues have resolved and demand has shifted but we're seeing stronger inflation in services like hairdressing, childcare, rent and insurance," she said.

"That may cause concern to the Reserve Bank that inflation is becoming entrenched. So while they're seeing it slow significantly, some of these price rises are becoming entrenched in the economy.

"It may give them reason to think a little bit harder to lift [interest rates] again."

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But the decision remains in the hands of the central bank which wants to battle inflation.

Canstar's editor-at-large Effie Zahos said having headline inflation come in better than the central bank's forecast of 6.3 per cent annually does increase the chance of a pause in the August decision.

"Even though job numbers in June came in surprisingly strong, the unemployment rate is a lagging indicator," she said.

"If the June retail sales, which come out on Friday, are flat then there is certainly less pressure for the Reserve Bank to hike the cash rate in August."

Currently, the cash rate sits at 4.1 per cent after the bank held at the July decision.

On a $500,000 loan, mortgage holders are paying approximately $1217 more a month than they were in May last year.

RBA Governor Philip Lowe and the board did weigh up another increase in the July decision despite surging repayments and likely will again in the August call.

"Members agreed that some further tightening of monetary policy may be required to bring inflation back to target within a reasonable timeframe, but that this depended on how the economy and inflation evolve," the recent minutes read.

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Inflation doesn't just relate to the central bank's decision it can also signal good news for grocery prices as goods inflation slows.

Annual inflation for goods was 5.8 per cent in the latest data, down from 7.6 per cent in the previous quarter.

Jackson said hopefully grocery shop costs will alleviate in the coming months as high inflation slows but the question remains whether prices will fall as quickly in Australia as overseas.

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"It might not happen due to a lack of competition in some of these markets like supermarkets and big retailers where there isn't the same level of big competition," she said.

"I think the Reserve Bank will be keeping a close eye on that. As demand comes off and supply side issues resolve, do we see all the price decreases flow through to consumers as well."

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Sinéad O'Connor, the gifted Irish singer-songwriter who became a superstar in her mid-20s but was known as much for her private struggles and provocative actions as for her fierce and expressive music, has died at 56.

"It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Sinéad. Her family and friends are devastated and have requested privacy at this very difficult time," the singer's family said in a statement reported Wednesday by the BBC and RTE. No cause was disclosed.

She was public about her mental illness, saying that she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. O'Connor posted a Facebook video in 2017 from a New Jersey motel where she had been living, saying that she was staying alive for the sake of others and that if it were up to her, she'd be "gone."

When her teenage son Shane died by suicide in 2022, O'Connor tweeted there was "no point living without him" and was soon hospitalised.

Recognisable by her shaved head and elfin features, O'Connor began her career singing on the streets of Dublin and soon rose to international fame. She was a star from her 1987 debut album "The Lion and the Cobra" and became a sensation in 1990 with her cover of Prince's ballad "Nothing Compares 2 U," a seething, shattering performance that topped charts from Europe to Australia and was heightened by a promotional video featuring the grey-eyed O'Connor in intense close-up.

She was a lifelong non-conformist — she would say that she shaved her head in response to record executives pressuring her to be conventionally glamorous — but her political and cultural stances and troubled private life often overshadowed her music.

A critic of the Catholic Church well before allegations sexual abuse were widely reported, O'Connor made headlines in October 1992 when she tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II while appearing live on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" and denounced the church as the enemy.

The next week, Joe Pesci hosted "Saturday Night Live," held up a repaired photo of the Pope and said that if he had been on the show with O'Connor he "would have gave her such a smack."

Days later, she appeared at an all-star tribute for Bob Dylan at Madison Square Garden and was immediately booed. She was supposed to sing Dylan's "I Believe in You," but switched to an a cappella version of Bob Marley's "War," which she had sung on "Saturday Night Live."

Although consoled and encouraged on stage by her friend Kris Kristofferson, she left and broke down, and her performance was kept off the concert CD. (Years later, Kristofferson recorded "Sister Sinead," for which he wrote "And maybe she's crazy and maybe she ain't/But so was Picasso and so were the saints.")

She also feuded with Frank Sinatra over her refusal to allow the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at one of her shows and accused Prince of physically threatening her. In 1989 she declared her support for the Irish Republican Army, a statement she retracted a year later. Around the same time, she skipped the Grammy ceremony, saying it was too commercialised.

In 1999, O'Connor caused uproar in Ireland when she became a priestess of the breakaway Latin Tridentine Church — a position that was not recognized by the mainstream Catholic Church.

For many years, she called for a full investigation into the extent of the church's role in concealing child abuse by clergy. In 2010, when Pope Benedict XVI apologized to Ireland to atone for decades of abuse, O'Connor condemned the apology for not going far enough and called for Catholics to boycott Mass until there was a full investigation into the Vatican's role, which by 2018 was making international headlines.

"People assumed I didn't believe in God. That's not the case at all. I'm Catholic by birth and culture and would be the first at the church door if the Vatican offered sincere reconciliation," she wrote in the Washington Post in 2010.

O'Connor announced in 2018 that she had converted to Islam and would be adopting the name Shuhada' Davitt, later Shuhada Sadaqat — although she continued to use Sinéad O'Connor professionally.

"Her music was loved around the world and her talent was unmatched and beyond compare," Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said in a statement on social media.

O'Connor was born on December 8, 1966. She had a difficult childhood, with a mother whom she alleged was abusive and encouraged her to shoplift. As a teenager she spent time in a church-sponsored institution for girls, where she said she washed priests' clothes for no wages.

But a nun gave O'Connor her first guitar, and soon she sang and performed on the streets of Dublin, her influences ranging from Dylan to Siouxsie and the Banshees.

Her performance with a local band caught the eye of a small record label, and, in 1987, O'Connor released "The Lion and the Cobra," which sold hundreds of thousands of copies and featured the hit "Mandinka," driven by a hard rock guitar riff and O'Connor's piercing vocals. O'Connor, 20 years old and pregnant while making "Lion and the Cobra," co-produced the album.

"I suppose I've got to say that music saved me," she said in an interview with the Independent newspaper in 2013. "I didn't have any other abilities, and there was no learning support for girls like me, not in Ireland at that time. It was either jail or music. I got lucky."

"Nothing Compares 2 U" received three Grammy nominations and was the featured track off her acclaimed album "I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got," which helped lead Rolling Stone to name her Artist of the Year in 1991.

"She proved that a recording artist could refuse to compromise and still connect with millions of listeners hungry for music of substance," the magazine declared.

O'Connor's other musical credits included the albums "Universal Mother" and "Faith and Courage," a cover of Cole Porter's "You Do Something to Me" from the AIDS fundraising album "Red Hot + Blue" and backing vocals on Peter Gabriel's "Blood of Eden." She received eight Grammy nominations overall and in 1991 won for best alternative musical performance.

O'Connor announced she was retiring from music in 2003, but she continued to record new material. Her most recent album was " I'm Not Bossy, I'm the Boss," released in 2014 and she sang the theme song for season seven of "Outlander."

The singer married four times; her union to drug counsellor Barry Herridge, in 2011, lasted just 16 days. O'Connor had four children: Jake, with her first husband John Reynolds; Roisin, with John Waters; Shane, with Donal Lunny; and Yeshua Bonadio, with Frank Bonadio.

In 2014, she said she was joining the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party and called for its leaders to step aside so that a younger generation of activists could take over. She later withdrew her application.

Readers seeking support can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or beyond blue on 1300 22 4636.

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Kevin Spacey has been acquitted of sexual assault after the Oscar winner's testimony as a witness in his own defence spared him a possible prison term and gave him a shot at a career comeback.

Tears rolled down Spacey's cheeks as the final not guilty verdict was read on his 64th birthday on Wednesday.

He spoke briefly outside the courthouse, thanking the jury, his legal team and the court staff.

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"I imagine that many of you can understand that there's a lot for me to process after what has just happened today," he said, emotion obvious in his voice.

But I would like to say that I'm enormously grateful to the jury for having taken the time to examine all of the evidence and all of the facts carefully before they reached their decision.

"And I am humbled by the outcome today."

Spacey's wide-ranging testimony climaxed as he choked up speaking of the six years he'd gone without work after sex abuse allegations surfaced against him during the #MeToo movement in the United States in 2017.

Three men accused the Oscar winner of aggressively grabbing their crotches.

A fourth, an aspiring actor seeking mentorship, said he awoke to the actor performing oral sex on him after going to Spacey's London apartment for a beer and either falling asleep or passing out.

Spacey said he was a "big flirt" who had consensual flings with men and whose only misstep was touching a man's groin while making a "clumsy pass".

All the men said the contact was unwanted but Spacey testified that the young actor and another man had willingly participated in consensual acts.

He said a third man's allegation that he grabbed his privates like a striking "cobra" backstage at a theatre was "pure fantasy".

He said he didn't remember a fourth incident at a small party at a home he rented in the country but accepted that he touched the groin of a man he had met at a pub during a night of heavy drinking.

Spacey said he had misread the man's interest in him and said he had probably made an awkward pass.

Defence lawyer Patrick Gibbs said three of the men were liars and incidents had been "reimagined with a sinister spin".

He accused most of them of hopping on a "bandwagon" of complaints in the hope of striking it rich.

Prosecutor Christine Agnew told jurors that Spacey was a "sexual bully" who took what he wanted when he wanted.

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She said he was shielded by a "trinity of protection": he knew men were unlikely to complain; they wouldn't be believed if they did complain; and if they did complain, no action would be taken because he was powerful.

Spacey had faced nine charges, including multiple counts of sexual assault and one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.

The accusations date from 2001 to 2013 and include a period when Spacey — after winning Academy Awards for The Usual Suspects and American Beauty — had returned to the theatre, his first love.

During most of that period he was artistic director of the Old Vic Theatre in London.

The men came forward after an American actor accused Spacey of an incident of sexual misconduct as the #MeToo movement heated up in 2017.

Several of the men said they had been haunted by the abuse and couldn't bear to watch Spacey's films.

One of the men broke down when speaking with police as he provided details in a videotaped interview about the oral sex incident that he said he'd never told anyone before.

Another man said he was angry about the abuse that occurred sporadically over several years and began to drink and work out more to cope with it.

Spacey choked up and became teary eyed in the witness box as he described the emotional and financial turmoil that the US accusations brought and the barrage of criticism that followed on social media.

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Gibbs said Spacey was being "monstered" on the internet every night and became toxic in the industry.

Spacey was booted from House of Cards and his scenes in All the Money in the World were scrubbed and he was replaced by Christopher Plummer. Aside from some small projects, he has barely worked as an actor in six years.

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A New York jury last year swiftly cleared Spacey in a $US40 million ($59 million) lawsuit by Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp on allegations dating back three decades.

Spacey had viewed the London case as a chance for redemption, telling German magazine Zeit last month that there were "people right now who are ready to hire me the moment I am cleared of these charges in London".

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An elderly man who died in a unit fire at a retirement village north of Melbourne had only moved into the property with his wife three weeks ago.

Police have confirmed the blaze, which burnt through two units at Kingsgate Village in Kilmore, is not being treated as suspicious.

The body of the 78-year-old man was found inside the partially destroyed unit by police early this morning.

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His wife managed to escape the fire physically unharmed, Acting Inspector Jaymee Cutler said.

"His wife is obviously in a fair bit of shock," she told reporters.

A couple who lived in a second unit, which was completely destroyed in the blaze, managed to escape unharmed.

More than 22 emergency service vehicles were called to the village after the fire started about 6am.

About 40 residents evacuated themselves before firefighters arrived on the scene.

Residents of the village told 9News they heard a "huge explosion" around the time the fire started.

"It's very scary because I thought my house would definitely go," one resident said.

The fire was declared under control at 7.13am, but firefighters were still extinguishing part of the fire and blacking out hotspots at 8am.

The village is located about 65km north of Melbourne's CBD.

Arson detectives remained on scene for most of the day and are still working out how the fire started.

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Tanveer Safdari didn't leave the side of Massoud Massoud until he was reunited with his son on Monday evening.

But just hours earlier, the pair had been involved in a road rage argument in Dandenong, in Melbourne's south-east.

As the pair exchanged words, Massoud's car was allegedly stolen by a third man with his two-year-old son Mohammed inside.

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Massoud jumped into Safdari's car within seconds as they teamed up to follow the Kia Carnival before they lost sight of the vehicle.

"The car was gone. I said, 'Come to my car' and we followed the car together," Safdari said.

"It was important – my heart broke because it was a human being.

"I wanted to help."

The pair remained together until they got the good news Mohammed had been found.

He was found walking around at Ferntree Gully Woolworths by a member of the public, 16km from where the car was stolen.

The Kia was found dumped near Lilydale yesterday. Police will forensically examine the car before it can be returned.

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Police arrested Kyle Bell, 24, around 2pm yesterday in Dandenong.

The Dandenong man has been charged with child stealing, theft of a motor vehicle, unlicensed driving and committing an indictable offence while on bail.

The court heard Bell was on bail at the time.He will remain in custody until he fronts court again next month.

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National’s Dr Shane Reti shadowed ambulance crews across the country.

It comes just under a month since a Christchurch couple struck gold, winning $35.5m.

Kalya Gamage rescued his brother in monster waves and freezing conditions.

‘It only held on for a few seconds, but it was a very firm and aggressive grip.’

Work has ground to a halt on Brisbane's Cross River Rail project as investigations continue into how a man fell up to 10 metres from scaffolding yesterday.

The 54-year-old worker remains in a critical condition in Princess Alexandra Hospital after falling onto a concrete surface at the Boggo Road station site in the city's south about 1.15pm, striking several obstacles on the way down.

9News understands the man was not wearing a harness.

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All work at the site has been stopped while a Workplace Health and Safety investigation is underway.

"It is not clear to me at this point whether a harness was required or whether there were safe workplaces within scaffolding that needed to be adhered to," Transport Minister Mark Bailey told media this afternoon.

He said he would be working with the contractors, union representatives and workers to ensure adequate safety practices were in place.

The Cross River Rail Delivery Authority said it is cooperating with the investigation.

It said safety checks were being conducted across all the project's sites and support is being offered to staff.

"Our continued thoughts and prayers are with the worker, his loved ones and his colleagues," the Cross River Rail Delivery Authority said in a statement.

"This is a very sad incident, and its impact is being felt right across the project today.

"Safety is Cross River Rail's top priority, and we expect our contractors to uphold the highest possible standards.

"Workplace Health and Safety Queensland is investigating the incident, and we expect our on-site contractors to cooperate fully with the safety regulator.

"The Delivery Authority, of course, will also assist in any way we can with the investigation."

The project was hit with claims of unsafe work conditions earlier this year over concerns workers were at risk of developing the deadly disease silicosis.

Cross River Rail is a new 10km rail line from Dutton Park to Bowen Hills in the city.

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