Two Australian capitals have made major comebacks in 2023, making it into the top four most liveable cities.

The family of the British billionaire missing in a submersible in the remote Atlantic Ocean say tour operator OceanGate waited too long before contacting authorities.

Rescuers are racing against time to find the five-person vessel today before oxygen supplies run out.

New footage from today shows Canadian military aircraft and naval vessels in the search for the Titan, which vanished on Sunday with five people aboard, en route to view the wreckage of the Titanic.

READ MORE: Titanic sub firm's choices 'subject passengers to potential extreme danger': Lawsuit

It comes as more "banging" noises detected overnight sparked hope the five adventurers on board the Titan are still alive, but even those who expressed some optimism warned many obstacles remained.

And as time dwindles, the family of passenger Hamish Harding, a UK billionaire, have spoken out about the eight-hour interval between when the Polar Prince, which launched the sub, lost contact with it, and when the vessel notified the US Coast Guard.

His cousin Kathleen Cosnett told the UK Telegraph it had taken "far too long" to sound the alarm.

"I would have thought three hours would be the bare minimum," she said.

She said the situation was "very frightening".

At a briefing on Wednesday afternoon (Thursday morning AEST), US Coast Guard first district Captain Jamie Frederick stressed the sounds were "inconclusive".

"We need to have hope. Right?" he said, saying the mission was still "100 per cent" a search and rescue.

"I can't tell you what the noises are.

"But what I can tell you is, and I think this is the most important point, we're searching where the noises are and that's all we can do at this point."

READ MORE: What could have gone wrong with missing submersible?

One expert told CNN pinpointing the source of the noise was like trying to locate a particular drum in a packed and raucous stadium.

Rick Murcar, who is the international training director for the National Association of Cave Divers and the owner of Aquatic Adventures of Florida Inc., explained that sound travels faster in the water — which is making it more challenging for rescuers to pinpoint where it is coming from.

Things like the currents can deflect the sound so that it appears like it is coming from miles away from where the actual source is.

"Picture a massive stadium that has a roof on it, and you have an aircraft flying over top and it drops sensors down to listen to the sound inside that stadium," he said.

The person inside the stadium is playing a snare in a constant, beating pattern, in addition to all of the other drums he has, Murcar said.

READ MORE: Story behind world's deepest deep sea rescue

Several more search vessels were on the way to a search zone four kilometres deep and about twice the size of Greater Sydney.

That included a doubling of the number of vessels on the surface to 10 and a "state-of-the-art" remote-operated vehicle from France due on Thursday morning (Thursday night AEST).

Key to the search are camera-equipped remote-operated robots, which are designed to scan the seafloor in real-time at depths other vessels can't reach. Two were operating in the area Wednesday and more were on the way, officials said.

Other equipment on the way included specialised salvage system equipment capable of hoisting "large, bulky and heavy undersea objects such as aircraft or small vessels," the US Navy said in a statement.

Lost aboard the vessel are pilot Stockton Rush, the CEO of the company leading the expedition. His passengers are a British adventurer, two members of a Pakistani business family and a Titanic expert.

Rescuers faced a race against the clock because even under the best of circumstances the vessel was expected to run out of oxygen on Thursday.

READ MORE: Ernest Hillier, one of Australia's oldest chocolate companies, collapses

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution director Carl Hartsfield said ocean noises were "complex" and would need to be analysed closely by experts.

"The noises have been described as banging noises, but again, they have to put the whole picture together in context and they have to eliminate potential manmade sources other than the Titan," he said.

" … I can tell you from my experience with acoustics that there are sounds, biologics, that sound man-made to the untrained ear but I can assure you that the people listening to these tapes are trained. 

"There are a lot of vessels in the area and they each make noise, right, so all of that has to be eliminated and its analysis over time."

The Coast Guard statement about detecting sounds underwater across two days came after Rolling Stone reported that search teams heard "banging sounds in the area every 30 minutes".

The report was encouraging to some experts because submarine crews unable to communicate with the surface are taught to bang on their submersible's hull to be detected by sonar.

"It sends a message that you're probably using military techniques to find me and this is how I'm saying it," said Frank Owen, a submarine search and rescue expert.

"So, that's really encouraging if that's the case."

In addition to an international array of ships and planes, an underwater robot had started searching in the vicinity of the Titanic and there was a push to get salvage equipment to the scene in case the sub is found.

Even if the vessel's location can be confirmed, rescuers will need to reach it with equipment, to bring it to the surface — assuming it's still intact — before the passengers' oxygen supply runs out.

The area of the North Atlantic where the Titan submersible went missing on Sunday is prone to fog and stormy conditions, making it an extremely challenging environment to conduct a search-and-rescue mission, said Donald Murphy, an oceanographer who served as chief scientist of the Coast Guard's International Ice Patrol.

And questions remain about how teams could reach the lost submersible, which could be as deep as about 3800 metres below the surface near the watery tomb of the historic ocean liner.

Newly uncovered allegations also suggest there had been significant warnings made about vessel safety during its development.

Authorities reported the carbon-fibre vessel overdue on Sunday night, setting off the search in waters about 700 kilometres south of St John's.

The submersible had a four-day oxygen supply when it put to sea about 6am on Sunday, according to David Concannon, an adviser to OceanGate Expeditions, which oversaw the mission.

– Reported with AP and CNN

Timeline: How the expedition unfolded

Friday, June 16

• Polar Prince departs St John's, Newfoundland, with submersible Titan on board

Sunday, June 18

• Polar Prince reaches the submersible launch site
• One hour and 45 minutes later communications with Titan are lost
• Vessel reported overdue at 9.13pm local time (12.13pm Monday AEST)
• Rescue mission is launched involving US and Canadian coast guards

Monday, June 19

• Rear Admiral John Mauger of the US Coast Guard says the submersible has between 70 and 96 hours of oxygen left
• It's confirmed the submersible had the full complement of five people on board, including UK billionaire Hamish Harding

Tuesday, June 20

• The search area expands to almost 26,000 square kilometres
• The identities of the others on board are confirmed, including OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who was piloting the vessel
• "Banging" noises are heard from beneath the ocean's surface

Wednesday, June 21

• Further banging noises are heard as all available search assets are redirected to that area
• The estimate oxygen supply available to those aboard the sub dwindles to under 20 hours

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An Adelaide butcher's shop had to shut what was left of its doors for the day after dealing with an unpredictable customer – an errant, hurtling truck tyre.

A truck travelling along Goodwood Road in Goodwood in the city's inner south about 8am yesterday lost its rear left tyre in a freak accident.

The tyre smashed through the front of Goodwood Quality Meats, just metres from a primary school and a pedestrian crossing.

READ MORE: Ruthless Maroons hammer Blues to clinch Origin series

"We heard this almighty bang and unfortunately a truck tyre had come off the axle or something like that and rammed into our shop," manager Luke Leyson told 9News.

"It smashed our shop window, a new cabinet that we put in, our door that's been there since the 1960s."

The truck scraped along the road for 30 metres on three wheels before it managed to stop.

Leyson said the driver was "a bit upset".

READ MORE: Father who killed toddler could be released back into community



"It was a freak accident, no one's fault, and he's done the best he could," he said.

The store had to shut up shop for the day, with shattered glass through most of the meat.

The damage bill has been estimated at roughly $12,000.

"It's taken its toll on the business a bit but we're just happy no one got hurt," Leyson said.

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A strong explosion has hit a building in Paris' Left Bank, leaving at least 24 people injured — four critically — and igniting a fire that has sent smoke soaring over city monuments and prompted the evacuation of buildings, police say.

Police were investigating suspicions a gas leak caused the Wednesday afternoon (Thursday morning AEST) blast, which caused the building's facade to collapse and left authorities searching for two people who might be trapped inside.

The facade of a building in the fifth arrondissement, or district, collapsed and emergency services were working to determine if anyone was still inside, a Paris police official said.

READ MORE: Titanic sub firm's choices 'subject passengers to potential extreme danger': Lawsuit

The explosion hit near the historic Val de Grace military hospital.

Sirens wailed as ambulances passed through the neighbourhood, but residents started to move freely again on the previously cordoned off street, rue Saint-Jacques. Associated Press reporters said smoke had stopped pouring out of the building where the explosion occurred.

The fire was contained Wednesday evening (Thursday morning AEST) but not yet extinguished as Paris bars and restaurants celebrated the summer solstice with a citywide annual music festival.

Some 270 firefighters were involved in putting out the flames and 70 emergency vehicles were on the scene.

Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said the building housed a private school, the Paris American Academy. The school was founded in 1965 and offers teaching in fashion design, interior design, fine arts and creative writing.

A Paris police official told the AP 24 people were injured, including four in a critical condition and 20 with less severe injuries. The official said the injuries were sustained mainly when people were blown off their feet by the blast.

Jema Halbert, who owns a butcher's shop close to the explosion site, said she went upstairs to fetch something.

"I heard a 'boom'. … So then I went downstairs, where I found my husband in shock, dust by the till and I thought, wait, there's a problem," she said.

"So I stepped outside and I saw big flames and I said, it's impossible. I called my daughter. She was crying. She was shocked."

Edouard Civel, deputy mayor of the 5th arrondissement, attributed the explosion to a gas leak but other officials were more cautious.

A judicial official said a gas explosion was one of the possible causes under investigation.

District Mayor Florence Berthout said on French TV channel BFM that firefighters were searching for two people believed to have been inside the building at the time of the blast.

"The explosion was extremely violent," she said, describing pieces of glass still falling from buildings.

READ MORE: Ernest Hillier, one of Australia's oldest chocolate companies, collapses

Renowned Greek-French filmmaker Costa-Gavras was among the witnesses at the scene .

"A huge noise and the house was shaken like this," the 90-year-old told the AP, visibly rattled.

"We thought, what is going on? We thought it could be the sky (a storm). … It's not something to laugh about."

Paris Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said an investigation was opened into aggravated involuntary injury and the probe would examine whether the explosion stemmed from a suspected violation of safety rules.

Beccuau said investigators would seek to "determine whether or not there was failure to respect a rule or individual imprudence that led to the explosion".

Nunez, the Paris police chief, said firefighters prevented the fire from igniting two neighboring buildings that were "seriously destabilised" by the explosion and evacuated.

The explosion blew out several windows in the area, witnesses and the police chief said.

With more than two million people densely packed within the city limits and historic, sometimes ageing, infrastructure, Paris is not a stranger to gas explosions.

A January 2019 blast in the ninth district killed four people and left dozens injured.

Achille, a student, said he was in a building about 100 metres from the explosion.

READ MORE: Why the odds are so heavily stacked against successful sub rescue 

"I was sitting on the windowsill, and we moved two metres away from the window, carried by a small blast (from the explosion) and huge fear," he told BFM television, without stating his last name.

"We came down (from the building) and saw the flames," he said.

"The police gave us great support and we evacuated quickly."

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This year's Midwinter Ball has turned out some stunning outfits, including one with a powerful Indigenous Voice statement.

Hundreds of jobs are reportedly set to be cut as Ford Australia further slims down its domestic operations.

Union leaders estimate about 400 jobs would be affected, mostly in Geelong, Victoria.

Ford Australia has been contacted for comment.

READ MORE: Why odds are heavily stacked against sub rescue

AMWU Vehicle Industry Coordinator Vince Pepi said the move was "disheartening" but believed the redundancies would be voluntary.

About 350 jobs will include white-collar workers with the remainder to be blue-collar workers, the union said.

"We understand that this news will be difficult for many workers and their families, and we want to ensure they have all the resources they need," Pepi said.

"We will continue to work closely with our members and their Ford management as the situation progresses."

A Ford Australia spokesperson told Drive.com.au the changes were part of a worldwide drive to "improve efficiency".

"We have begun consultation with our employees and unions on our intention to offer a separation program for approximately 400 of our 1800 employees in Australia," the spokesperson said.

Ford previously projected about 3000 job losses worldwide as the company shifted toward electric car production.

Drive.com.au reported that accompanied by previous cuts, the 400 new job losses meant Ford Australia's staff would be down by about 900 on this time in 2022.

The redundancies are expected to take effect in September.

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Check your tickets – you may just have a $26 million hole burning in your pocket!

A family living in Melbourne's east who has worked in Australia for 18 years are facing deportation after being ripped off by a dodgy immigration agent.

Soonyoung Park and her husband Wonsang Lee have been living in their Forest Hill property with their children since 2005.

The family had applied for a permanent residency visa in 2016, but have since been told it had been refused.

READ MORE: What could have gone wrong with missing submersible?

The registered nurse is now fighting for her family's future after receiving the shocking news.

"Let us stay in Australia. We love Australia, we want to stay," she said.

In March 2016, the family applied for Employer Nomination Scheme visas and permanent residency visas through an immigration agent in Glen Iris.

But after no contact, they realised something was wrong.

The Department of Immigration informed them that their application had never been lodged.

Park said the news had caused significant stress and emotional hardship.

"I was panicking, nothing. I can not imagine," she said.

The federal Liberal MP for the seat of Deakin, Michael Sukkar, who is assisting the family with their case, said it wasn't their fault.

He hoped "common sense" would prevail. 

READ MORE: Premier Daniel Andrews remains highest-paid state leader after pay rise

"They were the victims and, through no fault of their own, they are now paying the price," he said.

The family's eldest daughter is a nurse who has permanent residency, but now the family could be torn apart.

"We are losing everything, we will lose our jobs, we can not stay all together," Park said.

The family have created a crowdsourced petition which has gathered almost 12,000 signatures in support.

While the immigration minister can't comment on specific cases, it's understood the ministerial intervention team are looking into the Parks' case.

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Gore District Council CEO and elected members have agreed to put their differences aside.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb has rejected comments about a "cover up" after details were removed from a holding statement when Clare Nowland was Tasered.

Internal emails obtained by The Sydney Morning Herald uncovered the original draft media release sent for approval on the day Nowland, 95, was Tasered at Yallambee Lodge in Cooma on May 17. She died in hospital six days later.

The draft release was found to have details removed before the final copy was released to the public.

READ MORE: 'Banging sounds heard' during frantic sub search

Webb told 2GB's Chris O'Keefe there was "certainly no cover up here" and she did not direct information to come out of the first draft of the media release.

Webb said it was important the Nowland family heard from investigators before more information was made public.

"Can you imagine being that family and hearing about this situation through the media?" Webb told O'Keefe.

"It was our responsibility to tell the family what happened to their mother or their grandmother."

She said the critical incident was upgraded from a level two to a level one, meaning time needed to be allowed for the homicide squad to arrive in Cooma from Sydney.

https://omny.fm/shows/the-drive-program/exclusive-police-commissioner-rejects-claims-of-co/embed

"At that stage we had no witness statements etc, and the other concern we have is any media release or holding statement with too much detail can taint witness accounts in a process."

Webb said they had also previously been criticised by the integrity commission for putting too much detail in releases.

"The holding statement in question is different to a media release and let's not confuse the two," she said.

The draft release said Nowland was holding a knife when officers arrived, and Tasered when officers moved towards her.

READ MORE: What is the winter solstice?

The SMH revealed through freedom of information laws the draft release that was sent to NSW Police Executive Director of Public Affairs Elizabeth Deegan at 10.34am that day.

The draft was edited to remove any mention of the knife or a Taser, where the confrontation occurred, or that an officer was under review.

The documents reveal Deegan then emailed the edited statement to NSW Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson at 1.43pm.

He approved it at 2.09pm.

The final statement sent to media and published online said a critical incident investigation had been launched after "an elderly woman sustained injuries during an interaction with police at an aged care facility in the state's south".

"The 95-year-old woman was taken to Cooma District Hospital, where her condition is being monitored," the NSW Police statement given to the media said.

"A critical incident team will now investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident.

"That investigation will be subject to independent review.

"No further details are available at this time."

READ MORE: Toni works three jobs but still sits in the cold and goes hungry

In NSW parliament today, Police Minister Yasmin Catley was asked what action she would be taking in light of the changes being revealed.

Catley said the media reports were the first she had heard about the edited statement.

"I think that we bear in mind the family, the family has not been informed of this, which is obviously why your question is so vague," Catley said.

"Let's let (the) LECC (Law Enforcement Conduct Commission) do the work we have charged them to do."

The LECC is the watchdog charged with overseeing the investigation into the Tasering incident.

She said it was a level one critical incident and "we should allow that investigation to play its course".

Nowland was a mother of eight, grandmother of 24, and great-grandmother of 29.

Senior Constable Kristian White has been charged with recklessly causing grievous bodily harm, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and common assault.

He is due to appear in court next month.

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