Venice has faced unusually low tides that are making it impossible for gondolas, water taxis and ambulances to navigate some of its famous canals.

A Queensland mother is desperately hunting for answers after her sick young son's critical bone marrow transplant was left on the tarmac in the United States.

Shalyn Eggleton, whose six-year-old son Mateoh had been waiting for months for the marrow, says she's "really frustrated" and is living "in hell" while she tries to get the bottom of how such an unfathomable mistake could happen. 

The family have so far been given no answers by officials on how long the transplant had been left at the airport for and are now waiting for the marrow – which is a rare match to Mateoh – to be sent to Australia, to see if it's still viable.

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"The biggest thing to understand is: how could something like a big medical protocol and procedure be left behind at an airport when it should technically be supervised 24/7?" Shalyn told Today.

"We have received no reasons, nothing, pretty much.

"I will be doing all that digging myself because it's unacceptable.

"He's fought three and a half years…and for someone to be so neglectful and just naive when it comes to such a thing like this.

"Like, this is what he's been waiting for and someone's just left it behind."

Mateoh suffers from chronic granulomatous disease, a genetic disorder which means his white blood cells are unable to fight off certain types of infections.

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He has an additional syndrome that causes his red blood cells to attack his body.

"Through the last 18 months, we trialled nine different things," Shalyn said.

"Like plasma, different haem therapy drugs, adult chemotherapy drugs, but nothing has worked.

"We were told at the end of last year I have to make the decision whether to do the transplant or not, knowing that it's our last option.

"And looking how well he is (there was) no way I could stop treatment.

"So my option was to go transplant, it did take a little bit to find a donor, our first donor actually rejected and declined…this donor has taken a while.

"This person in America has gone out of their way to go and be harvested, it's not affected me, it's someone else that has donated to Mateoh and now that's been left behind.

"It's a lot for us."

Shalyn said Mateoh is still on chemotherapy to "keep him going" while they wait for the transplant.

"That's how we prolong it at the moment, chemo," she said.

"All the blood we've been giving him, he has a significant iron overload.

"That's what we need. We need the transplant to try and move on and try and fix him, because it's unfair on him."

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A junior NRL squad is implementing new virtual reality technology to protect thousands of young brains from concussions.

The South Sydney Rabbitohs are using NeuroFlex to conduct up-to-the-minute scans on brain activity, before and after head knocks, on 3000 of its young players.

The eye-tracking technology provides vital information about the players' brain function, and the results can be used for years to come, including if any of the children go on to play in the NRL.

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Rabbitohs great Mario Fenech's brain is suffering the effects of 16 years playing in first grade.

His brother, Stephen, said it was an era when head knocks were part of the game.

"He's doing very well but he needs a bit of care, he needs people to help him to remember things and to live his day-to-day life," French said.

"If this technology existed when he was playing I think his life and the life of his family would be a lot different."

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Associate professor of neurophysiology James McLachlan said one of the worst things players can do is continue to play after a concussion.

"We know you're going to have prolonged symptoms if that's the case," he said.

The NeuroFlex can't stop a head knock, but what could curb concussions in the junior game are the no-tackle rules the NRL has proposed.

But many organisations are against those rules.

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"We believe that the sooner we get the kids in contact the better off they are," Chairman of South Sydney Juniors Keith McCraw said.

"In relation to their technique and the like… as they get bigger and stronger and strength equals speed we do have mishaps."

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Three men have been rescued from a yacht that blew into the Bass Strait in the middle of the night when it was overpowered by wild weather, sending it crashing into a container ship in what police have called a "major catastrophe".

The men, aged in their 70s and 60s, were stranded aboard the 10-metre yacht for almost five hours after they called for help when the yacht began taking on water about 10.15pm.

The yacht got caught in big swells and strong winds about .75 nautical miles (1.4 kilometres) off St Andrews surf beach, leading the skipper to be unable to steer the yacht and it being blown out to Bass Strait – the channel between Victoria and Tasmania.

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The conditions were so rough police were unable to winch the men from the yacht by helicopter.

The yacht ended up crashing into a carrier ship just after 1.30am with the men onboard.

Water police then managed to approach the yacht and collect the men just before 3am, with the rescue caught on vision from the helicopter.

Water Police Sergeant Fiona Robinson said "it was a pretty hairy rescue", with the men having ended up in "a very treacherous part of the ocean".

Robinson described the scenario as a "major catastrophe", saying the men were very lucky to be alive and advising that they buy lottery tickets.

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She said the boat had been pushed almost 30km off course by the wild weather.

The men were all taken to the Queenscliff marina before two were taken to Geelong University Public Hospital in a stable condition.

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Tonight’s Lotto Powerball jackpot was a whopping $10 million.

Police are trying to find thousands of people still missing following the cyclone.

Restrictions mean many on town supply are going without showers.

The mother of a western Sydney man allegedly murdered over a pair of fake wireless earphones was packing for a family holiday when her son left the house for the last time.

Ross Houllis, 28, was bashed on Valentine's Day 2020 before dying in hospital three days later.

Abdul Karaali has pleaded not guilty to murder, denying involvement in the attack preceding Houllis' death.

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CCTV footage of him being attacked was played to the jury on Wednesday afternoon.

The vision will form a contentious part of Karaali's trial.

His barrister said the Crown will not be able to prove its circumstantial case that the man allegedly seen high-kicking Houllis before stomping on his head and chest is Karaali.

"What you are being presented with are clearly poor quality images," he said.

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"The prosecution's evidence on its whole is of poor quality."

Houllis' mother watched from the court's upper gallery, wiping tears during the footage of her son being attacked.

She earlier told the court she was packing for a family trip to Hawaii when her son left the house to sell a pair of wireless headphones shortly after 9pm on February 14, 2020.

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He had arranged to meet the purported buyer in the car park of a shopping centre about two minutes away from the Houllis home.

Houllis and his younger brother Matthew had been selling earphones through Facebook Marketplace for some months, and were down to their last two pairs, their mother said.

Matthew Houllis told the court he was at the gym when he got a call from his brother.

"He was just asking me if he should go and where he should meet them, either IGA or at our house," he said.

The pair had a number of phone calls, the last of which Ross Houllis ended, telling his brother the buyer was calling and he had to go.

When Houllis' daughter arrived home about 10pm her mother asked if she had seen Ross.

"She said 'no', and then we started to hear sirens so I ran out the door," she said.

She recognised her son's shoes on a man being loaded into an ambulance.

Crown prosecutor Philip Hogan told the jury on Wednesday that along with the CCTV, evidence of Karaali's mobile phone connecting to different mobile phone towers would also be presented in an attempt to place him at the scene.

"It gives a general idea of the area where the phone is located but it can't be more specific than that," Hogan said.

Along with the vision and phone records, a DNA profile matching Karaali was found inside a ute seen on CCTV on the same street Houllis was bashed, Hogan said.

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During a search of Karaali's house, a mobile phone was found on top of a cupboard, missing its SIM card, and had been used to search for information about the incident in the days after it occurred, Hogan said.

On Tuesday, he said the beating was in revenge for Apple Airpods being bought from the Houllis brothers without realising they were fake.

The trial continues.

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