Sister of slain teen urges witnesses to dob in ‘gang-affiliated’ killers.

Eight youths have been arrested after they drove an allegedly stolen car through Adelaide overnight.

The boys, aged between 17-years-old and 12-years-old, were all spotted in a Toyota SUV on Sir Donald Bradman Drive, just after midnight on Saturday morning, police said.

South Australia Police alleged the car had been stolen from Glynde the previous day.

READ MORE: Six-year-old shoots teacher in Virginia classroom

"Police didn't attempt to stop the car but called in PolAir to assist from above," SA Police said in a statement.

"The vehicle travelled west out of the city where patrols successfully spiked the car on Henley Beach Road."

After spikes were deployed, the juveniles continued to drive the car to Yorktown Crescent in Henley Beach South where they dumped the car and ran from officers.

READ MORE: BoM's climate summary reveals 2022 weather trends

Police dogs Duke and Chaos assisted officers in locating all eight boys on Fletcher Road and Anderson Street.

A 14-year-old boy from Hampstead Gardens, two 12-year-old boys from Greenacres, a 14-year-old boy from Pennington and a 13 and 14-year-old boy from Hendon were all charged with illegal use of a motor vehicle.

They were bailed and are due to face Adelaide Youth Court on February 24.

READ MORE: How this 30-year-old travelled to 150 countries

A-12-year-old boy from Campbelltown and a 17-year-old from Oakden were charged with illegal use of a motor vehicle and breach of bail offences.

They are behind bars and will appear in Port Adelaide Magistrates Court on January 9.

A US six-year-old student shot and wounded a teacher during an altercation inside a first-grade classroom, police and school officials in the Virginia city of Newport News said.

No students were injured in the shooting at Richneck Elementary School, police said.

The teacher — a woman in her 30s — suffered life-threatening injuries.

READ MORE: BoM's climate summary reveals 2022 weather trends

Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew told reporters that her condition had improved somewhat by late afternoon.

Police said the child had a handgun in the classroom and that they took that student into custody.

“We did not have a situation where someone was going around the school shooting,” Drew told reporters.

“We have a situation in one particular location where a gunshot was fired.”

READ MORE: Ash Barty announces she is expecting her first child

He added that the shooting was not an accident.

Parents and students were reunited at a gymnasium door, Newport News Public Schools said on Facebook.

Newport News is a city of about 185,000 people in southeastern Virginia known for its shipyard, which builds the nation's aircraft carriers and other US Navy vessels.

READ MORE: How this 30-year-old travelled to 150 countries

Richneck has about 550 students who are in kindergarten through fifth grade, according to the Virginia Department of Education’s website.

School officials have already said that there will be no classes at the school on Monday.

A rare public blame game has broken out between the Russian government and some pro-Kremlin leaders and military experts, after Moscow appeared to blame its own soldiers' use of cell phones for a Ukrainian strike that killed at least 89 troops on New Year's Day.

The Russian Ministry of Defence said that "the main cause" of a strike in the occupied city of Makiivka was the widespread use of cell phones by Russian soldiers, "contrary to the ban," which allowed Ukraine to "track and determine the coordinates of the soldiers' locations".

But that account was angrily dismissed by an influential military blogger and implicitly contradicted by the leader of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) in eastern Ukraine, pointing to discord in the Russian command over Moscow's response to the attack.

READ MORE: Ash Barty announces she is expecting her first child

The strike took place just after midnight on Sunday, targeting a vocational school housing Russian conscripts in Makiivka, in the Donetsk region, according to both Ukrainian and pro-Russian accounts.

It prompted a rare Russian admission of a high death toll.

The Ukrainian military reported even more dramatic figures, initially claiming up to around 400 Russian soldiers were killed.

CNN cannot independently verify either side's reported death toll. In either case, the strike marks one of the deadliest episodes of the conflict for Moscow's forces.

Semyon Pegov, who blogs under the alias WarGonzo and two weeks ago was personally awarded the Order of Courage by President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin, attacked the Ministry of Defence's statement as "not convincing" and "a blatant attempt to smear blame."

He questioned how the Ministry of Defence could be "so sure" that the location of soldiers lodging in a school building could not have been determined using drone surveillance or a local informant.

And he again raised suspicions about the official death toll, which was revised upward by Moscow to 89 from 63, writing that "their number will still be growing."

In another post on Wednesday, Pegov warned that apathy on the battlefield will lead to more "tragedies."

Referring to the conflict both by its Kremlin euphemism – "special military operation" -and also by the word "war," he said: "If you ask me personally what is the most dangerous thing in war, I will answer unequivocally: not to bother".

'They're putting the blame on each other'

Pegov was joined in his sentiments by Denis Pushilin, the pro-Russian DPR leader, who pointedly praised the "heroism" of the soldiers killed in the strike shortly after the government pinned the blame on them.

"We know, and we know firsthand, what it is to suffer losses," Pushilin said on Telegram Wednesday.

"Based on the information I have, I can say with certainty that there were many displays of courage and real heroism by the guys in this regiment."

READ MORE: Police investigate drug manufacturing unit in Sydney's west

"They risked their lives to help. Some of the dead were those who died when they went back to rescue their fellow service members," he said.

Russia's defence ministry statement also drew mockery from Ukraine's military.

"Of course, using phones with geolocation is a mistake. But it is clear that this version looks a bit ridiculous," the spokesman for the Eastern Group of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Serhii Cherevatyi, said Wednesday.

"Of course, this is a mistake (of the Russians), and I think that now they are engaged in (searching for) who is to blame. They are putting the blame on each other," he continued.

"It is clear that this (use of phones) was not the main reason.

"The main reason was that they were unable to covertly deploy these personnel.

"And we took advantage of that, having detected the target powerfully and destroyed it," Cherevatyi added.

READ MORE: Crash survivors share sweet moment after boy wakes from induced coma

Sunday's strike had already sparked vocal criticism of Moscow's military from pro-Russian bloggers, who claimed that the troops lacked protection and were reportedly being quartered next to a large cache of ammunition, which is said to have exploded when United States-made HIMARS rockets hit the school.

Daniil Bezsonov, a former official in the Russian-backed Donetsk administration, said on Telegram that "apparently, the high command is still unaware of the capabilities of this weapon".

And Igor Girkin, a Russian propagandist who blogs about the war effort on Telegram, claimed that the building was almost completely destroyed by the secondary detonation of ammunition stores.

Meanwhile, Margarita Simonyan, the influential editor-in-chief of state-run network RT, on Wednesday welcomed the Russian Ministry of Defence's investigation into the circumstances surrounding the strike, writing on Telegram that she hoped "the responsible officials will be held accountable."

"This is the first time, it seems, that this has been done publicly during the entire special military operation.

"I hope the names of these persons and the extent of punishment will also be announced," she said.

Video reportedly from the scene of the attack circulated widely on Telegram, including on an official Ukrainian military channel.

It showed a pile of smoking rubble, in which almost no part of the building appears to be standing.

The governor of Russia's southwestern Samara region held talks in Moscow on Tuesday with the leadership of the country's defence ministry, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

Some of the servicemen who died in the strike were mobilized from Samara region, according to the agency, quoting Samara governor Dmitry Azarov.

READ MORE: Putin orders weekend truce in Ukraine, Kyiv won't take part

It might come as no surprise to Australians that 2022 was wetter than normal, but the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) has revealed last year's temperatures were also warmer than average.

BoM has released a brief summary of Australia's climate in 2022, which highlights the strong trends that will be further examined in their Annual Climate Statement next month.

Australia recorded its ninth wettest year on record, as nationally-averaged rainfall was 25 per cent above the 1961–1990 average at 582.2 mm, the report said.

READ MORE: Man, 20, dies in two-car crash in Sydney

"The nation's mean temperature was 0.5 degrees warmer than the 1961–1990 average, making 2022 the equal 22nd warmest year on record since national temperature records began in 1910," BoM said.

"The mean annual maximum temperature was above average for most of northern Australia, Tasmania, and parts of the west coast, but below average for New South Wales, southern Queensland, and parts of South Australia

"It was especially warm for the tropics, with severe to extreme heatwave conditions affecting parts of the north and the west several times during 2022."

READ MORE: Ash Barty announces she is expecting her first child

Water storage levels were also high across much of Australia.

Below is the report's 2022 summary for reach state and territory.

BoM will release its full Annual Climate Report in February 2023.

State and territory summaries

New South Wales (and the Australian Capital Territory)

NSW overall had 860.24 mm rainfall in 2022, as an area average across the state, which is 54.7 per cent above average.

It was the second-wettest year on record for NSW, after 1950 where there was 915.61 mm rainfall.

The average temperature was 0.13 degrees warmer than the 1961–1990 average, while also being the coolest year for NSW overall since 1996.

Victoria

Victoria overall had 872.70 mm rainfall in 2022, as an area average across the state, which is 31.6 per cent above average.

It was the fifth-wettest year on record and the state's highest rainfall since 1974.

The average temperature was 0.45 degrees warmer than the 1961–1990 average for Victoria.

Queensland

Queensland overall had 774.27 mm rainfall in 2022, as an area average across the state, which is 24.4 per cent above average and the state's highest rainfall since 2011.

The average temperature was 0.74 per cent warmer than the 1961–1990 annual average, while also being the coolest year for Queensland overall since 2012.

South Australia

South Australia overall had 310.45 mm rainfall in 2022, as an area average across the state, which is 38.7 per cent above average and the state's highest rainfall since 2016.

The average temperature was 0.15 per cent warmer than the 1961–1990 annual average, while also being the coolest year for SA overall since 2010.

Tasmania

Tasmania overall had 1,318.75 mm rainfall in 2022, as an area average across the state, which is 2.9 per cent below average.

2022 was Tasmania's equal-tenth warmest year on record (equal with 2005).

The average temperature was 0.57 degrees warmer than the 1961–1990 annual average, while also being the warmest year for Tasmania overall since 2018.

READ MORE: Police investigate drug manufacturing unit in Sydney's west

Western Australia

Western Australia overall had 413.52 mm of rainfall in 2022, as an area average across the state, which is 21 per cent above average and the state's highest rainfall since 2017.

The average temperature was 0.49 degrees warmer than the 1961–1990 average for WA.

Northern Territory

The Northern Territory overall had 595.31 mm of rainfall in 2022, as an area average across the Territory, which is 9.2 per cent above average.

The average temperature was 0.69 degrees warmer than the 1961–1990 average for the NT.

Recording a quick voice memo could soon tell you whether you're over the limit.

Melbourne researchers are using artificial intelligence to analyse audio waves of people who've had too much to drink, in the hope it's an early indicator of when to slow down.

Researchers from Latrobe University are currently working on something faster than a blood test or a breathalyser.

READ MORE: Taliban, UK military criticise Prince Harry's Afghanistan details in memoir

More than 12,000 audio recordings from Germany of sober and less sober people were input into an algorithm with artificial intelligence then trying to distinguish whether the voices are over the legal limit or not.

At the moment it's about 68 per cent accurate but the more data, the smarter the AI becomes.

READ MORE: Perth father paralysed in freak beach accident

"We are on a good way it's a kind of proof of concept that it's possible," Professor Emmanuel Kuntsche told 9News.

The next step is for the tech to be tested with Aussie voices.

Researchers say several years down the track, if it works, it could once day be put into an app to give people an early indicator of their intoxication levels before they make decisions like getting behind the wheel.

For those committed to reducing the number of drunk drivers on Australian roads, it's a move in the right direction.

"Whether it's technology or education or behaviour change, if it can save one life, absolutely," Annie Trainor, Director of Drink Drive Victoria told told 9News.

"As long as people are getting the message, it doesn't matter where it comes from."

An "extreme traveller" who at the age of 30 has visited well over 100 countries said her wild journey started in Australia.

Katelyn Jarvis was bitten by the travel bug when she studied abroad in Victoria as a university student.

The US citizen has now visited 150 United Nations countries, firmly placing her in the exclusive 'Travellers Century Club', a group for people who have ventured to more than 100 countries or territories.

READ MORE: Baggage handlers stood down after being filmed hurling luggage in Melbourne

"I look back at my time in Melbourne and I think about how differently the trajectory of my life would be had I not chosen to study abroad there," Jarvis told 9news.com.au.

Jarvis travelled to about 80 per cent of these countries solo – enjoying different cultures and doing non-profit service work.

"The Travellers Century Club is an incredible community of trailblazers," she said.

"I am inspired by the people I have met through this club, mostly because they were travelling before much of the technology we have today.

"Every time I meet with these intrepid travellers, I leave feeling inspired."

Jarvis has achieved her travel goals through hard work and some sacrifice.

To finance her trips, she worked three jobs and used credit card points to jet set to different countries.

She has slept on airport floors, skipped the luggage check in and opted for the cheapest form of transport in order to achieve her goals.

READ MORE: Aussies flying to Singapore can use 'fast track' arrival lanes

"Take the cheapest mode of transportation, sleep on airport floors, stay in guesthouses, couch surf, walk if you are able, do not spend a lot of money on alcohol (and) do not check luggage on planes," she said.

When she is travelling, Jarvis books a mixture of hostels, guesthouses and cheap hotels in order to stretch her travel funds.

It is also about knowing where to travel and the best places for your budget.

"The cheapest place I have visited is Vietnam," Jarvis said.

"It is so cheap to travel, eat, and sleep in this country.

"It is also incredibly beautiful."

Jarvis said the most expensive place for her was the Caribbean Islands.

"Accommodation is expensive and logistically it's not very easy to navigate," she said.

"I believe it has gotten better since 2018 when I visited, but there are definitely places you can travel to for cheaper."

Jarvis believes one particular tourist hotspot, visited by millions of people a year, is only worth one visit.

"Dubai, in my opinion, is overrated," she said.

"I think it is a place that people should try and see once in their life, but there really is not a need to go back in my opinion."

READ MORE: The return of the billion-dollar backpackers

The traveller said while "there has not been a country I did not enjoy" her favourite places are in the Northern African region.

This includes places such as Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, and Libya.

Jarvis has 16 countries left to visit in Africa and these locations are next on her list.

"I will probably head to Angola and Namibia next, then hop across the continent to Mozambique and Malawi," she said.

The extreme traveller said there is another place she looks forward to returning to.

"I cannot wait to come back to Australia," she said.

It all started from just one phone call. 

Tony Camilleri was one of our most successful and respected architects, but in 2011, he nevertheless found himself reeling and overworked in the wake of the global financial crisis.

It meant that when he received a cold call offering what seemed like an ideal investment opportunity, his interest was piqued more than usual.  

READ MORE: How cybercriminals are shaping our digital future

https://omny.fm/shows/anatomy-of-a-scam/investment-scams-the-big-fish-hooked-for-1-8-milli/embed?in_playlist=podcast&style=Cover

"He said it was a Chicago-based company named Smith and Olson and that they were trying to expand their business into the South Pacific region and looking for investors there," Tony explained on the podcast Anatomy of a Scam.

Phone calls continued back and forth, small investments gradually became larger, and before long Tony had invested almost the entirety of his superannuation fund: $1.8 million.

Tony was no fool.

Smith and Olson's website was professional, their spokespeople on the other end of the line even more so, and the promised returns on his investment were dizzying – over $5 million. 

Buzzing with excitement and gratitude, Tony flew to Chicago, eager to meet the man who had made him so much money.

When he turned up to their office building, his world came crashing down.

His trusted investment partners were nowhere to be found.

Tony had fallen victim to an investment scam.

Australians lose more money to investment scams than any other type of scam.

Nearly $300 million was lost in the first nine months of 2022 – though with many Australians never reporting their losses, it's likely the true cost is much higher.

James Roberts, General Manager of Group Fraud Management Services at the Commonwealth Bank, says he is really alarmed by the "industrialised nature of scams".

"This is not thrown-together stuff," he explains.

"This is proper call centres; ergonomic seats, headsets, dual screens, standard operating procedures.

"One video I saw online actually showed them rewarding the top scammer in performance-related pay – recognising that scammer for having committed the most successful scams.

"When you start to package all that together, we're competing against businesses.

"And that for me, has probably been the biggest, and to a degree most frightening, revelation that I've had in recent times."

James also wants everyone to know the importance of reporting when you've been scammed.

"There might be some embarrassment, but it is so essential," he says.

"Tell your bank that this has happened. That disproportionately increases the chances of a recovery.

"If you were to wait for weeks, generally speaking, the money will be gone."

For Tony, the discovery of his scam sparked the fight to reclaim his money – a fight which would include global investigation, unravelling the scam industry and turning the tables back on his scammers. 

You can hear the rest of his story, along with more information on investment scams, in episode three of Anatomy of a Scam.

https://omny.fm/shows/anatomy-of-a-scam/playlists/podcast/embed?style=cover

Deborah Knight hosts Afternoons with Deborah Knight on 2GB.

A 20-year-old man has died in a two car crash on the Princes Highway in Sydney's inner west overnight.

Patrolling officers came across the crash on the highway near Hart Street at Tempe about 11.25pm yesterday.

NSW Police said they gave first aid to the young adult, who was driving a Mazda 3, before NSW Ambulance arrived.

READ MORE: Ash Barty announces she is expecting her first child

Paramedics continued to give the man first aid but he died at the scene.

He is yet to be formally identified.

The driver of the Toyota Yaris, a 54-year-old man, was taken to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in a serious but stable condition.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

The White House announced Friday a new $USD 3.75 billion ($5.45 billion) military assistance package to help Ukraine and its neighbours on NATO's eastern flank as Russia's invasion of Ukraine grinds on.

The latest tranche of assistance will include for the first time Bradley armoured vehicles for Ukraine.

The armoured carrier is used to transport troops to combat and is known as a "tank-killer" because of the anti-tank missile it can fire.

READ MORE: Ash Barty announces she is expecting her first child

The biggest US assistance package to date for Kyiv includes a $USD 2.85 billion (4.14 Billion) drawdown from the Pentagon's stocks that will be sent directly to Ukraine and $USD 225 million ($326 million) in foreign military financing to build the long-term capacity and support modernisation of Ukraine's military, according to the White House.

It also includes $USD 682 million ($990 million) in foreign military financing for European allies to help backfill donations of military equipment they've made to Ukraine.

"The war is at a critical point and we must do everything we can to help the Ukrainians resist Russian aggression," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in announcing the aid.

READ MORE: Police investigate drug manufacturing unit in Sydney's west

The direct assistance for Ukraine includes 50 Bradleys as well as 500 anti-tank missiles and 250,000 rounds of ammunition for the carriers.

The US is also sending 100 M113 armored personnel carriers, 55 mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles, or MRAPS, and 138 HUMVEES, as well as ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and air defense systems and other weapons, according to US officials.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the Bradleys will be particularly useful to Ukraine in ongoing heavy fighting in largely rural areas of eastern Ukraine.

"It's very much tied to the war that we're seeing on the ground right now and what we anticipate we'll see throughout the winter months," Kirby said.

The new US package was detailed by the White House as Germany announced it would supply around 40 Marder armoured personnel carriers to Ukraine in this year's first quarter.

Germany announced its intention to send the Marder APCs following a phone call between Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Joe Biden on Thursday.

"These 40 vehicles should be ready in the first quarter already so that they can be handed over to Ukraine," Scholz's spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit, told reporters in Berlin.

Germany plans to train Ukrainian forces to use the vehicles, and Hebestreit said experts expect that process to take around eight weeks.

Germany has already given significant military aid, including howitzers, Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and an IRIS-T surface-to-air missile system, with three more of those set to follow this year.

Scholz has long been wary of pressure to supply the Marder and other, heavier Western-made vehicles such as tanks, insisting that Germany wouldn't go it alone with such deliveries.

Officials noted that other countries hadn't supplied any.

But this week, France, the US and Germany all announced plans to send comparable armored vehicles that fall short of tanks.

READ MORE: Crash survivors share sweet moment after boy wakes from induced coma

Germany last year championed deals in which eastern NATO allies sent familiar Soviet-era equipment to Ukraine, with Germany in turn supplying those countries with more modern Western-made equipment.

Hebestreit said there had been talks with the US and others since mid-December on how to support Ukraine going forward.

He said the possibility of supplying Soviet-produced equipment is "slowly coming to an end," while the situation in Ukraine is changing with massive Russian strikes on infrastructure and fighting could increase when the weather warms up.

Ukraine and a number of German lawmakers inside and outside Scholz's governing coalition also have called for Germany to deliver Leopard 2 battle tanks.

Advocates of delivering the Leopard were cheered by the move on Marder APCs and vowed to keep pressing the point.

But Hebestreit said that battle tanks weren't an issue in Thursday's call between Scholz and Biden.

He said Germany will stick to its principles of supporting Ukraine as strongly as possible, while not going it alone on weapons supplies and ensuring that NATO doesn't become a party to Russia's war in Ukraine.

Germany also said Thursday that it will follow the US in supplying a Patriot air defence missile battery to Ukraine.

That was at the request of the US and also is expected in the first quarter, Hebestreit said.

It comes on top of Patriot systems that Germany has sent or plans to send to Slovakia and Poland.