It was a year in which many properties had their prices decline, but the top end of the market showed no sign of slowing down in 2022.

The eruption of the world's largest active volcano continues to ease, scientists have said, reinforcing an earlier pronouncement that the mountain’s first flare-up in nearly 40 years might soon end.

Mauna Loa, on Hawaii’s Big Island, began erupting November 27, choreographing a spectacular display that sent rivers of molten rock gushing down its side.

The rare spectacle drew crowds hoping to see the flowing lava in person.

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The volcano's flow has slowed in recent days, and its behaviour suggests the eruption may soon stop, according to the US Geological Survey, though when that could happen is still unclear.

“We have good news to report,” Ken Hon, the scientist in charge of the USGS at the Hawaii Volcano Observatory, said during a briefing.

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“The eruption is still at an extremely low level at this point.”

Hon said the eruption is contained entirely within the volcano’s cinder cone.

The USGS said a small amount of light remained visible at night through a vent in the cone, but the channels below that vent “appear drained of lava”.

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The inactive front of the lava flow may inch northward very slowly as it continues to settle, the agency said.

Hon said Mauna Loa’s eruption appears to be ramping down and that nearby Kilauea has now reached a “full pause,” with its lava lake stagnant and crusted over.

Nerves were set on edge among those who’ve lived through past Mauna Loa eruptions when it began spewing molten rock after 38 years of quiet.

Sunday’s update came a day after scientists lowered the alert level for the volcano from a warning to a watch and said the eruption could be in its final days.

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New government data has revealed progress on closing the workplace gender pay gap has stalled for the first time, with women on average earning $26,596 less than men.

Mary Wooldridge, director of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, said "too many employers have failed to step up", leading to a pay gap of 22.8 per cent.

Although the number of female chief executives in Australia has risen slightly from last year, the agency's data revealed only 22 per cent of CEOs are women.

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Men are more likely to hold managerial positions, even in female-dominated industries such as healthcare and education, the report found, despite research showing that profitability and productivity increase under female leadership.

Women were still grossly underrepresented in the boardroom.

Just 20 per cent of boards are gender-balanced, while more than one in five boards have no women at all.

Since 2014, the number of boards without women has dropped from 37 per cent to 22 per cent, the data showed.

But 72 per cent of boards are still comprised of a significant majority of men, greater than 60 per cent male.

Less than one per cent of boards are comprised of only women.

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Wooldridge said the stagnant gender pay gap was a signal for employers to pick up the pace by implementing policies and practices to improve gender equality.

"Too many employers have failed to step up on gender equality leaving many women no better off than they were 12 months ago," she said.

"If you're not making progress on these things, your employees will realise there are others who are."

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NASA's Orion capsule made a blisteringly fast return from the moon overnight, parachuting into the Pacific off Mexico to conclude a test flight that should clear the way for astronauts on the next lunar flyby.

The incoming capsule hit the atmosphere at mach 32, or 32 times the speed of sound, and endured reentry temperatures of 2760C before splashing down west of Baja California near Guadalupe Island. A Navy ship quickly moved in to recover the spacecraft and its silent occupants — three test dummies rigged with vibration sensors and radiation monitors.

NASA hailed the descent and splashdown as close to perfect.

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"I'm overwhelmed," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said from Mission Control in Houston.

"This is an extraordinary day … It's historic because we are now going back into space — deep space — with a new generation."

The space agency needed a successful splashdown to stay on track for the next Orion flight around the moon, currently targeted for 2024. Four astronauts will make the trip. That will be followed by a two-person lunar landing as early as 2025.

Astronauts last landed on the moon 50 years ago. After touching down on December 11, 1972, Apollo 17′s Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent three days exploring the valley of Taurus-Littrow, the longest stay of the Apollo era. They were the last of the 12 moonwalkers.

READ MORE: Two men free after 25 years of wrongful imprisonment for murder

Orion was the first capsule to visit the moon since then, launching on NASA's new mega moon rocket from Kennedy Space Center on November 16. It was the first flight of NASA's new Artemis moon program, named after Apollo's mythological twin sister, who is associated with the moon in legend.

"From Tranquility Base to Taurus-Littrow to the tranquil waters of the Pacific, the latest chapter of NASA's journey to the moon comes to a close. Orion back on Earth," announced Mission Control commentator Rob Navias.

While no one was on the US$4 billion ($5.88 billion) test flight, NASA managers were thrilled to pull off the dress rehearsal, especially after so many years of flight delays and busted budgets. Fuel leaks and hurricanes conspired for additional postponements in late summer and fall.

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In an Apollo throwback, NASA held a splashdown party at Houston's Johnson Space Center on Sunday, with employees and their families gathering to watch the broadcast of Orion's homecoming. Next door, the visitor center threw a bash for the public.

Getting Orion back intact after the 25-day flight was NASA's top objective. With a return speed of 40,000km/hr — considerably faster than coming in from low-Earth orbit — the capsule used a new, advanced heat shield never tested before in spaceflight. To reduce the gravity or G loads, it dipped into the atmosphere and briefly skipped out, also helping to pinpoint the splashdown area.

All that unfolded in spectacular fashion, Nelson noted, allowing for Orion's safe return.

The splashdown occurred more than 482km south of the original target zone. Forecasts calling for choppy seas and high wind off the Southern California coast prompted NASA to switch the location.

Orion logged 2.25 millionkm as it zoomed to the moon and then entered a wide, swooping orbit for nearly a week before heading home.

It came within 130km of the moon twice. At its farthest, the capsule was more than 430,000km from Earth.

Orion beamed back stunning photos of not only the gray, pitted moon, but also the home planet. As a parting shot, the capsule revealed a crescent Earth — Earthrise — that left the mission team speechless.

Nottingham Trent University astronomer Daniel Brown said the flight's many accomplishments illustrate NASA's capability to put astronauts on the next Artemis moonshot. The space agency expects to announce the crew within the next six months. Orion, meanwhile, should be back at Kennedy by the end of this December for further inspections.

"This was the nail-biting end of an amazing and important journey for NASA's Orion spacecraft," Brown said in a statement from England.

The moon has never been hotter. Just hours earlier Sunday, a spacecraft rocketed toward the moon from Cape Canaveral. The lunar lander belongs to ispace, a Tokyo company intent on developing an economy up there. Two US companies, meanwhile, have lunar landers launching early next year.

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After spending 25 years in prison on murder convictions related to the 1996 shooting death of their friend, two Georgia men were exonerated this week in the US after new evidence uncovered in a true-crime podcast last year proved their innocence, their lawyers said.

Darrell Lee Clark and his co-defendant Cain Joshua Storey were 17 years old when they were arrested for their alleged involvement in the death of 15-year-old Brian Bowling.

He died from a gunshot wound to the head in his family's mobile home on October 18, 1996, according to Clark's lawyers, Christina Cribbs and Meagan Hurley, with the nonprofit Georgia Innocence Project.

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Who was responsible?

Moments before the gun was fired, Bowling was on the phone with his girlfriend and told her he was playing a game of Russian roulette with a gun, which was brought to his home by Storey, who was in the room at the time of the shooting, according to a news release from the Georgia Innocence Project.

Storey was charged with involuntary manslaughter, but months later, police began investigating the death as a homicide, and interviewed two witnesses whose statements led authorities to tie Clark to Bowling's death, the Georgia Innocence Project said.

"Despite the circumstances, which strongly indicated that Bowling accidentally shot himself in the head, at the urging of Bowling's family members, police later began investigating the death as a homicide," according to a motion filed by Clark's attorneys, requesting a new trial.

The two teenagers were sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of murder and conspiracy to commit murder, following a weeklong trial in 1998.

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Podcast uncovers new evidence

Clark's exoneration came a year and a half after investigative podcasters Susan Simpson and Jacinda Davis began scrutinising his case in their Proof true-crime podcast in 2021, and interviewed two of the state's key witnesses.

Through their investigation, new evidence emerged which "shattered the state's theory of Clark's involvement" in Bowling's death and the podcasters flagged his case to the Georgia Innocence Project, according to its news release.

The first witness, a woman who lived near Bowling's home, was interviewed by police, who claimed she alleged the teens confessed they had "planned the murder of Bowling because he knew too much about a prior theft Storey and Clark had committed", according to the Georgia Innocence Project.

Based on her testimony, Storey was charged with murder and Clark was arrested as a co-conspirator despite having a corroborated alibi, stating he was home on the night of the shooting, which was supported by two witnesses, according to Clark's motion for a new trial.

But the woman revealed in the podcast that police coerced her into giving false statements and threatened to take her children away from her if she failed to comply, according to the Georgia Innocence Project.

Police claimed the other witness, a man who was in a different room of the Bowlings' home at the time of the shooting, identified Clark from a photo lineup as the person he saw running through the yard on the night Bowling was shot, the news release said.

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It was uncovered in the podcast that the man's testimony was based on an "unrelated, factually similar shooting" which he witnessed in 1976, and he never identified Clark as the individual in the yard, nor did he ever witness anyone in the yard on the night of the shooting, according to the Georgia Innocence Project.

Davis told CNN in an interview when she and Simpson started their investigation that they weren't expecting anything to come of it, but as they interviewed more people it was "clear that it just wasn't adding up".

"It took us a long time to talk to both of those witnesses. The podcast was happening in almost real time as an investigation. When we finally found and were able to talk to those two witnesses, it really solidified that both of these guys had been wrongly convicted," Davis said.

Clark's attorneys filed pleadings in September to challenge a wrongful conviction and ask for a new trial, citing new information which proved his conviction was based on false evidence and coercion, Hurley told CNN.

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Clark and Storey try to rebuild their lives

Clark, now 43, was released from the Floyd County Jail on Thursday after the Rome Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office and Floyd County Superior Court Judge John Neidrach agreed the conviction should be overturned and all underlying charges against him dismissed, after evidence in the case was reexamined.

Storey, who admitted to bringing the gun to Bowling's home, was also released after accepting a plea deal for involuntary manslaughter, and a 10-year sentence with time served, after spending 25 years in prison.

He was also exonerated of murder charges.

Storey told CNN in an interview he was afraid to go to sleep the first night after he was released in case he would wake up and "realise it was all a dream".

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"It's been surreal to say the least," he said.

"I believe it's going to be great. One step at a time. I never allowed my mind to get locked up all those years, anyhow."

"You never think something like that is going to happen to you," said Lee Clark in a statement released by the Georgia Innocence Project.

"Never would I have thought I would spend more than half my life in prison, especially for something I didn't do."

Clark's father, Glen Clark, told CNN in an interview, "I've been waiting for this day for a long, long time. 25 years. My son was wrongly accused, and I knew it all these years. It's hard for me to live with that."

"I watched my son go into prison as a kid, I watched him go through prison, I watched him come out as a man. He became a man in prison," he added.

Clark is living with his family in their home in Floyd County for the foreseeable future as he focuses on readjusting to life outside prison and rebuilding his life, he told CNN.

Storey said he also moved back to Floyd County, with plans to go back to school and get a job.

Clark said Judge Neidrach apologised on behalf of the state of Georgia and Floyd County during the court hearing this week, which was an important step toward healing.

"That really touched my heart, because I had been living in corruption for so long, and it meant a lot to have someone acknowledge that wrong," he told CNN.

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The Georgia Innocence Project will work to support Clark during his transition and connect him to resources, and a personal fundraiser has been organised on the MightyCause platform, open to the public for donations to Clark and his family, Hurley said.

"It's probably going to take some time to like truly process that he is free and doesn't have to go back behind prison walls, because he spent most of his life behind them," Hurley said.

"More than anything, he's looking forward to getting to spend time with his family and rebuilding some of those relationships that he was, frankly, ripped away from at the age of 17," she added.

The exonerations of both men were the culmination of a collaboration between Clark, Storey and his defence team, as well as the Bowling family, which was willing to take an "objective look at this case and reevaluate some of the things they have been told in the past", Hurley said.

Davis was in the courtroom during Clark and Storey's hearing this week and said she's still "in shock" and feels a huge amount of relief for both men.

"In the end, I also feel for Brian Bowling's family who have been incredibly gracious and supportive as well. It's really rare when you have the victim's family support the convictions being overturned," Davis said.

A teenage boy is feared dead after a boating accident in Victoria.

Two friends – both aged 16 – were fishing at Lake Mulwala, Yarrawonga, close to the NSW border, when a wave swept them from their tinny and dragged them underwater just before 9am.

It's understood the boys were visiting from elsewhere in Victoria.

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Two bystanders in their 30s and 50s who witnessed the incident managed to jump in and swim back to shore with one of the boys.

But when they returned to the water for the second boy they couldn't find him.

Search and Rescue officers are searching the lake with the assistance of Airwing, SES, and police divers, and will return at first light.

A Waka Kotahi spokesperson told the Herald they were aware of chipseal issues.

In the federal government's ongoing quest to bring down electricity and gas prices, energy providers are now being targeted.

It comes as politicians prepare to return to Canberra this week to debate the national cabinet deal to provide bill relief.

Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen is demanding change.

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"This is Australian gas under Australian soil and Australians should pay a fair price for that, but they shouldn't be paying a wartime price," he said.

The government's latest attack on energy providers comes as states finalise plans to distribute the $1.5 billion in power bill relief.

It's relief that will save jobs, politicians claim.

"There were businesses saying to us very clearly that they wouldn't survive next year in the face of gas prices and electricity prices being what they were," Bowen said.

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However National Party leader David Littleproud said it was supply that needed to be tackled.

"We need to go to the structural issue which is supply and that's the problem they're going to have and that's why energy prices are going to continue to be high unless they tackle the supply issue," he said.

The longer term shift to wind, solar, hydro and battery power is plagued by the problem of reliability with dispatchable renewables still to be developed and ageing power stations preparing to close.

Liberal MP Ted O'Brien called the promises "hollow".

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"Its plan to decarbonise the Australian economy is leading to a decapitating of the Australian economy," O'Brien said.

"We've read this book before. We know how this will end."

The deal brokered at national cabinet on Friday promises to take about $200 off power bills, but the figure will vary by state.

While the government's relief is targeted at households there is also money for coal producers, drawing the ire of the Greens.

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"It shouldn't be people compensating coal and gas corporations it should be the other way round," Greens leader Adam Bandt said.

The opposition is indicating they will oppose the plan in parliament, but the government has the numbers to get the package through.

Safeswim has warned the public against swimming at the majority of Auckland’s beaches

Independent MP Andrew Wilkie's road to politics was as unconventional as it is impressive.

He was first elected in 2010, representing Tasmania's seat of Denison (now Clarke), holding the balance of power through Julia Gillard's hung parliament.

He is an independent MP, who was independent long before the word "teal" meant anything other than a bluey-green colour.

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After 12 years on the crossbench campaigning for open and accountable government, he knows a thing or two about integrity.

But his transparency crusade began much earlier than 2010.

Wilkie's explosion into public life came in 2003 when he blew the whistle on Australia's flawed justifications for entering the war in Iraq.

He resigned from Australia's peak intelligence assessment agency – then called the Office of National Assessments – in protest over the looming war, going public with his concerns.

He said one week prior to the invasion, the notion that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and co-operated with terrorists had been "a lie".

It was this life-changing decision to shine light on one of the country's deepest, darkest secrets that set him on a rocky road to parliament, and he has only increased his margin at each election since 2010.

He has long campaigned for a federal anti-corruption commission and voted to establish the government's version of one.

Complementary to that, however, are new reforms to better-protect whistleblowers.

The government says these will be delivered in two parts over the next 12 months.

Some might argue, to legislate for whistleblowers the government should consult with whistleblowers.

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In that vein, Wilkie's fellow lawmakers may wish to sit down with him, just as Nine News has.