Two months after the United States' first monkeypox case was confirmed, the total has risen to about 2,900. But details about those cases and other epidemiological data aren't spreading nearly as quickly as the virus itself, leaving holes in the response.

"It's a new and really fast-moving outbreak, and I think there have been some challenges around having a smooth and efficient way for the data to be sent from jurisdictions" to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Janet Hamilton, executive director of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists.

The CDC only recently shared a first public look at monkeypox case demographics, which showed that the vast majority of cases have been among men who have sex with men, with a median age of 36.

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But the agency has detailed information on only about half of the reported cases, CDC Director Dr Rochelle Walensky said.

Monkeypox is now a reportable disease, which means public health departments work with local health care providers to collect information about people who are diagnosed and how they became ill. But it is still completely voluntary for states to share data on monkeypox with the CDC.

CNN reached out to the health departments of all 50 states; 29 responded, and they all said they are committed to sharing case data with the CDC. Some, however, said that they are collecting more information than they share.

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As the US battles another public health challenge amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Walensky said she is "struck" by "how little authority we at CDC have to receive the data."

"We very much want to get as much information and informed decisions out to the American public as possible. And yet again, like we were for COVID, we are again really challenged by the fact that we at the agency have no authority to receive those data. We're working on that right now," she said in a conversation with The Washington Post on Friday.

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For example, Walensky said, the CDC has no data on who has been vaccinated for monkeypox and does not yet have the authority to collect that data.

The only data shared publicly on monkeypox vaccines is weekly updates from the US Department of Health and Human Services on how many doses have been distributed to each state.

Last month, the CDC shared an initial draft of a data use agreement with states and other jurisdictions, essentially a contract that would broaden the agency's access to data that states are collecting.

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After soliciting feedback from states, the CDC shared a revised version of the agreement that focuses exclusively on vaccine administration data. States are reviewing the document, and a few have signed it.

The latest version of the data use agreement has "similar requirements and infrastructure as the states already use for COVID-19 vaccine data reporting," according to the CDC.

Monkeypox not yet a public health emergency in US

Last month, the CDC activated its Emergency Operations Center to coordinate the response to the monkeypox outbreak and mobilise additional resources. And over the weekend, the World Health Organisation declared monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern.

But so far, monkeypox has not been declared a public health emergency in the United States. US health officials said over the weekend that the United States is still assessing the situation. US Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement Saturday the US is "determined to accelerate our response in the days ahead."

A US declaration of a public health emergency could bring with it an official requirement to report certain data, but it's more often used to move funds around, Hamilton said.

Although the public health emergency for COVID-19 brought reporting requirements to health care, like hospitals, the same wasn't true for states and public health.

"Health departments have a vested interest in providing the agency data," Hamilton said. "The public health system needs and wants to submit data."

Even if the motivation is there, the infrastructure in place to do so can make the process challenging.

"We would love to have a regular, standardised process — even for when new diseases and conditions emerge — that at least has a way for core data to automatically be sent out of a state's reportable disease system," Hamilton said.

"But in the current infrastructure, that does not exist."

Instead, it's a "very manual process" in which, for each case, states have to either enter all of the information by hand or upload a file into the system that might miss some fields if they're not formatted the same way.

With monkeypox, for example, evidence shows that it spreads mostly through prolonged physical contact, such as sex. People being tested for the virus may be more willing to give their clinician with a range of how many sexual partners they've have. But if the surveillance database requires a specific number for that question, then the categorical data collected by the clinician or health department might not be included when the case report is submitted.

Data modernisation at the CDC has been greatly underfunded, Hamilton said.

"2020, believe it or not, was the first year that the agency received appropriations for a more integrated approach to managing disease surveillance data. And, of course, that was right as the pandemic hit."

'We do not have enough detailed case data'

Overall, the lack of data is hindering efforts to forecast the path the monkeypox outbreak might take.

"Right now we do not have enough detailed case data to develop robust estimates," a CDC spokesperson said.

The CDC's new Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics, which formally launched this spring, "has been working to better understand the monkeypox outbreak," including how to best optimise interventions such as vaccines.

"We anticipate that as the outbreak progresses we will be able to share forecasts," the spokesperson said.

In the meantime, the vaccine supply is far from enough to meet demand — and covers just a fraction of the population that the CDC has recommended get it.

Cases are most likely undercounted, too.

Walensky said she anticipates an increase in cases in the coming weeks, for three main reasons: a streamlined reporting form that makes it quicker and easier for states to report cases, a surge in testing as commercial laboratories have begun to offer tests, and recent exposures that will start to show symptoms.

"It is true that we have work to do — here and internationally — and are likely to see more monkeypox cases in the near term, but it is possible to significantly decrease the number of cases and contain the current monkeypox outbreak through education and increased testing and access to vaccines — all priorities we've made dramatic progress on," the CDC said in a statement to CNN.

Ghislaine Maxwell, the jet-setting socialite turned convicted sex trafficker, is off to Florida to serve a 20-year federal prison sentence for helping financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls — returning to the same state, but a far cry from the posh lifestyle, where she committed some of her crimes.

Maxwell, 60, was moved last week to FCI Tallahassee, a low-security federal prison in Florida's capital, from the Brooklyn federal jail where she'd spent the last two years under close watch in light of Epstein's 2019 jail suicide.

It wasn't clear whether Maxwell would be held in restrictive housing or under other special precautions, given her notoriety and long-standing concerns about her well-being behind bars.

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Maxwell, who was convicted last December in Manhattan and sentenced in June, repeatedly complained about her treatment at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn, her home since her July 2020 arrest.

Maxwell and her lawyers complained that jail officers were flashing a light into her cell every 15 minutes, interrupting her sleep, and subjecting her to hundreds of searches and pat downs.

She also claimed that a guard at the Brooklyn facility physically abused her and that she was punished for complaining about it.

Maxwell, who once consorted with royals, presidents and billionaires as the daughter of a British publishing magnate, was convicted of luring teenage girls for Epstein to abuse.

Her month-long trial featured sordid accounts of the sexual exploitation of girls as young as 14, told by four women who described being abused as teens in the 1990s and early 2000s at Epstein's palatial homes in Florida, New York and New Mexico.

Maxwell's new home, FCI Tallahassee, is about 580 kilometres from Epstein's since-demolished mansion in glitzy Palm Beach where prosecutors say some of the abuse occurred.

The prison, opened in 1938, has about 820 male and female inmates.

According to an inmate handbook, people locked up at the facility have access to a wide range of classes and activities, including painting, leather, art and ceramics, musical instruments, team sports such as softball, basketball and volleyball.

The prison also offers yoga, Pilates, movies and an inmate talent show, according to prison consulting firm Zoukis Consulting Group.

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Maxwell is joining a short list of notable people who've served time at FCI Tallahassee, including Maria Butina, the Russian secret agent who tried to infiltrate conservative US political groups, and Colleen LaRose, known as "Jihad Jane" for providing material support to terrorists.

Butina was released in 2019 and deported to Russia. LaRose was released in 2018.

Like many federal prisons, FCI Tallahassee has had its share of employees committing crimes in recent years — including sexual abuse of inmates.

In March, former FCI Tallahassee recreation specialist Jimmy Lee Highsmith was sentenced to four years in prison for sexually abusing an inmate between March 2014 and September 2018.

In August 2021, former FCI Tallahassee food service foreman Phillip Golightly was sentenced to two years in prison for sexually abusing an inmate in November 2019.

In 2006, a correctional officer and a federal agent were killed in a gun battle on the prison's grounds.

The officer opened fire as agents attempted to arrest him and several other officers on charges they gave contraband to female inmates in exchange for sex, officials said.

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Incredible footage shows the moment a 4.8-metre great white shark broke through the plastic cage of a diver, forcing him to make a desperate swim for safety.

Aerial vision shows the large shark circling the box as diver Jimi Partington bobs in the azure blue water.

Partington is then thrown into the air, and out of the cage, as the shark suddenly smashes through the bottom.

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It came after the curious beast made a few "deliberate" bumps.

Footage of the 2020 encounter has been released ahead of Discovery's Shark Week.

It is part of a documentary called Great White Open Ocean.

Taking to Instagram, Partington said it was the "closest I've ever been to a great white shark".

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"It's been three years in the making and I can't wait for you all to see my incredible journey," he said.

"Thanks again for everyone who helped get me here after all that's happened, all my friends and family have been incredibly supportive and for that I'm so very grateful."

The footage comes day after the body of a shark washed up in New York after a spate of sightings and attacks.

The shark is believed to be a juvenile great white.

– Reported with CNN

Police have released CCTV vision of a man they believe can help with their inquires, after two armed robberies on Sydney streets.

Police allege a man armed with a knife threatened three people, demanding their belongings, at an intersection in the inner-city suburb of Marrickville about 11pm on Monday, July 18, 2022.

Days later, at the same location, a man allegedly armed with a knife threatened another man before fleeing the scene with his personal belongings.

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In the wake of the robberies, detectives released CCTV of a man who may be able to assist in the investigation.

He is described as being of Mediterranean/Middle Eastern appearance, aged in his early 20s, between 175cm – 180cm tall, of slim build and wearing a dark hooded jacket, dark pants and white shoes.

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Anyone with information, or dashcam footage, is also urged to contact Marrickville Police Station on (02) 9568 9299 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

No injuries were reported in either of the robberies.

A decision to treat COVID-positive patients at Newmarch House rather than in hospital will be a key focus of an inquest into a deadly outbreak that ripped through the Sydney aged care home.

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the virus spread through the Anglicare-run Newmarch in April and May 2020. In total, 37 out of 97 residents tested positive, with 19 dying over that period. A further 34 staff members also caught the disease.

Giving opening remarks on the inquest's first day on Monday, counsel assisting Simon Buchen SC said the main focus would be the "Hospital in the Home" program implemented by Newmarch in which sick residents were treated onsite rather than being sent to nearby hospitals.

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"The inquest will focus on the decision or decisions to care for unwell residents within the home rather than pursuing other options such as transfer to hospital for care and treatment," he told Lidcombe Coroners Court.

Newmarch is a 102-bed facility which was opened in 2012 in the western suburb of Kingswood.

Mr Buchen said Newmarch had other problems with staffing, communication with families and management of the home, which also negatively impacted the care of residents during the outbreak.

While Anglicare did make preparations for what would occur at its 23 aged care homes in the event of a COVID-19 outbreak by early March 2020, these preparations were inadequate, the coroner heard.

"Those preparations were insufficient for an outbreak of the scale of the one that occurred at Newmarch House," Buchen said.

Newmarch was not the first aged care outbreak during the pandemic, Deputy State Coroner Derek Lee was told. On March 3, 2020 BaptistCare's Dorothy Henderson Lodge was also hit with the virus.

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With that facility transferring COVID-positive patients to hospital, 17 out of 76 residents were infected and only six died.

"This represents a substantially lower infection rate and fatality rate than occurred at Newmarch," Mr Buchen said.

In detailing the lives and experiences of the 19 people who lost died during the 2020 Newmarch outbreak, a common theme in Mr Buchen's submissions was that family members mostly did not have an issue with the care offered at the home prior to the arrival of COVID-19, describing staff as dedicated, conscientious, caring and kind.

However, issues popped up during the outbreak, including residents still being able to socialise in the common areas of the home despite lockdown orders, doctors not wearing personal protective equipment and failures to deliver meals to residents' rooms.

There have been six past reviews conducted into the Newmarch outbreak since June 2020, including a hearing held during the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.

Shine Lawyers is also investigating a class action against Anglicare on behalf of family members of those who passed away because of alleged mismanagement at Newmarch.

The inquest continues.

Retail giants Bunnings and Kmart have both paused the use of facial recognition technology amid an ongoing investigation from the national privacy watchdog.

Consumer advocacy group Choice referred Bunnings, Kmart and the Good Guys to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) for potential breaches of the Privacy Act in June, following an investigation that revealed the retailers were using the controversial technology, which records customers' faceprints, in store.

The Good Guys announced two weeks after that it would be put its facial recognition trial on hold, and today Bunnings and Kmart both confirmed they would pause their use of the technology while the OAIC investigation is ongoing.

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"We've confirmed to the OAIC that the technology is temporarily switched off in our stores and given an investigation is underway we won't be using it for the time being," Bunnings managing director Mike Schneider told 9News.

The company had already temporarily switched the technology in its stores as it moves to a new system.

Schneider accused Choice of mischaracterising the Bunnings' use of facial recognition, saying the technology is used to prevent criminal activity.

"When we have customers berate our team, pull weapons, spit, or throw punches, we ban them from our stores. But a ban isn't effective if it's hard to enforce," he said.

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"Facial recognition gives us a chance to identify when a banned person enters a store so we can support our team to handle the situation before it escalates.

"For absolute clarity, an individual's image is only retained by the system if they are already enrolled in the database of individuals who are banned or associated with crime in our stores.

"We don't use it for marketing or customer behaviour tracking, and we certainly don't use it to identify regular customers who enter our stores as Choice has suggested.

"We're extremely disappointed that Choice has chosen to mischaracterise the issue, especially given the extensive explanations we have provided to them."

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Kmart also said it only uses the technology in relation to crime in its stores.

"We believe our use of facial recognition technology for the limited purpose of preventing criminal activity such as refund fraud is appropriate and its use is subject to strict controls," a Kmart spokesperson told 9News.

"We do not use this technology to track customer behaviour or for marketing purposes.

"We have temporarily stopped the use of this technology in our small number of trial stores given the commencement of the OAIC investigation."

A bed shortage across Victorian hospitals is seeing intensive care patients sent straight home instead of being transferred to general wards.

Western Health ICU Director Professor Craig French confirmed there had been instances at the Footscray and Sunshine hospitals in recent weeks.

He stressed, however, it was rare and said patients were only being sent home if it was safe.

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"Patients can even wait a few days before they're discharged from intensive care and by that time they're actually ready to go home," French said.

"No one is being discharged early or anything like that but it is a reflection of the overall strain the health system is under at this time."

French said when no beds were available, he had also been forced to keep patients in intensive care.

A combination of COVID-19 hospitalisation rising and healthcare workers isolating due to the virus has created stress in hospitals across the state.

Last night, the Royal Children's Hospital warned of six-hour waits due to demand.

"It's definitely daunting to think about what's ahead but my experience as a student nurse has prepared me well," student nurse Alana Hrehorsen said.

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It comes a day after the state government announced thousands of nursing and midwifery students would soon be deployed to hospitals across Melbourne and regional Victoria.

Almost 30 hospitals will benefit from the program, some include; Grampians Health Ballarat, Austin Health, Royal Children's Hospital and Bendigo Health.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said the announcement was a "significant boost" to support all healthcare workers.

Myanmar's government announced on Monday it had carried out its first executions in nearly 50 years, hanging a former National League for Democracy lawmaker, a democracy activist and two men accused of violence after the country's takeover by the military last year.

The executions, detailed in the state-run Mirror Daily newspaper, were carried out despite worldwide pleas for clemency for the four political prisoners, including from United Nations experts and Cambodia, which holds the rotating chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The four were executed "in accordance with legal procedures" for directing and organising "violent and inhuman accomplice acts of terrorist killings," the newspaper reported.

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It did not say when the executions were carried out.

The military government issued a brief statement confirming the report while the prison where the men had been held and the prison department refused comment.

Aung Myo Min, human rights minister for the National Unity Government, a shadow civilian administration established outside Myanmar after the military seized power in February 2021, rejected the allegations the men were involved in violence.

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"Punishing them with death is a way to rule the public through fear," he told The Associated Press.

Among those executed was Phyo Zeya Thaw, a former lawmaker from ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party, also known as Maung Kyaw, who was convicted in January by a closed military court of offenses involving explosives, bombings and financing terrorism.

He had ties to Australia according to reports, and had met former Prime Minister Julia Gillard when visiting for a course.

His wife, Thazin Nyunt Aung, told the AP she had not been informed his execution had been carried out.

"I am still trying to confirm it myself," she said.

The 41-year-old had been arrested last November based on information from people detained for shooting security personnel, state media said at the time.

He was also accused of being a key figure in a network that carried out what the military described as terrorist attacks in Yangon, the country's biggest city.

Phyo Zeya Thaw had been a hip-hop musician before becoming a member of the Generation Wave political movement formed in 2007.

He was jailed in 2008 under a previous military government after being accused of illegal association and possession of foreign currency.

Also executed was Kyaw Min Yu, a 53-year-old democracy activist better known as Ko Jimmy, for violating the counterterrorism law.

Kyaw Min Yu was one of the leaders of the 88 Generation Students Group, veterans of a failed 1988 popular uprising against military rule.

He already had spent more than a dozen years behind bars for political activism before his arrest in Yangon last October.

He had been put on a wanted list for social media postings that allegedly incited unrest and state media said he was accused of terrorist acts including mine attacks and of heading a group called Moon Light Operation to carry out urban guerrilla attacks.

The other two men, Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw, were convicted of torturing and killing a woman in March 2021 whom they allegedly believed was a military informer.

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Elaine Pearson, acting Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said the legal proceedings against the four had been "grossly unjust and politically motivated military trials".

"The junta's barbarity and callous disregard for human life aims to chill the anti-coup protest movement," she said following the announcement of the executions.

Thomas Andrews, an independent UN-appointed expert on human rights who had condemned the decision to go ahead with the executions when they were announced in June, called for a strong international response.

"I am outraged and devastated at the news of the junta's execution of Myanmar patriots and champions of human rights and decency," he said in a statement.

"These individuals were tried, convicted and sentenced by a military tribunal without the right of appeal and reportedly without legal counsel, in violation of international human rights law."

Myanmar's Foreign Ministry had rejected the wave of criticism that followed its announcement in June, declaring that Myanmar's judicial system is fair and that Phyo Zeya Thaw and Kyaw Min Yu were "proven to be masterminds of orchestrating full-scale terrorist attacks against innocent civilians to instill fear and disrupt peace and stability."

"They killed at least 50 people," military spokesperson Maj Gen Zaw Min Tun said on live television last month.

He said the decision to hang all four prisoners conformed with the rule of law and the purpose was to prevent similar incidents in the future.

The military's seizure of power from Suu Kyi's elected government triggered peaceful protests that soon escalated to armed resistance and then to widespread fighting that some UN experts characterise as a civil war.

Some resistance groups have engaged in assassinations, drive-by shootings and bombings in urban areas.

Mainstream opposition organizations generally disavow such activities, while supporting armed resistance in rural areas that are more often subject to brutal military attacks.

According to Myanmar law, executions must be approved by the head of the government.

The last judicial execution to be carried out in Myanmar is generally believed to have been of another political offender, student leader Salai Tin Maung Oo, in 1976 under a previous military government led by dictator Ne Win.

In 2014, the sentences of prisoners on death row were commuted to life imprisonment, but several dozen convicts received death sentences between then and last year's takeover.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a non-governmental organisation that tracks killing and arrests, said on Friday that 2,114 civilians have been killed by security forces since the military takeover.

It said 115 other people had been sentenced to death.

A teenager who was allegedly sexually abused as an 8-year-old has told the court how the man involved would threaten her to make sure she didn’t tell anyone.”If you tell anyone about what I do to you, I will beat you until you die,”…

The neighbour of a Sydney mother-of-two said her partner revealed they had argued before her body was found wrapped in plastic and he was charged with murder.

Shereen Kumar was reported missing by her partner Vincent Carlino on Thursday morning after vanishing from her Dural home, in north-west Sydney, the night before.

Police claimed evidence found on Carlino's phone led detectives to her body dumped in nearby bushland on Saturday, with the 37-year-old charged with murder shortly after.

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While Kumar was missing, Carlino was claimed to have told a neighbour that it was his partner's depression that drove her to run away.

The neighbour told 9News they asked: "Did you guys argue? What happened?"

"He said, 'yes'."

"And then he said, 'but she has depression', … then he told me if he had any news he'd tell me."

Resident Daniella Howcroft told 9News the discovery of Kumar's body had rocked the community.

"It didn't even cross our mind that she would be murdered and it wasn't until we read it online yesterday afternoon."

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"We were shocked."

One neighbour told police he ran into Carlino wandering the property in the rain on the night Kumar disappeared.

He said he heard Carlino's car drive off.

That car was seized as evidence today.

Kumar's ex-partner and father of her two children said in a statement that she was "an incredible mother to our kids and she will be missed forever".

"No one can replace a mother and this crime has left us all devastated," he said.