Spotify has agreed to pull all of Neil Young's music from its platform after the 76-year-old took issue with COVID-19 misinformation being aired on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast.

In a lengthy – and now deleted – post on his website, Mr Young wrote that he believes the music streaming service is helping to spread "fake information" by continuing to host Mr Rogan's podcast.

"With an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, JRE, which is hosted exclusively on Spotify, is the world's largest podcast and has tremendous influence. Spotify has a responsibility to mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform, though the company presently has no misinformation policy," Mr Young wrote.

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"I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform … They can have Rogan or Young. Not both."

The musician's strongly-worded demands were soon deleted from his website, and instead replaced with an open letter that made no direct reference to Joe Rogan.

"Most of the listeners hearing the unfactual, misleading and false COVID information on SPOTIFY are 24 years old, impressionable and easy to swing to the wrong side of the truth," the new letter reads.

"These young people believe SPOTIFY would never present grossly unfactual information. They unfortunately are wrong. I knew I had to try to point that out."

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In a statement Spotify said it was working to tackle COVID-19 misinformation, but would agree to Mr Young's request.

"We have detailed content policies in place and we've removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic," the company said.

"We regret Neil's decision to remove his music from Spotify, but hope to welcome him back soon."

Spotify's decision to back Joe Rogan comes almost twelve months after they inked a deal with the comedian and podcaster to host The Joe Rogan Experience exclusively.

The deal was rumoured to be worth $USD 100 million ($140 million) – instantly making Rogan the world's highest-paid podcaster and placing a market value on his influence.

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Each episode of The Joe Rogan Experience features a long-form interview with a guest, with some episodes focused on UFC commentary or analysing recent MMA fights.

Topics vary hugely with central themes including combat sports, psychedelic drugs, conspiracy theories and health and fitness.

A number of highly-influential guests have appeared on the show, including world's richest person Elon Musk, boxer Mike Tyson, musician Kanye West and whistle blower Edward Snowden.

It's likely the most popular podcast on the planet, average an approximate 200 million downloads per month.

Mr Rogan has not commented on the requests made by Neil Young.

It's official: the price of the average freestanding home in an Australian capital city is now a number with seven digits.

New data in Domain's Quarterly House Price Report shows that the median combined capital house price is now just over $1.06 million – up dramatically from $850,000 in September 2020.

Year-on-year that represents growth of more than 25 per cent, smashing all existing records and outstripping the growth of units more than three times over.

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According to Domain's Chief of Research Dr Nicola Powell, the main factor shovelling coal into the property furnace was the simple fact that more Australians were ready and willing to buy a home than there were those ready to sell.

"House and unit prices continue to beat records nationally due to lockdown activity rebounds in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra, high household savings and the ongoing demand from Australians to buy a property," Dr Powell said.

"Demand continues to outstrip supply across a majority of the cities however rapid price growth and affordability issues are likely to shift demand in 2022.

"Price growth has slowed from earlier in 2021 but it is higher than last quarter."

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In the most expensive capital city of Sydney, house prices rose by roughly $1100 a day during 2021, taking the median price up $400,000 to a wallet-busting $1.6 million.

At 33.1 per cent growth, this is Sydney's steepest annual rate of growth on record.

Dr Powell said wildly upward prices are beginning to hurt the bottom end of the market.

"House prices have grown four times faster than units over the past year, a divergence that has created a record price gap with houses now double the price of a unit," she said.

"The rapid escalation in price is proving to be a significant financial barrier to entry for buyers and upgraders against a backdrop of low wage growth. Housing affordability will continue to weigh on demand throughout 2022."

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While not as stratospheric as Sydney, other capital cities also enjoyed record gains.

Melbourne's median house price is now a record $1.1 million, Brisbane's is now $792,065 and Adelaide's is a record $731,547.

"Current demographic trends will continue to support housing demand with more people arriving into Greater Adelaide than leaving," explains Dr Powell.

"South Australia has been one of the states to benefit from the flow of Australians that have sought to either escape lockdown, embrace remote work culture, or return to their home state."

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Every single capital city recorded year-on-year growth in 2021, while only Darwin failed to edge higher in the December quarter. The median house price in the top end capital is now $645,487 – only slightly more expensive than the cheapest capital in the country in Perth, where the median house price is $612,348.

In Hobart, where buyers could have easily scooped a property for under half a million five years ago, the median house price is now $752,110 – a staggering 34.6 per cent year-on-year growth.

"Hobart's streak of record-breaking house prices hit a milestone over the last quarter by surpassing $700,000 for the first time. With the lowest average wages of all the states we can expect that entry-level buyers who are on a local average wage will find it increasingly difficult to enter the housing market," Dr Powell said.

"Values have risen sharply across all house price points suggesting a broad spectrum of buyers are active.

"Home hunters will find buying conditions to be fierce as the number of homes for sale is well below the five-year average, and while stock is starting to build, it remains tight."

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Australia's capital city median house prices*

*Domain December 2021 Quarterly House Price Report

The information provided on this website is general in nature only and does not constitute personal financial advice. The information has been prepared without taking into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on any information on this website you should consider the appropriateness of the information having regard to your objectives, financial situation and needs.

Fly-in fly-out (FIFO) workers have been treated to a lightning show in Western Australia's north as a tropical storm rolled through.

Monsoonal rains hit the Kimberly region overnight and, in the Pilbara, a broad trough produced an impressive lightning display.

The storm lasted a few hours, bringing thunder, wind, and rain over the region.

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FIFO worker Simar Tegh managed to capture the lightning display on his phone.

"I've been up here for a while and I've never seen something like that and even if I did, I've never been able to capture it on my camera," he said.

"So, I think yeh the stars aligned on that one."

More storms are expected this week in the Pilbara as the monsoon trough becomes more active.

A monkey with ghostly white circles around its eyes is among 224 new species listed in the World Wildlife Fund's latest update on the greater Mekong region.

The conservation group's report, released Wednesday, highlights the need to protect the rich biodiversity and habitats in the region, which includes Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar.

The species listed were found in 2020 but last year's report was delayed. The monkey is called the Popa langur, for it lives on the steep hillsides of the extinct Mt. Popa volcano in Myanmar.

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It was the only new mammal. There are also dozens of newly identified reptiles, frogs and newts, fish and 155 plant species, including the only known succulent bamboo species, found in Laos.

The Mekong region is a biodiversity hotspot and home to tigers, Asian elephants, saola — an extremely rare animal also called the Asian unicorn or spindlehorn and thousands of other species.

Including this latest list, scientists have identified more than 3,000 new species in the region since 1997, the WWF said.

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Scientists used measurements and samples from museum collections to compare and identify key differences with features of the newly discovered animals and plants, the report said.

Studying such differences can help determine the range of species and threats to their survival, Thomas Ziegler, a curator at the University of Cologne's Institute of Zoology, said in introducing the report.

Identifying new species is tricky, though, and sometimes can only be determined using a variety of methods, such as frog calls and genetic data used to distinguish the Cardamom leaf little frog, found high up in the Cardamom mountains in a wildlife refuge.

Some species are found in more than one country, including the bright orange twin slug snake, which consumes slugs.

The Popa langur was identified based on genetic matching of recently gathered bones with specimens from Britain's Natural History Museum collected more than a century ago, the report said. Two main distinguishing characteristics were the broad white rings around its eyes and its front-pointing whiskers.

The WWF, working with Fauna and Flora International, caught images of the monkeys using camera traps in 2018. FFI reported the discovery late last year.

The monkey is a candidate to be listed as a critically endangered species on the Red List of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the report said, since only 200-250 are thought to survive in the wild, in a handful of places.

Underscoring the urgency of such work, more than 38,000 of the 138,000 species the IUCN tracks are threatened with extinction.

A new type of begonia with reddish flowers and a berry-like fruit also was found in the uplands of Myanmar, where illegal mining and logging have become an increasingly dire threat in the country, which is in the midst of political turmoil following a military takeover a year ago.

Despite human encroachments on tropical forests and other wild zones, much of the Greater Mekong is still little explored and each year dozens of new species are found — a glimmer of hope as so many species go extinct.

Not all new species are found deep in jungles. One of the new plant species is a ginger plant called "stink bug" for its pungent odour similar to big beetles Thais use to make a kind of chilli dipping paste served with rice, the report said.

It was found in northeastern Thailand, in a plant shop.

While some consider January 26 a sacred event to celebrate the nation, others are determined to change the date.

A Gold Coast family has received the fright of their lives after finding a large snake beneath their toddler's cot.

The parents had been putting their three-year-old boy to bed for an afternoon nap on Tuesday when they spotted the coastal carpet python's tail poking out from under the cot.

Aaron Yashin from Yashin's Wildlife Relocation responded to the call of the distressed parents, identifying the snake as a coastal carpet python.

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"They were pretty freaked out as anyone would be to find a snake under their children's bed," Mr Yashin said.

"It's fortunate it's not a poisonous snake but given its size, for a small child it could do significant damage. They normally have long teeth."

Mr Yashin said while unlikely, the snake could have found a way to strangle the young boy, had it slithered around his neck.

He added the normally docile pythons can still pose a threat to humans.

When trying to grab the python from under the cot, it lashed out and bit him on the hand.

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"They're normally pretty docile but in this case it was agitated and I did get bitten. It's normally out of a fear reaction, a defence mechanism rather than aggression.

"I've been bitten by multiple and have been bitten several times. It causes a lot of bleeding and in a child could be much worse.

"A large carpet python bite could require surgery for a person, ranging from stitches to tendon damage."

Mr Yashin removed the snake, relocating it to nearby wetlands.

He said an increasing number of snakes had been detected in Queensland homes, with heavy rainfall also bringing snakes indoors.

"It is a very busy time of the year and we've just gotten into snake season really," Mr Yashin said.

He advised families and residents to keep their yards tidy, and to avoid keeping large objects that could provide shelter for snakes

He added birdseed and food left lying around could attract mice and subsequently snakes.

"It's mainly just trying not to leave things lying around your property that snakes can hide under," Mr Yashin said.

"If you see one, call the snake catcher or someone who can remove it safely.

"They don't often bite but if they do it can be serious."

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A man has been charged after an armed robbery at a hotel in the NSW Hunter region.

Two masked men, one armed with a handgun and the other with a meat clever, walked into a hotel on Main Road, Cardiff, and threatened two employees before taking a register and fleeing at around 12.20am yesterday.

Police said the two men left the hotel in a blue Ford Falcon sedan which was last seen heading east on Main Street.

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The employees, a man and a woman aged 52 and 25 respectively, were shaken but not injured.

Officers carried out three search warrants in Wallsend, Maryland, and a New Lambton hotel room from 9pm last night.

During the searches, a blue Ford Falcon, a motorcycle, ammunition, clothing, a firearm part, a small amount of methylamphetamine were seized.

All of the items will undergo forensic examination.

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A 32-year-old man was arrested at the Wallsend address and taken to Newcastle Police Station where he was later charged with five offences.

Police will allege in court the man was one of the two responsible for the armed robbery at the hotel in Cardiff.

He was refused bail and appeared at Newcastle Local Court earlier today where he was formally refused bail to appear at Toronto Local Court in February.

Further arrests are expected.

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