Arrested 33 times as a student, he went on to have distinguished career in local politics.

The pair had played the same Lotto numbers for 35 years.

One of two men accused of murdering a fellow prisoner has told a magistrate he killed the victim because he was a child sex offender.

Shannon Daniel Norgate, 28, was found unresponsive with significant injuries from an assault at Maryborough Correctional Centre, north of Queensland's Sunshine Coast, on November 26.

He died in hospital on December 1.

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Norgate had been jailed in 2020 for sexually abusing young boys in a shopping centre toilet block.

Fellow prisoners Bodhi James Barry Johnson, 29 and Isaac James Martin, 31, were both charged with murder yesterday.

In a brief Brisbane Magistrates Court appearance today, Martin said he killed Norgate after being told he faced a mandatory life sentence if found guilty of murder.

"That's right, Your Honour. I killed old mate because he was a child molester. I'm not denying anything. I killed him," he said.

Martin appeared via videolink wearing a white prison-issue smock and sporting a beard.

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Magistrate Aaron Simpson told Martin he should seek legal representation.

"Killing a person does not necessarily mean it's murder. There are different levels of killing a person. A lawyer might be able to help you get the best result if that's the case," Simpson said.

Martin had earlier said he had not applied for legal representation because he had not bothered to do it.

"I'm representing myself, mate," Martin said.

"It's a murder charge," Simpson said.

"All good," Martin said.

Martin was remanded in custody for his case to return to court on March 9.

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He was previously sentenced to 11 years' imprisonment in 2023 for unlawfully striking and causing the death of fellow inmate Zlatko Sikorsky, who was awaiting trial for the murder of 16-year-old Larissa Beilby.

Johnson also appeared briefly via videolink wearing a prison-issue green t-shirt.

He was applying for legal representation and was now in custody at Woodford Correctional Centre, north of Brisbane, Simpson heard.

Johnson was remanded in custody for his case to return to court on March 9.

He had been eligible to apply for parole next month while serving a sentence for car theft and arson.

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People who take weight loss drugs see their lost kilos and bad health markers return in less than two years on average, a new study has found.

The study, published in the BMJ, found that not only did people put the weight back on, but they also again developed high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

It showed that the average rate of weight regain was 0.4kg a month after stopping treatment, with weight and risk markers for diabetes and heart disease predicted to return to pre-treatment levels in less than two years.

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It also finds that the rate of weight regain after stopping weight loss drugs is almost four times faster than after diet and physical activity changes, regardless of how much weight people actually lost.

"This evidence suggests that despite their success in achieving initial weight loss, these drugs alone may not be sufficient for long term weight control," the researchers said.

While the drugs are wildly popular and have transformed the treatment of obesity, it's estimated that around half of people with obesity discontinue GLP-1 drugs within 12 months.

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"The study findings cast doubt on the notion that GLP-1 receptor agonists are a perfect cure for obesity," a US researcher said in a linked editorial.

"People taking GLP-1 receptor agonists should be aware of the high discontinuation rate and the consequences of cessation of medications."

He said "healthy dietary and lifestyle practises" should remain the foundation of weight loss treatment and management, with the GLP-1 medications used as an aide.

"Such practises not only help prevent excess weight gain but can also lead to numerous health benefits that go beyond weight control," he said.

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Eight people are now facing double murder charges over the alleged machete murders of Dau Akueng and Chol Achiek, after the boys were fatally stabbed in Melbourne's west last year.

Dau, 15, and Chol, 12, were allegedly attacked by a group of people wielding knives and machetes shortly before 8pm on September 6 in Cobblebank.

The pair were found critically injured about 200 metres apart, with Chol on Marble Drive and Dau on Cobble Street.

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Eight boys and young men, aged between 15 and 19, have been charged over the alleged murders.

Police initially charged a 19-year-old Thornhill man, two 16-year-old boys and two 15-year-old boys with the murder of Dau.

A 19-year-old Caroline Springs man, an 18-year-old Wollert man and a 16-year-old boy were also charged with the murder of Chol.

All eight accused have now been charged with two counts of murder.

The charged people remain in custody and will appear in court at a later date.

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Dau and Chol's deaths sent a ripple of grief and concern through the tight-knit community.

A community leader in Cobblebank told 9News last year the tragedy left families feeling unsafe.

The attack took place just a week after Victoria enshrined a ban on machetes in state law.

Families of the slain children have called for stronger action.

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The most severe heatwave in Australia since the 2019-2020 Black Summer has failed to deter many people from their exercise routines.

Despite the extreme weather conditions across south-eastern Australia sending the mercury over 40 degrees, many dedicated exercisers have been spotted working out.

But is it safe, and what should you beware of?

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Prepare for the heat

Even fit people are at increased risk of heat exhaustion or heat stroke when the mercury climbs. 

Sports Medicine Australia (SMA) chief executive Jamie Crain advises exercisers to take increased precautions to guard against heat exhaustion or the more serious heat stroke.

"During times of extreme heat, it's vital for people exercising to take precautions over and above what they would on a temperate day," he told 9news.com.au.

They include limiting activity times to the cooler periods of the day, such as early morning and evening.

It's best to avoid the warmest hours, from 10am to 3pm.

Maintaining hydration is essential, and during extreme heat you should keep sipping water even if you don't feel thirsty.

On very hot days, the SMA advises drinking at least 500 millilitres of water in the hour before taking exercise. And caffeine, including coffee, should be avoided in the hours leading up to working out.

If you're outside, remember to wear sunglasses, sunscreen and a wide-brimmed hat.

Choice of clothing is also important. Where possible, select lightweight and breathable clothes with extra ventilation.

For those taking exercise indoors, try and find a location with air conditioning.

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Signs of heat-related illness

Crain says the health impacts of heat-related illness can be a direct result of an increase in core temperature or the result of the strain on the heart associated with combating the jump in body temperature.

"If anyone experiences nausea or vomiting, that is a sign they need to cease exercising and take immediate action to cool down," he said.

Other symptoms of heat exhaustion include dizziness, cramps, headache and general weakness.

Anyone experiencing these should move immediately to a shaded area, remove as much clothing and protective equipment and rehydrate.

Crain says more serious warning signs such as slurred speech, impaired decision making and poorer brain function indicates heat stroke.

"That requires immediate medical attention … straight away you'd be calling for medical help … trying to cool them down with something like an ice bath," he said.

While even elite athletes are at risk from heat-linked conditions, some people are at more risk than others.

They include those aged over 65 years, especially if unfit. The SCA cautions that age effects on thermoregulation, the body's process of controlling internal temperature, may become progressively worse with age.

The risk of falling victim to heat stress is also greater among heart or kidney disorder patients.

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One Battle After Another has dominated nominations for the Actor Awards, with Paul Thomas Anderson's ragtag revolutionary saga landing a record seven nods in the annual SAG-AFTRA honours.

In the 31 years of the Actor Awards, formerly known as the Screen Actors Guild Awards, no movie has received more than five nominations.

Along with a nod for the guild's top award, best ensemble, the cast of One Battle After Another was showered with nominations for Leonardo DiCaprio, Chase Infiniti, Teyana Taylor, Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro and its stunt performers.

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The four other nominees for best ensemble are: Sinners, Hamnet, Marty Supreme and Frankenstein.

Usually, to win best picture at the Oscars, a movie needs a SAG ensemble nomination. Only four films in the last three decades have managed the feat without that. Among the films that missed the cut this year were Sentimental Value, Wicked: For Good and Train Dreams.

Sinners had an especially good result. Along with a best male actor nod for Michael B Jordan, supporting actors Miles Caton and Wunmi Mosaku were both nominated. It collected five nominations in total.

In television, Apple's The Studio, HBO's White Lotus and Netflix's Adolescence led the nominees.

Historically, the Actor Awards have been one of the strongest Oscar indicators. Actors make up the largest branch of the film academy, and, in the past, individual SAG nominees have overlapped with the Oscar field at a rate of roughly four out of five. The Actor Awards are presented by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

That means the nominees announced today may closely resemble those headed to the Oscars. They are:

Best male actor: DiCaprio, Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme), Michael B Jordan (Sinners), Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon) and Jesse Plemons (Bugonia). The only surprise of that group was Plemons. The favourite remains the 30-year-old Chalamet who won the same award last year for A Complete Unknown and vowed to pursue greatness in his acceptance speech.

Best female actor: Infiniti, Jessie Buckley (Hamnet), Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I'd Kick You), Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue) and Emma Stone (Bugonia).

In the supporting male actor category, the nominees are: Del Toro, Penn, Caton, Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein) and Paul Mescal (Hamnet).

The nominees for best supporting female actor are: Taylor, Mosaku, Ariana Grande (Wicked: For Good), Amy Madigan (Weapons) and Odessa A'zion (Marty Supreme). The biggest surprise in that category was the 25-year-old A'zion.

Snubbed altogether was Joachim Trier's acclaimed Norwegian drama Sentimental Value. Both Renate Reinsve, in lead female actor, and Stellan Skarsgård, for supporting male actor, have been viewed as shoo-ins. Many analysts have even considered Skarsgård the favourite to win. With more than 122,000 voting members, the actors guild has tended to skew more populist and the guild often shies away from non-English language nominees.

Membership in the academy, meanwhile, has grown increasingly international. Along with Sentimental Value, movies like the Iranian revenge drama It Was Just an Accident and the Brazilian political thriller The Secret Agent should have greater success come Oscar nominations on January 22.

There have been some prominent differences between SAG and the Oscars. Last year, Chalamet won best male actor but lost to Adrien Brody (The Brutalist) at the Oscars. The papal drama Conclave took best ensemble, but Sean Baker's Anora won best picture at the Academy Awards.

On the television side, the leader in comedy was The Studio, which scored nods for its ensemble, Seth Rogen, Kathryn Hahn, Catherine O'Hara and Ike Barinholtz. The top drama was The White Lotus, which collected four nominations including best ensemble and nods for Parker Posey, Walton Goggins and Aimee Lee Wood. The limited series Adolescence also landed four nominations, for Owen Cooper, Stephen Graham, Erin Doherty and Christine Tremarco.

The Actor Awards will take place this Sunday.

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An Indigenous-Australian artist is pleading with Australia Post for help after her irreplaceable painting worth $4000 became lost in transit over Christmas.

Bobbi Lockyer spent more than 100 hours painting a one-of-a-kind commissioned artwork for a customer and, like many of her pieces, sent it via express post.

Lockyer, who is based in Darwin, told nine.com.au she was instructed to pack her tube in a cardboard sleeve before paying the postage and sending it away.

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On Christmas Eve, Lockyer's customer sent a frantic message.

The only thing that had arrived on her doorstep was the empty cardboard sleeve.

"She sends me a picture of the empty cardboard sleeve and my heart just dropped," Lockyer explained.

"I immediately drove down to the post office on Christmas Eve, it was so busy and I waited in line."

Lockyer said she was told Australia Post would open up a case and trace the package route to find where the tube containing the painting became lost.

For the past several weeks, it's been an agonising waiting game.

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US President Donald Trump's latest threats against Greenland pose a new and potentially unprecedented challenge to NATO, perhaps even an existential one, for an alliance focused on external threats that could now face an armed confrontation involving its most powerful member.

The White House says the administration is weighing "options" that could include military action to take control of the strategically located and mineral-rich island, which is a semi-autonomous region that is part of NATO ally Denmark.

Trump's renewed interest in Greenland could put at risk the entire future of NATO, which was founded in 1949 to counter the threat to European security posed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

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The alliance is normally focused on threats such as those from Russia or international terror groups. It would not function without US leadership and firepower.

NATO, the world's biggest security organisation, was built on a "Three Musketeers"-like vow that an attack on anyone in its ranks will be met with a response from all of them. That security guarantee, enshrined in Article 5 of its founding treaty, has kept Russia away from allied territory for decades.

But in an organisation that operates on unanimity, Article 5 does not function if one member targets another.

Uneasy allies and neighbours Greece and Turkey have harassed each other's military forces and disputed borders for decades. But past internal clashes have never posed the kind of threat to NATO unity that would arise from an American seizure of Greenland.

In a post on social media on Wednesday, Trump said that "RUSSIA AND CHINA HAVE ZERO FEAR OF NATO WITHOUT THE UNITED STATES."

But he added: "We will always be there for NATO, even if they won't be there for us."

A White House warning

The White House took its threats toward Greenland to a new level on Tuesday, issuing an official statement that insisted Greenland is "a national security priority" and refusing to rule out the use of military force.

"The president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilising the US military is always an option at the commander in chief's disposal," it said.

Ian Lesser, distinguished fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States think tank and an expert on NATO, described the White House statement as "very striking".

"It's a low-probability, high-consequence event if it were to happen. But the odds have changed, and so it becomes more difficult to simply dismiss this as bluster from the White House," he said.

The statement came after the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain defended the sovereignty of Greenland, along with Denmark, whose right to the island was recognised by the US government at the beginning of the 20th century.

"It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland," the leaders said Tuesday in a joint statement. Canada, which sits off the western coast of an island that has been crucial to the defence of North America since World War II, expressed its support as well.

NATO itself remains reluctant to say anything that might annoy its leading member.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that the US threat must be taken seriously, particularly after Trump ordered the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in a night-time raid, and that any US attempt to take control of the island could mean the end of NATO.

Asked whether Frederiksen was right when she said that an American attack on another NATO country means that "everything stops," an official at the alliance said: "NATO does not speculate on hypotheticals".

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because NATO protocol forbids the use of their name, preferred to note Greenland's strategic significance.

"The Arctic is an important region for our collective security, and NATO has a clear interest in preserving security, stability and cooperation in the high north," the official said.

"Together we make sure that the whole of the alliance is protected."

Trump's interest in Greenland also threatens to destabilise the alliance at the moment when the US-led efforts to end the war in Ukraine enter a pivotal stage, distracting its members from their efforts to support Kyiv and provide it with security guarantees.

Maria Martisiute, a defence analyst at the European Policy Centre think tank, warned that NATO's credibility is on the line.

When a leading alliance member undermines another member, it hurts "NATO's cohesion and credibility, and it serves only our adversaries such as Russia and China," she said.

Rubio says he plans to meet Danish officials next week

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he plans to meet with Danish officials next week after the Trump administration doubled down on its intention to take over Greenland, the strategic Arctic island that is a self-governing territory of Denmark.

Rubio told a select group of lawmakers that it was the administration's intention to eventually purchase Greenland, as opposed to using military force.

The remarks, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, were made in a classified briefing Monday evening on Capitol Hill, according to a person with knowledge of his comments who was granted anonymity because it was a private discussion.

On Wednesday, Rubio told reporters that Trump has been talking about acquiring Greenland since his first term.

"That's always been the president's intent from the very beginning," Rubio said.

"He's not the first US president that has examined or looked at how we could acquire Greenland."

Rubio did not directly answer a question about whether the Trump administration is willing to risk the NATO alliance by potentially moving ahead with a military option regarding Greenland.

"I'm not here to talk about Denmark or military intervention, I'll be meeting with them next week, we'll have those conversations with them then, but I don't have anything further to add to that," Rubio said, telling reporters that every president retains the option to address national security threats to the United States through military means.

Tension comes after NATO leaders agreed to Trump's demands

Last summer, NATO leaders rallied behind Trump's demand that they increase defence spending. Apart from Spain, they agreed to invest as much per capita as the United States does, within a decade.

Just before Christmas, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte hailed Trump as a saviour.

"I believe fundamentally that thanks to Donald J. Trump, NATO is stronger than it ever was," Rutte told BBC radio.

"NATO has never been as strong as this moment since the fall of the Berlin Wall."

Yet in a year-end address in Germany meant to rally to European citizens behind defence spending, Rutte warned that Russia might attack elsewhere in Europe within a few years should it win in Ukraine.

"Conflict is at our door," the former Dutch prime minister said. "Russia has brought war back to Europe, and we must be prepared for the scale of war our grandparents or great-grandparents endured."

Lesser said it's difficult to reconcile Trump's defence spending victory with his designs on Greenland.

"What good is it to have revived NATO capability if it's no longer a functional political alliance" afterwards? he asked. If that breakdown occurs, "it's a gift to Moscow, and it's a gift to Beijing."

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A Brisbane man who was just weeks out from cancer treatment has fought back with a machete to fend off violent robbers from his store.

Andrew was answering a knock on the door of his cash for gold store in Clayfield just before 8am today for what he assumed was a delivery.

But two armed thieves with their faces hidden by helmets smashed their way through the front door. 

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The 68-year-old was hit on the head with a hammer but did not hesitate to defend his store.

"One hit to the head sent me sort of a bit crazy," he said.

CCTV captured the moment Andrew pulled out a large machete, which he keeps for protection.

"I don't think they would have thought that I would have fought back the way I did," he said.

Andrew swung the machete as the pair advanced towards him. He was able to push them away, but did suffer some blows in the process.

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He had also recently undergone a head operation to treat a severe cancer.

"I'm not a young guy, I'm not in the best of health, I'm not in the best of fitness, but I do have the will to protect mine and my own," he said.

"And my dogs were very high on my list of priorities. I didn't want them to get hurt in any way."

The two armed thieves left empty-handed and remain on the run. They are believed to be injured as drops of blood were left trailing from the scene.

Police are appealing for anyone with information to come forward. 

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