The 800kg bull escaped through a weak fence during the Kaitāia event.

A Queensland boilermaker is celebrating after claiming the second biggest Keno win in history with a $8.8 million prize.

The Gladstone man discovered his Keno Mega Milions 10 spot jackpot win after the winning numbers were drawn last night.

"I actually didn't see my numbers come up, but one of the barmen whisked me away," he said.

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"I thought 'What is going on here?'.

"Once I realised, I'd won, I couldn't even speak, I was just gobsmacked."

The man said he planned to upgrade his house, purchase a boat for fishing and set up his family.

"I'll be making sure my kids are right for the rest of their lives, and of course, I'll be helping family," he said.

"What a way to start the year."

The winning entry was purchased at The Queens Hotel in Gladstone.

There are many different ways to get help and information about gambling. You can visit the National Gambling Helpline or call on 1800 858 858.

Australian comedy trio Sooshi Mango has revealed their Melbourne office was broken into overnight, posting CCTV footage of the intruder in a bid to find him.

The group, known for their comedy skits paying homage to their Italian heritage, said an office near their Carlton restaurant Johnny, Vince and Sam's Ristorante, was broken into around 7pm.

CCTV vision posted to the Sooshi Mango Instagram page shows a man wearing jeans and a cream coloured jumper using his body to force open the door to the office.

READ MORE: Man charged after woman hit and killed by truck in Melbourne's west

He then rifled through a series of drawers before fleeing empty-handed.

"He didn't end up stealing anything because he couldn't find anything of value," the comedy troupe said in a post to Instagram.

"We are Italians, we don't leave our cash in obvious places," they joked.

The group, made up of brothers Carlo and Joe Salantri along with close friend Andrew Manfre, warned the would-be thief "tried to rob the wrong place" after airing the footage to their 3.1 million followers. 

"If we can stop him from taking advantage of just one other honest business then we have done our job," they said.

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Crowned last year's Moomba Monarchs, the trio is calling for harsher penalties to deter would-be thieves from fueling a growing crime rate across Victoria.

"Perhaps if Victoria had stricter laws these filthy rotten leaches (sic) wouldn't have the confidence to go around breaking into places in broad daylight," the group wrote.

"With what's going on at the moment, especially all the home invasions and so forth, everyone's feeling a bit unsafe at the moment," Joe said.

"Let's get these laws a little bit stronger so people are scared to do them."

Police confirmed they were investigating a commercial burglary on Drummond Street.

No arrests have been made.

Any witnesses, anyone with vision or information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or anonymously at www.crimestoppersvic.com.au.

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Could Australia become entirely cashless in the coming years? Some experts are predicting notes and coins may be unusable in a few years time. 

A recent Reserve Bank survey shows consumer payments made in cash have fallen from about 70 per cent in 2007 to just 13 per cent in 2022.

The nation's declining use of cash was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic when shoppers and retail workers were reluctant to handle potentially infected notes.

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Cash advocates have been angry about the declining number of bank branches and ATMs, while many Australians have protested the move with cash out days.

Some finance experts believe Australia is on track to become a cashless society within five years. 

RMIT University finance expert Angel Zhong previously told The Conversation the use of cash or even swiping a card was a rare event.

"The shift towards a cashless society in Australia isn't just a possibility, it's already well underway," Zhong said.

"The blend of technological advancements, changing consumer preferences and regulatory adaptations has set the stage for this transformation.

"The new regulations will help Australians navigate this transition more confidently."

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Standing by her forecast that a cashless society is well underway, Zhong estimates the change could come as soon as 2030.

But Australians using cash for essential purposes will be protected under a new a cash mandate for grocery and fuel retailers.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers saidthe mandate would ensure Australians who depend on cash for fuel and groceries "aren't left behind".

Under the new cash mandate, businesses that sell fuel and groceries must accept cash payments for these essential purchases.

The mandate will mostly apply to retailers like supermarkets and service stations.

However Retailers only have to accept cash payments for in-person purchases of $500 and less.

The transaction must also made between the hours of 7am and 9pm.

Retailers can refuse cash for purchases made outside those hours, or for transactions of more than $500.

Chalmers said the mandate will run for three years, at which point the government will review it to ensure it is functioning as intended.

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Connor Purvis, 20, planned to summit Mount Huxley around December 30.

Drivers in Melbourne have been left terrified after armed men clashed in the middle of a busy freeway.

The chaos began about 2.30pm yesterday when two cars lost control after weaving through traffic on the Monash Freeway in Narre Warren in Melbourne's south-east.

Several masked men, some apparently armed with machetes and metal poles, then spilled out of the cars and began brawling in the middle of the freeway.

READ MORE: Captured president walked through detention office in New York

Phone video shows some of the men approaching the windows of a car with a family inside.

Innocent drivers tried to speed away while others attempted to reverse to a nearby exit.

By the time police arrived at the scene, most of the men had fled into nearby bushland.

READ MORE: Bondi terror attack first responders and heroes honoured at SCG

Three lanes of the freeway were closed as the dog squad was brought in to search the area.

Only one man was questioned and was released without charge.

There were no injuries reported during the incident.

READ MORE: US military operation in Venezuela disrupts travel with hundreds of flights cancelled

Housing Minister Harriet Shing insisted Victoria's ban on machetes was having a positive impact on crime, but conceded incidents like this highlight areas for improvement.

"The vast majority of people who call Victoria home have an experience of safety, cohesion and connectedness," she said.

"There's always more work to do, however."

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More than 60 Australian sporting stars have joined the chorus calling for a federal royal commission into the Bondi terror attack, antisemitism and radicalisation.

They have put their names to an open letter, as some of the heroes were honoured in Sydney today.

"We cannot remain silent. This is not who we are. This is not the Australia we represented," the letter says.

READ MORE: Captured president walked through detention office in New York

At what's left of the memorial at Bondi, Olympians Dawn Fraser, Nova Peris and Jewish sprinter Steve Solomon left flowers and consoled family members of the victims.

"If we fail to investigate with a royal commission – now, honestly, rigorously, without fear, we risk investigating funerals once again," Peris said.

"Come down off your high horse and stop trying to run for cover," Fraser told Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

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"If the Jewish community is calling for a royal commission then do the right thing by this community that has suffered enough."

Solomon said: "This is something that comes naturally to those who wear the green and gold, is to take on feedback, to learn from it, to get better and to improve as a community." 

Other signees included Ian Thorpe, Grant Hackett, Lleyton Hewitt, Scott Pendlebury and Isaac Heeney

While the prime minister has launched an inquiry into federal agencies, calls for a commonwealth royal commission are growing from the families of victims, the legal fraternity, business community and religious leaders.

READ MORE: World leaders react with condemnation and caution after US attack on Venezuela

A man has died after a stolen car crashed in regional South Australia, having allegedly reached speeds of 180km/h during a police pursuit.

The blue Ford sedan was reported stolen from a Port Augusta home on Friday afternoon, and was seen driving off from a petrol station in the same town about 10.30am yesterday.

It was seen by police 30 minutes later, with a pursuit briefly starting, before being stopped a short time later due to safety concerns.

READ MORE: Why is the US attacking Venezuela?

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The car was then seen several times in Whyalla, about 75 kilometres south of Port Augusta, and a police helicopter began to track its movements about 1.30pm.

It was seen travelling on Iron Knob Road, before heading west onto the Eyre Highway towards Kimba.

Police said the car hit speeds about 180km/h and was at times driving on the wrong side of the road.

The car briefly stopped at a rest stop about 2.40pm, allowing police to lay down road spikes.

The Ford hit the spikes and continued driving for about two kilometres before crashing.

The driver, a 33-year-old Hilton man, was found unconscious, with police attempting to revive him.

READ MORE: Australia issues South American travel warnings after USA strikes Venezuela

However, he was pronounced dead at the scene.

The death will be investigated as a death in custody, as the man was evading police at the time of the crash.

Police claim the decision to use road spikes was done to protect the safety of other drivers.

Major crash investigators initially attended the scene yesterday, and returned this morning to complete their investigation.

A report will be prepared for the coroner.

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Venezuela's executive vice president Delcy Rodriguez – the potential successor of captured president Nicolas Maduro – has demanded his release and declared the South American country will never be a US colony.

In the hours after Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were dragged from their bedrooms by US troops in a late-night military operation, Rodriguez condemned the "illegitimate kidnapping" when speaking on state television.

Rodriguez called for calm and unity, before contradicting Donald Trump's earlier claims that she had been sworn in as president of Venezuela.

READ MORE: Why is the US attacking Venezuela?

READ MORE: US captures Venezuela's president and wife, removes them from the country

"We demand the immediate release of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife. The only president of Venezuela is President Nicolas Maduro," Rodriguez said.

The VP said Venezuela's government was prepared to defend itself, adding that the country's defence council had been activated.

She confirmed an official government response would be expected soon.

"To our Venezuela, to our people: There is a clear government here," she said.

Rodriguez emphasised that Venezuela "will never again be anyone's colony – neither of old empires, nor of new empires, nor of empires in decline".

READ MORE: Who is Nicolas Maduro? From bus driver to Venezuela president

She warned other countries that what the US did to Venezuela "they can do to anyone".

"This brutal use of force to bend the will of peoples can be done to any country," she said.

Rodriguez has served as Maduro's VP since 2018.

She has been previously described by Maduro as a "tiger" due to her loyalty and strong support of his socialist government.

Trump earlier claimed that Rodriguez had already been formally established as president and was "willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again".

He also said the US would assume control of Venezuela for the time being.

Speaking from Mar-a-Lago Trump said "we're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition".

Trump confirmed Maduro's capture by posting a photo on Truth Social of Maduro, blindfolded, handcuffed, wearing a grey Nike tracksuit and holding a bottle of water on board the warship USS Iwo Jima on its way to New York.

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On November 2, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles told Vanity Fair that land strikes in Venezuela would require the approval of Congress.

She said if Donald Trump "were to authorise some activity on land, then it's war, then (we'd need) Congress".

Days later, Trump administration officials privately told members of Congress much the same thing – that they lacked the legal justification to support attacks against any land targets in Venezuela.

READ MORE: Venezuela's vice president says country will never be a US colony

Just two months later, though, the Trump administration has done what it previously indicated it couldn't.

It launched what Trump called a "large scale strike against Venezuela" and captured its president, Nicolas Maduro, to face charges. And it launched this regime change effort without the approval of Congress.

(Trump in November claimed he didn't need congressional authorisation for land action, but it clearly wasn't the consensus view in the administration.)

It appears the mission is, for now, limited to removing Maduro.

But as Trump noted, it did involve striking inside the country – the same circumstance some in the administration previously indicated required authorisation that it didn't have.

CNN reported in early November that the administration was seeking a new legal opinion from the Justice Department for such strikes.

And Trump in a news conference spoke repeatedly about not just arresting Maduro, but also running Venezuela and taking over its oil – comments that could certainly be understood to suggest this was about more than arresting Maduro.

Legally dubious strikes inside another country – even ones narrowly tailored at removing a foreign leader – are hardly unheard of in recent American history.

But even in that context, this one is remarkable.

READ MORE: Why is the US attacking Venezuela?

Shifting justifications

That's because the Trump administration has taken remarkably little care to offer a consistent set of justifications or a legal framework for the attack.

And it doesn't even appear to have notified Congress ahead of time, which is generally the bare minimum in such circumstances.

A full explanation of the claimed justification has yet to be issued, but the early signs are characteristically confusing.

Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah said shortly after the strikes that Secretary of State Marco Rubio told him the attack was needed to, in Lee's words, "protect and defend those executing the arrest warrant" against Maduro.

"This action likely falls within the president's inherent authority under Article II of the Constitution to protect US personnel from an actual or imminent attack," Lee, a frequent critic of unauthorised foreign military action, said.

Hours later, Vice President JD Vance echoed that line.

"And PSA for everyone saying this was 'illegal': Maduro has multiple indictments in the United States for narcoterrorism," Vance said on X.

"You don't get to avoid justice for drug trafficking in the United States because you live in a palace in Caracas."

At a later news conference, Rubio echoed the line that the military had been supporting "a law enforcement function."

But there are many people living in other countries that are under indictment in the United States; it is not the US government's usual course to launch strikes on foreign countries to bring them to justice.

The administration also hadn't previously indicated that military force could be legally used for this reason.

Initially, Trump threatened land strikes inside Venezuela to target drug traffickers – this despite Venezuela being an apparently somewhat small player in the drug-trafficking game.

Later, the administration suggested strikes might be needed because Venezuela sent bad people into the United States.

And then, after initially downplaying the role of oil in the US pressure campaign against Venezuela and Maduro, Trump said he aimed to reclaim "the oil, land, and other assets that they previously stole from us."

The signals were confusing enough that even the hawkish Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina in mid-December indicated the administration lacked "clarity" in its messaging.

"I want clarity right here," Graham said.

READ MORE: US captures Venezuela's president and wife, removes them from the country

"President Trump is saying his days are numbered. That seems to me that he's gotta go. If it's the goal of taking him out because he's a threat to our country, then say it. And what happens next? Don't you think most people want to know that?"

Despite the focus on the law enforcement operation, Trump at the news conference said the United States would now participate in running Venezuela, at least temporarily. And he repeatedly spoke about its oil.

"We're going to rebuild the oil infrastructure," Trump said, adding at another point: "We're going to run the country right."

And even if the administration had offered a more consistent justification, that doesn't mean it would be an appropriate one.

A controversial 1989 memo

The most recent major example of using the US military for regime change is the war in Iraq.

That war was authorised by Congress in 2002. The broader war on terror was authorised by Congress in 2001, after the 9/11 attacks.

Since then, administrations have sought to justify several military actions in the Middle East using those authorisations – sometimes dubiously.

But Venezuela is in an entirely different theatre.

While many have compared the effort in Venezuela to Iraq, the better comparison – and one the administration apparently intends to make – is Panama in 1989.

Like in Venezuela, Panama's leader at the time, Manuel Noriega, was under US indictment, including for drug-trafficking. And like in Venezuela, the operation was less a large-scale war than a narrowly tailored effort to remove the leader from power.

The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel in 1980 had concluded that the FBI didn't have the authority to apprehend and abduct a foreign national to face justice. But George H.W. Bush administration's OLC quietly reversed that in the summer of 1989.

READ MORE: Who is Nicolas Maduro? From bus driver to Venezuela president

A memo written by William P. Barr, who would later become attorney general in that Bush administration and Trump's first administration, said a president had "inherent constitutional authority" to order the FBI to take people into custody in foreign countries, even if it violated international law to do so.

That memo was soon used to justify the operation to remove Noriega. (As it happens, Noriega was captured January 3, 1990.)

But that memo remains controversial to this day. It's also an extraordinarily broad grant of authority, potentially allowing US military force anywhere

And the situation in Venezuela could differ in that it's a larger country that could prove tougher to control with its leader in foreign custody. It also has significant oil wealth, meaning other countries could take an interest in what happens there next. (China has called the attack a "blatant use of force against a sovereign state".)

In both the news conference and an interview with Fox News, Trump invoked the possibility of further military option, reinforcing that this could be about more than just arresting Maduro.

That also means the questions about Trump's legal authorities could again be tested – just as he's already tested them with his legally dubious strikes on alleged drug boats and other actions in the region.

What's clear is that Trump is seeking to yet again test the limits of his authority as president – and Americans' tolerance for it. But this time he's doing it on one of the biggest stages yet.

And the story of his stretching of the law certainly isn't over.