The child was rescued from the locked car by Fire and Emergency New Zealand staff.

More than a million Australians will receive a cash boost this week.

Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek announced this month that after a new round of indexation, social security payments would increase for Australians receiving youth allowance, Austudy, ABSTUDY, youth disability pension, and carer allowance payments.

The changes will kick in from January 1, 2026.

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A single adult living away from home with no dependents, who receives youth allowance, will see their maximum fortnightly payment increase to $684.20.

Income thresholds for student payments will also increase, as well as the parental income test threshold for Youth Allowance and ABSTUDY.

About 680,000 people receiving the carer allowance will see their payments increase to $162.60 a fortnight.

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This is in addition to carer supplement payments and other social security support that carers may also be receiving.

The complete list of payment rates being indexed on 1 January 2026 can be found on the Department of Social Services website.

"Thanks to indexation, more than one million Aussies balancing study or caring responsibilities will receive a boost to their payments," Plibersek said.

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Warranted officers and volunteers will staff the Lake Ōkāreka boat ramp.

Survivors and families of the victims of a deadly train crash in southern Mexico are demanding answers as the government vowed to investigate what caused a train to derail on a line connecting the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.

Thirteen people, including a teenager, died when the Interoceanic Train linking the states of Oaxaca and Veracruz — with 250 people on board — went off the rails on Sunday (Monday AEST) as it passed by a curve near a town in Oaxaca. Nearly 110 people were injured.

Videos from the scene show train cars that had fallen off the side of a steep hill into dense jungle below as other cars lay toppled on their side.

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In 2023, Mexico's then-president Andrés Manuel López Obrador inaugurated the train line as part of a government push to expand the railway and connectivity in rural swaths of Mexico. Hic critics noted that many of the president's infrastructure projects were quickly constructed, often dodging regulatory bureaucracy and environmental impact studies.

López Obrador's ally and successor, President Claudia Sheinbaum, told reporters she was heading to the region and that the train and the infrastructure had been working correctly.

“Our first priority is taking care of the victims," she said. “The second is rigorously investigate what caused this accident.”

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A family's despair

Hector Serrano Garcia, whose 15-year-old daughter Luisa was killed in the crash, was overcome with grief as he gathered with family members in a small funeral home in Oaxaca.

Carmen García, Luisa's grandmother who was also on the train, begged on Sunday night on social media for help in finding her granddaughter.

“We haven't been able to find her anywhere,” the grandmother said. “Please, everyone, touch your hearts, it's my granddaughter.”

Serrano Garcia said the family received the tragic news that Luisa was killed on Monday.

“We’ve had very little information," he said. “It's been incredibly hard for all the families.”

‘It was going very fast’

Baldo Enríquez Antonio said his wife, Ana Guadalupe Fabre, and their 16-year-old son were both on the train, returning home to Veracruz after spending Christmas with relatives in Oaxaca.

They told him the train “was going very fast on the curves,” he said over the phone from a hospital in southern Oaxaca.

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Fabre broke several ribs in the crash and their son hurt his leg and had a gash on his forehead where he suffered a bad cut, Enríquez Antonio told The Associated Press.

Despite his own injuries, their son pulled his mother out of their toppled train car.

When asked about the speed of the train, Sheinbaum said she had seen videos of survivors talking about the speed but warned that “we shouldn’t speculate” but let the "prosecutors do their job.”

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Weeks after blocking anyone aged under 16 from social media, Australia is also in the middle of another online safety crackdown in an attempt to protect young people from the potential harms of AI chatbots, but some experts say it should go even further.

As the artificial intelligence industry continues to develop rapidly, many teenagers have become more reliant on the technology in their day-to-day lives.

Melbourne high school teacher Matthew Micallef has noticed the shift, saying he has seen literacy rates dramatically worsen since the boom.

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"Outside of academic authenticity, students are opting into an 'easy way out' mentality towards their learning," Micallef said. 

"Also, schools are spending a considerable amount of money and funding on eSafety workshops for students that could be better spent on other endeavours."

There is a growing concern that kids may begin to rely too much on artificial intelligence, particularly chatbots, following the absence of social media on their phones.

"We know that kids are already using AI tools, whether that's talking to ChatGPT or companion apps that are actually sort of designed to make friends with people," director of the Centre for Human-AI Information Environments Professor Lisa Given said.

"We know that there are people who get really taken in by the way that those systems engage with us.

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"These systems are trained to respond in that very human way, and that means people can get entranced into thinking that there's a human in the machine or that the machine is listening to and understanding what you're saying.

"That means that companion apps in particular, that are designed to make friends with you and build a relationship, have the potential for significant harm for vulnerable people, and that includes kids."

Australia recently rolled out new restrictions for AI bots, limiting the type of content they can provide teenagers.

"We're the only country in the world that will be tackling AI chatbots and AI companions," eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant told 9News in early December. 

"They will be prevented from serving any pornographic, sexually explicit, self-harm, suicidal ideation or disordered eating (content) to under-18s."

Given says the chatbots are hazardous for vulnerable people.

"What we've certainly seen around the world is that there are people who will listen to what these systems are telling them and take it to heart," she said.

"So if a system says to you, 'that's a really great idea, you should totally pursue that', it gives a boost to our ego, and we think someone's listening.

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"But we've seen that sometimes that goes to a very dark place, particularly if people start saying to the system, I'm really depressed, or I'm having really horrible feelings, or I'm thinking about suicide.

"We see that some of those apps are actually responding in ways that encourage that thinking rather than trying to respond to a person and push them towards getting help.

"That means people who are very vulnerable, who are already at risk, can actually be really taken down to a dark hole by these computers."

Micallef believes that teens should not have access to AI chatbots entirely, mostly because of the safety risk they pose.

"With some of the concerns outlined by the eSafety Commissioner, such as access to pornographic, graphic or self-harm content, it would not be wise to give impressionable teenagers the ability to utilise such applications," he said.

Given thinks the restrictions should go even further so to protect everyone, not just teenagers – although conceded any such regulation would be difficult to enact.

"These systems are not just harmful to children," she said.

"We know we've got evidence of adults that also get entranced by these systems, for anyone that is particularly vulnerable, or has existing mental health issues, that's a huge concern.

"If it's safe for adults, it should be safe for kids."

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Oscar Ford knew he had snagged something big.

But he never imagined it would be a great white shark.

The Victorian carpenter was with three inexperienced cousins, two of them children, when he snagged the giant fish off Barwon Heads on Sunday.

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"It's a f—ing white, holy shh, holy crap, I've caught a white off Barwon Heads," he screamed as cameras recorded the epic catch.

The carpenter battled for more than half an hour to reel the shark in close.

Every moment of the once-in-a-lifetime experience was captured on an array of GoPro cameras.

"He's biting the boat, get that on film, get that on film," he can be heard saying.

The fishers even dunked one of the cameras into the water for an incredible closer look at the beast.

"I was just in disbelief, I was like this is insane, I would never have thought this would happen," Ford told 9News.

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"I had so much emotion, so much adrenaline running through me.

"I was feeling a million different emotions, I was feeling on top of the world."

Ford pushed off Ocean Grove early on Sunday to fish for tuna but switched to a snapper mark near Barwon Heads after a quiet few hours to set a bait balloon.

"We chucked it out and 45 minutes later we see a fin sort of just circling the balloon and then out of nowhere it just started splashing the water, going crazy," he said.

Great whites are a protected species so Ford never brought his catch on board, cutting it loose to go free.

"As soon as we saw it we were going crazy, it was just such an amazing experience to see such a big beautiful animal," he said.

The Australian hero who bravely disarmed one of the Bondi Beach gunmen and got shot in the process has spoken out for the first time since being released from hospital.

Ahmed Al Ahmed, a 44-year-old tobacco shop owner from Sydney's south, was getting coffee when gunshots rang out on December 14.

He has now relived the moment he confronted Sajid Akram and wrestled the gun out of his hands, saying he "didn't worry".

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"My target was just to take the gun from him and to stop him from killing a human being, life, and not killing innocent people," he told CBS in an exclusive interview to be aired later today.

Ahmed recognised that his actions saved countless lives, but said, "I feel sorry still for the lost".

Footage from the moment showed Ahmed leaping out from behind some cars and tackling Akram, snatching his gun away from him and pointing it back at him.

He became wounded himself and was shot multiple times in the arm and shoulder. 

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Ahmed told CBS he jumped on Akram's back and hit him as he warned him to drop his gun and stop what he was doing.

"And emotionally, I'm doing something, which is I feel something, a power in my body, my brain," he said.

"I don't want to see people killed in front of me, I don't want to hear his gun, I don't want to see people screaming and begging, asking for help, and that's my soul asking me to do that.

"Everything in my heart, in my brain, everything, it's worked just to manage to save the people's life."

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Ahmed has received international praise for his actions from Prime Minister Anthony Albaese to US President Donald Trump and has been hailed as a hero.

In his hospital bed, he was awarded a cheque of $2.5 million after money was raised on GoFundMe to support his recovery, and he was visited by Albanese and NSW Premier Chris Minns.

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A bus driver is lucky to be alive after crashing into a car and then a medical centre in Sydney's north-west, injuring multiple people and triggering evacuations.

The 291 bus was en route from McMahons Point to Epping when it was hit by an SUV that allegedly ran a red light on Lane Cove Road near Epping Road at North Ryde just after 9am today.

It caused the bus to lose control and career into a medical centre while dozens of patients were inside. 

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Witnesses described an almighty shaking.

"The ground shook, I mean it was just like a massive bang," Joel Nader, who was in the waiting room of the physiotherapist's office, said.

"The building was, it rattled, it was like going through an earthquake," Damian Benson said.

The driver was pinned to his seat after the awning of the building went through the bus windscreen.

"It was very frightening, I thought the driver died, the thing just popped him right in the chest, but he survived," bus passenger Nikhil Singh said.

The bus driver was rescued by emergency services and taken to the hospital while the building was evacuated.

Fire and Rescue NSW officer Craig Burchmore said the bus driver was lucky to survive the crash.

"The compartment where he was sitting was completely destroyed, so it's an absolute miracle that he's still alive," he said.

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The bus driver, nine passengers on the bus and the 88-year-old driver of the SUV were injured.

The bus driver, the driver of the SUV and one bus passenger were taken to the Royal North Shore Hospital for further treatment.

There were no passengers travelling in the car.

Police are now investigating the circumstances surrounding the crash.

Burchmore said the building now had major structural damage following the crash.

It took emergency services more than four hours to tow the car. 

Motorists saw delays and were told to exercise caution due to heavy traffic in the area.

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Police have arrested a 21-year-old after a terrifying disturbance for shoppers in Sydney's west.

Officers were called to Westfield Mt Druitt shopping centre after a man ran through the shopping centre allegedly armed with a knife just after 2pm today.

Footage from the food court shows police surrounding a suspect on the ground with a weapon visible at their feet.

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Police received reports a man left a Willmot unit block carrying weapons at about 1pm.

Half an hour later they tried to stop a car then found it in the shopping centre carpark.

A 21-year-old is now in custody at Mount Druitt Police Station.

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has knocked back a plea from the families of the Bondi Beach terrorist attack victims to open a royal commission into the shooting.

A letter signed by 11 of the 15 victims' families called on Albanese to examine the "rapid rise of antisemitism in Australia and the law enforcement, intelligence, and policy failures that led to the Bondi Beach massacre".

Albanese has already knocked back calls to hold a commonwealth royal commission, saying it would take years and delay action.

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A state version and the Richardson review into government agencies are both planned.

But the families of some of the victims say it's not enough.

"Announcements made so far by the federal government in response to the Bondi massacre are not nearly enough," the families wrote in a letter published in the Nine newspapers.

Albanese said this afternoon his "heart breaks for the families of the victims of the Bondi terrorist atrocity, and my heart goes out to them at what is an incredibly traumatic time".

"My job as the Australian prime minister is to act in the national interest," he added.

"It is in the national interest for us to do the Richardson review on national security, on any gaps which are there in the conduct of our agencies, including the AFP, ASIO, ASIS, the interaction between the Commonwealth and state jurisdictions, any gaps which are there."

A royal commission is an independent public inquiry.

In Australia, royal commissions are the highest form of inquiry on matters of public importance.

READ MORE: PM promotes plan to 'unite community' after Bondi Beach attack 

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke also said it would not be in the interest of national security to have a commonwealth royal commission.

"No one can tell me that that is in the interest of unity to re-platform some of the worst voices, but a royal commission, by definition, does that and does that publicly," he said.

"Now, I understand why families and different people would call for it. But when you then look at, is it the right way to deal with national security? The answer is no. Is it the right way to deliver unity? The answer again is no."

NSW Premier Chris Minns said the state's royal commission into the attack will "get to the answers".

The Richardson review will look at aspects including the effectiveness of government agencies, the information agencies had about the alleged gunmen before the attack, the information sharing between federal and state agencies, judgments made and actions taken by agencies.

Also examined will be other preventative measures agencies could have taken, any restrictions of the current legal framework, measures to prevent similar attacks, the effectiveness of warrants and data access and any legal changes.

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The review will finalise a report by April.

Albanese promised the government would act on recommendations.

"The government is committed to making sure that we can't wait years for answers we need to get on with any changes that are required," he said. 

The prime minister is set to recall parliament early in January to introduce a series of reforms in the wake of the Bondi attack.

They will include hate speech laws, a landmark gun buyback scheme, a new offence targeting the radicalisation of children, and more powers for the home affairs minister to cancel or refuse visas if a person is suspected of promoting violence or hate or is associated with a terrorist organisation.

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