Tetraplegic father Mark Rihari lost vital medical equipment in the blaze.

A woman has been charged after an alleged carjacking in Sydney's west.

Witnesses claim they saw a woman try to get out of the passenger side of a moving delivery van on the M4 motorway near Reservoir Road in Blacktown at 10.30am today.

Police were called and tracked the vehicle across multiple suburbs with the help of the police helicopter.

READ MORE: Identity of mystery Bondi Beach hero revealed

When the van allegedly failed to stop, police started a chase, but stopped it due to safety concerns.

Police then found the passenger of the van on King Street in Parramatta.

The 30-year-old woman was uninjured.

The van was eventually stopped on James Ruse Drive in Rosehill.

The alleged driver, a 48-year-old woman, was arrested and taken to Granville Police Station.

She was charged with two counts of taking and driving conveyance without the consent of the owner, taking/detaining a person with the intent to obtain advantage to cause actual bodily harm, and police pursuit – not stop – driving dangerously.

Police allege the woman stole a second vehicle outside a hospital in Kingswood before stealing the van.

She was refused bail to appear before Parramatta Local Court tomorrow.

DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Police say it is not yet clear how long the remains have been on the island.

The Trump administration launched military strikes on Friday in Syria to “eliminate” Islamic State group fighters and weapons sites in retaliation for an ambush attack that killed two US troops and an American civilian interpreter almost a week ago.

A US official described it as “a large-scale” strike that hit 70 targets in areas across central Syria that had IS infrastructure and weapons.

Another US official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive operations, said more strikes should be expected.

READ MORE: Trump says 'we will retaliate' after three Americans are killed in Syria attack

“This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance. The United States of America, under President Trump’s leadership, will never hesitate and never relent to defend our people,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on social media.

The new military operation in Syria comes even as the Trump administration has said it’s looking to focus closer to home in the Western Hemisphere, building up an armada in the Caribbean Sea as it targets alleged drug-smuggling boats and vowing to keep seizing sanctioned oil tankers as part of a pressure campaign on Venezuela’s leader.

The US has shifted significant resources away from the Middle East to further those goals: Its most advanced aircraft carrier arrived in South American waters last month from the Mediterranean Sea.

Trump vowed retaliation

President Donald Trump pledged “very serious retaliation” after the shooting in the Syrian desert, for which he blamed IS.

Those killed were among hundreds of US troops deployed in eastern Syria as part of a coalition fighting the militant group.

During a speech in North Carolina on Friday evening, the president hailed the operation as a “massive strike” that took out the “ISIS thugs in Syria who were trying to regroup.”

Earlier, in his social media post, he reiterated his backing for Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who Trump said was “fully in support” of the US effort.

READ MORE: NSW Premier announces new hate laws

Trump also offered an all-caps threat, warning IS against attacking American personnel again.

“All terrorists who are evil enough to attack Americans are hereby warned — YOU WILL BE HIT HARDER THAN YOU HAVE EVER BEEN HIT BEFORE IF YOU, IN ANY WAY, ATTACK OR THREATEN THE U.S.A.,” the president added.

The attack was conducted using F-15 Eagle jets,

A-10 Thunderbolt ground attack aircraft and AH-64 Apache helicopters, the U S officials said. F-16 fighter jets from Jordan and HIMARS rocket artillery also were used, one official added.

US Central Command, which oversees the region, said in a social media post that American jets, helicopters and artillery employed more than 100 precision munitions on Syrian targets.

READ MORE: Woman arrested after dramatic police pursuit Sydney's west

How Syria has responded

The attack was a major test for the warming ties between the United States and Syria since the ouster of autocratic leader Bashar Assad a year ago.

Trump has stressed that Syria was fighting alongside US troops and said al-Sharaa was “extremely angry and disturbed by this attack,” which came as the US military is expanding its cooperation with Syrian security forces.

Syria’s foreign ministry in a statement on X following the launch of US strikes said that last week’s attack “underscores the urgent necessity of strengthening international cooperation to combat terrorism in all its forms” and that Syria is committed “to fighting ISIS and ensuring that it has no safe havens on Syrian territory and will continue to intensify military operations against it wherever it poses a threat.”

Syrian state television reported that the US strikes hit targets in rural areas of Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa provinces and in the Jabal al-Amour area near the historic city of Palmyra. It said they targeted “weapons storage sites and headquarters used by ISIS as launching points for its operations in the region.”

READ MORE: Official Christmas Day forecast revealed

IS has not said it carried out the attack on the US service members, but the group has claimed responsibility for two attacks on Syrian security forces since, one of which killed four Syrian soldiers in Idlib province.

The group in its statements described al-Sharaa’s government and army as “apostates.” While al-Sharaa once led a group affiliated with al-Qaida, he has had a long-running enmity with IS.

The Americans who were killed

Trump this week met privately with the families of the slain Americans at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware before he joined top military officials and other dignitaries on the tarmac for the dignified transfer, a solemn and largely silent ritual honoring US service members killed in action.

The guardsmen killed in Syria last Saturday were Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown. Ayad Mansoor Sakat, of Macomb, Michigan, a US civilian working as an interpreter, also was killed.

The shooting near Palmyra also wounded three other US troops as well as members of Syria’s security forces, and the gunman was killed.

The assailant had joined Syria’s internal security forces as a base security guard two months ago and recently was reassigned because of suspicions that he might be affiliated with IS, Interior Ministry spokesperson Nour al-Din al-Baba has said.

The man stormed a meeting between US and Syrian security officials who were having lunch together and opened fire after clashing with Syrian guards.

___

Associated Press writer Abby Sewell in Beirut, Lebanon, contributed.

Police say one person has serious injuries and four others are moderately hurt.

Christmas Day is now just days away, which means the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) has been able to announce the official forecast.

Some Aussies may need to move celebrations indoors as a few states are warned of possible showers, as well as relatively cool to mild temperatures.

"It will be a varied Christmas Day across the country, with cool conditions across much of the south-east compared to an expected hot day in Perth, and hot and stormy conditions for much of the Northern Territory," the BoM says.

READ MORE: What are the public holidays during the Christmas and New Year period in your state?

Victoria and South Australia are expected to remain dry but the bureau is forecasting showers for western and northern Tasmania.

There's also a risk of showers for eastern NSW with onshore winds and a partly cloudy day on the forecast, so not ideal beach weather.

However, it should be generally dry and sunny elsewhere, with above average temperatures forecast for north-east NSW and southern Queensland.

Large parts of the Sunshine State, including the south-east and the tropical north, are set to see showers and storms.

While over on the west coast, it will be a hot and dry day across southern WA.

So what does the weather have planned for your neck of the woods? Let's check out the state-by-state forecasts:

Queensland

Brisbane is set to see a shower or two, with highs of 33 degrees and balmy overnight lows of 22 degrees.

Through eastern, central and northern Queensland, there's a risk of showers and storms.

Maximum temperatures in the low 30s near the coast and across northern parts, to high 30s elsewhere through southern inland areas.

READ MORE: Christmas trading hours 2025: When shops are open this holiday season

NSW

A generally dry and mostly sunny day across the state, although there's the risk of showers for the east coast.

Sydney is expecting a shower or two with highs of 26 degrees, falling to lows of 19.

Maximum temperatures for the state will be within a few degrees of the December average – low to mid 20s about the south coast, grading to high 20s about the north coast.

Away from coast, maximum temperatures in the high 20s in the south, grading to low 30s in the north.

ACT

Canberra is set for a mostly sunny Christmas Day with highs also reaching 27 degrees but a chilly evening is forecast, with lows down around 10 degrees.

Victoria

It's set to be a cool to mild day with the slight risk of a light morning shower about the exposed southern coasts, clearing to a dry afternoon.

Maximum temperatures will be well-below average, with the partly cloudy skies keeping maximum temperatures in the high-teens to low 20s in the south.

Melbourne can expect a mild and partly cloudy day with highs of just 17 degrees, dropping down to 13 degrees.

It'll be dry and sunny in the north.

READ MORE: When double demerits apply over Christmas and New Year in every state and territory

Tasmania

A gusty westerly flow will bring showers to western and southern Tasmania.

Daytime temperatures are generally 2 to 6 degrees below the December average, and in the mid-teens through western and southern parts but reaching around 20 degrees for the northeast.

Hobart is set for a cloudy day with highs reaching 16 degrees, before dropping to 9 degrees overnight.

South Australia

A dry and mostly sunny day across South Australia, with cloud clearing in Adelaide for a top of 26 degrees.

While maximum temperatures will be in the mid to low 20s about the east coast, it'll be cooler in the far south-east, where the maximums are only set to reaching the high teens.

On the flip side, inland temperatures could reach into the high 30s.

Western Australia

It'll be a dry and warm-to-hot Christmas Day across much of the state, with daytime temperatures in the mid-to-high 30s, grading to low 40s away from the coast, through central and northern parts.

Perth is forecast to reach a scorcher with tops of 40 degrees forecast, while overnight lows will remain at a warm 25 degrees.

Tropical showers and storms are forecast for the Kimberley.

Northern Territory

And cloudy with showers and storms across much of central and northern NT, with a shower or two and possible storm forecast for Darwin.

They'll see a top of 32 degrees, with lows of 26 degrees.

Dry and mostly sunny in the far south.

– Reported with Bureau of Meteorology

DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Analysis: The Optus network outage that occurred on September 18 this year led to a failure of hundreds of Triple Zero calls, and tragically two deaths where people had attempted to make Triple Zero calls.

Yesterday's independent report, released by Optus, is a complex analysis of the incident which will lead to changes in the handling of network upgrades, communications within Optus, but most alarmingly, shines a light on a serious issue with our modern mobile-reliant communications systems and the Triple Zero emergency line.

Leaving aside the analysis of the technical "why" surrounding the network outage, and understanding that there will be plenty of people at Optus looking at potentially packing their bags after failures to escalate the problem and properly communicate the issues, the real focus, I think, should be on educating Australians about the learnings we can all take from this issue.

READ MORE: Official Christmas Day forecast revealed

On the very first page of the over 40-page report produced by Dr Kerry Schott AO, there is a reference to mobile devices possibly taking "40 to 60 seconds to camp-on," which is the technical term for your mobile finding an alternate network to make a Triple Zero call in the event of an outage.

Calls to Optus' customer support on the day of the outage reported this exact problem; customers had tried to call Triple Zero but heard nothing but complete silence.

A key recommendation of the Schott report is to "Inform all customers that their devices may take 40-60 seconds to connect to Triple Zero" – that is a staggering thing to hear, as Dr Schott points out, "In an emergency, people are unlikely to hang on for this length of time, especially when the only response they are getting is silence on the line."

Critically, there is no single way in which mobile phones operate in the event of an outage to process a request to call Triple Zero.

Optus testing showed that Apple and Samsung phones used different pathways to establish a route through to another network and ultimately to Triple Zero.

Most concerning might also be the analysis which showed both Apple and Samsung devices attempted to connect to 3G to make that call, despite the fact that 3G has been switched off in Australia for over a year now.

Given this 40 to 60 second delay, it can be assumed that part of that timeframe is used to attempt 3G connections, and that should be written completely out of the code for devices used in Australia.

READ MORE: How everyday Aussies can help in the wake of the Bondi shooting

Perhaps problematically, removing that code might then render the phones unable to contact emergency numbers in other countries when travelling, which is also an issue for travellers coming to Australia with phones still hard-coded to use 3G for emergency services.

The Schott report recommends that the industry and Government investigate ways to make the Triple Zero system be data-enabled, which would remove this reliance on now-old, outdated, and discontinued mobile network concepts.

Concerningly, the report also recommends that the public be encouraged to test their devices to ensure they work for a Triple Zero call.

It is vital that the public never call Triple Zero unless it is an emergency; in fact, it's an offence to do so.

What is needed though is a system by which people can have faith that their phone will work in the unique circumstances of a network failure, something you can't test by simply making a call.

Industry testing of devices must continue; a phone or SMS number should be set up for people to contact to validate their device, and the regulators and Government must act fast to bring our Triple Zero emergency call network up to a modern global standard.

While not noted in the Schott report, this could and should include factors such as calls via satellite, SMS, and messaging connectivity to Triple Zero and a modern data-enabled call system; it's the least we should expect from the most important phone number in Australia.

DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

A vile act has been captured on CCTV with a vandal spray painting banned symbols of hate on the walls of a Brisbane mosque.

The vision shows a masked figure running towards the Bald Hills Mosque and committing the graffiti late on Wednesday night.

A swastika was among the ugly messages and slogans worshipers were confronted with yesterday morning.

LIVE UPDATES: NSW unveils new gun reform, protest crackdown laws

"We condemn all forms of violence, racism, and hatred just as we condemn the recent acts of terror," Iman Salik said.

Members shared their disappointment as they left the mosque this afternoon.

"The evil that exists around us purely to spread division and it breeds more hate and the only answer is love," mosque member Greg McIntosh said.

One mosque member extended an olive branch to the vandal today.

"Mate come out, ask questions, let's hang out, kebabs on me," Khaled Akbery said.

Following the vandalism, police have increased patrols of the area and a mobile police van was set up at a mosque gathering today.

"Queensland and Australia is a multicultural society, and there is no tolerance for any threats or persecution on any culture or religion," Queensland Police detective inspector Chris Toohey said.

Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja shared the vandalism on Instagram, with a message for his followers.

"Don't let the haters divide us," he wrote.

Sandgate MP Bisma Asif also condemned the act of hate.

"This comes on the back of 15 innocent people who have lost their lives, at the hands of extremists," she said.

"There is no room for this kind of division or hatred in our community.

"My message to our local community is we must stand together at these times of grief.

"A lot of people are hurting right now.

"We need to come together rather than tear each other apart, and there is no room for racism, racial vilification, or any forms of discrimination."

Boards have since been secured over the graffiti.

Anyone who may have witnessed the incident or has relevant information is asked to contact police.

DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Seven men who were arrested yesterday after a dramatic operation in Sydney's south-west and released today without charge plan to sue NSW Police for damages.

Their lawyer Ahmed Dibb said the group, the youngest of whom was just 18, claim they were unfairly targeted and want to set a precedent that no other group receives the same treatment.

Two of their cars were damaged after being rammed during the arrest on the corner of George and Campbell streets in Liverpool yesterday, but it is understood the lawsuit will go beyond that.

READ MORE: Identity of mystery Bondi Beach hero revealed

No filings have been lodged just yet.

Police said in a statement yesterday they had received information that "a violent act was possibly being planned".

"As investigations continue, seven men are assisting police with their inquiries," NSW Police said yesterday.

"At this point in time, police have not identified any connection to the current police investigation of the Bondi terror attack."

Speaking to reporters after their release, the men denied any wrongdoing, claiming that they arrived from Victoria two days ago for a holiday.

The men told police they were on their way to a short-term rental before they were intercepted.

Police lacked sufficient evidence to charge the men with any offences, and they were released earlier today.

"We didn't do nothing wrong. There was nothing found on us," one of the men told reporters.

"Why are we here? If we got terrorism charges, I'd be locked up right now."

DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

A far-right extremist did perform a Nazi salute outside court, a judge has ruled following an appeal hearing.

Jacob Hersant, 26, in November 2024 became the first Australian jailed for performing a Nazi salute in public.

The self-confessed neo-Nazi was sentenced to one month behind bars but immediately launched an appeal against his conviction in the Victorian County Court.

READ MORE: Kennedy Centre board votes to rename it 'Trump Kennedy Centre'

Following a three-day hearing in October, Judge Simon Moglia on Friday ruled Hersant was guilty of intentionally performing the salute on October 27, 2023.

The 26-year-old had argued he did not perform the sieg heil and, even if he did, the charge was constitutionally invalid as the gesture was a legitimate form of political expression.

Video played in court showed Hersant raising his arm to salute in front of media outside the County Court, about six days after Victorian laws banning the gesture came into effect.

He was then captured on camera saying "nearly did it – it's illegal now" and "Australia for the white man, heil Hitler", before walking away.

Moglia described the comments after the gesture as a brazen acknowledgement of his offending.