Over 4000 public reports have helped keep the yellow-legged hornet population contained.

A second burst of heavy rain and possible thunderstorms is due around midnight.

Judge Crayton said it was pure “luck” that nobody died that night.

Jetstar passengers are warned to expect more delays today as the airline recovers from cancelling up to 90 flights yesterday.

The cancellations were caused by a wider recall of thousands of Airbus aircraft that need immediate maintenance to protect from a problem that injured passengers and caused an emergency landing last month.

The problems caused chaos for Jetstar, which uses the Airbus A320 as a significant part of its service in Australia and New Zealand.

READ MORE: Melbourne Metro Tunnel finally set to open after years of delays

Jetstar told 9News while it expected many of its planes to be flying again as normal today, the knock-on effect would still be felt.

"There may be some flow on delays or cancellations on Sunday as the network fully recovers. We will contact customers by SMS and email if there are any further disruptions," a spokesperson for the airline said.

Plane manufacturer Airbus found intense solar storms, like solar flares, could cause pilots to lose control of the Airbus A320 series of planes, including A319, A320, and A321s.

Jetstar said on Sunday afternoon the required Airbus software update has been applied to all affected aircraft.

About 6000 of the single-aisle planes worldwide, which are the bestselling passenger aircraft in the world, need the repairs, but disruption so far has been minimal.

"Analysis of a recent event involving an A320 Family aircraft has revealed that intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls," Airbus said in a statement.

On October 30, JetBlue Flight 1230 — an A320 — was flying from Cancun, Mexico, to Newark, New Jersey, when it suddenly dove down in altitude. The pilots made an emergency landing in Tampa, Florida, where about 15 people were taken to a hospital.

Airbus investigated the incident and on Friday told airlines in an "Alert Operators Transmission" that the fix was needed.

The company believes it is the only time this specific problem has happened, but says it "proactively worked with aviation authorities … keeping safety as our number one and overriding priority."

Most planes can be repaired in about two hours by simply reverting to the previous software, Airbus said, meaning that disruption seems relatively limited despite it being one of the busiest US travel weekends for Americans celebrating Thanksgiving.

However, for about 900 of the older aircraft affected, the fix is more complicated since they will need to have new hardware manually installed.

The Airbus A320 series has what's called fly-by-wire controls: physical movements from the pilot run through computers which, in turn, adjust the plane's control surfaces.

READ MORE: Massive industrial fire in Sydney's west could burn for days

An airworthiness directive from the European Union requires airlines to make the repairs before the planes can carry passengers again.

The airlines' scrambled repairs seemed to avoid any widespread disruption by Saturday morning.

Arrivals boards at major global airport hubs like Dallas Fort Worth, Dubai, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta, Tokyo Haneda and London Heathrow indicated that most flights were running on time, or with short delays.

American Airlines had completed all except four of the 209 aircraft that needed to be updated by Saturday morning, less than the 340 it had earlier predicted, according to a statement from the airline.

American initially warned of "some delays" as a result of the work, but it said on Saturday it expected no further operational impact. It hopes to have all of the repairs made by Sunday.

Delta Air Lines said fewer than 50 of its A321neo aircraft will be impacted and the work should be complete by Saturday morning.

"As safety comes before everything else, Delta will fully comply with a directive and expects any resulting operational impact to be limited," the airline said in a statement.

Six planes in United Airlines' fleet are affected and there will be "minor disruption to a few flights," the carrier said.

JetBlue, which operates a fleet mostly made up of A320 and A321 aircraft, did not say how many of their planes needed to be fixed, but said in a statement it has already started repairs.

"Our teams are doing everything possible to minimise disruptions to customers as this work is completed," JetBlue said.

"We will notify customers of any flight changes and customers can always check their flight status on jetblue.com or on the JetBlue app."

Airbus and the European Aviation Safety Authority have told airlines to reverse the upgrade before letting affected planes fly again, Simes said.

In Europe, Lufthansa, Aer Lingus, Wizz Air, EasyJet and British Airways all said some of their aircraft were affected but downplayed the effect of that on their operations.

Meanwhile, the papal plane — known as "Shepherd One" — was also affected by the issue, though the Vatican said the necessary updates were carried out on Saturday afternoon, so Pope Leo's trip to Turkey and Lebanon will proceed with the same plane.

– Reported with CNN.

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A couple from Kazakhstan have been charged for allegedly fraudulently winning more than $1 million at a Sydney casino.

The woman, 36, was seen by staff wearing a small camera on her skirt, with staff alerting police.

The woman, as well as her husband 44, were arrested on Thursday, with police finding further devices.

READ MORE: Pilot killed as two light planes collide in Sydney

Small, magnetised probes, batteries and a mobile phone with a fitted attachment that allowed the camera function to discreetly view, capture or record images.

A small custom-made mirror attachment for the same mobile was found.

Police say the pair travelled to Sydney from Kazakhstan in October and the same day applied for memberships to a casino in Barangaroo, where the Crown Sydney is.

READ MORE: Massive industrial fire in Sydney's west could burn for days

During October and November the pair made multiple visits, winning a total of $1,179,412.50 and raising suspicions.

Police will allege, with their mobile phones capturing images of the table, the pair were communicating with using earpieces through which they received instruction to wager on various card games and ultimately cheat the casino.

The wife was allegedly wearing a tiny camera hidden under a Disney logo.

A search warrant carried out at their accommodation on Kent Street in Sydney, saw gambling props, high end jewellery, and $2000 found.

The pair were charged with dishonestly obtain financial advantage etc by deception.

They were refused bail to appear in Bail Division Local Court 7 on Friday 28 November 2025.

Commander of the Organised Crime Squad, Detective Superintendent Peter Faux, said the Casino and Gaming Unit works in close partnership with casino security to detect and stop criminal activity.

"Our detectives collaborate closely with casino security to identify and disrupt unlawful behaviour. This strong cooperation is vital to maintaining the integrity of gaming operations and is reflected in outcomes like this," Det Supt Faux said.

OPINION: It’s about time small businesses got a little louder and fought back.

Hong Kong's deadliest fire in decades has raised questions about corruption and negligence in the renovations of the apartment complex where at least 128 people died.

An intense fire broke out at Wang Fuk Court complex in Hong Kong's northern suburbs on Wednesday afternoon, with flames covering seven of the eight towers.

The complex was home to some 4,800 residents, some of whom had raised safety concerns about the renovations more than year before the fire.

READ MORE: Massive industrial fire in Sydney's west could burn for days

Police on Wednesday arrested three men from a construction company on suspicion of manslaughter and gross negligence.

They were released on bail but then arrested by the Independent Commission Against Corruption, the authority said on Saturday night, pointing to their leadership role in the renovations.

ICAC had also previously arrested seven men and one woman associated with the project.

Police have not identified the company where the suspects worked, but documents posted to the homeowners association’s website showed that the Prestige Construction & Engineering Company was in charge of renovations.

Police have seized boxes of documents from the company, where phones rang unanswered on Thursday.

Officials also said they were investigating the materials used, both the netting on the scaffolding and the foam panels covering windows, and their role in the blaze.

READ MORE: Delays expected again for Jetstar passengers as airlines race to fix Airbus planes

Residents found safety issues a year before fire

For almost a year, some residents at the Wang Fuk Court complex had been raising safety concerns to Hong Kong authorities about the scaffolding materials being used in the renovation project, according to documents reviewed by the AP, specifically about the netting that covered the scaffolding.

Hong Kong’s labor department in a statement on Saturday confirmed it had received such complaints, adding that officials had carried out 16 inspections of Wang Fuk Court’s renovation project since July 2024, and had warned contractors multiple times in writing that they must ensure they met fire safety requirements.

READ MORE: Survivor's incredible story from inside the Hong Kong horror blaze

The city even carried out an inspection as late as one week before the fire.

The labor department said it had reviewed the product quality certificate of the netting and that it was in line with standards, but that the safety netting had not been the previous target of inspections.

Preliminary investigations showed the fire started on a lower-level scaffolding net of one of the buildings.

It then spread rapidly as the foam panels caught fire, said Chris Tang, the city's secretary for security.

Police also said they had been looking at the highly flammable foam panels.

“The blaze ignited the foam panels, causing the glass to shatter and leading to a swift intensification of the fire and its spread into the interior spaces,” Tang said.

The labor department said later on Saturday that three prosecutions were brought against the company over breaches of safety regulations for working at height in the construction and convictions in two of the cases resulted in fines of totaling 30,000 Hong Kong dollars ($5800).

The company also was fined three times in 2023 for separate violations unrelated to the Tai Po project.

First responders also found that some fire alarms in the complex, which housed many older people, did not sound when tested, said Andy Yeung, the director of Hong Kong Fire Services. He did not specify how many were not working or if any of the others were.

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Intense blaze took days to put out

It took firefighters a day to bring the fire under control, and it was not fully extinguished until Friday morning — some 40 hours after it started.

Crews prioritized apartments from which they had received emergency calls during the blaze but were unable to reach in the hours that the fire burned out of control, Derek Armstrong Chan, a deputy director of Hong Kong Fire Services, told reporters.

Twelve firefighters were among the 79 people injured in the blaze, and one firefighter was killed.

Even two days after the fire began, smoke continued to drift out of the charred skeletons of the buildings from the occasional flare-up.

More bodies may be found

While more bodies might be recovered, authorities said, crews have finished their search for anyone living trapped inside.

Authorities said on Saturday they need to identify 44 more bodies out of the 128 recovered. About 150 people remain unaccounted for.

The dead included two Indonesian migrant workers, the Indonesian foreign ministry said Thursday.

About 11 other migrants from the country who were working as domestic helpers in the apartment complex remain missing, Indonesian Consul General Yul Edison said on Friday.

Near the site of the fire, Sara Yu held the hand of her two-year-old son, Dominic, as they each placed a single white rose into a growing cluster of the flowers in a small children’s playground.

“I brought the kids here because I want them to understand that living in this world is something to be cherished,” she said, holding back tears.

Outside a building close to the scene of the fire where family members came to identify loved ones from photographs, people placed bouquets of white roses, lilies and carnations.

“More than 128 innocent lives, what did they do wrong?” asked a sign placed among the flowers.

The city lowered flags to half staff in mourning, and Chief Executive John Lee, led a three-minute silence on Saturday from the government headquarters with officials all dressed in black.

The fire was the deadliest in Hong Kong in decades. A 1996 fire in a commercial building in Kowloon killed 41 people.

A warehouse fire in 1948 killed 176 people, according to the South China Morning Post.

ChatGPT is about to get a lot hornier. Sam Altman, chief executive of the artificial intelligence chatbot's parent company, says it's about allowing adults more freedom to use AI how they want.

But experts from a range of fields, including OpenAI's own wellbeing panel, have raised a range of concerns about what it will mean for mental health and child safety.

ChatGPT is set to enable "erotica for verified adults" next month but there are still plenty of questions about what exactly that means and what the consequences might be.

READ MORE: Couple from Kazakhstan allegedly cheated Sydney casino out of more than $1m

What is 'erotic mode'?

It's not clear exactly what OpenAI is planning here. Altman said it would be rolling out age restrictions to allow the ChatGPT to do "even more, like erotica for verified adults". 

He pitched it less as a specific "erotic mode" than as a way of granting more freedom in the company's "treat adult users like adults" principle.

That leaves the door open for a lot of possibilities. It's not known if the changes will allow the model to write erotic fiction, engage in back-and-forth sexual conversations or even create an entire persona users could effectively "sext" with. 

OpenAI didn't respond to questions about what the changes would be like beyond referring to Altman's X posts announcing the feature and stressing the importance of teen wellbeing.

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Why the change? 

Put simply, people want it. A 2024 Washington Post analysis of almost 200,000 English-language conversations with AI chatbots found more than 7 per cent of conversations were about sex. 

A Harvard Business Review piece from April this year analysing Reddit posts and online articles didn't specifically delve into erotic but found therapy and companionship – "ongoing social and emotional connection, sometimes with a romantic dimension" – was the number one use case for generative AI. 

Altman says it's all about allowing users more freedom.

Senior lecturer in Computing and ​Information at Cardiff Metropolitan University Simon Thorne suggests there's another motive: profit.

READ MORE: Massive industrial fire in Sydney's west could burn for days

"This is a significant departure from what they have been doing, which is mostly attempting to keep what they might view as harmful information away from the user," he tells 9news.com.au

"Whether it's about erotic or of a sexual nature, or whether it's making a pipe bomb, or whatever it might be, there's obvious, obvious things that you don't necessarily want your platform to be responsible for providing. 

"So this is obviously a big change. I would suggest that, you know, this is because they are losing huge amounts of money."

So what's the problem?

Tech figures, mental health experts, a former OpenAI product safety lead and a member of the company's "Expert Council on Well-Being and AI" have all raised concerns about the announcement. 

They range from difficulties keeping children away to worries about mental health – already a concern for heavy users without introducing erotica – and driving users towards increasingly extreme sexual fantasies.

AI researcher Steven Adler, who led product safety at OpenAI, wrote an op-ed for The New York Times saying he didn't trust his former boss Altman's claims the company had "been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues" and relax restrictions.

"If the company really has strong reason to believe it's ready to bring back erotica on its platforms, it should show its work," he said, pointing to a lawsuit claiming ChatGPT helped a 16-year-old boy suicide.

READ MORE: Delays expected again for Jetstar passengers as airlines race to fix Airbus planes

"AI is increasingly becoming a dominant part of our lives, and so are the technology's risks that threaten users' lives."

Professor Munmun De Choudhury, a computer scientist who's been exploring how generative AI and other emerging technologies transform how people connect online, is a member of OpenAI's Expert Council on Well-Being and AI.

She tells 9news.com.au she hadn't been consulted on the erotica rollout, which was announced the day after the council.

She says Altman's claims about mitigating mental health concerns lacked transparency and independent evidence.

"Mental health vulnerabilities in AI interactions are not issues that can be fully 'mitigated' through technical fixes alone – they require ongoing oversight, transparency, and validation by experts in psychology and digital safety," she says.

Won't somebody please think of the children?

OpenAI stresses this feature will only be for adults, saying it's building an age prediction system to understand whether someone is under 18 or not.

It says if the system is unsure, it will default back to the under-18 experience and give adults other ways to prove their age.

But there are major concerns with the effectiveness of existing age-gating and age-prediction tech and OpenAI's version hasn't been seen publicly.

Thorne says the recent introduction of the Online Safety Act in the UK, which imposes similar restrictions on a range of sites, shows how easily the systems can be fooled, sometimes with something as simple as a printed photo of an older person.

"Do I think they care? Not particularly, no," he says.

"They're going to, I think, say, 'Look, we've done our bit. We've put the kind of age control up front.

"Unless somebody makes them care."

De Choudhury says robust age verification and clear opt-in consent are among several "non-negotiable guardrails" OpenAI must implement.

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Are there concerns for adults?

Even if OpenAI manages to block children, there are worries about what the widespread availability of AI-generated erotica on tap could mean for consenting adults too. 

In a world of essentially unlimited internet pornography – and associated addiction risks – on the surface it's hard to make an argument that allowing people to use a chatbot for erotica could pose much of a problem.

But Thorne and De Choudhury both raise concerns with the interactivity of AI systems and their capacity for reinforcing or heightening ideas.

Thorne says while pornography or human-designed erotic literature is relatively "static", a chatbot is "very specific to the individual".

De Choudhury says allowing erotic interactions with chatbots risks deepening parasocial or dependency-based "relationships" that already pose mental health concerns.

"When intimacy and sexual expression are introduced, users may form stronger emotional attachments to an entity that cannot reciprocate or maintain boundaries in human terms," she says.

"This can distort expectations of real relationships, exacerbate loneliness, and even discourage people from seeking human connection or professional help."

READ MORE: Survivor's incredible story from inside the Hong Kong horror blaze

What happens if my naughty chat leaks?

Privacy is another huge issue. Thorne says the change will give OpenAI a "very detailed data set, probably the likes of which have never been seen before".

"If that information gets into the wrong hands, you know it could be extremely damaging to people, and also, you know it can be exploited to target people even more individually.

De Choudhury says strong data privacy and non-retention policies must govern all sexual or intimate exchanges to prevent misuse or leaks.

How does OpenAI say it's safe? 

Altman insists the planned change is safe and characterises it as just one aspect of increased freedom he wants to give users, saying "allowing a lot of freedom for people to use AI in the ways that they want is an important part of our mission".

"We are making a decision to prioritise safety over privacy and freedom for teenagers. And we are not loosening any policies related to mental health," he posted to X in October. 

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"This is a new and powerful technology, and we believe minors need significant protection."

He insists nothing that causes harm to others will be allowed and that ChatGPT will be able to behave differently for users experiencing "mental health crises".

"Without being paternalistic we will attempt to help users achieve their long-term goals," he said. "But we are not the elected moral police of the world. In the same way that society differentiates other appropriate boundaries (R-rated movies, for example) we want to do a similar thing here."

OpenAI says teen wellbeing is a top priority.

"We have safeguards in place today, such as surfacing crisis hotlines, guiding how our models respond to sensitive requests, and nudging for breaks during long sessions, and we're continuing to strengthen them," a spokesperson tells 9news.com.au.

"We recently rolled out parental controls, developed with expert input, so families can decide what works best in their homes, and we're building toward a long-term age-prediction system to help tailor experiences appropriately."

Has this been done before?

There are a slew of AI companies offering erotica and erotic functions in everything from text-based stories and personas to images and video, and there are widespread reports among users that ChatGPT would generate erotica with minimal effort as recently as this year. 

My Spicy Vanilla founder Andrei Tolocica says his platform started by generating date night ideas before pivoting to AI erotica, and now counts about 60,000 monthly users, including couples therapists.

"Women love reading erotica, but now also men start to read erotica," he tells 9news.com.au.

"And this is something nice that is happening, and people are getting used to it, because they understand that porn can be damaging for them and when we're speaking about erotica, it's just in your imagination, like you can be getting into it smoother, and it's not that aggressive on your mind. 

"And plus, when they are generating custom erotica with their partner, it's again, like, strengthens their relationship."

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Melbourne's Metro Tunnel has opened to passengers this morning, albeit with some minor hiccups.

The project, which cost $15 billion and has been hampered by delays and setbacks, added five new stations, with the first trains hitting the rails just after 9am.

Melburnians have flocked to try out the extension with massive crowds at all stations, though some delays and minor issues have been experienced.

READ MORE: Massive industrial fire in Sydney's west could burn for days

There were delays of up to 15 minutes after a fire alarm went off near Anzac Station, forcing trains to remain idle, though those delays are clearing according to Metro Trains' official website.

There has also been escalator outages at Parkville Station and State Library Station, according to The Age.

The other new stations opening today are Town Hall and Arden, with the new line running for almost 100 kilometres.

It represents the biggest upgrade to Melbourne's rail in 40 years, doubling the size of the city's underground rail network and will ease congestion on the city loop.

It is a project that has been years in the making, with tunnelling beginning in 2019.

Boring machines were digging as deep as 40 metres underneath Melbourne to create the tunnels, the most striking of which are two twin tunnels that run for nine kilometres.

The opening is not without controversy, with the firefighters union wanting to delay it due to claims about dangerous radio faults within the new network.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan claimed it was a scare tactic to try and secure better pay, rather than publicising any actual safety concerns.

"The claims that have been made by the union today are wrong and they've also been clearly rejected by the rail safety regulator, who is the expert on this matter," Allan said.

"These claims are being made perhaps more for industrial purposes than anything else."

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President Donald Trump on Saturday said that the airspace “above and surrounding” Venezuela should be considered as “closed in its entirety,” an assertion that raised more questions about the US pressure on Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

His government accused Trump of making a ”colonial threat" and seeking to undermine the South American country's sovereignty.

The White House did not respond to questions about what Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, and it was unclear whether he was announcing a new policy or simply reinforcing the messaging around his campaign against Maduro, which has involved multiple strikes in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean on small boats accused of ferrying drugs as well as a buildup of naval forces in the region.

READ MORE: Massive industrial fire in Sydney's west could burn for days

More than 80 people have been killed in such strikes since early September.

The Republican president addressed his call for an aerial blockade to “Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers,” rather than to Maduro.

Venezuela’s government said it “forcefully rejects” Trump’s claim about closing the airspace and that it was a “colonial threat” intended to undermine the country's "territorial integrity, aeronautical security and full sovereignty.”

The Foreign Ministry said “such declarations constitute a hostile, unilateral and arbitrary act.”

The statement also said that US immigration authorities had unilaterally suspended biweekly deportation flights of Venezuelan migrants.

Following negotiations between the two governments, more than 13,000 Venezuelans have been deported to Venezuela this year on dozens of chartered flights, the latest of which arrived late Friday in Caracas, the capital, according to flight-tracking data.

READ MORE: Teething issues as Melbourne Metro Tunnel finally opens after years of delays

International airlines last week began to cancel flights to Venezuela after the Federal Aviation Administration told pilots to be cautious flying around the country because of heightened military activity.

The FAA’s jurisdiction is generally limited to the United States and its territories.

The agency does routinely warn pilots about the dangers of flying over areas with ongoing conflicts or military activity around the globe, as it did earlier this month with Venezuela.

READ MORE: Trump hints at decision on Venezuela – is the US about to go to war?

The FAA works with other countries and the International Civil Aviation Organization on international issues.

The FAA and ICAO did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Saturday.

Trump's administration has sought to ratchet up pressure on Maduro.

The US government does not view Maduro as the legitimate leader of the oil-rich but increasingly impoverished South American nation and he faces charges of narcoterrorism in the US.

US forces have conducted bomber flights near Venezuela and the USS Gerald R. Ford, America's most advanced aircraft carrier, was sent to the area.

The Ford rounds off the largest buildup of US firepower in the region in generations. With its arrival, the “Operation Southern Spear” mission includes nearly a dozen Navy ships and about 12,000 sailors and Marines.

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There are bipartisan calls for greater oversight of the US military strikes against vessels in the region after The Washington Post reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order for all crew members to be killed as part of the Sept. 2 attack on suspected drug smugglers.

Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and its top Democrat, Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, said in a joint statement late on Friday that the committee "will be conducting vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to these circumstances.”

Trump’s team has weighed both military and nonmilitary options with Venezuela, including covert action by the CIA.

Trump has publicly floated the idea of talking to Maduro.

The New York Times reported on Friday that Trump and Maduro had spoken.

The White House declined to answer questions about the conversation.