An AI-powered, humanoid robot that was meant to signal the next big Russian tech advance went sour in Moscow after literally falling flat on its "face".

The robot, dubbed AIdol, made its public debut at an event staged by manufacturer Idol.

Video showed the robot taking a slow few steps onstage.

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It raises its right "arm" for a wave and appears to waver, with handlers approaching rapidly.

But AIdol managed to stay upright for a few more steps before apparently overbalancing and falling forward.

The handlers rush to lift the robot up, at the same time as another is drawing a black sheet in front of the scene.

Idol chief exectuive Vladimir Vitukhin said the fall was caused by calibration errors and that the robot remained in its testing phase, according to media reports.

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WARNING: This article discusses the issue of stillbirth and the death of a newborn.

Sydney nurse Nerida Rosenthal was 33 weeks pregnant with her first baby when she suddenly felt worried that she hadn't felt her daughter move in a long time.

"I was at work, and I remember it was a really busy day," she said.

"I sat down in the afternoon and thought, 'Oh, I haven't really been paying attention to the movements.'"

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Stressed, Rosenthal left work for a regular acupuncture appointment.

It was during this quiet time that she usually felt her daughter move.

But not this time.

"I just thought, 'No, I'm not feeling her'," Rosenthal said.

Now very concerned, Rosenthal called her husband, who took her to the hospital.

"I went in and was sat in the waiting room," Rosenthal said.

"It was obviously a very busy shift in the delivery suite."

A staff member came out to the waiting room and put a cardiotocography (CTG) monitor on Rosenthal to measure the baby's heart rate.

The measurements reassured staff, who detected a heartbeat before returning to the ward.

However, Nerida wasn't reassured and suspected it was her own heartbeat, elevated by anxiety, that was picked up by mistake.

Instinct told Rosenthal that something was very wrong, and she refused to leave the hospital until she received an ultrasound, despite reassurances that her baby was okay.

"I knew it in my gut and I said, 'I'm not leaving here based on a CTG, I need a scan'," she said.

Rosenthal's obstetrician arrived at the hospital and immediately performed an ultrasound, which confirmed her worst fears.

"The doctor just turned to me, and he had tears in his eyes. He said, 'You're right. There's no heartbeat'," she said.

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Rosenthal's daughter had suffered an umbilical cord accident.

The cord was wrapped around her neck twice and kinked, stopping the blood flow.

Around 2380 families are affected by stillbirth every year in Australia.

It's a rate that has remained largely unchanged over the last two decades.

In 2022, the rate of stillbirths even increased slightly to 8.0 per 1000 births, up from 7.2 per 1000 births a year earlier, according to the latest available data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

In 2018, a Senate inquiry examined the lack of movement on Australia's stillbirth rate.

In response, the National Stillbirth Action and Implementation Plan was launched in 2020, which included a federal government target to reduce the number of stillbirths by 20 per cent by December 2025.

While Rosenthal believes her daughter Mia's death was unpreventable, she, alongside many other bereaved parents, is calling for change around this issue

"It's just crazy that the stats haven't changed in all of this time," she said.

"We know that some of these stillbirths are preventable. So what can we do to prevent them?

In September, a parliamentary petition collected more than 6000 signatures, calling for a national stillbirth awareness campaign.

The petition was launched by Tim McCranor, who, along with his wife Michelle, lost their baby daughter Celeste in 2001.

The couple's advocacy has also included the making of a recently released documentary called Her Name is Celeste. 

Why haven't stillbirth rates improved?

Despite medical advancements in other areas of health, stillbirth rates have stagnated and even showed a slight uptick in 2022, when the highest rate in 20 years was recorded.

In its analysis, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) said there had been no consistent trend over the past few decades when it came to the number of stillbirths.

However, some fluctuations had coincided with key events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2019–20 bushfires, and changes in the underlying birth rate, AIHW said.

Some of the increase in 2022 could be attributed to the improved capture and inclusion of cases in some areas, it said.

Vicki Flenady is the director of the Stillbirth Centre of Research Excellence (CRE), a peak body leading the effort to prevent stillbirths in later gestation, from 28 weeks onwards.

Flenady said possible factors which may have influenced stillbirth rates included disruptions to maternity care during the COVID-19 pandemic and inequity in care.

"Stillbirth disproportionately affects marginalised groups, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, women from some migrant and refugee backgrounds, women under the age of 20, and women from rural and remote areas," Flenady said.

"These disparities are linked to factors like social disadvantage, intergenerational trauma, and limited access to culturally safe healthcare."

It is estimated that about 20-30 per cent of stillbirth deaths in late gestation are preventable.

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While the national overall figures for stillbirths measured deaths from 20 weeks onwards, one area which had shown improvement was in later gestation from 28 weeks, Flenady said.

"In this group, there has been a downward trend," Flenady said.

"The average annual rate reduction reveals a 3.1 per cent decrease in late gestation stillbirth rates in the decade to 2022."

A key stillbirth prevention strategy in the National Stillbirth Action and Implementation Plan has been the rollout of a Safer Baby Bundle in higher-risk communities and clinical settings through Stillbirth CRE.

The bundle helps clinicians identify women at a higher risk for stillbirth and provides strategies for their care.

Modelled on the UK's National Health Service's (NHS) Saving Babies' Lives Care, the bundle has shown promising early results, Flenady said.

"Pre-COVID Victorian data show a 21 per cent reduction in stillbirths occurring at 28 weeks' gestation or more where the Safer Baby Bundle has been embedded."

Lack of real-time data hinders efforts

One major factor hampering the efforts to reduce the stillbirth rate is the lack of real-time data, Flenady said.

There is currently a three-year delay in the release of stillbirth statistics by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

"Access to timely, comprehensive data limits the ability to measure, in real time, the impact of prevention initiatives or other factors that influence stillbirth rates," Flenady said.

"In addition, there is a two-year delay between the occurrence of a stillbirth and its inclusion in data sets made available for analysis."

The National Stillbirth Action and Implementation Plan identified the need to improve data collection on stillbirths and committed in the medium term to "develop and implement a standardised approach to data collection on causes and contributing factors for perinatal deaths, across maternity services linked to perinatal mortality review committees to ensure timely review and reporting of stillbirth deaths".

Do you have a story? Contact reporter Emily McPherson at EM********@******om.au

A teenager who didn't hesitate before fatally stabbing a grandmother in front of a young girl has been jailed for 16 years over the horrendous murder that sparked landmark law reforms.

Vyleen White was murdered by the boy, then aged 16, in a car park at Redbank Plains shopping centre, west of Brisbane in February 2024.

The 70-year-old's death was a catalyst for the Queensland LNP government's controversial "adult crime, adult time" laws, ensuring juveniles face at least 20 years in custody for murder.

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However, they are not retroactive, meaning the teen was today sentenced under Queensland's previous laws after earlier pleading guilty to murder.

Chief Justice Helen Bowskill described the boy's actions as "cowardly and callous" when she handed down her sentence.

The teen – now 17 and who can't be legally identified – not only took one life but destroyed many others when he murdered White while she was holding up her hands and backing away, she said.

A little girl witnessed the "senseless" attack.

"(White) was a person who mattered greatly to her family and her community," Justice Bowskill said.

"All lives matter. They are precious. They are not to be wasted by selfish and senseless acts of violence."

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The teen quickly approached White before he demanded her car keys then inflicted a 17cm-deep knife wound that was fatal.

The teen stole White's 2009 Hyundai Getz hatchback and drove it to a nearby residential area where he showed it off to other teens.

"Taking Mrs White's life has caused immense, indeed catastrophic pain and suffering to her family," Justice Bowskill said.

The little girl who witnessed the stabbing was very brave in seeking help from bystanders in the horrendous circumstances of the murder, she said.

White's husband Victor and his three daughters wept as they watched the sentencing via a video link to a nearby courtroom.

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The grandmother had been married for 50 years and was a companion to her husband, helping him with his worsening eyesight, Justice Bowskill said.

But the teen was remorseful and had spared White's family the trauma of going through a trial by pleading guilty, she said.

Crown prosecutor Chris Cook pushed for a sentence of 17 to 18 years, saying the teen's offending was significantly aggravated by him covering his face with a mask and the murder was witnessed by a young girl.

The teen was also on bail for armed robberies, including an incident where a man was injured with a knife.

The teen's barrister Matthew Hynes had pushed for the killer to be released before he turned 25 because the murder was not premeditated.

The teen also pleaded guilty to car theft and three counts of stealing.

He stared straight ahead and did not visibly react as his 16-year sentence was handed down.

The teen will be released from detention after serving 60 per cent of the 16 years.

He has already served one year and nine months on remand, leaving him likely to be released in late 2033.

The bombshell trove of documents from the estate of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein have lit a political bonfire in the US, with one email recording the sex offender telling somebody, "I know how dirty Donald is".

The "Donald" he spoke of was at that time in 2018, as he is now, the US president and Commander-in-Chief, Donald J Trump.

Here's what has been gleaned from the files so far.

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'I know how dirty Donald is'

The newly released documents don't provide any smoking guns when it comes to evidence of wrongdoing by Trump. But there are suggestions throughout that Epstein knew things about Trump that could hurt him.

In one 2018 email, Epstein remarked amid a discussion about Trump's possible impeachment: "you see , i know how dirty Donald is. my guess is that non lawyers ny biz people have no idea. What it means to have your fixer flip." (That last part was apparently a reference to Michael Cohen, who flipped on Trump.)

After Trump won the New Hampshire primary in 2016, a correspondent wondered to Epstein about "the stories you could tell," according to one of the released email exchanges.

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After the correspondent wagered that such information might not actually damage Trump, Epstein seemed to reference how Trump was "a phony rich person."

Epstein told the same person months earlier that he could produce photos "of donald and girls in bikinis in my kitchen."

He also told the person that he at one point "gave" his 20-year-old girlfriend to Trump, in the mid-1990s.

At other points in Epstein's correspondence, author Michael Wolff seems to try and convince Epstein to come forward and say something about Trump.

"There's an opportunity to come forward this week and talk about Trump in such a way that could garner your great sympathy and help finish him," Wolff told Epstein days before the 2016 election. "Interested?"

Trump has never been accused of wrongdoing in the Epstein case and has denied involvement in Epstein's crimes. The White House this morning said the emails "prove absolutely nothing, other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong."

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Emails reignite questions about what Trump knew and when

There have remained huge unanswered questions about what Trump knew and when about Epstein's proclivities. That's especially given Trump's explanations have often proved evasive or false.

The White House responded to the initial three emails mentioning Trump by arguing Democrats had "selectively leaked" the emails to "create a fake narrative to smear President Trump."

But these emails certainly deepen the intrigue about what Trump knew.

To recap what we already knew: Trump in 2002 referred to how Epstein liked women "on the younger side." A Florida businessman said in a 2019 interview that he raised concerns with Trump about Epstein "going after younger girls" at a 1992 "calendar girl" event.

Trump adviser Roger Stone in a 2016 book quoted Trump talking about how Epstein's "swimming pool was full of beautiful young girls" and joking that it was nice of Epstein to "let the neighborhood kids use his pool."

The president and his aides have also repeatedly said Trump distanced himself from Epstein because Epstein was a "creep" – but without elaborating on why, precisely, Trump viewed him as such.

Beyond that, Trump this summer acknowledged being aware of Epstein's accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell recruiting employees, including the former Prince Andrew's accuser Virginia Giuffre, at Mar-a-Lago – but he seemed to be quite reluctant to go into detail.

The question from there was whether Trump had an inkling about what Giuffre was being recruited for.

Trump said he didn't "know really why" Epstein Maxwell was recruiting people. (Maxwell has denied recruiting people.) But Giuffre was a minor. To the extent Trump was aware of the particulars of the situation – and was aware of Epstein's taste for young females – that would seem to raise red flags.

"It makes us ask if he was aware of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's criminal actions," Giuffre's two brothers and her sisters-in-law said in a statement this summer.

The 2019 Epstein email released by the committee says of Trump: "of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop."

That doesn't prove Trump knew what Maxwell and Epstein were recruiting the girls for. But it suggests that Trump was involved in telling Maxwell to knock it off and was seemingly familiar with the details of the situation.

The 2011 Epstein email that suggests Giuffre "spent hours" at his house with Trump also adds to the relevant facts here.

When Trump was acknowledging his awareness of Maxwell's recruiting at Mar-a-Lago, he initially said he didn't know if it was Giuffre who had been recruited. But then he quickly said that it was indeed her.

If Trump actually spent time with Giuffre, as Epstein's email seems to say, it would not only raise questions about why. It would also make Trump's handling of the situation appear even more bizarre.

And it's clear from Giuffre's own memoir that they knew each other and had had conversations about her working for his friends.

"Trump couldn't have been friendlier, telling me it was fantastic that I was there," Giuffre writes about the time that her father took her to meet Trump in his office. She goes on to recount that Trump asked her if she liked children and explained that he had friends in houses "next to the resort" who needed babysitting for their kids.

Giuffre did not accuse Trump of any wrongdoing in her recent posthumously-published memoir.

The emails undercut Maxwell's attempts to distance Trump from Epstein

The Trump Justice Department decided to interview Maxwell, a convicted sex offender, this summer while her appeals were ongoing. It did so despite her established credibility problems and motivations to say what the administration wanted.

(Trump at the time hadn't ruled out the possibility of pardoning Maxwell. And around this time, we also learned Maxwell had been moved to a lower-security prison camp for which she didn't appear eligible as a sex offender. The administration still hasn't explained how this happened, months later.)

And sure enough, Maxwell said things that were helpful to the president. She basically said she had no knowledge of any Trump wrongdoing and downplayed his relationship with Epstein.

But the new emails call her claims into question.

Speaking of Trump's and Epstein's relationship, Maxwell said in her testimony, the transcript of which was released in August: "I don't think they were close friends, or I certainly never witnessed the president in any of – I don't recall ever seeing him in his house, for instance."

But the newly released emails suggest Maxwell was aware of Trump being at Epstein's house, at least as of 2011.

After Epstein in the email referenced someone spending "hours at my house" with Trump, Maxwell responds, "I have been thinking about that."

Maxwell's attorney didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

This is not the first Maxwell claim from that interview that has been called into question.

Epstein and Maxwell seemed to think this information about Trump was significant

We surely need to learn more about the context of these emails. But one of the biggest takeaways is that they suggest Epstein and Maxwell seemed to feel this information about Trump was significant. There's even a hint they suggested that information could be used as leverage.

The timelines are important here.

The 2011 email came as news was blowing up about Epstein's ties to Prince Andrew, as he was then known. (He was recently stripped of his noble title.) As CNN has reported, around this time Epstein seemed to be going into legal attack mode.

Prince Andrew's most prominent accuser was Giuffre.

It was in this context that Epstein and Maxwell conversed about Trump having spent time at Epstein's house with someone who, according to Republicans, is identified in the email as Giuffre.

And notably, Epstein described Trump as the "dog that hasn't barked." This is an expression that comes from Sherlock Holmes mysteries; it basically means the absence of an expected event.

Which leads to the obvious question: Why might Epstein and Maxwell have expected news about Trump to have come out?

The timeline of the 2019 email is also relevant. That's because it came during Trump's first term as his administration was weighing significant action vis-à-vis Epstein.

The Miami Herald had in late 2018 run a major exposé on the sweetheart deal Epstein received from US Attorney Alexander Acosta, who later became Trump's labor secretary. By early 2019, a major question was whether the Justice Department would probe that deal.

The DOJ's inspector general said on January 30 of that year that he didn't have the power to examine the situation. But by February 6 the DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility signaled that it had opened an investigation.

CNN reported at the time that multiple authorities were reviewing allegations about Epstein and minors as of early that year.

It was in this context, on January 31, that Epstein emailed Wolff about Trump "of course" being aware of Maxwell's recruitment at Mar-a-Lago.

The newly released emails also include a 2015 Epstein exchange with Wolff in which the two of them strategise about how then-candidate Trump should handle questions about his ties to Epstein. Wolff said he had heard CNN was going to ask Trump about it at the debate, either on air or after. (There is no mention of Epstein in the transcript of the debate.)

In that email, Wolff suggests the best course would be to "let him hang himself" by denying being on Epstein's plane or his house.

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Dodgy real estate agents who put misleading price estimates in property listings in NSW could face tougher penalties of up to $110,000 fines.

The proposed reforms are cracking down on underquoting, when an agent gives a buyer a property price lower than the estimated selling price to attract more buyers and create a competitive auction.

Examples of underquoting also include when an agent or advertisement asks for "offers about $900,000" or "$900,000-plus", which the state said does not provide buyers with enough information if the property is within their price range.

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While the practice is already illegal, the draft legislation hopes to increase consequences to ensure buyers are not wasting their time and money pursuing homes out of their reach.

Agents could face increased penalties from the current $22,000 to $110,000 or three times their commission, whichever is greater.

They will also be forced to include a price or price guide on all advertising, publish a statement of information to help buyers understand how the selling price was calculated and calculate and revise the estimated selling price in accordance with new and clearer guidelines to be issued by the state's fair trading commissioner.

The proposal also aims to tighten advertising rules, strengthen record-keeping obligations, boost disciplinary action against agents, and create a standalone offence for failing to meet these standards. 

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"There is broad recognition not only from buyers, but across the property industry, that stronger underquoting laws are needed to restore trust and improve transparency in property sales," Fair Trading and Better Regulation Minister Anoulack Chanthivong said.

The legislation will be introduced to parliament next year.

Last year, Fair Trading issued more than 100 penalty notices for underquoting offences.

Sellers are allowed to instruct their agent not to disclose the estimated selling price to potential buyers, but that means the agent cannot provide any price information in ads, in writing or verbally. 

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The Liberal Party has officially abandoned its target of net zero emissions by 2050 after the policy caused a staggering rift among MPs.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley confirmed her party will no longer support hitting net zero by 2050 following a five-hour party room meeting in Canberra yesterday and a smaller meeting of shadow ministers this morning.

"The Liberal Party will remove a net zero target from our policy," Ley told reporters in Canberra today.

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"And if elected, we will remove the 43 per cent by 2030 target and its net zero by 2050 target from the Climate Change Act."

The target will no longer form part of the Liberals' wider climate policy, however, in a silver lining for the party's moderates, MPs have agreed to stay in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

"We remain committed to the Paris Agreement and to doing our fair share to reduce emissions," Ley added.

"But we will do it in a way that protects households and budgets and keeps our economy strong."

Ley used the announcement to spruik the party's new "energy and emissions" policy.

She said this policy, in lieu of a target pledge, will help drive down surging power bills in Australia while also tackling rising emissions.

"Australians deserve affordable energy and responsible emissions reduction," Ley said.

"And the Liberal Party believes we can do both. But affordable energy must come first."

Ley claimed the Labor Party will fail in its pursuit of reducing emissions and energy prices at the same time.

Shadow Minister for Energy Dan Tehan said discussions needed to continue with the Nationals over the key climate policy change.

"I cannot think of a more thorough and respectful policy process than what we have undertaken over the last six months," Tehan said.

Tehan said the LNP would do its "fair share" when it comes to emissions reduction.

"We will also make sure that we reduce emissions in line with comparable countries so that we will be able to look at what like-minded countries are doing," he added.

The Wannon MP said the Liberal Party will likely move towards a "more technology agnostic policy" when it comes to energy.

"That might include, you know, a nuclear power policy in years to come," he said, as an aside.

"But these are the kind of details that really need to be settled."

Promise to remain in Paris Agreement 

Ley confirmed the Liberal Party would be sticking with the Paris Agreement and will submit the five-yearly emissions reduction targets required under the climate agreement.

However, the opposition leader couldn't answer why ditching net zero by 2050 was not in breach of the agreement.

"We remain committed to Paris and we made it very clear and it isn't our policy to set long-term targets, but net zero would be a welcome outcome," Ley said.

Yesterday, more than half of members advocated for ditching the 2050 target.

Several conservative members of the party have driven the charge to ditch net zero, including Angus Taylor, the energy minister when net zero was initially legislated.

The net zero 2050 target was introduced by former Liberal prime minister Scott Morrison in 2021, but has been the cause of bitter division among party ranks more recently.

The Liberal Party's decision follows that of its junior Coalition partner, the Nationals, which pledged to ditch the net-zero target last month.

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Nationals leader David Littleproud said that he welcomes the decision to scrap net zero by 2050.

"The Nationals embarked on a calm, considered pathway back in June to get to a position to understand and review our previous position on net zero by 2050," Littleproud said.

"What we wanted to understand is can we live up to continuing to reducing emissions, to continue on that pathway, to do our fair share, to make sure that we do the right thing by future generations, but by doing the right thing by households and businesses today."

Bipartisan dismay over decision

The Coalition's policy reversal has been slammed by the government and independent MPs.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese earlier called the Liberal Party's debate over net zero a "clown show".

"It was a sign for the Australian people of how divided they are," he said.

"The clown show they've become."

Independent MP for Warringa Zali Steggall said the decision is "reckless" and a "massive step backwards".

"Today's announcement shows the federal Liberals, just like the Nationals, are now even further removed from community expectations over climate action in Australia," Stegall said.

"This decision makes the Coalition unelectable.

"An overwhelming majority of Australian voters want real leadership on climate change – not denial and delay."

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A local Nepalese community is mourning the death of a young family killed in a crash in Victoria's west earlier this week.

Sapana Neupane, 31, her husband Krishna, 41, and their three-year-old son were killed when the car they were travelling in collided with a truck in Stoneleigh, near Ballarat on Tuesday morning.

Sapana's mother survived the horror crash, but was airlifted to hospital with critical injuries, according to The Age.

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Police believe the car drove into the path of the oncoming truck after failing to stop at an intersection shortly after 9.30am.

The family, who lived in Armstrong Creek near Geelong after migrating from Nepal, leave behind a five-year-old daughter.

The Geelong Nepalese Association said the family's "kindness, warmth, and love will always be remembered".

"We extend our deepest condolences and prayers ot their family and relatives," the association said in a Facebook post.

"May their beautiful souls rest in eternal peace, and may their loved ones find strength and comfort during this unimaginable time.

"The Geelong Nepalese Community is deeply saddened by this tragic loss and stands together in full support of the family and their daughter during this most difficult time."

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The NZ Performance Academy Aotearoa school will still open as planned.

A student who police say was armed with a knife has been Tasered and arrested at a high school in Sydney's north.

Officers were called to North Sydney Boys High following an "altercation" between two students in a classroom about 12.30pm today.

Police said one of the students left the classroom armed with a knife.

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The school was placed into lockdown for an hour as police searched for the teenage student, before he was found by officers, then Tasered and arrested.

"It was pretty confronting to be honest, because of the size of the knife," a witness told 9News. 

The boy was taken to hospital, and the lockdown lifted about 1.30pm.

The NSW Department of Education said the lockdown had been used "as a precaution".

"All students and staff are safe, and students resumed classes after 1.30pm," a spokesperson said.

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Detectives from other districts have joined the Hastings inquiry.