An affordable jewellery chain has collapsed into administration but is continuing to trade while the company is assessed for a potential sale.

Kate Warwick, Kelly Trenfield, and John Park of FTI Consulting have been appointed joint and several administrators of Secrets Shhh, which is owned by Secrets International.

Secrets sells lab-grown diamonds and simulated alternatives online and in 23 stores around the country.

READ MORE: Former pilot Greg Lynn wins appeal, retrial ordered over deaths of campers

"The business is trading as usual as much as possible while the administrators undertake an urgent assessment of the company's operations, and have commenced a sales process and/or recapitalisation of the group," Park said.

Where stock is available, orders placed on or after the appointment of administrators will be filled and shipped as normal.

However, the administrators cannot guarantee that orders placed before yesterday, December 10, will be filled.

READ MORE: Woman fighting for life after crash involving stolen ute in police chase

Customers can use a gift card or redeem store credit if they spend an equal or greater amount.

The administrators will next write to creditors, suppliers, and employees regarding ongoing trading information.

The first meeting of creditors, for which information will also be provided in those communiques, will be held on December 19.

Secrets Shhh, Secrets International, and all the latter's other subsidiaries are all subject to the voluntary administration.

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.

Swirling underwater storms are aggressively melting the ice shelves of two vital Antarctic glaciers, with potentially far-reaching implications for global sea level rise, a recent study has revealed.

Antarctica is like a fist with a skinny thumb stuck out towards South America. Pine Island Glacier is near the base of this thumb. Thwaites — known as the Doomsday Glacier because of the devastating impact its demise would have on global sea level rise — sits next to it.

Over the past few decades, these icy giants have experienced rapid melting driven by warming ocean water, especially at the point where they rise from the seabed and come afloat as ice shelves.

READ MORE: Millions warned to expect severe storms, damaging winds

The new study, published last month in Nature Geosciences, is the first to systematically analyse how the ocean is melting ice shelves over just hours and days, rather than seasons or years, its authors say.

"We are looking at the ocean on very short 'weather-like' timescales, which is unusual for Antarctic studies," said Yoshihiro Nakayama, a study author and an assistant professor of engineering at Dartmouth College.

The underwater storms they focused on — called submesoscales — are fast-changing, swirling ocean eddies.

"Think of these like little water twirls that spin around really fast, kind of like when you stir water in a cup," said study author Mattia Poinelli, an Earth system science researcher at the University of California, Irvine and a NASA research affiliate. However, in the ocean, these eddies are not small — they can span up to 9.5 kilometres.

They form when warm and cold water meet. To return to the cup analogy, it's the same principle as when you pour milk into a cup of coffee and see tiny swirls spinning around, mixing everything together.

The phenomenon is similar to how storms form in the atmosphere — when warm and cold air collide — and like atmospheric storms, they can be very dangerous.

The eddies spin up in the open ocean and race underneath ice shelves. Sandwiched between the complex, rough base of the ice shelf and the seafloor, the eddies churn up warmer water from deeper in the ocean, which enhances melting when it "hits" vulnerable ice, Nakayama said.

The scientists used computer models as well as real-world data from ocean instruments to analyse the impact of these underwater storms.

They found that, together with other short-lived processes, the storms caused 20 per cent of the melting at the two glaciers over a nine-month period.

READ MORE: Woman dead, man hospitalised in Adelaide house fire

"Quantifying the precise contribution of storms alone is challenging because of their chaotic nature," Poinelli said. But these events look to have a big role over short time frames.

The researchers also highlighted a worrying feedback loop. As the storms melt the ice, they increase the amount of cold, fresh water entering the ocean. This mixes with warmer, saltier water beneath, generating more ocean turbulence, which in turn increases ice melting.

"This positive feedback loop could gain intensity in a warming climate," said study author Lia Siegelman of UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

The consequences could be grave as the ice shelves play a vital role holding back the glaciers, slowing their flow into the ocean. Thwaites Glacier alone holds enough water to raise sea levels by more than 2 feet. But, because it also acts as a cork holding back the vast Antarctic ice sheet, its collapse could ultimately lead to around 10 feet of sea level rise.

The study is important "because it sheds light on the role of small features in the ocean melting the base of ice shelves," said Tiago Dotto, a senior research scientist at the National Oceanography Centre in the UK.

The extent of the ice melt the study found was "astonishing," he told CNN.

There are still huge uncertainties. Antarctic ice shelves are among the least accessible places on Earth, meaning scientists have to rely heavily on simulations. "These kinds of studies are intriguing but they are computer models," said David Holland, a professor of mathematics and atmosphere and ocean science at NYU.

Much more real-world data is needed to really understand the impact of these eddies, along with other ocean weather, he told CNN.

There are also many drivers of ice melt in this vast continent. "Hundreds of things are of similar importance to the decay of the ice sheet," said Ted Scambos, senior research scientist for the Earth Science and Observation Center at the University of Colorado Boulder.

"Awareness of the dynamics of the near-ice-sheet ocean is evolving rapidly," he told CNN.

The study is clear that more data is needed to understand how underwater storms may vary over seasons and years. Nevertheless, these short-term weather-like processes are "far from negligible," Poinelli said.

"Studying these fine-scale ocean phenomena is the next frontier when it comes to the ocean-ice interactions that help us understand ice loss and, ultimately, sea level rise," Siegelman said.

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.

Large parts of NSW are heading for a soaking from today, with residents warned of possible storms and damaging winds.

More than half of the state is expected to receive about 10mm to 30 mm of rain between now and Saturday, reports weather forecasting site Weatherzone.

Similar totals are forecast for southern inland Queensland, eastern Victoria and the ACT.

READ MORE: Early December weather forecast: One city set to get a drenching on Christmas Day

The Bureau of Meteorology warns showers and thunderstorms are forecast to increase today across central parts of the NSW coast and north-west. Peak rainfall totals of 30mm to 50mm per hour and localised 24-hour totals of 70mm to 120mm are possible.

The Hunter, Sydney, Illawarra regions and parts of the north-west are expected to receive the brunt of the downpour.

While the rain will bring welcome relief from the bushfire threat, authorities are warning of potential storm damage.

NSW SES Assistant Commissioner Nicole Hogan says there is a risk of fallen branches from trees weakened by fires.

"Trees that have been damaged by fire may be unstable and more likely to fall when it is windy and wet.

https://twitter.com/NSWSES/status/1998575264931131642?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Motorists heading to Christmas holiday destinations are also being urged to take care on roads.

"Storms and localised heavy rain may also cause flash flooding due to increased runoff in locations that may not normally flood. If you come across a flooded road, turn around and find a safer route."

The wet conditions are being driven by two low-pressure systems over inland and coastal NSW fed by moisture-filled winds from the Tasman and Coral seas.

Conditions are expected to ease by late tomorrow, before another bout of thunderstorms is predicted for many areas over the weekend, shifting to the north on Monday.

To stay up to date with the latest warnings and information, download the Hazards Near Me app or visit the NSW SES website.

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.

Australians are among some visitors to the US who may soon have to provide their social media history from the prior five years to enter the country, according to a new Trump administration proposal.

The proposal, posted on the Federal Register by US Customs and Border Protection, suggests travellers coming from countries that are part of a visa waiver program would need to give additional personal information as part of an electronic application.

The requirement would be for travellers using the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, or ESTA, as part of a visa waiver program for citizens from 42 countries, including Australia, the UK, New Zealand, Japan, Israel and Qatar, as well as many other European countries.

READ MORE: Judge rules secret Epstein records can be unsealed

ESTA is an online application visitors from these countries use to travel to the US for under 90 days without a visa. Visitors using the online system are currently asked for information such as their passport and birth date, as well as any past criminal record.

The proposed changes to the visa waiver application include making provision of social media history mandatory and adding "high value data elements," including the person's phone numbers and email addresses over the prior five years, plus close family members' names and birth dates, along with their birthplaces, residences and phone numbers over the prior five years.

A question about entering social media information was initially added to the application in 2016, with the section marked as "optional."

"If an applicant does not answer the question or simply does not hold a social media account, the ESTA application can still be submitted without a negative interpretation or inference," the CBP website now states.

The new proposal – open for public comment until February 9 – would make that information mandatory, though it's unclear how it would impact those wishing to come to the US.

READ MORE: Early December weather forecast: One city set to get a drenching on Christmas Day

CNN has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees CBP, for comment.

The changes would align with a broader push from US President Donald Trump's administration to overhaul the country's legal immigration system, in addition to carrying out his long promised program of mass deportation for people in the country illegally.

The Trump administration over the past 11 months has made sweeping changes to nearly every facet of the immigration process, severely tightening every legal and illegal form of entry into the US.

The administration also has placed heavy emphasis and scrutiny on the social media accounts of people in the US on student visas.

In June, the State Department told embassies and consulates they may vet applicants for student visas for "hostile attitudes towards our citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles."

According to those guidelines, applicants are asked to set their profiles to public, and lack of an online social media presence could be seen as a negative that may be held against them in the application process.

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 wellness influencer died from severe blood loss after having a free birth at home, a court has been told.

Stacey Warnecke, 30, was with her husband Nathan and unregulated doula Emily Lal when she delivered her son at her Melbourne home on September 29.

The little boy was healthy but Warnecke's condition rapidly declined and an ambulance was called about 4.30am, the Victorian Coroners Court was told today.

READ MORE: Biscuits sold across Australia recalled over biotoxin concerns

Paramedics arrived to find Warnecke looking yellow and struggling to breathe as she sat on the floor near the birthing pool, counsel assisting Rachel Ellyard said.

She was rushed to Frankston Hospital but could not be saved.

It's suspected she died from complications following a postpartum haemorrhage, Ellyard said.

The hospital's supply of her blood type was completely exhausted during doctors' attempts to save her, the court was told.

Warnecke's death was reported to police and her husband Nathan provided a statement to detectives but Lal refused.

When officers went to examine Warnecke's home the next day, they also found the house had been extensively cleaned by Lal.

Warnecke's interactions with Lal will form part of the coroner's investigation into her death, Ellyard said.

The 30-year-old's thoughts on the health care system, the decisions around her birth plan and broader attitudes following the COVID-19 pandemic will also be examined in a future inquest.

READ MORE: FIFO worker mysteriously disappears after failing to board flight

The court was told Warnecke was a qualified nutritionist who promoted a healthy and "chemical-free" lifestyle on social media.

It appeared she was profoundly affected by the COVID-19 mandates and those concerns influenced her decision-making during pregnancy and birth, Ellyard said.

Warnecke elected not to receive any health care during her pregnancy, including declining ultrasounds and appointments with a midwife or obstetrician.

She wanted to give birth at home and contacted Lal, who also promoted herself as a free birth "keeper" on social media.

Victoria's Health Complaints Commissioner announced in October it was investigating Lal over allegations she was facilitating or participating in homebirths that could put mothers and babies at risk.

Ellyard said the coroner would be seeking a statement from Lal, as well as the paramedics, doctors and nurses who treated Warnecke.

The case will return to the coroner's court in March for a further directions hearing.

A man has been charged with a slew of domestic violence offences after allegedly assaulting and running over his pregnant partner and leaving her for dead in Sydney's south-west this morning.

The woman was allegedly struck in the face with a glass vase at a home in Narellan Vale, before she tried to leave the property and was allegedly run over by a Mazda sedan.

Police will allege the incident began before 8.30am when the 36-year-old woman and a 36-year-old man, Carl Loxley, who are believed to be in a relationship, got into an argument inside a car.

READ MORE: Federal politicians billed taxpayers $1.1 million for their family's travel

The argument continued inside the Maddison Court home, where he allegedly broke a television before attacking the woman.

She called police before running outside to seek aid from neighbours.

It is alleged Loxley followed her outside before striking her with the Mazda and running her over.

Police arrived to find the woman with serious injuries.

She was treated at the scene by paramedics before being airlifted to Liverpool Hospital.

The woman reportedly sustained a broken pelvis, internal injuries, abrasions and lacerations.

The condition of her unborn baby is unknown.

READ MORE: Booted-out teens heading to app also owned by TikTok founders

Loxley, who was already known to police but not for domestic violence offences, was arrested in a phone box on Camden Valley Way.

He has been charged with seven offences, including reckless grievous bodily harm (DV), reckless wounding in company (DV), common assault (DV), grievous bodily harm by negligent act using a vehicle, and driving as a learner while unaccompanied.

He was refused bail to appear in court tomorrow.

Detective Chief Inspector Paul Albury said responding officers were met with a confronting scene.

"They were met with a pretty horrendous scene," he said at a press conference.

READ MORE: Aussie university to offer qualifications for dropouts

Albury confirmed there was no apprehended violence order against Loxley, and that while police had been to the house before, it had not been for a domestic violence incident.

He also confirmed the car was found abandoned on Wattle Green Place in Narellan Vale, where a crime scene has been established, less than 2km from the home.

Albury said the incident was a reminder of the prevalence and dangers of domestic violence, claiming his precinct responded to a domestic violence call once every two hours in Camden.

He said neighbours and witnesses were still reeling from the alleged attack.

"A number of witnesses came to the aid of the woman… those people are deeply shocked by what has occurred," he said.

"It's a quiet neighbourhood, they are stunned by the level of violence that has been displayed."

Police are urging anyone with information or dashcam footage from both locations to come forward to Narellan Vale Police Station or to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).

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.

Exclusive: Australia's landmark social media ban for under-16s came into effect this morning, but young Aussies say it's already failing.

Zoe Buttel, 14, stayed up until midnight to see if she'd be booted from age-restricted platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat.

But when the clock hit 12.01am, nothing happened.

AS IT HAPPENED: Under-16 social media ban kicks in

It was the same story for three other under-16s nine.com.au spoke to this morning, despite Communications Minister Anika Wells claim that 200,000 TikTok accounts had been deactivated this morning.

Another teen revealed she'd only been booted from one platform.

Alicia Liu, 13, was banned from Snapchat the day before the ban started but found a way around it within hours.

"There's a lot of loopholes," she told nine.com.au.

Emme Anderson, 14, knows kids who used their older siblings' or parents' IDs to trick the new age verification tools most age-restricted platforms have introduced.

But she and fellow 14-year-olds Rose Pickles and Zara Connolly didn't have to.

Their accounts simply weren't flagged – at least, not yet.

"Every time I click onto the app I'm preparing myself to be kicked off," Pickles said.

READ MORE: How Australia's world-leading social media ban will be enforced

It's a scary thought for teens who have spent their whole lives online, using social media to connect and communicate with their peers on a daily basis.

For some, it's hourly.

Of the five teens nine.com.au spoke to, Anderson had the lowest average daily screentime of about six to seven hours.

Pickles and Liu averaged about eight or nine hours on their phones, while Connolly had recently racked up 15 hours in a single day when she'd been home sick.

Buttel had gone so far as to deactivate the screentime tracker on her phone.

"I was disappointed in it, so I just deleted it," she said.

The girls agreed they could all probably stand to spend a little less time on their phones but said a blanket social media ban isn't the answer.

READ MORE: The responsibility of keeping under-16s off social media lies entirely with the apps. Here is how it will work

The adults behind the ban, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Minister for Communications Anika Wells and eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, insist it will cause a huge, positive cultural change in Australia.

Albanese has said it will save lives and encourage kids to get outside instead of scrolling.

Connolly wasn't convinced.

"Not everyone is going to go outside just because social media's gone," she said.

Liu and Buttel agreed and said new apps will just be created to fill the void left by platforms like TikTok and Snapchat, like Lemon8.

If those become age-restricted, more will crop up in their place.

READ MORE: Here are the platforms that will be included in the under-16s social media ban. But there's a caveat

Albanese has also presented the ban as a huge step towards improving youth mental health, but Pickles said it could backfire.

"Right now I think a lot of teens, the way they help or keep their mental health stable is on social media, talking to their friends or watching creators that help," she explained.

"The social media ban feels like a punishment for something we didn't create."

Anderson questioned claims that the ban will protect under-16s from harmful content, predators, and abuse on social media.

"Instead of taking us completely away from social media, they should implement something that'll stop us getting that [kind of content] on our for your page," she said.

Otherwise, that harmful content will be right there waiting for young Aussies as soon as they turn 16.

READ MORE: Will children under 16 get in trouble for accessing social media when the ban comes into effect?

And it could have an even worse effect on them if they've never been exposed to social media or taught how to navigate it responsibly.

Which is why all five teens agreed that social media education for under-16s would be better and more effective than a ban.

They called for the government to invest in educating school-aged children on the risks and benefits of social media and how to stay safe online.

They also suggested more pressure should be put on individual social media platforms to provide safety tools for young people to protect them from harmful content.

Because kids are going to get online regardless of the ban, so they may as well know how to do it safely.

"It's like learning how to drive a car," Pickles said.

"You actually have someone helping you along the way, and then you finally learn how to use it."

READ MORE: The apps Australian kids are switching to ahead of social media ban

It's not just young Aussies railing against the ban either.

Reddit is reportedly preparing a legal challenge to the social media ban, and Amnesty International called it an "ineffective quick fix".

The US-based Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a non-profit and non-partisan body, said the ban cuts youth off from the benefits of social media and creates privacy risks for all users.

"People say, 'oh, we've been teenagers before, we know what it's like' … but they haven't been teenagers in this age," Anderson said.

"We've basically grown up on social media, they haven't done that, so they don't understand."

Have you got a story? Contact reporter Maddison Leach at Google Play.

The woman who survived a horror crash after a car smashed into a medical centre in Melbourne said she first thought a bomb had detonated.

Jorjina Odisho, 51, was in the middle of a doctor's appointment in Niddrie when an out-of-control car ploughed into the clinic, killing one male pedestrian and leaving her with serious injuries on Monday.

The mother-of-two told 9News that being 10 minutes early to her appointment may have saved her life.

READ MORE: Insidious 'ghost' campervan trend on the rise in Australia

"I said, [I've] died. That's it. That is the last minute for me," Odisho said.

"Very lucky, very lucky because the whole building was on me."

Odisho was airlifted to hospital with serious injuries after being flung across the room during the crash.

She woke up in the emergency room without knowing what had happened.

"I was scared because I've got two girls and my husband… I said I'm not going to leave them alone."

The crash fractured Odisho's leg and left her in a neck brace.

READ MORE: Discount retailer forced to close as hundreds of illegal items are pulled from shelves

"The police… they asked me, 'Do you know what's happened?' I said, 'Yes I think it's a bomb,'" Odisho said.

"And he laughed and he said, 'No, the car hit you'."

Dr Rafid Hamdan was in the room when Odisho was injured, but he was not hurt in the crash.

"The patient was flying… she was like flying to the ceiling," Hamdan said yesterday.

The crash killed one man who was on the footpath near the doctor's office on Keilor Road.

He is yet to be formally identified.

"I feel sorry for him," Odisho added.

The 63-year-old driver was questioned by police and released without charge.

Detectives are not ruling anything out, including whether he suffered a diabetic episode.

OPINION: There is one simple reason why the social media ban will fail

READ MORE: Huge regret by more than 600,000 mortgage holders

Detective Inspector Craig McEvoy said on Monday that the car, a silver Alfa Romeo, did not appear to brake before it smashed into the medical centre.

"We're still considering all options, whether it's a medical event, whether it's a mechanical event, whether it's driver error, speed, fatigue, drugs or alcohol," McEvoy said.

McEvoy said the pedestrian who was killed was sadly in the "wrong place at the wrong time".

"It's really tragic that one [pedestrian] has lost his life, but really fortunate that there's not multiple," he said.

An investigation into the crash continues.

Sign up here to receive our daily newsletters and breaking news alerts, sent straight to your inbox.

Human remains have been found at a home on Melbourne's western fringe, where police were searching for a toddler who disappeared more than a decade ago.

Detectives and forensic experts excavated parts of a home in Brookfield, 39 km west of Melbourne's CBD, on Monday.

They found the yet-to-be-formally-identified remains about 1.30pm.

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

The discovery was made in connection with an investigation into the disappearance of a Brookfield toddler in 2014.

The remains have been referred to a coroner, who is expected to conduct a postmortem "in due course".

The Brookfield toddler was not reported missing at the time of their disappearance, police said.

The current residents of the home have no connection to the missing persons investigation and don't know the people who lived there at the time.

The investigation remains ongoing.

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.

One player has won a big prize in this evening’s draw.