The Crown says Head Hunters prospect Matthew Snaylam lured his friend to a pre-dug grave.

Nine inmates refused to leave the day room, sparking a midday lockdown.

A 35-year-old man from Brisbane's south has been sentenced to six years in prison for preparing to travel to Syria and help overthrow the government.

He was sentenced to six years behind bars with a non-parole period of four years and six months yesterday in the Queensland Supreme Court.

A joint investigation conducted by the Queensland Joint Counter Terrorism Team (JCTT) found that between July 2016 and February 2017 the man undertook multiple activities attempting to enter Syria to help fight to overthrow the Bashar al-Assad-led government.

LIVE UPDATES: Hurricane Melissa makes landfall in Jamaica

This included lodging an Australian passport application and researching flights from Brisbane to Türkiye, where he planned to cross the Turkish border illegally and enter Syria. 

In May and June 2018, a search warrant was executed at the man's Kuraby home, where several items that were consistent with preparations to fight in Syria were found.

The items included a USB containing electronic copies of publications related to hostile activities, including books on guerrilla warfare, guides for building explosives, as well as multiple issues of a magazine produced by al-Qaeda.

Devices with content related to extremism, martyrdom and jihad were also seized.

On June 30, 2018, the man was arrested and charged with three counts of making preparations for incursions into foreign countries for the purpose of engaging in hostile activities.

He entered a guilty plea on May 30, 2024.

READ MORE: First lady plagued by 'deep anxiety' over false claims she's a man

AFP Assistant Commissioner Stephen Nutt said the AFP were targeting violent extremism, whether it was planned to happen in Australia or overseas.

"The AFP holds a great focus on protecting Australia and Australians from acts of domestic terrorism, but we are also watchful of people here at home who wish to engage in violent activity on foreign soil," Assistant Commissioner Nutt said.

"We denounce violence in all its forms, and our investigators pursue matters tenaciously to ensure people who wish to commit acts of violent extremism here or overseas are put before the courts."

"I'd like to acknowledge the thorough work undertaken by all of the officers involved to gather and analyse the available evidence in this matter and bring criminal charges," Queensland Police Service Assistant Commissioner Charysse Pond said.

"This result is a credit to the hard work and commitment of the Queensland Joint Counter Terrorism Team to keeping the community safe."

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.

The pair were pulled from the water in only the clothes they had on when the boat flipped.

Bill Gates has called for governments, investors, activists and scientists to change their approach to the climate crisis ahead of next month's COP30 summit in Brazil.

In a post on his personal website, the Microsoft founder said that the "doomsday view" of climate change – that it will "decimate civilisation" – is wrong.

"Although climate change will have serious consequences – particularly for people in the poorest countries – it will not lead to humanity's demise," he wrote. 

READ MORE: Minister to investigate after year 12s taught wrong subject for final exam

"People will be able to live and thrive in most places on Earth for the foreseeable future. 

"Emissions projections have gone down, and with the right policies and investments, innovation will allow us to drive emissions down much further."

Gates said that, because of that view, there was an overwhelming focus on short-term emissions reduction targets, which is diverting resources away from measures he claimed are more cost-effective at improving people's lives.

Pointing to a need for greater innovation – particularly to remove the "green premium", or the extra cost associated with using zero-emissions products – and to better measure the impact of climate initiatives, he wrote that next month's UN climate conference was a perfect opportunity to change approach.

READ MORE: Rate cut hopes dealt massive blow as inflation surges again

"This is a chance to refocus on the metric that should count even more than emissions and temperature change: improving lives," he said. 

"Our chief goal should be to prevent suffering, particularly for those in the toughest conditions who live in the world's poorest countries.

"Although climate change will hurt poor people more than anyone else, for the vast majority of them it will not be the only or even the biggest threat to their lives and welfare. 

"The biggest problems are poverty and disease, just as they always have been.

"Understanding this will let us focus our limited resources on interventions that will have the greatest impact for the most vulnerable people."

READ MORE: Seven million Aussies don't know they're sitting on enormous pile of cash

Gates, who was previously the world's richest man and currently has a net worth of about $US122 billion ($185 billion), has invested more than $100 billion into charitable causes, and has previously pledged to give away the majority of his fortune before he dies.

Much of his philanthropic work has focused on initiatives such as malaria prevention and climate adaptation, and he stressed in his post that rising global temperatures was still a crucial issue that needs to be urgently addressed.

"It needs to be solved, along with other problems like malaria and malnutrition," Gates wrote.

"Every tenth of a degree of heating that we prevent is hugely beneficial because a stable climate makes it easier to improve people's lives…

"Climate change, disease, and poverty are all major problems. We should deal with them in proportion to the suffering they cause.

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.

MPI says the US-imported snack may contain pieces of metal.

The "storm of the century" has devastated a holiday hotspot, and is heading north.

Australian girls are being targeted online by sadistic young men, who treat their victims as if they were characters in a video game, the new head of the Australian Federal Police has revealed.

Commissioner Krissy Barrett said online criminal networks are intimidating, exploiting and controlling girls with low self-esteem or mental health disorders to perform serious acts of violence on themselves, siblings, others and pets.

They have identified 59 people as being part of the network in Australia and arrested three people aged between 17 and 20.

READ MORE: Rate cut hopes dealt massive blow as inflation surges again

"They are crimefluencers, and are motivated by anarchy and hurting others, with most of their victims pre-teen or teenage girls," Barrett told the National Press Club in her first major speech. 

Barrett said young men from Western, English-speaking backgrounds are engaged in the "twisted type of gamification" where they treat and trade their victims as they would if they were characters in a video game.

"These groups have a similar culture to multiplayer online gaming culture, and they hunt, stalk, and draw in victims from a range of online platforms," she said.

"To be accepted into these networks, the perpetrators often must have to pass a test or undertake a task such as providing videos of the self-harm of others or other gory content.

"This is where mainly vulnerable girls are being victimised.

"In this new, twisted type of gamification, perpetrators reach a status or new level in their group when they provide more content, showing more extreme acts of depravity and sadism.

"And in some cases, perpetrators trade their victims with each other, just like an online game.

"Once traded, a new perpetrator can control their new victim."

These offenders are believed to be motivated by their own amusement or to be popular online.

The criminal networks they are part of have no centralised hierarchy or single ideology and are attracted to violent extremism, nihilism, sadism, Nazism, and Satanism.

READ MORE: New information about one of WA's oldest cold cases revealed

The AFP has set up Taskforce Pompilid to investigate and arrest these crimefluencers.

Federal police and Microsoft are developing a prototype AI tool that will interpret emojis and Gen Z and Alpha slang in encrypted messages and chat groups to identify sadistic online exploitation.

The AFP has also provided information to departments and state and territory police to help them navigate the new trend and is working with partners overseas, who have arrested another nine people.

"Internationally, information provided by the AFP has contributed to arrests for murder, inciting suicide, inciting harm online, violent sexual offences, possession of child abuse and child sexual abuse material, as well as cybercrime offences such as unauthorised access of data and attempted extortion of organisations," Barrett said.

"A sub-group within the Five Eyes Law Enforcement Group has also been established to target these groups."

Barrett encouraged parents and guardians to be aware of the rising trend and speak with their children, letting them know that they can talk about uncomfortable online experiences with a safe adult.

"You can encourage safe conversations by talking regularly about online activities and apps, encouraging critical thinking, and reassuring kids that they won't be punished for coming forward if they think they have done something wrong," she said.

"You can look out for warning signs that include self-harm, changes in eating or sleeping habits, sudden withdrawal from friends, families or activities, use of extreme behaviour, extreme language or symbols, and rejection of previously held morals."

Readers seeking support can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or beyond blue on 1300 22 4636.

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 young humpback whale has been found dead tangled in shark nets south of Sydney, prompting renewed calls to remove the "barbaric walls of death".

The Department of Primary Industries, which oversees the state's shark program, said its shark net contractors found the two-year-old mammal floating upside down off Wombarra Beach, in northern Wollongong, during a routine inspection yesterday morning.

It was found with a shark net tangled around its tail and side fin.

READ MORE: Rate cut hopes dealt massive blow as inflation surges again

ORRCA, a non-profit rescue organisation, also received reports and is working with the Wollongong City Council, National Parks and Wildlife Service, and the Local Aboriginal Lands Council are managing the incident.

A National Parks and Wildlife Service spokesperson said this was a "very sad incident".

The cause of death remains unclear until the whale undergoes a necropsy, but choppy weather conditions have hampered efforts to retrieve the eight-metre body.

The dead whale is feared to attract sharks to the area, with the public advised to stay clear of it and avoid entering the water. 

The Wollongong City Council has temporarily shut the patrolled Scarborough and Coledale beaches to swimmers and surfers as a precaution until further notice.

Animal groups, councils and politicians have long been calling for shark nets to be removed from beaches across the state, arguing that it does not deter sharks and leads to other endangered sea animals being caught and killed in the nets.

According to data obtained from the Department of Primary Industries, almost 90 per cent of the animals caught in shark nets in the 2024 to 2025 season were non-target species and 67 per cent died.

The animals killed included four dolphins, seven threatened turtles, and four critically endangered grey nurse sharks.

READ MORE: Sussan Ley's attack on PM for his t-shirt smacks of desperation

Following yesterday's death of a humpback whale, Greens spokesperson for healthy oceans Senator Peter Whish-Wilson urged federal Environment Minister Murray Watt to remove a legislation exemption that allows state-controlled shark control programs.

"What further proof do governments need that shark nets do not work, and can even attract sharks to beaches where they can feed on marine wildlife caught in these barbaric walls of death," he said.

"Governments can help keep ocean-goers safe by supercharging investment in modern-day alternatives to outdated and ineffective shark nets and drumlines.

"These include subsidising shark shield personal deterrent devices, shark spotter programs, eco-shark barriers, bite-proof wetsuits, and improving public education."

The NSW government puts up shark nets at 51 beaches across eight councils between Newcastle and Wollongong when temperatures begin to warm from September.

Six of those councils, including the Wollongong City Council, have passed motions in support of removing the shark nets. 

READ MORE: Seven million Aussies don't know they're sitting on enormous pile of cash

The Department of Primary Industries had planned to remove shark nets at three spots in the Northern Beaches, Waverley and Central Coast councils this summer to trial its effectiveness.

But the death of a 57-year-old father killed in a shark attack at Dee Why in September caused the government to scrap the trial completely.

"In light of the tragedy that has occurred at Dee Why on the weekend, we need to be sensible about what the community would accept at this time," Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty said at the time.

A Department of Primary Industries spokesperson said the government will continue to investigate new shark mitigation technologies to minimise the impact on marine animals while also protecting beachgoers. 

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.

Astronomers have captured a stunning new image of the Milky Way as it's never been seen before.

The picture is the largest low-frequency radio colour image of the Milky Way ever assembled and took an Australian PhD student more than 40,000 hours to construct.

It reveals the Southern Hemisphere view of our Milky Way galaxy in vivid colour and reveals details that aren't clear in visible light.

LIVE UPDATES: Hurricane Melissa makes landfall in Jamaica

Silvia Mantovanini, from the Curtin University node of the International Centre of Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), spent 18 months putting the radio colour image together.

She spent 18 months constructing it based on data from two extensive GaLactic and Extragalactic All-sky MWA (GLEAM) and GLEAM-X (GLEAM eXtended) surveys conducted in Western Australia.

The first survey took place over 28 nights in 2013 and 2014, and the second was conducted over 113 nights from 2018 to 2020.

READ MORE: At least eight Queensland schools taught students about the wrong Roman leader for a whole semester

Using supercomputers, Mantovanini was able to construct an image that offers twice the resolution and ten times the sensitivity of the previous GLEAM-X photo from 2019.

It also provides insights into how stars form in different parts of the Milky Way, how they interact with other celestial objects, and how they die.

"This vibrant image delivers an unparalleled perspective of our Galaxy at low radio frequencies," Mantovanini said.

"You can clearly identify remnants of exploded stars, represented by large red circles. The smaller blue regions indicate stellar nurseries where new stars are actively forming."

READ MORE: A 90-second video made Luke a viral sensation – but it came at a cost

Associate professor Natasha Hurley-Walker from the same ICRAR team called it an "exciting milestone in astronomy".

"No low-frequency radio image of the entire Southern Galactic Plane has been published before," she 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.