Jade Baker leads the Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival with an all-female team.

The former Tall Black tells court about cut-throat competition and secret recordings.

A junior doctor accused of secretly filming hundreds of hospital staff has been bailed after a judge found his time on remand could be longer than any ultimate sentence.

Ryan Cho, 28, made a second bid for freedom in the Victorian Supreme Court today after his first bail application was refused in July.

He was charged with a further 127 offences yesterday, after initially being charged with nine offences including stalking and intentionally recording intimate images.

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It's alleged he filmed hundreds of workers at three Melbourne hospitals by concealing a phone in a mesh bag inside staff toilets.

Police analysed two mobile phones and a laptop seized from Cho's home and allegedly uncovered more than 10,000 videos and images.

It's alleged the files were categorised into different folders referencing the Austin Hospital, the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

Police allege the material, created between 2021 and 2025, shows staff using the toilet or shower facilities, with their genital and anal areas exposed.

The court was told today that police had taken statements from 200 witnesses but the true number of alleged victims was still unknown.

Prosecutor Russell Hammill claimed Cho should be refused bail because he posed an unacceptable risk of endangering the community and fleeing the jurisdiction.

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But Cho's barrister Julian McMahon SC argued those risks could be reduced through bail conditions including a ban on him using a phone that was capable of recording.

McMahon also noted Cho had essentially been in solitary confinement since he was remanded in July and he did not have access to a psychologist in custody.

There could also be significant delays in the court proceedings given the amount of material being assessed, McMahon said.

Justice James Elliott today agreed that delay might result in Cho spending more time on remand than any sentence he could ultimately receive.

The judge also found bail conditions including a ban on possessing recording devices and attending hospitals could alleviate any risk to the community.

Cho will walk free from court later today.

A clumsy arsonist has accidentally set themself on fire after torching a tobacconist in Queensland's south-east.

An employee and a customer were inside the business near Finucane Road and Old Cleveland Road at Capalaba when the fire broke out at 9.30pm but managed to escape without injury.

Witnesses filmed a blue Mazda speeding away from the scene with flames visible from the front seat.

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When police arrived, the shopfront was still alight but it was soon extinguished.

The Mazda was later found on fire near Goodge Court in Birkdale.

Nearby shop owners say it's not the first time the business has been targeted.

Police have declared a crime scene remains at the Capalaba business.

The suspected arsonist remains on the run.

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Australian sunscreen brand Ultra Violette has pulled one of its products from shelves and is offering customer refunds over "concerning discrepancies" in SPF testing results.

It comes just months after a Choice report alleged its Lean Screen SPF 50+ Mattifying Zinc Skinscreen returned an SPF rating of 4.

At the time, Ultra Violette disputed the Choice findings and vowed to pursue additional testing.

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Now founders Rebecca Jefferd and Ava Matthews issued a statement apologising that the product had "fallen short of the standards we pride ourselves on".

"As a sunscreen brand, our responsibility has always been to prioritise your safety, protection and skin health above all else," it read.

"It remains the basis for every decision we make, which is why when you heard from us last, we made a commitment to you that we would continue to investigate a concerning discrepancy in SPF testing results of our Lean Screen."

Jefferd and Matthews stated that the product underwent testing at multiple independent labs to confirm the products's efficacy.

Results from those tests returned varying SPF ratings of 4, 10, 21, 26, 33, 60, 61, and 64.

"That wasn't good enough for us, and it isn't good enough for you," they said.

"We are deeply sorry that one of our products has fallen short of the standards we pride ourselves on and that you have come to expect of us."

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In response to the inconsistency in testing, Ultra Violette announced it would be withdrawing the Lean/Velvet Screen from the market "effective immediately".

The brand will also be offering refunds to customers, "regardless of where it was purchased".

Lean Screen SPF 50+ Mattifying Zinc Skinscreen has been sold at major retailers like Sephora and Adore Beauty.

Ultra Violette said it will no longer be making any of its Skinscreen products with the third-party manufacturer that created the Lean Screen.

It claimed Lean Screen was the only sunscreen that manufacturer made for the brand.

The brand also announced it will be cutting ties with the original testing lab that vetted the Lean Screen product and will be working with new testing facilities going forward.

It also vowed to increase the frequency of product testing to every 18 months.

Ultra Violette insisted the SPF discrepancies only affected the Lean Screen product.

"Additional testing on all Ultra Violette products has reinforced our confidence in the rest of our line."

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Choice CEO Ashley de Silva said Lean Screen being pulled from shelves over discrepancies in SPF testing results "confirms there is a clear problem with how sunscreen is regulated and tested in Australia".

"In a country where two in three people will be diagnosed with skin cancer, people deserve to trust that the SPF ratings on sunscreen are accurate and reliable," she said in a statement.

"Without CHOICE's investigation, Ultra Violette's Lean Screen would still be on shelves, despite the fact that it does not provide anywhere near the amount of sun protection it claims to."

De Silva called on the Therapeutic Goods Administration to provide an update on its investigation into the the Choice report on sunscreen SPF.

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Debris balls have washed up on several NSW beaches again, but authorities are unsure whether they are related to the ones that were previously found along dozens of Sydney beaches.

The Central Coast Council confirmed the balls were found at The Entrance Beach, Grant McBridge Baths, Blue Bay, Toowoon Bay, North Shelly Beach, Shelly Beach and Blue Lagoon Beach.

The Grant McBride Baths have been temporarily shut.

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Beachgoers are advised to avoid going to the affected sites and not to touch the debris.

The debris balls are grey-coloured, ranging in size from one to four centimetres.

The NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) was first notified by a beachgoer who stumbled upon the balls at North Shelly Beach.

Council has since cleared all visible balls from that beach. 

Samples have been collected for testing, but the composition and source of the material are not yet known and could be from a variety of sources, like stormwater, sewerage or ships.

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According to council, it is unclear whether these debris balls are related to the ones that washed up on Sydney beaches from October to January.

Investigations and clean-up are currently ongoing.

Council is managing the matter, but the EPA has offered to help if needed. 

"Council also advised they will continue monitoring beaches and will send samples of the debris balls for testing," an EPA spokesperson said. 

"Further actions will be considered once test results are received."

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Black-coloured debris balls first appeared in Coogee, in Sydney's east, in October before dozens more started popping up along the coastline up until January. 

The EPA investigated and found the likely source of these balls was Sydney Water's land-based sewage treatment network.

The definite source still has not been determined.

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Erik Menendez has been denied parole after serving decades in prison for murdering his parents with his older brother in 1989.

A panel of California commissioners denied Menendez parole for three years, after which he will be eligible again, in a case that continues to fascinate the public. A parole hearing for his brother Lyle Menendez, who is being held at the same prison in San Diego, is scheduled for Friday morning local time.

The two commissioners determined that Menendez should not be freed after an all-day hearing during which they questioned him about why he committed the crime and violated prison rules.

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The brothers became eligible for parole after a judge reduced their sentences in May from life without parole to 50 years to life.

The parole hearings marked the closest they've been to winning freedom from prison since their convictions almost 30 years ago for murdering their parents.

The brothers were sentenced to life in prison in 1996 for fatally shooting their father, Jose Menendez, and mother, Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989. While defence attorneys argued that the brothers acted out of self-defence after years of sexual abuse by their father, prosecutors said the brothers sought a multimillion-dollar inheritance.

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A judge reduced their sentences in May, and they became immediately eligible for parole.

Erik Menendez made his case to two parole commissioners, offering his most detailed account in years of how he was raised, why he made the choices he did, and how he transformed in prison. He noted the hearing fell almost exactly 36 years after he killed his parents – on August 20, 1989.

"Today is August 21st. Today is the day that all of my victims learned my parents were dead. So today is the anniversary of their trauma journey," he said, referring to his family members.

The state corrections department chose a single reporter to watch the videoconference and share details with the rest of the press.

Erik Menendez's prison record

Menendez, grey-haired and spectacled, sat in front of a computer screen wearing a blue T-shirt over a white long-sleeve shirt in a photo shared by officials.

The panel of commissioners scrutinised every rules violation and fight on his lengthy prison record, including allegations that he worked with a prison gang, bought drugs, used cellphones and helped with a tax scam.

He told commissioners that since he had no hope of ever getting out then, he prioritised protecting himself over following the rules. Then last fall, LA prosecutors asked a judge to resentence him and his brother – opening the door to parole.

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"In November of 2024, now the consequences mattered," Menendez said. "Now the consequences meant I was destroying my life."

A particular sticking point for the commissioners was his use of cellphones.

"What I got in terms of the phone and my connection with the outside world was far greater than the consequences of me getting caught with the phone," Menendez said.

The board also brought up his earliest encounters with the law, when he committed two burglaries in high school.

"I was not raised with a moral foundation," he said. "I was raised to lie, to cheat, to steal in the sense, an abstract way."

The panel asked about details like why he used a fake ID to purchase the guns he and Lyle Menendez used to kill their parents, who acted first and why they killed their mother if their father was the main abuser.

Commissioner Robert Barton asked: "You do see that there were other choices at that point?"

"When I look back at the person I was then and what I believed about the world and my parents, running away was inconceivable," Menendez said. "Running away meant death."

His transformation behind bars

Erik Menendez's parole attorney, Heidi Rummel, emphasised 2013 as the turning point for her client.

"He found his faith. He became accountable to his higher power. He found sobriety and made a promise to his mother on her birthday," Rummel said. "Has he been perfect since 2013? No. But he has been remarkable."

Commissioner Rachel Stern also applauded him for starting a group to take care of older and disabled inmates.

Since the brothers reunited, they have been "serious accountability partners" for each other. At the same time, he said he's become better at setting boundaries with Lyle Menendez, and they tend to do different programming.

More than a dozen of their relatives, who have advocated for the brothers' release for months, delivered emotional statements at Thursday's hearing via videoconference.

"Seeing my crimes through my family's eyes has been a huge part of my evolution and my growth," Menendez said. "Just seeing the pain and the suffering. Understanding the magnitude of what I've done, the generational impact."

His aunt Teresita Menendez-Baralt, who is Jose Menendez's sister, said she has fully forgiven him. She noted that she is dying from stage four cancer and wishes to welcome him into her home.

"Erik carries himself with kindness, integrity and strength that comes from patience and grace," she said.

One relative promised to the parole board that she would house him in Colorado, where he can spend time with his family and enjoying nature.

The board brushed off prosecutor's questions

LA County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said ahead of the parole hearings that he opposes parole for the brothers because of their lack of insight, comparing them to Sirhan Sirhan, who assassinated presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy in 1968. Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom denied him parole in January 2022 because of his "deficient insight."

During the hearing, LA prosecutor Habib Balian asked Menendez about his and his brothers' attempts to ask witnesses to lie in court on their behalf, and if the brothers staged the killings as a mafia hit. Commissioners largely dismissed the questions, saying they were not retrying the case.

In closing statements, Balian questioned whether Menendez was "truly reformed" or saying what commissioners wanted to hear.

"When one continues to diminish their responsibility for a crime and continues to make the same false excuses that they've made for 30-plus years, one is still that same dangerous person that they were when they shotgunned their parents," Balian said.

What happens next

Lyle Menendez is set to appear over video conference Friday for his parole hearing from the same prison in San Diego.

The case has captured the attention of true crime enthusiasts for decades and spawned documentaries, television specials and dramatizations. The Netflix drama Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story and a documentary released in 2024 have been credited for bringing new attention to the brothers.

Greater recognition of the brothers as victims of sexual abuse has also helped mobilize support for their release. Some supporters have flown to Los Angeles to hold rallies and attend court hearings.

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Archaeologists and divers worked together to retrieve statues, Roman coins and other relics from the Mediterranean seabed in Alexandria.

A British woman who fell to her death skydiving the day after breaking up with her boyfriend took her own life, an inquest has found.

A verdict of suicide was recorded on Thursday over the death of Jade Damarell who died after crashing on farmland in County Durham, north-east England, on April 27, reports the BBC.

The inquest heard the 32-year-old was a "very experienced skydiver", but had not tried to deploy either her main or reserve parachutes.

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All her equipment was working correctly, and a helmet camera she previously switched on was not used on the day of her death.

Weather conditions on the day of her death were good, the inquest was told.

Assistant coroner Leslie Hamilton said Damarell had completed more than 500 jumps and the sport was one of her passions.

He read a summary of a statement from her former partner which said that they "had ended their relationship the night before".

He said that they had met through a shared love of skydiving.

A previous post-mortem found Damarell was killed from "blunt trauma".

Toxicological tests found she had no drink or drugs in her.

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

Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467.

August is typically one of the driest months of the year for Sydney and much of coastal NSW. This year, though? Not so much.

At the same time, Melbournians are enjoying an unseasonably warm and dry end to winter, with far less rainfall recorded than average.

As it happens, the same factors that are forcing Sydneysiders to reach for their umbrellas are responsible for the blue skies further south.

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What's causing the unseasonal weather?

Meteorological expert Milton Speer, a visiting fellow at the University of Technology Sydney, says there are two key factors at play.

The first is the change of frontal systems which, instead of coming from the west, have been blowing south-east.

"That means they're actually onshore easterly winds, which hold a lot more moisture going onto the east coast, but they don't hold moisture over Melbourne, because there's no moisture source," Speers told 9news.com.au. 

"The moisture sources are the Tasman Sea and Coral Sea, and the very warm sea surface temperatures that we're experiencing there for a few years now. And so Sydney has got the moisture in the atmosphere."

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At the same time, climate change is pushing the subtropical jet stream that once typically ran over Brisbane further south, so it's now bringing rain to NSW

"Sydney just seems to be in the right area… it stays there for a long time because there's nothing to push it away," Speers says. 

"That circulation up in the upper levels over northern NSW just stays there and, because of the copious moisture right through the depth of the atmosphere, produces these really heavy downpours and these rain events."

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Just how unusual has the weather been this August?

Sydney typically gets 80.2mm of rain each August. 

This month, it got more than 82mm in a single day alone, and had racked up almost 350mm with more than a week until spring begins.

It also typically only gets seven days with at least 1mm of rainfall. So far this month, there have only been five days that haven't had any rain.

Melbourne, on the other hand, usually gets 47.7mm and about nine rain-free days in August.

This year, those totals are currently sitting at 18.4mm and 18 days.

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Is this the new normal?

Thanks to climate change, yes, Speers says Australia can expect lots more extreme weather, both in terms of periods of hardly any rain and then stretches of deluges.

"So we've started to talk about, in recent years, 'flash droughts', where you get normal rainfall, or even above-average rainfall for a few months, and then you get nothing," he says.

Not that that's what Melbourne's going through at the moment, with record-low rainfall hitting parts of Victoria since last February.

"Melbourne certainly is a long-term," he says. 

"From February last year up until end of July or June, they've hardly had any; just a small fraction of their annual (average) rainfall or this year."

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