Despite major progress in closing Australia's gender pay gap over the past decade, 10 industries saw the difference in pay between men and women widen in the past year.

Fans are remembering the voice and songs of trailblazer Angie Stone after her death at 63 in a weekend crash on an Alabama highway as she travelled from a performance.

The Grammy-nominated RnB singer was a member of the all-female hip-hop trio The Sequence and known for the hit song "Wish I Didn't Miss You." She found a sweet spot in the early 2000s as neo-soul began to dominate RnB.

In a recent Instagram post, Stone told fans she was excited about upcoming events and "getting back in the mix."

READ MORE: Oscars winners list as they are announced

"A lot of stuff is going on that I don't want to just let out of the bag just yet," she said. "But you can see that there's a big grin on my face."

The tributes to Stone on social media included one from rap artist MC Hammer, who posted a video featuring Stone's song "Brotha," writing "I can't tell you how many days this song blessed my Soul. RIP Angie Stone."

Actor and singer Jennifer Hudson expressed disbelief in a social media post.

"What a loss !!! Angie Stone was a true pioneer," Hudson wrote.

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"Another one of our great soul singers gone too soon. Prayers up for her family and loved ones!"

The Alabama Highway Patrol said the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van that Stone was travelling in overturned on Interstate 65 early Saturday before being hit by a 2021 Freightliner Cascadia truck. Stone was pronounced dead at the scene, the highway patrol said in a statement.

The crash occurred about 8km south of the Montgomery city limits. The van's driver and seven others were taken to a hospital for treatment. Officials continue to investigate the crash.

READ MORE: Mud-covered Carnival revellers are a strange sight in sleepy Brazilian town

The singer-songwriter created hits like "No More Rain (In This Cloud)" which reached number one for 10 weeks on Billboard's Adult RnB airplay chart, "Baby" with legendary soul singer Betty Wright, another number one hit, and "Wish I Didn't Miss You" and "Brotha." Her 2001 album "Mahagony Soul" reached number 22 on the Billboard 200, while 2007's "The Art Of Love & War" peaked at number 11.

"Rest in Power, Angie Stone. A true pioneer, a soulful storyteller, and a voice that helped shape the sound of RnB," the NAACP Image Awards posted on social media.

The church-grown singer was born in Columbia, South Carolina. She helped form The Sequence, the first all-female group on the hip-hop trailblazing imprint Sugar Hill Records, becoming one of the first female groups to record a rap song.

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The group's "Funk You Up," has been sampled by numerous artists, including Dr. Dre. Stone later joined the trio Vertical Hold before launching her solo career.

Actor and comedian Jamie Foxx said Stone would be missed "painfully."

"I know they say that God doesn't make any mistakes… but man this one hurts…," Foxx said.

"Angie Stone was an incredible songwriter, and incredible artist and incredible person … never thought in 1 million years that this would happen…"

Stone was also remembered by the Reverend Bernice King, daughter of the late Martin Luther King Jr and CEO of the King Centre.

"So heartbreaking" King posted on social media.

"Rest well, soul sister. #AngieStone".

Stone's performance at the Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association's Grand Marshal's Ball on Friday night was "nothing short of phenomenal," according to the organisation's president, Isadore B Sims. In a statement, Sims said they would cherish memories of Stone's talent and warm spirit.

"Her talent captivated everyone in attendance, and her presence truly elevated the event," Sims said.

"Never could we have imagined that it would be the last time we would have the honour of witnessing her perform."

At the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association's men's championship basketball game in Baltimore on Saturday, where Stone was scheduled to perform during halftime, Chaplain Pastor Jerome Barber called for a moment of silence.

Zeta Phi Beta Sorority mourned the loss of their sorority sister.

"Renowned for her contributions to the RnB and neo-soul genres, Stone's music has resonated with fans for decades," the sorority said in a statement, remembering her diabetes awareness efforts and work with the sorority's Elder Care initiatives and Zetas Helping Other People Excel.

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The cream of Hollywood will assemble this morning to see which of the year's most acclaimed films, performers, and creators are acknowledged in the 2025 Academy Awards.

The Oscars are coming off a tumultuous few months for the film industry elite, including the Los Angeles fires and the recent deaths of acting titan Gene Hackman and his wife.

Multiple Australians are also in the running for an awards nod. Here's what you need to know.

READ MORE: Mud-covered Carnival revellers are a strange sight in sleepy Brazilian town

When do the Oscars start?

The ceremony will begin at 11 am AEDT.

Coverage of the red carpet will begin about half an hour earlier, at 10.30 am AEDT.

Who is hosting the ceremony?

Late-night TV icon Conan O'Brien will be filling hosting duties.

He'll be accompanied by a range of performers who are typically drawn from the ranks of the nominees.

Award announcers, usually former Oscar winners themselves, will also take the stage.

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What's different about this year's ceremony?

While the Oscars themselves are keeping to schedule, the devastating LA wildfires saw changes to the lead-up.

The voting period was extended by a week, delaying the announcement of the nominees.

The Oscar Nominees Luncheon was also cancelled.

READ MORE: Cyclone Alfred edges towards direct hit on Brisbane

Who are the Australians up for an award?

Guy Pearce headlines the list of Australians going for an Oscars gong, after he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Award for The Brutalist.

The film is also up for Best Picture, Best Actor (Adrien Brody), Best Supporting Actress (Felicity Jones), and Best Director (Brady Corbet).

Pearce faces stiff competition, particularly in the form of Kieran Culkin for his turn in A Real Pain.

Culkin has swept the awards season so far, with Pearce recently joking in an interview that he was sure to lose the Oscar to his fellow actor.

Other Australians up for a golden statuette include former winner Adam Elliot, nominated for Best Animated Feature Film for Memoir of a Snail.

Melbourne-based producer Liz Kearney is also nominated for the same film.

Elliot previously won Best Animated Short in 2016 for Harvey Krumpet.

Australian cinematographer Greig Fraser has been nominated for his work on Dune: Part Two, after winning the Oscar in 2022 for the previous film in the prospective trilogy.

Australian producer Maya Gnyp is included in the nomination for Best Documentary Short Film for I Am Ready, Warden, alongside US director-producer Smriti Mundhra.

The film follows the last week in the life of a former US Marine, John Henry Ramirez, spent on death row.

Australian Rodney Burke, special effects supervisor on Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, was nominated for Best Visual Effects Oscar.

He'll be competing in the category with fellow Australians Luke Millar and David Clayton, who worked on the Robbie Williams biopic Better Man, which saw the singer rendered as an anthropomorphic chimpanzee.

Who are the other nominees?

You can check out a rundown of the Best Picture nominees, and how to watch them, here.

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A private lunar lander carrying a drill, vacuum and other experiments for NASA touched down on the moon on Sunday, the latest in a string of companies looking to kickstart business on Earth's celestial neighbor ahead of astronaut missions.

Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander descended from lunar orbit on autopilot, aiming for the slopes of an ancient volcanic dome in an impact basin on the moon's north-eastern edge of the near side.

Confirmation of successful touchdown came from the company's Mission Control outside Austin, Texas, following the action some 360,000 kilometres away.

READ MORE: Cyclone Alfred edges towards direct hit on Brisbane

"You all stuck the landing. We're on the moon," Firefly's Will Coogan, chief engineer for the lander, reported.

An upright and stable landing makes Firefly — a startup founded a decade ago — the first private outfit to put a spacecraft on the moon without crashing or falling over. Even countries have faltered, with only five claiming success: Russia, the US, China, India and Japan.

A half hour after landing, Blue Ghost started to send back pictures from the surface, the first one a selfie somewhat obscured by the sun's glare. The second shot included the home planet, a blue dot glimmering in the blackness of space.

Two other companies' landers are hot on Blue Ghost's heels, with the next one expected to join it on the moon later this week.

Blue Ghost — named after a rare US species of fireflies — had its size and shape going for it. The squat four-legged lander stands 2 metres tall and 3.5 metres wide, providing extra stability, according to the company.

READ MORE: UK, France to work on ceasefire plan with Ukraine

Launched in mid-January from Florida, the lander carried 10 experiments to the moon for NASA. The space agency paid $US101 million ($162 million) for the delivery, plus $US44 million ($70 million) for the science and tech on board. It's the third mission under NASA's commercial lunar delivery program, intended to ignite a lunar economy of competing private businesses while scouting around before astronauts show up later this decade.

Firefly's Ray Allensworth said the lander skipped over hazards including boulders to land safely. Allensworth said the team continued to analyze the data to figure out the lander's exact position, but all indications suggest it landed within the 100-metre target zone in Mare Crisium.

The demos should get two weeks of run time, before lunar daytime ends and the lander shuts down.

It carried a vacuum to suck up moon dirt for analysis and a drill to measure temperature as deep as 3 metres below the surface. Also on board: a device for eliminating abrasive lunar dust — a scourge for NASA's long-ago Apollo moonwalkers, who got it caked all over their spacesuits and equipment.

On its way to the moon, Blue Ghost beamed back exquisite pictures of the home planet. The lander continued to stun once in orbit around the moon, with detailed shots of the moon's gray pockmarked surface. At the same time, an on-board receiver tracked and acquired signals from the US GPS and European Galileo constellations, an encouraging step forward in navigation for future explorers.

The landing set the stage for a fresh crush of visitors angling for a piece of lunar business.

Another lander — a tall and skinny 4 metres tall, built and operated by Houston-based Intuitive Machines — is due to land on the moon on Thursday. It's aiming for the bottom of the moon, just 160 kilometres from the south pole. That's closer to the pole than the company got last year with its first lander, which broke a leg and tipped over.

Despite the tumble, Intuitive Machines' lander put the US back on the moon for the first time since NASA astronauts closed out the Apollo program in 1972.

A third lander from the Japanese company ispace is still three months from landing. It shared a rocket ride with Blue Ghost from Cape Canaveral on January 15, taking a longer, windier route. Like Intuitive Machines, ispace is also attempting to land on the moon for the second time. Its first lander crashed in 2023.

The moon is littered with wreckage not only from ispace, but dozens of other failed attempts over the decades.

NASA wants to keep up a pace of two private lunar landers a year, realizing some missions will fail, said the space agency's top science officer Nicky Fox.

"It really does open up a whole new way for us to get more science to space and to the moon," Fox said.

Unlike NASA's successful Apollo moon landings that had billions of dollars behind them and ace astronauts at the helm, private companies operate on a limited budget with robotic craft that must land on their own, said Firefly CEO Jason Kim.

Kim said everything went like clockwork.

"We got some moon dust on our boots," Kim said.

Hundreds of mud-covered Carnival revellers paraded in the sleepy seaside town of Paraty in south-eastern Brazil on Saturday, a decades-old tradition that has grown ever larger since its first edition nearly 40 years ago.

Joyous partygoers threw themselves into the silty shallows in front of one Paraty beach, emerging grey from the sludge.

They danced on the beach and grunted cavemen chants – "Uga! Uga!" – before marching along the sand.

READ MORE: Cyclone Alfred edges towards direct hit on Brisbane

"It's the best bloco. It's not often that you can get muddy and go around dancing and singing. It's very gooey, it's sticky and it stinks, but it's very good," said Thais Beazussi, 20, who lives almost two hours away by car, but makes the annual trip.

Carnival in Brazil is a combination of world-famous parades by samba schools who spend all year around preparing and eccentric street parties, each with their own theme, aesthetic or musical style.

The mud party's tradition dates to 1986, according to Paraty's tourism website.

Friends were playing in the mangroves at Jabaquara Beach, and realised they weren't recognisable.

READ MORE: UK, France to work on ceasefire plan with Ukraine

They went strolling into the city's historic centre and caused a stir.

The next year, a group lathered themselves up with mud to present themselves as a prehistoric tribe for Carnival. They carried skulls, vines and bones as they uttered their chants, the site said.

And so the mud party was born. And in the years since, it has become a beloved tradition.

Its growth has forced organisers and Paraty's tourist office to promote awareness ahead of the event regarding the importance of not dirtying the city's colorful walls, cars or onlookers.

Britain, France and Ukraine have agreed to work on a ceasefire plan to present to the US, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Sunday as he prepared to host a summit of European leaders to discuss ending the war.

The summit has been overshadowed by the extraordinary scolding by US President Donald Trump of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday for being ungrateful for US support in Ukraine's battle against the invasion by Russia.

But Starmer said he's focused on being a bridge to restore peace talks and he used the collapse of those talks as an opportunity to re-engage with Trump and Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron rather than "ramp up the rhetoric".

READ MORE: Israel cuts off aid to Gaza in bid to pressure Hamas to accept new ceasefire deal

"We've now agreed that the United Kingdom, along with France and possibly one or two others, will work with Ukraine on a plan to stop the fighting, and then we'll discuss that plan with the United States," Starmer told the BBC. Starmer and Macron have both spoken to Trump since Friday.

Sunday's meeting is an important step

The London meeting has taken on greater importance in defending the war-torn ally and shoring up the continent's defences.

Sunday's summit is likely to include talks on establishing a European military force to be sent to Ukraine to underpin a ceasefire. Starmer said it would involve "a coalition of the willing".

Starmer said he does not trust Russian President Vladimir Putin but does trust Trump.

"Do I believe Donald Trump when he says he wants lasting peace? The answer to that is yes," he said.

Starmer said there are "intense discussions" to get a security guarantee from the US as one of three components for a lasting peace.

"If there is to be a deal, if there is to be a stopping of the fighting, then that agreement has to be defended, because the worst of all outcomes is that there is a temporary pause and then Putin comes again," Starmer said.

READ MORE: Cyclone Alfred edges towards direct hit on Brisbane

"That has happened in the past, I think it is a real risk, and that is why we must ensure that if there's a deal, it is a lasting deal, not a temporary pause."

The meeting at Lancaster House, a 200-year-old elegant mansion near Buckingham Palace, follows a charm offensive last week to engage with Trump at the White House to put Ukraine at the center of negotiations and tilt his allegiances toward Europe.

The summit will also include leaders from France, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Canada, Finland, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Romania. The Turkish foreign minister, NATO secretary-general and the presidents of the European Commission and European Council will also attend.

European leaders are backing Zelenskyy

Zelenskyy received broad support from leaders across Europe after the White House fiasco, which was exceptional for featuring an attack on an ally — and because it was broadcast on live television.

Starmer embraced Zelenskyy when he arrived Saturday for a private meeting — a day before a get-together had been scheduled before the summit.

"As you heard from the cheers on the street outside, you have full backing across the United Kingdom," Starmer said.

"We stand with you, with Ukraine, for as long as it may take."

Europe has been anxious since Trump initiated direct peace talks with Putin, who had been isolated by most Western leaders since invading Ukraine three years ago. The scramble to remain relevant and protect European interests as their once stalwart ally appeared to be cozying up to Putin was even more troubling when Trump called Zelenskyy a dictator and falsely said Ukraine started the war.

Meetings in recent days had provided some hope — until Zelenskyy's visit to the White House.

Visits to the Oval Office by Macron, who had declared his visit a "turning point", and Starmer were seen as steps in the right direction. The meetings were cordial and Trump even took a gentler tone toward Ukraine, though he would not commit to providing US security guarantees and maintained Europe would need to provide peacekeeping troops.

Within 12 hours of Starmer's return from Washington, the talk of peace seemed to collapse as Vice President JD Vance berated Zelenskyy for challenging Trump's assertions that Russian President Vladimir Putin could be trusted.

"Starmer did an impressive job of asserting Europe's agency in the war on Ukraine and conveying to President Trump that Europe is willing and able to take a leading role in implementing any credible peace deal," said Rachel Ellehuus, director-general of Royal United Services Institute, a defence and security think tank. "Unfortunately, Friday's White House meeting was a major step backward."

Ukraine can no longer count on military or political support from the US after Trump declared himself neutral in negotiations, Ellehuus said. She said Europe needs to step in and could release some €200 billion ($334 billion) in seized Russian assets to help fund that effort.

"The immediate goal of the meetings in London must be to keep Ukraine in the fight so it can negotiate from a maximum position of strength," she said.

European leaders pledge to increase military spending

Starmer pledged this week to boost military spending to 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product by 2027. Other European nations may follow suit.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said Saturday that Europe faces a historic test and has to look after itself. He said European countries have to increase their arms spending to reach at least 3 per cent of GDP.

"If we don't increase our effort fast enough and let the aggressor dictate its conditions, we won't end up well," he said.

Macron, who said it was legitimate for the US to shift its focus to dealing with China and Asia, also called for more defence spending as he called for unity among his neighbors.

"We should have woken up earlier," Macron said.

"I've been saying for years that we need a more sovereign, more united, more independent Europe."

Israel stopped the entry of all goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip on Sunday and warned of "additional consequences" if Hamas doesn't accept a new proposal to extend the first phase of a fragile ceasefire.

Hamas accused Israel of trying to derail the truce and said its decision to cut off aid was "cheap extortion, a war crime and a blatant attack" on the truce deal. Both sides stopped short of saying the ceasefire had ended.

The first phase of the ceasefire, which included a surge in humanitarian assistance, expired on Saturday. The two sides have yet to negotiate the second phase, in which Hamas was to release dozens of remaining hostages in return for an Israeli pullout and a lasting ceasefire.

READ MORE: Cyclone Alfred edges towards direct hit on Brisbane

An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said the decision to suspend aid was made in coordination with the Trump administration.

Israel says the new proposal is backed by the US

Israel said on Sunday that it supports what it described as a proposal from US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff to extend the first phase of the ceasefire through Ramadan — the Muslim holy month of dawn-to-dusk fasting that began over the weekend — and the Jewish Passover holiday, which ends on April 20.

Under that proposal, Hamas would release half the hostages on the first day and the rest when an agreement is reached on a permanent ceasefire, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office.

Hamas warned that any attempt to delay or cancel the existing ceasefire agreement would have "humanitarian consequences" for the hostages and reiterated that the only way to free them was through implementing the deal and negotiating the second phase.

Hamas has said it is willing to free the remaining hostages all at once in Phase 2, but only in return for the release of more Palestinian prisoners, a permanent ceasefire and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces.

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An Egyptian official said Hamas and Egypt would not accept a new proposal aimed at returning the remaining hostages without ending the war. The official noted that the agreement had called on the two sides to begin negotiations over Phase 2 in early February.

The official, who was not authorised to brief the media and spoke on condition of anonymity, said mediators were trying to resolve the dispute. There was no immediate comment from the US or Qatar, which along with Egypt has served as a key mediator with Hamas.

Ceasefire has been marred by disputes

Under the first, six-week phase of the ceasefire, Hamas released 25 Israeli hostages and the bodies of eight others in exchange for the release of nearly 2000 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Israeli forces pulled back from most of Gaza and Israel allowed a surge of humanitarian aid to enter.

But the first phase was marred by repeated disputes, with each side accusing the other of violations.

Israeli strikes killed dozens of Palestinians who the military said had approached its forces or entered areas in violation of the truce. Hamas paraded the captives — some of whom were emaciated — before crowds in public spectacles that Israel and the United Nations said were cruel and degrading.

Hamas said Israel's aid suspension was another violation, saying deliveries were supposed to continue as the sides negotiated over the second phase of the deal.

Israel has been accused of blocking aid throughout the war

Israel imposed a complete siege on Gaza in the opening days of the war and only eased it later under US pressure.

UN agencies and aid groups accused Israel of not facilitating enough aid during 15 months of war, and the Biden administration repeatedly pressed it to do more. Experts warned on several occasions that hunger was widespread in Gaza and that there was a risk of famine.

The International Criminal Court said there was reason to believe Israel had used "starvation as a method of warfare", when it issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu last year. The allegation is also central to South Africa's case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide.

Israel has denied the accusations and rejected both court actions as being biased against it. Israel says it has allowed enough aid to enter and blamed shortages on what it said was the UN's inability to distribute it. It also accused Hamas of siphoning off aid.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostage. The militants are currently holding 59 hostages, 32 of whom are believed to be dead, after releasing most of the rest in two ceasefire agreements.

Israel's offensive has killed over 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. It says more than half of those killed were women and children but does not specify how many of the dead were combatants.

Israeli bombardment and ground operations pounded large areas of the strip to rubble and at the height of the conflict displaced some 90% of the population of 2.3 million Palestinians. The war has left most of Gaza's population dependent on international aid for food and other essentials.

North Queenslanders were rocked by a 4.4-magnitude earthquake overnight.

Residents reported their homes shaking about 9.30pm yesterday in Townsville, with small tremors felt by residents as far north as Cairns and south as Mackay.

The earthquake was recorded 17 kilometres from Townsville at a depth of 10 kilometres, according to Geoscience Australia.

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More than 5000 people reported feeling the tremors.

Some reported feeling like there was an "explosion".

Townsville resident Jethro Gifford told 9news he heard the loud crack of an earthquake from inside his home.

"Sounded like an explosion at the front of the house, a loud bang, followed by a second or two more of rumbling," he said.

"The whole neighbourhood was in front of their houses trying to figure out what was going on."

"Such a strange feeling to suddenly have this weird force racing beneath you, making your home shudder, and then some kind of explosion," Townsville resident Barbara Hannay said.

CCTV footage shows homes trembling as the earthquake hit.

There were no reports of major damage and authorities warned aftershocks were a possibility.

The Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre confirmed there was no tsunami threat to the Australia's mainland, islands or territories.

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A smaller 3.3-magnitude earthquake was also felt in Muswellbrook, NSW about 10pm.

Only 189 reported feeling tremors from the quake, which had a depth of 1 kilometre.

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Cyclone Alfred has whipped up wild surf and eaten away large parts of the shoreline on Queensland's coast as it edges towards a potential direct hit on Brisbane.

Lifeguards closed dozens of beaches from Agnes Water in Gladstone down to Currumbin on the Gold Coast while the category-two cyclone threatens to make landfall.

Water was seen entering a restaurant on the Sunshine Coast, and on K'Gari residents faced gale force winds and campers were warned to return to the mainland to avoid passing Alfred's force.

READ MORE: Pledge for 'most Aussies to be within a 20 minutes of health clinic'

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Fears grow for Pumicestone Passage homes, particularly at Golden Beach, as the ocean pushes through a fragile protective sandbar on the northern tip of Bribie Island.

Modelling shows Alfred making a beeline for the country's third-biggest capital, with the south-east bracing for a potential direct hit.

A Bureau of Meteorology tracking map shows a cross through Brisbane as high as a category two.

The storm is on track to make landfall in the early hours of Thursday.

Premier David Crisafulli asked locals to prepare.

"I'm mindful that there is a big challenge there because of how severe the breakthrough has been in recent times and the prospect of those winds with big tides," he said.

"I know this is not a frequent occurrence and there may be Queenslanders who can be forgiven for thinking that this is something that doesn't occur well history shows that is does.

"We're just asking people to just be prepared and heed the warnings, do what you can to get ready, and you need to know that we've done the same."

Sandbagging stations are open at key locations across the south-east, and Queenslanders encouraged to do all they can now to prepare their homes for heavy rainfall.

That includes cleaning gutters, securing loose items and ensuring they have food, water and batteries.

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The Bureau of Meteorology warned Monday could bring wild weather.

"Tropical Cyclone Alfred is forecast to move southwards, roughly parallel to the Queensland coast during Sunday and weaken a little further, before moving more to the southeast during Monday," the bureau said.

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"Alfred is then expected to slow down and is likely to turn westward from Tuesday, moving back towards the southern Queensland coast."

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The state's south-east is forecast to be lashed with 150 millimetres of rain if Alfred makes landfall as expected.

The Gold Coast is also expected to see more than 200 millimetres over the next few days.

Locals in northern NSW are also being warned they could face flooding.

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A biker was spotted speeding through Ranui Park while a family was playing.