Aldi reveals baffling wine statistic, Chinese media's scathing Albo attack: Australia news live

A man has died after falling of an electric skateboard in NSW.

The 45-year-old man fell off the skateboard in Umina Beach on Sunday evening and was rushed to hospital in a critical condition but could not be saved.

The man's death comes as the NSW government discusses tighter legislation around e-scooters and similar electric vehicles on the state's roads.

The two big supermarkets have been in the headlines all year in 2024 and for the Australian National Dictionary Centre, that's enough to combine them for their word of the year.

'Colesworth', a word used to describe the duopoly of Coles and Woolworths, was chosen due to their role in the cost of living narrative this year.

"What we're looking for is something that kind of sums up the year, a word that's been used or relating to the concerns of Australians," Mark Gwynn, a senior researcher at the Australian National Dictionary Centre, said.

A regional Aussie pub famous for being one of the locations in David Bowie's Let's Dance music video has been badly damaged in a wild storm on Tuesday.

The Carinda Hotel was one of many buildings in the tiny town to suffer significant damage, with roofs blown off several properties.

Local Chris Isaac told the ABC it "looks like a bomb has gone off".

More and more schools are providing breakfast for students as the cost of living continues to punish struggling families.

"We've had an absolute influx of schools, ranging from all different socio-demographics, reach out," Foodbank community engagement coordinator Taylan Redden told the ABC.

"The demand in the last two or three months has been crazy."

Foodbank has been putting on breakfast clubs at hundreds of schools and expects to be providing breakfast to 1,000 schools by next year.

Children are offered Aussie favourites including fairy bread, vegemite toast, banana smoothies, fresh fruit, and bowls of cereal.

The picture may be bringing back unpleasant pandemic memories but this Covid-like test is set to be a game changer for women testing for STIs.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has approved Australia's first rapid self-test for chlamydia and gonorrhoea and will be available to Aussies in just weeks.

Matt Salihi, CEO of Touch Biotechnology who have developed the tests, says the approval of the tests is a "significant" step for sexual health.

“It’s incredibly important for women, and men, to consider the risks of unprotected sex because despite the perceived stigma, STIs impact so many Australians amounting to much more than uncomfortable symptoms," he said.

Telstra is bringing back its popular free calls to Santa this Christmas ensuring "no one misses out on the magic of Christmas".

Children can dial # 46 46 46 (Ho ho ho) on any of the network's payphones across the country to get through to Santa. Last year, more than 500,000 calls were made to the North Pole.

And with smaller children struggling to reach some payphones by themselves, Telstra is rolling out kid-sized payphones across select stores in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane until Christmas Eve. Check out the miniature version in the Instagram video below.

The use of canned tomatoes in last night's My Kitchen Rules finale has ruffled a few feathers with debate erupting online over whether such tins should be allowed to be used.

Caz and Fergus, who missed out on this season's title, were spotted using the tomatoes, but eventual winners Simone and Viviana have told Yahoo Lifestyle they don't see what the issue is.

So what do you think? Are you a purist and want everything made from scratch? Have your say below.

We take you overseas now. Four monkeys remain on the run after 43 of them escaped a US facility that breeds them for medical research.

Authorities in South Carolina have been scrambling the past two weeks to capture the monkeys, with two more caught on Monday.

Police believe an employee accidentally left their enclosure unlocked.

Controversial adult content creator Bonnie Blue has been kicked out of Fiji, two weeks after her Australian visa was cancelled.

Blue, alongside Australian Annie Knight, have proven divisive after they offered to bed "barely-legal" Schoolies teens and film it with their consent.

While unable to fly into Australia, Blue headed to nearby Schoolies location Fiji but the country's Home Affairs and Immigration Minister Pio Tikoduadua said her visa will now be cancelled.

“I have exercised my authority under the Immigration Act to declare Tia Billinger, the United Kingdom national known by her screen name, Bonnie Blue, a prohibited immigrant,” Mr Tikoduadua said, according to The Daily Telegraph.

Minister for Tourism Viliame Gavoka told the Fiji Times having Blue in their country is “harmful to the image of Fiji as a tourist destination".

Liam Payne will be laid to rest in a private ceremony this week, exactly five weeks on from his death.

The former One Direction star died after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires on October 16 aged 31 and it has been revealed his parents have put together a "perfect service" for him which will take place on Wednesday,

"His family have gone to great lengths to put together the perfect service and give him the send-off he deserves," a source told The Sun.

"Liam may have been a global superstar but to Geoff and Karen he will always be their little boy.

"It is going to be an incredibly difficult day."

Simon Cowell is expected to be at the funeral.

- With AAP

Two men have been charged after human remains were found in search for a missing teenager.

Isla Bell, 19, was last seen leaving her home in Brunswick, in Melbourne’s inner north about 6pm on October 4.

Missing Persons Squad formally took over the investigation into the woman’s suspicious disappearance in late October.

Human remains, which are yet to be formally identified, were discovered in Dandenong on Tuesday morning, more than one month after the teenager was first reported missing.

Three men were arrested on Tuesday morning after detectives executed search warrants on two Bentleigh East and Mulgrave properties.

A 53-year-old St Kilda man has since been charged with murder and a 57-year-old man has been charged with assist offender (murder).

A 63-year-old Mulgrave man was released pending further inquiries.

“Isla’s family have been notified and police will ensure a number of support services are in place,” a statement from police read.

Read more here.

It was widely perceived that China's Xi Jinping was warning Anthony Albanese when he said Canberra should maintain its relationship with Beijing "with great care" on the sidelines of the G20 summit.

And while Xi had flagged that the relationship has had its ups and downs, Chinese state media painted a different picture, praising the relationship as all eyes remain on Albanese to see how he navigates a difficult position between the US and China.

Chinese news agency Xinhua focused on prospering economic ties between the two countries while stressing Xi's position that "there is no fundamental conflict of interest between China and Australia".

But it was a different story from China's nationalistic tabloid the Global Times, with an opinion piece branding the Albanese government "mad' for its military trajectory alongside the US and Japan after recent joint drills.

"These drills are designed to counter an imaginary China threat. The US and paid mouthpieces such as ASPI have manufactured a threat that doesn't exist only to put Australia into a very dangerous position because, if there is conflict in Asia, it won't be the US getting hit, it will be bases in Australia, some of which are very close to civilian populations," a mystery British Australian freelance writer wrote.

China has long been a critic of the AUKUS military pact that Albanese has invested $368 billion in alongside the US and UK.

Almost half of Australians in a recent Aldi survey believe you can make rose wine by simply mixing red and white.

Yep, that's right. Forty-nine per cent of a survey of 1,000 wine drinkers had it very, very wrong.

The surprising statistic comes as the supermarket went undercover at a polo event to test its wines on punters.

And while their data said 52 per cent of those surveyed could tell the difference between a $10 and $60 bottle of wine, those asked at the polo event said they'd shell out north of $50 on bottles priced under $20 at the supermarket.

To fool revellers, Aldi posed as wine merchant Fin D'Itinaldi. Get it? Find it in Aldi for those who are still waking up this morning.

Two Danish women in their twenties have been confirmed dead in a suspected methanol poisoning that left two Australian teens hospitalised in Southeast Asia.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs can confirm that two Danish citizens have passed away in Laos. For reasons of confidentiality in personal matters the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has no further comments," a statement share to the ABC read.

Australians Holly Bowles and Bianca Jones, both 19, are on life support in Thailand after the incident that hospitalised several others. Local police are investigating the matter with the local hostel owner where the women were staying insisting to the ABC their alcohol is safe.