The heartbroken parents of a shark attack victim have remembered him as a boy who “loved life” as friends and supporters took part in a mass paddle-out to mourn the young surfer.

Holding boards and surrounding the family of 12-year-old Nico Antic, more than 100 people joined the early morning memorial at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday.

Locals lined the sand at the famous beach for the event, held more than a week after the keen rugby player died from injuries sustained in the mauling.

Nico, a nipper at North Bondi Surf Lifesaving Club, was critically injured while swimming with friends near a popular beach at Vaucluse, in Sydney’s east, earlier in January.

Dressed in a yellow and red surf lifesaving uniform, his father Juan addressed the crowd on the shores of North Bondi with Nico’s mother, Lorena.

“We love this kid so much, our Nico. I’m going to miss him forever,” Mr Antic said while wiping away tears.

“He loved his mates, he loved life. I’m sure he’s watching all of us so thanks to all of you for being part of this for Nico.”

The 12-year-old was one of four people attacked by sharks off NSW beaches in two days in January.

His death marked the first fatal shark attack inside Sydney Harbour in more than 60 years.

Surfer Mercury Psillakis, 57, was fatally bitten by a shark at Sydney’s Long Reef beach in September.

Pablo Bardon, who has known the Argentine-Australian Antic family for two decades, said it had been a very tough period for the tight-knit community in which ties were forged through people’s connection to the water and surfing.

“When you have kids, it’s really hard. It’s been an emotional process,” the father-of-three told AAP.

Bondi Beach had dramatically changed since the nearby shark attack and the terrorist attack of December 14 that left 15 victims dead.

“When driving down, it didn’t feel great. It’s not the same place,” Mr Bardon said.

The paddle-out was organised by Nico’s school, Rose Bay Secondary College, which remembered him as “deeply loved by a large network of friends”.

“He brought warmth, energy and kindness to those around him and will be remembered for the joy he shared so freely,” the school said previously.

For Gus De Notto, it was a tough moment paddling out on his surfboard.

“I feel like a really heavy atmosphere and of course, it was nice to see people but unfortunately, that won’t bring back Nico’s life,” he said.

“He was a super-happy child.”

After the spate of incidents, an extra $4.2 million was added to NSW beach safety programs, including shark tagging and monitoring and the installation of listening stations in the harbour.

Drone patrols will be extended to seven days a week through to the end of the April school holidays, covering 30 more beaches in Sydney and along the NSW coast.

Australia’s largest ocean swim, the Cole Classic, was due to take place across the harbour in Manly on Sunday, but the event was postponed until February 22 to “keep participants safe”.

“Conditions are trending positively and allowing additional time will further support a safe and enjoyable swim,” organisers said.

Under the shade of a weeping willow on the banks of a sparkling dam, wine lovers can look out across a sprawling national park while sipping chilled Chardonnay.

Members of the Wombat Crossing Vineyard, in the heart of the NSW Hunter Valley wine region, can also stay in a cosy lodge with a fireplace, aptly named The Burrows.

With grape-growing a notoriously perilous business, producer Ian Napier knew he had to branch out and offer single-vineyard wine, tastings and accommodation to diversify his income.

“Blind Freddy can see that grapes are not a product that is in high demand,” he tells AAP.

“You have to add value to them if you are to do any good.”

The business was humming along when, in August 2023, Mr Napier was hit with a notice from Revenue NSW saying his property may be subject to land tax as its predominant use was no longer primary production.

The department then sent an assessment in 2024 saying he owed five years’ worth of land taxes, a levy from which growers are generally exempt as they produce food and fibre.

Mr Napier spent more than $100,000 in legal fees challenging the finding in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal, which ruled in favour of the revenue office.

The tribunal found the land tax exemption only applied if the cultivated product itself – grapes – was sold.

It ruled that the primary use of the land was instead wine production and sales, in part based on an analysis of income from wine sales compared to grape sales.

Mr Napier says the state government’s “avaricious land tax grab” is penalising producers for exactly what they’re encouraged to do: innovate and diversify.

“This goes to the heart of many small wine-making businesses,” he says.

“I could have achieved the same result by pulling out all of my vineyards, buying grapes, having a winemaker turn them into wine and then selling the wine. 

“Is that what we really want to achieve?

“Do we want primary producers to … get rid of the primary production bit and just focus on the piece that actually makes money?”

Mr Napier’s case has become something of a canary in the coalmine for other small producers around the state.

An apple orchardist who turned inferior fruit into juice and sold it, lost a tax exemption after Revenue NSW found the land was not predominantly used for primary production.

A cherry and apricot grower was threatened with penalties after launching a popular “pick-your-own” venture, which was deemed to be a competing use of the land.

Grading and packing of the produce at the farm was classified as “processing”, which also affected the tax exemption.

That assessment was ultimately overturned due to the short fruit harvesting and tourist season.

NSW Farmers last week issued a warning to small and medium producers – including those with cellar doors and fruit stands – saying they appear to be firmly in the sights of the revenue office.

The organisation is calling on the government to broaden the meaning of primary production in the state’s tax legislation, which hasn’t changed for decades.

It argues the law is a disincentive for farmers to add value to their produce and diversify their income in a sector increasingly prone to disruption from weather, disasters and geopolitics.

“We want to see a system that is a bit fairer,” NSW Farmers business, economics and trade committee chair John Lowe tells AAP.

“We want to see our farmers having the opportunity to … make a buck and be able to diversify and re-invent agricultural production without getting penalised the moment they step over an imaginary line.”

The primary producer definition could be expanded to include income generated from converting produce into a value-added product, NSW Farmers’ position paper says.

That would bring NSW closer in line with other states like Victoria, which recognises produce in a “natural, processed or converted state”.

Agritourism could also be considered a legitimate primary production activity under the proposed changes.

While some farmers are accusing the government of opportunistic revenue-raising, Finance Minister Courtney Houssos has previously told parliament the law has long been consistently applied.

Ms Houssos says she regularly meets with producers to understand the support they need.

“It’s encouraging to see producers look for new opportunities to grow their business in the face of difficult economic conditions and natural disasters,” she adds via a statement to AAP.

“Under the current legislation, producers who diversify their activities will still continue to receive the primary production land exemption as long as primary production remains the dominant use of the land.”

Revenue NSW officials met with farmers throughout 2025, with further talks planned for 2026.

Land tax thresholds are due for review in 2027.

At Pokolbin, Mr Napier has dramatically downsized his venture and no longer sells grapes, instead using all of what he grows to make wine.

Under the beating January summer sun, workers harvest Shiraz grapes for wine that will eventually be sold at the cellar door.

Mr Napier is stuck paying an annual land tax, opting not to launch an expensive appeal against the tribunal’s decision.

“This win by the government is not a win for us,” he says, offering a final word.

“And it’s certainly not a win for agriculture or a primary producer.”

Former prime minister and outgoing US Ambassador Kevin Rudd has denied attending Jeffrey Epstein’s New York home following the release of new US Department of Justice files.

In a lengthy statement, Dr Rudd vehemently denied ever corresponding with the convicted US sex offender or visiting any of his houses.

Millions of pages of documents relating to Epstein were released by the US Department of Justice overnight, shedding further light on his network of contacts in business, politics and the media.

The documents give an insight about how Epstein used his contacts to court those in power, using others to initiate meetings between him and  other high profile people. 

For decades, Epstein maintained friendly relationships with former presidents and high-ranking officials and was reportedly involved in intelligence and influence activities.

Epstein was jailed for soliciting sex with minors and committed suicide in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on more serious charges of sex trafficking of minors.

More than 2000 videos and 180,000 images were also released in Friday’s dump.

The files, posted to the department’s website, include some of the several million pages of records that officials said were withheld from an initial release of documents in December.

Emails in the files release showed Epstein had scheduled to meet Dr Rudd on Sunday, June 8, 2014 at 4.30pm, but Dr Rudd strongly denied ever meeting Epstein and said there was no evidence that the former prime minister had accepted any invitation made to him. 

“Our office has no records of this meeting, and the published documents gave no indication about who was involved in organising it. In any case, they were unsuccessful in arranging the introduction,” a statement from Dr Rudd’s office said.

Dr Rudd is one of thousands mentioned in the Epstein files, and AAP is not suggesting there was any form of personal relationship between Epstein and Mr Rudd.

“We cannot rule out the possibility that they might have attended the same event at some stage, since Dr Rudd has attended literally thousands of functions in New York over the years,” the statement said. 

“Most references to Dr Rudd in these latest documents mention him in passing. Others indicate there were attempts by mutual acquaintances of Jeffrey Epstein to introduce him to Dr Rudd. No introduction ever took place, and there is no evidence of any direct contact between Jeffrey Epstein and either Dr Rudd or his office.”

The release comes after months of accusations between the government and Congress regarding the slow pace and opacity of the documents, which have been withheld due to years of records and legal documentation related to the Epstein case.

In the statement Dr Rudd’s office said: “Even if these various records were somehow to be accepted at face value, none of them allege that Dr Rudd engaged in any wrongful activity or had any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.

“Dr Rudd’s legal team is prepared to launch legal action against any defamatory statements asserting any kind of personal relationship between Dr Rudd and Epstein.”

with AP

China’s factory activity faltered in January as ‍weak domestic demand dragged down production at the start of the new year.

The official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) dropped to 49.3 ​in January, from 50.1 in December, below the 50-mark separating growth from contraction.

It missed a forecast of 50.0 in a Reuters poll of analysts.

Sub-indexes ⁠of new orders and new export orders also saw declines, respectively down to 49.2 from 50.8 in December and 47.8 from 49.0 in December.

The non-manufacturing PMI, which includes services and construction, dropped to 49.4 from 50.2 in December, falling to its lowest since December 2022.

Huo Lihui, a statistician with the National Bureau of Statistics, said in a note that some types of manufacturers traditionally enter a slow period in January and market demand remains ‌weak.

The world’s second-largest ​economy hit the government’s official growth target of five per cent last year, underpinned by strong exports that defied pressure from US ‍President Donald Trump’s tariff offensive.

But the headline figure masked deep-seated imbalances in the economy. Retail sales weakened further in the final quarter, dragging fourth-quarter GDP growth to a three-year low.

Signs of unease are growing among policymakers as the domestic demand downturn persists. 

The government front-loaded 62.5 billion yuan ($A12.92 billion) from ultra-long special treasury bond funds to support its scheme offering consumers subsidies to replace a range of products from home appliances to smartphones.

Earlier this month, the central ​bank announced cuts to sector-specific interest rates and signalled it has room this year ‌to further reduce banks’ cash reserve requirements and deliver broader rate cuts.

As authorities struggle to spur household spending on goods, they are also pivoting towards measures aimed at boosting services ​consumption, in a bid to absorb the output of the manufacturing sector.

Still, analysts remain sceptical about how much these steps could help ‍stabilise growth.

“Beijing will have to do much more in coming months to deliver an annual GDP growth rate above 4.5 per cent in 2026. As Beijing runs out of easily implemented policy tools, policymakers may need more time to prepare more comprehensive measures,” Ting Lu, Chief ​China ​Economist at Nomura said in a note.

Beijing has vowed ​to make boosting domestic demand its top priority this year while sharpening ​its focus on achieving tech self-reliance to reduce vulnerability to foreign trade blockades and protectionist measures.

President Xi Jinping, at a recent seminar attended by senior government officials, called for “developing advanced manufacturing vigorously” and pledged to “make domestic demand the main driving force of economic growth.”

China is likely to set this year’s official growth target between 4.5 per cent and five per cent, the South China Morning Post reported, as policymakers take a cautious approach to stimulus with a stock market bubble on their minds.

SpaceX has revised its Starlink privacy policy to allow the use of customer data for AI training, a shift ​that could bolster Elon Musk’s AI ambitions.

Ahead of a blockbuster IPO planned for later this year, SpaceX is in ⁠talks to merge with Musk’s AI company, xAI, a deal first reported by Reuters on Thursday.

SpaceX, already the world’s most valuable private company, could reach a value of more than $US1 ($A1.4) trillion after the IPO.

Starlink updated its Global Privacy Policy on January 15, according to the Starlink website.

The policy includes new details stating that unless a user opts out, ‌Starlink data may be ​used “to train our machine learning or artificial intelligence models” and could be shared with the company’s service ‍providers and “third-party collaborators”, without providing further details.

A previous version of the privacy policy, an archived version from November and reviewed by Reuters, did not contain language about AI training on Starlink data.

SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.

Starlink collects vast amounts of user data, spanning location information, credit card information, contact information and ​user IP addresses.

It also collects so-called communication data, which includes ‌audio and visual information, data in shared files, and “inferences we may make from other personal information we collect,” according to its global privacy policy.

The policy ​did not make clear exactly what data would be used to train AI.

The move has raised concerns ‍among privacy advocates and consumer rights groups, which argue that using personal data to train AI risks expanding surveillance and creates new avenues for misuse.

“It certainly raises my eyebrow and would make me concerned if ​I was ​a Starlink user,” said Anupam Chander, a ​technology law professor at Georgetown University.

“Often there’s perfectly legitimate uses of ​your data, but it doesn’t have a clear limit to what kind of uses it will be put to.”

Musk’s xAI, most recently valued at $US230 billion ($A329 billion) after a recent funding round, is currently developing its Grok LLM chatbot and also owns X, the social media platform.

The potential merger with xAI would turbocharge the space company’s deployment of AI-powered services, while giving xAI vast new data sets to train its models on, including communication data.

Starlink, a network of more than 9000 satellites, currently provides ‍internet connection to more than nine million users.

Some 17,000 new homes will be built across South Australia, 7000 of them for first-time buyers, under a joint federal-state deal.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and SA Premier Peter Malinauskas announced details of the agreement in Adelaide on Saturday.

Key elements of the plan will see $300 million in concessional loans granted to deliver additional water infrastructure in the city’s north, unlocking 4000 dwellings.

A $50m, three-year loan will fund civil works to establish a first-home-buyer-only precinct of 400 dwellings within the northern suburbs’ Playford Alive development.

A further loan of $184m will support the delivery of more than 1700 homes across multiple urban renewal projects in Adelaide.

And $133m in grant funding, matched by the SA government, is slated to deliver 750 dwellings for first-home buyers through complementary programs.

Urban Development Institute of Australia president Oscar Stanley says the $800m agreement demonstrates the kind of supply-focused reform needed to unlock housing delivery at scale.

“The industry applauds the government’s supply-focused measures that create a template for housing creation around Australia and also provide a test-bed to fast-track housing which is often held up by planning and enabling infrastructure,” Mr Stanley said.

The plan makes SA the first state to sign on to the federal government’s 2025 election plan to build 100,000 homes nationally for first-home buyers.

A short-lived US government shutdown looks inevitable despite plans in the Senate to vote on ​a deal that would keep a wide swathe of the government running.

The deal would fund government operations from the military to ⁠health programs. But it would also need to be approved by the House of Representatives, which is not expected to take up the measure until Monday at the earliest.

That means a brief shutdown is likely, beginning after midnight on Friday local time.

Senate Democrats and President Donald Trump reached a deal on Thursday that would allow Congress to ensure government operations are not interrupted while they negotiate new ‌limits on Trump’s crackdown ​on illegal immigration .

House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Thursday it would be difficult to get lawmakers ‍back to Washington to vote before the midnight deadline.

Any shutdown that results might be brief.

Lawmakers from both parties have been working to ensure the debate over immigration enforcement does not disrupt other government operations.

This is a marked contrast from last year, when Republicans and Democrats dug into their positions in a dispute over healthcare, prompting a shutdown that lasted a record ​43 days and cost the US economy an estimated $US11 billion ($A16 billion).

The deal ‌would separate funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from the broader funding package, allowing lawmakers to approve spending for agencies like the Pentagon and the ​Department of Labor while they consider new restrictions on federal immigration agents.

Senate Democrats, angered by the shooting of ‍a second US citizen by immigration agents in Minneapolis last weekend, had threatened to hold up the funding package in an effort to force Trump to rein in DHS, which oversees federal immigration enforcement.

Democrats want to end ​roving ​patrols, require agents to wear body cameras and ​prohibit them from wearing face masks. They also want to require ​immigration agents to get a search warrant from a judge, rather than from their own officials. Republicans say they are open to some of those ideas.

DHS funding would be extended for two weeks, giving negotiators time to reach an agreement on immigration tactics.

The shooting death of nurse Alex Pretti by federal agents on Saturday spurred widespread public outrage, prompting the Trump administration to de-escalate operations in the region.

Pretti’s death was the second this month of a US citizen with no criminal record involving ‍immigration law enforcement agents.

State and territory leaders have agreed to help rein in the costs of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, but a key early intervention program has been delayed by several months.

National cabinet agreed to limit annual growth of the NDIS to six per cent per year, in exchange for securing an extra $25 billion for public hospital funding over the next five years from the Commonwealth.

However, a program to move children with mild to moderate levels of autism off the NDIS and into state-based programs has been delayed by several months to give jurisdictions more time to adjust to changes.

The $2 billion Thriving Kids program was due to begin in July, but will now begin from October.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Thriving Kids would be fully implemented by the start of 2028.

“The states put to us the possibility of a short delay in the full implementation of Thriving Kids,” he said in Sydney on Friday.

“We agreed that proposal was reasonable, that we get this right, and so, it is a positive move.”

State leaders had previously said they were blindsided by NDIS Minister Mark Butler’s announcement of the Thriving Kids scheme in 2025 during a speech at the National Press Club.

Opposition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston said the delay to Thriving Kids was concerning.

“Young Australians living with a disability and their families remain in ongoing uncertainty due to the complete lack of clarity and detail around the new Thriving Kids program,” she said.

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said jurisdictions would increase their share of contributions for the NDIS over the next five years.

“Two billion dollars will be matched to deliver Thriving Kids as the first phase of foundational supports, with the Commonwealth providing $1.4 billion of its contribution to support states,” he said.

“The ACT, along with all jurisdictions, is committed to improving the health outcomes for all Australians and putting the NDIS on a sustainable pathway.”

A change of leader for the Liberals will do little to reverse the party’s electoral woes, a leading pollster warns.

Sussan Ley’s leadership has come under fire following her party’s split with the Nationals.

But the Liberals face an existential crisis regardless of who the opposition leader is, Redbridge director and former Liberal strategist Tony Barry says.

“No single personality is going to change around their fortunes at the moment,” he told AAP.

“They are polling around 20 per cent and they need to be around 45 per cent primary vote.

“They’re not even in the car park of the ballpark at the moment.

“The only way a reformed coalition will ever be competitive again is if they change the story arc and refocus on the economy and being bold with economic reform.”

While it is possible Ms Ley could face a leadership challenge when parliament resumes on Tuesday, she is likely to hold on for the time being after West Australian MP Andrew Hastie said he would not contest the top job.

Mr Hastie released a statement on Friday afternoon saying he did not have the numbers to mount a challenge to Ms Ley.

His expected leadership rival, frontbencher Angus Taylor, has not stated whether he plans to challenge.

Mr Barry said a change of approach was needed from the Liberals if they wanted to be competitive with Labor.

“The Liberal Party has become National Party-lite, and because they’ve got those rural characteristics, it simply doesn’t work in the urban vote centres,” he said.

“They need to double (their vote). They’re only going to do that by pitching their message on an economic narrative that differentiates them, differentiates them from Labor.”

The Liberals’ split from the Nationals has also complicated leadership tensions.

Nationals leader David Littleproud is facing a spill motion from Queensland MP Colin Boyce on Monday but it is unlikely to succeed.

Negotiations on reforming the coalition have been put on hold until the leadership spill takes place.

Ms Ley has named an interim shadow cabinet, giving the Nationals one week to come back to the negotiating table before a more permanent shadow ministry is locked in.

Mr Barry said the parties needed to put aside differences for the good of the Liberals and Nationals.

“They need to realise that being in a partnership means making internal trade-offs,” he said.

“It means accepting that you can’t remain in a coalition only for as long as it suits you, and then threaten to break it up on an issue that doesn’t suit you.

“They’ve got to be very mindful that their internal dysfunctions will just keep on accumulating scar tissue to the point where they’ll never recover.

“You can’t keep on accumulating scar tissue like this and think that there’s no enduring damage to your brand.”

US President Donald Trump has chosen former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh to head the US central bank when Jerome Powell’s leadership term ends in May, giving a frequent Fed critic a chance to put his idea ‍of monetary policy “regime change” into practise.

“I have known Kevin for a long period of time, and have no doubt that he will go down as one of ​the GREAT Fed Chairmen, maybe the best. On top of everything else, he is ‘central casting, and he will never let you down,” Trump said in announcing his latest move to put his stamp on a Fed he persistently criticises for not cutting interest rates quickly enough.

US stock index futures pared declines after Trump’s announced pick of Warsh, who markets perceive as someone who would support lower rates but who would stop well short of the more aggressive easing associated with some of the other potential nominees.

Trump announced the nomination, which requires confirmation by the US Senate, in a post on social media. 

The Fed has long been seen as a stabilising force in global financial markets due in part to its perceived independence from politics. 

Trump’s escalating efforts to test that independence, including his Justice Department’s decision earlier this month to open a criminal probe into Powell, have set the stage for a challenging Senate confirmation process for any successor.

Republican US Senator Thom Tillis has said he ‌will not support any of Trump’s ​Fed nominees amid the ongoing probe while fellow Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski has called for an investigation into the department’s actions. 

It has also opened the door to the possibility that Powell, who called the criminal probe a ‍pretext to pressure the Fed into setting monetary policy as the president wishes, may opt to stay on at the Fed as a governor even after his term as central bank chief is up in a bid to safeguard it from political capture.

The nomination caps a months-long process as Warsh, White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett and other top contenders – including sitting Fed governor Christopher Waller and Wall Street insider Rick Rieder – appeared regularly on TV to showcase their thoughts about the economy.

Trump has also tried to force out Fed ​governor Lisa Cook in a battle now before the Supreme Court that, if successful, would mark the first time a president has ever fired a ‌US central bank policymaker.

While Warsh is no White House insider, he has been a confidant of the president and a guest at the president’s Florida estate, and looks poised to push many of Trump’s priorities as a “shadow” Fed chief until Powell’s tenure in the top job ​ends in mid-May. 

A lawyer and distinguished visiting fellow in economics at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, Warsh has said he believes the president is right to press the central bank for steep rate cuts, and has criticised the Fed for underestimating the inflation-busting potential of ‍productivity growth supercharged by artificial intelligence.

Warsh, 55, was nearly named to the job in Trump’s first term before being passed over for Powell, and since then has kept a steady public profile through speeches and essays that have taken Powell and his colleagues to task for their management of the Fed’s balance sheet, interest rates and other actions.

He now will ​be ​responsible for an institution he has said should scale back its footprint in the economy and change the way ​it manages monetary policy. 

After studying law, Warsh worked for several years at Morgan Stanley where he dealt with mergers and acquisitions.

In 2002, he moved into politics, working under then president George W Bush, advising him on issues related to capital flows and securities.

Bush nominated Warsh as a governor of the Fed in 2006 and at just 35 years old, he became the youngest board member in the history of the Federal Reserve.

Former Fed chairman Ben Bernanke wrote in his memoirs that Warsh’s young age attracted criticism but his political skills, market understanding and many contacts on Wall Street proved valuable.

Warsh is the son-in-law of Ronald Lauder, a close and long-time friend of Trump, who is the president of the World Jewish Congress.

with DPA and AP