Endangered bogong moths swarming into homes across NSW.

Extract from ABC News

By Mikayla McGuirk-Scolaro, Eddie Williams and Declan Bowring

• ABC South East NSW

• Topic:Insects

about 14 hours ago

Bogong moths swarming. (Source: @somethingsbuggingme)

In short:

Swarms of bogong moths are being reported across NSW as the endangered species makes its annual pilgrimage to the Snowy Mountains. 

Researchers are speculating that increased rainfall, a warmer winter and northerly winds have caused the dramatic influx. 

What's next?

Researchers from Invertebrates Australia are urging those who spot a bogong moth to log sightings to the online citizen scientist platform iNaturalist. 

Reina Hill is playing the reluctant host to some unexpected visitors in her Batemans Bay home.

Since Friday, her house has been swarmed by bogong moths. 

"I walked out my door and was hit in the face by thousands of them,"

she said.

"I swear there was millions of them layered on various areas under my deck, under my eaves and all around the windows."

Bogong moths covering on a house at Malua Bay. (Supplied: Sue McHutchison)

Ms Hill was not alone in noticing the sudden influx of the endangered insects. 

About 800 moth sightings have been logged on the citizen science platform iNaturalist since Friday, with more than 200 logged in the past 24 hours.

Every year, the peanut-sized moths migrate to the NSW Alps to escape the summer heat before returning to their inland breeding grounds in autumn.

But the insect's population has fallen steadily since the 1980s due to drought and warming temperatures.

In 2017, numbers crashed by as much as 99.5 per cent, and in 2021 they were listed as endangered.

'Just trying to migrate'

Western Sydney University Entomologist Eleanor Drinkwater told 702 ABC Sydney it was pleasing to see the moths in such significant numbers.

"The last few years we haven't seen so many bogong moths," she said.

Dr Drinkwater said the moths were on their way to the high country around Mount Kosciuszko as the weather warmed up. 

"They're not trying to get into your house, they're just trying to migrate," she said. 

"For some of these little individuals that people might see, they're going to be travelling hundreds, if not thousands, of kilometres."

Eleanor Drinkwater said the large numbers were a sign that something was going right. (Supplied: Eleanor Drinkwater)

Bogong Watch Project manager at Invertebrates Australia Linnea Emneby said many people had forgotten what a migration looks like. 

"We have seen a decline in bogong moths this decade, which has changed people's perception of what a migration looks like," she said. 

"It's just incredibly encouraging to see them actually bouncing back."

According to Ms Emneby, there were several theories that might explain the phenomenon. 

 Linnea Emneby manages the Bogong Watch Project at Inverterbrates Australia. (Supplied: Linnea Emneby)

One is that increased rainfall in northern parts of the state has produced an abundance of food for larvae. 

Another theory is that warmer weather has caused the flowers that attract the moths to bloom earlier than normal, luring them south. 

But Ms Emneby said the small creatures had likely used recent north-westerly winds to travel to the alps. 

"Bogong moths are known to kind of hitch a ride on winds,"

she said.

"They're very small creatures and they travel vast distances.

"If there is wind going the way of the migration, they'll fly at that level in the same way you descend or ascend in a hot air balloon."

Increase in numbers the 'norm'

The moths may have hitched a ride on recent north-westerly winds. (Supplied: Marina Pitsonis)

University of Sydney biologist Dieter Hochuli said the moths would be found hiding in crevices in the day to avoid predation by birds.

"There's a lot of birds and mammals and everything that's going to want to eat them.," Mr Hochuli told 702 ABC Sydney. 

"So, basically, they're just finding a good spot to spend the day."

One 702 ABC Sydney listener said their boot was lined with moths in Penrith in Sydney's west. (Supplied)

The moths are a food source for many birds and pygmy possums.

Mr Hochuli said while the moth was listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), they were not listed as endangered in NSW or federally. 

"The reason there are concerns is that they have these massive population fluctuations and cycles," Mr Hochuli said.

"They're a complicated animal for an endangered animal because there could be billions of them.

"Those of us that are old enough to remember the Sydney Olympics or the opening of Parliament House will remember we had similar kinds of events, just massive numbers."

A bogong moth at Charlotte Pass, NSW. (Supplied: Associate Professor Kate Umbers)

Dr Drinkwater encouraged capturing and releasing the moths if they were stuck inside, or turning outside lights on and turning indoor lights off to draw them out of homes.

She also called for submissions of photos to iNaturalist and the Moth Tracker website to help researchers understand their migration.

“This is a brilliant opportunity for us to learn more about what they're doing," Dr Drinkwater said.

What's with all the moths in Australia's south-east? (ABC listen: Top Stories)

Inside the mission to rescue Ukrainian teens from Russian-occupied territory.

 Extract from ABC News

By Europe correspondent Kathryn Diss in Ukraine

• Foreign Correspondent

• Topic:Unrest, Conflict and War

about 2 hours ago

It's an eight-hour drive across Ukraine from Kyiv to the Belarusian border crossing. (Foreign Correspondent: Alex Parsons)

Kateryna Fedosenko barely looks up from her phone as she paces back and forth, frantically switching between encrypted text and voice notes.

From the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, she's coordinating an urgent rescue mission: getting a group of teenage boys out of Russian-controlled territory.

She glances up briefly. "It will be four boys tomorrow," she says.

Seventeen-year-old Bogdan left his village near the frontline in the Russian-occupied Kherson region three days ago with the teens and two foster parents.

It's a race against time for Kateryna and her team of rescuers at NGO Save Ukraine to extract the boys, who could be drafted into Russia's war machine at any moment.

Save Ukraine headquarters in Kyiv. (Foreign Correspondent: Kathryn Diss)

Kateryna Fedosenko on the phone in the offices of Save Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Foreign Correspondent: Kathryn Diss)

"The Russian military can come and just take them away. They constantly live in such fear," she says.

Bogdan is one of many.

Tens of thousands of Ukrainian kids have been stolen — abducted, forcibly transferred, or deported against their will — since the war began in February 2022.

The Ukrainian government has verified the identities of 20,651 children it says have been taken by Russia but estimates the true number to be much higher.

A race against time

Kateryna is the linchpin of Save Ukraine's rescue operations and, so far, the organisation has brought home more than 1,700 children from Russia and occupied territories.

In the early days of the war, most of their cases were children who'd been abducted, but increasingly Kateryna's team is being called to save kids like Bogdan, who are facing new threats growing up under Russian occupation.

There are 1.6 million Ukrainian kids living under Russian control along Ukraine's eastern flank, where indoctrination and military training are being carried out on a mass scale.

Autumn in Russian territory means a conscription drive is fast approaching.

Moscow has installed its own people to run the cities and towns it now occupies and makes life almost impossible for Ukrainians who refuse to accept Russian citizenship and military training.

A border crossing between Ukraine and Belarus. (Foreign Correspondent: Kathryn Diss)

Boys on the cusp of turning 18 are fair game, adding to the urgency of their escape.

"They draft the boys, force them to sign a contract, and send them to war," Kateryna says.

With the frontline stretching along the eastern and northern borders of the country, the only safe route back into Ukraine is travelling through Russia and its close ally Belarus.

It's a journey of more than a thousand kilometres.

Save Ukraine says Russian border agents, and those planted at Belarusian checkpoints, look for any opportunity to prevent Ukrainians from leaving.

The fear of being detained or interrogated at the border is the very reason why many don't attempt the crossing, or take years to try.

Kateryna coordinates a covert network of underground operatives and safe houses across Russia and occupied territory.

Save Ukraine has brought home more than 1,700 children from Russia and occupied territories. (Foreign Correspondent: Alex Parsons)

Kateryna Fedosenko says Ukrainian kids in Russian territory risk being drafted into the Russian military. (Foreign Correspondent: Kathryn Diss)

As conditions have become more perilous, the team must now engineer the rescues remotely, which means many kids make the crossing alone.

Those leaving have to delete any evidence of communication with Save Ukraine to avoid discovery at one of the many checkpoints along the way.

"If they find out at the border that they are being helped … for them, it would be very harsh," she says.

"They might not let them through because our organisation is seen in Russia as extremist."

Losing touch

As time goes by, the children become harder to track.

Russia constantly moves them to make them more difficult to find.

The team at Save Ukraine uses open-source information such as satellite imagery, flight tracking data, social media pages and posts by the Russian government to track the children.

Among some of the chilling information they've uncovered are the profiles of hundreds of Ukrainian kids on Russian adoption websites.

The children are advertised by age, gender, hair and eye colour.

A Russian website puts Ukrainian kids up for adoption. (Foreign Correspondent: Alex Parsons)

Even their temperament, personality type and whether they follow instructions are listed.

Anyone scrolling the website can arrange a video call with them.

While we're at Save Ukraine HQ, Valentina comes looking for an update on her little sister Vlada, who was taken four years ago from a summer camp in Russian-annexed Crimea.

She was 13 years old.

Vlada has slowly cut communication with Valentina, who fears she's being brainwashed.

"It seems like a foster family took her," she says. "She called me, and then she just disappeared. After that, she deleted the entire chat history … Then she blocked all her social media."

Valentina's sister Vlada was taken four years ago from a summer camp in Russian-occupied Crimea. (Foreign Correspondent: Kathryn Diss)

Valentina (right) with her sister Vlada, who was taken four years ago from a summer camp in Crimea. (Supplied)

In 2023, Vlada's grandmother went to Crimea to pick her up, where she was interrogated by Russian security agents for 14 hours.

She had a heart attack and died.

"Grandma didn't make it," says Valentina.

She wells up as she recalls last hearing from Vlada in 2025, when she told her she planned to move to Moscow with her new Russian family.

"I don't want her to be there. I want everyone to be close by," Valentina says. "We fought, but still, whatever kind of sister she was, she's my sister."

Russia has targeted some of Ukraine's most vulnerable — orphans, children with disabilities and those from impoverished families — knowing they will be harder to trace.

It claimed it was temporarily removing the children for their own safety.

Ukrainian children paraded at the Defender of the Fatherland concert in Moscow, February 2023. (Supplied)

The first sign of Moscow's intentions to abduct Ukrainian children on a mass scale came just weeks after the war broke out, when President Vladimir Putin met with his Children's Commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova.

Instead of making plans to return the children, in a meeting broadcast on Russian state TV, Lvova-Belova asked Putin to make them Russian citizens.

In violation of international law, Russia has refused to provide Ukrainian authorities with a list of the children's names.

As the evidence continued to mount, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Putin and Lvova-Belova for war crimes against Ukrainian children.

A dangerous dash to the border

The day of the rescue has arrived.

It's a tense eight-hour drive to Ukraine's north-western border with Belarus.

Kateryna has been in constant contact with Bogdan but now her phone has gone quiet.

"I haven't heard anything, there is no connection right now, so I'm a bit worried," she says.

Save Ukraine worker Kateryna Fedosenko during a recent mission to rescue Ukrainian teens from Russian occupied territory. (Foreign Correspondent: Kathryn Diss)

Soldiers on the roadside approaching the Ukrainian border with Belarus. (Foreign Correspondent: Kathryn Diss)

"I will only breathe a sigh of relief when they cross the border, when they text me that they have passed the Belarusian side."

This journey is even more dangerous because the group is travelling with an orphan boy.

"Russia believes that these are their orphans, that these are not Ukrainian orphans, but theirs, and they do everything to not let them through," she says.

After driving all day, we reach our rendezvous point, but the group have been held up at the Belarusian border crossing.

Hours go by before Kateryna finally gets word they've been let through.

With tears in her eyes, she watches the boys take their first steps back into Ukraine.

Members of Save Ukraine wait at the Belarusian border for Ukrainian families to return. (Foreign Correspondent: Kathryn Diss)

Two Ukrainian teens, whose faces have been obscured to protect their identity, risked being drafted into the Russian military. (Foreign Correspondent: Kathryn Diss)

"Welcome to Ukraine! It's me who was texting you, calling and helping you!" she exclaims, as she runs to embrace them.

"You can breathe out now. All the scary things are behind you."

Watch Ukraine's Stolen Children tonight at 8pm on Foreign Correspondent, on ABC TV and ABC iview.

OpenAI Medicare breach fuels push for tougher rules on rogue AI incidents.

Extract from ABC News

By chief digital political correspondent Clare Armstrong

• Topic:Cyber Security

about 2 hours ago

Companies could be forced to report AI hacks directly to cyber authorities under new national standards. (Reuters: Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo)

In short:

Australia is moving to ensure cyber authorities and affected organisations are alerted when AI agents cause security incidents.

Cyber experts warn reporting incidents will not be enough without stronger systems to detect and defend against them.

What's next?

OpenAI's chief strategy officer, Jason Kwon, will travel from the US to front a parliamentary inquiry into artificial intelligence next week.

Tech companies would have to immediately report rogue AI incidents to both the affected organisation and Australia's cyber authorities under new standards being developed by the federal government.

OpenAI's months-long delay and low-level email contact alerting the government to a website breach has hardened Labor's resolve to impose a dual notification requirement for such cases.

But experts have warned mandatory reporting can only go so far, with calls for greater investment in cybersecurity to ensure Australia is able to detect and defend against artificial intelligence incursions.

The government launched a consultation paper to inform national AI standards earlier this month, which included the suggestion companies could be required to disclose certain incidents to "relevant Australian authorities".

The ABC understands the government now wants this to include notifying the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) in addition to the relevant organisation subjected to the breach.

Australia was not alone as OpenAI agents hacked websites

OpenAI says dozens of third parties were affected by rogue agents bypassing website security controls, as new traces reveal days of repeated attempts to access Australian health data.

OpenAI to front inquiry

It took Services Australia five days to inform the ASD about a generic email from OpenAI informing the agency about an autonomous AI agent accessing non-public Medicare statistics from an old data portal.

The public inbox contacted by OpenAI was only monitored once a day, but Government Services Minister Katy Gallagher said the email address was now being monitored 24/7.

"We've strengthened that already," she said.

A rapid review into the OpenAI breach is due to conclude within "weeks", with the findings expected to inform the national standards legislation.

A joint parliamentary committee inquiry is also feeding into the laws, with OpenAI confirming its chief strategy officer, Jason Kwon, will fly from the US to appear at a hearing in Sydney next week.

Labor is hoping to introduce the legislation, which would also mandate standards for data centres, before the end of the year.

More on AI

Controversial Sydney data centre project pulled amid community anger

Topic:AI

Get rules in place to hold data centres to account, experts tell Tasmania

Topic:AI

Migration cuts, AI and rising interest rates mean an era of long-term disinflation

Analysis by Alan Kohler

'Something we've never seen before': The risk of AI bioweapons

Topic:AI

Medicare breach a 'wake-up call'

Chetan Arora, the director of education in software systems and cybersecurity at Monash University, said the OpenAI breach must be a "wake-up call" for Australia.

"While we hold them accountable and the onus is on these AI companies … we also need to build our own defence systems," he said.

Dr Arora said what was known as "zero-trust infrastructure" should be a "baseline requirement" for public-facing government systems.

"You design your systems so that you don't trust anybody by default."

He said it was "very clear" OpenAI had not taken sufficient steps to prevent its autonomous agents from repeatedly attempting to breach websites while undertaking tasks.

"Nobody can specify 100 per cent guardrails [or] think of every benign or malicious situation … but at least you try to cover the basics."

The rapid review into breach by CEO Sam Altman's OpenAI is expected to conclude within "weeks". (Reuters: Brendan McDermid)

Dr Arora said Australia could mandate engineering standards, audit trails and other ways of tracking autonomous agents as a "condition of doing business" with the AI companies.

"We can regulate what kind of operations they run in Australia … [and] government itself is one of the largest AI customers generally in any country, so we can leverage that position."

He said "significant" investment in cybersecurity was also critical, including training the "next generation" of engineers and experts.

Labor defends cyber security investment

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said cybersecurity spending was an "ongoing feature" of budget considerations due to the "fast-moving" nature of the tech world.

"It's not like we waited for this event before we put a lot of time and effort and investment into safety in the AI world," he said.

The government is hoping to introduce legislation before the end of the year. (ABC News: Joel Wilson)

Last budget, the government allocated $160 million to improve the cybersecurity of Services Australia, with upgrades focused on protecting the most sensitive data first.

Opposition leader Angus Taylor on Monday said the government should be working "at pace" to get access to frontier AI models from the US.

"That's how we protect ourselves," he said.

"The best way to protect ourselves against cyber attacks is [to] use those models for cyber defence."

Sydney retiree bids to be first to travel Australia on electric motorcycle.

Extract from ABC News

By Jack Colantuono

• By Mim Hook

• ABC Gippsland

• Topic:Electric Vehicles

about 19 hours ago

Ed Darmanin is riding around Australia on an electric motorcycle. (Supplied)

In short:

A Sydney man is riding around Australia on an electric motorcycle.  

He is understood to be the first person to do this. 

What's next?

He is on the final stretch of his journey, riding from eastern Victoria to Sydney.

There is no petrol tank, no spare battery and in some parts of Australia, barely a town in sight.

Retired electrical engineer Ed Darmanin, from Sydney, has spent the past three months riding an electric motorcycle around some of the country's most remote roads, carefully calculating every kilometre between charging points.

As the 67-year-old rides from Frankston to Lakes Entrance through Gippsland this week, he is nearing the end of an 18,000-kilometre journey.

He is understood to be the first person to ride around mainland Australia on an electric motorcycle.

Ed Darmanin's trip around Australia started and ends in Sydney. (Supplied)

Mr Darmanin spent five years embarking on electric motorcycle journeys that had never been done before, including becoming the first to cross Australia by electric motorcycle and later riding from Sydney to Darwin via Birdsville.

He said completing an Australian first was part of the motivation behind his latest adventure.

"To be first was something I've wanted to do for years," Mr Darmanin said.

"I really wanted an adventure, a challenging adventure.

"And being a retired electrical engineer and understanding EV technology, because I've been driving EV cars since 2015, I know how it all works, and it takes a lot of planning to do this."

His latest journey began in Sydney on June 24, travelling anti-clockwise around the country on his Energica Experia and visiting every mainland state and territory. 

Ed Darmanin is doing some sections of the 18,000km journey with his wife and son. (Supplied)

He has ridden parts of the journey with his wife Sally and son Evan, while completing the remaining parts solo.

Mr Darmanin said the biggest challenge was ensuring the motorcycle had enough energy to cover each leg.

"You can't carry a spare battery; that's just built into the bike. It's sort of like carrying a spare engine on a normal motorcycle, you just can't do it," he said.

"So it's all about planning; the planning includes just looking at where the available DC fast chargers are, which are the same fast chargers that the EV cars use, and my bike can use those as well."

Carefully crafted charging plans

The motorcycle's range is affected by speed, with Mr Darmanin sometimes having to slow down to make it between charging points.

"The battery in the bike is probably only around one-quarter of the size or one-third of the size of most electric vehicles," he said.

"And if you sat on 100km/h on a straight, flat road like in the outback, you'd probably only get about 160km with all the luggage and everything on the bike.

"But the distances were up to 260km. In fact, there were a couple that were 300."

Ed Darmanin is visiting every state and territory on mainland Australia. (Supplied)

Mr Darmanin said travelling at a slower speed could make a significant difference to how much energy the bike used.

"If I sat on 110km/h compared to 75km/h, at 110 you use double the energy or double the fuel," he said.

That careful planning has been particularly important in remote parts of the country, where there can be hundreds of kilometres between services.

"When you leave that town, it's 260km until you get to the first roadhouse, and there is absolutely nothing between those two spots," Mr Darmanin said.

Strong headwinds across the Nullarbor Plain forced Mr Darmanin to postpone crossing by two days, while his previous journey to Darwin included a 390km stretch of mostly unsealed road through remote country.

Ed Darminan started the journey in June. (Supplied)

After thousands of kilometres, Mr Darmanin said he was beginning to appreciate how significant the journey had become.

"I'm starting to realise it's quite an achievement, and I like to share the story for that reason,"

he said.

"It's complementary to the fact that I've ticked off a major bucket-list item."

With the final stretch through south-eastern Victoria's Gippsland region before the ride back to Sydney, the finish line is finally in sight.

Mr Darmanin has shared his journey on his website, highlighting his stops and reflecting on the experience.