Sydney father stabbed after making a noise complaint, & more in News in 5.

– With AAP.

1. Sydney father-of-one stabbed in the neck after making a noise complaint.

A young dad is lucky to be alive after being stabbed in the neck at a park in northwest Sydney on Saturday night.

David Sidhom, 29, was getting ready for bed with his wife and baby boy around 9pm when he decided to approach a group of teenagers at Ridgeline Park across from his The Ponds home.

He asked them to keep the noise down but the request led to a fight and ended with Sidhom being stabbed more than once in the neck, news.com.au reports.

Mamamia’s daily news podcast The Quicky will get you up to speed on what you need to know today…

“This male left his residence in Marsh Street to approach the group about a noise complaint – a reasonable request – and it has escalated into a life-threatening incident,” Inspector Glen Jacobs told media.

The group of teenagers, believed to include eight males and a female, fled the scene in different vehicles.

Paramedic Joe Ibrahim said Sidhom suffered three wounds, including one up to 15 centimetres long.

“Just the nature of where the stab wound was to the back of the neck, if it was too far forward, it could very well have severed his trachea or his breathing tube,” he said.

“And if it was just a little bit to the left, he very likely could have ended up as a quadriplegic.”

Sidhom staggered home after the attack and his wife called triple-0. Sidhom was treated at the scene before being taken to Westmead Hospital.

He is in a stable condition, a Western Sydney Local Health District spokeswoman told AAP on Sunday afternoon.

Police are appealing for information and inquires continue.

2. David and Louise Turpin to spend at least 25 years in prison for the abuse and torture of their 13 children.

NEW: David and Louise Turpin, California parents accused of torturing and holding captive most of their 13 children, plead guilty to 14 felony counts against them, prosecutors say. https://t.co/Hk0Couq9Gz pic.twitter.com/Mk8Wy52Pon

— ABC News (@ABC) February 22, 2019

A California couple has pleaded guilty to torture and years of abuse that included shackling some of their 13 children to beds and starving them to the point they stopped growing.

David and Louise Turpin will spend at least 25 years in prison after entering the pleas in Riverside County Superior Court to 14 counts that included cruelty toward all but their toddler daughter, and imprisoning the children in a house that appeared neatly kept outside, but festered with filth and reeked of human waste.

The couple was arrested in January 2018 after their 17-year-old daughter escaped from the home and called 911 in the city of Perris, about 96 kilometres southeast of Los Angeles.

The children, ages 2 to 29 at the time, were severely underweight and hadn’t bathed for months. They described being beaten, starved and put in cages.

Louise Turpin’s face turned red and she began crying and dabbed her eyes with a tissue during the hearing while her husband appeared stoic.

The two will be sentenced to up to life in prison April 19, Riverside District Attorney Mike Hestrin said.

“The defendants ruined lives so I think it’s just and fair that the sentence be equivalent to first-degree murder,” Hestrin said.

The Turpins had led a mostly solitary, but seemingly unremarkable life until the teenager jumped from a window and called for help.

David Turpin, 57, had worked as an engineer for both Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. Louise Turpin, 50, was listed as a housewife in a 2011 bankruptcy filing.

The family led a nocturnal existence, which kept them largely out of sight from neighbours in a middle-class subdivision.

In a recording of the 911 call, the girl who escaped said two younger sisters and a brother were chained to beds and she couldn’t take it.

“They will wake up at night and they will start crying and they wanted me to call somebody,” she said in a high-pitched voice. “I wanted to call y’all so y’all can help my sisters.”

Police who responded discovered a house of horrors.

Two girls had been hastily released from their chains but a 22-year-old son remained shackled. The brother told police he and his siblings had been suspected of stealing food and being disrespectful.

The intervention marked a new start for the children who lived in such isolation that the teen who called for help didn’t know her address.

Although the parents filed reports with the state that they home-schooled their children, the oldest child only completed the third grade. Some children suffered from severe malnutrition, stunted growth and muscle wasting, including an 11-year-old girl who had arms the size of an infant.

Children were deprived of food and things other kids take for granted, such as toys and games, and allowed to do little except write in journals, authorities said.

3. “This storm will not pass.” A nun has called out the Catholic Church at the Vatican abuse summit.

Women vent their anger at Vatican child abuse conference https://t.co/pcoENuq86u pic.twitter.com/rxVRhJklwS

— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) February 23, 2019

A nun and a woman journalist have delivered the toughest criticism of church leaders heard so far at Pope Francis’ sexual abuse conference, accusing them of hypocrisy and covering up horrendous crimes against children.

About 200 senior church officials, all but 10 of them men, listened at times in stunned silence in a Vatican audience hall as the women read their frank and at times angry speeches on Saturday, the penultimate day of the conference convened by the Pope to confront a worldwide scandal.

Sister Veronica Openibo, a Nigerian who has worked in Africa, Europe and the United States, spoke with a soft voice but delivered a strong message, telling the prelates sitting before her: “This storm will not pass.

“We proclaim the Ten Commandments and parade ourselves as being the custodians of moral standards and values and good behaviour in society. Hypocrites at times? Yes! Why did we keep silent for so long?” she said.

She told the pope, sitting near her on the dais, that she admired him because he was “humble enough to change your mind”, apologise and take action after he initially defended a Chilean bishop accused of covering up abuse. The bishop later resigned.

“How could the clerical church have kept silent, covering these atrocities? The silence, the carrying of the secrets in the hearts of the perpetrators, the length of the abuses and the constant transfers of perpetrators are unimaginable,” she said.

“We must acknowledge that our mediocrity, hypocrisy and complacency have brought us to this disgraceful and scandalous place we find ourselves as a church. We pause to pray, Lord have mercy on us!” Openibo said.

Valentina Alazraki, 64, a Mexican television reporter who, having covered five papacies, is the doyen of the Vatican press corps, told the bishops she was speaking as a woman and mother as well as a journalist.

“For a mother, there are no first or second-class children: there are stronger children and more vulnerable ones. Nor are there first and second-class children for the church,” she said.

“(The Church’s) seemingly more important children, as are you, bishops and cardinals – I dare not say the Pope – are no more so than any other boy, girl or young person who has experienced the tragedy of being the victim of abuse by a priest,” she said forcefully in Spanish.

Alazraki told the bishops they could no longer “play ostrich” and bury their heads in the sand.

Alazraki, who was applauded at the end of her speech, also spoke of cases of corruption where religious orders and church officials hid abuse because “money, compensation, gifts” or other illegal or unethical activity.

Earlier, German Cardinal Reinhard Marx called for more “traceability and transparency” such as limiting secrecy in cases of abuse handled by the Vatican, releasing more statistics and publishing judicial procedures.

“Files that could have documented the terrible deeds and named those responsible were destroyed, or not even created. Instead of the perpetrators, the victims were regulated and silence imposed on them,” Marx, a leading progressive, said.

“The rights of victims were effectively trampled underfoot, and left to the whims of individuals,” he added.

4. YouTube has finally pulled ads from anti-vax channels.

YouTube is banning ads on channels that promote anti-vaccination content after companies pulled their advertisements https://t.co/Ldk7XfFKli

— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) February 23, 2019

YouTube, under fire for facilitating the spread of conspiracy theories and other misinformation, says it will no longer serve ads on channels that espouse anti-vaccination rhetoric.

The Google-owned video giant cited its advertising policy that bans “dangerous and harmful” content from eligibility in its monetisation program.

“We have strict policies that govern what videos we allow ads to appear on, and videos that promote anti-vaccination content are a violation of those policies,” YouTube said in a statement.

“We enforce these policies vigorously, and if we find a video that violates them, we immediately take action and remove ads.”

YouTube didn’t specify which anti-vax channels – or how many – were subject to the demonetisation action.

According to BuzzFeed, which first reported the news, affected channels included VAXXED TV, LarryCook333 and iHealthTube.

Anti-vaccination proponents who falsely suggest that vaccines are somehow unsafe for kids remain rife on YouTube and other platforms.

There’s overwhelming scientific and medical evidence that childhood vaccinations are both safe and effective at curbing disease outbreaks.

In January, YouTube announced a change to its content-recommendations system aimed at reducing the recommendation of “borderline content and content that could misinform users in harmful ways.”

That includes videos promoting bogus miracle cures for serious illnesses, claiming the Earth is flat, or making “blatantly false claims” about historical events like the 9/11 terrorist attacks, according to YouTube.

5. Drowning is the leading cause of death among children with autism, new report finds.

A new toolkit will aim to improve education around preventative measures, as a report finds a ‘disproportionately high risk of drowning’ for children with autism. https://t.co/iLqpfgqn9S

— SBS News (@SBSNews) February 23, 2019

Drowning is the leading cause of death among children with autism, but there remains a huge gap in resources and advice being offered by clinical experts to parents, a report has revealed.

Children with autism are also being pushed out of mainstream swimming classes, which cannot accommodate their specific needs, thereby exacerbating the risks, according to the report by Autism Swim.

Released on Sunday, Autism and Drowning: The Underreported Issue, has revealed a lack of research on the “disproportionately high risk of drowning” for those who have autism spectrum disorder.

In a bid to lower the risk, Autism Swim, which is the world’s only certifying body for aquatics and autism, has called on governments and healthcare providers to raise awareness and allocate funding to improve outcomes for these children.

The organisation, which trains swim instructors on how to teach those with autism, will release a new wandering and drowning prevention toolkit for parents on Monday.

According to the US-based National Autism Association, between 2009 and 2011, drowning subsequent to wandering accounted for around 90 per cent of total deaths reported in children with ASD aged 14 and younger.

Children with ASD are 160 times more likely to die from drowning compared to other children, according to the American statistics.

Autism Swim founder Erika Gleeson says Australian data is severely lacking, yet “there are so many people crying out for help”.

In Australia, one-in-70 people are estimated to have autism, and it represents the highest population of approved plans for the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Children with autism often wander away from safety either to escape discomfort, such as sensory overload, or to reach a place of intense interest.

“They can be little escape artists, it often has nothing to do with the quality of parents,” says Ms Gleeson, who is a senior behaviour specialist for autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability.

Parents of children with autism report wandering as the most stressful behaviour, especially as it brings risks such as traffic injuries, falls, dehydration, encounters with strangers and hypothermia.

Drowning is one of the most lethal risks, and it increases with autism severity, according to the report.

“There’s no research, but we can hypothesise that most people find water quite therapeutic and that drawing is exacerbated for those with sensory challenges,” Ms Gleeson told AAP.

While a neurotypical child may be able to assess risk factors, such as water opacity at a river, currents and lack of adult supervision, someone with autism may just see the water, associate it with relaxation and jump in without taking into consideration the risks.

In addition, children with autism are often left behind their peers in swimming classes and they need more intense water safety education, Ms Gleeson said.

Some children need to be taught something as basic as coming up for air, she said.

“Going under the water is so enticing for them that the motivation to go up and get a breath is diminished…all their sensory systems are relieved when they go under,” she said.