Judy Garland’s found ruby ​​slippers from The Wizard Of Oz are being auctioned off after they were previously stolen and subsequently recovered.

The pair, which was worn by the late actress, was reunited with its owner, collector Michael Shaw, and will be shown on an international tour before being auctioned later this year.

This comes shortly after a second man was charged in connection with the theft of the iconic slippers worn by Garland, who died in 1969 at the age of 47 while filming the 1939 cult classic.

The famous ruby ​​slippers, one of four surviving pairs from the 1939 film, had been stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota in August 2005 when a thief broke into the singer’s childhood home.

Nearly two decades later, the FBI recovered the slippers during a sting operation in Minneapolis in 2018, and federal prosecutors estimate their market value to be around $3.5 million.

After being reunited with the shoes, Shaw is now parting ways with them again and is teaming up with Heritage Auctions to take the pair on a multi-city world tour before putting them up for auction in December.

“You cannot overstate the importance of Dorothy’s ruby ​​slippers,” Heritage Auctions vice president Joe Maddalena said in a speech. press release on Monday. ‘They are the most important prop in the history of Hollywood.

“This pair is precious because it comes from Michael Shaw’s legendary collection, and we are honored to have him partner with Heritage.

‘Like TCM [Turner Classic Movies] host Ben Mankiewicz once said, these slippers “symbolize hope,” and we’re thrilled they will travel down the yellow brick road to the auction block to a new home.”

In the iconic film, Garland played the beloved character Dorothy, who returned from Oz to Kansas by clicking the heels of her ruby ​​slippers and repeating the phrase, “There’s no place like home.”

Thirty years after filming the critically acclaimed movie, she tragically died in 1969 at the age of 47 from an accidental barbiturate overdose.

During The Wizard of Oz, Garland wore several pairs, but only four authentic pairs remain.

The three remaining pairs reside at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Smithsonian Museum of American History and with a private collector.

In the theft of the soon-to-be-auctioned shoes – which are “of a higher quality than the pair currently at the Smithsonian,” according to a Forbes 2008 report – one man was convicted in January and another recently convicted for his involvement in the crime.

A career criminal named Terry Jon Martin, 76, was charged with theft of a major work of art after pleading guilty in October 2023 and sentenced to no jail time due to his declining health.

The second man, Jerry Hal Saliterman, 76, was charged with theft of a large work of art and witness tampering.

He made his first court appearance on Friday and, like Martin, appeared to be suffering from declining health, appearing in court with an oxygen tank and in a wheelchair, the court said. Associated press.

Two years ago, the iconic blue and white gingham dress Garland wore in the film was also rediscovered at the Catholic University of Washington, DC, after being missing for fifty years.

Donald Trump has sparked a liberal media meltdown after warning that there will be a ‘bloodbath’ if he loses the election in a fiery speech where he also branded migrants ‘animals.’

The penultimate president painted an apocalyptic vision of the country if Biden wins a second term while speaking at an airfield rally outside of Dayton, Ohio, Saturday to campaign for Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno.

‘If I don´t get elected, it´s going to be a bloodbath for the whole – that´s going to be the least of it. It´s going to be a bloodbath for the country,’ Trump, 77, warned. 

On the subject of immigration and the murder of Laken Riley allegedly at the hands of an undocumented migrant, Trump also described criminal migrants as ‘animals’ – in the latest sign that his campaign rhetoric has become increasingly inflammatory. 

Critics including Nancy Pelosi and a retired FBI boss blasted the incendiary ‘bloodbath’ comment as ‘a threat’ – while MAGA supporters said it had been taken out of context by the press because it came in reference to a clampdown on foreign car imports. 

‘Mexico has taken over a period of 30 years, 34 percent of the automobile manufacturing business in our country,’ Trump said at the Dayton rally. 

‘China now is building a couple of massive plants where they’re going to build the cars in Mexico, and they think that they’re going to sell those cars into the United States with no tax at the border.

‘Let me tell you something to China. If you’re listening President Xi, and you and I are friends, but he understands the way I deal.

‘Those big monster car manufacturing plants that you’re building in Mexico right now, if you think you’re going to get that and not hire Americans and you’re going to sell the cars to us – no – we’re going to put a 100 percent tariff on every car that comes across the line.

‘If I don´t get elected, it´s going to be a bloodbath for the whole – that´s going to be the least of it. It´s going to be a bloodbath for the country.’ 

Headlines quickly seized on the ‘bloodbath’ comment, which Trump supporters said was unfair to use without context -involving the outsourcing of the auto industry that the GOP expects to continue if Biden stays in the White House – and prompted Elon Musk to blast the reports as ‘legacy media lies.’

The outcry over his comments quickly poured onto Musk’s X platform, formerly known as Twitter, as users branded Trump as ‘hateful’ ‘grotesque’ and ‘a dangerous lunatic’ over both his ‘bloodbath’ comment and reference to migrants as ‘animals’. 

Retired FBI assistant director Frank Figliuzzi was among those who raised concerns.

‘Trump says if he’s not elected “It will be a blood bath for the country”,’ Figliuzzi wrote on X. 

‘FYI, if he IS elected, it will also be a blood bath based on his intentions. The choice is as clear as the threat.’

Former house speaker Nancy Pelosi also weighed in. 

‘We just have to win the election, because he’s even predicting a “bloodbath”,’ she told CNN. ‘What does that mean? He’s going to exact a bloodbath? There’s something wrong here. 

‘How respectful I am of the American people and their goodness, but how much more do they have to see from him to understand that this isn’t what our country is about?’   

‘This is so dangerous,’ UCL professor Brian Klaas wrote while reposting the clip from Trump’s speech on X.  

‘Everyone who cares about democracy, rule of law, the Constitution, or the avoidance of death should call this out, denounce it, make clear this is unacceptable. 

‘It is a grotesque indictment of our system that this man could still win the presidency.’

Others said Trump was ‘threatening violence once again’ after the Capitol riot of January 6.

Biden campaign spokesperson James Singer also accused Trump of doubling ‘down on his threats of political violence.’

‘He wants another January 6, but the American people are going to give him another electoral defeat this November because they continue to reject his extremism, his affection for violence, and his thirst for revenge,’ Singer charged in a statement.

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said the former president had clearly been talking about the impact of a second Biden term on the auto industry and broader economy.

‘Crooked Joe Biden and his campaign are engaging in deceptively, out-of-context editing,’ he said.

Trump also doubled down on his increasingly radical campaign rhetoric in reference to the immigration crisis, after he described migrants as ‘poisoning the blood of our country’ in December. 

‘Among my very first actions upon taking office will be to stop the invasion of our country and to send Joe Biden’s illegal aliens back home,’ he said. 

‘These are the roughest people you’ve ever seen. And now we have a new form of crime. I call it Biden migrant crime, but it’s too long so let’s just call it migrant crime.’

‘Throughout the world right now, crime is way way down, you know why? Because they sent us their criminals, that’s why,’ he added. 

‘Venezuela is down 66 percent because they sent us their gang members and their gangsters. They sent us their drug dealers and their murderers, they’re all coming into our country. 

‘All over the world, crime is down, because they’ve sent them to the United States of America because we have a stupid president that allows this to happen. Stupid.’ 

‘I would do the same thing if I had prisons teeming with MS-13 and all sorts of people that they’ve got to take care of for the next 50 years – young people, if you can call them people, I don’t know if you can call them people,’ he went on. 

‘In some cases they’re not people in my opinion, but I’m not allowed to say that because the radical left says that’s a terrible thing to say.

‘They’ll say ‘you’ll have to vote against him because did you hear what he said about humanity?’ I’ve seen the humanity, and these are bad – these are animals, ok.’

Trump also referred to criminal migrants as ‘snakes’ and claimed that ‘what’s happening to our country’ with the influx ‘has not happened before’.

He claimed that ‘no one has been hurt by Joe Biden’s migrant invasion more than our great African American and Hispanic American communities’ along with people on social security because ‘they’re taking our jobs’. 

‘With his open border policy Joe Biden has repeatedly stabbed African American people in the back including by granting millions and millions of work permits taking their jobs,’ Trump said. 

‘The African American community, the Hispanic community are going to be the ones who suffer the most, and you know who else? Unions. Those unions are going to go out of business.’  

Just under an hour into the speech, Trump also appeared to confuse former president Barack Obama with an opponent of Biden’s in the 2020 race. 

‘Joe Biden won against Barack Hussain Obama, has anyone ever heard of him?’ Trump told the crowd. 

‘Every swing state Biden beat Obama, but every other state he got killed. You think that’s an honest election?’ 

Turning back to the subject of the rally, Trump said Ohio Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno is ‘going to be a warrior in Washington’. 

Moreno faces Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state Sen. Matt Dolan in Tuesday’s GOP primary. 

LaRose and Moreno have aligned themselves with the pro-Trump faction of the party, while Dolan is backed by more establishment Republicans, including Gov. Mike DeWine and former Sen. Rob Portman.

Saturday’s rally was hosted by Buckeye Values PAC, a group backing Moreno´s candidacy. 

A one-time Trump critic, Moreno, a wealthy Cleveland businessman, supported Marco Rubio for president in the 2016 Republican primary, and once tweeted that listening to Trump was ‘like watching a car accident that makes you sick, but you can stop looking.’ 

In 2021, NBC News reported on an email exchange around the time of Trump´s first presidential run in which Moreno referred to Trump as a ‘lunatic’ and a ‘maniac.’

On Saturday, however, Moreno praised Trump as a ‘great American’ and railed against those in his party who have been critical of the former president, who this week became his party’s presumptive nominee for a third straight election.

‘I am so sick and tired of Republicans that say, `I support President Trump´s policies but I don´t like the man,´’ he said as he joined Trump on stage.

Trump also dismissed recent allegations against Moreno, comparing them to attacks he has faced through the years, including his criminal indictments. 

Trump has been charged in four separate cases that span his handling of classified documents to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

His decision to back Moreno marked a major blow to LaRose, who had taken a number of steps to win his favor. 

Just days after entering the Senate race, LaRose endorsed Trump for president – reversing an earlier stance that the state´s elections chief should remain politically neutral. 

The next month, he fired a long-time trusted aide after old tweets surfaced in which the staffer criticized Trump.

The winner of Tuesday’s primary will face third-term Sen. Sherrod Brown, viewed as among the nation´s most vulnerable Democrats, in November.

Brown, first elected in 2006 and uncontested in his primary this year, has managed to hold onto his seat even as the state has shifted to the right. 

In his most recent reelection in 2018, he defeated then-Rep. Jim Renacci by almost 7 percentage points. Two years later, Ohio voted for then-President Trump by 8 points.

At the height of the Cold War, Jonna Mendez was head of the CIA’s disguise division – a division of the agency charged with outfitting covert agents operating abroad.

In 1991, the department was developing remarkably lifelike latex masks, and Mendez was eager to deploy their cutting-edge new spy technology where it was needed most: Soviet Russia.

But first Mendez had to prove that her deception would work under the most dangerous circumstances.

So she arranged the ultimate test.

Could she fool the security of the White House and the President of the United States himself?

Excerpt from ‘In True Face: A Woman’s Life in the CIA, Exposed’

In 1989, our fully animated ethnic and gender reassignment mask was ready for the catwalk.

I put on a man’s suit and put on a black man’s mask, with matching tight-fitting latex gloves painted exactly the same skin color, including the veins.

Exercises like these, if successful, provided a proof of concept.

Can I convincingly change my gender? What about the skin color? Can I change both at the same time?

I had already disguised a white male field officer as an African student during a live operation, but this was new mask technology, and we were constantly testing new scenarios and pushing the proverbial boundaries further than before.

When I was fully disguised, I had someone accompany me to the office of Frank Anderson, our office director. I was introduced as a new contractor. I nodded and walked to his desk, but said nothing, aware that I didn’t sound like a man.

I reached out and shook his, which I knew would be the moment of my revelation. As soon as he felt the latex on my right hand, I pulled off the mask with my left hand. His eyes lit up as I turned back into myself.

He loved it and insisted that we model it for the director of the CIA, Judge William Webster.

A week later, as we entered Webster’s office on the seventh floor of CIA headquarters, I was more than a little nervous.

Anderson had always supported our disguise program, but I had not yet met Judge Webster, a former director of the FBI.

Anderson, a tall, broad-shouldered executive, entered first, followed by a 6-foot-2 black man wearing a suit and tie.

“Sir,” said Frank, “I would like to introduce you to…”

His voice trailed off as I extended my hand, again wearing latex gloves.

As soon as I took off the full face mask, Judge Webster’s face lit up like an excited little boy.

Amazed by the mask’s ability to change ethnicity and gender, he and Frank decided that we should demonstrate this new ability to the President, George HW Bush.

I hesitated before saying anything, but I had to.

“I don’t think I can carry this to the White House,” I said. “While it’s lifelike and animates well, I can’t walk or talk like a black man. The Secret Service takes one look at me, asks me a question and it’s all over.’

Anderson and Judge Webster conceded my point. We decided to present a woman’s mask to the president.

Immediately dismissed from their meeting, I returned to my office and the disguise labs with orders to prepare another mask. However, this wouldn’t be just any mask. It should be the best mask we’ve ever made.

Our first assignment was choosing a face. The sculptor played a crucial role in the making of each mask. We specified gender, ethnicity, age range, and sometimes even a specific identity, but ultimately the sculptor’s hands shaped the final product.

At that time, one of our top sculptors, a young Latina woman named Becky, was preparing to move to California.

As a parting gift and as a joke, she decided to give me her face. She knew her facial dimensions would easily fit over mine, and it was a perfect solution. Younger! More beautiful! No woman in her right mind would turn that down.

We were officially racing against the clock, and a lot depended on my meeting with the president. To get this new mask into production and into the hands of field officers, we needed additional funding. It was crucial to gain support from the White House and the date for the meeting was rapidly approaching.

Five days later I was in our lab in Langley putting the finishing touches on “Becky.”

The mask was a masterpiece.

Our meeting with the President was a success!

Two days after that, I waltzed into the White House, walking through security behind Judge Webster. However, we got stuck in the president’s office. His previous meeting lasted a long time.

I tried to disappear into the woodwork, overwhelmed by the usual paranoia I felt the first time I wore a new mask in public.

This was a pretty high-level launch of a mask we’d never tested in the field, and I nervously chewed the end of a pencil as I pretended to study my notes. The delay seemed to last forever. I feared that even if the mask didn’t betray me, my nerves would.

Trust is everything, I told myself as I waited impatiently for the big moment.

When we were finally called into the Oval Office, we walked inside to find chairs arranged in a horseshoe in front of the president’s desk.

Knowing that I would be the first to speak, Judge Webster instructed me to sit in the chair on the far right. As soon as we sat down, we got straight to work.

Webster introduced me by name and explained that I was here to show the president some of the agency’s new disguise options. I pulled out the folder I had brought with me, which contained photos of the President himself in disguise from when he was Director of the CIA.

After explaining that our disguise capabilities had improved greatly since his time in the agency, I began listing all the ways we could use them to evade the KGB.

We could convincingly disguise an officer, and even create a clone of an officer: a twin brother! If necessary, we can change an agent’s ethnicity or gender, or ‘borrow’ someone else’s identity.

This technology would change the way we would be able to counter KGB intimidation on the streets of Moscow.

As I was speaking, I noticed the President looking at the area at my feet, probably looking for a bag that contained our new disguises. When I told him I was wearing it, I raised my hand to remove it.

Before I even touched my mask, he jumped up from his chair. ‘Hold on. Just a minute, don’t take it off yet,” he said, walking around me and peering at my face and neck.

At that moment he knew I was wearing something fake. A false nose? A prosthetic?

He tilted his head, no doubt searching for the seams of whatever I was wearing. When he seemed satisfied, I lifted my hand again and pulled off the mask.

Suddenly charismatic and intensely curious, his eyes almost sparkled as he asked questions.

As the President graced me with his attention, Dan Quayle tiptoed into the meeting, clearly unamused that he had missed the moment of my big reveal.

But as my conversation with the president came to a close, it seemed clear that we would have the support of the men in this room to roll out our new mask.

Once I got back to the outer office, I was approached by the White House photographer who had been at the meeting taking pictures.

“Excuse me,” she said, “what did you do there?”

“I thought you were taking pictures of it,” I replied.

“Well, I did, but what was that?”

“I can’t talk about it,” I said after a moment’s silence. ‘It is secret.’

I never looked for copies of those photos, and I didn’t receive them until ten years later.

When I did, the package included a photo of me wearing the mask and one of me talking while holding it in front of me…except the mask is airbrushed out of the second photo.

That’s the one I have hanging in my office.

I seem to be lecturing the president, with my hand in the air, and when friends look at it and ask what I’m saying to him, I always answer the same way: “I can’t talk about it – it’s classified.”

Excerpt from In True Face: A woman’s life at the CIA, Unmasked by Jonna Mendez featuring Wyndham Wood. Copyright © 2024. Available from PublicAffairs, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc

A former U.S. ambassador to Bolivia accused of spying for Cuba for four decades told a judge Thursday that he sensationally admitted to the charges and said he had been gathering information for the rogue state since 1981.

Victor Manuel Rocha, 73, was arrested in December for what U.S. officials called “one of the most far-reaching and longest infiltrations of the U.S. government by a foreign agent.”

Rocha pleaded not guilty two weeks ago to charges of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government, but he told Judge Beth Bloom during a pre-trial conference Thursday that he wanted to change his plea.

The court set a date of April 12 for Rocha to formally change his plea to guilty and for sentencing.

Rocha was appointed to Bolivia in 2000 by then-President Bill Clinton.

Rocha, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Colombia, is believed to have started helping Havana in 1981 as a secret agent for Cuba’s Directorate General of Intelligence (DGI), and according to U.S. authorities, his espionage activities continued until his arrest.

Rocha lived in the Miami area with his wife, graphic designer Karla Wittkop Rocha. The couple has two adult children together.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said in announcing Rocha’s arrest that he had “repeatedly referred to the United States as ‘the enemy’ and “repeatedly bragged about the significance of his efforts.”

Rocha joined the State Department in 1981 and rose through the ranks as a career diplomat, also holding posts in Havana, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, the Dominican Republic and Washington.

Rocha served on the National Security Council from 1994 to 1995 under President Bill Clinton’s administration and served as ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002 under Clinton and George W. Bush. He also served as an advisor to the US military command responsible for Cuba.

The indictment against Rocha details how, during multiple meetings with an undercover FBI agent beginning in November 2022, he “acted like a Cuban agent,” praising the late leader of the communist-ruled island Fidel Castro and using “the term ‘we’ used to describe themselves and Cuba.’

He admitted that he had traveled to Havana in 2016 or 2017 to meet his DGI handlers and asked the undercover agent to send “my warmest regards to the Direccion,” referring to the DGI.

Other Americans arrested for leaking secrets to Havana include Walter Kendall Myers and Gwendolyn Myers, who were indicted in 2009 on charges of nearly three decades of spying for Cuba.

– ‘Murdered’ by Cuba –

Rocha also faces a lawsuit filed Thursday in Florida by the widow of Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya.

She claims Rocha was responsible for the death of her late husband, the winner of the European Parliament’s 2002 Sakharov Prize for Human Rights, in a car crash in Cuba in 2012.

A court document alleges that “the Cuban terrorist dictatorship murdered Mr. Paya with impunity” as a direct result of Roche’s “actions as a covert agent for the Cuban terrorist dictatorship and its intelligence gathering mission against the United States.”

Another Cuban dissident, Harold Cepero, also died in the same car accident, while two others in the vehicle survived: Spanish politician Angel Carromero and Swedish conservative politician Jens Aron Modig.

Cuban authorities blamed Carromero, who was driving, but he claims the car was hit by a Cuban secret service vehicle.

In a report published last June, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) concluded that Cuban state agents were involved in the dissidents’ deaths.

“I am seeking what I have always sought: for the truth, for justice and for the regime and its accomplices” to “stop acting with impunity,” Paya’s widow Ofelia Acevedo said in a statement.

Taylor Swift returned to the stage at the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the second night of the Australian leg of her Eras tour on Saturday night.

The global megastar, 34, sent the jam-packed crowds wild when she made her grand arrival on stage for her epic three-hour setlist amid her first tour Down Under in six years.

Thousands of Swifties once again descended on the MCG for the second show, after she performed to the biggest crowd of her career as 96,000 fans attended her debut show.

Her second show was shrouded in tragedy as it emerged hours before that teenage fan Mieka Pokarier, 16, was killed in a horrific highway crash on Thursday while on a family road trip to see the pop star.

But Taylor put on a brave face as she returned to the stage to put on another incredible performance for the thousands of fans who had travelled miles to Melbourne for her show.

For the concert, Taylor once again sported a whole array of eye-catching outfits to encompass every one of her ‘Eras’, commemorating each of her beloved albums.

She left the crowds screaming at one point in the show as she put her own Australian twist on her smash hit song We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.

The Grammy-award winning artist personalised her show for her Australian audience with the help of her backing dancer in one hysterical moment.

She was heard saying into the microphone: ‘This is exhausting, you know? Like, we are never getting back together.’

Taylor then handed the microphone over to a dancer, who said ‘no’ as ‘naur’ in a noticeably Australian twang, sending the crowds absolutely wild.

The Melbourne locals were heard erupting into deafening screams as they were thrilled by the hilarious touch, as Taylor went straight into the track’s chorus. 

As well as performing for tens of thousands of fans inside the MCG, hundreds of ticketless fans once again stormed the stadium in a bid to listen into the show.

Despite warnings to stay home, huge crowds of Swifties who weren’t able to get their hands on tickets were seen gathering outside the venue for the epic show.

Videos shared to social media documented the chaos as massive crowds were seen singing along in unison and dancing as the MCG was completely overrun by fans. 

Just hours ahead of her second concert, Taylor was spotted arriving in chauffeured FBI-style as she made her way to the stadium for sound-check.

A convoy of blacked out Land Rovers were seen driving down Brunton Ave and into the underground carpark of the venue, with one carrying the Shake It Off star.

Huge crowds were also seen descending on the MCG hours ahead of the show as they tried to beat the queues after the record-breaking first concert on Friday night.

A massive 96,000 fans descended on the MCG for Taylor’s first show, marking the biggest concert of her entire career.

Despite already having performed at huge sporting stadiums across the US, the opening night of her Australian tour broke records, as she has never performed to a crowd larger than 74,000.

Reacting to performing at her biggest show to date, Taylor told the 96,000-strong crowd on Friday: ‘This is the biggest show we’ve done on this tour or any tour I have ever done!

‘That’s the version you get of me tonight, the version that is completely star-struck by the fact that so many of you wanted to hang out with us on Saturday night in Melbourne!’

As well as the huge crowds inside the venue, eager fans who weren’t able to get their hands on the sought-after tickets gathered outside the MCG in their masses.

Ahead of her Sydney shows next week, Venues NSW warned ticketless fanatics to stay away from Accor Stadium to prevent crowd management issues, The Daily Telegraph reported.

A spokesperson said fans who missed out on tickets should not try to ‘soak up the atmosphere’ outside, as they likely won’t hear any songs anyway.

Meanwhile, Transport NSW coordinator-general Howard Collins said Sydney was ‘preparing for the inevitable’ ahead of her Sydney shows.

‘What we found with other popular music venues where people can’t get tickets, people do just turn up to sort of soak up the atmosphere, and you can’t stop them other than to manage crowds,’ he said.

‘We are not encouraging ticketless fans to attend, but part of our contingency plan is allowing for extra people who may be travelling who haven’t got tickets.’

But despite warnings from the NSW government, businesses are said to be rolling out the welcome mat for all of Taylor’s fans regardless of whether they have tickets.

Taylor will return to the MCG for her final Melbourne show on Sunday night before heading to Accor Stadium in Sydney from February 23 to 26 for second stint of shows.

However, Taylor’s Australian Eras tour has also been hit by tragedy after it emerged on Saturday that a teenager was killed in a horrific highway crash while on a family road trip to see the pop star.

Mieka Pokarier, 16, died when the SUV she was travelling in with her mother and sister from the Gold Coast in Queensland to Melbourne collided with a semi-trailer near Dubbo.

The crash on Dunedoo Road at Ballimore on Thursday about 6pm also left her younger sister Freya Pokarier, 10, in a critical condition and she was airlifted to Westmead Hospital.

Mieka was understood to have been sitting in the front passenger seat when the crash occurred.

Emergency services rushed to the scene but the teenager could not be saved. 

On Saturday Mieka and Freya’s father, Peter Pokarier, shared his grief on Facebook.

‘That’s my baby that died,’ he said. 

The 10-year-old girl is fighting for her life and is understood to be in a coma with brain injuries.  She also suffered a broken pelvis and a broken leg.  

The driver of the semi-trailer had minor injuries and was taken to Dubbo Hospital in a stable condition. 

The mother of the two girls who was driving the SUV sustained several injuries following the crash and was also taken to Dubbo Hospital.

Images from the scene in the aftermath of the crash show plumes of thick, black smoke rising into the sky. 

The Gold Coast-based family were heading down to Melbourne ahead of Taylor’s first sold-out concert at the MCG. 

Taylor had kicked off the Australian leg of her Eras tour in Melbourne on Friday night with around 96,000 fans in attendance – the biggest concert of her career.

The godmother of the two girls Karleigh Fox said the two girls were very much looking forward to attending the 14-time Grammy Award winner’s concert. 

‘This was supposed to be a road-trip of a lifetime with them going to concerts in both Melbourne and Sydney,’ she told the Courier Mail.

A GoFundMe page was set up on Friday to arrange funds for the family, with almost $12,000 raised so far with a target of $20,000. 

‘The family have all had to cease work to fly down and I’m trying to get a flight to support the mum as she’s alone in Dubbo until we can get her to Sydney,’ Ms Fox said.

‘Funds will be used to function in this challenging time.’

NSW Police said in a statement that a crime scene was set up as officers continue to investigate the incident. 

A report will be prepared for the coroner. 

Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Sydney Children’s Hospital Network for comment.  

Taylor Swift werd zaterdagavond de Melbourne Cricket Ground binnengereden voor de tweede avond van de Australische etappe van haar Eras-tour.

De mondiale megaster, 34, arriveerde in FBI-stijl met chauffeur terwijl ze zich enkele uren voor de show naar het stadion begaf voor een soundcheck.

Men zag een stoet van verduisterde Land Rovers over Brunton Ave rijden naar de ondergrondse parkeergarage van de locatie, waarvan er één de Shake It Off-ster droeg.

Er werd ook een enorme menigte gezien tijdens de MCG, uren voorafgaand aan de show, terwijl ze probeerden de rijen te omzeilen na het recordbrekende eerste concert op vrijdagavond.

Maar liefst 96.000 fans kwamen naar de MCG voor Taylor's eerste show, het grootste concert uit haar hele carrière, terwijl nog eens honderden ticketloze fans zich buiten het stadion verzamelden om mee te luisteren.

Ondanks dat ze al in grote sportstadions in de VS had opgetreden, brak de openingsavond van haar Australische tour records, aangezien ze nog nooit heeft opgetreden voor een publiek van meer dan 74.000 mensen.

In reactie op haar optreden tijdens haar grootste show tot nu toe zei Taylor vrijdag tegen het 96.000 man sterke publiek: 'Dit is de grootste show die we tijdens deze tour hebben gedaan, of welke tour dan ook die ik ooit heb gedaan!

'Dat is de versie die je vanavond van mij krijgt, de versie die helemaal onder de indruk is van het feit dat zovelen van jullie zaterdagavond met ons wilden rondhangen in Melbourne!'

Naast de enorme drukte in de zaal, stonden er ook grote aantallen mensen buiten het terrein, ondanks dat ze geen kaartjes hadden bemachtigd, in een poging de setlist te horen.

Taylor's Australische Eras-tournee werd echter getroffen door een tragedie nadat zaterdag bekend werd dat een tiener omkwam bij een gruwelijk snelwegongeluk terwijl hij met het gezin op reis was om de popster te zien.

Mieka Pokarier, 16, stierf toen de SUV waarin ze met haar moeder en zus van de Gold Coast in Queensland naar Melbourne reisde, in botsing kwam met een oplegger nabij Dubbo.

De crash is begonnen Dunedoo Road bij Ballimore Donderdag rond 18.00 uur verliet ook haar jongere zus Freya Pokarier, 10, in kritieke toestand en werd ze overgevlogen naar het Westmead Ziekenhuis.

Mieka zat vermoedelijk op de passagiersstoel voorin toen het ongeval plaatsvond.

Hulpdiensten snelden ter plaatse, maar de tiener kon niet meer gered worden.

Zaterdag deelde de vader van Mieka en Freya, Peter Pokarier, zijn verdriet op Facebook.

'Dat is mijn baby die stierf', zei hij.

Het 10-jarige meisje vecht voor haar leven en ligt in coma met hersenletsel. Ze liep ook een gebroken bekken en een gebroken been op.

De bestuurder van de oplegger raakte lichtgewond en werd in stabiele toestand naar het Dubbo Ziekenhuis gebracht.

De moeder van de twee meisjes die de SUV bestuurden, liep na de crash verschillende verwondingen op en werd ook naar het Dubbo-ziekenhuis gebracht.

Beelden van de scène in de nasleep van de crash tonen pluimen van dikke, zwarte rook die de lucht in stijgen.

De familie uit Gold Coast was op weg naar Melbourne voordat Taylor voor het eerst uitverkocht was concert in het MCG.

Taylor was vrijdagavond het Australische deel van haar Eras-tournee in Melbourne begonnen met zo'n 96.000 aanwezigen – het grootste concert uit haar carrière.

De meter van de twee meisjes, Karleigh Fox, zei dat de twee meisjes erg uitkeken naar het bijwonen van het concert van de 14-voudig Grammy Award-winnaar.

‘Dit zou de roadtrip van je leven worden, waarbij ze naar concerten zouden gaan in zowel Melbourne als Sydney,’ vertelde ze de Koerierspost.

Vrijdag werd een GoFundMe-pagina opgezet om geld voor het gezin te regelen. Tot nu toe is bijna $ 12.000 ingezameld met een streefbedrag van $ 20.000.

‘De familie heeft allemaal moeten stoppen met werken om naar Sydney te vliegen en ik probeer een vlucht te krijgen om de moeder te ondersteunen, aangezien ze alleen in Dubbo is totdat we haar naar Sydney kunnen brengen’, zei mevrouw Fox.

'Fondsen zullen worden gebruikt om te functioneren in deze uitdagende tijd.'

De NSW-politie zei in een verklaring dat er een plaats delict is opgezet terwijl agenten het incident blijven onderzoeken.

Er zal een rapport worden opgesteld voor de lijkschouwer.

Daily Mail Australia heeft voor commentaar contact opgenomen met het Sydney Children's Hospital Network.