TRANSCRIPT:
- A cautious return to business as usual in the Top End after Cyclone Fina;
- European leaders meeting in Geneva over a US plan to end the war in Ukraine;
- Australia crushes England in the opening test of the Ashes.
Almost 20,000 homes and businesses remain without power in Darwin after Cyclone Fina swept through the Northern Territory capital on Saturday night.
Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro says crews are working to restore connections to around 19,500 properties as soon as possible.
Cyclone Fina is the strongest to approach Darwin since Tracy devastated the capital in 1974, but as of this morning there were no reports of serious injuries or damage.
Still, the Chief Minister has urged caution, telling residents to remain at home or in emergency shelters unless they need to move around.
"The warnings have now been reduced and we want Territorians to be going back to their business as usual. Now obviously there remains to be significant debris - trees down and even powerlines. But Territorians who need to move about for essential reasons such as needing to restock fridges, having to take items to dump, and other necessary travel, are encouraged to do so safely."
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Native forest logging would be subject to tougher rules under a proposal put forward by the Federal Government, as it pushes to pass an overhaul of the nation's environment laws this week.
While some states have banned the logging of native forests, in others the practice is still allowed and exempt from regulation under federal environment laws.
Environment Minister Murray Watt says the government is preparing amendments to its bill which would close the loophole.
The Minister says he doesn't want to see any more delays with only a week to go in the Parliamentary year.
"It's about five years since Professor Graham Samuel delivered his recommendations to the former Environment Minister Sussan Ley, setting out a blueprint for reform for these laws. And what Graham Samuel said was that our current environmental laws are fundamentally broken: they're failing the environment, they're failing business, and they're failing the general community. And that's why we need reform."
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A man has been found dead in Canberra, hours after a standoff with police.
A-C-T Police say the siege unfolded after officers arrived at a property in Isabella Plains, to arrest him for serious D-V offences allegedly committed against his partner, who is being treated for her injuries in hospital.
They allege the 71 year-old barricaded himself in a shed, after firing shots at police.
His body was found in the shed hours later.
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Representatives from the United States, Ukraine, United Kingdom and Europe will meet in Geneva in the coming hours to discuss a proposal to end the war in Ukraine.
U-S Secretary of State Marco Rubio will be in Geneva for the talks, with a Thursday deadline to present a deal to Russia.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says there is still work to be done, before the 28 point plan put forward by the U-S can be accepted by all parties.
"Look, there has been a lot of discussion in the last few days on the European level, with the Ukrainians. It is fast moving as you say. I think the focus very much now is on Geneva tomorrow and whether we can make progress tomorrow morning."
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Meta has been accused of shutting down internal research into the mental health effects of Facebook and Instagram, in a lawsuit filed by US school districts.
The class action alleges the internal research - identified as a 2020 study code-named 'Project Mercury' - found causal evidence that Meta's products harmed users' mental health.
It says Meta's scientists working with Nielsen on Project Mercury, found people who stopped using Facebook for a week, reported lower feelings of depression, anxiety, loneliness and social comparison.
The lawsuit argues that Meta internally declared the negative study findings were tainted by the "existing media narrative" around the company, rather than pursuing further research or publishing those findings.
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Vietnamese migrants have described their pride in seeing their family names inscribed on the National Monument to Migration at Australia's National Maritime Museum.
One of two new panels unveiled this week focuses on the Vietnamese community, marking 50 years since the end of the Vietnam War.
Sui Yen Luiten came to Australia from Vietnam when she was three weeks old in 1974, one year before the mass evacuation of south Vietnamese children - known as Operation Babylift.
She has told SBS Vietnamese it is amazing to see her name on the monument, also known as the Welcome Wall.
"It really cements part of my place in the world, where a lot of our ties when we've been so disconnected from our biological origins, to know we have that place. I hope that my mother is still alive and she's looking for me. And so it's like a beacon on a wall to say, ‘I'm here. I care and I love you'."
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To sport now and in cricket,
Australia has cruised towards a comprehensive eight-wicket win in the Ashes opener on day two at Perth stadium - in a contest that lasted only 30 hours.
England lost the opening battle on the back of two calamitous batting collapses and Travis Head striking the equal sixth-fastest century in Test history.
The win - in what has become the shortest Test match on Australian soil since 1932 - means Australia have taken a one-nil lead in the five match series against England.
