TRANSCRIPT:
- Australia's spy chief says children are increasingly being radicalised online;
- Volodymyr Zelenskyy accuses Donald Trump of living in a Russian bubble;
- Mixed fortunes for Australia's contingent at the Qatar tennis Open.
Australia's spy chief says radicalised young people are proving to be as much of a credible threat to security as adults, as the country faces its most complex and challenging security environment on record.
In a wide-ranging annual threat assessment, ASIO director-general Mike Burgess has said there is a generation of digital natives – people who have spent all their formative years online.
Mr Burgess says the median age at which minors are first subject to ASIO investigation is now 15, with the caseload overwhelmingly male and Australian-born.
"Many of the recent cases we have dealt with are as sad and sobering as they are shocking: minors allegedly sharing beheading videos in the schoolyard; a 12-year-old allegedly wanting to blow up a place of worship; a 17-year-old allegedly watching Nazi propaganda and Ku Klux Klan videos and scrawling "gas the Jews" on the walls of the classroom; a 12-year-old allegedly planning a school shooting."
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Donald Trump has called Volodymyr Zelenskyy a "dictator without elections", in response to the Ukrainian President's furious reaction to being excluded from talks between the US and Russia on the war in Ukraine.
Mr Trump's comment comes a day after the U-S president accused Ukraine of starting the war with Russia, and said they had had three years to end the conflict.
Ukraine fears the US will negotiate terms to end the war that are too favourable to Moscow.
President Zelenskyy maintains Trump is being influenced by Russian propaganda.
"We have seen this disinformation, we understand that it's coming from Russia. We have evidence that these numbers are being discussed between America and Russia. That is, unfortunately, President Trump, with great respect for him as a leader of the people, the American people who constantly support us, unfortunately, lives in this disinformation space."
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Hamas has proposed to exchange all Israeli captives with Palestinians held in Israeli jails in one go during the proposed second phase of a Gaza ceasefire deal.
Negotiations for the second stage are happening this week with Egyptian mediators in Cairo.
The group says its stated aim is to achieve a permanent truce and total demilitarisation of the war-torn enclave.
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Authorities in Tasmania say around 100 beached whales that are stranded near the Arthur River on the state's west coast will need to be euthanised over coming days.
They say it appears unlikely any whales can be saved from a pod of 157 on a remote beach.
Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service's Brendan Clark says it would be difficult to replicate harbour rescue techniques at the latest stranding.
"While we've had good recent success at previous whale stranding events on the west coast at Macquarie Harbour and surrounds with re-floating and rescuing whales, its important to note that the environmental and access challenges mean we are unlikely to be able to use those same rescue techniques."
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The latest figures show regional house prices have continued to rise, even as capital city costs have fallen slightly.
The latest regional market update from property data firm CoreLogic shows property values rose one per cent in regional Australia in the three months to January, with towns in regional Western Australia and Queensland especially skyrocketing in value.
Rents are also still growing faster in the regions compared to capital cities.
Corelogic says that is because of seasonal factors, as more listings are added at the start of the year, and overseas students arrive, looking for a place to live.
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At least one-thousand jobs are on the line in South Australia after the state government forced the steelworks at Whyalla into administration.
South Australian premier Peter Malinauskas says he took the decision after advice from a task force found owner G-F-G's finances were going from bad to worse.
He says the site's owner owes millions of dollars to the state, and private contractors.
"This is the right course of action to secure steel making in this country. It is unacceptable for such an important critical piece of economic infrastructure for the nation to be in a situation where its ongoing operations are so severely compromised as we believe was the case prior to today."
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National No.1 Alex de Minaur has battled his way into the last eight in the Qatar Open.
The second seed in the tournament will meet Andrey Rublev in the quarter finals after accounting for Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp.
But Aussie qualifier Chris O'Connell's run has come to a brutal end.
He lost to world No.16 Jack Draper in a match lasting 59 minutes.
