Australian ski fields have been forced to wrap up the 20-26 season early, after a warmer than average winter seriously impacted snow conditions.

And the weather bureau is also forecasting a hot spring.

The federal Opposition says its plan for an 80 per cent cut to the tobacco excise will boost the budget by $2 billion dollars a year.

The Coalition has announced that if elected, it would tackle the booming black market by slashing the excise on a packet of legal cigarettes from about $30 to $6.

But, Treasurer Jim Chalmers says that while the government recognises the "really serious challenge" presented by illicit tobacco, it remains opposed to cutting the excise.

Russian state media has published what it claims are prison recordings of accused spies Kira and Igor Korolev who are currently locked-up in Queensland.

The ABC has been unable to independently verify the audio in which Ms Korolev can purportedly be heard saying she "made a mistake" when she "migrated to a different country" and wanted to return to Russia.

In Queensland, it's illegal for media to interview prisoners without permission.

Queensland Corrective Services said approval had not been given.

New research has revealed almost one third of lesson time in Australian classrooms is being lost to student misbehaviour.

The report "Classrooms in Crisis" by the Centre for Independent Studies is based on interviews with about 400 teachers from across Australia.

It's found teachers reported an average of 9 minutes out of every 30 minutes being lost to classroom disruption. For more news at any time you can follow the ABC News Top Stories podcast.

More than 1,100 people have died in the Nepal and Tibet flood disaster, while thousands remain missing, including 38 Australians. 

Police believe they've identified all parties who were in the room the night of an alleged incident linked to the Sydney Swans.

Sexual Crimes Squad detectives spoke with four men in New South Wales this week as part of the investigation and say conversations with witnesses continue.

Several adult entertainers are understood to have joined a number of Swans players at a hotel in Melbourne in the early hours of the 17th of August .

Three women subsequently made a police report.

No arrests have been made and no charges have been laid. Police say their investigation is continuing.

Nepal's Information and Communications Minister has used an exclusive interview with the ABC to call for stronger international action on climate change after the country's devastating floods.

Minister Bikram Timilsina says Nepal is being forced to bear the consequences of a climate crisis it has contributed little to.

He says wealthier, higher-emitting nations have a responsibility to help vulnerable countries recover, and warned the disaster should be treated as a sign of what could follow elsewhere.

More than 1,100 people died in last week's flood, and thousands remain missing, including 38 Australians.

Australian ski resorts are winding up operations early this year after the warmest winter on record.

There's been a sharp decline in snowfall across the Australian alps over the past four years which meteorologists say is a tangible sign of a warming climate.

For more news at any time you can follow the ABC News Top Stories podcast.

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Victoria police believe they've identified all the people who were in the Melbourne hotel room the night of an alleged sexual assault linked to the AFL's Sydney Swans. Detectives have spoken with four Sydney men as part of the investigation. It's understood several adult entertainers and a number of Sydney Swans players were present with three women then making a police report. 

A Royal Australian Air Force jet carrying supplies to assist disaster-ravaged Nepal has touched down in the country's capital. Twelve Australian personnel with rapid response expertise have also been deployed to the region, as part of the federal government's broader response to the catastrophe.

And an independent investigation into the Telstra outage in July has found the incident was caused by a faulty power supply being replaced, then reset to the wrong date. Alarms that would normally alert staff to an error were not monitored outside business hours and there was a lack of knowledgeable staff on duty.

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Social media algorithms are under fire over what they're serving up to young men.

It's so bad, that Chanel Contos, a sexual consent advocate, thinks it's time to consider switching off the system that offers up content it thinks you'll like.

But how would making the algorithms opt-in reduce the influence of misogynist, so-called manosphere content? 

Teach Us Consent founder Chanel Contos warns tech giants could design their way around weaker attempts to rein in social media algorithms that push harmful content to young men. She's used a National Press Club speech to further her push for algorithmic feeds to be an "opt-in" model, saying platforms often prey on boys' valid concerns about the world to intentionally serve them "manosphere" content.

The federal government has announced a $600 million package to crack down on drug smuggling between pacific islands and Australia. The Prime Minister is in Palau for the Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting, where island nations have spoken about the impact the rise in drug trafficking has had on social cohesion. Anthony Albanese says the funding will help improve coordination between nations, increase surveillance, and help train police.

And nearly 15-thousand people are isolated in northern Nepal after devastating floods on the border with Tibet ripped up roads and destroyed communications. The conditions are also hampering rescue efforts for hundreds of workers trapped inside the region's hydropower tunnels. Since yesterday morning, five Australians have been found safe, but 38 Australians remain among the thousands still missing

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Jury deliberations in the murder trial of American woman Lindsay Clancy have reached a stalemate after four days.

Clancy is charged with the murder of her three young children.

She doesn't deny killing them, but says a mental health condition called postpartum psychosis led to her actions.

Be aware - the details of this story are disturbing.

Consent advocate Chanel Contos has told the National Press Club in Canberra that the radicalisation of young men online is an urgent challenge, and that without immediate action, Australia risks a "generation of young men being entrenched". She's made a case for reining in harmful social media algorithms, which she says are exposing young people to misogynistic "manosphere" content and fuelling the prevalence of sexual violence in Australia.

Officials in Nepal are taking DNA samples of the victims of last week's devastating flooding along the Nepal-Tibet border, before burying them in mass graves. Forensic specialists say relatives of missing tourists can provide their own DNA samples to assist in the process.

And Australia's economy has grown faster than expected, raising the prospect of an interest rate hike as soon as this month. GDP rose zero-point-four per cent in the June quarter and two-point-one per cent over the past year.

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