PM

A leading lawyer for victims of clerical sexual abuse says the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne has failed to show leadership by refusing to implement several recommendations of a report it commissioned into its own survivor compensation scheme, the Melbourne Response. A former federal court judge, Donnell Ryan, recommended the compensation scheme drop the requirement survivors sign a deed of release, expand the scheme to secondary victims and lift the cap on compensation to at least $150,000 but the Archdiocese is not accepting those recommendations.

Four more Australian World War Two veterans have been honoured with the Legion of Honour - France's highest military distinction. They are among 338 Australian veterans now decorated with the medal since 2014, for their role in the 1944 D-Day landings, which marked the beginning of the end of the war.

There's a dispute brewing about who should be funding asbestos removal in remote communities across the Northern Territory. The land council representing traditional owners across Central Australia says $20 million is needed to dispose of legacy asbestos in the region. It's calling for the Federal Government to step in and approve funding for the clean-up, but the Indigenous Affairs Minister says it's the Territory Government's responsibility.

The pictures from last weekend's barbecue, your grandmother's address, where tonight's dinner will be - the cloud has become home to all our most important information. But what happens when the virtual filing cabinet documenting your whole life is hacked? The recent hacking of an American toy manufacturer which made cloud-based toys has brought the issue of digital privacy back into sharp focus. Australian security experts are warning national data breach laws don't go far enough.

While all the focus is now on the Trump Administration's ties to Russia, our own relationship with that country is hardly in great health. Ever since the Russian annexation of Crimea, the shooting down of MH17, and the mutual economic sanctions that followed, Canberra to Moscow dialogue has been marked by acrimony and division. So what, if any, are the prospects for better days? PM speaks to Russian Ambassador to Australia, Grigory Logvinov, who denies that Russia is 'expansionist' or aggressive.

A men's group at Wilcannia in far west New South Wales has begun working on strategies to urgently address some of the town's social issues. The town's primarily-Indigenous population faces disadvantages like high crime, poor health, a high unemployment rate and little for young people to do. But tragedy has helped to motivate dozens of local men to work on solutions.

An Australian-managed conservation survey of Myanmar forests isolated by civil war has found some of world's best hotspots for leopards and tigers. But the camera traps also snapped poachers, highlighting the risk to wildlife since a 2015 ceasefire has opened Karen State up to outsiders.

New South Wales has just experienced its hottest summer on record, and things are only going to get worse. Climate scientists say this kind of record-breaking summer is likely to happen once every five years. They're urging the state's building industry to prepare for sustained and intense heat, and decrease the reliance on air conditioning.

The deaths of three people in a factory fire today in Melbourne have come as no surprise to members of the city's homeless population. The victims, thought to be two men and a woman, died when the blaze started at the back of an abandoned rope factory, where it's believed they were squatting. Homelessness in Melbourne has been hotly debated in recent months, with the number of people sleeping rough ballooning, as the city grapples with a housing crisis.

The introduction of plain cigarette packaging has shown success in reducing smoking rates in Australia. But understanding why the laws have been a success, has not been clear. Now, a study has found strong links between the role of brand identities and smoker behaviour. And the affect plain packaging has had on the number of people choosing to smoke less, or attempting to quit the habit altogether.