source : the age
At least eight skiers have died in an avalanche in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, and a ninth is presumed dead, authorities said on Wednesday, making the disaster one of the deadliest single avalanches in US history.
Rescuers on skis were able to reach six survivors amid an intense winter storm that has dropped several feet of fresh snow on the mountains in recent days. One skier remains unaccounted for.
The avalanche – the length of a football pitch, according to authorities – struck in the Castle Peak area of Truckee, California, about 16 kilometres north of Lake Tahoe, about 11.30am Pacific time on Tuesday. It engulfed a group of backcountry skiers who were completing a three-day guided excursion.
One of the rescued skiers is still being treated in a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon said at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon (US time).
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A second man has been arrested and charged over online threats made towards federal parliamentarians.
Australian Federal Police confirmed a 51-year-old man from Queanbeyan in NSW will appear in court in April after an investigation by the National Security Investigations team into threatening posts on a social media platform.
“The posts contained threatening remarks towards two federal parliamentarians,” the AFP said.
“Investigators executed a search warrant at a Queanbeyan home on 17 February, 2026, and seized various items, including electronic devices.”
The man has been charged with one count of using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence – charge that carries a maximum penalty of five years’ jail.
A 55-year-old Sydney man was charged yesterday with threatening to kill a federal parliamentarian, identified as Treasurer Jim Chalmers by 2GB radio presenter Ben Fordham.
The man was charged after national security investigators raided his south-west Sydney home, allegedly seizing three gel blasters, three slingshot mounts, one pair of metal handcuffs, and electronic devices that are expected to undergo forensic examination.
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has dodged a question on a suggestion from his new shadow treasurer, Tim Wilson, to shift the Reserve Bank’s focus from unemployment to inflation.
In an interview with this masthead on Wednesday, Wilson said the opposition would review the bank’s so-called “dual mandate” which forces the bank to balance the fight against high prices, countered via interest rate rises, with the need to keep as many people possible in jobs.
Taylor, who has an economics background and previously served as shadow treasurer, did not directly answer a question about whether he backed the dual mandate.
“I absolutely support Tim Wilson’s opinion that inflation is too high in this country,” he said at a press conference in Queensland this afternoon. “He has made a strong point that there needs to be a very strong focus from the Reserve Bank and, more importantly, the government … on getting inflation down.”
Labor pounced on Wilson’s remarks. Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino said on Sky News that the suggestion was “remarkable and frankly reckless”
“This has been something that has had bipartisan support for many decades. It is a key part of our economic infrastructure,” he said.
Complaints about being cut off from emergency services have surged in Australia following the Optus Triple Zero outage and the discovery of faulty mobile phone hardware.
The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman revealed the growing number of mobile phone complaints on Wednesday in a report that also showed a rise in concerns about internet outages and claims for compensation.
Social networks were also attracting more grievances from consumers, even though the ombudsman was not equipped to address them.
The findings come after Optus suffered an outage that affected Triple Zero calls in four states and territories for almost 14 hours in September, during which hundreds of emergency calls failed.
The spotlight on access to emergency services triggered a rise in complaints between October and December, Ombudsman Cynthia Gebert said, both from consumers who experienced failures and those concerned about access to Triple Zero. Complaints to the ombudsman rose 3.6 per cent during the three months to more than 14,000, the report found, and more than 6000 of the complaints involved mobile services.
“The spotlight on Triple Zero liability did encourage people to reach out and chat to us about their concerns,” Gebert told AAP. “Some of them were specifically from people who said they had attempted to call Triple Zero but couldn’t get through and, because there was a focus on it, people reported failed calls that happened in months gone by.”
The discovery of a hardware problem in some older Samsung phones that prevented them from connecting to emergency services also caused confusion for consumers, many of whom did not understand why their phones were being disconnected, Gebert said.
Almost 200 people lodged complaints about the issue and the report cites the example of an elderly man who sought help after his telco notified him it would disconnect his service.
After an intervention, the provider agreed to waive fees for six months.
The biggest rise in complaints involved faulty phone or internet services (up 41.6 per cent), and more than 1100 people sought compensation from providers for non-financial losses (up 13.8 per cent). The top concern remained a lack of action or delayed fixes from providers, although complaints about financial hardship measures fell 19.2 per cent.
Digital platforms also inspired 20 per cent more reports to the ombudsman, even though the organisation was not equipped to handle disputes, Gebert said. Consumers and businesses lodged more than 700 complaints about online services during 2025, many of them about social media and email accounts that had been hacked or suspended.
“[Consumers] are hitting brick walls or they’re not actually get to speak with a human to explain why something’s happening, like an account ban,” she said. “We’re calling on the government to fill that consumer protection gap.”
An Online Safety Act review recommended the creation of a digital ombudsman scheme to cover digital platform complaints, and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission issued a similar recommendation in its final Digital Platform Services report.
AAP
Telstra has reported a $1.2 billion half-year profit, up 8.1 per cent, as the telco giant reaps the rewards of aggressive cost-cutting that has shed more than 2300 jobs in six months, while warning consumers may face higher mobile bills because of a $7.2 billion government spectrum charge.
Shares rose 4.1 per cent to $5.17 in morning trade after the results beat analysts’ consensus expectations.
The results, released to the ASX on Thursday, showed underlying earnings rose 5.5 per cent to $4.2 billion for the half-year ended December 31, driven by strong mobile performance, with services revenue up 5.6 per cent. Earnings per share climbed 11 per cent to 9.9¢, and the board declared a 10.5¢ interim dividend, up from 9.5¢ a year earlier. Net profit rose 9.4 per cent to $1.1 billion.
Chief executive Vicki Brady said there was strong momentum across the business, and that Telstra had delivered “strong cost control and disciplined capital management”. She pointed to the mobiles division as the standout performer, with “more customers continuing to choose our network and the value it provides”.
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A former Coles manager who set prices for its pet foods has hit back at the suggestion increasing sales and earning money was the only motivation for putting a product on promotion, as the supermarket fights a Federal Court case alleging it misled shoppers with its “Down Down” discounts.
The court heard in Melbourne on Thursday an at-times combative exchange between the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s lead barrister, Garry Rich, SC, and Paul Carroll, who was the head of Coles’ pet food category, Carroll was being grilled over price-change allegations at the centre of the watchdog’s case.
Nature’s Gift Wet Dog Food in a 12-kilogram tin, which Coles priced at $4 between April 18, 2022, and February 7, 2023, was then increased to a $6 “Every Day price” for a seven-day period, before the supermarket cut it to its third price, $4.50.
Coles promoted this price with a red Down Down discount label, despite it being 50¢ more expensive than it had been sold at eight days earlier, in a move it has since acknowledged was an error and against its internal pricing “guardrails”.
Rich asked Carroll about the difference between Every Day and Down Down pricing, and the internal rules Coles had for when to change them or if it could apply further temporary discounts or increases known as “surging”.
Rich put to Carroll that when negotiating price change requests with suppliers, he was motivated to agree on the new price as well as a plan to reduce it – which should only occur at least four weeks later according to Coles’ policy – to a cheaper Down Down promotional price and red shelf ticket for a longer period. He said this was because promotions increased product sales.
“You’re not being charitable, you are doing it to earn money for your employer,” Rich put to Carroll, who disagreed with the statement, insisting he personally cared about the customer and prices they faced.
The court heard further evidence from email exchanges between Carroll and other Coles colleagues as well as the supplier of the dog food product in question.
On 10 February 2023, two days after the dog food had increased to $6, Carroll emailed then head of pricing and value Chris Reid, asking for advice about how to be more competitive with Woolworths in selling the product, which had a price of $4.50. Reid told Carroll the price could be lowered to compete once a four-week window at $6 had passed, but not advertised as a Down Down special, as it wouldn’t be “in the spirit” of Down Down.
“You were planning to do what Mr Reid told you wasn’t in the spirit of Down Down,” Rich said, which Carroll conceded was correct.
However, Carroll noted staff were encouraged to be competitive, and that Reid had said a lower price of $4.50 would be permissible, as long as it wasn’t promoted with red Down Down stickers and its associated rules.
The hearing continues.
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor says Australia needs to “shut the door” to anyone trying to bring in hatred and violence, agreeing his party would support the government to pass legislation to make sure a group of Islamic State-linked women and children “can’t come back”.
Speaking at press conference in Queensland just now, Taylor said a minister should “absolutely” have the power to refuse an Australian citizen from obtaining a passport, after this masthead revealed the IS bride cohort had been issued valid travel documentation.
“Well absolutely, if this person is going to bring hatred and violence to our part of the world, does not accept our way of life, does not accept our core beliefs, the government should be doing everything it can to stop them from coming back,” he said.
“If we need to work with the government to pass legislation, to tighten legislation to make sure that they can’t come back, we will do that.
“Shut the door. Shut the door. I was clear about this on day one in this role. We need to see this government shut the door. I don’t believe people who want to bring hate and violence from another part of the world to Australia, people who do not believe in our core beliefs, shouldn’t be coming into the country.
“It’s as simple as that, and this government has not answered the most basic questions about why these people are coming back to Australia.”
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor is in Queensland and addressed the media earlier today. Watch the full press conference here.
Thank you for following our national news live blog for Thursday, February 19. Here’s what we have covered so far today.
- Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has castigated Pauline Hanson for suggesting there were no “good” Muslims during an interview with Sky News on Monday night. “Those comments are disgraceful, and they’re aimed at just dividing people,” Albanese said this morning.
- The government has maintained it is not assisting a cohort of 34 Islamic State brides and their children after it was revealed yesterday the group had been issued Australian passports. The government faces growing calls from the opposition to issue temporary exclusion orders to the women and children to prevent them from returning home while security agencies investigate them. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said yesterday the government had issued a temporary exclusion order to one of the women on advice of security agencies. The group connected to IS are back in headlines after they attempted to return home earlier this week but were turned around and sent back to a Syrian internment camp by local authorities.
- A Sydney man has been charged with threatening to kill a federal parliamentarian, identified as Treasurer Jim Chalmers. The 55-year-old was charged yesterday after national security investigators raided his south-west Sydney home, allegedly seizing three gel blasters, three slingshot mounts, one pair of metal handcuffs, and multiple electronic devices that are expected to undergo forensic examination.
- And, in world news, the United States is continuing to surge military assets to Eastern Europe and the Middle East, including fighter jets and refuelling tankers, increasing speculation that President Donald Trump is headed for war with Iran despite some progress in recent talks. Several media outlets, including CNN, citing sources familiar with the matter, suggest the US military could be ready to carry out strikes as soon as this weekend, though Trump has yet to make a final decision.
Follow our blog throughout the afternoon as we continue to bring you rolling news updates from Australia and around the world. I’m Emily Kaine, handing over to my colleague Isabel McMillan.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is in Melbourne attending a Chinese New Year event. Staff photographer Justin McManus has captured the celebrations.
