Sabrina had never touched a cigarette but started vaping when she finished high school.

The 21-year-old Sydneysider then started university a couple of years ago, just as e-cigarettes had started to take hold among young people.

That's when the little highlighter-looking device became an addiction.

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"You develop a dependency because you're stressed about an assignment or life and think this makes me feel better," she told 9news.com.au.

She said she vapes a couple of times a day and the fact the smoke from vapes doesn't produce a smell means it is more common for her to smoke at home or at friend's houses.

Sabrina said she's wanted to stop but keeps coming back when she's stressed.

Now with the government crackdown on vapes, she's thinking about how she'll quit.

"I don't think it's going to be easy but it's something you will have to come to terms with," she said.

Earlier this month, Health Minister Mark Butler announced a $234 million package to phase out recreational vaping over fears the devices are creating a "new generation of nicotine addicts".

Under the plan, single-use disposable vapes will be banned, the volume and concentration of nicotine will be restricted, and both flavours and packaging will be required to be plain, the latter with warning labels.

Vapes will only be available in pharmacies with a prescription.

"They will have to be imported for sale only in pharmacies. The import of vapes for sale in retail settings will end," Butler said in unveiling the world-first plan.

"These are supposed to be pharmaceutical products so they will have to present that way, no more bubblegum flavours, pink unicorns or vapes disguised as highlighter pens for kids to hide in their pencil cases."

Another concern from the government is the possibility of a transition of vapers to smoking cigarettes.

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For Sabrina, the crackdown means giving up her vice.

She doesn't believe taking up smoking will be her next move and hopes to cut out her nicotine usage altogether.

"It's definitely opened my eyes and made me think that I should stop," she said.

"I've wanted to stop but once you've developed a habit, it's hard to stop cold turkey."

In preparation for the crackdown, she's trying to reduce how often she vapes so that when the laws do begin, it's not a "shock" to her system.

One expert isn't concerned about the nicotine addiction of non-smoking vapers, like Sabrina, when the laws begin.

Dr Colin Mendelsohn told 9news.com.au those who likely only use the devices occasionally will be able to drop the vice when the crackdown comes into effect.

He added e-cigarettes aren't likely to contribute to non-smoker vapers taking up smoking.

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He says the government's claims that vapers are three times more likely to take up smoking isn't a causal link.

"You can't prove the vaping caused the smoking. It's not scientifically valid," he said.

He said among young people vaping is just another risk-taking factor like binge drinking, unprotected sex and drugs.

"It's just kids who are more likely to take risks," he said.

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But Mendelsohn is sceptical that the crackdown will even work.

"From past experience banning illicit drugs, enforcement and policing has no impact," he said.

"The black market will just step up. It is innovative."

Sabrina agrees.

She said during the last crackdown in October 2021, when the government made e-cigarettes containing nicotine a prescription-only medicine, disposable vapes were still as available as ever.

"I don't have full faith because these small businesses and convenience stores rely on the revenue from vapes and nicotine products," she said.

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Mendelsohn said the government should instead be introducing age restrictions to sellers where there are severe penalties and loss of licences if they breach the minimum age of sale.

"They need to restrict access to young people but give adults who need it a chance," he said.

He added e-cigarettes should be more accessible for adult smokers as a method to quit, which the government is planning to do by making prescriptions more accessible at GP clinics around the country.

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A section of SH2 has been closed while police’s Serious Crash Unit investigates.

Indigenous television presenter and host of the ABC's Q+A Stan Grant is stepping down from the program, citing "relentless" racial abuse.

In a first-person piece published to the public broadcaster's website this afternoon, Grant said the "racial filth" had heightened since his appearance on the broadcaster's coverage of King Charles III's coronation.

"Racism is a crime. Racism is violence. And I have had enough," he wrote.

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"On social media my family and I are regularly racially mocked or abused.

"This is not new. Barely a week goes by when I am not racially targeted.

"My wife is targeted with abuse for being married to a Wiradjuri man.

"I don't even read it, yet I can't escape it.

"People stop me in the street to tell me how vile it is.

"They tell me how sorry they are.

"Although I try to shield myself from it, the fact it is out there poisons the air I breathe."

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He said since appearing on the ABC's coronation coverage, during which he criticised the crown, the abuse had worsened.

"I was invited to contribute to the ABC's coverage as part of a discussion about the legacy of the monarchy. I pointed out that the crown represents the invasion and theft of our land," Grant wrote.

"In the name of the crown my people were segregated on missions and reserves.

"Police wearing the seal of the crown took children from their families.

"Under the crown our people were massacred."

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was asked about Grant's resignation while in Japan for the G7 summit and described the journalist as "someone who has my respect".

"I think we need to be really cognisant in the lead-up to the referendum (on the Voice to parliament) about some of the hurtful comments that have been made.

"You only have to look at one of my social media feeds to see some of the comments that, quite frankly, are completely out of line.

"We can have respect for different views without engaging in vilification, and that's important."

Grant, a Wiradjuri man, first started working at the ABC in 2017 and began his tenure as the host of the public broadcaster's flagship show in August 2022.

After Queen Elizabeth II died in 2022, he wrote of his "choking asphyxiating anger at the suffering and injustice my people endure" and said history "is written as a hymn to whiteness".

The award-winning host also criticised the ABC for failing to support him publicly while he was subjected to the abuse.

"Not one ABC executive has publicly refuted the lies written or spoken about me. I don't hold any individual responsible; this is an institutional failure," he wrote.

He said Monday's Q+A will be his last.

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Two more bodies have been pulled from the ruined Loafers Lodge hostel in Wellington, bringing the total number of those recovered from this week's deadly fire to four.

Police said they had recovered two of the six victims' bodies from the hostel on Friday, in addition to two yesterday.

Dion Bennett, New Zealand Police's acting Wellington district commander, said officers had also located a fifth body.

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"Police can confirm that four victims have now been recovered from Loafers Lodge in Newtown," Bennett said.

"Two were recovered today, in addition to the two recovered yesterday.

"A fifth has been located and is yet to be recovered."

While Bennett confirmed the number of people who are unaccounted for now sits at less than 10, he refrained from giving an updated death toll, which has sat at six since Tuesday morning, or a specific number of missing people.

"Police have now accounted for 99 people who were in the building," he said.

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"The number of those unaccounted for is fewer than 10.

"Until we have fully examined all parts of the building, we remain reluctant to confirm specific numbers of deceased and unaccounted for."

The examination of the hostel is expected to run into next week.

Bennett's update came after the man charged with arson over the deadly fire fronted court for the first time.

The 48-year-old, whose name is suppressed, was remanded in custody until his next court date on June 19.

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The policy sees patients no longer having to face a $5 top-up fee for funded prescriptions

Ukraine's President Volodomyr Zelenskyy is planning to make a dramatic in-person appearance at this weekend's Group of Seven summit (G7) in Japan as he continues to appeal for military assistance amid Russia's invasion, according to an official familiar with the planning.

Officials declined to say exactly when Zelenskyy would arrive or detail his travel arrangements. Zelenskyy has been travelling outside his country more as the war grinds onward, including a tour of Europe last week.

The lengthy trip from Ukraine to Hiroshima, where leaders from the world's most powerful democracies are gathering, underscores Zelenskyy's desire to strengthen support 14 months into the war.

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also touched down in Japan on Friday as a guest at the summit in Hiroshima.

Following the cancellation of the Quad meeting in Sydney next week, it's a crucial chance for Albanese to speak with some of Australia's closest allies.

He'll join US President Joe Biden and other leaders in Japan to hammer out new sanctions on Russia, even as US officials warned the bite of those measures could be dampened in the event of an American debt default.

The US said on Friday it would tighten export controls, including by "extensively restricting categories of goods key to the battlefield," and will announce nearly 300 new sanctions against "individuals, entities, vessels, and aircraft."

Additionally, the US will place new designations across Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and expand its sanctions authorities to further target Russia's economy.

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The United Kingdom said it will ban the import of Russian diamonds, as part of its latest sanctions against Moscow, Downing Street announced on Friday.

The move aims to restrict one of Russia's few remaining export industries that had been relatively untouched by the withering Western sanctions already in place.

Imports of Russian-origin copper, aluminium, and nickel will also be banned under the UK legislation, which will be introduced later this year, the prime minister's office said in a statement.

The Russian diamond industry was worth $US4 billion in exports in 2021, according to Downing Street.

Biden faces his fellow world leaders on Friday in Japan under the shadow of a looming default on US debt, a scenario his advisers said risks subverting American leadership and sending the global economy into tailspin.

The risk appears particularly acute as Biden works to rally fellow G7 officials behind a shared approach toward Russia and China.

On the first day of the summit talks, the group is expected to unveil a new tightening of sanctions on Moscow – a response to the invasion of Ukraine that relies on the strength of the American financial system.

The dangers of failed diplomacy were placed into sharp relief when leaders laid wreaths on Friday morning at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, the epicentre of the American atomic bomb dropped here in 1945 that wiped out the city and more than 100,000 of its inhabitants while hastening the end of World War II.

This year, the leaders of Australia, Brazil, Comoros, Cook Islands, India, Indonesia, South Korea and Vietnam are invited, as Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida stresses the importance of reaching out to developing countries in the so-called Global South and US allies and partners.

The invitations to leaders outside the G7 are meant to extend cooperation to a broader range of countries.

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The man accused of murdering nine-year-old Charlise Mutten and dumping her body in a barrel has been committed to stand trial.

Justin Laurens Stein, 32, pleaded not guilty on Friday to domestic violence-related murder and improperly interfering with a corpse.

Charlise, the daughter of Stein's then-fiancee, was allegedly killed on his family's multimillion-dollar Blue Mountains property days before she was reported missing on January 14 last year.

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A five-day search of bushland ended with her body being found in the barrel that had been dumped near the Colo River northwest of Sydney.

Police later said an autopsy found she had died of a gunshot wound.

Charlise's mother Kallista is not accused of any wrongdoing in relation to her death.

Stein appeared in Penrith Local Court by video-link to enter the not guilty pleas to charges of murder and interfering with a corpse, and was committed to stand trial in the NSW Supreme Court.

He faces arraignment in that court on July 7.

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He also pleaded not guilty to two charges of possessing child abuse material and was committed to stand trial in the District Court on those charges.

His lawyer Peter Katsoolis told AAP that Stein would "vigorously defend" both cases.

Katsoolis said firearm-related charges and one charge of break and enter against Stein were still subject to negotiation in the local court.

He remains in custody after bail was refused.

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The road is expected to be closed for some time.

Watch for those gusts this weekend.

AMP has been fined $24 million for charging more than 2000 dead people life insurance premiums and advice fees, a scandal that was first aired in 2018 during the Hayne Royal Commission into the finance sector.

On Friday, the Federal Court ordered AMP Life and AMP Financial Planning to pay fines of $18 million and $6 million respectively after they admitted to the "unconscionable conduct" of charging and failing to refund the funds charged to accounts after they'd been told of their clients' deaths between 2015 and 2019.

"The AMP companies received over $500,000 in insurance premiums from the superannuation accounts of deceased customers, with at least $350,000 charged between May 2015 and August 2019," a statement from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said.

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"Additionally, the AMP companies received over $100,000 in advice fees from deceased customer accounts, with at least $75,000 being charged between May 2015 and August 2019."

Two other AMP entities – AMP Superannuation and NM Superannuation – were also found to have broken the law in regards to charging dead customers, but were not hit with any civil penalties.

AMP has also been ordered to publish a written notice outlining its conduct and the fines it was handed on its website for at least a year.

"The AMP companies had been notified that these customers had died, and despite this, continued to charge premiums and fees on their super accounts," ASIC deputy chair, Sarah Court said.

"Customers, and their beneficiaries, expect financial services providers to have the proper systems in place to ensure, once notified, deceased customers are no longer charged. These systems were inadequate, and customers were let down.

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"This misconduct represents a fundamental breach of trust between a customer and their financial services provider."

AMP's conduct was one of the more shocking revelations of the Hayne Royal Commission, leading to the resignation of both chairperson Catherine Brenner and CEO Craig Meller.

Between 2019 and 2020, it paid back $5.2 million to 10,155 accounts that had been wrongfully charged premiums and advice fees.

In an apology, AMP's general counsel insisted the company had changed its ways since the scandal emerged.

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"AMP apologises to all beneficiaries of those affected by this matter," David Cullen said.

"When we identified the issue in 2018, we reported it to the regulator and worked hard to remediate the estates of affected customers as promptly as possible.

"We have made strong progress in becoming a customer-focused and purpose-led organisation, and this historical matter is not reflective of the AMP we are today.

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"We have made significant changes to our systems and processes in recent years designed to prevent this from recurring."

AMP Life is now part of the Resolution Life Group, but was under AMP when the offences occurred.

AMP Group said today's fines were fully provisioned for in its financial statements for 2022, and, as of 2pm, the company's share price had increased by just over one per cent.

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