Australia's children are deeply anxious about their future, with a landmark report revealing many already carry the burden of worrying about housing and cost of living pressures.

The escalating concerns paired with an alarming decline in school and community engagement have prompted calls for more support.

Billionaire Nicola Forrest is one of those funding the inaugural State of Australia's Children report, which shows children are worried about their future.

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"If children feel safe, if their parents are supported, if the community around them is the right environment then they will thrive. We've got most of those elements," she said.

The survey of more than 2000 kids found 62 per cent believe they'll be worse off than their parents, with school engagement declining sport and community participation down.

Over half have experienced cyber bullying.

"We need to make sure young people are in places that are safe and if they're not safe – find places to connect," Greens Senator Sarah Hanson Young said.

Nationals Leader David Littleproud called for a rethink of the curriculum.

"Get it back to basics, get it back to life skills," he said.

Cost of living affects kids as well, with 43 per cent worried about housing and money.

Meanwhile, Housing Minister Clare O'Neil announced the third round of builds under the Housing Australia Future Fund, promising 21,000 social and affordable homes.

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"We're in the middle of a housing crisis that has been cooking for generations and the single most important thing the Commonwealth government can do is build more houses for Australians," O'Neil said.

Homelessness Australia chief executive Kate Colvin said it will make "an enormous difference for every one of those homes".

"We've got a lot more to do to step up and fix the homeless crisis," she said.

Right now homes are being held up by the environmental approvals process and changing those laws is the big fight as MPs return to parliament this week for the final time this year.

"That act is standing in the path of tens of thousands of homes being approved and constructed around our country," O'Neil said.

Cyclone Fina has roared past Darwin, causing a terrifying 24 hours for residents.

The category 4 storm cut power to 20,000 homes and caved in the roof of the Northern Territory's largest hospital among other damage this weekend.

The severe tropical cyclone closed in on the Northern Territory capital and skimmed past just 50 kilometres off the coast as a powerful category 3 system.

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Destructive winds of more than 100km/h were recorded at Darwin Airport.

Less than 60 kilometres from the heart of the city, a whopping 430 millimetres of rain was dumped at Middle Point.

Overnight, part of the ceiling at the Royal Darwin Hospital collapsed, though no one was injured.

Fina was much more powerful than Cyclone Marcus, which passed Darwin in 2018 as a category 2 system and Territorians woke to widespread damage.

Boats were washed ashore and cubby houses crushed by trees but damage bill was much bigger for others.

"Everyone's about to doze off, we hear a big thud outside, we look out the window, it's pitch black because we've got no power there's a tree in the yard," one local said.

The highest praise for the public was from the Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro

"I'm very proud to be a Territorian today, where we stood together as a community, listened to the advice of our emergency services professional, were prepared, did what we needed to do, and it shows the strength of the Territory community," Finocchiaro said.

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Late this afternoon, Cyclone Fina was heading south-west towards the north-east of Western Australia's Kimberley Coast as a category 4 storm.

Winds of up to 165km/h and gusts to 230km/h were reported but the storm wasn't predicted to make landfall.

Flights were resuming at Darwin Airport.

Their concerns include health and safety risks in first known use of whistleblower law.

A flight from Sydney to Adelaide has been forced to turn back after there was a possible engineering issue and a medical episode on board.

The alarm was raised when an engineering issue arose on VA424 this afternoon.

A passenger on board said they were told it was a problem with one of the aircraft's engines.

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Crew on board tried to keep everyone calm as the plane circled back to Sydney about 3pm today.

An ambulance met the aircraft on the tarmac, after a woman onboard suffered a medical episode.

The woman in her 50s was having difficulty breathing and was rushed to the RPA for treatment.

Virgin Australia said the plane was being inspected by engineers and apologised.

"We are working to get everyone to Adelaide as soon as possible," the airline said.

Darren Williams has been taken to the Tenancy Tribunal twice this year.

Costa Botes found fame creating Forgotten Silver alongside Sir Peter Jackson in the 90s.

Storms have reshaped sandbanks, creating new rips along the main beach.

The defendant blamed a mysterious man named Tim – prosecutors said the defendant was Tim.

Controversial ex-doctor Rhys Cullen’s in a bitter legal stoush with a top Auckland school.

With his new 28-point plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, President Donald Trump is resurfacing his argument that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy doesn't “have the cards” to continue on the battlefield and must come to a settlement that heavily tilts in Moscow's favour.

Trump, who has demonstrated low regard for Zelenskyy dating back to his first term, says he expects the Ukrainian leader to respond to his administration's new plan to end the war by next Thursday.

The president said on Friday of Zelenksyy, “He’s going to have to approve it,” though he was more reconciliatory a day later, saying, “I would like to get to peace.”

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“We’re trying to get it ended. One way or the other, we have to get it ended,” Trump told reporters outside the White House on Saturday.

Buffeted by a corruption scandal in his government, battlefield setbacks and another difficult winter looming as Russia continues to bombard Ukraine's energy grid, Zelenskyy says Ukraine is now facing perhaps the most difficult choice in its history.

Trump and Zelenskyy have had a tortured relationship

Zelenskyy has not spoken with Trump since the plan became public this week, but has said he expects to talk to the Republican president in coming days.

It's likely to be another in a series of tough conversations the two leaders have had over the years.

The first time they spoke, in 2019, Trump tried to pressure the then newly minted Ukrainian leader to dig up dirt on Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 election.

That phone call sparked Trump's first impeachment.

Trump made Biden's support for Ukraine a central issue in his successful 2024 campaign, saying the conflict had cost US taxpayers too much money and vowing he would quickly bring the war to an end.

Then early this year in a disastrous Oval Office meeting, Trump and Vice President JD Vance tore into Zelenskyy for what they said was insufficient gratitude for the more than $US180 billion ($278 billion) the US had appropriated for military aid and other assistance to Kyiv since the start of the war.

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That episode led to a temporary suspension of US assistance to Ukraine.

And now with the new proposal, Trump is pressing Zelenskyy to agree to concessions of land to Moscow, a massive reduction in the size of Ukraine’s army, and agreement from Europe to assert that Ukraine will never be admitted into the NATO military alliance.

“Now Ukraine may find itself facing a very difficult choice: either loss of dignity, or the risk of losing a key partner,” Zelenskyy said in a video address on Friday.

At the center of Trump's plan is the call on Ukraine to concede the entirety of its eastern Donbas region, even though a vast swath of that land remains in Ukrainian control.

Analysts at the independent Institute for the Study of War have estimated it would take several years for the Russian military to completely seize the territory, based on its current rate of advances.

Trump, nevertheless, insists that the loss of the region — which includes cities that are vital defence, industrial and logistics hubs for Ukrainian forces — is a fait accompli.

“They will lose in a short period of time. You know so,” Trump said on Friday when asked during a Fox News Radio interview about his push on Ukraine to give up the territory.

“They’re losing land. They’re losing land.”

Trump's patience remains a question

The Trump proposal was formally presented to Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Thursday by Dan Driscoll, the US Army secretary.

The plan itself was a surprise to Driscoll’s staffers, who were not aware as late as Wednesday that their boss would be going to Ukraine as part of a team to present the plan to the Ukrainians.

Army officials walked away from that meeting with the impression that the Ukrainians were viewing the proposal as a starting point that would evolve as negotiations progressed, according to a US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks.

It's unclear how much patience Trump has for further negotiation.

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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday that Trump's new plan reflects “the realities of the situation” and offers the “best win-win scenario, where both parties gain more than they must give”.

Asked about Zelenskyy's initial hesitant response to the proposal, Trump recalled the February Oval Office blow-up with Zelenskyy: “You remember, right in the Oval Office, not so long ago, I said, ‘You don’t have the cards.’”

Trump, though, was also asked yesterday if the proposal was his final offer to end the Ukraine war and said it wasn't — leaving open the possibility of more negotiation.

Still, asked what would happen if Ukraine and Zelenskyy ultimately reject the proposal, the president turned almost dismissive: “Then he can continue to fight his little heart out.”

Zelenskyy is now in a vulnerable spot

The mounting pressure from Trump comes as Zelenskyy is dealing with fallout over $US100 million ($154 million) in kickbacks for contracts with the state-owned nuclear energy company.

The scandal led to the resignations of top Cabinet ministers and implicated other Zelenskyy associates.

Konstantin Sonin, a political economist and Russia expert at the University of Chicago, said, “what Donald Trump is certainly extremely good at is spotting weak spots of people”.

One of the 28 elements of Trump’s proposal calls for elections to be held within 100 days of enactment of the agreement.

“I think it’s a rationalistic assessment that there is more leverage over Zelenskyy than over Putin,” Sonin said.

He added, “Zelenskyy’s back is against the wall” and “his government could collapse if he agrees” to the US proposal.

All the while, Ukraine is increasingly showing signs of strain on the battlefield after years of war against a vastly larger and better-equipped Russian military.

Ukraine is desperately trying to fend off relentless Russian aerial attacks that have brought rolling blackouts across the country on the brink of winter.

Kyiv is also grappling with doubts about the way ahead.

A European plan to finance next year’s budget for Ukraine through loans linked to frozen Russian funds is now in question.

The Trump proposal in its current form also includes several elements that would cut deeply into Ukrainian pride, David Silbey, a military historian at Cornell University, said.

One provision calls on Russia and Ukraine to abolish “all discriminatory measures and guarantee the rights of Ukrainian and Russian media and education,” and “all Nazi ideology and activities must be rejected and prohibited”.

That element could be seen by the Ukrainian side as giving credence to Putin's airing of distorted historical narratives to legitimise the 2022 invasion.

Putin has said the war is in part an effort to “denazify” Ukraine and complained of the country's “neo-Nazi regime” as a justification for Russia’s invasion.

In fact, in Ukraine’s last parliamentary election in 2019, support for far-right candidates was 2 per cent, significantly lower than in many other European countries.

The plan's provision is “very clearly an attempt to build up Putin's claim to Russian cultural identity within Ukraine,” Silbey said.

He added, “From territory loss to the substantial reduction of the Ukrainian military to cultural concessions that have been demanded, I just don’t think Zelenskyy could do this deal and look his public in the eye again.”

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