Here are the top stories on ABC News.
The federal government's plans to make its controversial cashless welfare card a permanent fixture in parts of the country have been ditched, after the coalition failed to win enough support in the Senate. The card's been trialed in four locations, quarantining 80 per cent of welfare payments onto a debit card so the money cannot be used on things like alcohol or gambling. An amended bill extending the trial by another two years passed by one vote.
A teenager from regional New South Wales has been formally charged with terrorism offences overnight. The 18-year-old will appear at Albury local court this morning, charged with two offences; urging violence against members or groups and advocating terrorism. Police arrested him after he allegedly made comments online suggesting he was willing to be involved in a "mass casualty event".
Federal and state regulators in the United States have sued Facebook, accusing the social media giant of abusing its dominance to crush smaller competitors. Anti-trust officials are calling for Facebook to be broken up, demanding it sell off Instagram and WhatsApp, which have billions of users.
And a trial using artificial intelligence is achieving astounding results in detecting skin cancer in north Queensland. The automatic diagnosis system has picked up melanomas much smaller than doctors could be expected to detect. Other trials are likely to rollout to other parts of Australia next year.