TRANSCRIPT
- A signing ceremony finalises the defence treaty between Australia and Papua New Guinea.
- New laws imminent on a triple-zero custodian.
- And in the NRL, Broncos star Reece Walsh reveals how he helped his team overcome Melbourne Storm in the grand final.
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A landmark defence treaty has just been signed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his Papua New Guinean counterpart in Canberra.
The Pukpuk agreement, named after the local word for crocodile, will require each nation to come to the aid of the other if under military attack.
It will also create a pathway for citizens to serve in the other country's defence force.
The treaty, which was originally expected to be signed in Port Moresby two weeks ago, is being seen as positive step towards shoring up Western influence in the Pacific in the face of approaches from China.
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Communications Minister Annika Wells will meet the heads of telcos tomorrow, as the government rushes through new laws to enshrine a triple-zero custodian.
It comes in addition to new rules meaning carriers must share real time information on outages with emergency services and the media regulator.
Embattled Optus chief Stephen Rue - along with Telstra and TPG bosses - have been summoned to Canberra ahead of the peak bushfire season.
Ms Wells told the Seven Network that two Optus outages since 2023 were the result of Optus failures.
"There's nothing that anybody, whether the independent regulator, other telcos, have has pointed out yet that any of us could have done to stop the failures that happened at Optus from happening at Optus. What happened here was a failure by Optus to comply with existing laws. And the laws that we're bringing in this week, are to further enshrine confidence of taxpayers in the triple-zero system. The laws that are coming this week would not have stopped what happened at Optus a couple of weeks ago, because that was a catastrophic failure, a second (failure) on the part of Optus."
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Activists of the Gaza humanitarian aid flotilla have accused Israeli authorities of abuse and rights violations after being released from detention.
The 50 vessels of the Global Sumud Flotilla were intercepted by Israel last week in the latest attempt by humanitarians and activists to challenge the naval blockade of Gaza and deliver food and medicine to civilians trapped inside.
Spanish activists, who have now arrived home from Israeli detention, are accusing Israeli police officers of physically abusing the activists as well as denying them essential medicines and refusing them contact with lawyers, family and their respective governments.
Israel has so far deported at least 170 of the more than 450 activists it detained, while six Australians reportedly remain in Israeli detention.
Juan Bordera, a Spanish politician who joined the flotilla, says he fears for the safety of his colleagues who remain in prison.
"Of course, we fear for them as we've been under the same situation as them, we know water they are getting is not good, rotten food, they are being beaten and other people are doing hunger strikes while they have do not access to drinking water. How are we not going to be worried about them?”
The Israeli foreign ministry denies they are violating the rights of the detained activists.
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British police are investigating the firebombing of mosque in Sussex as a hate crime, after the assailants set the building alight while two worshippers were inside.
A mosque representative tells CNN that two people in balaclavas tried to force the door open on Saturday night before pouring gasoline onto the steps and attempting to burn the building down.
Sussex police have called the incident an appalling and reckless attack which has left the local Muslim community feeling unsafe.
The incident comes just days after an attack at a synagogue in Manchester claimed the lives of two men.
The British government says additional security will be deployed at synagogues across the country after the deadly attack.
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And in sport...
Broncos fullback Reece Walsh, who starred in Brisbane's thrilling 26 to 22 grand final win over Melbourne, has described how he calmed his nerves before the game.
The Clive Churchill Medallist scored a superb try and set up three others in the come-from-behind victory, while also performing three key try-saving plays in defence.
Amid celebrations in the dressing room, Walsh said he felt emotional before the game.
"I cried on the way, I cried before last week's game. I got to the team room for our meeting. I could see the boys were a little bit nervous. That calmed me down, because I knew I had to do my job for them."
