TRANSCRIPT
- France's President addresses the UN General Assembly
- Government accused of failing Australians over lack of triple-zero custodian after Optus outage
- Matt Rowell wins the prestigious AFL Brownlow Medal
Emmanuel Macron has addressed the United Nations General Assembly, recognising Palestinian statehood.
The French President says such recognition will give momentum to a two-state solution that an increasing number of nations in the international community believe is the best hope for peace in the Middle East.
"The time has for peace has come because we are just a few moments away from not being able to seize peace. This is why we are gathered here today. Some might say it's too late, others might say it's too early. But one thing is certain: we can no longer wait."
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is preparing to meet the French president on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly as he defends Australia's stance on Palestinian recognition.
The meeting will be the third official time Mr Albanese and Emmanuel Macron have sat down together.
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Australian Zomi Frankcom has been honoured at a ceremony for aid workers at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The 43-year-old Melbourne woman was killed in April 2024, when an Israeli air strike hit a convoy of cars while she was working in Gaza with World Central Kitchen.
Zomi was among the 674 aid personnel killed in conflict zones in 2024 to be so honoured, as Australia calls for aid workers to be afforded fresh protections.
More than 100 countries, including the United Kingdom and Japan, have backed Australia's push, which Foreign Minister Penny Wong says is about codifying security measures.
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Several of Europe’s busiest airports have struggled to resume normal operations after hackers disabled automatic check-in systems.
Brussels authorities ordered airlines to cancel half of Monday’s departures as problems persisted.
The ransomware attack, launched on Friday against Collins Aerospace, also disrupted check-in and boarding systems at London's Heathrow and at Berlin airports.
Collins Aerospace says it is in the final stages of completing updates to help restore full functionality at affected airports, including Brussels and London Heathrow.
Senior Vice President and Head of Unit42 at Palo Alto Networks, Sam Rubin, says such cyberattacks cost billions of dollars every year.
"I think people don't realise is how big of a global problem this is. Cyberattacks are costing us, as a society, over $20 billion a day. And these sophisticated attackers are targeting us, our organisations and they're trying to shut us down and trying to lock up our files and prevent us from doing business or otherwise going about our daily lives.”
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The federal government has been accused of "failing Australians" by not implementing a custodian for triple-zero services before the recent Optus outage.
Thursday's service interruption has been linked to four deaths and is the second time in two years that an Optus network failure meant Australians could not access the emergency line.
After Optus' 2023 outage, a review recommended the government implement a triple-zero custodian with oversight and responsibility for the emergency network, including monitoring its end-to-end performance.
Independent analyst Paul Budde is among those advocating for an end to self-regulation.
"It could well take Optus several years to fix the underlying problem – get rid of the underinvestment that took place in the network. In other words, we can't wait that long for that to happen. We have to start looking at an alternative for how we can ensure that the triple-0 system is working in Australia, and perhaps we should take it away from the telcos, create an independent organisation who manages this system – still of course using the Telstra, Optus and Vodafone infrastructure."
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Instagram has introduced an AI-powered age-verification system for Australian users, months before under-16s are banned from social media.
The system started on Monday using artificial intelligence to identify users suspected to be younger than 18.
It will then apply so-called "teen account" settings that include protections around who can contact them and the content they see.
Meta's Regional Policy Director Mia Garlick says the company is committed to evolving protections for young people.
"By expanding these measures to teen accounts in Australia, we're helping ensure that teens have safer, age-appropriate experiences on Instagram. We want to make sure that as many teens as possible are enrolled in the teen experience, even if they haven't given us their real age when signing up for an account."
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To sport, Matt Rowell from the Gold Coast Suns has won this year's prestigious AFL Brownlow Medal.
The midfielder dominated the count, winning 39 votes across the 24 rounds.
It was the second most emphatic vote in Brownlow history, and a result that again denied Collingwood's Nick Daicos, who has been a leading contender for the medal for three straight year.
Chairman of the AFL Commission Richard Goyder proposed a toast for the winner.
"A talented onballer, former number one pick, Matt helped take the Suns to their first finals campaign in the club's fifteen year history. And becomes the second ever Suns player to be awarded the Brownlow Medal, joining Gary Ablett junior."
