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Following White House talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and several European leaders, U-S President Donald Trump says he has spoken again to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, and is already planning a meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian leaders.
Mr Trump says he believes all sides want peace in Ukraine, after a war that's been going nearly three and a half years.
Mr Zelenskyy has described his talks with Mr Trump as having gone well.
He says they discussed the idea of Europe providing security guarantees for Ukraine as part of a Russia peace deal, with the U-S taking an oversight role.
Russia's leading news agency, TASS, says Mr Putin supports the idea of direct talks with Ukraine after speaking to Mr Trump.
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Minister for Defence Richard Marles has joined Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong in criticising Israel's decision to revoke the visas of Australia's representatives to the Palestinian Authority.
In a social media post on Monday ((AUGUST 18)), Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar said the move, which would revoke visas from three Australian diplomats, was in response to Australia's decision to recognise a Palestinian state and to refuse entry to a far-right Israeli politician, Simcha Rothman.
Mr Rothman was due to start a speaking tour in Australia but was denied entry after offensive and inflammatory remarks, including one branding all children in Gaza as enemies.
Mr Marles has called Israel's reaction disappointing and unjustified, and has reiterated Australia's position in support of a two state-solution.
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has officially commenced the government's economic reform roundtable in Canberra.
The three-day symposium has been hailed by Treasurer Jim Chalmers as an opportunity to raise living standards by boosting Australia's weakening productivity.
The first day of the roundtable will focus on building economic resilience.
Other matters set for discussion this week are cutting regulatory red tape, the future role of Artificial Intelligence, and environmental law reforms.
Mr Albanese says it's important to hear the ideas and interests of different sectors across the economy.
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A freshly-elected senator is quitting his post less than one month after being sworn in.
Warwick Stacey, who won a New South Wales upper house seat for One Nation in May's federal poll, has resigned due to what he describes as personal health issues.
The former solider says voters deserve someone completely dedicated to the role — and his health won't let him do that.
One Nation will announce his replacement in the coming weeks.
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Hundreds of thousands of customers of Australia's second-largest internet provider have had their email addresses or phone numbers compromised in a cyber attack.
A list of about 280,000 active email addresses and roughly 20,000 active landline phone numbers were extracted from iiNet's order management system, according to its parent company, TPG.
Another 10,000-odd iiNet user names, street addresses and phone numbers and about 1,700 modem set-up passwords were also believed to have been accessed by an unknown third party.
Early investigations suggest the third party gained access to its system after stealing account credentials from an employee.
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In rugby union, the Wallabies say they're builidng nicely towards the World Cup they will host in two years' time.
Two good performances- and one victory- to round off the series against the British and Irish Lions, followed by last weekend's victory over South Africa in Johannesburg, have injected fresh life into the sport in Australia.
Heading into this weekend's rematch with South Africa in Cape Town, centre Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii [[swa-lee-ee]] says the team is trying to balance short and long-term goals.
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In cricket, Sam Konstas says his love of the game has not been diminished by his recent run of poor form.
The teenage opening batsman exploded upon the international cricket scene on Boxing Day last year, hitting a spectacular 60 on debut against India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
But he's only scored 103 runs in his nine Test innings for Australia since, leaving his place in the Australian team in jeopardy ahead of this summer's Ashes series.
However, Konstas says he realises you can't be successful all the time at the top level, and a player needs to learn from their mistakes.
