SBS News in Easy English 8 October 2025

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TRANSCRIPT

Australia and Singapore have announced an enhanced partnership.

Ten years on from the start of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two nations, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his Singaporean counterpart, Lawrence Wong, have launched a second version of it after meeting in Canberra.

Mr Albanese says it will be based around defence, economic stability, climate change, pandemic preparedness and research into emerging tech.

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One of the seven Australians detained in Israel for attempting to deliver aid to Gaza says the group has received a shameful lack of support from the federal government.

Juliet Lamont, who was deported to Jordan with the other Australians last night, has told the ABC the group feared they would be detained for months.

She says their flight out was not facilitated by the Australian government.

The Australians claim they were violently physically abused by Israeli authorities - and had food and water withheld during their detention.

Israel has denied any mistreatment, while an Australian government spokesperson said DFAT is continuing to provide consular assistance to the group.

The 131 people reportedly deported to Jordan bring the collective total so far to 472, out of 479 people Israel detained when it captured the flotilla trying to break its naval blockade of Gaza.

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A senior government official says Optus emailed the wrong address when it notified the Department of Communications about a major triple-zero outage on September the 18th.

The department's deputy secretary, James Chisholm, made the disclosure during Senate Estimates, amid scrutiny of the government's response.

Communications Minister Anika Wells has said she was not notified of the outage until September 19th, more than 24 hours after it first began.

Mr Chisholm also says the Optus email didn't make clear the extraordinary nature of the outage, which affected 600 calls.

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The Tasmanian government says the state will suffer immense reputational damage and fail future generations if the proposed AFL stadium on the Hobart waterfront is not built.

The state's planning commission's formal report recently recommended against building the stadium.

In its formal response to the report, the government says the stadium would create jobs, investment, and long-lasting benefits that cannot be exactly quantified, such as community pride.

The government is not bound by the commission's recommendation, but must pass legislation in order to build the stadium, which is forecast to cost more than one billion dollars.

The opposition Labor Party has pledged support for the stadium, but getting the legislation through the upper house is far from certain.

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The European Union is making another appeal to Afghanistan's Taliban government to improve the status of women in the country, as it announces it has provided more than $350 million in humanitarian support.

Most international aid to Afghanistan, including from the United States, has been suspended since the Taliban re-took power in 2021.

The hardline Islamist Taliban has placed severe restrictions upon women in Afghanistan.

Denmark's Minister for European Affairs, Marie Bjerre [[b-YEH-ruh]], has told the European parliament these need to be lifted to help the delivery of aid to the Afghan people, especially after the recent earthquake.

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In football, Arsenal's defence of their women's European Champions League title, featuring three Matildas, has started badly.


They've lost, two goals to one, in London to eight-time champions, French side Lyon. [[lee-on]]

Steph Catley played the full game for the Gunners, whilst fellow Aussies Caitlin Foord and Kyra Cooney-Cross came on as second half substitutes

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