A daily 5 minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability.
TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to SBS News in Easy English. I'm Biwa Kwan.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he has received an "extremely positive reception" at the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders' Meeting in the Cook Islands.
Facing rising sea levels and intensifying cyclones in the region, Pacific nations are seeking stronger action on climate change, including the phasing out of fossil fuels.
Mr Albanese says he wants to have further discussions, before he makes an announcement on specific programs to support Pacific nations respond to climate change.
"There's a recognition that since the change of government there's been a change of Australia's position - and that we are taking the challenge of climate change seriously not only domestically, but also helping in the Pacific."
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The telecommunications watchdog, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, is urging small businesses to get in contact with Optus to discuss options for compensation, after a nationwide outage.
It took more than 12 hours to restore services on Wednesday, with more than 10 million customers and businesses affected.
The CEO of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Andrew McKellar, says it is appropriate businesses are compensated for what happened.
"Many of those are small businesses. They were very significantly affected yesterday. And outage for 8-10 hours. So for many of them that is a loss of a full day's business. Yes, I think there should be compensation. I think Optus needs to do the right thing. IT needs to consider the impact that it has had on many of those struggling small businesses. There should be compensation. It should be financial. And we are urging Optus to do the right thing."
Asylum seeker advocates have welcomed a High Court decision that has found indefinite immigration detention is unlawful.
A majority of High Court justices overturned a 2004 ruling that unsuccessful asylum seekers who could not be removed to another country could lawfully be held in indefinite detention.
The case was brought by a detained Rohingya man from Myanmar. His lawyers argued his asylum application was wrongly decided.
The CEO of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, Kon Karapanagiotidis, says he thinks the ruling will also lead to compensation claims for people who have been unlawfully detained.
"One, on the fact that the government was indefinitely detaining people with no prospect of removal in breach of the Constitution, the separation of powers. Two, on the basis of the profound mental health and medical impact and harm caused. Remember, we've had many people actually lose their lives in detention centres, and we've had thousands of peoples' lives actually destroyed by indefinite detention. We have a person we're assisting who has been detained for 15 years."
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The United Nations says nearly 10,000 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since the beginning of the war in February of 2022.
Assistant Secretary-General Miroslav Jenca briefed the Security Council on the ongoing effects on the civilian population.
"We continue to condemn in the clearest terms all attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, no matter where they take place and no matter who is responsible. Such attacks are prohibited under international humanitarian law. They are unacceptable and must cease immediately."
The UN has also condemned the large civilian toll in the month-long war between Israel and Hamas.
The death toll in Gaza over the last 30 days surpassed 10,000, according to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.
More than 1,400 people were killed in Israel as a result of the October 7 Hamas attack.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says more must be done to stop the deaths of civilians.
"Every year, the highest number of killing of children by any of the actors in all the conflicts that we witness is the maximum in the hundreds. We have in a few days in Gaza, thousands and thousands of children killed, which means there is also something clearly wrong in the way that military operations are being done."
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Four young women have been honoured with a scholarship that celebrates the legacy of the late Australian fashion designer Carla Zampatti.
The $10,000 fund is dedicated to assisting young women from from new and emerging culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
Carla Zampatti’s son and chief executive of Carla Zampatti Limited, Alexander Schuman, says the aim of the scholarship is to encourage diverse young women to defy the odds.
"Awards really are important because it helps us focus our minds on our shared mission to support and recognise and encourage women in business. And that's what this award is all about. It's about recognising, encouraging and empowering young women who have overcome adversity and really want to make a big difference in a new country."
I'm Biwa Kwan. This is SBS News in Easy English.
