source : the age
Hello and welcome to our national news live coverage for Thursday, July 9. Here’s what’s making headlines today.
Telstra outage: Just hours after the telco said it resolved an outage that crippled its mobile services for much of yesterday, Telstra was urgently investigating a second network fault on Wednesday night that was stopping some calls from connecting, including to Triple Zero.
Transport: As a result of the Telstra outage, Victoria’s V/Line services will continue to be affected this morning, and in NSW, regional trains on parts of the Southern Highlands line and Hunter line are being replaced by buses for a second day.
Middle East at war: The US military has launched fresh strikes on Iran. It comes just hours after US President Donald Trump said the ceasefire was over following Iranian attacks on American military sites in the Gulf.
Politics: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Indian counterpart Narendra Modi are set to strike a breakthrough deal to unleash a surge of Australian uranium exports to India. Modi, one of the world’s most powerful leaders, arrived in Melbourne on Wednesday night for meetings with Albanese on Thursday.
State of Origin: NSW defeated Queensland 30-12 on Wednesday night’s decider at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium.
Staying with that Anika Wells interview, the communications minister also confirmed that she was informed about the Telstra outage around 7am on Wednesday, despite the fault beginning around 4.30am.
“I would have liked to have heard earlier,” the Labor frontbencher, who yesterday returned early from leave, told the ABC’s radio program AM.
“It would seem there was some sort of delay. That will form part of the investigation. [Regulator] ACMA has begun a preliminary investigation with the Triple Zero custodian, who I’m speaking with constantly.
“I’ve spoken with her again this morning before speaking with you. There will be an investigation and a clean tick-tock on the timeline of everything that happened here, so that we can continue to improve,” Wells said.
Telstra crews have been working through the night after identifying a second network fault impacting calls, including to Triple Zero, Federal Communications Minister Anika Wells says.
“In some instances, calls are going straight to message bank. In some instances, Triple Zero calls were not going through,” Wells told ABC Radio a few moments ago.
“It has been largely resolved, but there are still residual problems.”
Wells was asked by the ABC radio presenter if “heads should roll” at Telstra given how many Australians were affected by outages.
Security measures are expected to be high throughout Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit after the Australian Federal Police issued an official warning to a young person who made a death threat towards the 75-year-old.
A spokesperson for AFP said on Monday the source of the online threat was identified and spoken to on July 3.
“Following an assessment of the matter, the young person was issued a formal warning,” an AFP spokesperson said. “There is no current or impending risk to the community.”
While Modi, one of the world’s most powerful leaders, is held in high regard by many, he remains a divisive figure due to what critics say are his pro-Hindu politics.
Washington: The United States has launched strikes against Iran for the second consecutive day as the ceasefire and tentative peace deal continues to fray following renewed Iranian aggression in the Strait of Hormuz.
“At the direction of the Commander in Chief, US Central Command forces have started conducting additional strikes against Iran to further degrade their ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz,” the US military said.
“The United States is holding Iran accountable for recent unjustified aggression against commercial shipping and civilian crews freely navigating a vital international waterway.”
The exact targets of the strikes late on Wednesday night (Tehran time) were not immediately clear, but they followed strikes the previous night against Iranian air defence systems, missile stocks, surveillance systems and drone launch sites.
After touching down in Melbourne late on Wednesday evening, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will kick off a two-day annual leader’s summit alongside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Melbourne later this morning.
The visit marks Modi’s third official visit to Australia since he took office 12 years ago.
The 75-year-old was greeted by Housing Minister Clare O’Neil and Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan at Tullamarine Airport when he landed last night.
“The Australia-India relationship has never been more consequential, and our partnership fosters peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific,” Albanese said earlier this week.
China only gave the US a few hours notice ahead of a ballistic missile test launch on July 6 and provided insufficient detail, an American state department official said.
China’s military test-fired the missile from a nuclear-powered submarine into the Pacific on Monday, drawing criticism from the US, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan.
The State Department official’s comments on Wednesday (US time) amplified Washington’s increasing concern about the launch.
“China’s notification to the United States came only a few hours before the launch and failed to provide sufficient detail, falling considerably short of standards adopted by all other P5 nuclear weapon states,” the official said.
The P5 are the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and are the only nations recognised as nuclear-weapon states under the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The fallout of Telstra’s network outage continues into a second day, after a secondary issue affecting Triple Zero calls was identified, while regional trains remain disrupted as rail safety regulators commence a “controlled and phased return” of services.
Telstra said it had restored the issue that caused Wednesday’s outage, but identified a secondary issue impacting Triple Zero calls.
“When you call Triple Zero you will receive an error message and your phone will try to connect to an alternative mobile network,” the telco said. It recommended waiting for phones to connect to another network, which can take up to 90 seconds, or using another phone.
The telco said this morning it had made good progress on fixing the issue and will be “continuing work to eliminate the issue entirely”.
Hello and welcome to our national news live coverage for Thursday, July 9. Here’s what’s making headlines today.
Telstra outage: Just hours after the telco said it resolved an outage that crippled its mobile services for much of yesterday, Telstra was urgently investigating a second network fault on Wednesday night that was stopping some calls from connecting, including to Triple Zero.
Transport: As a result of the Telstra outage, Victoria’s V/Line services will continue to be affected this morning, and in NSW, regional trains on parts of the Southern Highlands line and Hunter line are being replaced by buses for a second day.
Middle East at war: The US military has launched fresh strikes on Iran. It comes just hours after US President Donald Trump said the ceasefire was over following Iranian attacks on American military sites in the Gulf.
Politics: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Indian counterpart Narendra Modi are set to strike a breakthrough deal to unleash a surge of Australian uranium exports to India. Modi, one of the world’s most powerful leaders, arrived in Melbourne on Wednesday night for meetings with Albanese on Thursday.
State of Origin: NSW defeated Queensland 30-12 on Wednesday night’s decider at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium.
