Australia news LIVE: Modi joins Albanese, Telstra boss returns amid crisis, Neil the seal returns to sea

Welcome to our live coverage of the latest developments in news from around Australia and the world.

Here’s what you need to know this Friday, July 10.

• Telstra says it has fixed issues that plunged its mobile network into chaos this week, as attention turns to the fallout, with police investigating a death at a South Australian hospital potentially linked to the outage which blocked more than 600 Triple Zero calls. Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has demanded the telco compensate regional train commuters left stranded. Telstra boss Vicki Brady faces a storm upon her return from annual leave.
• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has joined Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in front a crowd of about 20,000 at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium.
• Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has launched his clearest attack yet on Pauline Hanson and One Nation, warning of an “eternity of pain” if voters “blow the place up” by electing the party. Hanson has responded with an appeal for Taylor to work together.
• Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Jillian Segal has told a royal commission Jewish Australians think the ABC is biased. The public broadcaster has insisted it strives to deliver “accurate, impartial journalism” with complaints adequately handled by its ombudsman. Australian Communications and Media Authority chair Nerida O’Loughlin will front the commission in Sydney today before hearings move to Melbourne and probe antisemitism at universities on Monday.
• An investigation has probed billionaire Andrew Forrest’s multi-billion dollar Minderoo Foundation as former staff describe unexplained shifts in direction and lost focus on projects. Minderoo says the projects were never abandoned; instead, the charity pivoted and evolved.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor says his support for a fine or sanction over Telstra’s outage issues “depends on the cause.

“I certainly think Telstra should be looking very, very hard at what happened and how they can prevent it ever happening again,” Taylor told ABC’s News Breakfast this morning.

“But let’s see, as we see more about what caused this in the first place,” Taylor said.

He accused the government of focusing more on managing the politics of the issue than addressing it when word of the outage spread on Wednesday morning.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor says he does not plan to team up with Pauline Hanson, and doing so is not a focus, a day after launching his clearest attack yet on One Nation.

“We are working to get rid of a Labor government, that’s our focus, and our focus isn’t on some kind of coalition or alliance,” he told ABC’s News Breakfast this morning.

Asked if he was ruling out ever working with Hanson, Taylor said teaming up “is not our plan.

“Our plan is to get rid of a rotten Labor government that is leading this country in the wrong direction,” he said.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong says the ceasefire in the Middle East appears to be “fraying around the edges”.

“We see continued, sporadic conflict,” she told ABC News Breakfast this morning.

“The world really is looking to this ceasefire to hold, to firm up.

“The world wants to see an end to this conflict. Not just for the peoples of the region, but because of the effects on the global economy, on energy markets and on the hip pocket of so many people around the world, including Australians,” Wong said.

She would not be drawn on whether petrol prices would once again spike, instead pointing to several measures the government had done to reinforce supply from overseas and provide daily fuel updates.

Following an escalation in Opposition Leader Angus Taylor’s rhetoric against One Nation, the party’s leader Pauline Hanson has issued an appeal for Taylor to work with her.

“Angus, I’m not your enemy,” Hanson said in a video from London.

“You can reflect back on your budget reply speech. You picked up and said a lot of One Nation’s policies. Let’s work together.

“The people of Australia are crying out for change. Listen to the people, Angus, and work with me.”

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rockstar-like reception in Melbourne has capped a “landmark week” in Australian foreign policy, Foreign Minister Penny Wong says.

“We had a new treaty with Fiji announced … our alliance with Papua New Guinea come into force and now we have the visit by the Indian prime minister,” Wong told Nine’s Today program this morning.

Wong also highlighted commitments between the two nations to work together on security and critical technologies.

“India is such an important power in the world, and our relationship with them matters to stability in the Indo-Pacific,” Wong said.

Telstra’s nationwide outage is destined to pose tough questions in the boardrooms of corporate Australia, for the telco itself and for the government.

“We’ve had outages before, and the government put a whole package of legislation to the parliament last year,” former treasurer Wayne Swan told Nine’s Today program this morning.

“They will have to review what’s coming out of this one as well.”

The outage was a reminder of society’s increased reliance on technology.

Washington: An Olympian canoe racer has pleaded not guilty to deliberately damaging the recently renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, a politically charged case that his defence attorneys and other Trump administration critics have derided as an abuse of prosecutorial power.

David Hearn, who competed in three Summer Olympics, entered the plea through one of his attorneys during his initial appearance in the Washington DC Superior Court. Hearn, 67, of Bethesda, Maryland, was indicted on a single felony count of property destruction.

Before the United States’ 250th independence celebrations, President Donald Trump launched a multi-million dollar renovation project for the Reflecting Pool, which was plagued by problems, including damage to its new coating.

Trump, without providing evidence, has alleged the damage was caused by vandals.

Telstra boss Vicki Brady is expected to make an early return from leave today, as the telco’s crisis continues over this week’s nationwide outage which blocked more than 600 calls from reaching Triple Zero.

Governments are demanding answers from the telco with calls for compensation as police investigate whether a death at a South Australian hospital is linked to the outage.

The fallout and response looms as one of Brady’s biggest leadership tests since taking the helm at the telco in 2022.

Chief financial officer Michael Ackland has been leading Telstra’s response in Brady’s absence.

“She got on the first plane that she could get onto to get back,” he said in Melbourne yesterday afternoon.

“She came back immediately, changed her plans, and she’ll be back here as soon as she possibly could.”

Tasmania has farewelled Neil the seal as the five-year-old elephant seal returns to the sea.

Neil hauls himself ashore at or near his birthplace twice a year – once in October to moult, and once mid-year during mating season.

He has attracted global attention to his past visits, but as he grows in size and passes through adolescence, his boisterous behaviour has prompted concerns the seal is lonely and could become more aggressive as he approaches maturity.

Welcome to our live coverage of the latest developments in news from around Australia and the world.

Here’s what you need to know this Friday, July 10.

• Telstra says it has fixed issues that plunged its mobile network into chaos this week, as attention turns to the fallout, with police investigating a death at a South Australian hospital potentially linked to the outage which blocked more than 600 Triple Zero calls. Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has demanded the telco compensate regional train commuters left stranded. Telstra boss Vicki Brady faces a storm upon her return from annual leave.
• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has joined Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in front a crowd of about 20,000 at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium.
• Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has launched his clearest attack yet on Pauline Hanson and One Nation, warning of an “eternity of pain” if voters “blow the place up” by electing the party. Hanson has responded with an appeal for Taylor to work together.
• Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Jillian Segal has told a royal commission Jewish Australians think the ABC is biased. The public broadcaster has insisted it strives to deliver “accurate, impartial journalism” with complaints adequately handled by its ombudsman. Australian Communications and Media Authority chair Nerida O’Loughlin will front the commission in Sydney today before hearings move to Melbourne and probe antisemitism at universities on Monday.
• An investigation has probed billionaire Andrew Forrest’s multi-billion dollar Minderoo Foundation as former staff describe unexplained shifts in direction and lost focus on projects. Minderoo says the projects were never abandoned; instead, the charity pivoted and evolved.