TRANSCRIPT:
- Evidence of a Russian disinformation campaign uncovered in Australia;
- The government welcomes moves by Meta to restrict teenage accounts on Instagram;
- Developers unveil their plan for Tasmania's proposed new A-F-L stadium.
A new report has uncovered what it says is a "coordinated" disinformation campaign targeting the Australian media.
The report from Finnish analytics firm CheckFirst says the campaign, dubbed Operation Overload, is directly linked to Russia, and is ramping up ahead of the U-S presidential election.
It says the operation has targeted 15 local media organisations with at least 71,000 spam emails containing deceptive content about global events such as the Ukraine War and the Paris Olympics.
CheckFirst chief executive Guillaume Kuster says it appears to be an attempt to trick fact-checkers into debunking and inadvertently amplifying fake content.
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The Coalition says the exploding pager attack targeting Hezbollah members should serve as a wake up call for the world's intelligence agencies.
At least nine people were killed and scores of people injured when the pagers blew up simultaneously in Lebanon and Syria.
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson says the method of the attacks needs to be studied by other nations to avoid similar incidents in the future.
"Well this is a highly sophisticated and very patient attack. It highlights a couple of very interesting things. Firstly that supply chain security is very important. Connected devices are highly risky. Probably every intelligence agency in the world is waking up this morning and asking themselves 'how do we stop this happening to us, and if we chose to, how do we make this happen to our enemies'."
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The federal government has praised social media giant Meta for making a major move on teenage Instagram accounts.
Teens' accounts will now only be able to receive messages from people they follow or are connected to and sensitive content that includes violence or promotes cosmetic procedures will be limited.
A notification will tell them to leave the app after 60 minutes each day and a "sleep mode" will mute notifications and send an auto-reply to private messages between 10pm and 7am.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland has welcomed the measures, but she says further action is still needed to make children safer online.
"Any development that genuinely goes towards improving the safety of users on social media is welcomed by the government. We all know that everyone has a role to play here. Governments, industry and civil society. But the Albanese government has been crystal clear. The industry needs to do more and today's announcement shows that they can do more. And also, that is why our government is acting. Early evidence shows that access to social media can be harmful."
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The Productivity Commission has recommended Australian kids should have access to three days of free childcare by 2036.
It's one of 56 recommendations made by the Commission following a review into access and affordability of childcare in Australia.
Their report says that there needs to be consistent investment from governments in order to achieve universal access to early childhood education and care.
Education Minister Jason Clare says any reforms should start with disadvantaged communities.
"This report tells us that it's kids from poor families, kids from the regions, kids with additional needs who are most likely to benefit from early education and care and are least likely to access it. If we can do something about that and can help more children to be ready to start school at five than that would be a significant reform."
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Union workers have staged a second mass rally in major cities across the country in support of the embattled C-F-M-E-U.
An estimated 10,000 people marched down La Trobe Street in Melbourne earlier today, closing the major thoroughfare and causing tram disruptions.
A few thousand demonstrators also descended on Belmore Park in Sydney.
They say they resent the steps taken by the government to appoint administrators.
VOX 1: "If there is bikies in the industry why aren't the coppers getting em? That's one thing. We've got police forces, we've got federal police. What do we need a commissioner for?"
VOXL "We don't need white collar politicians telling us what to do, also."
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Two senior Australian ministers have launched a charm offensive in the Pacific, as they look to boost defence partnerships and shut out China from regional policing deals.
Pacific Minister Pat Conroy will travel to the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea, while Defence Minister Richard Marles is visiting Vanuatu.
Experts say they expect the shoring up of support for an Australian-led regional policing pact to be paramount on the agenda.
But getting Vanuatu to back Australia's bid to host the COP31 climate summit is also on the cards, after its prime minister called for the federal government to be more ambitious in its emissions reduction agenda.
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Plans have been unveiled for Tasmania's new A-F-L stadium - and they reveal the estimated cost has now jumped to $775 million.
That's $60 million over budget.
The proposed 23,000-seat roofed stadium at Macquarie Point is a requirement for the Tasmanian Devils' entry into the AFL, slated for 2028.
