A deal struck for a P-N-G team to join the National Rugby League, Thousands affected by an outage on Facebook and Instagram, Australian tri-athlete Ashleigh Gentle says she relishes the chance to compete in New Zealand.
Australian and Papua New Guinea have struck a deal for a PNG team to join the National Rugby League competition from 2028.
Under the 10-year deal, Australia is contributing $600 million.
The funds will help cover the construction of a facility to accommodate players and tax breaks to assist in recruitment.
In return, Papua New Guinea has agreed to sign an agreement on what's being called "strategic trust" between the two countries.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says it is an important initiative that will boost the bilateral relationship.
"This is about the grassroots level. It is about economic development, about our relationship between our peoples. And it provides, as sport often does, an opportunity for people to succeed not just in sport but in life. And that is why this partnership that I am announcing today is not just about Papua New Guinea it is also about our relationship with the Pacific."
He says the arrangement will support Australia's health and education programs in the Pacific - and create new opportunities for girls to get involved too.
Papua New Guinea is contributing more than $100 million towards the initiative.
PNG Prime Minister James Marape says the deal will benefit both countries.
Australia is among the majority of countries that have overwhelmingly adopted a resolution calling for an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
The resolution at the UN General Assembly was adopted by a vote of 158-9, with 13 abstentions.
Australia's ambassador the UN, James Larsen, says without a ceasefire, more lives will be lost.
"Australia is committed to working with the international community to end this conflict, to stop the suffering and immediately secure the release of all hostages held by Hamas. Tomorrow marks one year since Australia joined 152 other countries in voting for a ceasefire in this Assembly, further delay will only see more lives lost. This resolution demands for a full rapid, unhindered humanitarian assistance to Gaza has never been more necessary."
The federal government's Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, Jillian Segal, is calling for a tougher crackdown on antisemitism.
This includes tighter restrictions on protests against the war in Gaza.
Following incidents targeting the Jewish community in Melbourne and Sydney in recent days, New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, says his government is considering reforms to regulate protests outside religious institutions and places of worship.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he supports the idea at a state-level.
On Wednesday he announced $8.5 million in new funding to the Sydney Jewish Museum to upgrade educational resources on the Holocaust - and urged politicians and members of the community to unite in response to anti-semitism.
Ms Segal told SBS she would like to see more restrictions placed on protests.
"You can allow protest but it has to be at a certain place, which does not impact on other members of the community - particularly not the Jewish community. So time and place restrictions but allowing demonstrations. We have regulations with that kind of thing with abortion clinics. You can't demonstrate within certain distances of an abortion clinic. So there should be places designated away from the Jewish community might venture will people can demonstrate."
The New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties warned against what it called "knee jerk reactions", calling instead for measured leadership.
The parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp says it is close to resolving a global outage affecting the social media platforms.
Thousands of users have been struggling to access the platforms since 4.30am AEDT.
Down detector, a website that monitors outages, has received more than 150,000 complaints about the outage.
In a statement, Meta apologised to users and says it is "99 per cent of the way" there to completely fixing the problem.
In sports, Australians Ashleigh Gentle, Ellie Salthouse and Grace Thek are preparing to compete against the world's best female triathletes.
The first-ever IRONMAN Pro Series Champions will be crowned - in both the womens and mens divisions - in New Zealand this weekend.
A two-time Olympian, Gentle says she is looking forward to the challenge of taking on the best in the world across the 1.9km swim, 90km ride and 21.1km run.
"I don't know what people expect of me but I am going to try and finish the year on a high. It has been a super long year. And I kind of...I'm a little unsure. I could do super well or...I'm not super confident. But I also need to reflect and think about all the work that I have done throughout the year. It has been a long year. But I'm here for a reason. I'm here because I want to be here - and race the best I can."
