Good afternoon. The chief executive of Optus, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, faced a two-hour Senate grilling today, where more details emerged from last week’s Optus outage, including that 228 Optus customers who attempted to call triple zero during the outage were unable to connect their call.
Bayer Rosmarin also revealed she didn’t speak to the communications minister, Michelle Rowland, until four hours into the outage.
So far, 8,500 customers and small businesses have contacted Optus about compensation for losses amounting to $430,000 in compensation. The company has already applied $36,000 in compensation.
Top news
WFP warns of starvation in Gaza | The UN World Food Programme has warned that the Gaza Strip now faces a “massive” food gap and widespread hunger while nearly the entire population of the Palestinian enclave is in “desperate” need of food assistance. Israel is continuing its operations in al-Shifa hospital, where it says it has recovered a body of a hostage near the complex. There are concerns Israel’s operations could extend farther south in the enclave, where many residents have fled. Meanwhile, this analysis explores the growing tensions behind-the-scenes between the US and Israel over the war, and this explainer looks at how the US came to be such a strong supporter of Israel.
SA police officer fatally shot near Victorian border | Brevet Sgt Jason Doig and his colleagues Michael Hutchinson and Rebekah Cass went to a property in the rural community of Senior near the Victorian border about 11.20pm on Thursday. They were confronted by an armed man and Doig was shot, police said. His colleagues and paramedics tried to save him but he died at the scene. The male suspect, 26, was shot by police and sustained life-threatening injuries. He was treated at the scene before being flown to Adelaide for treatment where he remains under guard.
Stolen car’s 1,000km journey ends in Sydney | A man and three teenagers have been arrested after allegedly driving a stolen car from Queensland before crashing into about 30 cars during a police pursuit in inner Sydney.
Albanese refuses to be drawn on Biden’s ‘dictator’ description of Xi | Albanese sidestepped repeated questions at the Apec summit in San Francisco on whether he agreed with the US president’s description of Xi Jinping as a “dictator”, noting instead the different political systems between Australia and China. The PM spoke again with the Chinese leader at the summit and part of the focus of the summit has been on climate action. Adam Morton, our climate and environment editor, writes how China might be changing direction on pollution earlier than expected.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs accused of raping ex-girlfriend Cassie | The singer Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, dated Combs for more than a decade. She alleges in a major lawsuit that over the course of their relationship, Combs assaulted her multiple times – viciously beating and raping her – and controlled every aspect of her life. A representative for Combs denied the claims.
Apple agrees to improve texting between iPhones and Androids | After years of reluctance, the company says iPhones will support RCS messaging standard, starting next year.
Judge suspends Trump gag order in fraud trial, citing free speech | Trial judge Arthur Engoron had imposed a gag order last month after the former president maligned a court clerk. But a New York appeals court judge on Thursday local time paused the gag order, citing constitutional concerns about restricting Trump’s free speech.
Alabama woman with two uteruses is pregnant in both wombs | Kelsey Hatcher, a 32-year-old expecting baby girls, was not diagnosed with the rare anomaly uterus didelphys until last spring. Doctors have called the rare pregnancy “astounding”.
In pictures
The 2023 BirdLife Australia photography winners
Superb singers, pollen showers and some jambalaya on the bayou. Click here to see the winning images of the sixth annual BirdLife Australia Bird Photography awards.
What they said …
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“I’m striking because our government has continued to worsen the climate crisis by supporting coal and gas despite the consequence of climate change being extremely dire.” – Jeremy Phu Howard
The 16-year-old was one of many students across the nation today who took part in the School Strike 4 Climate. Read Jeremy’s op-ed.
In numbers
And the numbers for culturally diverse female parliamentarians are even lower. A series of workshops, backed by federal funding, are aiming to correct the severe underrepresentation of Indigenous women and women of colour in public office. The first kicked off in Cairns.
Before bed read
‘When I realised I was gay, I was homophobic to a classmate. Should I apologise, 25 years on?’ a reader has asked our advice columnist, Eleanor Gordon-Smith.
There’s a risk hearing of stirring up bad memories, she replies, but there’s also a chance it will lay them to rest.
Read the advice column here.
Daily word game
Today’s starter word is: USER. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.
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