Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is preparing to meet the French president on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly as he defends Australia’s stance on Palestinian recognition.

Mr Albanese and Emmanuel Macron will sit down in New York on Tuesday (AEST) for their third official meeting, where the conflict in the Middle East is likely to be on the agenda.

The prime minister will also address a summit of world leaders gathering to discuss the next steps towards ending the war between Israel and Hamas, and an eventual two-state solution.

The talks will be co-chaired by Mr Macron and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Mr Albanese will use his speech to compare the plight of Palestinians to that of the Jews before the creation of Israel.

“In recognising Palestine, Australia recognises the legitimate and long held aspirations of the Palestinian people,” Mr Albanese will say.

“It means real hope for a place they can call home.

“This is the same hope that sustained generations of Jewish people.”

In his speech to the two-state solution conference, Mr Albanese will also urge the Israeli government to “accept its share of responsibility” for the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza.

A swathe of countries are using this session of the UN General Assembly to recognise Palestine, including Australia, the UK, Canada, France, Portugal, Malta and Andorra.

Roughly 150 of the UN’s member states, or more than three quarters, now recognise its statehood.

Australia faces pushback from 25 US Republicans who suggest “punitive measures” could be imposed on countries that recognise a Palestinian state.

The grouping of hardline Israel supporters, including former presidential candidate Ted Cruz, say the countries choosing to recognise Palestine now are “rewarding terrorism”.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has written back to the American politicians, claiming the decision to acknowledge Palestine “does not reflect the view of a majority of Australians.”

Ms Ley pointed to an August Resolve poll showing 44 per cent of voters believed the government should not recognise statehood, 32 per cent thought the government should wait until Hamas is removed from power, and 24 per cent backed Labor’s moved to recognise statehood.

“I write to reassure you, and the Congress, that this decision taken at this time by the Labor government does not enjoy bipartisan support here in Australia. The federal opposition opposes this decision and would reverse it should we form government,” Ms Ley wrote on Monday.

The opposition leader also flagged plans to visit the US in early December.

Mr Albanese is still working to secure a meeting with Donald Trump, but is likely to speak at least briefly with him at a leaders’ reception on Wednesday (AEST).

Triple-zero oversight is again in the spotlight, as the federal government is accused of “failing Australians” by not implementing a custodian before the recent Optus outage.

Thursday’s service interruption has been linked to four deaths and was the second time in two years that an Optus network issue meant Australians could not access the emergency line.

After Optus’ 2023 outage, a review recommended the government implement a triple-zero custodian with oversight and responsibility for the emergency network, including monitoring its end-to-end performance.

Communications Minister Anika Wells conceded that while the role had been established, it was not yet fully implemented.

Giving the custodian power requires a legal change, which the government has not yet legislated.

In accepting the recommendation in April 2024, the government said it recognised the need for a single body to oversee emergency call services and said it would have key coordination and decision-making authority during crisis events.

Opposition communications spokeswoman Melissa McIntosh noted the government had more than 18 months to implement the recommendations.

“It’s beyond frustrating that it has taken another triple-zero network outage to find out those urgent recommendations have not been implemented in full, including the triple-zero custodian role,” she told AAP.

“The Albanese Labor government has absolutely failed to ensure the triple-zero network is protected and that Australians can rely on calling help when it is needed most.”

The custodian role will be performed by the communications department, and the requisite legislative changes could be fast-tracked after the latest Optus calamity.

“That role has actually been established and is operative … it’s one of the recommendations of the Bean Review that has been implemented but not yet in full,” Ms Wells said.

“One of the things that I’ve been looking at across the weekend is how I can fast-track regulatory and legislative relief to make sure that all of these are delivered in full.”

Thursday’s outage, which Optus only publicised late on Friday, came 18 months after rival Telstra also failed to comply with emergency call rules during a triple-zero network disruption.

Optus copped more than $12 million in penalties after its first outage and could be subject to similar fines again.

An eight-week-old boy from Gawler West, north of Adelaide, was among the deaths linked to the fault.

But SA Police say the outage was “unlikely to have contributed” to his death because his grandmother immediately used another phone to contact triple zero.

The other deaths include a 68-year-old woman from Adelaide and two men aged 74 and 49 from Perth.

Palestinian officials have praised Australia’s formal recognition of the battle-scarred nation, despite pushback from Israel and others including some in Donald Trump’s party.

The federal government joined the UK and Canada to officially acknowledge Palestinian statehood in the hope of breathing new life into efforts toward a two-state solution.

“We recognise the legitimate and long-held aspirations of the people of Palestine of a state of their own,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters in New York.

He said the diplomatic move would reaffirm Australia’s support for “two states, the state of Israel and the state of Palestine, living side by side behind internationally recognised borders and peace and security.”

More than 140 countries now recognise Palestinian statehood.

Portugal has announced it would join that group and a number of other nations including France are expected to follow this week.

The Palestinian ministry of foreign affairs, based in the West Bank, described the decision as “bold and principled” and said it would reaffirm the rights of the Palestinian people.

It said it was ready for “strong, substantive and enduring relations” with countries around the world.

As a first step, the federal government will update official documents to include references to Palestine.

Previously Australia has only referred to the “occupied Palestinian territories”.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the government would only consider setting up a diplomatic outpost after “progress on reforms committed to by the Palestinian Authority”.

Australia has placed conditions on its recognition of Palestine.

“What we expect is reform in areas of education, governance, disarmament, democratic elections and, of course, to ensure the exclusion of Hamas. There can be no role for Hamas,” Senator Wong told reporters.

The government is calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages who have been held by Hamas since October 7, 2023.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the decision by Australia, the UK and Canada to recognise Palestine, posting on X that the three countries’ leaders were giving a “reward to terrorism”.

“And I have another message for you: It’s not going to happen. There will be no Palestinian state to the west of the Jordan River,” he said.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry expressed its “dismay” at the move, pointing to Australia’s past practice of recognising new states after their governments had demonstrated the ability to control their territory and deliver on international commitments.

“There is no Palestinian entity that comes close to meeting these criteria,” president Daniel Aghion said.

The Jewish Council of Australia said the government must ensure recognition was not “merely symbolic”.

Mr Albanese earlier was under pressure from allies of US President Donald Trump not to recognise Palestine.

A group of Republican Congress members penned an open letter to Mr Albanese and his French, Canadian and UK counterparts, warning proceeding with recognition would “put your country at odds with longstanding US policy and interests and may invite punitive measures in response”.

The recognition comes as Australian officials try to confirm a long-sought meeting with Mr Trump during Mr Albanese’s time in the US.

Australia is seeking assurances from the US president on the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal and major tariffs introduced by Mr Trump.

Palestinian recognition could be a point of contention if the two come face-to-face.

The federal opposition has condemned the move and claimed recognition would strengthen Hamas’s credibility.

“Today, the Albanese government extends a hollow gesture of false hope to the Palestinian people,” Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said.

Australia has been urged not to cower in its fight for hosting rights of a major climate summit as the prime minister prepares to make his case for a rival bidder to stand down.

Canberra has teamed up with the Pacific countries in a proposal to jointly hold the 2026 United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP31.

Turkey has also expressed an interest in hosting the summit and neither bidder has so far backed away from the chance to hold the talks on home soil.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is preparing to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York to try to convince the leader to withdraw Ankara’s bid.

Mr Albanese said he would advocate for Australia’s case in good faith, and he had already held discussions with Turkey’s leaders.

“It’s a joint bid and there’ll be a range of Pacific leaders here this week who will be advocating as well,” he told reporters on Monday.

“If we’re going to see our way through to a common position, it is highly likely there will be a need to be compromise.”

The prime minister will be hoping to emerge from the UN with a diplomatic victory on the world stage after failing to land formal deals with Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea in his last two overseas trips.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said Australia “shouldn’t be cowering and letting Turkey win this battle”.

“Adelaide should be the host city and we should get on with showing leadership around the world,” she said.

“If the prime minister doesn’t bring COP home … that’ll be a fail.”

The conference will be held in the German city of Bonn under COP rules if an agreement can’t be reached between the two bidders.

The impasse must be solved before the latest climate conference, in Brazil, concludes in November.

The negotiations follow the federal government’s announcement of its 2035 emissions reduction target on Thursday.

Greenhouse gas emissions would need to be reduced by between 62 and 70 per cent from 2005 levels to reach the goal.

Under the Paris Agreement, signed in 2015, nations must increase their targets every five years.

Climate Change Authority chair and former NSW Liberal treasurer Matt Kean said voters had sent a “pretty clear message” to both government and the opposition that they wanted climate action.

“We found that this (2035) target will continue to see economic growth for Australia, continue to see falls in emissions, and continue to see cost-of-living improvements in things like electricity,” he told ABC Radio.

“There’s an environmental imperative to do this and there is also an economic opportunity, if we grab it, to set us up for a more prosperous future.”

Australia first made its commitment to reaching net zero emissions by 2050 under the coalition government led by former prime minister Scott Morrison in 2021.

The coalition remains divided over whether to dump the climate target, as members from both the Liberals and Nationals call for it to be scrapped in a major test of Opposition Leader Sussan Ley’s leadership.

Australia is being urged to tame the “wild west” culture plaguing the telco industry after Optus experienced another serious triple-zero outage.

The major outage has been linked to four deaths and was the second time in two years an Optus network issue prevented Australians accessing the emergency line.

Optus chief executive Stephen Rue faces mounting pressure to step down after revelations the telco giant failed to implement recommendations from a review into the company’s previous outage in 2023.

While telecommunications expert Mark Gregory believes there’s a strong rationale for him to step down, the problem goes beyond one company.

“The self-regulatory environment that the telecommunications industry has been under for the past 30 years isn’t working,” the RMIT University associate professor told AAP on Monday.

“We’ve had failure after failure after failure.

“Unless the government is prepared to introduce new legislation and regulations, then this culture of the wild west and having cowboys in charge is not going to change.”

Thursday’s outage, which Optus only publicised late on Friday, came 18 months after rival Telstra also failed to comply with emergency call rules during a triple-zero network disruption.

Federal Communications Minister Anika Wells vowed Optus would face the consequences of its actions, noting this was not only a matter for one company.

“This is the second significant and egregious failure,” she told reporters on Monday.

“We are now considering what needs to be done holistically or as part of legislative relief.”

The Australian Communications and Media Authority is investigating the latest incident and could seek commitments from Optus to improve its processes.

Optus was slapped with more than $12 million in penalties after its first outage and could be subject to similar fines again, communications watchdog chair Nerida O’Loughlin said.

But Assoc Prof Gregory urged the authority to seek a fine in the hundreds of millions of dollars, given Optus is a repeat offender.

He called on the federal government to implement regulation and legislation to introduce minimum performance standards for telcos and strengthen the powers of regulatory bodies so they can hold the industry to account.

The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network has called on the Labor government to appoint an independent technical expert to oversee Optus’s triple-zero capability.

Early investigations into Thursday’s incident appeared to show established processes were not followed.

A botched firewall update blocked hundreds of triple-zero calls from Optus customers in SA, WA and the NT.

The company’s lack of timely and accurate communication has also been criticised.

Ms Wells said she received an email about the outage affecting 10 calls on Thursday afternoon.

Her office received no further information until 24 hours later, when it was told the outage had affected 600 calls.

It wasn’t until the department had gotten in contact that she found out about the deaths.

Mr Rue leaned on an independent investigation into the incident when asked how Optus could be trusted in the future.

“We will make the facts public, and I can assure you, we will be implementing everything,” he said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Optus outage was “completely unacceptable”.

Federal opposition communications spokeswoman Melissa McIntosh said it was “an absolutely disgraceful failure”.

Two customers contacted Optus call centres early on Thursday morning, before the outage was fixed 13 hours later.

A review uncovered three more calls over the issue but “red flags” were not raised because call volumes were normal, Mr Rue said.

An eight-week-old boy from Gawler West, north of Adelaide, was among the deaths linked to the fault.

But SA Police say the outage was “unlikely to have contributed” to his death because his grandmother immediately used another phone to contact triple zero after her initial call failed.

The other deaths include a 68-year-old woman from Adelaide and two men aged 74 and 49 from Perth.

As of Monday afternoon, shares in Optus’s parent Singtel had fallen by two per cent on the Singaporean exchange.

Australia is in a “very good position” on inflation but there are signs financial markets are being complacent about the geopolitical risks, the central bank boss says.

Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock painted a rosy picture of Australia’s economic outlook on Monday, as she fronted a parliamentary grilling for the first time since the federal election in May.

A bunch of fresh faces on the new-look Standing Committee on Economics were given a crash course on Australia’s inflation environment.

Pleasingly, underlying inflation is back in the RBA’s two to three per cent target band and forecasts are for it to keep easing towards the midpoint.

“So I think we’re in a very good position in terms of inflation,” Ms Bullock said.

Pandemic-era supply chain issues have eased, while higher interest rates have put a dampener on demand following a post-COVID surge.

“But again, we do have to be alert, because there’s risks on both sides of this.”

The world was seeing a “really marked step change” in the global trading system, and it could take years for the implications to become clear, Ms Bullock said.

The RBA was focusing on the impact Donald Trump’s tariffs would have on Australia’s largest trading partner – China.

“There’s all the geopolitics going on, of course,” she said, adding cyber risks were quite important.

“The potential impacts of that – it usually crops up in energy prices – but it could crop up in other ways: the spread of wars.”

But there was little sign “sanguine” markets had priced these risks into equity valuations, meaning the economy could be in for an unpleasant correction if things went south.

“Certainly, high credit risk companies don’t seem to be observing high risk in their borrowings,” she said.

“There’s a slight concern that if things quickly turn in a bad direction, that the markets might react quite badly, and that might not be good for financial stability.”

The RBA had room to move to respond to any geopolitically-induced financial crisis, given the cash rate was still at 3.6 per cent, Ms Bullock said.

Markets have all but ruled out another reduction in September, but are expecting the bank to cut rates at its November meeting.

The monthly consumer price index for August, to be published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday, could tick up above three per cent, due to base effects around the timing of petrol and electricity price changes.

While this won’t help boost the odds for more rate cuts, it is unlikely to deter the RBA from its gradual easing path, given the board is wary of reading too deeply into the volatile headline figure.

But it will provide an early indicator for estimates of underlying price growth in expenditure categories the bank will watching closely, such as electricity prices and new dwelling costs, in the all-important quarterly data released in October.

RBA head of financial systems Brad Jones said the Albanese government’s upcoming expansion of the first home buyer deposit scheme would slightly boost dwelling prices, according to the bank’s modelling.

By bringing forward purchases and raising borrowing capacity for first home buyers, overall housing credit could increase by around one to two per cent, the RBA estimates.

“At the very margin, you may see a little more upward pressure on house prices in the short term, recognising that first home buyers account for about 20 per cent of the flow of new housing credit,” Dr Jones said.

Australia has officially recognised the state of Palestine, marking a shift in long-standing foreign policy, as Anthony Albanese walks a fine diplomatic line with the nation’s most important security ally.

Australia, the UK and Canada’s recognition of Palestinian statehood came into effect from Sunday night after the prime minister arrived in the US for a long-awaited United Nations General Assembly meeting.

The three countries have joined more than 140 United Nations member states that recognise Palestine in a bid to build momentum for a two-state solution as humanitarian suffering in Gaza worsens.

“Australia recognises the legitimate and long-held aspirations of the people of Palestine to a state of their own,” Mr Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a joint statement.

“Today’s act of recognition reflects Australia’s longstanding commitment to a two-state solution, which has always been the only path to enduring peace and security for the Israeli and the Palestinian peoples.”

The first steps towards a two-state solution must be a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages taken by the designated terror group Hamas on October 7, 2023, the leaders said.

They reiterated that Hamas, which de facto governs Gaza, must have no role in a Palestinian state.

Palestine’s Ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, urged nations to look at the “whole package” for statehood and to be “fair” by not focusing on individual sticking points.

In accordance with requirements set by Australia, the Palestinian Authority – which runs the West Bank – has recognised Israel’s right to exist and committed to holding democratic elections and enacting finance, governance and education reforms.

“We want to see a ceasefire. We want to see the hostages released,” Mr Albanese told ABC TV on Monday (AEST) from New York.

“We want to see a breakthrough in a longer-term solution, an end to this cycle of violence.”

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry expressed its “dismay” at the move, pointing to Australia’s past practice of recognising new states after their governments had demonstrated the ability to control their territory and deliver on international commitments.

“There is no Palestinian entity that comes close to meeting these criteria,” president Daniel Aghion KC said.

The Jewish Council of Australia said the government must ensure recognition was not “merely symbolic”. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned recognition, saying on X that the leaders were giving a “reward to terrorism”.

“And I have another message for you: It’s not going to happen. There will be no Palestinian state to the west of the Jordan River.”

Mr Albanese earlier was under pressure from allies of US President Donald Trump not to recognise Palestine.

A group of Republican Congress members penned an open letter to Mr Albanese and his French, Canadian and UK counterparts, warning proceeding with recognition would “put your country at odds with long-standing US policy and interests and may invite punitive measures in response”.

Mr Albanese is yet to secure a meeting with Mr Trump but a bilateral discussion is still on the cards, as Australia seeks assurances on the AUKUS trilateral defence agreement and an easing in tariffs on Australian goods imported to the US.

But recognition could be a point of contention if the two come face-to-face during Mr Albanese’s US trip.

The coalition has also condemned the move and claimed recognition would strengthen Hamas’s credibility.

“Today, the Albanese government extends a hollow gesture of false hope to the Palestinian people,” Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said.

US President Donald Trump says media mogul Lachlan Murdoch and business leaders Larry Ellison and Michael Dell will be involved as US investors in a proposed deal to keep TikTok operating in the United States.

Trump has said that the US and China have made progress on a deal requiring TikTok’s US assets to be transferred to local owners from China’s ByteDance.

TikTok counts 170 million users in the United States and helps shape public discourse on politics and culture.

Trump praised the group in an interview with Fox News, calling them prominent people and “American patriots”.

“I think they’re going to do a really good job,” Trump said, crediting TikTok with helping build his support among young voters in the 2024 presidential election. 

Murdoch, the CEO of Fox Corp, recently cemented long-term control of his family’s media empire that includes Fox News and the Wall Street Journal after settling a years-long legal battle with his siblings.

The family patriarch, 94-year-old Rupert Murdoch, may also be involved in the deal, Trump said.

Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch’s news outlets attract conservative-leaning audiences but they have occasionally drawn Trump’s ire.

Trump sued the Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch for defamation over a July report that said Trump signed a 2003 birthday greeting for late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein that included a sexually suggestive drawing and a reference to shared secrets. 

The newspaper has defended its reporting and vowed to fight the lawsuit. 

Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle and a major Republican donor, has long been linked to a potential TikTok deal. 

Dell is the CEO of Dell Technologies.

On Saturday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Oracle would be responsible for TikTok’s data and security and that US citizens will control six of the seven seats for a planned board.

Trump’s administration has declined to enforce a US law enacted during his predecessor’s administration requiring TikTok’s divestiture over fears its US user data could be accessed by the Chinese government. 

Trump has included negotiations over the app as part of wide-ranging economic talks with China.

Trump’s administration has made a series of unusual interventions in US business, including taking a 10 per cent stake in Intel Corp and allowing AI chip giant Nvidia to sell its H20 chips to China in exchange for receiving 15 per cent of those sales.

Trump has defended those moves as benefiting US interests. 

Critics, including some business leaders and Republican lawmakers, have called the interventions a stark departure from the norms of capitalism and said they risk hurting the competitiveness of the US economy.

with AP

Optus’s boss has staked his leadership on the embattled telco avoiding another triple-zero outage disaster.

As the fallout continues from the provider’s catastrophic outage – linked to four deaths – chief executive Stephen Rue offered a guarantee Optus would not let a similar thing happen in the future.

His assurance came despite a barrage of criticism of Optus for failing to implement recommendations from a review into a similar national outage that crippled the network.

About a third of the 18 review recommendations stemming from the 2023 outage, which resulted in fines totalling more than $12 million, are yet to be implemented.

Early investigations into Thursday’s incident appeared to show established processes were not followed, with a botched firewall update blocking hundreds of triple-zero calls from Optus customers in South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

But Mr Rue leaned on an independent investigation into the incident when asked how Optus could be trusted in the future after failing to implement recommendations from the previous outage.

“We will do an independent review, we will make the facts public, and I can assure you, we will be implementing everything,” he said.

“What I can assure you is that actions are and will be taken to ensure that this does not happen in future.”

Former Optus chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin resigned in the wake of the 2023 outage before Mr Rue took over in 2024.

Two customers contacted Optus call centres early on Thursday morning before the outage was fixed after more than 13 hours.

A review uncovered three more calls over the issue but “red flags” were not raised because call volumes were normal, Mr Rue said.

An eight-week-old boy from Gawler West, north of Adelaide, was among four deaths linked to the fault.

But SA Police said the outage was “unlikely to have contributed” to the boy’s death because his grandmother immediately used another phone to contact triple zero after her initial call failed.

Australia has officially recognised the state of Palestine, bucking long-standing foreign policy, as the prime minister prepares to walk a diplomatic tightrope.

Australia, the UK and Canada’s recognition of Palestinian statehood came into effect from Sunday night after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arrived in the US for a long-awaited United Nations General Assembly meeting.

The three countries have joined more than 140 United Nations member states that recognise Palestine in a bid to build new momentum for a two-state solution as humanitarian suffering in Gaza worsens.

“Australia recognises the legitimate and long-held aspirations of the people of Palestine to a state of their own,” Mr Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a joint statement.

“Today’s act of recognition reflects Australia’s longstanding commitment to a two-state solution, which has always been the only path to enduring peace and security for the Israeli and the Palestinian peoples.”

The first steps towards a two-state solution must be a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages taken by designated terror group Hamas on October 7, 2023, the leaders said.

They reiterated that Hamas, which de facto governs Gaza, must have no role in a Palestinian state.

In accordance with requirements set by Australia, the Palestinian Authority – which runs the West Bank – has recognised Israel’s right to exist and committed to holding democratic elections and enacting finance, governance and education reforms.

The government has also said Arab League countries and the US, which has long opposed Palestinian statehood, are vital to reconstructing Gaza, building the state of Palestine and guaranteeing Israel’s security.

The Israeli government said overnight that the recognition would further destabilise the Middle East and undermine prospects for a peaceful solution to the conflict.

“Israel will not accept any detached or imaginary text that attempts to force it to accept indefensible borders,” Israel’s foreign ministry said on X.

Mr Albanese earlier was under pressure from allies of US President Donald Trump not to recognise Palestine.

A group of Republican Congress members penned an open letter to Mr Albanese and his French, Canadian and UK counterparts, warning proceeding with recognition would “put your country at odds with long-standing US policy and interests and may invite punitive measures in response”.

Mr Albanese is yet to secure a meeting with Mr Trump and a bilateral discussion has arguably become less urgent after the president spared Australian goods from increased US tariffs.

But recognition could be a point of contention if the two come face-to-face during Mr Albanese’s US trip.

The coalition has also condemned the move and claimed recognition would strengthen Hamas’s credibility.

“Today, the Albanese government extends a hollow gesture of false hope to the Palestinian people,” Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said.

“For the Israeli people, it extends a chilling act of concession.”

Australia’s pro-Palestine movement continued to hold rallies at the weekend, calling for the government to go further and sanction Israel.