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Pressure on Albanese to raise human rights concerns with Narendra Modi in Melbourne
Anthony Albanese will meet with the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, at a leadership summit in Melbourne this week, with calls for the Australian leader to raise human rights concerns.
Modi’s visit begins on Wednesday evening – his third since becoming prime minister – with the leaders to cross paths at the Australia-India Annual Leaders’ Summit (8-10 July).
Amnesty International called for Australia to encourage India to ensure journalists and human rights advocates could work free from intimidation and address discrimination of religious and ethnic minorities.
We’re looking into an issue affecting some mobile calls and data connections. If you’re having trouble connecting at first, try again as it may work on a retry. We’re on it and will share an update as soon as it’s fixed. Thanks for bearing with us.
Thousands of users have already reported problems with Telstra to the site Downdetector.com.au, starting around 4am today.
Telstra users have been reporting outages since 4am today. Photograph: Darren England/AAP
Albanese to host three Pacific leaders in Brisbane
Anthony Albanese will host a trio of Pacific prime ministers as he tries to bolster Australia’s regional influence amid the creeping threat of China, Australian Associated Press reports.
The bilateral meetings with Papua New Guinea’s James Marape, Tonga’s Lord Fakafānua and Samoa’s La’auli Leuatea Schmidt will be followed by a Pacific rugby league event in Brisbane with all four leaders.
Albanese will also host the prime ministers at the State of Origin decider at Suncorp Stadium.
The prime minister has returned from a successful trip to Fiji and Solomon Islands, during which he signed a significant defence pact with Fiji.
The Ocean of Peace Alliance, which could be expanded to other Pacific nations, makes Fiji Australia’s fourth official ally.
Henry Ivarature of the Australian Pacific Security College said continued talks, to expand Australia’s presence in neighbouring islands, signal a new era of strength for the region.
“I think Australia has learned to listen and it has learned to accept the way Pacific governments work. It has been patient,” he said.
But Ivarature said attention would now turn to sustaining trust across a long period. The Brisbane talks will likely focus on expanding military and aid work in the Pacific, as China looms as a geopolitical threat.
Welcome to Guardian Australia’s live news coverage.
I’m Martin Farrer and I’ll bring you the morning’s news before your regular blogger takes the wheel.
We start with a look at the PM’s day of diplomacy: following his recent Pacific push – and with all eyes on China after the superpower’s missile test – Anthony Albanese is hosting the leaders of Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Samoa for talks in Brisbane (and, not coincidentally, a chance to watch the State of Origin decider).
<small>Source: The Guardian</small>
