Australia news LIVE: US launches strikes against Iran; Telstra investigating second network fault; Indian PM kicks off Australian visit

Hello and welcome to our national news live coverage for Thursday, July 9. Here’s what’s making headlines today.

Telstra outage: Just hours after the telco said it resolved an outage that crippled its mobile services for much of yesterday, Telstra was urgently investigating a second network fault on Wednesday night that was stopping some calls from connecting, including to Triple Zero.

Transport: As a result of the Telstra outage, Victoria’s V/Line services will continue to be affected this morning, and in NSW, regional trains on parts of the Southern Highlands line and Hunter line are being replaced by buses for a second day.

Middle East at war: The US military has launched fresh strikes on Iran. It comes just hours after US President Donald Trump said the ceasefire was over following Iranian attacks on American military sites in the Gulf.

Politics: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Indian counterpart Narendra Modi are set to strike a breakthrough deal to unleash a surge of Australian uranium exports to India. Modi, one of the world’s most powerful leaders, arrived in Melbourne on Wednesday night for meetings with Albanese on Thursday.

State of Origin: NSW defeated Queensland 30-12 on Wednesday night’s decider at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium.

We’re hearing from the boss of Victoria’s V/Line after numerous services were cancelled, and entire lines shuttered for more than 24 hours as a result of yesterday’s nationwide Telstra outage.

About 94 scheduled V/line services will not run this morning.

“The V/Line network continues to be impacted following the nationwide Telstra telecommunications outage, with passenger services unable to operate,” the agency said. “This includes this morning’s peak services.”

Speaking to reporters on Thursday morning, V/line boss William Tieppo said the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) which manages 9600 kilometres of rail track across five states had worked overnight with Telstra to repair connectivity between train radio systems and control centres.

“We’re hoping that after the testing gets done in the next couple of hours … we can make a decision and get clearance from the ARTC and Telstra that the network is stable and safe to operate,” he said.

In Melbourne, V/Line chief executive officer William Tieppo is speaking about the ongoing rail issues and disruptions after the Telstra outage.

A late-night far-right gatecrasher has been ejected from the Melbourne hotel where the Indian Prime Minister was staying overnight, after screaming out a tirade against Modi inside the CBD hotel’s lobby.

Neo-Nazi associate Hugo Lennon, a wealthy property development heir turned far-right influencer, posted footage of the stunt after 1am. In the video, police quickly swarm Lennon and drag him back as he bellows “F--- Modi!” and “F--- India!” from an upstairs balcony down into the lobby below.

Police did not respond to questions before deadline about whether any charges would be laid or how Lennon, who goes by “Auspill” online, knew where Modi was staying.

Lennon and his collaborator “Sir Doug”, aka Melbourne stockbroker Mitch Hobbs, have organised a protest this afternoon against Modi’s visit and Australian immigration levels. Posters for the event are being shared online by prominent neo-Nazis including Thomas Sewell, the leader of the now outlawed National Socialist Network.

The stunt at the hotel overnight follows a series of ambushes on politicians by far-right figures during the last federal election, including when two known neo-Nazi associates confronted Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in a Melbourne hotel lobby.

Lennon and Hobbs are among the wealthy backers recently unmasked by this masthead now helping Sewell and his neo-Nazis plot their next move into politics.

Opposition communications spokeswoman Sarah Henderson has defended two calls she made to Triple Zero to see if they would go through during a widespread Telstra outage.

“I was simply, as the shadow Minister for Communications, making those initial calls to work out whether the camping on system was actually operating,” the Victorian Liberal senator told Sydney’s 2GB radio this morning.

“I accept the criticism, but what I will say is that I am in a unique position holding this government to account,” Henderson said.

Henderson said the Telstra outage caused chaos around Australia: “Telstra’s network is critical infrastructure, this should simply not be happening.”

Staying with that Anika Wells interview, the communications minister also confirmed that she was informed about the Telstra outage around 7am on Wednesday, despite the fault beginning around 4.30am.

“I would have liked to have heard earlier,” the Labor frontbencher, who yesterday returned early from leave, told the ABC’s radio program AM.

“It would seem there was some sort of delay. That will form part of the investigation. [Regulator] ACMA has begun a preliminary investigation with the Triple Zero custodian, who I’m speaking with constantly.

“I’ve spoken with her again this morning before speaking with you. There will be an investigation and a clean tick-tock on the timeline of everything that happened here, so that we can continue to improve,” Wells said.

Telstra crews have been working through the night after identifying a second network fault impacting calls, including to Triple Zero, Federal Communications Minister Anika Wells says.

“In some instances, calls are going straight to message bank. In some instances, Triple Zero calls were not going through,” Wells told ABC Radio a few moments ago.

“It has been largely resolved, but there are still residual problems.”

Wells was asked by the ABC radio presenter if “heads should roll” at Telstra given how many Australians were affected by outages.

Security measures are expected to be high throughout Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit after the Australian Federal Police issued an official warning to a young person who made a death threat towards the 75-year-old.

A spokesperson for AFP said on Monday the source of the online threat was identified and spoken to on July 3.

“Following an assessment of the matter, the young person was issued a formal warning,” an AFP spokesperson said. “There is no current or impending risk to the community.”

While Modi, one of the world’s most powerful leaders, is held in high regard by many, he remains a divisive figure due to what critics say are his pro-Hindu politics.

Washington: The United States has launched strikes against Iran for the second consecutive day as the ceasefire and tentative peace deal continues to fray following renewed Iranian aggression in the Strait of Hormuz.

“At the direction of the Commander in Chief, US Central Command forces have started conducting additional strikes against Iran to further degrade their ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz,” the US military said.

“The United States is holding Iran accountable for recent unjustified aggression against commercial shipping and civilian crews freely navigating a vital international waterway.”

The exact targets of the strikes late on Wednesday night (Tehran time) were not immediately clear, but they followed strikes the previous night against Iranian air defence systems, missile stocks, surveillance systems and drone launch sites.

After touching down in Melbourne late on Wednesday evening, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will kick off a two-day annual leader’s summit alongside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Melbourne later this morning.

The visit marks Modi’s third official visit to Australia since he took office 12 years ago.

The 75-year-old was greeted by Housing Minister Clare O’Neil and Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan at Tullamarine Airport when he landed last night.

“The Australia-India relationship has never been more consequential, and our partnership fosters peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific,” Albanese said earlier this week.

China only gave the US a few hours notice ahead of a ballistic missile test launch on July 6 and provided insufficient detail, an American state department official said.

China’s military test-fired the missile from a nuclear-powered submarine into the Pacific on Monday, drawing criticism from the US, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan.

The State Department official’s comments on Wednesday (US time) amplified Washington’s increasing concern about the launch.

“China’s notification to the United States came only a few hours before the launch and failed to provide sufficient detail, falling considerably short of standards adopted by all other P5 nuclear weapon states,” the official said.

The P5 are the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and are the only nations recognised as nuclear-weapon states under the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.