A former prime minister helped prepare Anthony Albanese for his highly anticipated first face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump by giving him "fighting words" in the event of a hostile moment.

Paul Keating, Labor prime minister from 1991 to 1996, revealed he gave Albanese advice after seeing Trump lash out at other leaders ahead of their October 20 meeting.

"I did give our prime minister a heap of fighting points in the event that Trump turned nasty on him," he told the audience at an event at the State Library of NSW last night. 

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"It turned out he didn't have to use them."

Keating added that he believed Albanese was "up for having Australia punch back" if he experienced any hostility.

"If you showed the slightest sign of weakness, you're buggered with him," he said, describing the president as a "power guy".

Although there was a brief moment of awkwardness over Australian Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd's past criticisms of Trump, last month's meeting was largely hailed as a success by the federal government and the opposition alike after Albanese walked away with an $8.5 billion critical minerals and rare earths deal.

The meeting also saw Trump reaffirm his support for the AUKUS submarine pact after the Pentagon's review of the deal stirred uncertainty on whether the US would deliver on the $368 billion agreement.

"There shouldn't be any more clarifications because we're just going full steam ahead building," Trump said.

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Over a week later, Trump praised the prime minister at a dinner with seven APEC nation leaders in South Korea, saying they had a "great meeting" and Albanese had "done a fantastic job".

"We're working together on rare earths, but we're working on a lot of things together, and it's all working out very well," Trump said of Albanese. 

Australia's long-standing relationship with the US appears strengthened after being shaken when Trump began his second term in January by imposing sweeping global tariffs.

Australian steel and aluminium imports hit with a 50 per cent tariff, while most other goods were whacked with a baseline 10 per cent tariff.

Despite outrage from all sides of politics, Albanese announced he would not retaliate with tariffs on US imports to Australia.

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However, his government lifted biosecurity restrictions on US beef in a move speculated to appease Trump. 

Albanese and his government were then scrutinised for most of this year for failing to secure a face-to-face meeting with Trump, as he met with other world leaders shortly after taking office.

The prime minister brushed off the criticism at the time, insisting he had had four positive phone calls with Trump. 

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Kim Yong Nam, a quintessential North Korean bureaucrat whose lifelong loyalty to the ruling Kim dynasty allowed him to serve as the country’s ceremonial head of state for two decades, has died, state media reported Tuesday.

The Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday that Kim Yong Nam, former president of the Presidium of North Korea’s rubber-stamp Supreme People’s Assembly, died Monday of multiple organ failure at the age of 97.

KCNA said that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited the bier of Kim Yong Nam on Tuesday to express deep condolences over his death.

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It said Kim Yong Nam's funeral was set for Thursday.

Kim Yong Nam is not related to Kim Jong Un, the third generation of his family to rule North Korea.

Kim Jong Un, grandson of state founder Kim Il Sung, took power upon his father Kim Jong Il's death in 2011 in the country's second hereditary power transfer.

Kim Yong Nam served as head of the Supreme People’s Assembly from 1998 to April 2019.

That post is North Korea’s nominal head of state, though the true power was held by the Kim family that has ruled the North since its formal foundation in 1948.

Kim Yong Nam, who was known for propaganda-filled speeches with a deep, booming voice at key state events, often appeared in state media greeting visiting foreign dignitaries on behalf of Kim Jong Un and his late father Kim Jong Il.

In February 2018, he traveled to South Korea with Kim Jong Un’s influential sister, Kim Yo Jong, to attend the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Olympics as Pyongyang sought better ties with Seoul and Washington after years of heightened animosities on the Korean Peninsula.

The trip made Kim Yong Nam the highest-level North Korean official to visit South Korea since Kim Jong Un sent a top military officer to attend the closing ceremony of the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea.

At the Pyeongchang opening ceremony, Kim Yong Nam and Kim Yo Jong sat within feet of then-U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, though the two sides made no apparent contact.

North Korea’s temporary diplomatic openness peaked with the summits between Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump in 2018 and 2019, but Kim Yong Nam did not attend them and his influence was seen as waning due to his age.

In April 2019, he was replaced by Choe Ryong Hae, one of Kim Jong Un’s close confidants who had previously served as the top political officer of the North’s 1.2 million-member military.

Kim Yong Nam’s career epitomized that of a successful North Korean bureaucrat.

He joined the ruling Workers’ Party shortly after the 1950-53 Korean War and survived major political purges through the 1970s.

He was appointed to the powerful Politburo in 1978 and served 15 years as foreign minister, starting in 1983.

During his tenure, the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union disintegrated, leaving North Korea isolated.

North Korea watchers also say Kim Yong Nam had an expertise in third-world diplomacy.

He was a frequent participant in gatherings of nations that consider themselves independent from major power blocs, including the 2012 Non-Aligned Movement summit in Iran.

People who met Kim Yong Nam described him as mild-mannered but staunch in his opinions.

“I found Kim Yong Nam a puzzling figure. In greetings before business began, he was cordial and relaxed, but once at work, he relentlessly followed his script in a way that reminded of former Soviet foreign minister Andrei Gromyko,” former Washington Post reporter Don Oberdofer wrote in his book, “The Two Koreas.”

In a testament to his loyalty to the ruling dynasty, Kim Yong Nam read an elegy to Kim Il Sung when he died in 1994.

Kim Yong Nam also undertook the job of formally nominating Kim Jong Il to be chairman of the National Defense Commission after the son observed a three-year mourning period.

A native of Pyongyang, Kim Yong Nam studied at Kim Il Sung University and Moscow State University.

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Australians will get three hours of free solar power per day, even if they don't have solar panels, the Albanese government has announced today.

From July next year, a plan called Solar Sharer will require retailers to offer free electricity to households for at least three hours in the middle of the day when solar generation is at its peak.

The initiative will eventually be open to all Australian houses and apartments, as long as they have a smart meter and move their electricity use to the middle of the day when the scheme is in operation.

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The offer will initially be available to states and regions under the Default Market Offer (DMO), which acts as a limit to what retailers can charge for electricity.

These are NSW, south-east Queensland and South Australia, with consultations to extend the offer to the rest of the country by 2027.

Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen said the move would benefit all Australians.

"Free daytime power for families across Australia is proof that what's good for the planet is good for your pocket," he said.

"People who are able to move electricity use into the zero cost power period will benefit directly, whether they have solar panels or not and whether they own or rent.

"The more people take up the offer and move their use, the greater the system benefits that lower costs for all electricity users will be."

Electricity prices are rising, with the Australian Bureau of Statistics showing they have jumped nine per cent in the last quarter, subsequently having an impact on inflation.

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Bowen said the government would reform the DMO to make it cheaper for Australians.

"Australians deserve a fairer go when it comes to their energy bills," he said.

"Reform to the DMO will strip out unnecessary costs and expand protections to all standing offer customers and small customers in embedded networks, including renters and apartment dwellers." 

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More Americans than ever before disapprove of US President Donald Trump's actions in office, according to a major new poll in the US.

The fall of 2025 is not a replay of 2017, the year before the Democrats captured control of the US House in Trump's first term.

The Democrats' five-point advantage among registered voters in the generic congressional ballot falls short of the 11-point edge they held in CNN polling a year before the 2018 midterms.

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And favourable views of the party still stand near all-time lows as they have throughout this year, eight points below where they were in the fall of Trump's first year in office.

In a mid-term election year, though, views of the president can outweigh perceptions of the opposition party. Trump's approval rating in the poll stands at 37 per cent, the worst of his second term in CNN polling and roughly equivalent to his 36 per cent approval rating at this point in his first term.

And his disapproval rating, at 63 per cent, is numerically the highest of either term, one point above the previous high of 62 per cent as he was leaving office in January 2021.

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CNN's Poll of Polls average, which puts Trump's approval rating a few points higher at 41 per cent as of Sunday, charts a similar trend since January. Approval of the president has dipped across partisan and demographic lines since the summer in CNN's polling.

Democrats have a very early advantage

Looking ahead to next year's mid-terms, Democrats appear to have a very early advantage: 47 per cent of registered voters say they'd vote for the Democrat in their district if the election were held today, while 42 per cent prefer the Republican.

More say they've ruled out supporting a Republican (42 per cent) than say the same about a Democrat (35 per cent).

And 41 per cent say they would be sending a message that they oppose Trump with their vote, nearly double the 21 per cent who say their vote would be a message of support for the president. Independents break in Democrats' favor on the generic ballot (44 per cent to 31 per cent for Republicans, with 19 per cent saying they wouldn't pick either right now).

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Registered voters who are Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents are far more likely than Republican-aligned voters to say they are extremely motivated to vote next year (67 per cent compared with 46 per cent).

Those Democratic-aligned voters who consider the state of democracy to be a top concern are perhaps the most fired up within the party: 82 per cent in that group say they are deeply motivated to vote, compared with 57 per cent among Democratic-aligned voters who call the economy their top concern.

CNN's poll results suggest that the Democratic Party's ongoing internal image troubles may not necessarily translate into defections at the ballot box.

Democratic-aligned voters remain far less fond of their own party (65 per cent have a favourable view of the Democratic Party) than Republican-aligned voters (80 per cent have a favourable view of the GOP), but even those Democratic-aligned voters with a negative view of the party are almost universally behind the Democratic candidate in their district (93 per cent) and broadly motivated to vote (71 per cent say they are extremely motivated).

All told, Democrats hold a 12-point advantage among those voters who say they are extremely or very motivated to turn out next year.

Broad dissatisfaction with Trump and the country

Americans are broadly dissatisfied with the state of the country (68 per cent say things are going badly) and the economy (72 per cent say it's in poor shape, and 47 per cent call the economy and cost of living the top issue facing the US). About six in 10 (61 per cent) say Trump's policies have worsened economic conditions in the US.

Roughly eight in 10 consider the federal government shutdown either a crisis (31 per cent) or a major problem (50 per cent), and 61 per cent disapprove of Trump's handling of it. Nearly as many disapprove of the way each party's congressional leadership is handling it (58 per cent disapprove of each). Taken all together, about nine in 10 American disapprove of at least one of those three players on the shutdown.

A majority hold negative views of Trump's performance on several other key issues: most (56 per cent) feel that his foreign policy decisions have hurt America's standing in the world, and 57 per cent say he's gone too far deporting immigrants living in the US illegally.

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About a quarter of Americans (26 per cent) say the state of US democracy is the top issue facing the nation, and it is the top issue among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (45 per cent say it's the most important issue, with the economy and cost of living at 38 per cent).

Americans are increasingly likely to say Trump has gone too far in using the power of the presidency – 61 per cent say so, up nine points since February.

On his teardown of the East Wing of the White House, 54 per cent of the public is dissatisfied or angry, with just 10 per cent saying they're satisfied with or happy about that decision.

Another 36 per cent (including nearly half of Republicans) say it doesn't matter much to them.

Most Americans also see the Republicans who control Congress as doing too much to support Trump (55 per cent, up from 48 per cent who felt that way in February).

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But the GOP base is pleased: Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are largely satisfied with the level of support the GOP in Congress provides to Trump (63 per cent say it's the right amount, about the same as in February).

On the Democratic side, though, views are more divided and party support less clear. Four in 10 say the Democrats in Congress aren't doing enough to oppose Trump, and among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, 69 per cent feel that way.

The CNN poll was conducted by SSRS online and by phone from October 27 to 30 among a random national sample of 1245 adults, including 954 registered voters. Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points; it is plus or minus 3.6 points for results among registered voters.

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Cindy Graham, 49, has already knitted baby blankets for her daughter for when she has children.

Because she knows she's not going to be there.

The Sydney mother-of-four has stage four lung cancer.

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And while three of her children are adults, her youngest, Charlotte, just turned eight.

"She knows I've got cancer, but she does not know my prognosis," she told 9news.com.au.

"My other children are adults and they'll be okay but my little girl, she looks at me and it crushes my heart and soul."

When Graham was given the "devastating" diagnosis five years ago, she had to stop breastfeeding Charlotte to start treatment for the cancer which kills more Aussies than any other.

But she has already defied the odds by living this long.

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There is just a 26 per cent chance of surviving for five years after diagnosis.

"I feel incredibly lucky I've made it this far – most people don't," she said.

Despite being the most common cancer killer of Aussies, lung cancer is drastically underfunded.

Graham's only symptom was a dull ache in her chest.

Now she must plan her life around scans every three months.

That includes making memories with Charlotte and husband Mitchell, 39, who is in the Navy.

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Graham, who walked with her family in the Shine a Light event on November 1, is also joining experts in pushing for more funding for the disease, after a new screening program passed 25,000 scans.

The National Lung Cancer Screening Program, which experts say will save more than 12,000 lives in the next decade, launched in June.

Of the 15,000 expected to be diagnosed with lung cancer this year, 85 per cent will get the dreadful news at a late stage when it's hard to treat.

Estimates show the program will help diagnose more than 70 per cent of cases at an earlier stage, where there are improved treatment opportunities.

However, Graham is backing experts' calls for more funding to actually help improve treatments.

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"The only reason I'm alive is because of a clinical trial," she said.

"We now have the national screening which is wonderful and that is going to pick up so many more cases early, but then we also need effective treatments for them."

The new screening program has seen 29,773 people enrolled with 25,949 low-dose CT scans completed, Lung Foundation Australia CEO Mark Brooke said.

"For many years, Lung Foundation Australia has been advocating for this program and it is expected to improve the five-year survival rate of lung cancer with earlier detection and therefore earlier treatment," he said.

"However, there is certainly more that needs to be done.

"This includes more funding for vital research."

An Australian Government Health spokeswoman said between 2015 and 2025, the Australian Government's Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) has invested more than $35 million for research focussed on lung cancer.

"On 2 May 2024, Minister Butler announced the MRFF Low Survival Cancers Mission (LSCM). It will provide $150 million over 10 years, from 2027-28, for research to improve care and health outcomes for people with low survival cancers," she said.

Lung cancer facts

Lung cancer kills more Australians than any other cancer, ahead of breast, prostate and ovarian cancers.

In 2024 it killed 8918 Aussies, according to Cancer Australia.

Lung Foundation Australia says patients have significantly poorer outcomes compared to other common cancers.

It received less than a quarter of the funding cash given to breast and colon cancer research between 2011 and 2016, according to Cancer Australia.

One in three women and one in 10 men diagnosed have never smoked.

Those eligible for free screening must be between 50 and 70 years old and have no signs or symptoms.

They must have a history of at least 30 pack years of smoking and are still smoking or have quit only in the past decade.

Anyone interested should see their GP or call the Lung Health Helpline

November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month.

A West Australian mother who suffered horrific burns in a firebombing attack has described how she felt her skin melt away.

Penelope Travers needed marathon surgery to repair burns to 25 per cent of her body and won't be able to work for weeks.

It was 4.30am on October 6 when Travers' garage in Mandurah, south of Perth, exploded, sending her fleeing into the night with her pants alight.

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She was trying to save her home when a spray paint can blew up in her face earlier this year.

"It felt like being fried, flesh fried, instant, quick, just burn," she said.

For 17 agonising days the single mother-of-two lay in a hospital bed in the burns unit at Fiona Stanley Hospital.

She was covered head-to-toe in thick dressings in between undergoing surgery and blood transfusions.

"Both my arms, the backs of my hands and the top of my foot have all had skin grafts," she said.

It wasn't until later police told her it was a targeted attack.

Someone had thrown a fire bomb at her car but it bounced off, instead setting the garage on fire.

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As she recovered in hospital the attackers came back to finish the job on October 12.

Her ute was set alight while her 16-year-old daughter was home alone.

"This brought something traumatic to my doorstep and I couldn't protect my children from seeing this or dealing with this," she said.

"They're still having nightmares."

Mandurah detectives are investigating both fire attacks, which are being treated as suspicious

Anyone with information is urged to contact police.

Travers is sore and itchy, but recovering but with no way to work, she's started a fundraiser to help pay the bills and aid the long road to recovery.

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"I am originally from NZ but have called Australia home for almost 15 years," she wrote on the online fundraiser.

"Unfortunately, being a Kiwi means the Australian Government has very few financial supports available to me. 

"I have been granted a temporary benefit but it does not cover my rent, let alone any other monthly expenses."

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A rail worker is being hailed as a hero as he fights for his life in hospital after a horrific mass stabbing on a UK train put 11 people in hospital.

Police said the man tried to stop the attack and "saved lives" by his actions.

The staff member was one of 11 people hospitalised after the mass stabbing, and is the only one in a critical condition.

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Police have yet to lay charges over the incident, though one man remains in custody.

Here's what we do know about the attack.

What happened?

At about 7.42pm Saturday night local time (6.42 am Sunday AEDT) passengers aboard a London-bound train from Doncaster made the first emergency calls to police, with reports of people fleeing through the carriages and seeking shelter in the train toilets.

The train driver, since identified as a war veteran, pulled the train in to an emergency stop at Huntingdon, about 120km north of London.

Police swarmed the train and arrested two men at about 7.50pm local time, just eight minutes after the first emergency calls.

Ten people were taken to hospital, while an 11th later self-reported.

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Was it a terror attack?

In their initial response, police treated the mass stabbing as a potential terror incident, broadcasting the code-word "Plato" to responding officers – the term used to indicate a "marauding terror attack".

However, authorities have since walked that back, without speculating further as to motive.

"This is a shocking incident and my thoughts are with those who have been injured and their families," British Transport Police Superintendent John Loveless said outside the station in Huntingdon in eastern England where the train halted soon after the attack.

"There is nothing to suggest this is a terrorist incident."

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How are the victims?

Six people remain in hospital as of this morning (AEDT), with one in a critical condition.

That person has been identified as a railway staffer who tried to stop the attack, and who police say saved lives with his "heroic" actions.

"Having viewed the CCTV from the train, the actions of the member of rail staff were nothing short of heroic and undoubtedly saved people's lives," Deputy Chief Constable Stuart Cundy said.

Five other people have been discharged from hospital.

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Who were the men arrested?

A 32-year-old man and a 35-year-old man were both taken into custody at the scene.

However, this morning, police confirmed they had released the 35-year-old man without charge, saying he had not been involved.

"It was reported in good faith to officers responding to the incident that he was involved in the attack, and following enquiries we can confirm that he was not involved," police said in a release.

The 32-year-old remains in custody.

He has been identified as a British national from Peterbough, which is where police say he boarded the train.

A knife has also been recovered at the scene.

What happens next?

It is likely the sole remaining suspect will be charged once police have finished their interrogation.

London North Eastern Railway, or LNER, which operates the East Coast Mainline services in the UK, confirmed the incident had happened on one of its trains and said there would be major disruption on the route until Monday local time (Monday evening/overnight AEDT).

Loveless said passengers will see a "high visibility presence of police officers at stations and on trains" on Sunday.

Reported with additional details from Associated Press.

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Two dogs have been seized and a 55-year-old man is fighting for life after he was mauled inside a Sydney unit.

A neighbour called emergency services to Pyrmont Bridge Road in Camperdown about 10am over a dog attack.

Police had to force their way inside the unit to get to the man, who was on the balcony. 

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He had suffered serious arm and leg injuries.

The man was treated at the scene by paramedics before being rushed to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in a critical condition.

The City of Sydney Council has seized two dogs believed to be involved in the attack and is holding them at Sutherland Animal Shelter as investigations continue.

A third dog, which is a puppy, is being held by police before it is transferred to the RSPCA.

"We investigate all dog attacks and have a range of actions we can then take depending on the nature of the specific incident and available evidence and severity of the attack," a council spokesperson said.

"This may include issuing fines, and orders (declaring the dogs either menacing or dangerous) or initiate court proceedings where a magistrate may issue instruction to have the animal euthanised."

Council and police are investigating the incident.

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The chairman and CEO of embattled telco Optushave been grilled at a Senate inquiry into the catastrophic triple-zero failure that left three people dead.

Human error during a firewall upgrade in September led to an outage in multiple states and territories, which led to customers being unable to call the emergency line.

Speaking at a Senate inquiry today, Optus CEO Stephen Rue admitted the mistakes made by the telco during and immediately after the outage.

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"There is no doubt that the timeline shows there were delays, there were mistakes made," he said.

"The tragic deaths of people during this outage stay with us as individuals and as a company as we investigate the incident.

"I fully accept there are aspects to the way events unfolded and how they were communicated over September 18 and 19 that we should have handled better."

Rue said correct steps and procedures were not followed after the company became aware of the outage and admitted that despite the offshore call centre believing the network hadn't failed, the issue should have been escalated.

"This was a unique situation whereby the call centre people believed the network was not failing, but they should have escalated those calls," Rue said.

"The initial mistake, a human error, occurred when the wrong process plan was selected for a routine firewall upgrade.

"The selected plan did not divert traffic before locking equipment inside the exchange that routes triple-zero calls.

"This error was not detected because control steps were not followed and alarms were not acted on at the time."

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Rue insisted this was "an explanation, not an excuse".

He also insisted the company had not been misleading in its delay in confirming how many calls were impacted in the outage.

"I wouldn't characterise it as misleading, it was information as we knew it at the time," he said.

"Sadly, it turned out to be different, we accept that."

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The fallout has been disastrous for Optus, with the triple-zero failure the latest in a long line of incidents and issues at the company over the last three years.

Rue, who came into the company in 2023 after previous CEO Kelly Rosmarin resigned in the wake of a nationwide outage, is also under increased pressure to keep his job.

Two Optus executives have already announced their departure, but Rue received an endorsement from Optus chairman John Arthur.

"There were I think 10 failures here, 10 failures. And if you're asking me whether I am alarmed at that, I can assure you I am," he said.

"However, this man was brought into this company to make sure we became a company that didn't have 10 failures like that.

"Now that's his job, and I'm expecting him to finish it."

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Rue said it was not the right time for him to step away from the company.

"I firmly believe that another change of leader at this time is not what Optus needs, or what our customers need," he said.

Optus has been criticised for having critical infrastructure and call centres located offshore, and Rue said the company had made changes as a result of the triple-zero failure.

"We will take back calls that relate to triple-zero calls and relate to vulnerable customers… and ensure that they are dealt with onshore in Australia. And we're in the process of doing exactly that," he said.

"Our contact centre procedures have been overhauled, including a mandatory escalation process for any customer reports of triple-zero issues."

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The brother of a prominent property developer who was allegedly kidnapped and held hostage for four days in Sydney's south-west has been reunited with his family after it allegedly paid a $1 million ransom demand.

CCTV showed a white SUV pulling up on Bazantin Avenue in Belfield about 6am on Thursday.

Three hooded people were seen getting out of the car and grabbing 28-year-old George Ayoub, who was on his way to the gym, before forcing him into the car.

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Ayoub, the younger brother of a prominent property developer Charlie Ayoub, was then allegedly held captive for four days.

9News initially became aware of the incident on Thursday, but complied with a police request not to broadcast it due to a risk to his safety.

During his captivity, police established a strike force to investigate the incident and determine his location.

His family allegedly received ransom demands. 

A family friend and social media personality Peter Valusu, known online as Triggs, posted videos calling for Ayoub's release and offering to pay the ransom.

He posted another one about 3.30am today, claiming a $1 million ransom was paid and Ayoub had been freed.

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Ayoub was released uninjured and walked to a service station in Chipping Norton, where he contacted his family about 2am.

They showed up in utes to pick him up and he has since reunited with his loved ones. 

"We finally secured his freedom, and the look on George's face when he saw us was priceless. And also the tears that came from his family's face when we walked him into the house was priceless," Valusu said.

9News understands Ayoub has no criminal record and is not known to police.

The three suspects remain on the run, and the police investigation is ongoing.

NSW Police have not commented on the incident.

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