Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt will today pledge to ‘bring forward a consensus option’ for a proposal to recognise Indigenous people in the constitution within three years, the ABC is reporting. 

In a speech to the National Press Club today, Mr Wyatt is set to announce the Government will design the model with First Australians, allocating more than $7 million to the process and will pledge to work with Labor opposition counterpart Linda Burney, describing her as ‘integral’ to the process. 

Ethiopia’s capital city has announced a ban on motorbikes in an effort to reduce crime such as violent robberies and attacks. 

The mayor of Addis Ababa, Takele Uma, says businesses would be exempt from the ban, but some delivery companies say they have been affected with their bikes being seized by authorities. 

Similar bans on motorcycles have existed in parts of Nigeria for the past nine years, including the most populous city of Lagos and the capital Abuja, where such bans have been criticised for contributing to heavy traffic jams.
 

New encryption powers to seek assistance from tech companies to spy on users have been used at least five times by federal and New South Wales police, according to the Commonwealth Ombudsman. 

The Ombudsman has also called for home affairs minister Peter Dutton’s ability to censor its reports on the encryption reporting process to be revoked, claiming these powers don’t maintain the ombudsman’s position as an impartial office.

A landmark peace conference between Taliban representatives and influential members of Afghan society, including government officials, has agreed a ‘roadmap for peace’ that could lead to the end of the 18-year war in the country. 

The non-binding agreement, signed in Qatar, called for an end to civilian casualties and the protection of women’s rights within an ‘Islamic framework,’ and comes as the US and the Taliban continue to negotiate a withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan. 

A study by Perth’s Murdoch University has found that more than 20% of Australian silver gulls are carrying superbugs resistant to antibiotics, raising fears that disease-causing bacteria may spread from the birds to humans, livestock and pets. 

One bird at Cottesloe Beach in Perth was found to be resistant to the drug colistin, the last antibiotic treatment option used after all others have failed, which has never been found before in Australian wildlife. 

An emergency meeting has been called by the Queensland government for this afternoon at Parliament House to discuss immediate and long-term practices to ensure the state’s 49,000 mine and quarry workers’ health and safety is ensured.  

The meeting follows six deaths in Queensland mines and quarries in the past 12 months, two of which occurring in the past fortnight. 

Natural Resources Minister Anthony Lynham says the meeting must establish operational details of a statewide plan that refocuses attention on safety in these environments.
 

The United Arab Emirates has announced it will reduce the number of its forces in Yemen as part of a ‘strategic’ redeployment, designed to support a United Nations-led peace process that began in Stockholm last December. 

The UAE will remain in the Saudi-led coalition that intervened in 2015 to restore the Yemeni government ousted by the Houthis, a rebel group backed by Iran, but the focus of its remaining forces will pivot towards counter-terrorism efforts against al-Qaida and Islamic State. 

China has demanded that the United States ‘immediately cancel’ a proposed $2.2 billion arms sale to Taiwan, including battle tanks and anti-aircraft missiles. 

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang says the proposed deal is a ‘crude interference’ in Chinese internal affairs and urged the US to stop military relations with Taiwan to avoid further damaging China-US relations and harming peace and stability in the region.