US and Russian leaders are set to meet in a summit at its planning stages for the first since the 2016 US election.

The summit, which is likely to take place in a mutually convenient third country, is set to become a grievance to US allies and NATO member nations, who would like to see Russian influence contained.

Foreign and domestic critics are questioning President Trump's commitment to NATO and fret over his desire to rebuild relations with Moscow as Washington tightens sanctions.

Australia's Minister for the Pacific has revealed Canberra will explore options to support Vanuatu with a high-speed undersea internet cable, after discussions with the country's Prime Minister this week.

The Turnbull Government confirmed it would spend $136 million to build an undersea cable linking Solomon Islands to Australia, a project the Solomon Islands Government had originally signed with Chinese tech company Huawei.

Australia offered to take on the project instead after raising security concerns with the Solomon Islands Government.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics is attempting to secure funding to publish inflation numbers in line with international best practice.

Australia is one of two countries in the OECD to not publish inflation data each month, which the bureau estimated would cost $4 million a year.

The figure is down from fifteen million eight years ago when the bureau first started the push to come in line with international standard practice.

Agricultural groups are under fire for not providing enough information to the State Government so it could properly assess how farming practices are affecting water quality on the Great Barrier Reef.

This week the Queensland's auditor-general released his latest report on how well Queensland is meeting water quality targets in reef catchments.

The report found the Government was doing a better job at coordinating its approach, but progress was slow and targets under the Reef 2050 Long-term Sustainability Plan were unlikely to be met.

A peak cycling organisation has called for Brisbane’s CBD speed limits to be set at thirty kilometers an hour after several fatalities occurred in the previous months.

Bicycle Queensland chief executive Ann Savage has said that data supported the position, having lowered the cost of each crash involving a pedestrian by $30,000.

The Pedestrian Council has also called for speed limits in built-up areas to limited to thirty kilometers per hour.

For the first time since a driver supply issue affected Brisbane’s train services in 2016, services will continue as normal during the upcoming school holidays.

In October 2016, the opening of the Redcliffe Peninsula Line led to hundreds of services being cancelled due to a shortage of train drivers.

Queensland Rail rolled out school holidays timetables in December 2016 with reduced services in an attempt to combat the driver shortages.

Papua New Guinea’s Planning Minister has defended the country's controversial national identification program amid allegations of corruption and mismanagement.

In 2015, Papua New Guinea’s Government announced it would attempt to register all its citizens in a central database and issue them with photocards for voting and identification.

Since then, only 500,000 Papua New Guineans have been registered, with others not being able to register due to broken printing machines.

The Syrian military have launched an assault on Daraa, forcing at least 45,000 people to flee towards Jordan.

Syrian troops launched a major assault targeting the rebels in Daraa on Tuesday, which has left tens of thousands of civilians forced to flee.  

Jordan foreign minister has said the country will not open its borders to the thousands of civilians fleeing the conflicts.