BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — James O’Connor has returned to a Wallabies squad almost three years after his last test when the veteran flyhalf was included to potentially face the British and Irish Lions in the first test in Brisbane on July 19.
Australia coach Joe Schmidt looked for some experience in his 36-man squad named Friday following a reported spinal injury to his first-choice playmaker Noah Lolesio.
“I thought he (Schmidt) was joking . . . it hasn’t sunk in yet, genuinely, like it’s very surreal,” O’Connor said of his call-up to the squad. “Noah’s injury opened up a doorway for me, and even then again, I still didn’t think I’d made it so to be here right now and to be given the opportunity, I’m excited.”
O’Connor, who started at flyhalf in all three matches of the 2013 losing Lions series, played the last of his 64 tests for Australia in 2022. The inclusion of 35-year-old O’Connor, who was part of the Crusaders’ Super Rugby Pacific-winning lineup this year, was one of only two changes from Australia’s squad that faced Fiji last weekend.
“Obviously, I had a few conversations with James during the year and he had a good Super season for the Crusaders,” Schmidt said. “He stayed close. He stayed connected the whole way through. So that experience can potentially help the players again, particularly our young 10s, as they continue to progress as well.”
With the Wallabies having a week to prepare for the first test, Schmidt did not name a captain.
With 20 forwards and 16 backs, there are two uncapped players in ACT Brumbies player Corey Toole and Western Force back rower Nick Champion de Crespigny included in the squad.
James Slipper, the record-holder for most Wallabies appearances with 144 tests, could also join O'Connor and retired test great George Smith in playing for Australia in consecutive British and Irish Lions series.
“Slips is going to get a second shot at it potentially, and that’s really exciting for him,” said Schmidt. “His longevity is something that is quite incredible in the game, and part of what makes Slipper a little bit special is he’s always challenging himself to get better.”
Injured forwards Will Skelton and Rob Valetini, who were both unavailable for Australia’s 21-18 win over Fiji due to calf injuries, were included.
Veteran scrumhalf Nic White will finally get a chance to play a test against the Lions after injury ruled him out of the 2013 series, while playmaker Tom Lynagh can follow in the footsteps of his father Michael, who played against the 1989 Lions.
"As Wallabies coaches, we have tried to balance continuity with form and freshness, but there were some very tight calls,” Schmidt said. “We’re conscious of how special it is to play the British and Irish Lions, so for those selected in the squad, they’ll be competing for test jerseys, while also trying to help others prepare.
“We need to improve our accuracy and cohesion with a very short runway leading up to the first test here in eight days.”
The Lions are 4-0 in Australia since a 28-24 loss to Argentina in a warmup in Dublin. They have beaten all of Australia’s Super Rugby franchises. Before a win over the Brumbies this week, they defeated the Western Force, Queensland Reds, and New South Wales Waratahs.
The second test in the series is July 26 in Melbourne and the third Aug. 2 in Sydney.
Australia squad to face the British and Irish Lions in the first test:
Forwards: Allan Alaalatoa, Angus Bell, Josh Canham, Nick Champion de Crespigny, Matt Faessler, Nick Frost, Langi Gleeson, Tom Hooper, Fraser McReight, Zane Nonggorr, Billy Pollard, David Porecki, Tom Robertson, Will Skelton, James Slipper, Carlo Tizzano, Taniela Tupou, Rob Valetini, Jeremy Williams, Harry Wilson.
Backs: Filipo Daugunu, Ben Donaldson, Jake Gordon, Len Ikitau, Max Jorgensen, Andrew Kellaway, Tom Lynagh, Tate McDermott, James O’Connor Hunter Paisami, Dylan Pietsch, Harry Potter, Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, Corey Toole, Nic White, Tom Wright.
AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby
Australia's Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, right, is tackled by Fiji's Josua Tuisova during their rugby union international match in Newcastle, Australia, Sunday, July 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
Australia's Harry Potter, left, chips the ball ahead during their rugby union international match against Fiji in Newcastle, Australia, Sunday, July 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
FILE - British and Irish Lions' Brian O'Driscoll, left, tackles Australia's James O'Connor during their rugby union test match in Melbourne, Australia, Saturday, June 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Mal Fairclough,File)
BANGKOK (AP) — Iranian demonstrators' ability to get details of bloody nationwide protests out to the world has been given a strong boost, with SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service dropping its fees to allow more people to circumvent the Tehran government's strongest attempt ever to prevent information from spilling outside its borders, activists said Wednesday.
The move by the American aerospace company run by Elon Musk follows the complete shutdown of telecommunications and internet access to Iran's 85 million people on Jan. 8, as protests expanded over the Islamic Republic's faltering economy and the collapse of its currency.
SpaceX has not officially announced the decision and did not respond to a request for comment, but activists told The Associated Press that Starlink has been available for free to anyone in Iran with the receivers since Tuesday and that the company has gone even further by pushing a firmware update to help circumvent government efforts to jam the satellite signals.
The moves by Starlink came two days after President Donald Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he was going to reach out to Musk to ask for Starlink help for protesters, a call later confirmed by his press secretary, though it's not clear if that is what prompted Musk to act.
“Starlink has been crucial,” said Mehdi Yahyanejad, an Iranian whose nonprofit Net Freedom Pioneers has helped smuggle units into Iran, pointing to video that emerged Sunday showing rows of bodies at a forensic medical center near Tehran.
“That showed a few hundred bodies on the ground, that came out because of Starlink," he said in an interview from Los Angeles. "I think that those videos from the center pretty much changed everyone's understanding of what's happening because they saw it with their own eyes.”
Since the outbreak of demonstrations Dec. 28, the death toll has risen to more than 2,500 people, primarily protesters but also security personnel, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.
Starlink is banned in Iran by telecommunication regulations, as the country never authorized the importation, sale or use of the devices. Activists fear they could be accused of helping the U.S. or Israel by using Starlink and charged with espionage, which can carry the death penalty.
The first units were smuggled into Iran in 2022 during protests over the country's mandatory headscarf law, after Musk got the Biden administration to exempt the Starlink service from Iran sanctions.
Since then, more than 50,000 units are estimated to have been sneaked in, with people going to great lengths to conceal them, using virtual private networks while on the system to hide IP addresses and taking other precautions, said Ahmad Ahmadian, the executive director of Holistic Resilience, a Los Angeles-based organization that was responsible for getting some of the first Starlink units into Iran.
Starlink is a global internet network that relies on some 10,000 satellites orbiting Earth. Subscribers need to have equipment, including an antenna that requires a line of sight to the satellite, so must be deployed in the open, where it could be spotted by authorities. Many Iranians disguise them as solar panels, Ahmadian said.
After efforts to shut down communications during the 12-day war with Israel in June proved to be not terribly effective, Iranian security services have taken more “extreme tactics” now to jam Starlink's radio signals and GPS systems, Ahmadian said in a phone interview. After Holistic Resilience passed on reports to SpaceX, Ahmadian said, the company pushed its firmware update to avoid jamming.
Security services also rely on informers to tell them who might be using Starlink, and search internet and social media traffic for signs it has been used. There have been reports they have raided apartments with satellite dishes.
“There has always been a cat-and-mouse game,” said Ahmadian, who fled Iran in 2012 after serving time in prison for student activism. “The government is using every tool in its toolbox.”
Still, Ahmadian noted that the government jamming attempts had only been effective in certain urban areas, suggesting that security services lack the resources to block Starlink more broadly.
Iran did begin to allow people to call out internationally on Tuesday via mobile phones, but calls from outside the country into Iran remain blocked.
Compared to protests in 2019, when lesser measures by the government were able to effectively stifle information reaching the rest of the world for more than a week, Ahmadian said the proliferation of Starlink has made it impossible to prevent communications. He said the flow could increase now that the service has been made free.
“This time around they really shut it down, even fixed landlines were not working,” he said. “But despite this, the information was coming out, and it also shows how distributed this community of Starlink users is in the country.”
Musk has made Starlink free for use during several natural disasters, and Ukraine has relied heavily on the service since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. It was initially funded by SpaceX and later through an American government contract.
Musk's involvement had raised concerns over the power of such a system being in the hands of one person, after he refused to extend Ukraine's Starlink coverage to support a planned Ukrainian counterattack in Russian-occupied Crimea.
As a proponent of Starlink for Iran, Ahmadian said the Crimea decision was a wake-up call for him, but that he couldn't see any reason why Musk might be inclined to act similarly in Iran.
“Looking at the political Elon, I think he would have more interest ... in a free Iran as a new market,” he said.
Starlink's effort in circumventing Tehran's efforts to shut down communications is being watched closely around the world. The satellite service has expanded rapidly in recent years, securing licenses in more than 120 countries, including some with authoritarian rulers who have persecuted journalists and protesters.
Julia Voo, who heads the International Institute for Strategic Studies' Cyber Power and Future Conflict Program in Singapore, said there is a risk of activists becoming reliant on one company as a lifeline, as it “creates a single point of failure,” though currently there are no comparable alternatives.
China has been exploring ways to hunt and destroy Starlink satellites, and Voo said the more effective Starlink proves itself at penetrating “government-mandated terrestrial blackouts, the more states will be observing.”
“It's just going to result in more efforts to broaden controls over various ways of communication, for those in Iran and everywhere else watching,” she said.
Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Bernard Condon in New York contributed to this report.
FILE - In this photo obtained by The Associated Press, Iranians attend an anti-government protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP, file)
FILE - A Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket stands ready for launch at pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Friday, June 26, 2020. (AP Photo/John Raoux, file)
