Evening News Bulletin 18 January 2025

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Source: SBS News

The death toll in Gaza now 119 since the ceasefire was announced.....Anti-Palestinian graffiti in Sydney investigated as hate crime by New South Wales police... and Iga Swiatek is through to the fourth round of the Australian Open.


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TRANSCRIPT

The death toll in Gaza has risen to 119 since a ceasefire deal was announced, with Israeli forces continuing to carry out deadly strikes on the enclave.

With Israel's cabinet signalling its approval of the deal one day ahead of the scheduled ceasefire deal, the government says the implementation of the ceasefire won't be delayed.

Palestinian relief agency UNRWA says it has 4,000 truckloads of aid ready to enter Gaza.

Residents in Gaza say they hope the truce will bring an end to the widespread starvation.

But Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, says lasting peace won't happen unless there is a Palestinian state.

"We don't believe that this deal will be implemented as it is, literally. We know and we anticipate there will be a lot of issues and everyday issues. But we are trying our best to create a safety net for these issues to be resolved before it explodes."

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Police in New South Wales say they are investigating racist and anti-Arab graffiti on a shop wall in Sydney as a hate crime.

Vandals sprayed anti-Arab slogans and referenced Israel and Palestine onto the wall of the Al Eman Supermarket in Wiley Park in the city's west.

Australian Palestine Advocacy Network President Nasser Mashni has told SBS News the graffiti is disgusting and says Australians are sick of double standards and silence at the rise of anti-Palestinian racism.

The racially motivated attack has also been condemned by Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke and David Ossip of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies.

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Wild weather continues to affect many around the country.

Thousands of people are without power in New South Wales after storms and high winds, and authorities in Western Australia warn a tropical cyclone is looming there.

Ausgrid says around 40,000 Sydney customers are still without power, as well as 12,000 in Newcastle and the Hunter regions, and 8,000 in Port Stephens.

New South Wales State Emergency Service Commissioner Michael Wassing says the service received nearly 3000 [[2,825]] calls for help last night.

"We have had four flood rescues in the last twenty four hours, and again, our key message is, if you're on the roads, although our first key message is, if you don't have to be on the roads, please don't be on the roads during this weather event. If you are on the roads, please be careful and do not drive or not even consider driving through any flood waters, because that's putting yourself and your passengers in immediate danger, and certainly, putting our crews also in danger if they have to come and rescue you."

Meanwhile, in Western Australia, a tropical low is likely to form north of Pilbara with a high chance of becoming a tropical cyclone.

The cyclone is expected to move offshore before developing but officials warn large waves could cause minor flooding.

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U-S media is reporting that Donald Trump's incoming administration is planning to launch wide-scale anti-illegal immigration raids in Chicago next week.

The Wall Street Journal says four people familiar with the planning say between 100 and 200 officers will be carrying out the operation.

Mr Trump has pledged to conduct the largest domestic deportation operation in U-S history within moments of the inauguration.

Cal Soto is the worker's rights director of the National Day Laborer Organising Network, an organisation of immigrant workers currently leading cleanup efforts around the fires in Los Angeles.

He says the important contributions of immigrants in the U-S cannot be understated.

"There's no resiliency or recovery without immigrant workers. So you go back to Katrina, you go to Sandy, you go to Hurricane Harvey, and you see here, the people who go into the communities after the first responders, we call them second responders, are so often teams of workers, immigrant workers, undocumented immigrant workers, who respond to that need and are there to rebuild roofs, to pick up the rubble and to start building the community back to what it was."

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Social media app TikTok says it will be forced to shut down in the United States this weekend unless the outgoing Biden administration assures them it won't enforce the shutdown.

The U-S Supreme Court on Friday has upheld a federal law banning the app unless it is sold by its China based parent company.

The Supreme Court says Tiktok poses national security risks that outweigh concerns over free speech.

Donald Trump however has vowed to protect the platform, inviting the Chief Exectuive of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, to his inauguration.

Shou Zi Chew says he thanks Mr Trump for his commitment to work with the company.

"To all American users, thank you for making our TikTok community such a rich and vibrant space for surprising and delighting us every day. Rest assured, we will do everything in our power to ensure our platform thrives as your online home for limitless creativity and discovery, as well as a source of inspiration and joy for years to come."

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In tennis, Iga Swiatek [[svee-on-teck]] is through to the fourth round of the women's simgles at the Australian Open.

The number two ranked player in the world has breezed past Britain's Emma Raducanu in the third round.

Six-one, six-love, the score... the match taking just one hour and ten minutes.

Swiatek hitting 24 winners to just nine for Raducanu.

The Polish star has won five majors, but the never the Australian Open.... her best performance at Melbourne Park being a semi-final spot in 2022.


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