TRANSCRIPT
The U-S Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to Israel as U-S officials say Washington, Israel's top ally and arms provider, will continue pushing for an end to the conflict in the Middle East.
Israel has ramped up it's bombardment of Gaza and Lebanon in recent weeks with medical sources in northern Gaza reporting that over the past 17 days, Israel has killed at least 640 Palestinians.
The U-S has been claiming for months that it is continuing to push for a ceasefire and an end to the cycle of violence, despite providing Israel with an $8.7 billion military aid package in late September.
Responding to questions about reports that a Palestinian woman was shot by Israeli soldiers while harvesting olives, U-S State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel says an investigation will occur.
"And our expectation is that Israel investigate this thoroughly, swiftly, transparently, and it seeks accountability in this incident as well. And I will just note that we, it is not lost on our on us that the annual olive harvest harvest is major economic activity to Palestinian people and to the Palestinian economy. And we believe that Palestinians need to have access to their land to conduct these kinds of harvests when appropriate."
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U-S Presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are delivering starkly different messages on the campaign trail as they attempt to sway undecided voters ahead of November's election.
Democratic candidate and current Vice President Kamala Harris is arguing that her rival Donald Trump is a threat to democracy, calling the former president unhinged.
"It should lead us to observe that he is increasingly unstable. But you don't have to take my word for it. Listen to the people who know him best. The people who worked with him in the White House, in the Oval Office, in the Situation Room. His former Chief of Staff. two former Secretaries of Defense, his Secretaries of Defense, his former National Security Adviser and of course his former Vice President."
Republican candidate Donald Trump meanwhile is questioning the Biden administration's competence as he continues rhetoric attaching Kamala Harris to the current administration.
"Kamala Harris does not have the compassion, the smarts or the strength to be the president of the United States. She just can't do the job. She's a mess. She's a cognitive mess and nobody wants to talk about it. And we can't have four more years. We had four years of it. We can't take another four years of it can we?"
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Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi says calls from Peter Dutton for Lidia Thorpe to resign are contemptible and should be condemned.
Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe interrupted a reception for King Charles yesterday, telling him Australia is not his country and calling for the return of stolen land.
Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi says colonial forces that inflict suffering and atrocity on First Nations peoples cannot complain about protests against them.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton says if Lidia Thorpe is against the system as it exists, she should not be making any money from it, arguing she should resign.
"My reaction was that, here we go again. It's entirely predictable, all about herself. It doesn't advance any cause that she's interested in. It's really just a self-promotion thing, which is why I don't think we should give it any attention. Unfortunately, it overshadowed what I think has been a very successful visit so far, and I think it was disrespectful and most Australians dismiss it on that basis."
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A New South Wales M-P is calling for an inquiry into the unresolved deaths and disappearances of dozens of women in the state's north coast since the late 1970s.
Jeremy Buckingham from the Legalise Cannabis New South Wales Party says his investigations found 67 unresolved cases of women murdered or missing on the north coast in the last three decades.
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To sport now,
Hockey, rugby sevens and cricket are among the sports axed from the pared back Glasgow Commonwealth games program in 2026.
The games were relocated to Scotland after Victoria withdrew as host and will feature only 10 events, nine fewer than the previous games in Birmingham.
Other changes include accommodation for athletes, who will stay in hotel accommodation rather than an athletes village.
The full 2026 program is to be released shortly.
