In this bulletin:
- Hamas set to exchange bodies of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners today, clearing the way for the next ceasefire phase
- Parents and a sect leader sentenced over the death of an eight year old girl
- The Matildas prepare for their final match of the She Believes Cup
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Senior Hamas officials say Palestinian militants will hand over the bodies of four Israeli hostages today in exchange for over 600 Palestinian prisoners.
Israel has delayed the release of the prisoners since Saturday to protest what it calls the cruel treatment of hostages.
And Hamas says the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire can't go ahead until the prisoners are freed.
Last night, thousands of Israeli mourners lined the streets for the funeral procession of Shiri Bibas and her sons who were killed in captivity in Gaza after being kidnapped on October the 7th.
The trio's bodies were returned to Israel by Hamas last week.
Ukrainian Government sources say President Volodymyr Zelenskyy could sign a minerals deal with US President Donald Trump when they meet in Washington as early as Friday.
Details of the agreement are yet to be finalised and made public, but media reports indicate it involves the creation of a joint fund in which Ukraine would contribute half of its future proceeds from state-owned resources, including minerals, oil and gas.
Political Science Professor at University of California Berkeley, M. Steven Fish, described the deal as an absolute absurdity.
"For the United States to try to extract a half trillion dollars in mineral resources from Ukraine after giving Ukraine about $60 billion in aid is an absolute absurdity. Not only is it obviously completely lopsided, but it goes beyond being transactional. It makes no sense even from a transactional perspective to try to extract from the Ukrainians eight times what they've what they've received from us in aid."
Meanwhile, Russian drones attacked Kyiv's energy facilities in strikes that killed two people.
Ukraine's airforce says it shot down 110 of 177 drones launched by Russia in the overnight attack.
Areas around Kyiv and Kharkiv were also targeted by the strikes.
An eight-year-old girl's parents have received 14-year prison terms over their insulin-starved child's slow and painful death.
Elizabeth Rose Struhs died in January 2022 at her family's home west of Brisbane, after her parents and brother joined other members of "the Saints" religious group - to hold a vigil and pray around her.
Her health deteriorated over six days without her prescribed insulin for type-1 diabetes due to the sect's opposition to modern medicine - and she died lying on a mattress in the living room.
Elizabeth's father and mother Jason and Kerrie Struhs were sentenced for manslaughter Wednesday along with 12 other church group members.
The leader of the religious sect Brendan Stevens also received 13 years.
A nurse charged with inciting violence against Israeli patients has been barred from leaving Australia and logging onto social media platforms.
Sarah Abu Lebdeh worked at Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital in Sydney and was charged with three federal offences after meeting investigators at a police station this week.
The charges include threatening violence to a group, using a carriage service to threaten to kill and using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend.
The 26-year-old appeared alongside colleague Ahmed Rashid Nadir in a video chat from the hospital with Israeli social media personality Max Veifer.
The duo allegedly bragged about refusing to treat Israeli patients and killing them instead.
New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb says more charges are expected to be laid soon.
“The individual will be facing court but in the meantime she is on very, very strict bail conditions namely prohibiting her from going to a point of departure from Australia but more importantly banned from using social media."
And in sport,
The Matildas will take on Colombia today in their final match of She Believes Cup in the U-S, after losing their first two games.
It comes as the team tries to move on from controversy around on-air comments made on radio station Triple M.
Yesterday [[Wednesday afternoon]] the network announced presenter Marty Sheargold will leave the network, after he criticised the Matildas on air, comparing the team to school girls.
Matildas coach Tom Sermanni says the issue has been an unwanted distraction.
"We're here to play foot we've put that behind us. The Federation will deal with it moving from here. And from now on, we'd just like to talk about football."
