TRANSCRIPT
- Russian general killed in car explosion as U-S and Russia hold talks.
- Mourners are getting ready to mark the funeral of Pope Francis today.
- And in NRL, Sandon Smith led the Roosters to a commanding Anzac Day victory.
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A senior Russian general has been killed when his car exploded near Moscow ahead of peace talks between the United States and Russia.
Russia's Investigative Committee has named the senior military officer as Yaroslav Moskalik and says it has opened a criminal case into the incident.
The Investigative Committee says they believe the explosion occurred as a result of the detonation of a homemade explosive device and the Kremlin has now blamed Ukraine for the incident.
Meanwhile, a Russian aide says talks between President Vladimir Putin and US envoy Steve Witkoff were constructive and very useful.
US President Donald Trump says he has faith he can help end the war and save lives.
"Russia and Ukraine, I think they're coming along, we hope. Very fragile. They're meeting with Putin right now as we speak, and we have a lot of things going on. And I think, in the end, we're going to end up with a lot good deals, but we're gonna try and get out of war so that we can save 5,000 people a week. They happen to be mostly Ukrainian, Russian. 5,000 young Ukrainian and Russian men. And that's a big honor, if I could do it. I think we're pretty close."
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Around the world, mourners are getting ready to mark the funeral of Pope Francis today, with dedicated mass services set in place to honour the pontiff.
Heads of state and royalty are gathering at Rome in the Vatican's St Peter's Square.
The Vatican said 130 delegations are confirmed, including 50 heads of state and 10 reigning sovereigns.
Australia's governor general Sam Mostyn will also be joining hundreds of thousands of people at the funeral.
This man was one of tens of thousands who had queued to get into St. Peter's Basilica to pay their final respects to Pope Francis.
"He's been pope for most of my life and obviously most of my living memory. So for me he's inseparable from Catholicism and from my Catholic upbringing. So it's pretty important to me. It's quite significant."
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The Labor government says it will make a significant investment to community language schools in the country if re-elected.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is expected to pledge $25 million dollars to support 600 community schools across the country.
In a statement, he says the funding will help more than 90,000 students in Australia learn 84 languages.
Out of the sum, $5 million dollars of this funding will be directed to a specialist Asian languages funding stream to help more students, regardless of their background, become fluent in Asian languages through to Years 11 and 12.
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A man has died after drowning outside Melbourne at Cape Schanck on the Mornington Peninsula.
Victoria police say the incident happened at a beach near Black Rock Beach, 70 kilometres south of Melbourne.
Emergency services were called to the scene after reports a man had been washed off rocks and was in the water.
The death comes following nine drownings across Victoria and New South Wales on the Easter long weekend, the deadliest Easter weekend ever recorded on Australian waters.
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The United Nations urged Pakistan and India to exercise maximum restraint as tensions soar between the two nations following a deadly attack in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
Indian officials say Indian and Pakistani soldiers briefly exchanged fire along their highly militarised frontier.
Tensions have soared between the two nations after gunmen killed 26 people, near the resort town of Pahalgam in India-controlled Kashmir.
Pakistan denies any connection to the attack and a previously unknown militant group has claimed responsibility.
UN Secretary-General spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric says the UN says both countries need to show restraint.
"Obviously, we continue to follow the situation with very deep concern. And we of course reiterate our condemnation of the attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, which, as you know, killed about 26 civilians. And we again urge both the governments of India and the government of Pakistan to exercise maximum restraint to ensure the situation does not deteriorate further."
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And in sport,
The traditional NRL matchup between the Roosters and the Dragons was played out in front of a large crowd at Sydney's football stadium yesterday.
St George Illawarra went into the match in a confident mood after two wins in a row.
But that confidence went away in the first half as the Roosters ran in three tries to one, to open up a 14 point lead.
There was no way back from there for the Dragons as the Rooster ran out comfortable winners by 28 points.
Sandon Smith led the Roosters to a commanding Anzac Day victory with a dominant five-eighth performance.
"It was unbelievable it was my first Anzac game, so I got the privilege to come in and play today and well the whole build up ever since the start - it was such good experience and the win just tops it off."]]
The result moves the Roosters off the bottom of the ladder.
