Morning News Bulletin 14 Dec 2025
In this bulletin;
- Belarus releases 123 prisoners after the US agrees to lift sanctions;
- Changes to parliamentary expense rules under scrutiny as ministers defend Anika Wells; and in cricket,
- Usman Khawaja says he feels fit and ready ahead of the third Ashes Test.
Belarusian authorities have released 123 prisoners in exchange for the lifting of US sanctions.
Those released include: Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski and key opposition activist Maria Kolesnikova.
Many of the released prisoners were sent to Ukraine, with a small number taken to the Lithuanian capital.
Ales Bialiatski says he is ready to continue his work as a human rights defender.
"It must be said that this Nobel Prize was given not only to me personally, but to all activists in the country who continue to advocate for democracy and human rights in Belarus, who continue their struggle. Thousands of people have been and continue to be imprisoned. And the Nobel Prize, I believe, was a certain recognition of our activism, our aspirations, which have not yet been realised. Therefore, the struggle continues."
The deal follows talks in Minsk with US President Donald Trump's special envoy for Belarus, John Coale.
The US has agreed to lift sanctions on a key ingredient in fertiliser called potash — an important export for Belarus, which is a close ally of Russia.
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The Pentagon says two US Army soldiers and an American civilian interpreter have been killed in an ambush by a lone IS attacker in central Syria.
The US military says the incident is the first attack on US troops to inflict casualties since the fall of Bashar al-Assad a year ago.
The shooting occurred near the ancient city of Palmyra, with the wounded evacuated by helicopter to the al-Tanf garrison near the Iraqi and Jordanian borders.
US officials say the attacker was killed, while Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth warned those who target Americans would be "hunted down".
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, and the identity of the gunman has not been released.
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Israel says it has killed a senior Hamas commander in a strike on a vehicle in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army says Raad Saad was the head of the weapons production headquarters of Hamas' military wing.
In a statement, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the strike was carried out in the Yellow Zone of the Gaza Strip in response to a Hamas improvised explosive device that wounded Israeli forces.
Gaza health officials say at least three other people were killed and three wounded in the strike.
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Labor frontbencher Chris Bowen has defended changes to travel expense rules ahead of the last election as a simplification rather than an attempt to expand the taxpayer funded entitlements.
A report in the Daily Telegraph points to a determination issued by Special Minister of State Don Farrell in February to expand the definition of "party political duties" under existing provisions.
Mr Bowen says the changes amounted to a clarification and simplification of the rules, particularly for staff travel.
The entitlements have come under scrutiny following revelations Sport Minister Anika Wells claimed expenses for travel to major events for herself and her husband.
Shadow Finance Minister James Paterson says the spending was not justifiable.
"Look, I don't want to publicly speculate about what those changes are, except to say that I think there are some reasonable aspects of this scheme which most parliamentarians have used in a sensible and reasonable way, but there are some things which clearly don't meet reasonable community expectations either. I don't think it is reasonable community expectations to take your family on a publicly funded ski holiday."
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Police in Tasmania have discovered the phone of missing Belgian hiker Celine Cremer, two years after she disappeared in Tasmania's northwest.
The device found on Saturday is a major breakthrough in the search for Ms Cremer, who was last seen in the Philosopher Falls area near Cradle Mountain on June 17, 2023.
Despite extensive searches and the discovery of her car, there were no further signs of her until a renewed search led by a private party found her phone.
The phone will be forensically examined as part of the ongoing investigation into Ms Cremer's disappearance.
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To sport now,
Usman Khawaja is feeling 100 per cent fit and ready to fire as he avoids talk about a farewell Test, ready to embrace a middle-order demotion.
Khawaja turns 39 on Thursday, day two of the third Ashes Test at Adelaide Oval.
The left-hander, who suffered debilitating back spasms during the series opener then sat out the day-night Test, remains unsure whether selectors will rush him into the XI.
Regardless of how the next few weeks unfold, this is widely expected to be Khawaja's last summer in the Test squad.
