TRANSCRIPT
In this bulletin;
- Donald Trump says Israeli hostages should be home early next week as the world welcomes a Gaza ceasefire deal;
- The government under pressure over FOI laws;
- And in sport, Novak Djokovic through to semi-finals of Shanghai Masters.
US President Donald Trump says Israeli hostages held in Gaza should be home early next week.
He says he hopes to attend a ceremony formally signing yesterday's peace deal in Egypt.
Under the first phase of the deal, all hostages will be freed, Palestinian detainees held in Israel will be exchanged and Israeli troops will be withdrawn to an agreed line.
President Trump says he believes the deal has brought peace to the region at long last.
"We ended the war in Gaza, and really, on a much bigger basis, created peace, and I think it's going to be a lasting peace, hopefully an everlasting peace, peace in the Middle East. We've secured the release of all of the remaining hostage, and they should be released on Monday or Tuesday. Getting them is a complicated process. I'd rather not tell you what they have to do to get them."
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Crossbencher Allegra Spender has slammed the Albanese government's attempt to reform the Freedom of Information laws, saying it will undermine Australia's government transparency.
Attorney-General Michelle Rowland proposes to overhaul the Freedom of Information laws by introducing an application fee, banning anonymous requests and changing the law's objective.
Crossbenchers and the Greens have teamed up to oppose the changes, as Ms Spender says transparency in government matters, especially after the Robodebt scandal.
"FOI is about service to the public, transparency for the public, not to make the government's life easier, and that transparency and accountability is more important now, in this time of low trust in government, than what they are trying to do."
Ms Spender also raised the question around the FOI reforms to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during Question Time on Thursday.
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Defence Minister Richard Marles has joined his Indian counterpart, Rajnath Singh, to sign a new defence agreement between the two countries.
It is the first visit to Australia by an Indian Defence Minister since 2013.
The two ministers have discussed enhancing maritime security cooperation, increasing consultation and building cooperation on joint activities.
Mr Marles says he looks forward to visiting India to further strengthen bilateral relations.
"In recent times, what we also had is a deep strategic mind. And this has been reflected in a growing relationship. Today's meeting take these steps further. For the first time, we are instituting our meeting as our annual defence minister's dialogue. And we look forward to come to India to have the second meeting with defence minister Singh."
The agreement was signed just one day after Australia and Singapore formally upgraded their strategic partnership.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has taken partial responsibility for a strike that killed 38 people when it downed an Azerbaijan Airlines flight in December last year.
It was Russia's first admission of any responsibility, with Mr Putin saying Russian air defence systems exploded near the plane, but came with caveats.
"There was a Ukrainian drone in the sky. We were tracking three such drones that crossed the Russian border on the night of the tragedy. The second reason is technical failures of the Russian air defence system itself. The two missiles that were fired did not directly hit the plane. If that had happened, it would have crashed on the spot, but they exploded—perhaps as a result of the crash—somewhere around 10 meters away."
He made the comments at a press appearance alongside Azeri President Ilham Aliyev, and the admission is being seen as part of an effort to ease recent tensions with the former Soviet state.
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Supercars heavyweights Triple Eight are leading the charge into this weekend's Bathurst 1000 with one eye on the trophy and another on the weather forecast.
With rain predicted for Sunday's 161-lap race, co-driver Scott Pye admits he's playing it safe at Mount Panorama.
Pye shares the No.1 car with defending Supercars champion Will Brown and kicked off the weekend by finishing fastest in the co-drivers' practice session on Thursday.
The Triple Eight driver navigated heavy rain to clock a time of two minutes and 6.839 seconds as several teams opted to keep their cars in their garage.
