TRANSCRIPT:
- An Australian man taken to Syria as a boy speaks exclusively to SBS Dateline;
- Ukraine's ambassador pleads for more support from the government;
- Tasmania's premier calls for the official launch of the state's A-F-L side to be postponed.
A Sydney man who was feared dead after being taken to Syria as a boy has spoken to an Australian for the first time in five years.
Yusuf Zahab was around 12 years old when he was taken to Syria with his family to live under I-S rule, and was believed to have been killed when I-S attacked the Kurdish prison he was being held in, in 2022.
But S-B-S Dateline has now found Mr Zahab in north-eastern Syria and spoken to him.
Zahab: "What's the news outside? Is Australia going to take me back or am I going to be able to see my mother at least? Or my family because I miss them so much. I think about them day and night and when am I going to go back home and see them I don't know. I wish to go back to Australia. I wish to go back to my normal life that I used to live 10 years ago. I wish to see my family again. I just wish to live a normal life, happy life. I wish to go back home."
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A woman has died after falling from a boat on the Hawkesbury River, in Sydney's northwest.
New South Wales Police say the 44 year old was pulled unresponsive from the water, shortly after Marine Area Command officers located an unoccupied boat at the scene.
She died despite the efforts of ambulance paramedics to revive her.
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Ukraine's ambassador to Australia has declared the country needs to be doing more to help in the fight against Russia.
In a speech to the National Press Club in Canberra, Vasyl Myroshnychenko has issued a plea for a supply of consistent support to Ukraine.
The ambassador says Ukraine needed the governments and defence industries of its allies to move "into a higher gear".
"Ukraine’s people are fighting hard, but they do not have enough military, humanitarian assistance and reconstruction support to win, and thus to end this war. We have just enough assistance. Barely enough assistance. We have drip-fed and ad hoc one-off support contributions sufficient to hang on and to keep going. Yes: at this rate we can slowly keep going. But is that acceptable? For how many years should this war drag on?"
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The federal government has recruited a suite of social media influencers and sporting stars to front a new campaign against vaping.
Australian cricketer Ellyse Perry will team up with TikTok and gaming content creators for the new campaign.
It is targeted towards young Australians who are the most likely to use e-cigarettes.
Health Minister Mark Butler says it's a new approach for a public health campaign.
"We have an obligation as government to get better information out to young Australians about the health risks associated with this behaviour and these products. This is a new approach but government information campaigns. We are partnering for the first time directly with social media influences. People who young people are listening to."
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The New South Wales government has announced it's changing the way it communicates with linguistically diverse communities living in the state.
The government says it's accepted all ten recommendations from last year's Media and Policy Review, which examined its advertising practices in multicultural sectors.
Multicultural New South Wales CEO Joseph La Posta has told a parliamentary hearing that the review involved extensive consultation.
"We've worked with a number of the really important organisations, to be frank, that my agency's partnered with for over 40 years. Chinese Daily, Chinese Herald, a number of the Arabic-speaking publications, a number of the Vietnamese-speaking (publications) - one who's on our advisory board, Mr David Giang, who does a fantastic job in communicating with communities down in south-western Sydney."
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Renegade Queensland M-P Bob Katter has dressed as a pig and run around Parliament in Canberra to bring attention to high supermarket prices for consumers and low profits for farmers.
Mr Katter says his latest costumed stunt was meant to represent the greed of supermarket giants Woolworths and Coles who have come under increasing scrutiny for their price-raising amid a cost-of-living crisis.
The M-P has called for the supermarket duopoly to be broken up into smaller entities, which he says will lower prices and increase competition.
But Mr Katter's main concern goes towards farmers who he believes have been short-changed by major supermarket chains.
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Tasmania's premier has asked the state's A-F-L club to delay its official launch by a week.
The club locked in March 18 as the date for revealing its name, colours, logo and foundation jumper.
But Jeremy Rockliff has written to the club's board, arguing it would be "near impossible" to avoid politicisation of the team launch so close to the state election.
He says he believes the best solution is to delay the launch by one week.
