Australia, Japan and the United States deepen their military alliance, Israeli air strikes on village in eastern Lebanon kill six, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany score important wins in the UEFA Nations League.
- Australia, Japan and the United States deepen their military alliance
- Israeli air strikes on village in eastern Lebanon kill six.
- Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany score important wins in the UEFA Nations League.
Defence minister and acting Prime Minister Richard Marles is meeting with his defence counterparts from the United States and Japan in the first trilateral ministers' meeting held in Darwin.
Mr Marles welcomed U-S Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and Japanese Defence Minister Nakatani Gen to the meeting aimed at deepening military ties between the three nations.
"It's enormously significant that we're meeting in Darwin. Darwin is a significant part of Australia's defence force but it's also a place of the potential for further cooperation. We really look forward to the opportunity today to talk about how we can work with our three defence forces here in Darwin."
Japanese troops will join U-S Marine rotations in the Northern Territory with these joint exercises forming part of a strategy to counter China's military strength in the Indo-Pacific region.
Defence Secretary Austin says the last two years has seen rapid progression in the defence relationship between Australia, Japan and the US.
"This gathering speaks volumes about our shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific. Our trilateral cooperation has reached unprecedented levels. Over the past two years we've established bold and ambitious goals. We've committed to expanding trilateral F-35 cooperation. We're planning for Japanese and Australian forces to train alongside MRF-D and we're conducting reciprocal access deployments in Australia and Japan."
Israeli air strikes on the village of Khreibeh in the Baalbek District of eastern Lebanon have reportedly killed six people, including three children, and injured 11 others.
The Lebanese health ministry says five children are also among the wounded, two of whom are in critical condition.
Meanwhile earlier strikes yesterday killed two medics in south Lebanon and injured four other rescue workers, while attacks on Lebanon's capital Beirut continue.
Farah Atwa is a resident in Beirut and the building she lived in with her children has been destroyed by these recent Israeli strikes.
"One cannot deny that there are memories in that building, memories of my own children. And I really wish that I can actually take one simple picture of them when they were young. I didn’t take anything outside of this home, because I didn’t expect at all that this will be an Israeli target, not for one second. Yesterday I was here, and today I am here, just to search for anything I could bring out, that can remind me of my children.”
Queensland's police minister says thousands of teenagers celebrating Schoolies on the Gold Coast are as safe as they can be, as the marathon of parties and excessive drinking gets underway.
But there have already been some injuries during the first weekend of festivities at Surfers Paradise.
Gold Coast Safety Response was visited by almost 10,000 school leavers picking up a wristband for events on Saturday [[16th Nov]], the first day of celebrations.
Queensland Ambulance Service says 16 patients have been assessed so far at the Emergency Treatment Centre, with one person taken to hospital.
Chris George, state director for Christian not-for-profit charity Red Frogs Australia, says his volunteers are doing their best to minimise harm but overall the events are well-organised.
"Specifically on the Gold Coast, with the state government and the safety response, it's a very well coordinated and supported event. There's not really too much that can go wrong and having the Red Frogs up in the hotel rooms, we've got 650 volunteers out in force. We're on course to cook 100,000 pancakes. The reason we do that obviously is food in the belly, making sure they've got something in there. Because at the end of the week they've run out of money, they've run out food, they've run out of water so the Frogs are in there. But also to assess their rooms to make sure they're having a good time but a safe time."
In football,
Swedish striker Viktor Gyokeres [[YO-keh-res]] has led his country to a 2-1 win over Slovakia while the Netherlands have qualified for the Nations League quarter-finals with a 4-0 win over Hungary.
Gyokeres took Sweden's opening goal in the third minute and, after Slovakia levelled in the 19th minute, the Sporting Lisbon striker set up Aleksander Isak to put Sweden back in front for good in the 31st.
Gyokeres is the joint-leading scorer of the Nations League with five goals along with Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo and Slovenia's Benjamin Sesko.
Meanwhile, Germany also set a single-game scoring record for the Nations League by dominating Bosnia and Herzegovina with seven goals to nil.
