TRANSCRIPT
- Israel says progress is being made on Gaza ceasefire deal...
- Qantas reveals the extent of its hacking attach
- Carlos Alcaraz cruises into Wimbledon semis as injury doubts linger over Jannik Sinner.
Israel has declared progress is being made towards a ceasefire deal in Gaza - though it may take some days to finalise.
Israeli officials say a ceasefire deal is 80 to 90 per cent complete, and U-S envoy Steve Witkoff is in Qatar to help finalise it.
Hamas has said it is willing to free all the hostages in exchange for an end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the war will end once Hamas surrenders, disarms and goes into exile — something it refuses to do.
Netanyahu says Israel remains determined to accomplish its goals.
“We have still to finish the job in Gaza, release all our hostages, eliminate and destroy Hamas’ military and governance capabilities because Gaza must have a different future, for our sake, for everyone’s sake.”
Victoria’s new anti-hate taskforce has met for the first time following a series of targeted incidents against Jewish institutions in Melbourne.
Premier Jacinta Allan says the group heard from Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush, who has declared the force is ready to act under anti-vilification and social cohesion laws.
The taskforce has also listened to members of the Jewish community, including Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler, all of whom shared their views on how the state can tackle antisemitism.
The meeting follows the firebombing of East Melbourne Synagogue and an attack on Israeli restaurant Miznon which the Premier has previously vowed to respond strongly to.
"I will not rest - will not rest - and will continue to take every action necessary - to not just strengthen the law but to respond and lead, in terms of how we as a community need to act. To say very, very clearly that acts of hate, acts of violence, acts of antisemitism have no place here in Melbourne and Victoria."
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the Reserve Bank’s decision to hold interest rates at 3.85 per cent is not the result millions of Australians were hoping for.
Markets and most economists had expected a third rate cut in July, but the R-B-A held steady, saying it needs more evidence that inflation is easing before acting further.
The surprise decision disappointed many from struggling retailers to mortgage holders who were hoping for some cost-of-living relief.
While Mr Chalmers avoided calling the move a mistake, he has highlighted the rare disclosure that three of nine R-B-A board members had opposed the hold, signalling internal division.
"I wanted to say that I welcome the transparency of publishing the unattributed votes for the first time, this is quite a substantial change in the way that the Reserve Bank reports its decisions. I welcome the transparency that comes from the publication of those votes."
The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for two senior Taliban leaders over alleged crimes against humanity targeting women and girls.
The ICC says there are reasonable grounds to believe supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada, and the Taliban’s chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani, have persecuted individuals based on gender, gender identity, and expression.
The group has condemned the warrants as an example of hostility towards Islam, saying it upholds women’s rights according to its interpretation of Islamic law.
The Taliban has banned girls and women from secondary schools and universities, and imposed strict limits on their freedom of movement, since its return to power.
Millions of Qantas customers are being notified about the extent of a data breach that exposed personal details, after a cyberattack on a third-party system used by an offshore call centre.
The airline says 5.7 million customer records were compromised.
Of those, four million had names, email addresses and frequent flyer details accessed.
For the remaining 1.7 million, additional data was taken, including dates of birth, phone numbers, addresses, gender and meal preferences - around 10,000 of which were accessed.
Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson says customers will now be contacted with details of the specific data affected and offered support services.
The airline says there's no evidence the stolen data has appeared on the dark web, but cybersecurity experts are monitoring for any breaches.
To sport,
Carlos Alcaraz has breezed into the Wimbledon semi-finals with a straight-sets win over Britain's Cameron Norrie, 6-2, 6-3, 6-3.
He will face fifth seed Taylor Fritz in the next round.
Attention now turns to top seed Jannik Sinner, who remains under an injury cloud ahead of his quarter-final against American Ben Shelton.
Sinner underwent an M-R-I on Tuesday morning and cancelled his planned training session that afternoon, raising questions about his fitness for the rest of the tournament.
