TRANSCRIPT:
- Israeli tanks push deeper into Gaza City as Donald Trump chairs talks
- Porepunkah school reopens after deadly police shooting as manhunt continues
- Mitch Brown becomes first male AFL player to come out as bisexual
Israeli tanks have advanced overnight into a new area on the edge of Gaza City, shelling homes and forcing residents to flee ahead of a war meeting to be chaired by US President Donald Trump.
Residents report that tanks entered the Ebad-Alrahman neighbourhood, wounding several people and driving many deeper into the city.
Israel says it's launching a new offensive in Gaza City, which it calls Hamas’ last stronghold.
Around half of Gaza’s two million residents are sheltering there, with Israel insisting they will be ordered to evacuate again.
Meanwhile, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon is calling for the immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas.
Before a Security Council meeting, he has voiced regret over Israeli strikes on a southern Gaza hospital that killed 20 people, including journalists and medics.
"We obviously regret the loss of life of any journalist, non-combatant. You know, we fight Hamas. That's our goal - to eliminate Hamas. We are still looking into the details of that incident, and I'm sure that in the next few days, we will have more information about that. But Prime Minister Netanyahu was very clear. That he said it was a tragedy. We regret it."
**
United States President Donald Trump is due to chair a meeting on the future of the Gaza strip at the White House today.
It comes as Israeli tanks push into the northern edges of Gaza City, where famine was declared last week.
US Middle East Envoy, Steve Witkoff, tells Fox News the US has a comprehensive plan.
"Yes, we've got a large meeting in the White House tomorrow, chaired by the President, and it's a very comprehensive plan we're putting together on the next day that I think many people are going to be, they're going to see how robust it is and how it's how well meaning it is, and it reflects President Trump's humanitarian motives here."
President Trump has previously proposed a US takeover of Gaza, and Israel is planning a so-called 'humanitarian city' that would initially house 600,000 people.
**
Porepunkah Primary School will re-open today after the local community has been rocked by a shooting incident at a nearby property which left two police officers dead.
Victoria's Deputy Premier Ben Carroll says counselling will be made available to the 106 students and 12 teachers that make up the close-knit school community.
A manhunt continues this morning, with police searching for 56-year-old Dezi Freeman, a suspect who they say is heavily armed.
After the shooting on Tuesday, the school and much of the small rural town went into lockdown.
Mr Carrol says the government is doing everything it can to support the community.
"At Porepunkah, we have a multi disciplinary team on site, of psychologists, counsellors, student support staff, and we're offering every support, again. And as I said earlier today, like, these tragedies, strike at the heart of local communities, and schools are the heartbeat of local communities. Parents, teachers, principals, surrounding schools all come together. Sadly, I've witnessed it now on several occasions."
**
Members of Australia's Iranian community have welcomed the government's decision to expel Iran's diplomats and begin the process of listing the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation.
It comes after Australia's national security agency, ASIO, and federal government alleged that Iran had directed at least two attacks against Australia's Jewish community.
The Iranian Women's Association has welcomed the move, alongside other organisations like AUS-IRAN, where Rana Dadpour is a director.
"We have been advocating for the IRGC to be listed as a terrorist organisation in Australia for many years now, specifically since the beginning of the woman life freedom movement in 2022. In every single protest rally, campaign letter meetings that our community members have had with politicians and of different organisations in Australia that was forefront of all the requests of our community. We wanted IRGC to be listed as a terrorist organisation, not only for the safety and security of our community here in Australia, but for the safety and security of Australia. "
**
More than a thousand people are expected to attend one of the country's largest Indigenous language and technology conferences in Darwin this week.
The five-day event on Larrakia country will see First Nations leaders from across the globe come together for a cross-cultural exchange of ideas on strengthening Indigenous languages.
The biennial event, which has been running since 2007, is called PULiiMA, which means 'making voice, to speak again' in the Awabakal language.
This year's theme is "Echoes of the Past, Voices of the Future" - honouring the wisdom passed down through generations, while embracing innovations that help preserve Indigenous languages which are being lost at an alarming rate globally.
Shiree Johnston is a Gomeroi woman. She shared her thoughts on the importance of preserving language with NITV.
"If we don't do something really significant soon, we are going to lose a lot of our languages within the next 100 years. So there's people who are tirelessly working at reawakening sleeping languages, there's a number of people now who are reawakening languages from a dictionary of 400 words and they have been able to navigate through this."
**
And in AFL, the Acting National Program Manager at Pride in Sport has commended former West Coast defender Mitch Brown for being the first AFL player to publicly identify as bisexual.
Ben Cork says there is still a long way to go, but it's an important milestone to celebrate.
Yesterday, Brown became the first male AFL player in the sport's 129 years to publicly identified as gay or bisexual.
Ben Cork says Brown has done something incredibly powerful for the sport and the country.
"Coming out in Australia is really hard, and so what Mitch has done is incredibly brave. Taking that burden of being the first of whoever comes next, and so we congratulate, we celebrate Mitch for the courage that they've shown today and the doorways that they've opened for a whole generation of LGBTQ athletes."
It comes at a pivotal moment in the game, after recent incidents with homophobic slurs during AFL games.
