Listen to Australian and world news and follow trending topics with SBS News Podcasts.
TRANSCRIPT
- Man charged over Australia Day threats to a mosque and other groups
- US envoy meet with Israeli PM to discuss future of Gaza as three killed in Israeli strikes
- Japanese star Naomi Osaka drops out of Australian Open
—-
A man has been charged with sending letters that called for violence against Muslims and other groups on Australia Day.
The material posted to Sydney's Lakemba Mosque also singled out Middle Eastern communities, Aboriginal people and left-wing politicians.
Counter-terrorism officers raided a home at Burwood on Saturday, after performing forensic testing on the letter.
A 70-year-old man was charged with three counts of sending a document threatening death or grievous bodily harm and is due to appear in court on Sunday.
The Lebanese Muslim Association said the timing of the threat, which coincided with Australia Day, was concerning.
—-
Nationals leader David Littleproud has avoided saying whether he would support an ousting of Sussan Ley in place of a new leader for the Liberal party.
The Nationals split from the Coalition last week for the second time since the election in May last year, following their opposition to the Liberal party's support for the government's hate speech laws.
He told Channel Nine's Today program that the Nationals will continue to be constructive with the Liberal Party but refused to answer questions about Liberal leadership.
"Oh look that's a matter for the Liberal party, it's got nothing to do with us. They're their own sovereign party as we are. We didn't want to get to the predicament we found ourselves in this week, we tried to be constructive. We got a bill handed us to 6 o'clock on the Tuesday morning and asked to vote for it at lunch time on that Tuesday, as far-reaching ironically about something as important as free speech. We couldn't get there, there were no processes."
—-
United States envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the future of Gaza.
On Thursday, the United States announced plans for what it called a "new Gaza" rebuilt from scratch to include residential towers, data centres and seaside resorts.
Reduced to rubble after more than two years of Israeli military bombardment, the United Nations estimates 61 million tonnes of rubble will have to be cleared from the territory.
Despite an apparent ceasefire, the health ministry in Gaza says Israeli fire killed three people, including two children.
Arafat Zawaraa is the uncle of the two boys killed.
"We were allowed to go back to the area, so we went back, we hear gunshots and bombs, the situation is hard. Today we lost two children, Mohammad 15, and Salman 14, they went out by the gate of the Kamal Adwan hospital and they were targeted by a drone."
Israel says it is aware of one strike but denies that any children were killed.
—-
A local Minneapolis resident says the man shot by federal agents on Saturday was lying on the ground when the shooting took place.
The incident marks the second fatal shooting by federal agents this month during a surge in immigration enforcement in the northern US city.
The US Department of Homeland Security said Border Patrol agents fired in defence at the man who approached them with a handgun.
An unidentified witness says the man was unarmed when shot by the federal agents.
"He was walking and stuff and then the ICE jumped out of nowhere and just started tackling, tussling with him. He was he was just walking and they just surrounded and he slipped on the ice and they started tussling with him. And then they hit him in the head with a canister. And then he started tussling with them, and then they just they shot him. They just killed him right there. He was unarmed. He was just walking. He didn't have no gun or nothing and stuff, you know, he was just dead. And I got the video right here to show it."
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara said the man was a 37-year-old city resident who was believed to be a US citizen with no criminal record other than traffic violations.
A video circulating on social media and aired on cable news stations showed people wearing masks and tactical vests wrestling with a man on a snow-covered street before shots are heard.
—-
To sport and in tennis, dual Australian Open champion Naomi Osaka has pulled out of the Australian Open, giving local qualifier Maddison Inglis a spot in the fourth round.
Only hours before their scheduled match on Saturday night, Osaka confirmed she was withdrawing because of an abdominal injury.
Osaka later detailed in a brief interview that she played her second-round match with "some pain".
"I first noticed the issue in my last match. That's why I had to take a medical. And then I thought it would get better, like if I had a break day, but it kind of got worse after I warmed up today."
It is the second-straight year the 27-year-old has withdrawn at Melbourne Park in the third round following her 2025 retirement against Belinda Bencic after one set.
