TRANSCRIPT
- Israel's Prime Minister says he's negotiating with Qatar for the release of more hostages
- A 10 year-old girl is in critical condition after being struck by lightning
- Melbourne Victory claims they moved on from a calamitous last season
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says new Qatar-mediated negotiations are underway to recover hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
News of a new round of negotiations came after Israel's military disclosed that troops had accidentally killed three Israeli hostages who approached them with a white flag after escaping their captors in Gaza.
Mr Netanyahu sidestepped a question at a news conference about a meeting on Friday in Europe between his lead negotiator, Mossad head David Barnea, and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.
He confirmed he had given instructions to the negotiating team, but would not divulge details of the talks.
Mr Netanyahu says the military operation has resulted in the freeing of some captors.
"Without the military pressure, we would not have succeeded in creating an outline that led to the release of 110 hostages. And only continued military pressure will lead to the release of all of our hostages. My directive to the negotiating team is based on this pressure, without which we would have nothing."
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Israel says that the US Navy downed 14 drones launched towards it from Yemen.
Houthi rebels in Yemen have launched a series of attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes, and have launched drones and missiles targeting Israel, as the Israel-Hamas war threatens to spread.
US Central Command General Michael Kurilla also visited Israel over the weekend and met the Israeli chief of staff, during which they conducted what he referred to as "a regional situational assessment to address the defence challenges in the region"
Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the spokesperson of the Israeli Defence Forces, comments on this cooperation:
"The fifth fleet of the US Central Command operating in the Red Sea intercepted 14 unmanned aerial vehicles launched from an area controlled by the Houthis in Yemen, near Hodeida, on their way to Israel. They were intercepted in the Red Sea. The fifth fleet is in close collaboration since it began working with the US Central Command together with the Israeli navy, the Israeli Operations Division, the Intelligence Division."
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10-year-old girl is fighting for life after being struck by lightning on the Sunshine Coast.
It happened at a private property in Beerwah yesterday [[SAT]] afternoon amid severe thunderstorms caused by ex-cyclone Jasper.
According to Queensland Police, the child was taken to Sunshine Coast University Hospital and then flown to Queensland Children's Hospital in a critical condition.
Jasper has now reached the waters of the Gulf of Carpentaria as a low after dumping as much as a metre of rain on parts of the state over a four-day period.
As of this morning, major flood warnings have been issued for far north Queensland including Daintree River, Herbert River, Johnstone River Catchment and Mulgrave River.
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United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak joined his counterpart Georgia Meloni in Rome to speak about migration at a conservative and right-wing political gathering.
The event was organised by Georgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy party, as Mr Sunak and Ms Meloni both made fighting illegal migration a flagship goal of their respective governments.
On Thursday, UK politicians voted to support the government’s plan to send some asylum-seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda, keeping alive a policy that has angered human rights groups and cost the nation at least A$ 447 million, without a single flight getting off the ground.
Mr Sunak says the number of migrants arriving in Italy and the UK is rising.
"Now our opponents just want to ignore this issue. They want to put their heads in the sand and hope that it goes away. Well, let me tell them that it won't. If they doubt that, just go to Lampedusa. Arrivals in the Central Mediterranean up by more than 50 per cent this year. That is unsustainable, but it is also unfair and it is immoral."
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And to sports.
In football, high-flying Melbourne Victory are adamant they have moved on from last season's calamitous derby pitch invasion as they prepare to face Melbourne City a year on from one of Australian football's darkest nights.
The derby in December 2022 was abandoned after just 21 minutes when Victory fans violently stormed the AAMI Park pitch.
Then-City goalkeeper Tom Glover suffered concussion and facial lacerations when he was hit with a metal bucket.
Referee Alex King was also injured while a television cameraman was hurt when struck by a flare.
Victory were fined and had supporter restrictions last season, and some suspended sanctions still hang over the club.
But one year on since Victory's 2022-23 A-League Men season was sent into a spiral, Tony Popovic's charges are top of the table and unbeaten.
