TRANSCRIPT
In this bulletin;
- The Prime Minister says he will be prioritising listening to First Nations leaders at the Garma Festival;
- A Wall Street journalist expresses relief over Russian prisoner release;
- And in sport, a gold medal for Australia's women's 4x200-metre freestyle relay team.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he will be using his visit to the Garma Festival tomorrow to show his support for First Nations people and his desire to achieve practical outcomes on Closing the Gap indicators.
The Garma Festival is Australia’s largest Indigenous gathering held over four days in remote northeast Arnhem Land.
Constitutional law professor and Cobble Cobble woman Megan Davis was one of the co-chairs of the Uluru Dialogues that led to last year’s referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
She told Garma festival attendees the need for First Nations recognition and representation is urgent, adding that data from the referendum showed most Indigenous Australians had voted "yes" to a constitutionally-enshrined body.
Mr Albanese says he will be taking senior members of his ministry with him to listen to Indigenous leaders.
"Education, health, life expectancy, infant mortality, incarceration rates - they shouldn't be determined by someone's origins in this country. And I seek a more reconciled country. I seek a country that brings people together. That requires more work to be done to achieve those practical outcomes - and to close the gap."
This week, the Productivity Commission released the first Closing the Gap report since the Voice referendum was defeated.
It shows only five of the 19 measures monitored are considered on track.
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The family of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has expressed relief over his release, after he spent 491 days in prison.
In a statement, they say they can't "wait to give him the biggest hug".
The journalist was among two dozen people released from Russia, including United States Marine Paul Whelan, in exchange for eight Russian prisoners.
Among those returned to Russia is Vadim Krasikov, who was convicted in Germany of killing a former Chechen rebel in a Berlin park.
The complex trade was negotiated in secret for more than a year and involved at least six other countries.
It is believed to be the biggest prisoner exchange between the West and Russia since the Cold War.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan says the US government made the decision that the benefits outweigh the risks in negotiating the exchange.
"It is difficult to send back a convicted criminal to secure the release of an innocent American... And we have judged that the benefit of reuniting Americans and bringing people home, and also of vindicating the idea that the American president and the American government are going to do what it takes to protect and secure the release of innocent Americans, that that benefit outweighs the risk."
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Hezbollah's head, Hassan Nasrallah, has vowed to respond to Israel's killing of the Lebanese group's senior military commander, saying Israel has "crossed red lines".
An Israeli strike on Hezbollah's stronghold in the southern suburb of Beirut on Tuesday killed top commander Fuad Shukur, along with an Iranian military adviser and five civilians.
Israel said Fuad Shukur was behind a rocket attack days earlier that hit a football pitch in the Israeli-held Golan Heights, killing 12 children.
Hezbollah denies being behind the strike.
Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, says the country is readying itself for a retaliatory attack by Iran and its allies.
United Nations spokesman Stéphane Dujarric has again called for a de-escalation.
"These counterattacks, attacks, counterattacks, attacks - this endless cycle needs to stop. We need to see a de-escalation. We need to return to some sort of political negotiations on the various files in the region that are often intertwined in some ways. But we need political leaders to find the political courage to get back to political talks."
—
In sports,
Australia's women's 4x200-metre freestyle relay team has won the country's eighth gold medal of the Paris Games.
Mollie O’Callaghan, Lani Pallister, Bri Throssell and Ariarne Titmus achieved an Olympic record time of seven minutes and 38.08 seconds.
It's Pallister's first Olympic gold at her debut Games.
She almost missed being in the relay after contracting COVID.
Pallister says she cried with joy after winning gold.
Team USA took silver in the 4x200-metre swimming relay, making Katie Ledecky the most decorated American woman in Olympic history, with her 13th medal.
