Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says there is no chance for a ceasefire in Gaza, Stan Grant laments the Voice result in his first public remarks since the vote, Olympic 800 metres champion says she will keep fighting discriminatory testosterone rules.
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TRANSCRIPT
- Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says there is no chance for a ceasefire in Gaza.
- Stan Grant laments the Voice result in his first public remarks since the vote.
- And in athletics, an Olympic 800 metres champion says she will keep fighting discriminatory testosterone rules.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his country will not agree to a ceasefire in the Gaza strip as his troops escalate a ground invasion of the besieged enclave
Speaking from Tel Aviv during a cabinet meeting, Mr Netanyahu says his nation's military assault on Gaza is entering its third phase as tanks began to enter the region.
"We are in the middle of the war, we have set a clear goal to destroy the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas. We do these things systematically. First of all the breaking phase that has ended. The second stage - crushing from the air that continues all the time. The third stage - the IDF has expanded its ground entry into the Gaza Strip, it is doing it in measured, very powerful steps, making systematic progress one step at a time."
According to the Health Ministry in Gaza, the number of people killed in this latest Israel-Hamas war has reached 8,306, including 3,457 children.
And 1,400 people in Israel, most of them civilians, also lost their lives in the brutal Hamas attack on the country on October 7th.
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Acclaimed journalist Stan Grant has lamented the rejection of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, saying the nation failed to "shoulder the load" of First Nations Australians.
In his first public comments since the referendum at the Australian National University's Crawford Leadership Forum, Professor Grant has said the result was a judgement on him and other Indigenous people like him.
The former host of Q+A, who resigned from the ABC following abuse on social media, says hopes for a different Australia for Indigenous peoples would likely not be seen during his lifetime.
Professor Grant says the Yes campaign missed an opportunity to call the constitutional change a monumental, rather than a modest, ask and that a plan to make the proposal appear "inoffensive" had backfired.
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Extreme fire conditions have been forecast for parts of Queensland today, with strong westerly winds and hot temperatures accelerating bushfires across the state.
An emergency warning to leave immediately has been reissued for residents in Lucky Road, in Tara, west of Brisbane, a week after fires first threatened homes.
Almost 50 homes have already been lost in the fires in Queensland’s Western Downs region and two people have been reported dead.
Assistant Commissioner at Queensland Police Service Ben Markus has urged people to avoid driving in the area.
"Ongoing road closures are effect of life in and around fires. Again, as we did in the last couple of days, can I please urge people, if you have no need to drive into the areas where there are fires please stay away because it doesn't help and now's not the time to be to be sightseeing"
The Rural Fire Service has urged Queenslanders to follow the fire bans in place for most of the state after police said a weekend fire on the Sunshine Coast appeared to be deliberately lit.
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Double Olympic 800 metre champion Caster Semenya says her aim is no longer to win medals but to overturn unfair testosterone requirements for some female athletes.
Semenya says she wants to hold World Athletics to account for discrimination against athletes with hyperandrogenism, a condition characterised by higher than usual levels of testosterone.
She says requirements that female athletes with high levels of testosterone, a hormone that increases muscle mass and strength, medically reduce their levels disproportionately targets African and Asian athletes, which World Athletics has denied.
Semenya, who won 800 metre golds for South Africa at the London and Rio de Janeiro Olympics, says winning her battle against athletics authorities is more important to her than appearing at the Paris Olympics next year.
"For me now it is no longer about me fighting to compete, it is about fighting for what is right. Fighting for the upcoming generation, because there are a lot of kids that are affected by the same ruling."
