Australia to unveil new Southeast Asia engagement policies at the ASEAN summit in Melbourne; a teen killed in an Israeli strike on Ramallah in the west bank, and in sport, Queenslander Liam Walsh claims his first elite cycling national championship.
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TRANSCRIPT
- Australia to unveil new Southeast Asia engagement policies at the ASEAN summit in Melbourne
- A teen killed in an Israeli strike on Ramallah in the west bank
- Queenslander Liam Walsh claims his first elite cycling national championship.
Anthony Albanese is expected to unveil new policies to boost Australia's business engagement in Southeast Asia as the ASEAN summit gets underway in Melbourne today.
The Prime Minister will use an address to 100 Australian and Southeast Asian CEOs to make five new policy announcements, which stem from recommendations in an economic strategy for the region.
Improved visa access, better finance opportunities to boost trade and investment, and on-the-ground support for businesses in Indonesia and Vietnam have all been flagged to strengthen Australia's standing in the region.
At a meeting with Malaysian Prime Minster Anwar Ibrahim, Mr Albanese has said these are all key areas of growth.
"I think that Australia and Malaysia as the Prime Minister and I discussed is we are both ambitious for what can be achieved in a further growth in trade and economic relations. Because when you look at the prospects that are there, we've identified through the Southeast Asia economic strategy identified in particular green energy as one real potential for an expansion."
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Management consultant Simon Kennedy has been named as the Liberal party's candidate to succeed Scott Morrison in the federal seat of Cook.
Mr Kennedy won Liberal Party pre-selection over Sutherland Shire Mayor Carmelo Pesce and veteran family advocate commissioner Gwen Cherne.
The former candidate for Bennelong will contest the southern Sydney seat in a by-election triggered by the resignation of the former prime minister.
Cook is a safe Liberal seat which Mr Morrison held with a more than 12 per cent margin on 55 per cent of the primary vote.
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A 16-year-old has reportedly been killed in an Israeli raid on the Palestinian administrative capital of Ramallah in the West Bank overnight.
Palestinian authorities have named the teenager as Mustafa Abu Shalbak.
The Palestinian news agency WAFA has said that confrontations broke out as Israeli forces stormed the al-Am'ari refugee camp.
Israel's military says it was there to apprehend two suspects wanted as part of a counter-terrorism operation.
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The United Nations says it has credible evidence that chemical agents were used in a 2015 attack in Syria.
An international investigative team has told the UN Security Council that its probe found “reasonable grounds to believe” the Islamic State group used mustard gas during a strike on the town of Marea in September of that year.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons says it has identified four members of ISIL as the perpetrators of the attack, and two other members of the group as the primary drivers of ISIL's chemical weapons program.
Syria has always denied that nerve agents have been used in its protracted civil war - but the spokesperson Adedeji Ebo says the UN doesn’t accept that.
"Considering the identified gaps, inconsistencies and discrepancies that remain unresolved, at this time the OPCW Technical Secretariat assesses that the declaration submitted by the Syrian Arab Republic still cannot be considered accurate and complete in accordance with the Chemical Weapons Convention."
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Victoria's Cancer Council has launched a new campaign centred around the importance of regular cervical screening.
The In Your Hands campaign comes as new data from Victoria’s Cancer Registry shows that more than 200 Victorians were diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2022, with more than 1,000 cases diagnosed in the five years between 2018 and 2022.
The Council's Head of Screening and Early Detection, Kate Broun, says a Cervical Screening Test is the best way to prevent cervical cancer, and is recommended every five years for women and people with a cervix aged 25-74 under the National Cervical Screening Program.
But she says data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare suggests that one in three eligible Victorians are still not getting the check.
"We know that there are a multitude of barriers that perhaps prevent people from participating in screening. This includes things like not knowing that they're eligible, perhaps feeling embarrassed or uncomfortable, not feeling like it's a priority, or perhaps maybe they've also previously experienced trauma."
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In sport, Queenslander Liam Walsh has thrilled a home crowd by claiming his first elite national championship at the 2024 AusCycling Track National Championships in Brisbane.
Walsh looked all but out of the race in the closing laps of the elite men's scratch race at the Anna Meares Velodrome.
But patience from Walsh and trust in his Queensland teammates proved crucial, with the 22-year-old rocketing around West Australian Stephen Hall and Tasmanian Josh Duffy in the final straight to win by millimetres.
