TRANSCRIPT
In this bulletin;
- Pakistan and Afghanistan announce temporary ceasefire after fresh border clashes;
- First Nations deaths in custody reaching record levels in New South Wales;
- And in cricket, Pakistan go 1-0 up in the two-match Test series with South Africa.
Pakistan and Afghanistan's Taliban say they have agreed on a temporary 48-hour ceasefire.
It follows fresh fighting that broke out Wednesday local time along the volatile Pakistan-Afghanistan border, killing more than a dozen civilians and troops while shattering a fragile peace after more clashes killed dozens at the weekend.
The weekend fighting was the worst between the neighbours since the Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021, despite regular clashes between their security forces along the contested border.
Head of Afghanistan's Spin Boldak Hospital, Abdullah Jan, says there have been many women and children among the wounded.
“It was around 4am when the fighting began. Most of the wounded are children, and 90 percent of the casualties are civilians, including women and children. We have, thank God, prepared the ambulances, and all the injured, whether women or children, are treated here first and then transferred to Kandahar city.”
Pakistan says four of its civilians were wounded in attacks by Taliban forces in the district of Chaman, which is opposite Spin Boldak across the frontier.
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Aid trucks have continued to roll into Gaza and Israel resumes preparations to open the main Rafah crossing after a dispute over the remains of a dead hostage threatened to derail the fragile ceasefire deal with Hamas.
Hamas' armed wing says it will hand over the bodies of two more deceased hostages in Gaza on Wednesday evening local time.
Israel had threatened to keep the crossing between Gaza and Egypt shut and drastically reduce aid supplies earlier because they say Hamas was returning the bodies of dead hostages too slowly.
Hamas returned four bodies on Monday and another four bodies late on Tuesday, though Israeli authorities say one of those bodies was not that of a hostage.
However, Hamas returned more Israeli bodies overnight, and an Israeli security official says preparations are underway to open Rafah to Gazan citizens.
The Palestinian Authority's Mohammad Shtayyeh says his organisation is prepared to operate the Gaza crossing, while raising concern about the reconstruction of the devastated enclave.
"We have notified all parties that we are ready to operate the Rafah crossing. To be frank with you, I am a bit worried about the issue of reconstruction. We need to compete with the reconstruction of Syria, of Lebanon, of Yemen, of Sudan, with many countries. International aid is limited, and it is our hope that international donors will be generous."
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Legal experts say New South Wales reaching a record level of First Nations deaths in custody should be a wake up call for governments.
It comes after the state coroner Teresa O'Sullivan revealed the grim milestone with 12 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people dying in custody this year, the highest number ever recorded in a single year.
She also highlighted the latest figures from the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research which shows the number of Indigenous people in custody has increased by 19 per cent while the number of non-Indigenous detainees has lowered by 12 per cent.
Nearly half of First Nations people in detention are on remand and are still waiting their day in court.
Karly Warner from the Aboriginal Legal Service says every one of these deaths has huge reverberations within the community.
"The families and communities are going to continue to feel these scars for years and generations to come. It's absolutely a horrifying record. This is the inevitable consequence of the New South Wales government driving up incarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children and men and this is something we've been warning them about for a long time."
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Australia's birth rate has hit a record low as the age of new parents continues to creep up and the number of babies they're having goes down.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released data sets about births across the country, showing there were more than 290-thousand born in 2024, up 1.9 per cent from 2023.
However, the fertility rate, which is the number of babies born per woman, dipped to 1.481 in 2024, lower than 1.499 in 2023 and 1.795 in 2014.
The median age for mothers was 32.1 years and 33.9 years for fathers, a slow and steady increase since 2014.
In the past decade, the median age of mothers has increased 1.2 years while fathers increased by 0.9 years.
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In cricket,
Pakistan have secured a 93-run victory over South Africa on the fourth day of the first Test, taking the eight wickets needed to go 1-0 up in the two-match series.
Left-arm spinner Noman Ali completed a 10-wicket haul and Shaheen Shah Afridi took the last three wickets as world champions South Africa, who were 2-51 overnight, were dismissed for 183 in the middle session.
The slow and deteriorating wicket proved far too testing for the tourists although Dewald Brevis offered them hope as he bludgeoned a quick-fire half century.
Pakistan made 378 and 167 while South Africa replied with 269 and 183.
Next week's second Test will be played in Pakistan's city of Rawalpindi.
