TRANSCRIPT:
- The Prime Minister announces a five-point plan to crack down on hate in Australia;
- The UN says aid operations in Gaza are at risk of collapse;
- Nathan Lyon spins the third Ashes Test in Adelaide on its head.
New measures are being introduced to crack down on antisemitism.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has unveiled a five point law reform plan that will include a new offence of aggravated hate speech, and new powers to deny visas to those deemed to promote violence.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke says a regime will also be developed for listing organisations whose leaders encourage racial hatred.
"We have no time for organisations where their mission is to hate Australia and to hate fellow Australians. Secondly, there have been individuals who have managed to exploit a nation that had different principles of freedom of speech and have gone right to the limits of language that is clearly dehumanizing unacceptable, having no place in Australia but have not quite crossed the threshold to violence. We all know the gateway to violence that that sort of language provides."
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A new taskforce is being established to address antisemitism in Australia's education systems.
David Gonski - who is known for his landmark school funding reviews - will lead the group, which will be spend the next 12 months improving the understanding of antisemitism among young people.
Education Minister Jason Clare says the taskforce will include representatives from the states and territories as well as key regulators across education.
"There's lots of things that we need to do to tackle and weed out antisemitism, but what we do in education is an important part of that, in preventing it, in tackling it, in responding to it. And that includes work that we do right across the system, from early education to our schools right through to universities."
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There are fears that humanitarian operations in the Palestinian territories, especially Gaza, are at risk of collapse.
The UN and more than 200 local and international aid groups have issued a joint statement saying Israel has what they have called a vague, arbitrary, and highly politicised process for them to register to provide aid.
The groups run or support the majority of the primary healthcare centres, emergency shelter responses, water and sanitation services, as well as nutrition stabilisation centres for children with acute malnutrition.
Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General, Farhan Haq, says they've been able to provide water to some displaced in Gaza, but many projects are not moving at the pace and scale required.
"In terms of water supply, 38,000 people sheltering at displacement sites in Al Mawasi are now able to collect water from community water tanks that have been directly connected to these sites, thanks to efforts by the UN and our partners. The second phase of this project, which will reach another 40,000 people, is now underway. This initiative makes water collection easier and safer and reduces the burden of using water trucks. However, OCHA warns that ongoing impediments continue to hamper humanitarians’ efforts to more quickly scale up the response."
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Four people have been killed in a US military strike on a vessel in the Pacific Ocean.
The US Southern Command has confirmed what it called a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organisation, alleging it was engaged narco-trafficking operations.
The latest U-S strike brings the death toll up to 99 since U-S forces began attacks in September.
It's also increased pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who contends that the US campaign is trying to force regime change.
"It is simply a warmongering and colonialist ambition, and we have said so often enough that everyone can now see the truth. The truth has been revealed: they want to change the regime in Venezuela to impose a puppet government that would not last even 47 hours. They want to hand over the constitution, sovereignty and all the wealth and turn Venezuela into a colony. That is simply not going to happen. Never ever. Never, never in life. Venezuela will never be anyone's colony, ever."
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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has lodged a complaint against the Nobel Foundation over its awarding of the Peace Prize to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado.
The complaint argues Machado's public support for US military actions against Venezuela runs counter to the core principles of the Peace Prize.
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The memoirs of Virginia Giuffre have reached a milestone, selling one million copies worldwide.
The book - Nobody's Girl - had been published posthumously, giving an account of being trafficked by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Doubleday U-K publishing director Susanna Wadeson has described the book as both a narrative about surviving abuse, and a rallying cry for reclaiming power.
[[1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
Lifeline 13 11 14
beyondblue 1300 22 4636]]
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To sport now and in cricket,
Nathan Lyon has spun the third Ashes Test on its head, removing Ollie Pope and Ben Duckett in the same over to leave England 3 for 59.
Pope is now struggling to hold his spot in England's side, with the tourists staring down the barrel of an irrecoverable 3 to nothing series deficit if they are beaten in Adelaide.
Lyon's two wickets in one over also means he now has taken 564 Test wickets, which has helped him surpass Glenn McGrath's record, and sent him into second place on the all-time Australian list.
