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TRANSCRIPT
- Russia claims it's taken more territory in Ukraine.
- Liberals face criticism over their lack of diversity following the leadership spill.
- And in sport, another Winter Olympic medal for Australia.
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Just days before another round of peace talks, Russia claims it has captured more Ukrainian territory.
Russia says the town of Tsvitkove in Ukraine's south-east has fallen.
The town of around 1,000 people is located in the Zaporizhzhia region, which is 75 per cent Russian-controlled, but where battle lines had been largely static until recently.
The Chief of the Russian General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, claims Russia has taken the town, despite Ukraine sending additional help to try and defend it.
"The East Force Group is advancing in the eastern part of the Zaporizhzhia region. In an attempt to halt our advance, the enemy command has redeployed its most trained assault units from other areas to this area. The group's units are confidently repelling enemy attacks. Enemy units are suffering significant losses."
Russia and Ukraine will meet on Wednesday in Geneva for the latest round of negotiations to try and end the war, which has been going for nearly four years.
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Israel's cabinet has approved further measures to tighten Israel's control over the occupied West Bank and make it easier for settlers to buy land.
Ministers voted in favour of a process to register vast areas of Palestinian land as Israeli property for the first time since 1967, a week after approving another series of measures in the West Bank that drew international condemnation.
The Palestinian presidency condemned the step, saying it constitutes "a de-facto annexation of occupied Palestinian territory."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing an election later this year, and his ruling coalition includes many members who want Israel to annex the West Bank.
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New South Wales Premier Chris Minns is standing by police, after the state's police monitor announced an investigation into alleged misconduct at a Sydney protest against the visiting Israeli president.
Violent scenes erupted between officers and pro-Palestinian demonstrators at a rally opposing the visit of Isaac Herzog at Town Hall last week.
Premier Minns, who previously defended New South Wales Police, says he won't further comment on the issue as now it's been investigated.
"At this point I think it's important that everybody try to lower the temperature, we can't have a situation where there's fierce enunciation day after day and that we get whipped into a political situation where we get more chaotic scenes and more clashes in the street, that would be terrible."
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The Liberal Party is facing both internal and external criticism over its lack of diversity, after a high-level female figure who founded a key women's network within the party resigned on Sunday.
Charlotte Mortlock, a former Coalition staffer, founded Hilma's Network in 2021 to bring Liberal-minded women together and push for the higher pre-selection of female candidates.
She has resigned from the network and from the Liberal Party, citing recent events.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the party's lack of diversity and female representation doesn't represent modern Australia.
"I think people in the Liberal Party will despair that Sussan Ley, elected as leader of the Liberal Party just months ago, wasn’t even given the opportunity to give one budget reply speech. It’s up to the Liberal Party, of course, to defend their own internal processes."
On Friday former shadow defence minister Angus Taylor won the support of his party room, ending Sussan Ley’s nine-month reign as the Liberals' first female leader.
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Around the globe, Muslims are planning for Ramadan, which begins this week.
Nearly a quarter of the world's population, including hundreds of thousands of people in Australia, observe the holy month.
The month is a period of fasting and worship when Muslims abstain from eating and drinking from sunrise until sunset, and pray and donate to charity.
In the Pakistani capital Karachi, people thronged markets over the weekend to stock up on supplies.
Some shoppers, like Gulqadam Malik, are concerned about rising food prices due to inflation.
"Last year, if someone had gram flour, pulses, cooking oil, and other items that are needed during Ramadan, they would have bought 10 kilograms of that, but today they are forced to buy only five kilograms, meaning people have reduced the quantity."
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Australia's most-successful-ever Winter Olympics has become even better, with skiier Matt Graham picking up a bronze medal in the new dual moguls event.
Australia now has five medals at these Milano-Cortina games: three gold, one silver, and one bronze.
It's a second career medal for Graham, who won silver in Pyeongchang in 2018.
