TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to SBS News in Easy English, I'm Biwa Kwan.
The first phase of a Gaza peace plan has been formally approved by Israel's cabinet.
It's a crucial step to advancing the terms of the deal.
The first phase includes a ceasefire and the exchange of the remaining 48 hostages held by Hamas for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
Israeli troops would also begin to withdraw from parts of Gaza; and hundreds of aid trucks a day would start entering the enclave.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the progress made so far as a "momentous development".
"A momentous development in the last two years. A central one these aims is to return the hostages - all the hostages, the living and dead. And we are about to achieve that goal. We couldn't achieve it, without the extraordinary help of President Trump and the team: Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner."
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The Australian activists who were detained and deported by Israel have spoken about the conditions they experienced in detention.
Seven Australians were part of the Gaza-bound aid flotilla [[the Global Sumud Flotilla]] that was intercepted by Israel's military in international waters last week.
Arriving in Sydney, after being deported to Jordan, Juliet Lamont says the conditions they faced included: being kicked, punched, spat at; while also being denied access to clean drinking water and menstrual pads.
She says it has been concerning to experience - and see firsthand - the conditions, detainees are being subjected to.
"There are 400 Palestinian children in jail at the moment, and in the prison that we will put in, in Ketziot, we could hear them crying at night as big Alsatian dogs were taken into those prison cells. These people wear, you know, semi-automatic machine guns, and they train their lasers on every one of our heads. Imagine what they're doing to the Palestinians."
Israel has denied the allegations of abuse.
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The federal government has introduced legislation into federal parliament that will require employers to complete superannuation payments for their staff more frequently.
Currently, employers have to complete the superannuation payment quarterly.
The so-called Payday Super Bill will require superannuation to instead be paid every wage cycle.
The bill has been welcomed by the industry, with the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia saying the bill is long-overdue.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the bill will see young workers benefit from earlier super contributions.
"Workers would benefit from more frequent and earlier super contributions that will grow and compound over their working life. For the average 25-year-old workers' retirement balance, this is the equivalent of receiving extra $6000 dollars in today's dollars."
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Yanyuwa and Wardaman singer-songwriter Dr Shellie Morris has won three awards at Australian Women in Music Awards in Brisbane.
She picked up the inaugural Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Legacy Award, shared with cultural songwomen from the Arrkula Yinbayarra project.
She also won the Lifetime Achievement Award and the Artistic Excellence Award.
Pioneering Aboriginal singer-songwriter Ruby Hunter was inducted into the Honour Roll.
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Australian Richard Robson is among three scientists to win the Nobel Prize in chemistry.
Along with Omar Yaghi and Susumu Kitagawa, the scientists were recognised for their development of a new type of molecular architecture that could eventually help reduce pollution and combat climate change.
The Nobel Committee said the trio are being awarded the prize for groundbreaking discoveries that may contribute to solving some of humankind’s greatest challenges.
University of Melbourne professor Robson says at the age of 88, he has mixed feelings about winning the prize.
"Well, there are upsides and downsides. I'm quite old now. And handling all the nonsense that might happen. It is going to be hard work. The facility with words that I had a quarter century ago has disappeared. So it is a bit of a struggle. Any how, this is a taste of what is to come."
