TRANSCRIPT:
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken has returned to the Middle East for urgent talks on a proposed Israel-Hamas peace deal.
The pressure for both parties to accept the agreement is mounting.
The United Nations Security Council has now approved a resolution backing the Gaza ceasefire proposal outlined by US President Joe Biden.
US Ambassador to the U-N Linda Thomas-Greenfield says the war could end immediately if Hamas accepted the terms.
"Today this Council sent a clear message to Hamas -- accept the ceasefire deal on the table. Israel has already agreed to this deal and the fighting could stop today if Hamas would do the same. I repeat, the fighting could stop today."
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Two women have died after being swept off rocks in southern Sydney.
Police say they were part of a group of three women who were taken into the ocean by a freak wave at Cape Solander in Kurnell.
The third woman managed to drag herself to safety.
It is the second drowning incident at Kurnell in less than a fortnight, with two fishermen swept off rocks on May 28.
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A long-awaited gambling ban has now come into force in Australia.
Gamblers are now unable to use their credit cards and digital currency to fund online betting.
The federal government is also mulling a push to phase out gambling advertising over three years, which was one of 31 recommendations that came out of a parliamentary inquiry on problem gambling.
Communications minister Michelle Rowland says the government will have more announcements on this issue in the future.
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A plane carrying the vice president of Malawi has gone missing in Southern Africa.
51 year old Saulos Klaus Chilima was aboard a military aircraft with nine others that had been scheduled to land at Mzuzu Airport.
President Lazarus Chakwera has said in a televised address to the nation that the plane was unable to land due to poor visibility and was ordered to return to the capital before radar contact was lost.
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Australia's climate debate is heating up again.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen has insisted Australia will meet its emissions reduction targets, after opposition climate change spokesperson Ted O'Brien said the government's 2030 goals were unachievable.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has also maintained the Coalition remains committed to the Paris agreement and to reducing emissions.
But Labor Senator Murray Watt has argued the Coalition cannot be trusted - and that Barnaby Joyce's statement Australia should not be part of the Paris accord.
"I don't know why anyone would believe the Coalition on anything to do with climate change or energy targets. I mean, it wasn't that long ago that we were in the middle of climate wars in the Coalition and energy policies that never got landed. And it seems that we're heading back that way again."
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Men are being urged to get help for their mental and physical health challenges.
New figures show about 50 men die every day from preventable causes in Australia.
That works out to be two every hour.
Four-in-five heart-related deaths under the age of 65 are men, while suicide is the leading cause of death for those under the age of 55.
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Hundreds of people have gathered in northern New South Wales to remember a notorious massacre of Aboriginal people over 170 years ago.
28 Aboriginal men, women and children were killed by a group of 11 settlers at Myall Creek station in June 1838.
Seven of the perpetrators were later put on trial, convicted and executed in a national first.
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Meanwhile family and friends are marking the one year anniversary since a deadly bus crash in the New South Wales Hunter Valley.
Ten people died on this day after their vehicle rolled near Greta on the way back from a wedding.
Bus driver Brett Andrew Button remains in custody after pleading guilty to 10 counts of dangerous driving causing death, nine of dangerous driving causing grievous bodily harm and 16 of furious driving causing bodily harm.
Prosecutors controversially withdrew 10 manslaughter charges when Button faced court in May in exchange for the guilty pleas to the lesser charges.










