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TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to SBS News In Easy English. I'm Catriona Stirrat.
US Presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are making their final pitches on the final day of campaigning as polls suggest the vote will be close.
Republican nominee Trump is attending four rallies in three states, including two in Pennsylvania, where he told voters not to settle for "weakness, incompetence, decline and decay".
Vice President Kamala Harris is also spending her last day campaigning in Pennsylvania, where 19 of the 270 Electoral College votes are up for grabs.
The Democratic nominee has visited working-class areas including Allentown ahead of a late-night Philadelphia rally that includes pop-star Lady Gaga and talk show host Oprah Winfrey.
Speaking to supporters in Allentown, Ms Harris has promised a better future for Americans.
"Our campaign has tapped into the ambitions and the aspirations and the dreams of the American people. We are optimistic and excited about what we will do together and we here know, it is time for a new generation of leadership in America."
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First Nations advocates are urging new Queensland Premier David Crisafulli to reconsider his decision to abolish the Truth-telling and Healing Inquiry, saying everybody benefits from the truth and no-one has anything to fear.
Mr Crisafulli – who last year said Queenslanders should embrace truth-telling – announced last week that he was removing the inquiry, without first communicating his decision to the inquiry's chair, Joshua Creamer.
Since, a number of First Nations, human rights, educational and legal organisations and people have expressed their dismay and asked the premier to reconsider.
Psychologist Clinton Schultz, director of First Nations strategy at the Black Dog Institute, tells NITV that the premier’s decision felt like an attack on Indigenous people in Queensland.
“The perception that is left with us is that our social and emotional well-being, for us now and our children, our children's children into the future, are of less relevance and less importance to the government ... Truth-telling is more than just about recounting history, the whole process is about helping us to heal the wounds from the past and to look at how we can build a stronger future based on an accepted truth. ... By scrapping the Truth-telling and Healing Commission, the government has shut down a pathway to healing that has only just recently been opened … and that's leaving many people in in our communities feeling unheard, unvalued and it's deeply affecting the social and emotional wellbeing of many mob around the state and, no doubt, around the country.”
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Australia's spy chief says there have been nine terror attacks, disruptions or incidents in 2024.
ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess says none of the plots were related to events in the Middle East.
"So far this year, there have been nine attacks, disruptions or suspected terrorist incidents in Australia. in our assessment, one third of the incidents involved religiously motivated violent extremism. The majority of incidents were allegedly motivated by national nationalists and racist ideologies or mixed ideologies. Importantly, because this is often misunderstood, none of the attacks or plots were directly inspired by the conflict in the Middle East."
Mr Burgess adds however, that Hamas' terror attack against Israel on the 7th of October last year, and Israel's subsequent retaliation makes acts of terrorism more likely.
One-third of the nine terror cases in Australia involved religiously motivated violent extremism, while the majority were motivated by racist or nationalist ideologies or a mix of ideologies.
That was SBS News in Easy English. I'm Catriona Stirrat
