TRANSCRIPT
- Eight Israeli soldiers killed fighting Hezbollah in southern Lebanon
- A European body warns of 'chilling' human rights effects of Assange conviction
- The best players and biggest moments of the 2024 season honoured at the Dally M Awards ceremony
Israel says eight of its soldiers have been killed in fighting in southern Lebanon as it continues its ground invasion of the country against Iranian backed Hezbollah.
The losses were the deadliest suffered by the Israeli military in clashes over the past year between Israel and Hezbollah.
Israel says regular infantry and armoured units are joining the invasion, which it says is limited in scope.
Lebanon is urging the international community to intervene in the conflict and says 1000 people have been killed over the past two weeks, and around 1-million people may be displaced.
The United Nations Security Council is meeting to discuss the situation in the Middle East.
Spokesman for the U-N Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Stephane Dujarric, says Lebanon's borders must be respected.
"The secretary-general expresses his extreme concern with the escalation of the conflict in Lebanon. He appeals for an immediate ceasefire. An all-out war must be avoided at all costs, he said, and the territorial integrity of Lebanon must be respected."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to retaliate after Iran fired around 180 missiles at Israel.
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The Arab Council of Australia says many Australian citizens fleeing Lebanon are stranded in Dubai, unable to secure seats on flights back to Australia.
The government has secured around 100 airline seats for Australian attempting to flee Lebanon as Israel continues it's bombardment and ground raids.
Housing Minister Clare O'Neil confirmed that roughly 15,000 Australian citizens are still in Lebanon, urging anyone in the country to leave via commercial flights.
Ali Bazzi from the Arab Council of Australia says the government needs to assist people who have made it to the UAE.
"I think the Australian government has been playing a very negative, neutral role in that. And I wish if they get become more involved, and they try to charter planes or find some way to remove these people from from Dubai. And some of them staying in Dubai is quite a financial burden on them. So, you know, the Australian government, I think, is responsible to take care of these people."
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The Jewish Council of Australia says the suggestion that support for Palestinian rights makes Jewish people uncomfortable is itself encouraging racism and social division.
New South Wales police made announcements this week that they are applying to the state supreme court to prohibit protests from going ahead on October the 6th and 7th, claiming they are not satisfied the events can proceed safely.
Amnesty International and the New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties are among 40 groups calling on state police to back down.
Premier Chris Minns says that while almost every weekly protest has been peaceful, he opposes this one.
"It is true to say that the majority of the protests have taken place peacefully, except for the first one, which you'd remember on the steps of the opera house, and the last one, where police have got major concerns about flags of terrorist organizations being waived at community protests, but I'm not prepared to lump all of the protesters in with some of those actors, many of them as I’ve said, have launched protest activity and done it without major incident."
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The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has passed a resolution declaring the detention and conviction of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange will have a chilling effect on human rights.
The 53-year-old Australian returned home in June after a 14-year legal saga that saw him avoid extradition to the U.S. by pleading guilty to espionage charges.
But in its resolution the major European human rights body said Mr Assange was wrongly punished and his treatment creates to a climate of self-censorship affecting all journalists.
Rapporteur Thorhildur Sunna Aevarsdottir says it was important to speak out against incarceration on political grounds - no matter where.
"We cannot allow the United States or any other states to sentence journalists for doing journalistic work, to chase them across borders, to send a message that you are not safe wherever you are if you report on secrets about war crimes, abductions, torture, secret prisons, the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, that instead of the perpetrators of those crimes being prosecuted, the person that told us about them is put in prison and humiliated."
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And in sport, the NRL has celebrated its annual awards night in Sydney.
Sydney Roosters second rower Olivia Kernick, was named the NRLW , Player of the Year.
And for the NRL, the Dally-M medal winner was Melbourne Storm halfback Jahrome Hughes.
Fellow Kiwis Will Warbrick, Joseph Tapine, and Eli Katoa honoured Hughes with a haka.
The Storm and the Roosters will both feature in their respective Grand Finals this weekend.
