TRANSCRIPT
- Israel's military dismisses two officers after inquiry into aid worker deaths.
- New South Wales residents told to stay inside amid extreme weather.
- Last year's Grand Finalists Brisbane record their first win of the season with a 70 point thrashing.
Israel's military says it has dismissed two officers and reprimanded senior commanders after an investigation into the killing of seven aid workers, including Australian Zomi Franckom.
The IDF says it found "serious failures" and breaches of procedure, but that Israeli forces mistakenly believed they were attacking Hamas gunmen when drone strikes hit the World Central Kitchen convoy.
Following Israel's announcement, the WCK said the Israeli investigation is an important step but added that there needs to be a systemic change to prevent "more apologies and more grieving families".
Humanitarian groups, including the WCK, had previously called calling for the International Criminal Court to lead an independent investigation, saying Israel should not be given responsibility for investigating war crimes allegedly perpetrated by its own military.
But former Ambassador to Israel and now federal Liberal Senator Dave Sharma says he does not think the ICC would have jurisdiction.
"The killing of Zomi Frankcom and aid workers was deeply regrettable and unacceptable. I mean these are humanitarian aid workers ... You only have international tribunals stepping in where a state jurisdiction is unable or unwilling to act. Now that is not the case here."
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The US has welcomed measures announced by the Israeli government to expand the flow of aid into Gaza.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the reopening of a key border crossing into northern Gaza is "positive" but may not be enough to meet its demand for dramatic improvements in humanitarian conditions.
Mr Netanyahu made the announcement just hours after President Joe Biden told him in a phone call that US support for the war in Gaza depends on Israel taking more action to protect civilians and aid workers.
Aid to Gaza's population of 2.3 million is hanging by a thread, after several groups paused operations following the deaths of the seven World Central Kitchen workers.
Mr Blinken says the US wants to see evidence aid is effectively reaching people who need it throughout Gaza.
"Are the bottlenecks and other delays at crossings being resolved? Do we have a much better system for deconfliction and coordination, so that the humanitarian workers, the folks who are delivering the aid, can do it safely and securely? All of these things are critical, and that needs to, again, really be measured by the results."
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Residents in New South Wales have been told not to leave their homes unless their trips are necessary, amid extreme weather across the east coast.
Trains, roads and Sydney Airport are affected as authorities attempt to cope with the wild weather.
Two major weather systems have merged together, bringing as much as 300mm of rain from south-east Queensland to the New South Wales South Coast.
Laura Boekel from the Bureau of Meteorology says the focus of the rain activity will move to southeastern Queensland over the weekend.
"For Southeastern Queensland, the risk of moderate falls may increase, but certainly we will see that risk increase as we move into the weekend, both Saturday and Sunday. Localised heavy falls could occur at times over the weekend, and the area where we're likely to see the most risk is the areas south of Brisbane, so that includes Logan, Gold Coast and the Scenic Rim areas as well."
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The residents of New York City have been rattled by a rare 4.8-magnitude earthquake that was felt across the US's east coast.
The US Geological Survey has said the epicentre of the earthquake was in Lebanon, New Jersey, about 64 kilometres from New York.
Dozens of flights were temporarily grounded at the JFK airport following the unusually large seismic activity, however regular operating procedures have now resumed.
New York City Governor Katy Hochul says her teams are working to identify any damage to infrastructure.
"Right now, it's most important that we have our structural teams out there, our engineering teams surveying our bridges, our roads, any area there could be a fault line that is not easily detectable to make sure that our passengers on our rails as well as our commuters are safe."
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In AFL,
Brisbane has recorded its first win of the season with a 70-point thrashing of North Melbourne.
Last year's grand finalists started off strongly with a seven-goal opening spell at Norwood Oval in the AFL Gather Round in Adelaide on Friday ((April 5)).
Two-time Brownlow Medallist Lachie Neale had 14 possessions in the first quarter and 24 in the first half, to see Brisbane lead by 56 points at the break.
And Port Adelaide has overpowered Essendon 10.3.63 to 4.4.28
