SBS News in Easy English 28 July 2025
Israel says it will stop military operations for 10 hours a day in parts of Gaza to allow for the delivery of food and supplies. The Israeli Government is also allowing other countries to drop supplies into Gaza. In Gaza City, Rewaa Abu Foul says the journey to get food is dangerous. "We have been going more than once. We have been going for two and a half weeks and we have not been able to get anything. We want the war to end, the siege to be lifted, and aid to reach us. We want bread, we want food and drink. There are children who were all run over. When we were walking, the truck passed and we saw one of them get run over. All of this is caused by the siege and the famine we are in." Victorian Labor politicians are planning to demand the federal government recognises a Palestinian state. But Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says more steps are needed to achieve a two-state solution. Greens senator Jordon Steele-John says the federal government needs to do more to end the suffering in Gaza. "Words do not feed starving children. It is time for the Australian government to join with the international community and recognise Palestinian statehood. The recognition of Palestinian statehood is in the ALP platform. It is time that they action it. The Australian government should join with the international community in applying sanctions to the state of Israel." Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to talk with eachother in Malaysia later today to try to end to the recent fighting. At least 33 soldiers and civilians have been killed, while thousands of Thai and Cambodian nationals have been displaced in the past week. United States President Donald Trump says he is the reason these peace talks are happening. "I asked my people, I said: 'how are we doing with Cambodia, and how are doing with Thailand?' And they say they're going to be coming in at some point to talk. I said: 'well, let's call them right now'. So I called the prime ministers of each, and I said we're not going to make a trade deal unless you settle the war. And I spoke to both of the prime ministers, and I think by the time I got it off, I think they want to settle now. I know they're meeting today or tomorrow, and we're going to work with them." In car racing and Formula One, Australian Oscar Piastri has won the Belgian Grand Prix. Piastri passing finished 3.415 seconds faster than the second-place rival, Lando Norris. Piastri says it feels good to achieve his sixth win of the season - the most by an Australian in any season in F1 history.
"It was a a great race. I knew that trying to take the leader lap one was my best chance of winning. And I was able to make it happen, which was nice. I got a good run out of one and yeah, I had to be pretty brave and try and stay as close as I could - and then I got the slipstream - and got it done. So very, very happy."
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The Australian
3 hours ago
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Canada intends to recognize Palestinian state at UN General Assembly: Carney
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ABC News
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At least 58 killed in Gaza seeking aid, US envoy Steve Witkoff arrives in Israel for talks
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ABC News
4 hours ago
- ABC News
Volodymyr Zelenskyy calls on allies to force Russian regime change after attacks on Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged his allies to bring about "regime change" in Russia, hours after Moscow launched a drone and missile attack on Kyiv that killed eight people, including a six-year-old boy. The overnight strikes reduced part of a nine-storey apartment block in Kyiv's western suburbs to rubble and wounded dozens more in the capital, according to reports from authorities. The Russian army, meanwhile, claimed to have captured a strategically important hillside town in eastern Ukraine, where the two sides have been fiercely fighting for months. Speaking virtually to a conference on Thursday, marking 50 years since the signing of the Cold War-era Helsinki Accords, Mr Zelenskyy said he believed Russia could be "pushed" to stop the war. Through the night to Thursday, Russia fired more than 300 drones and eight cruise missiles at Ukraine, mostly targeting Kyiv, the Ukrainian air force said. One missile tore through a nine-storey residential building in western Kyiv, tearing off its facade, authorities said. AFP journalists at the scene of the strike saw rescuers scouring through a smouldering mound of broken concrete, the belongings of residents scattered among the debris. As the sun rose, emergency crews were putting out fires and cutting through concrete blocks in search for survivors across the capital. The attack killed eight people in Kyiv and injured 73 others, a rescue services spokesperson told AFP. Among the dead was a six-year-old boy, who died on the way to hospital in an ambulance, the head of the city's military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, said in a post on Telegram. At one location, rescuers spent more than three hours getting to a man trapped in rubble by cutting through the wall of a neighbouring apartment, the Ministry of Internal Affairs said. The man talked to the emergency services during the operation and was pulled out alive, it added. A five-month-old baby was among the wounded, with five children hospitalised, Mr Tkachenko said on national television. Schools and hospitals were among the buildings damaged across 27 locations in the city, officials said. "The attack was extremely insidious and deliberately calculated to overload the air defence system," Mr Zelenskyy wrote on X. He posted a video of burning ruins, saying people were still trapped under the rubble of one partially-ruined residential building as of the morning. Russia's Defence Ministry said it had targeted and hit Ukrainian military airfields and ammunition depots as well as businesses linked to what it called Kyiv's military-industrial complex. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the attack had amounted to the largest number of injured civilians in a single night in the city since Russia started its full-scale invasion almost three and a half years ago. The attack also came just days after US President Donald Trump issued a 10-day ultimatum for Moscow to halt its invasion, or face sanctions. Russia said on Thursday it had captured the town of Chasiv Yar, which had been a strategically important military hub for Ukrainian forces in the eastern Donetsk region. The town "was liberated by Russian forces", Russia's defence ministry said in a statement. A Ukrainian military spokesperson called the claim "propaganda", but a video posted by a Russian military unit and verified by Reuters showed a Russian paratroop banner and the national flag being raised by soldiers in the desolate ruins of the town. "Of course, this is not true," Viktor Tregubov, a spokesperson for the Khortytsia Operational Strategic Group of Forces, told AFP. Taking control of Chasiv Yar would represent a major military boon for Russia, which has been making incremental but steady territorial gains for months. Home to around 12,000 people before the war but now largely destroyed, the town's capture would pave the way for Russian forces to advance on remaining civilian strongholds in the eastern Donetsk region. These include the garrison city of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, important logistical bases for the Ukrainian military and home to many civilians, who have up to now not fled the fighting. Moscow's forces are also mounting intense pressure on the city of Pokrovsk, about 60 kilometres south-west of Chasiv Yar. The Kremlin has made the capture of the Donetsk region a priority since it claimed the industrial region as part of Russia in September 2022. Military analyst Emil Kastehelmi, co-founder of the Finland-based Black Bird Group, said it was likely that battles were continuing near Chasiv Yar. "The terrain of Chasiv Yar has favoured the defender," he told Reuters. "Forested areas, waterways, hills and a varied building stock have enabled Ukraine to conduct a defensive operation lasting over a year, in which the Russians have made minimal monthly progress." Mr Kastehelmi said it was likely that the town's fall, if confirmed, would create conditions for Russia to advance further in eastern Ukraine, but still only gradually. "The fall of the city to the enemy is nevertheless a challenging situation for Ukraine, as it will bring the Russians closer to Kostiantynivka, which Russia is now approaching from several directions," he said. "The logistics in the area will also be affected, as Russians can bring drone teams even closer." The battle for Chasiv Yar began in April last year, when Russian paratroopers reached its eastern edge. Russian state media reported then that Russian soldiers had begun phoning their Ukrainian counterparts inside the town to demand they surrender or be wiped out by aerial guided bombs. After Thursday's strikes, Ukrainian officials called for more pressure on Russia to end the war. "President Trump has been very generous and very patient with Putin, trying to find a solution", Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga wrote on X. "It's time to make him feel the pain and consequences of his choices. "It's time to put maximum pressure on Moscow." Russia, which denies targeting civilians, has not yet commented on the strike or Mr Zelenskyy's call for regime change. Mr Putin has himself called for Mr Zelenskyy to be removed from office and has repeatedly questioned his legitimacy. AFP/Reuters
