Opposition urges Albanese to take up any invitation to visit Israel

SBS Australia

a day ago

Listen to Australian and world news, and follow trending topics with SBS News Podcasts . The federal opposition's newly-installed Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Michaelia Cash is urging Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to take up any invitation by the Israeli President to visit the country. Israeli President Isaac Herzog says he'd like Mr Albanese to visit, after Mr Albanese issued stronger criticism of Israel this week for some of its actions in Gaza pertaining to access for humanitarian aid. Ms Cash says Mr Albanese should visit as soon as reasonably possible, in order to try and reset the relationship between Australia and Israel. Ms Cash is due to meet the Israeli Ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon, within the next week. This all comes ahead of a major summit on Palestinian statehood in New York next month, for which Australia has not yet confirmed a representative. Extensive raids have reportedly been conduced by the anti-war crimes agency probing the involvement of ex-Special Air Service soldiers in executions in Afghanistan. The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting the raids, which took place in Perth, are considered a major escalation of the Office of the Special Investigator's [[OSI]] almost five-year inquiry into civilian deaths at the hands of Australian soldiers. It's not yet clear if they are connected to the O-S-I's examination of disgraced former soldier Ben Roberts-Smith. Federal Health Minister Mark Butler says the government has no plans to introduce a sugar tax on certain food and drink to fight obesity. The Public Health Association of Australia has this week called on the government to introduce the tax on high-sugar food and drink, citing support from a survey of 2,800 adults. The Association's President, Caroline Miller, says obesity has overtaken smoking as the number one cause of preventable disease in Australia, and this is a way to combat it, as several other countries have done. She says it's produced successful health results in the United Kingdom, since that country introduced the tax in 2018. Mr Butler has told the Seven Network he agrees that obesity is a serious problem in Australia, but that a sugar tax isn't the way to fight it. "We're focused more on educating shoppers with good front-of-pack labelling about the things they are thinking about buying at the supermarket. There is no plan in our government for a sugar tax. We're instead focusing on education, and also working with food manufacturers to reduce the amount of sugar that they put into their products." King Charles and Queen Camilla have shared a message of concern following the New South Wales Hunter and Mid North Coast floods – the worst since 1978 – which left five people dead. In a statement, the Royals said they were sending special prayers, and the deepest possible sympathy to those mourning. They also expressed admiration for the emergency services, volunteer, and disaster recovery agencies who are now charting the long road to recovery. The New South Wales government has passed legislation banning the use of privately arranged and funded electronic monitoring for people on bail. It comes amid concerns about the ability of the justice system to oversee private providers after private monitoring company BailSafe collapsed without notifying the government. The legislation allows for a three-month transition period where existing private electronic monitoring conditions will continue to apply. During this period, a magistrate or judge will be required to decide whether bail concerns can be addressed through other conditions. People will be remanded in custody if they pose what is considered to be an unacceptable risk. An Australian man has been charged with directing live streamed abuse of five children and an adult in the Philippines, where they have been removed from harm. The 68-year-old Darwin man had been arrested on 3 January when Australian Border Force officers allegedly found child abuse material on his phone. Authorities found video calls from the man to facilitators in the Philippines, telling them to live stream the sexual abuse of children as young as six. Australian investigators referred their findings to relevant authorities in the Philippines where two police operations on April 9 and 23 led to the arrest of two suspected female traffickers. Groups alleging abuse from a dissolved Catholic organisation have called on Pope Leo to make public an investigation launched into its practices. The main leaders of Sodalitium Christian Vitae – a lay group that runs schools and spiritual retirement centres in several South American countries – have been accused of committing sexual abuses against children. Those alleging abuse already have a history with Pope Leo, who while acting as priest and bishop in Peru, heard their cases and took them to Pope Francis. Francis then dissolved the organisation in January [[2025]], after a high level Vatican commission to Peru found sadistic sexual and spiritual abuses and financial mismanagement. Peruvian investigative journalist Paola Ugaz played a role in exposing the group's wrongdoing. She says Pope Leo making the investigation public would be an important step for healing. IN LANGUAGE (Spanish) TRANSLATED: "This is the request they are doing to this Peruvian Pope (Leo XIV), so that the Catholic church and the state finally take responsibility for so much pain caused for over more than 50 years." A Canadian province has declared a state of emergency due to raging wildfires. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe says that 17 wildfires are currently active – with 15 communities so far evacuated. He's also warning of deteriorating weather conditions. "It is a very serious situation that we're faced with in Saskatchewan. We do need some rainfall. We need that sooner rather than later. And in light of that not being in the forecast, we most certainly are putting in place every measure possible to prepare our province, prepare our communities and prepare those that live in our northern communities that are threatened by these wildfires in the days ahead." The neighbouring province to the east, Manitoba, has also declared a state of emergency, and is urging thousands of people in the northern and eastern parts of the province to evacuate. Australian Alex de Minaur has joined calls for the men's tennis tour to be shortened after his elimination in the second round of the French Open. De Minaur has fallen from a two sets to love lead to to lose 2-6, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 to Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan. The number nine seed says, while it is not an excuse for his defeat here, many players are exhausted from the frenetic pace of the tour, and careers will be shortened as a result if something is not done. "Once you start, you don't finish until November 24th, right? So it's just never ending. That's the sheer fact of it. And the solution is you shorten it, because what's going to happen is players' careers are going to get shorter and shorter because they're just going to burn out mentally. There's just too much tennis." Earlier in the week, another of the world's best men's players, Casper Ruud of Norway, likened the men's rankings system to a rat race, saying that it made players obligated to feel like they had to play in events, even if they were injured.