AAP Rolling News Bulletin for June 20 at 1200
UK Vote (LONDON)
Sir Keir Starmer is under pressure to set out plans to quit Downing Street over the weekend after Andy Burnham stormed to victory in the Makerfield by-election.
The British prime minister has repeatedly vowed to fight any leadership challenge, insisting he will not "walk away".
But Burnham's by-election victory has prompted more backbenchers and Labour grandees to call for Starmer to stand down.
Some MPs who had signed a statement rejecting calls for a leadership election in May have now reversed their position while former home secretary Alan Johnson told LBC his message to the prime minister would be: "It's over, Keir."
Starmer is understood to have spoken to a number of cabinet ministers on Friday, some of whom are reported to have told him he should set out a timetable for his departure.
KPMG (SYDNEY)
Australians are being told they have a right to be deeply suspicious about trusting big accounting firms after a second consultancy scandal.
KPMG Australia executives were grilled by members of a parliamentary committee in Canberra on Friday over allegations the company misused confidential documents from its client Lendlease to develop audit pitches for Westpac and Dexus.
The hearing comes after another major accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers Australia (PwC), was found to have leaked secret Australian government tax plans to corporations to help avoid a law PwC had helped write.
"Two of the big four firms have the dubious honour of having united the Australian parliament across all political divides around the failure to be honest and to act appropriately," Greens senator Barbara Pocock told KPMG Australia's former chief executive Andrew Yates at a hearing on Friday.
BudgetNSW (SYDNEY)
Despite the World Cup match playing in his office, Daniel Mookhey is more comfortable trying to balance his state's budget than a soccer ball.
The NSW treasurer will be delivering his fourth budget for the nation's largest state economy on Tuesday - and potentially his last, pending the outcome of the election scheduled for March.
It comes at a time of multiple economic headwinds, including rising interest rates and a stalled property market, and the fallout from the war in the Middle East putting a further brake on the already sluggish Australian economy.
While the NSW economy was expected to grow by 2.5 per cent in the coming financial year, that forecast has been downgraded to a meagre one per cent, Mr Mookhey revealed in a recent speech.
NDIS (CANBERRA)
Disability advocates are calling on the Albanese government to pause its plan to rush through an overhaul of the National Disability Insurance Scheme after a major report into the changes was again delayed.
A parliamentary inquiry was due to hand down its report on June 16, before its deadline was moved forward by three days.
The report isn't expected to be published until June 23.
Labor is trying to land a deal with the Greens, which would extend the inquiry into the proposed reform in exchange for the minor party's support for the government's tax changes announced in the federal budget.
Under changes to the $56 billion NDIS, the government would kick 160,000 people off the scheme to rein in spending.
Ebola (BUNIA)
At least 30 people have died since the start of May in one camp for displaced civilians in northeastern Congo, a death rate that camp officials said was unprecedented, and, because of the symptoms, could indicate Ebola is spreading fast there.
It was not possible to confirm the causes of death because patients or their relatives in Kigonze camp in Bunia - the epicentre of the Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo - had until Thursday refused testing the living or dead, a camp spokesperson and aid organisation Caritas said.
However, all had symptoms including headaches, fever and vomiting, which are associated with Ebola, a camp spokesperson, a bereaved father, three aid sources and a civil society leader told Reuters.
"People didn't just die like this before," camp spokesperson Desire Grodya Bapi told Reuters.
Trump Meloni (ROME)
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni accused her one-time close ally Donald Trump of fabricating a story about her, after the US President told an Italian TV channel that she had "begged" him to take a photo with her at a G7 summit.
Meloni said she was "astonished" by his comments, which were "completely made up".
She also chided him for acting with far greater deference to the enemies of the West than he does towards old, established allies.
Underscoring how much Trump's comments have angered Meloni's government, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announced he was cancelling a planned visit to the US next week.
The latest exchange marks a sharp deterioration in ties, coming just days after signs emerged at the G7 summit that the two right-wing leaders had steadied a previously strained relationship following tensions this year over the war on Iran.
Iran (WASHINGTON/DUBAI/ZURICH)
Israel and Hezbollah have agreed to a ceasefire in Lebanon, a US official said, after an escalation in fighting there jeopardised the chances of an interim agreement on ending the war in Iran turning into a lasting Middle East peace deal.
US-Iran talks in Switzerland planned for Friday were cancelled as fighting flared in Lebanon, creating new uncertainty about the timing of negotiations vital to ensure the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to global shipping.
The senior US official said shortly before 4pm Lebanon time that a ceasefire would come into effect then.
"We understand that after the exchange of fire earlier today, Israel and Hezbollah are now in a ceasefire," the official said on background, saying that negotiators for the US and Qataris worked out the agreement with help from Iran.
Helicopter (CANBERRA)
The work health and safety regulator is recommending the Australian Defence Force face prosecution over an army helicopter crash that killed four soldiers.
The grieving families of the victims have told a parliamentary inquiry of the "incredibly hurtful" treatment they received from the military their loved ones died serving.
Captain Danniel Lyon, Lieutenant Maxwell Nugent, Warrant Officer Class Two Joseph Laycock and Corporal Alexander Naggs were killed when their MRH-90 Taipan chopper crashed into waters off Queensland's Whitsunday Islands during Exercise Talisman Sabre on July 28, 2023.
The regulator Comcare has referred two briefs of evidence to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions relating to fatigue management and the TopOwl helmet-mounted display system worn by the pilots, chief executive Colin Radford told the inquiry on Friday.
In finance ...
Tax (CANBERRA)
Labor has been accused of missing a once-in-a-generation chance to help young Australians as the Greens continue to withhold key support for changes to negative gearing and the capital gains tax.
The final report of a snap two-day parliamentary inquiry into the government's contentious tax changes was handed down on Friday and the recommendations followed a familiar format.
The Labor-led committee said the legislation should be passed by the Senate.
The coalition, in a dissenting report, blasted the government for lying to the Australian people and called for the bill to be scrapped.
It wants tax cuts for workers to be extracted from the legislation and passed separately.
The Greens supported reining in tax breaks for investors but criticised the government for grandfathering the concessions.
KPMG (SYDNEY)
A leading consultancy firm at the centre of an audit leak scandal has defended its ethics and culture while being grilled by a Senate committee.
Some 13 KPMG executives, past and present, were grilled by the powerful federal panel with oversight of the corporate regulator in Canberra on Friday.
The committee took no prisoners as it questioned timelines, procedures, documents and the firm's level of regret over events that erupted into public consciousness on May 29.
It was left to Greens senator Barbara Pocock to underscore the inquiry's importance when she asked why the public should trust consultancies, given an earlier scandal involving PwC.
"The big four accountancy firms are strong and big companies ... that create careers for young people," KPMG's former chief executive Andrew Yates said.
In entertainment ...
Arts Impressionists (MELBOURNE)
It seems hard to believe these days, but impressionists such as Claude Monet were once reviled by critics and their paintings were impossible to sell.
But one art dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel, championed the likes of Monet, Renoir and Pissarro for decades, ultimately transforming artistic taste in Europe and the United States.
"Without Durand, we would have died of hunger, all of us impressionists," Monet is quoted as saying.
"We owe him everything."
"He was stubborn and relentless, risking bankruptcy a dozen times in order to support us."
At Geelong Gallery, Discovering the Impressionists: Paul Durand-Ruel, Art Dealer Among the Artists, features more than 70 paintings, the majority from private collections in France.
With eight artworks by Monet, the show marks the centenary of the painter's death, as well as Geelong Gallery's 130th anniversary.
Grinch (LONDON)
Jim Carrey is in talks to reprise his role as the Grinch.
The 64-year-old actor portrayed the cynical and scheming green-furred creature in 2000 movie How The Grinch Stole Christmas, and he's expected to return for a sequel.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Universal and Imagine Entertainment are developing a follow-up film about the D Seuss character, with Ron Howard set to direct the Christmas movie.
Alec Berg, Jeff Schaffer and David Mandel are to pen the script for the motion picture, after they teamed up for Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat adaptation in 2003.
In 2024, Carrey admitted he was willing to return for a How the Grinch Stole Christmas sequel - as long as it is in motion capture.
In sport ...
Cri Aust (LONDON)
Matt Renshaw has been left celebrating what he sees as an "important innings" in his uneven international career after guiding Australia to a T20 series victory over Bangladesh in Chattogram.
The 30-year-old left-hander's unbeaten 89 off 52 balls, which rescued Australia from another poor start in the second of the three-match series, ended up being the key in his side's seven-run victory on Friday which handed them an unassailable 2-0 lead.
It came after Renshaw had been going through a torrid time with the bat, having scraped together just 24 runs in his previous five innings in Pakistan and Bangladesh, and Australia's three-format batter was not about to hide how key the career-best T20 knock was in boosting his confidence again.
WC26 Aust (SEATTLE)
Socceroos coach Tony Popovic has dropped goalscorers Nestory Irankunda and Connor Metcalfe to the bench for Australia's blockbuster clash with the United States.
Veteran Mathew Leckie, playing for the first time at his fourth World Cup, and Nishan Velupillay are the two inclusions in attack for the game that could determine who finishes top of group D.
Irankunda, who was electric in the 2-0 win over Turkey, including scoring a brilliant opener, and Metcalfe, who delivered a wonderful second-half goal, loom as impact substitutes.
Popovic has stuck with impressive young goalkeeper Patrick Beach and the same defence and midfield that bested Turkey, with Harry Souttar captain again.
US star Christian Pulisic was unable to prove his fitness after a left calf injury and was left out of Mauricio Pochettino's squad altogether.
Ends Bulletin
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