AAP Rolling News Bulletin for May 20 at 1330
Ebola (BUNIA)
The head of the World Health Organisation has expressed concern over the "scale and speed" of an outbreak of a rare type of Ebola known as Bundibugyo in eastern Congo, where authorities report 134 deaths and more than 500 suspected cases.
The virus spread undetected for weeks after the first known death as authorities tested for a more common type of Ebola and came up negative, health experts and aid workers said on Tuesday. The Bundibugyo virus has no approved medicines or vaccines.
Congo was expecting shipments from the United States and Britain of an experimental vaccine for different types of Ebola, developed by researchers at Oxford, said Jean-Jacques Muyembe, a virus expert at the National Institute of Biomedical Research.
Booker (LONDON)
Taiwanese author Yáng Shuāng-zǐ and translator Lin King have won the International Booker Prize for Taiwan Travelogue, a historical romance set in Japan-occupied Taiwan in the 1930s.
It is the first novel written in Mandarin Chinese to win the prestigious prize for fiction translated into English.
The book follows a Japanese novelist with a "monstrous appetite" as she goes on a culinary tour through 1930s Japan-occupied Taiwan, with the help from a local interpreter.
The "captivating" novel, which was originally published in Mandarin Chinese in 2020 before being published in English in March, explores themes of colonialism, power, class and love.
British novelist Natasha Brown, who chaired the judging panel, called it a "captivating, wryly sophisticated" book that plays with themes of language and power and offers the reader surprises along the way.
Mideast (ISTANBUL)
Israeli forces have opened fire on at least two vessels in an aid flotilla sailing towards Gaza, according to video footage and flotilla organisers, but Israel said no live ammunition was used and there were no casualties.
The flotilla was making a renewed attempt to deliver aid to Gaza after earlier missions were intercepted by Israel in international waters.
Video from the flotilla's livestream showed soldiers firing shots at two of the boats. The type of ammunition fired was not clear.
"At no point was live ammunition fired," the Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement.
"Following multiple warnings, non-lethal means were employed toward the vessel - not toward protesters - as a warning. No protesters were injured during this event," it added, only referring to action against one vessel.
Sudan (CAIRO)
A drone strike on a bustling market in central Sudan has killed 28 people and wounded dozens more, a local rights group said, part of the war that has devastated the country since 2023.
The Emergency Lawyers, a local rights group that tracks violations committed during the conflict, said on X that the market in the town of Ghubaysh in West Kordofan province was targeted on Tuesday morning when it was overcrowded with civilians. The group blamed the army for the strike.
A full-scale war broke out in April 2023 after long-simmering tensions between the army and its rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces escalated. The RSF controls West Kordofan.
An official with Sudan's army told The Associated Press the army doesn't target civilians or civilian infrastructure. Another military source also denied the group's claims, stating that an army drone struck two RSF combat vehicles near the market while they were refueling, completely destroying the vehicles and killing those inside without causing any civilian casualties.
Budget (CANBERRA)
Holly Nebauer is waiting for a call from a real estate agent as her daughter, three-year-old Indy, plays at her ankles.
The 31-year-old and her fiance are hoping to secure their forever home in Bungendore, about 40 kilometres out of Canberra.
It will be the third property the couple has bought since 2020, having sold their first one. They expect to list their current house on the market soon.
Their first home, a two-bedroom, two-bathroom townhouse in Canberra's north, cost $466,000 at the start of the pandemic and sold for almost $200,000 more a year-and-a-half later.
Ms Nebauer says she had invested in the share market as a way to buy property and is now coaching her little sister to do the same, despite federal budget changes to the capital gains tax and negative gearing.
Housing (CANBERRA)
Australian taxpayers could be missing out on billions of dollars a year while wealthy landowners make out like bandits, amid efforts to tackle housing affordability.
The Albanese government's fifth budget attempted to reshape Australia's tax settings in favour of owner-occupiers over property investors.
But it neglected to address a "deep unfairness" at the heart of the nation's housing policy, according to a report released by think tank Prosper Australia on Wednesday.
In recent years, state and territory governments have been easing zoning laws, like raising maximum building height limits, in a bid to boost housing supply and ease affordability pressures.
While upzoning is widely lauded by economists as an effective measure to boost supply, report authors Tim Helm and Henry Williams estimated it was also giving away $11 billion per year in windfall gains to property owners.
Legal: Latham (SYDNEY)
Firebrand MP Mark Latham and his ex-partner are set to go head to head in court over claims he subjected her to sustained abuse and manipulation.
Nathalie Matthews, 38, is applying for a private apprehended violence order to protect her from the former federal Labor leader, who she accused of emotional and physical abuse.
Apprehended violence orders can be taken out by police or private citizens, as Ms Matthews has opted to do.
Mr Latham - who is an independent in the NSW upper house - denied the allegations and has not been charged with criminal wrongdoing.
The 65-year-old is set to fight the order during a three-day hearing in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court on Wednesday.
He will call two witnesses and play video evidence in support of his argument while Ms Matthews will call one witness, the court was previously told.
Ukraine (VILNIUS/RIGA)
Ukraine has blamed Russia for steering one of its drones into Estonian airspace where a NATO jet shot it down, the latest cross-border drone incident that has caused a political uproar in the Baltic states.
Latvia issued a first air threat alert over a possible drone entering its airspace on Tuesday, telling residents near the Russian border to stay indoors, with NATO Baltic Air Police jets summoned to the area. It later said it found no evidence that a drone had entered its air space.
It declared a second air threat alert after that, over two counties bordering Russia, leading to a fresh deployment of NATO fighter jets.
"Russia continues to redirect Ukrainian drones into the Baltics with the use of its electronic warfare," Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said on X.
In finance ...
Markets Aust (SYDNEY)
Australian shares have resumed their journey lower, as inflation concerns fuelled by the Middle East energy crisis underpin a global bond sell-off and weigh on investor confidence.
The S&P/ASX200 fell 71.6 points by midday, down 0.83 per cent to 8,533, as the broader All Ordinaries lost 71.6 points, or 0.81 per cent to 8,757.9.
Local equities renewed their slump following Tuesday's bounce after US President Donald Trump walked back threats of fresh attacks on Iran.
But worries around the conflict's impact on global inflation hit Wall Street overnight, sending long-dated treasury bonds to their highest levels since 2007.
"Frankly, we're not overly convinced about the near-term prospects of a peace deal and suspect the motivation to hold fire stemmed from the weekend's fresh drone attacks on the UAE and Saudi Arabia," IG market analyst Tony Sycamore said.
US Tariffs (BRUSSELS)
The European Union has struck a provisional agreement on legislation to remove import duties on US goods, a key part of the trade deal reached with Washington in July, in a move likely to avert higher US tariffs on EU products.
Under the terms of the deal struck at US President Donald Trump's Turnberry golf resort in Scotland in July, the EU agreed to remove import duties on US industrial goods and grant preferential access to US farm and sea produce.
In exchange, the United States would impose tariffs of 15 per cent on most EU goods.
Nearly 10 months since that framework accord, the European Parliament and the Council, the body representing EU governments, agreed on a legislative text, paving the way for the EU duty reductions to enter force with safeguards in case Trump reneges on the agreement.
In entertainment ...
Legal: Gillham (MELBOURNE)
Pianist Jayson Gillham's onstage comments about the killing of journalists in Gaza were a "middle finger" to those who had helped him build his international career, a court has been told.
Gillham performed Connor D'Netto's composition Witness at a Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert in 2024, introducing the piece by saying Israel had deliberately targeted journalists to prevent the reporting of war crimes.
The orchestra responded by cancelling his next appearance and the performer is suing the MSO for unfair dismissal in the Federal Court.
The case is expected to test the limits of political speech for contractors in Australian workplaces.
When MSO executives rang Gillham's agent Elaine Armstrong to cancel his next engagement, she said her client's behaviour had been selfish, the court was told.
Arts Opera (MELBOURNE)
Opera Australia's latest performance is less Verdi's La Traviata, and more AC/DC's Back in Black.
The national company has posted a major turnaround in its finances, balancing the books in 2025 following 2024's big losses of more than $10 million.
"It's very close to break even, which is fantastic ... the return to good times is not an anomaly," said chief executive Alex Budd, who began his role in November and is part of an overhauled senior management structure.
He said the improvements under acting chief executive Simon Militano had been driven by more disciplined cost controls, a carefully balanced repertoire, and a focus on rebuilding the company's finances.
While total revenue reached $122.8 million in 2025, Opera Australia posted a small deficit of $36,051 prior to the inclusion of the company's capital fund, which took the final result to a profit of $3.6 million, according to its annual results released on Wednesday.
In sport ...
AFL Hawks (ADELAIDE)
Adelaide duo Riley Thilthorpe and Callum Ah Chee will make comebacks from injury in the high-stakes clash against Hawthorn on Thursday night.
But the Crows' all-time leading goalkicker Taylor Walker, despite being fit again after a hamstring injury, will return in the state league.
Walker had been sidelined since straining a hamstring three weeks ago.
"He is all about what's best for the squad," Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks said of the 36-year-old veteran.
"Tex playing at SANFL is him getting a game of football, otherwise we start to stretch out to five or six weeks (without playing), so it's him having a hitout.
"We can train match simulation, but it's not the same, it doesn't have the same pressures, the unknown."
RL Origin Qld (BRISBANE)
New Zealand international Briton Nikora says Queensland gave his family "a better life" as he prepares to wear the Maroons jersey for the first time.
New eligibility rules allow the 28-year-old, who has played 16 Tests for the Kiwis, to line up in State of Origin due to his early years as a Gold Coast junior.
Former Maroons star Tonie Carroll, who famously represented New Zealand and Australia, is an anomaly in that he played for the Maroons in 1998 before being selected for the Kiwis.
Cronulla second-rower Nikora will come off the bench against NSW in the Origin series opener on May 27 in Sydney.
In the Origin context, the fact Nikora feels like a Maroon makes perfect sense after he played his junior footy at Parkwood Sharks on the Gold Coast and attended rugby league powerhouse Keebra Park High.
Ends Bulletin
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