AAP Rolling News Bulletin for May 31 at 0400
Ukraine (MOSCOW)
Russian President Vladimir Putin says it is too early to say if a drone which crashed into an apartment block in Romania was Russian and suggested it could have been a Ukrainian drone.
NATO accused Russia on Friday of reckless behaviour and pledged to "defend every inch of allied territory" after Romania said a Russian drone had crashed into an apartment block in the military alliance member state during an attack on neighbouring Ukraine.
"Who in Romania says that this is a Russian drone?" Putin asked reporters at a news conference in Astana, Kazakhstan.
He said he had only just heard of the incident as he had been in talks all day.
"No one can say what the origin of this or that drone is until an examination has been carried out," he said.
Ukraine (MOSCOW)
Russia's state-owned nuclear energy company Rosatom says a Ukrainian drone has struck the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe's largest, causing no damage to key equipment but leaving a hole in the wall of a turbine hall.
"This afternoon, a Ukrainian kamikaze combat drone struck the turbine hall building of Power Unit No. 6, resulting in a subsequent detonation," Rosatom's head Alexei Likhachev said in a statement.
"The explosion caused no damage to the primary equipment; however, it tore a hole in the turbine hall wall."
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Likhachev called the incident "deliberate".
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant was captured by Russia in March 2022 and remains close to the frontline in the southeastern Ukrainian Zaporizhzhia region.
Ebola (BUNIA, CONGO)
The World Health Organisation chief has called on communities in the centre of the Congo's latest Ebola outbreak to play a central role in fighting the disease.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived in the Democratic Republic of Congo to co-ordinate the response to the Ebola outbreak, for which 1028 suspected cases had been recorded by Friday, according to Congolese authorities.
"The communities understand the problems better and they know the solution as well," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters after arriving in Bunia, the provincial capital of Ituri, a hotspot of the ongoing Ebola outbreak.
"Yes, the international community is involved, under the leadership of the government of DRC. At the same time, community ownership is important. That's why we are here to discuss with the community to see how the response is running and, if there are challenges, to help."
AUKUS (SINGAPORE)
The United States, Britain and Australia are working together to develop unmanned undersea vehicles as part of their trilateral AUKUS defence pact, US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth says.
The program comes under AUKUS' so-called Pillar Two to develop advanced defence technology including quantum computing, undersea, hypersonic, artificial intelligence and cyber technology.
"The signature project will deliver a suite of highly adaptable multi-mission UUV payloads designed to support undersea operations and maintain our collective advantage in the maritime domain," Hegseth told reporters in Singapore on Saturday.
Formed by the three countries in 2021, AUKUS is part of their efforts to push back against China's growing power in the Indo-Pacific region.
China has called the AUKUS pact dangerous and warned it could spur a regional arms race.
Laos Cave (BANGKOK)
Rescuers have pulled out four people trapped in a flooded cave in Laos, Thai rescuers say.
Saturday's operation comes hours after another man was rescued from the flooded cave on Friday night.
The five people rescued are among seven Lao nationals who had entered the cave in Xaisomboun province to prospect for gold, but their exit was blocked, leaving them trapped for more than a week.
Video footage showed rescuers guiding a mud-smeared man on Friday wearing a headlamp from the tight cave entrance.
It took about 37 minutes to bring him through the passages to safety, the team said in a Facebook post.
A team of volunteers from neighbouring Thailand joined the rescue efforts on Sunday and further reinforcements from France, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand and Australia, the group posted on Facebook.
Liberals (MELBOURNE)
Plans to undo Labor's tax-break reforms and net-zero commitments have dominated a key address by Angus Taylor.
The opposition leader fronted a Liberal Party federal council meeting in Melbourne on Saturday, with the national gathering of party heavyweights an opportunity for him to firm up support and confidence after taking the top job in February.
Since his ascension, Pauline Hanson's One Nation has claimed a historic victory in the Farrer by-election and the outspoken right-wing senator has surged in popularity.
"Ours is the only party capable of defeating and replacing this rotten Labor government," Mr Taylor told the meeting.
Accusing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of starting a war on aspiration with the recent federal budget, Mr Taylor promised to scrap sweeping reforms to negative gearing, capital gains taxes and trusts, which he labelled "toxic".
Iran (WASHINGTON, D. C.)
US President Donald Trump says in a social media post he is attending a meeting in the White House Situation Room to make a final decision on a deal with Iran.
He also listed what a potential deal would need to include: Iran agreeing not to develop a nuclear weapon, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the removal of any sea mines, the lifting of the US blockade on Iran and the removal and destruction by the United States of Iran's highly enriched uranium.
"No money will be exchanged, until further notice. Other items, of far less importance, have been agreed to. I will be meeting now, in the Situation Room, to make a final determination," Trump posted on Truth Social.
Epstein (WASHINGTON, D. C.)
Former US attorney general Pam Bondi has refused to answer questions from Congress on whether President Donald Trump was aware of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's activities that led to his criminal indictments, Democratic lawmakers say.
In a closed-door interview before the House of Representatives Oversight Committee on Friday, Bondi also said Todd Blanche, who now serves as acting attorney general, had been responsible for the documents' release.
"I did not lead every aspect of this effort or conduct that document review myself. I delegated oversight over this process to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche," Bondi said in a prepared statement obtained by Reuters.
Representative Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the committee, told reporters Bondi refused to answer questions pertaining to Trump, saying a Justice Department lawyer sitting next to her "stepped in and told the former attorney general that she was not going to answer those questions".
In finance ...
US Inflation (WASHINGTON, D. C.)
Tomatoes, ubiquitous in everything from fast-food burgers to haute cuisine, are taking on a new role beyond the plate in the United States: a nagging reminder of rising costs.
Prices for those red orbs have soared more than any other food product over the past year for US consumers.
"The tomato has become a symbol of something much deeper," said Isaac Bernal Carbajo, a New York City chef who lamented life's "simplest pleasures" falling victim to price increases.
"Something as basic as buying fresh vegetables is starting to become a serious financial decision for many families."
Tomato prices are up about 40 per cent over a year ago, according to the latest US Consumer Price Index, dwarfing increases for other groceries, including coffee (up 18.5 per cent), beef roasts (up 17.8 per cent) and frozen fish and seafood (up 12 per cent).
US Economy (WASHINGTON, D. C.)
The US trade deficit in goods contracted in April as a surge in exports more than offset rising imports, a trend that if sustained could result in trade contributing to economic growth in the second quarter.
The goods trade gap narrowed 3.4 per cent to $US82.4 billion ($A115.2 billion) last month, the Commerce Department's Census Bureau said on Friday.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the goods trade deficit at $US86.5 billion.
Goods exports increased $US8.5 billion to $US219.7 billion.
Imports of goods rose $US5.6 billion to $US302.1 billion.
The trade deficit subtracted 1.25 percentage points from gross domestic product in the first quarter.
The economy of the United States grew at a 1.6 per cent annualised rate last quarter after expanding at a 0.5 per cent pace in the October-December quarter.
In entertainment ...
Aerobatics (SYDNEY)
Tumbling through the sky at 400km/h means leaving all ego outside the cockpit, even for Australia's top aerobatic pilot.
Paul Bennet has spent decades carving up the skies, as he pulls off torque rolls, double hammerheads and flips to the delight of audiences hundreds of metres below.
Growing up at Old Bar on the NSW mid-north coast, Bennet later moved to Newcastle where he truly fell in love with the sport and began to stretch his wings.
"When you close the cockpit, the world changes," he told AAP.
"It's just you, the air and the airplane.
"You become one with the plane and your wings become your arms - it's pretty cool."
Bennet began competing in aerobatic championships during the 2000s.
Obit Morin (PARIS)
Edgar Morin, one of the most influential French intellectuals of the modern era, has died in Paris at the age of 104.
The philosopher and sociologist died on Friday, his family told French media.
Born in 1921 as Edgar Nahoum to a Jewish family with Greek roots, the young Parisian student joined the French Resistance against the Nazis, later becoming a communist, then a critical observer of all ideologies - and finally, one of the most renowned thinkers of his time.
Morin's experiences of war, persecution and existential threat profoundly shaped his thinking.
After 1945, Morin initially moved in communist intellectual circles before distancing himself from Stalinism.
He gained international renown for his theory of complex thought.
Opposing any form of reductionism, he held the view that reality consists of interconnections: between the individual and society, order and chaos, knowledge and uncertainty.
In sport ...
WC26 Aust (PASADENA)
Socceroos coach Tony Popovic will watch how his charges handle the heat of a high-intensity friendly against World Cup co-hosts Mexico before making the final brutal cuts to his squad.
The Socceroos will face a capacity crowd full of Mexico fans at the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena on Saturday night (Sunday AEST) ahead of Popovic naming his 26-player squad.
The training squad is 30 players after Cristian Volpato's shock defection from Italy, though the attacker seems destined for a cameo at best in that game.
Rather than picking his final squad early like some other coaches, Popovic filtered an extended squad through a training camp, cutting some players and bringing others in later.
He has been personally meeting with players who don't make the squad.
Ten Open Aust (PARIS)
Australia's increasingly lukewarm challenge at a boiling French Open is over after Daria Kasatkina became the last of their 13-strong contingent to bite the red dust before the end of the first week, blasted almost inevitably to defeat by world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka.
Along with the boilovers created by Adam Walton and Kim Birrell and one wholly improbable comeback win by the luckless Thanasi Kokkinakis, Kasatkina's resurgence after her troubled year has been one of the real bonuses of a tough Aussie week at Roland Garros.
She made it to Saturday as the last Australian standing at the French Open for the second successive year, after Alex de Minaur's desperately disappointing capitulation to Jakub Mensik, also in the third round, the day earlier.
Ends Bulletin
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