AAP Rolling News Bulletin for May 20 at 0630
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.
Iran (WASHINGTON/DUBAI)
President Donald Trump says the US may need to strike Iran again and that he had been an hour away from ordering an attack before postponing it.
Trump was speaking to reporters at the White House a day after saying he had paused a planned resumption of hostilities following a new proposal by Tehran to end the US-Israeli war.
"I was an hour away from making the decision to go today," Trump said on Tuesday.
Iran's leaders are begging for a deal, he said, adding that a new US attack would happen in coming days if no agreement was reached.
"Well, I mean, I'm saying two or three days, maybe Friday, Saturday, Sunday, something, maybe early next week, a limited period of time, because we can't let them have a new nuclear weapon."
Ebola (BUNIA)
Twenty-six more suspected Ebola deaths have been recorded in 24 hours in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, and the head of the World Health Organisation has expressed deep concern about the outbreak's spread.
The new deaths bring to 131 the fatalities associated with the outbreak in eastern DRC.
There have been 516 suspected cases and 33 confirmed cases in DRC, according to a daily bulletin published by health authorities, and two confirmed cases in neighbouring Uganda.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared the outbreak of the rare Bundibugyo strain of the virus a public health emergency of international concern on Saturday, the first time a WHO chief has done so before convening an emergency committee.
The outbreak has alarmed experts because it was able to spread for weeks undetected across a densely populated area ravaged by widespread armed violence.
In finance ...
Budget (CANBERRA)
States and territories are being urged to slash stamp duty for small businesses and families to help them handle the fallout of a contentious overhaul of tax on investments.
The federal government has flagged some GST relief for Australians affected by a new 30 per cent tax on discretionary trusts, which kicks in from July 2028.
But Labor has stopped short of guaranteeing a reprieve on stamp duty, which thousands of people will likely need to pay as they restructure their investments as a result of the changes.
The reforms outlined in the budget attempt to even the tax rates on wages and investments, but businesses claim they will lead to a "double whammy" of taxes which could stifle innovation.
Economy (CANBERRA)
Australian businesses and consumers have been urged to keep their inflation expectations in check as the Reserve Bank warns "self-fulfilling prophecies" may lead to a recession.
Conflict in the Middle East has shocked economies, disrupting oil and gas markets and driving inflation in Australia and elsewhere.
It is costly for businesses to change their prices every time expenses increase, which leads many to try account for future expected costs when setting prices in the present.
But the RBA's chief economist Sarah Hunter, speaking at the Bloomberg Forum in Sydney, warned inflation expectations must be kept tethered.
"If businesses and households expect high future inflation, this can become a self-fulfilling prophecy as these expectations get baked into contracts for goods, services and wages," she said on Tuesday.
In entertainment ...
Legal: Gillham (MELBOURNE)
Cancelled pianist Jayon Gillham's commentary on Palestine during a classical music concert was a "middle finger" to those who had helped him build a stellar 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 with comments about Israel killing journalists in Gaza.
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.
On the second day of a 15-day trial, the court heard details of senior orchestra management's handling of the crisis in the days after Gillham's concert.
UK MAFS (LONDON)
A British broadcaster has pulled all episodes of Married at First Sight UK from its platforms after three contestants claimed they were sexually assaulted by on-screen partners on the matchmaking reality show.
Channel 4 said the allegations were "very serious", and the British government said on Tuesday there must be "consequences for criminality or wrongdoing".
Married at First Sight is an international reality TV franchise inspired by a Danish original, with editions in countries including the US, Australia and South Africa.
Strangers are matched by experts and move in together after mock wedding ceremonies.
Two women who appeared on the British show say they were raped by their on-screen husbands, and a third claims she was subjected to a non-consensual sexual act.
In sport ...
Soc Aust (MELBOURNE)
Cash-strapped Football Australia (FA) is set to cut more than 20 per cent of its staff in response to a looming second-straight record financial loss.
But chief executive Martin Kugeler is adamant the serious belt-tightening won't impact the Socceroos or Matildas, who are preparing for their respective World Cups.
Kugeler on Tuesday confirmed FA would undergo a "significant reset and restructure" to allow it to work within its financial means, in response to a loss that would exceed last year's record $8.5 million deficit.
"Two significant losses, and increasing losses year-on-year, is obviously not a situation that is sustainable or acceptable," Kugeler said.
FA held an all-staff meeting on Tuesday morning regarding the financial news and separate meetings were held with affected staff throughout the day.
Ath Oceania (DARWIN)
Rising sprint sensation Aidan Murphy has gone within a whisker of breaking one of the oldest records in Australian athletics with a stunning 400m run of 44.44 seconds at the Oceania championships in Darwin.
With countrymen Thomas Reynolds and Luke van Ratingen pushing him all the way on Tuesday, the 22-year-old Murphy took full advantage of the hot conditions at Arafura Stadium.
He stripped 0.37 off his personal best to move to second on the Australian all time list, just six hundredths of a second shy of Darren Clark's national record, which has stood untouched since the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
"We're right there," said Murphy.
"If the national record isn't broken this year, it's just a matter of time.
"Depending on who it is I don't know, but we're all just around the corner and slowly chipping away at that milestone."
Ends Bulletin
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