AAP Rolling News Bulletin for June 1 at 1400
Legal: El Houli (MELBOURNE)
A woman accused of travelling to Syria, joining the Islamic State and marrying a number of its members has renounced the terror group and violent jihad, her lawyer says.
Rayann El Houli, 34, was due to apply for bail in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday morning but her barrister Peter Morrissey SC sought an adjournment.
He told the court the prosecution had raised concerns about El Houli's risk of endangering the community, claiming there was a lack of evidence she had renounced IS.
Mr Morrissey said he needed more time to obtain the relevant material but he was instructed to make a statement on behalf of his client.
"She renounces ISIS and violent jihad," he told the court.
"She wants nothing to do with it - not now, not in the future, not directly and not indirectly, not for herself and not for the people she loves, and especially not for her children."
Mideast (CAIRO)
A Palestinian man has been shot and killed by Israeli forces at a concrete barrier separating the occupied West Bank from Jerusalem.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified him as 26-year-old Imad Haroun Ishtayeh from the village of Salem, east of Nablus.
It said Israeli forces shot him in a thigh in al-Ram town, and he was pronounced dead at the Palestinian Medical Complex in Ramallah on Sunday.
Israeli police said he tried to unlawfully enter Israel by crossing the barrier.
Footage circulating online showed people carrying his body and climbing down a ladder that had been placed against the wire-topped barrier, while traffic continued to roll by and a horn blared.
Ishtayeh was attempting to cross from the West Bank to Israel. Many people have been shot trying to cross the barrier, including a 44-year-old father who was killed in May.
Iran (DUBAI)
Talks and message exchanges with the United States are ongoing, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has told state media.
We should not give importance to speculation and we can not judge the talks until we get to a clear result, Araqchi added.
Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said earlier on Sunday that Iran would only sign a framework agreement with the US once concrete concessions - including the release of billions in frozen accounts - had been secured.
Ghalibaf, Iran's chief negotiator, reiterated during an online parliamentary session that Iran would not accept any agreement until there was certainty that the rights of the Iranian people were safeguarded, state news agency IRNA reported.
"We trust neither guarantees nor words - only actions count. No measures will be taken until the other side acts," Ghalibaf said on Friday on X.
Ebola (BUNIA)
Five patients have recovered from a rare type of Ebola virus, the head of the World Health Organisation says during a visit to Bunia in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a city at the heart of an outbreak.
"Four people will be discharged today and there was one that was discharged the day before yesterday," WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during the opening of a new Ebola treatment centre in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province.
"Of course, we're still working on vaccines and treatments but that doesn't mean that people cannot recover from Ebola," he added.
The WHO said on Friday a patient had recovered from the Bundibugyo virus, the current species of Ebola, which has no approved treatment or vaccine.
Ukraine (KYIV)
Ukrainian drones have struck targets across several Russian regions including an oil pipeline pumping station, a refinery and a fuel depot, Russian and Ukrainian authorities say in an escalating campaign of strikes against energy infrastructure often hundreds of kilometres inside Russia.
Ukraine's General Staff said it had struck the Saratov oil refinery on the Volga river, causing a large fire.
Saratov regional governor Roman Busargin said on Telegram that "civil infrastructure" had been damaged in the strike but gave no more details.
"During the night, our soldiers applied Ukraine's long-range sanctions against an oil refinery in Saratov, Russia. This is about 700km from the front line," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.
Not all the drones struck their targets.
Russia's defence ministry said it had downed 216 drones overnight.
One Nation (CANBERRA)
Pauline Hanson's One Nation is the most popular political party in the country, a survey suggests.
A Redbridge Group/Accent Research poll, published on Monday by The Australian Financial Review, shows support for One Nation has risen four points to 31 per cent.
Labor's primary vote is at 28 per cent, down three points since the poll firm's last survey a month ago and the government's budget that was announced on May 12, and the coalition dropped two points to 20 per cent.
Support for the Greens dipped one point to 12 per cent and backing for the "other" category of parties rose two points to nine per cent.
Labor leads One Nation 51 per cent to 49 per cent on the Redbridge poll's two-party-preferred basis, calculated by asking respondents how they would direct their preferences.
Federal (CANBERRA)
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has launched a political broadside against the coalition, accusing it of planning a half-trillion-dollar hit to the budget bottom line.
Labor has found itself under increasing pressure in recent weeks over its decision to wind back tax concessions for investments in property, shares and trusts.
But costings released by Dr Chalmers show repealing the changes - as the coalition has promised - would cost the federal budget tens of billions of dollars in lost revenue.
The opposition's policies would cost a total of $544.4 billion over the next nine years, according to the analysis.
That includes $212 billion in lost revenue from indexing income taxes, $43.1 billion from repealing the CGT and negative gearing reforms, $44.2 billion from scrapping the new tax on trusts, $93.5 billion on increased defence spending and $50 billion from slashing Australia's migrant intake.
Housing (CANBERRA)
Home prices are falling in Australia's two largest cities as high interest rates and investor tax changes put pressure on an already soft market.
Dwelling values fell 0.9 per cent in Sydney, 0.8 per cent in Melbourne and 0.2 per cent in the ACT during May, according to data released by research agency Cotality on Monday.
While prices rose in other state and territory capitals, the growth was weaker than previously seen.
Cotality research director Tim Lawless said some of the weakness was part of the regular housing price cycle, but other factors were also playing a role.
"Late last year it was more about affordability and serviceability challenges as housing prices were outpacing incomes," he told AAP.
"Then towards the end of last year we started to see inflation accelerating, the RBA taking a more hawkish stance - that was a blow to confidence - and from there we saw interest rates starting to rise, global oil shock and now a budget has been handed down."
In finance ...
Markets Aust (SYDNEY)
Australia's share market has started the week on the back foot, as investors look for signs of progress in US-Iran negotiations after hopes of a breakthrough amounted to little over the weekend.
The S&P/ASX200 edged 14.6 points lower by midday, down 0.16 per cent, to 8,717.4, as the broader All Ordinaries lost 6.5 points, or 0.07 per cent, to 8,958.5.
"Negotiations between the US and Iran remain an outstanding concern and a source of potential volatility going forward," Capital.com senior market analyst Kyle Rodda said.
"Price action points to a market placing its proverbial bets that a deal will get done, despite the apparent differences between both parties regarding Iran's uranium enrichment, nuclear program and control of the Strait of Hormuz."
US AI (WASHINGTON, D. C.)
The US Department of Commerce has moved to close a potential loophole that may have led companies to export the world's most advanced chips - like Nvidia's most sophisticated Blackwell processors - to subsidiaries of Chinese companies located outside China.
The unexpected guidance suggests that the United States' best AI chips may have been making their way to the subsidiaries of Chinese AI firms based in places such as Malaysia despite broader US efforts to starve Chinese firms of semiconductors needed to develop critical AI capabilities.
The new guidance was posted on the Commerce Department's website on Sunday after a paper about the loophole circulated in Washington, according to people familiar with the matter.
The paper, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, says "the floodgates have quietly opened", dated Friday, the paper does not list any author.
In entertainment ...
Travolta (LONDON)
John Travolta's star power was so overwhelming it led to the shutting down of filming on Saturday Night Fever.
The Grease star, 72, had become a television sensation through his role as Vinnie Barbarino in the hit sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter when filming began on Saturday Night Fever in Brooklyn in 1977.
The film's director John Badham has now revealed thousands of fans mobbed its locations while he was battling to make the classic movie.
"On our first day of shooting, (fans) almost completely shut us down. In fact, they did shut us down by lunchtime," Badham told The Hollywood Reporter's It Happened in Hollywood podcast.
Recalling the chaos of filming on the streets of Brooklyn, Badham explained the production struggled to capture even simple scenes because of the enormous crowds gathering around its lead actor.
Lipa (LONDON)
Dua Lipa has tied the knot with Callum Turner in an intimate ceremony.
The singer, 30, and her actor partner, 36, married at Old Marylebone Town Hall in London on Sunday before a star-studded three-day celebration in Sicily next week, with the pair joined only by close family members as they officially became husband and wife after first striking up a romance in early 2024.
Lipa and Turner kept the legal ceremony understated despite preparations for what insiders have described as one of the biggest showbusiness weddings of the year.
The performer, whose recent Radical Optimism world tour became the biggest tour of her career and followed the success of hits including Levitating, Houdini and Dance The Night, arrived at the registry office in a Green Land Rover before exchanging vows with Callum, best known for roles in Masters of the Air, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore and The Boys in the Boat.
In sport ...
RL Eagles (SYDNEY)
Manly have begun an audacious push for an exemption to play Tolu Koula in the NRL's round 14 after the centre suffered a head knock in the illegal tackle that defined State of Origin I.
Koula lay sprawled on the ground following a shoulder charge from Kalyn Ponga that led the Queensland fullback to be dramatically banished from the field in NSW's win.
NSW debutant Koula initially reported category-two symptoms before failing a head injury assessment in the sheds after leaving the field.
That meant he was set to miss NRL clashes against Cronulla and South Sydney, both of which fell inside the 11-day stand-down period mandated for any player who fails a HIA.
The Sea Eagles had always planned to rest Koula from last Friday's loss to Cronulla, which was played only 48 hours after his Origin debut.
Super Brumbies (CANBERRA)
Tane Edmed candidly concedes he's had a frustrating season, but he isn't giving up hope of retaining his Wallabies jersey.
Edmed moved to Canberra ahead of the Super Rugby Pacific season, riding high from featuring as one of Joe Schmidt's Test fly-halves in 2025, but he hasn't enjoyed the playing minutes he would have hoped for.
Instead, Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham has opted to keep Wallabies hopeful Declan Meredith primarily in the No.10 jersey, with Edmed making his mark off the bench in the majority of matches.
Regardless, Edmed feels he's grown his ability to make the final minutes count, although it hasn't come without its mental challenges.
"It's definitely been a little bit frustrating around my minutes and opportunities, but I'm just trying to execute my role as well as I can for the team," he told AAP.
Ends Bulletin
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