AAP Rolling News Bulletin for June 8 at 0830
Ukraine (LONDON)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says Ukraine will not "silently die" and could maintain its recent surge of attacks deep into Russia if the war continues as he arrived in London for talks.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed Zelenskiy and the leaders of Germany and France to Downing Street on Sunday to discuss European support for Ukraine and stepping up efforts to bring an end to the war.
"The main focus is our defence in the war, greater co-operation for the security of all of Europe in the area of air defence, and our shared view of diplomatic prospects," Zelenskiy wrote on X when he arrived in the United Kingdom.
"Europe must be part of the negotiations and must be strong."
Federal (CANBERRA)
Support for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has slumped while One Nation has edged ahead of Labor as the country's most popular political party in a Newspoll.
The survey showed a four-point rise in One Nation's primary vote to 31 per cent while Labor dipped one point to 30 per cent and the coalition gave up two points to 18 per cent.
The Newspoll, published in The Australian, also registered a one-point decline for the Greens to 11 per cent.
The survey sampled 1240 voters and was conducted between Monday and Thursday last week.
It echoes the results of a Redbridge Group/Accent Research poll published a week ago that had One Nation on 31 per cent support, Labor on 28 per cent and the coalition on 20 per cent.
Honours (CANBERRA)
More than 900 Australians are being lauded after receiving honours on the King's Birthday list for services praised as shaping the nation.
Former Tasmanian premier Will Hodgman, gender equality advocate Natasha Stott Despoja and philanthropist Janet Calvert-Jones are among those appointed Companions of the Order of Australia (AC), which is the nation's highest civilian honour.
All up, 34 Australians received honours through the military division, 149 received meritorious citations and 63 conspicuous accolades, with a further 702 recognised in the general division.
Soldiers will perform 21-gun salutes in both Sydney and Melbourne for the King's Birthday public holiday on Monday, where one blank howitzer round will be fired every 10 seconds until all 21 have been expended.
Late doctor and former Victorian Liberal MP Katie Allen was appointed an Officer of the Order, credited with changing how pediatric food allergy is treated after authoring more than 400 publications in leading medical journals. She died in December at the age of 59 after developing a rare form of cancer.
Iran (BEIRUT)
Israeli forces have struck the outskirts of Beirut for the first time since the United States announced a truce plan for Lebanon last week as an Iranian MP threatened to retaliate, putting talks to end the wider war into new jeopardy.
Iran has long said any peace deal with the US would depend on a ceasefire also holding in Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March in pursuit of Iran-aligned Hezbollah fighters who fired across the border.
There was no immediate formal response from Iran to Sunday's Israeli strikes on the southern outskirts of Beirut but influential Iranian MP Ebrahim Rezaei posted on X that Iran would deliver a "decisive and painful response".
"Look at the sky of the occupied territories tonight," wrote Rezaei, who serves as the spokesman for parliament's national security committee.
Obit Scolyer (SYDNEY)
Scientist Richard Scolyer has died following a lengthy public battle with brain cancer, saying in a statement that he would like to be remembered as "a proud everyday Aussie who 'gave it a crack',".
The renowned melanoma pathologist and father of three, who died aged 59 on Sunday, helped save thousands of people's lives during his career through groundbreaking skin cancer research.
Along with Professor Georgina Long, he took the disease from being a death sentence to largely curable through treatment that activates a patient's own immune system, bringing hope and healing to many.
Born in Tasmania, Professor Scolyer was diagnosed with an incurable and aggressive stage four brain cancer named glioblastoma in June 2023, aged 56, and given just six to eight months to live.
Mideast (CAIRO)
An Israeli air strike on a Hamas-led police station in the Gaza Strip has killed five Palestinians and wounded at least 16 others, health officials say, as mediators begin new efforts to salvage a fragile US-brokered ceasefire deal.
Medics did not say how many of the casualties were police.
The strike on Sunday hit a police post adjacent to a large tent encampment of displaced families in Khan Younis in the south of the enclave.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the incident.
Israel has stepped up attacks against police headquarters and personnel in the past several months, killing dozens of them, according to Hamas security officials.
Major fighting has been paused since October under a ceasefire after two years of war, but no agreement has been reached to implement a further US-backed plan for Israeli troops to withdraw, Hamas to disarm and Gaza to be rebuilt.
Honours (CANBERRA)
Will Hodgman was working as a child protection prosecutor when the "fire" in his heart was first lit to get into politics to better protect society's most vulnerable.
Mr Hodgman, who led Tasmania between 2014 and 2020, considers the implementation of his state's plan to reduce family violence during his government's term as one of its most important changes.
"Seeing how governments cannot adequately protect and care for vulnerable people in communities right across the world, but including in my home state, was something I thought I'd like to improve," he told AAP.
"It was that fire in my heart to seek to enter our parliament and pursue what were one of the most significant reforms."
The former Liberal premier has been awarded Australia's highest civil honour, the Companion of the Order (AC), for eminent service to the people and parliament of Tasmania, to economic growth and policy reform, to the law and to the community.
Honours Sport (MELBOURNE)
For more than two decades, Michael Kennedy helped Australia's winter athletes chase Olympic dreams.
Now, the veteran sports administrator has set out on a journey of his own.
After calling time on a 23-year career as chief executive of Snow Australia, which came off the back of the country's record-breaking Winter Olympics campaign in Italy in February, Kennedy headed back overseas to tick off a personal goal.
Kennedy received the news about being appointed a Member (AM) of the Order of Australia in the King's Birthday Honours while walking the 790km-long Camino Frances with his wife, Shannah.
He said the walk, averaging 25km per day for 40 days from France to Spain, had given him time to reflect on his career as an architect of Australia becoming a global winter sports powerhouse.
In finance ...
NZ Aust (CANBERRA)
Labor has laughed off the New Zealand prime minister's criticism of the capital gains tax, arguing the two nations have very different systems.
After Kiwi leader Christopher Luxon said introducing a tax on capital gains would be disastrous for New Zealand's economy, Australia's employment minister Amanda Rishworth denied it was a dig at the Albanese government's tax shake-up.
"I don't think you can compare apples with oranges when we're talking about different tax systems and different countries," she told Sky News on Sunday.
"I would suggest that neither leader would seek to get involved in domestic politics.
"I wouldn't suggest it was a shot across the bow. I would suggest that both leaders are operating in a completely different tax system in their country."
Boresight (SYDNEY)
Another drone company is about to join market leader Droneshield on the local bourse as unmanned aerial vehicles transform modern warfare.
But the Canberra-based company Boresight is a bit different to its Aussie-listed counterparts.
Spun out of privately held Canberra-based defence technology company Criterion Solutions in 2020, Boresight specialises in making cheap drones for target practice.
"We were conceived to cater to the counter-drone market, particularly the people who were shooting drones down," Boresight chief executive Justin Olde told AAP.
"They needed a cost-effective way of shooting down drones, but something that was a good testing and training tool as well."
ASX-listed defence contractor Electro Optic Systems became particularly adept at shooting down drones.
But it was expensive to buy $2500 drones from JB Hi-Fi purely to destroy them, Mr Olde said.
In entertainment ...
Noise (SYDNEY)
Gigs at one of Australia's most famous landmarks are about to get louder, with one noted concert-goer throwing his weight behind the move.
Along with lifting capacity limits at the Sydney Opera House, sound regulation for late-night concerts at the harbour venue's forecourt will be raised to be the same as settings for daytime gigs.
NSW ministers labelled the tweaks as common sense and said sound restrictions would no longer be determined by residents of the 'Toaster' - the nearby luxury apartment building whose residents have regularly complained about noise.
Notably, the Opera House copped a $15,000 fine after residents complained about the volume of a performance from Florence and The Machine in 2015.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who has styled himself as a music lover, said he's seen the English band on the forecourt, along with American rockers The Pixies.
Tonys (NEW YORK CITY)
The Tony Awards are capping a record Broadway season, with no clear frontrunner among the leading nominees and a mix of star-driven shows and new works signalling sustained momentum for the New York theatre industry.
Pop singer Pink will host the televised ceremony at Radio City Music Hall in New York on Sunday from 8pm local time (10am Monday Sydney time).
New musicals The Lost Boys and Schmigadoon! lead all nominees with 12 nods each, followed by the revival Ragtime with 11, with 24 shows vying for wins across 26 categories.
Alongside leading contenders The Lost Boys and Schmigadoon!, Titaníque and Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) have built strong followings, making the best musical category one of the most competitive in recent memory.
In sport ...
Ath Diamond (LONDON)
Kurtis Marschall has pulled off one of the boilovers of the sporting year as the Australian beat the seemingly unbeatable pole vault king Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis in front of his home fans in the Stockholm Diamond League meeting.
And though the world's top athlete wasn't at all happy his 40-event unbeaten run was ended after nearly three years, especially with his adoring Swedish public cheering him on, he reckoned he was glad it was his Adelaide mate and occasional training partner who was the one to achieve it on Sunday.
"I did not mean to spoil the show but I am so delighted with the win. It has taken a long while to get my first Diamond League victory and I really thought it would never come with Mondo here," smiled the incredulous 29-year-old double Commonwealth champ Marschall.
Ten Open Men (PARIS)
Alexander Zverev has ended his long wait for a first grand slam crown and rid himself of the unwanted title of 'best player never to win a major' with his five-set victory over Flavio Cobolli in the French Open final.
It is nearly six years since the German blew a golden chance to win the US Open against Dominic Thiem, while he also lost in Paris to Carlos Alcaraz two years ago and to Jannik Sinner at the Australian Open last year.
But injured Alcaraz did not even get to Paris and Sinner's early exit made this the opportunity Zverev had been waiting for as he repelled a brave comeback from the Italian 10th seed Cobolli, who was contesting his first slam final on Sunday (Monday AEST), to prevail 6-1 4-6 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 6-1.
Ends Bulletin
Rolling News Desk inquiries : 02 9322 8611
