AAP Rolling News Bulletin for May 22 at 0500
Iran (DUBAI)
The United States and Iran have stuck to directly opposing stances over the Middle Eastern country's uranium stockpile and controls on the Strait of Hormuz, providing little fodder for hope in Pakistani-led efforts to end the conflict.
President Donald Trump said the US will eventually recover Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium - which it believes is destined for a nuclear weapon although Iran says is intended purely for peaceful purposes.
"We will get it. We don't need it, we don't want it. We'll probably destroy it after we get it but we're not going to let them have it," Trump told reporters at the White House.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has, however, issued a directive that the uranium should not be sent abroad, two senior Iranian sources told Reuters before Trump's comments.
Climate Copenhagen (COPENHAGEN)
Australia and Turkey have flagged they will put vehicle electrification in the fast lane at this year's United Nations climate summit, as the world grapples with the fallout from fuel shortages stemming from conflict in the Middle East.
Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen and his Turkish counterpart, Murat Kurum, co-hosted a ministerial meeting of 40 countries in Copenhagen on Wednesday and Thursday that will help shape the agenda of the COP31 conference in Antalya.
The annual Copenhagen talks are a pit stop on the way to the main summit and a chance to road test fresh ideas in an informal setting.
Mr Bowen and Mr Kurum nominated electrification as their big-ticket priority.
The transport sector accounts for 15 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions, the UN says.
BudgetTas (HOBART)
The world's biggest credit ratings agency doubts Tasmania will pull off its "ambitious" budget cuts, warning the island state it faces a fresh downgrade if it doesn't.
S&P Global Ratings has sounded the alarm on the minority Liberal government's budget, delivered on Thursday by Treasurer Eric Abetz.
Tasmania has slid into debt quicksand this decade with a series of huge deficits, and 2026-27 will be no different, with a $597 million deficit forecast.
However, Mr Abetz has conjured a surplus in 2027-28 - a year earlier than previously forecast - with $1.47 billion in cuts over the next four years.
S&P is dubious, issuing a statement that the "dramatic turnaround" job faces "high execution risk," noting previous failed efforts to rein in debt.
Ebola (KINSHASA)
A case of Ebola has been confirmed in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo's South Kivu province - hundreds of kilometres from the outbreak's epicentre - the rebel alliance that controls the area says.
The case, in a rural area near the provincial capital Bukavu, signals the spread of an outbreak that experts believe circulated undetected for around two months in Ituri province, several hundred kilometres to the north, before being identified last week.
The outbreak has been linked to 139 deaths, with 600 suspected cases reported in Ituri and North Kivu provinces as of Wednesday, according to the World Health Organisation.
Two cases have also been confirmed in neighbouring Uganda.
The Alliance Fleuve Congo, which includes the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels who seized swathes of eastern DR Congo last year, said that the 28-year-old patient had died and been buried safely.
Ukraine (KYIV)
Ukrainian drones have smashed into another Russian refinery, starting a fire that produced huge clouds of black smoke, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says, in what appears to be the latest long-range attack on Moscow's vital oil industry.
The drones targeted the Syzran oil refinery, more than 800km inside Russia, Zelenskiy said on social media, where he posted a video of the aftermath.
The governor of Russia's Samara region, Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, said two people were killed by Ukrainian drones in Syzran but he did not mention the refinery.
Russia's Astra news outlet said Ukrainian drones struck the Syzran refinery owned by oil and gas giant Rosneft.
Ukraine has expanded its mid- and long-range strike capabilities, deploying eye-catching drone and missile technology that it has developed domestically as it battles to defeat Russia's four-year-old invasion.
UK Andrew (LONDON)
Documents show Queen Elizabeth II was "very keen" that the former Prince Andrew be given the job of UK trade envoy.
The UK government on Thursday released the confidential papers related to Andrew's appointment, just months after MPs accused the King's brother of putting his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein ahead of the nation.
"The Queen is very keen that the Duke of York should take on a prominent role in the promotion of national interests," the head of Britain's trade body wrote in a letter.
Another document, a government memo sent to UK trade staff around the world, said "HRH's high public profile" would require "careful and sometimes strict media management", in a reference to Andrew.
The involvement of the late queen will confirm previously held beliefs that the monarch held a soft spot for her son - an empathy that might have influenced her lack of decisiveness in dealing with allegations of Andrew's connection to Epstein.
Mideast (JERUSALEM)
Gaza flotilla activists who were detained by Israel and later pinned to the ground to the taunts of Israel's far-right police minister have been released from prison and will be deported to Turkey.
The activists, including 11 Australians, were arrested at a port in southern Israel after the Israeli navy intercepted their protest flotilla in international waters.
Their treatment by police officers under Itamar Ben-Gvir's direction drew an international outcry and a rebuke from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Ben-Gvir and at least one other minister in Netanyahu's government, transport chief Miri Regev, posted campaign-style videos of themselves visiting the port and lambasting the protesters, attention-grabbing antics before potential early elections in Israel.
Flotilla organisers say they aim to break Israel's blockade of Gaza by delivering humanitarian assistance, something aid bodies say is still in short supply despite a US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in place since October 2025 that includes guarantees of increased aid.
Iran (DUBAI)
Pakistan is stepping up diplomatic efforts to hasten US and Iran peace talks, as Tehran says it's reviewing Washington's latest responses and President Donald Trump suggests he could wait a few days for "the right answers" from Iran but is also willing to resume attacks on the country.
Six weeks since a fragile ceasefire took effect, talks to end the war have made little progress, while soaring oil prices have raised concern over inflation and the impact on the global economy.
Trump also faces domestic pressure before November's midterm elections, with his approval rating dropping close to its lowest since he returned to the White House on the surge in fuel prices.
Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir would decide on Thursday whether to travel to Tehran as part of the mediation effort, three sources familiar with the negotiations told Reuters.
In finance ...
Economy (CANBERRA)
The likelihood of a rate hike in June has shrunk after a surprise jump in the unemployment rate showed the Iran war is having a material impact on Australia's economy.
While bad news for workers, the rise in the jobless rate from 4.3 per cent to 4.5 per cent in April will be greeted with a sigh of relief by the Reserve Bank.
About 18,600 jobs dropped out of the economy in the month, defying economists' expectations for a rise of 15,000 jobs and a steady unemployment rate in official data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday.
HSBC chief economist Paul Bloxham said the figures were the sort of decisive marker, taken together with falling consumer and business confidence and housing prices, that the economy was entering a downturn.
Gas (CANBERRA)
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has slammed calls for more regulations for the gas industry while labelling a campaign to impose a tax on exports as damaging.
Senator Hanson used a speech at the Australian Energy Producers Conference in Adelaide to outline plans to discount oil and gas exploration in a bid to increase Australia's sovereign wealth.
The policy, similar to that used in Norway, would include a 30 per cent rebate on oil and gas exploration in Australia.
In exchange, the Commonwealth would take a financial stake of up to 30 per cent in oil and gas projects, with profits directed into a sovereign wealth fund.
The government's share of the gas and oil extracted would be directed into fertiliser, fuel refining and energy production.
In entertainment ...
Willis (LONDON)
Rumer Willis says her father Bruce Willis has developed a "sweetness" amid his battle with dementia.
The Die Hard actor was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia in 2023 following an earlier aphasia diagnosis in 2022.
And his eldest daughter with ex-wife Demi Moore has seen her father go from the "macho" man seen in Hollywood to a much gentler person.
Speaking on The Inside Edit podcast, she said: "I'm so grateful I get to go see him.
"Even though it's different now, I'm so grateful."
Rumer said: "There's a sweetness. He's always been this kind of macho dude and there's like a - fragile is not the right word but - just a tenderness that maybe being Bruce Willis might not have allowed him in a certain way."
Vinyl (MELBOURNE)
Music lovers can drop the needle on a new exhibition that celebrates the rich culture of vinyl records.
The Vinyl Factory: Reverb opens at ACMI, Australia's museum of screen culture, in Melbourne on Friday in an early taste of the city's annual RISING arts festival.
The show was originally staged at London's 180 Studios in 2024, with films and installations exploring the influence of vinyl on art, fashion and society.
Music firm The Vinyl Factory acquired the EMI Records facility about 25 years ago and now runs the only large-scale record pressing plant in the UK.
Its vinyl is created on the original machines that first pressed albums by The Beatles, Pink Floyd and the Sex Pistols.
The label has so far released about 500 records by musicians such as Daft Punk, Massive Attack, Pet Shop Boys and Thom Yorke.
In sport ...
AFL Tigers (PERTH)
Richmond coach Adem Yze is telling his players to treat their 'Dreamtime at the 'G' clash like a final as he plots a path to greatness for the young group.
The Tigers (1-9) sit last on the ladder and earlier this week released an injury list featuring a whopping 18 players.
With Richmond in the midst of a huge rebuild, finals football is unlikely to be on the table for at least a few more years.
But Yze is excited about the sheer amount of young talent at his disposal, and he wants to use Friday night's match against Essendon as an important building block in their development.
"We don't want to shy away from the fact that while we're going through this rebuild, that big games like this - we have to build them up as if they're finals games," Yze said.
Ten Open Draw (LONDON)
Teenage tennis star Emerson Jones has been handed the dream, nothing-to-lose French Open draw against a nightmarish opponent as she has to tackle four-time champion Iga Swiatek on her Roland Garros main draw debut.
As Alex de Minaur, Australia's top hope in Paris, contemplated a potentially gentle route into the men's tournament with a first-round clash against a qualifier, 17-year-old wildcard Jones landed arguably the most difficult draw of all against the Wimbledon champion on her favourite surface.
Jones, the former world No.1 junior, has so far been handed only glamour draws in her fledgling grand slam career, but also hugely difficult ones, losing to sixth seed Elena Rybakina at the Australian Open in 2025 and to Canadian 16th seed Victoria Mboko.
Ends Bulletin
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