US President Donald Trump set to hold direct talks with Vladimir Putin on Ukraine; Treasurer Jim Chalmers slams US tariffs ahead of pre-budget speech; And in NRL, Warriors assistant coach faces fines and a three-match ban after allegedly clashing with a journalist.
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- US President Donald Trump set to hold direct talks with Vladimir Putin on Ukraine.
- Treasurer Jim Chalmers slams US tariffs ahead of pre-budget speech.
- Warriors assistant coach faces fines and a three-match ban after clashing with a journalist.The Trump Administration says peace in Ukraine is closer than ever before, as United States President Donald Trump prepares to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin.Mr Trump is attempting to win Russia's support for the U-S proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in UkraineUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has backed the plan despite saying he's sceptical of Russia's readiness to negotiate a peace in good faith.Mr Trump says "a lot of work" was done over the weekend to bring a deal closer, with US and Russian negotiators now discussing "dividing up certain assets".He says land and power plants are expected to be discussed in the meeting with Mr Putin."But I think we had a lot already discussed, very much by both sides. Ukraine and Russia. We are already talking about that. Dividing up certain assets. Yeah. And they've been working on that."Mr Putin says he agrees with the idea of a ceasefire but there are "serious questions" about how it would be implemented.The Kremlin has confirmed a call will take place between the two leaders today..Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers says Australia needs to focus on resilience over retaliation, as the country prepares for economic fallout from the U-S tariffs.Dr Chalmers is speaking ahead of next Tuesday's budget, which he now says will deliver a string of deficits.In a speech today the Treasurer is expected to describe tariffs as "self-defeating, self-sabotaging" and "a form of economic self-harm" that is "senseless and wrong".Despite these concerns, Dr Chalmers points to a range of factors dragging the budget down into deficit yesterday."It's tempting to think that this is only because of a new policy agenda from a new administration in the US, but in reality, we've got what's happening in DC, we've got a weaker and slowing Chinese economy, we've got a war in eastern Europe, we've got a tentative ceasefire in the middle east, we've got political disruption and dissatisfaction around the world. And so all of this makes the global economic environment very uncertain, and that's why our budget will be about responsibility, but it will also be about resilience.".Yemen's Houthi rebels say the United States has carried out a new round of airstrikes on the country, targeting the Zabid region in Hodeidah province, and raising the death toll to 53.In a statement, the Houthis say the strikes also injured 98 people, causing significant damage to civilian property and public infrastructure.The group condemns what it calls "a blatant crime against humanity" and a direct violation of Yemen's sovereignty.The strikes follow renewed Houthi threats to attack ships in the Red Sea in response to Israel's treatment of Gaza.US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, says attacks will continue until the Houthis' capabilities have been degraded."The problem here is that this is a very important shipping lane, and in the last year and a half, the last eighteen months, the Houthis have struck or attacked a hundred and seventy four naval vessels of the United States, attacking the US navy directly, a hundred seventy four times, and a hundred and forty five times they've attacked commercial shipping. So we basically have a band of pirates, you know, with guided precision anti-ship weaponry, exacting a toll system in one of the most important shipping lanes in the world. That's just not sustainable. We are not going to have these people controlling which ships can go through and which ones cannot."The Houthis say they have launched retaliatory attacks on US ships in response to recent air strikes..In rugby league,Warriors assistant coach Richard Agar has received a three-match ban for allegedly grabbing a journalist by the throat at the N-R-L's showpiece event in Las Vegas this month.On Monday, the NRL issued Mr Agar with a breach notice and $10,000 in fines - although half of the fine was suspended pending any further offences.The three-match ban means Mr Agar won't be able to serve on Andrew Webster's coaching staff for upcoming clashes against the Sydney Roosters, West Tigers and Melbourne.
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