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is investigating the source of the attack near a nuclear power station.

A drone strike triggered a fire near a nuclear power station in the emirate of Abu Dhabi on Sunday, authorities said, reporting no injuries or impact on radiation levels.

The UAE’s ministry of defence said the drone that targeted the facility was one of three that “entered the country from the western border direction”.

The projectile struck “an electrical generator outside the inner perimeter of the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant in the Al Dhafra area”.

“Investigations are ongoing to determine the source of the attacks, and updates will be disclosed upon completion of the investigations,” the ministry added.

Iranian-backed armed groups equipped with drones are based in Iraq, while Tehran’s allies in Yemen — the Houthi rebels — also possess combat-grade UAVs.

The UAE “condemned in the strongest terms the unprovoked terrorist attack” and “will not tolerate any threat to its security and sovereignty under any circumstances”, a foreign ministry statement said.

“These attacks constitute a dangerous escalation, an unacceptable act of aggression and a direct threat to the country’s security,” it added.

The Barakah Nuclear Power Plant began operations in 2020 and is 200 kilometres (120 miles) west of the UAE’s capital Abu Dhabi, near the borders with Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

It provides up to a quarter of the oil-rich country’s electricity needs, the state-owned operator Emirates Nuclear Energy Company said in 2024.

“No injuries were reported, and there was no impact on radiological safety levels,” the Abu Dhabi Media Office said. “All precautionary measures have been taken, and further updates will be provided as they become available.

“The Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR) confirmed that the fire did not affect the safety of the power plant or the readiness of its essential systems, and that all units are operating as normal.”

Sporadic attacks

An official from the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), which operates the Barakah plant, said there were no casualties and the plant had not been damaged.

“It does not appear that there was a direct attack on the nuclear plant we manage and operate. It seems a fire broke out at other power facilities on the outskirts,” the official said, quoted by the Yonhap news agency.

“In the case of one reactor, operations were briefly halted as a precaution to ensure safe operation,” the KEPCO official added.

Rafael Grossi, the head of the UN’s nuclear agency, condemned the attack.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a social media post that Grossi expressed “grave concern about the incident and says military activity that threatens nuclear safety is unacceptable”.

The United Arab Emirates was the second country in the region to build a nuclear power station, after Iran, and the first in the Arab world.

The Abu Dhabi statements did not say from where the drone was launched, but the United Arab Emirates has recently accused Iran of being behind attacks on its energy and economic infrastructure.

Tehran launched retaliatory strikes across the region after the United States and Israel struck Iran on February 28, killing senior leaders and triggering a broader war.

Iran has accused the UAE and other US allies in the Gulf of allowing US forces to carry out attacks from their territory. The UAE has angrily denied Iranian reports that it has actively carried out attacks of its own.

Washington and Tehran agreed a truce on 8 April but peace negotiations have stalled and sporadic attacks have continued.

– AFP

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Ukraine has approached New Zealand about a deal to build military drones, in a new push to sell its Russian-killing technology around the world.

Ukraine has 20 countries interested and four signed agreements on drones, including Germany, Canada, Norway and Japan.

Ukraine’s ambassador to New Zealand and Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko said his country could offer unique drone innovation and he had raised it several times with the government.

“They have the proposal on the table,” Myroshnychenko said on Friday.

The government said no decision had been made to an approach on drones in December, but officials were considering it.

Ukrainian President Zelensky has recently made statements that have been seen as a key step in defence diplomacy by Kyiv, leveraging the fact that the world had witnessed uncrewed systems rewriting the rules of warfare in both the Russia and Iran conflicts.

Many countries around the world have ramped up demand for drones this year – including both Australia and the US, which last months revealed a new $NZ90 billion plan to build a Defense Autonomous Warfare Group (DAWG).

Myroshnychenko said he did not need to raise the issue again in New Zealand.

“It’s up to New Zealand government” to consider either before or after the November elections, he told RNZ.

“That’s what we are now doing with a number of international partners and certainly would be open to discuss it with the New Zealand government.

“Certainly we would be open for it and we do believe that we could assist and we have some of the innovation which is only available in Ukraine, and we would be happy to work jointly on this investment together.”

Ukraine-US drone deal – ‘We are ready to deliver’

CBS reported last week that the US and Ukraine had drafted a deal to allow tech exports for the manufacture of drones in joint ventures with American companies.

Ukraine has been sending drone interceptors to the Middle East to combat Iran’s Shahed drones – which Russia has used against Kyiv.

“We are ready to deliver,” Zelensky said last month on X after doing deals with Middle East governments. “We want to help them defend themselves.”

“First, our expertise. Second, training missions and software to integrate different military equipment into one system. And cheap drones and co-production lines to make them … I think all of this needs to be shared with the US as well … We wanted to sign a big drone production deal with the United States, but we needed the approval from the White House.”

Myroshnychenko said a starting point was a bilateral security agreement – 28 countries had signed one with Ukraine.

“New Zealand is not one of those, but certainly we’d be keen to discuss it if they’re interested,” he said.

“Those countries who signed those agreements are now also signing drone agreements, or drone deals, as we call them. A drone deal is a starting point for creating those joint ventures in a way, because at the moment there is a ban on the export of any weapons or any defence technology out of Ukraine.

“But we’re trying to figure out a way how to release that technology. And for that, we need both governments to be on board.”

He said he had raised a drone deal with senior officials and former Defence Minister Judith Collins, and with her successor Chris Penk in December.

Penk at the weekend confirmed the approach.

“Those matters remain under consideration by defence officials and no decisions have been made at this stage,” Penk said in a statement.

“I look forward to receiving further advice in due course on potential next steps.”

Penk told RNZ last month that drone spending was at the right level, although the country had to make sure it did not fall behind.

Put a billion in – analyst

Myroshnychenko said Australia was expected to sign a bilateral security deal with Ukraine later this year.

“So certainly Australian, New Zealand government knows that there is a proposal to sign this long-term bilateral security agreement that could be a foundation for a drone deal.”

Geopolitical analyst Dr Del Carlini of Wellington said there was no time to waste with signs of a new world war approaching.

“We should be putting a billion dollars of our defence spending into a joint venture with Ukraine to learn how to produce drones to manufacture them here and then to have them used – in Ukraine at the moment, could be in the Middle East,” said Carlini.

“But most importantly we know how to manufacture them and whatever the type of drone we need at some point in the future we know how to manufacture it, not purchase it … when warfare actually kicks off.”

Spending billions on frigates – as was intended in the Defence Capability Plan in the decade ahead – would be a waste when the Iran war had shown how quickly Tehran’s navy could be taken out of play, Carlini said.

Sovereign domestic production featured in Australia’s new plan to invest $14-18 billion on drone and counter-drone technologies over the next decade.

Thai geopolitical analyst Professor Thitinan Pongsudhirak in Wellington last week also warned of signs of war spreading.

‘The money would be better invested in New Zealand and Australia’ – NZ drone maker

Myroshnychenko said New Zealand firms stood to benefit from a drones deal.

“Any joint ventures, you need a local producer and you have one of those companies in New Zealand …. catering to your needs, but also catering to some of the needs of … region, of the like-minded countries, including Australia.”

Mt Maunganui firm Syos makes drones that have been used in Ukraine and by UK armed forces.

But Philip Solaris – who has made drones for more than a decade at Obsidian Systems – said while he backed anything that helped Ukraine, a drone joint venture was not the way to go.

“The money would be better invested in New Zealand and Australia,” he said.

Not only was Ukraine a different operating environment, but he drew a different lesson from autonomous warfare there.

“There’s a lot of small companies throughout New Zealand that have really key parts to play in such a situation. Ukraine has been forced into doing that, and you’ll find that actually their defence industry is largely made-up from a lot of small players, not just a few big primes.”

Solaris said he had talked to Penk about his belief that getting the industry’s logistics right was the prime lesson from Ukraine. On that score, Budget 2026 needed to deliver not necessarily more money for drones, but a better, faster system for spending it.

“New Zealand and Australia already have the technological capability and the innovation and the know-how of how to do what is being done there,” said Solaris.

“So I don’t think the issue is around technology. I think that in many ways you may be talking about more of a political issue.

“The capability is there. It’s how it is developed and how it is employed. And we need to be building our own infrastructure.”

How does AUKUS fit?

Drones fit under the military emerging technology banner, and a key deal for sharing that type of tech for New Zealand’s main security partners is AUKUS.

Under its Pillar Two, the three nuclear-sharing AUKUS Pillar One members – the US, Australia and the UK – have recently lowered barriers to sharing or trading in arms technology. But the NZ Defence Force has had far fewer meetings about the option of joining Pillar Two in recent months than previously.

Myroshnychenko said he had not been briefed on AUKUS, and the issue of whether it was a barrier to drone deals was a matter for the Australian government.

The question was how to restore the international rules-based system and build deterrence together, he said.

Russia was belligerent and training North Korea, he said.

“So it’s all happening here in the region … The impact of this war and the implications of this war on the Indo-Pacific are pretty clear.

“You know, if New Zealand government is interested, we’d be very keen to follow up on this and work on this together.”

Penk said drones was one area of potential areas of cooperation and New Zealand remained steadfast in support for Ukraine.

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New Zealand consular staff in the US are talking to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials about the case of the New Zealander who has been held in ICE custody for over a month.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ office said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s (MFAT) consular team have been in contact with ICE officials to clarify what Everlee Wihongi has been charged with.

This is the first time the government has confirmed any direct contact with US officials since Wihongi’s detention on 10 April.

Wihongi is a New Zealand citizen, but has lived in the US for decades and holds a green card. She was detained upon re-entering the US following a three-week visit to New Zealand.

The update comes after RNZ’s questions to Peters’ office after Everlee Wihongi’s lawyer pointed out the minister was incorrect to say that she was being detained for not declaring a previous conviction, and the fact Wihongi and her family were still in the dark about what she had been charged with.

Wihongi’s lawyer Marc Christopher told RNZ she had been detained due to a decade-old conviction for a felony offence of marijuana possession, but he said it remained unclear what deportable offence she had now been charged with, despite that she appeared before a judge on 28 April.

Christopher said Peters was wrong to say Wihongi was detained due to hiding her previous conviction.

When RNZ put the comments to Peters’ office, a spokesperson said in a statement: “We have no further comment as a legal process is in play.

“MFAT’s consular team is in contact with Everlee Wihongi’s legal team, along with ICE officials seeking clarification on the exact nature of the charges.

“I am copying in MFAT who will be best placed to provide you with any further updates”.

MFAT has been approached for comment on what they found out from any communication with ICE officials and Wihongi’s legal team.

Wihongi’s family has repeatedly called for MFAT and the minister to do more to help.

MFAT and Peters had previously said the government could not interfere in immigration decisions of another country.

Asked for his thoughts on Wihongi’s recent transfer from California to Arizona – which her relative said was a gruelling journey where she was denied food and not allowed to shower – a spokesperson from Peters’ office said in a statement: “I am forwarding these queries to MFAT as they very much pertain on the consular efforts by their team in the States”.

The statement also said there had been no ministerial contact with US authorities.

“In the first instance consular support is the appropriate course of action,” the statement said.

Christopher told Midday Report he had spoken to New Zealand consular staff and they had been concerned with Wihongi’s healthcare and her treatment. However, he said he was not sure what they had been able to do for Wihongi.

Ministers not communicating with US officials

Meanwhile, official responses to written Parliamentary questions lodged by Green MP Teanau Tuiono revealed multiple ministers and their offices had neither sought nor received communications with US authorities about Wihongi’s case.

Immigration Minister Erica Stanford’s office said it had seen no advice, reports, briefings, emails or documents relating to Wihongi’s detention. Her office also confirmed there had been “none” in terms of correspondence with the US embassy or US officials.

The same response came from Māori Development and Te Arawhiti Minister Tama Potaka’s offices, which said neither the minister nor staff had seen documents on the case or communicated with US officials.

Peters’ claim a ‘falsehood’ – aunt

The disclosures come as Wihongi’s family said her situation has become increasingly alarming after she was abruptly transferred from an ICE detention facility in Adelanto, California.

In a letter sent directly to Peters, Wihongi’s aunt Jenny Hewett-Sauauga accused the minister of publicly misrepresenting the circumstances surrounding her niece’s detention.

“I was highly disappointed to hear you say that Everlee had not declared her previous records, and that is why she was detained,” Hewett-Sauauga wrote.

“As the Minister of Foreign Affairs, I would have expected you to have looked into this matter with due diligence before putting this falsehood out into a public forum.”

Christopher: ICE ‘flushed with money’ and going after minor cases

Christopher told Midday Report that while in the past ICE enforcement was limited by its budget, they’re now “flushed with money” and pursuing people with minor previous convictions.

He said as of July 2025, ICE has increased its detention facility budget by over 400 percent.

Christopher said in the past ICE focused on people who had committed more serious crimes, and it was rare that they would detain someone for months over a possession of marijuana conviction, but that had now changed under the Trump administration.

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Previously it was reporting on governments or politics that brought trouble for Tonga’s journalists – now it’s reporting on drugs or gangs.

Tongan journalists are coming to terms with new pressures on media freedom over reporting on the country’s drug crisis, and the role of gangs in it.

This comes after a journalist at Kele’a Publications was threatened at gunpoint in Nuku’alofa, following reporting on drugs issues two weeks ago – the same week as World Press Freedom Day.

While Tonga police are still searching for the suspect who threatened a journalist, the manager of the Kele’a Publications said police should do more to protect the press.

According to Teisa Cokanasiga, journalist freedoms were usually tested by previous governments when reporting on the police; but the current situation is different and represented a new type of challenge for Tonga’s media.

“The threat was regarding reports that we did about drugs and a specific gang member who is currently serving life in prison. So now we are aware that we have that kind of threat.

“In terms of freedom of the press, to report on political issues and controversial issues concerning the leadership in the country. I think we are fine with that.”

Cokanasiga said there needed to be more awareness around this kind of threat as it can happen to any member of Tonga’s media.

“It’s just disheartening. And we are now aware that we can get that kind of challenge or risk, not only, I mean, from the public as well.”

For now, Cokanasiga said her team was supporting the journalist, and also being cautious while continuing daily duties.

“We’ve been trying to be, you know, be encourging of each other and at the same time give them space, especially the concerning journalist, and for her to slowly get back to working.”

Attack on Tongan’s constitutional rights

The Media Association of Tonga (MAT) said the incident was an assault not only on the safety of an individual journalist but on the constitutional right of every Tongan to receive information without fear or favour.

MAT president Katalina Uili Tohi said a climate of fear and intimidation targeting media personnel undermined democratic principles and silenced the very voices that hold power to account.

She said journalists must be able to work without the threat of violence or death.

Meanwhile, co-chair of the Pacific Freedom Forum, Lepailetai Tosi Tupua, commended the courage and professionalism of the journalist and her colleagues and their swift reporting to police.

He said they awaited the outcomes of a thorough and impartial police investigation into this incident, ensuring public safety and including safety on the job for all media workers reporting these matters.

Police were yet to arrest anyone, but Cokanasiga said they remained in regular contact with both her and the journalist.

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Hollywood should be ashamed of the way it has treated stars like Susan Sarandon, Javier Bardem and Mark Ruffalo for opposing Israel’s war in Gaza, a member of the Cannes Film Festival jury said, with big studios conspicuously absent this year.

Paul Laverty, who wrote two films that won Cannes’ top prize, was cheered as he lambasted the studios and praised the French festival for using an image of Sarandon in “Thelma and Louise” for its poster this year.

“Isn’t it fascinating to see Susan Sarandon, Javier Bardem and Mark Ruffalo blacklisted because of their views in opposing the murder of women and children in Gaza? Shame on Hollywood, people who do that,” the Scottish-born writer, who was arrested last year at a pro-Palestine protest, added.

“They’re the best of us,” said Laverty, who won best screenplay at Cannes for Ken Loach’s “I, Daniel Blake” and “The Wind that Shakes the Barley”.

“I just hope we don’t get bombed now,” he joked.

Sarandon was dropped by her US agents and accused of antisemitism in 2023 after she told a pro-Palestinian rally in New York that people “afraid of being Jewish at this time are getting a taste of what it feels like to be a Muslim in this country, so often subjected to violence”.

She said earlier this year that her outspoken stance on Gaza made it “impossible for me to even be on television”, never mind work in Hollywood.

But left-winger Laverty made an impassioned plea for filmmakers not to shy away from politics “when madmen lead the blind”, quoting Shakespeare’s “King Lear”.

Laverty did not mention US leader Donald Trump, but his presidency and the war in Gaza have hung heavy over film festivals over the last few years.

South Korea director Park Chan-wook, who heads the jury awarding the Palme d’Or, the top prize at Cannes, also defended the place of politics in film.

“Art and politics are not concepts that are in conflict with each other. As long as they are artistically expressed, they are valuable,” said the maker of “Oldboy” and “The Handmaiden”.

With Meta, the owners of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, signing a multi-year sponsorship deal with Cannes, Laverty also warned about “the concentration of power” by Big Tech.

“We are beginning to realise that we should not let these tech bros billionaires, mostly right-wing libertarians, dictate how we live our lives,” he added, with artificial intelligence another hot topic at the festival.

Hollywood star Demi Moore, who is also on the jury, said she was also sceptical of AI’s place in the industry, though not against it.

“There is nothing to fear because one can never replace what true art comes from, because it comes from the soul,” she told reporters.

– AFP

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A hantavirus “contact” case has been quarantined in Pitcairn after a short transit in Tahiti over the weekend, French Polynesia’s local government says.

Arriving from San Francisco, the passenger, described as a US citizen, had briefly transited in Tahiti and Mangareva on 7 May 2026 (local time) “without neither local authorities nor the French State being informed”.

When local authorities became aware of the situation, French Polynesia’s government said they held an emergency meeting.

“The person concerned does not present any (hantavirus) symptom and is presently isolated in quarantine in Pitcairn,” the government said in a statement on Monday.

“She will not leave Pitcairn Island to transit via French Polynesia as long as she presents a potential risk to others.”

The statement said the government would continue to closely monitor the situation over the next five days regarding the evolution of the person’s condition.

• What exactly is the hantavirus outbreak and how worried should we be?

Meanwhile, French Polynesia and France stand “ready to support Pitcairn in the coming days, should the need arise”.

Pitcairn Island, located East of French Polynesia, is a British Overseas Territory in the Pacific, with an estimated population of less than 50.

Most residents are descendants of the HMS Bounty mutineers who settled there in 1790.

Returning from a cruise that started on the southernmost tip of South America [Ushuaia (Argentina) to Cape Verde], the passengers were transferred by boat to the island of Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands on 10 May.

Three people have died since the outbreak, and five passengers (who left the cruise ship MV Hondius before the outbreak was declared) have been confirmed to have been infected with hantavirus.

One of five French people flown back to France is showing symptoms of hantavirus, French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said on Monday.

The infected case has since developed symptoms that later required intensive care, but have since stabilised.

“One of them showed symptoms in the repatriation plane,” Lecornu posted on X.

“These five passengers have immediately been placed in strict isolation until further notice …They are getting medical treatment and will undergo tests and a medical check-up.”

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recommended that people evacuated from the cruise ship should quarantine for at least 42 days either at home or in hospital and undergo daily health checks.

WHO said the actual quarantine process is being managed by each individual country.

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