PM

The Federal Government says Standard and Poors' decision to maintain Australia's AAA should send a message to parliament to pass the budget measures. Labor says its plans would do a better job of maintaining the rating into the future. The Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen says he still expects Labor to be able to provide the same timetable for a return to surplus as the Coalition, but he'll wait until the government releases updated figures closer to the election to confirm that.

A huge parcel of Cape York land once destined to be turned into the world's first commercial spaceport is now officially back in the hands of its traditional owners. 160,000 hectares known as 'Bromley' was taken by Queensland's Bjelke-Petersen Government in the 1980s without any consultation.

Washington is divided over whether there are grounds to impeach US President Donald Trump. The New York Times is reporting Mr Trump asked FBI director James Comey to drop an investigation into his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, in February. The President fired Mr Comey last week and now the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee is demanding the FBI hand over all records of communication between the two. Distinguished professor of History at the American University in Washington DC, Allan Lichtman, has correctly predicted the outcome of every US presidential election since 1984 and he's forecast Mr Trump's impeachment in a new book.

The La Trobe Valley in Victoria's east has suffered another blow, with a softwood sawmill expected to close this year. The community is already dealing with the fallout and loss of jobs resulting from the Hazelwood Power Station shutdown. And while the New Zealand-based company operating the Morwell sawmill has made no firm decision, workers are fearful about the future.

Aid workers are warning of a second lost generation of young people in South Sudan, as conflict deepens and school attendance falls. 72 per cent of primary school aged children in South Sudan don't have access to education and the situation is worsening.

Thailand has threatened to shut down Facebook's operations in the kingdom. If the company fails to remove pages considered offensive to the monarchy. The Thai government ordered more than 300 pages be taken down by today and late yesterday there were still 100 left online. Thailand's widely-revered king died last year and the generals who run the country would like to keep the new monarch's colourful lifestyle out of public sight.

Police in Papua New Guinea have engaged a private security firm to give them training, even though Australian Federal Police are already stationed in the country for that purpose. The Royal PNG Constabulary has asked a United States security firm to give it firearms training ahead of PNG's hosting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit next year. Australia just recently committed an extra $48 million to help train PNG Police for APEC, on top of hundreds of millions it has spent deploying more than 70 federal police as advisors. The decision raises questions about the value of Australia's expensive and long-running commitment to deploy its officers in our nearest neighbour.

Australia's former ambassador to the United States, Kim Beazley, says he's worried by reports President Donald Trump disclosed top secret intelligence to Russian officials. The White House has denied the claims, but they're threatening to overshadow Mr Trump's first foreign trip later this week. Mr Beazley says Mr Trump's relationship with the intelligence community was already in tatters and now it's trashed.

The chair of the child sex abuse Royal Commission has pre-empted another of the recommendations of the inquiry's final report, due in December. Justice Peter McClellan has given his second public address since the Commission's public hearings finished in March. In it, he indicated that the Commission may recommend a national model to criminalise those who fail to report child sexual abuse.

Toothbrushes are one of the most common pieces of plastic rubbish that are washing up on a remote island in the South Pacific. The rubbish is being moved to the island by ocean currents and the plastic is from all around the world.