Sean Aylmer

Also today, IFM Global Infrastructure extended its offer period in its $6.9 billion takeover for Atlas Arteria.

Atlas' board continues to tell investors not to take up the offer.

And the chairman of Ainsworth Game Technology and another senior executive have abruptly resigned a week after the company confirmed the pair received millions of dollars in previously undisclosed bonuses shortly after a major shareholder bought into the business.

And finally, story number five, US President Donald Trump.

overnight announced $700 million in federal funding for the country's struggling coal industry, including money that would help build the first two new coal-burning power plants in the United States in more than a decade.

It's the latest in a series of initiatives by his administration to improve the fortunes of coal, the most polluting of the fossil fuels.

and a favourite industry of the president's.

According to Bloomberg, the Energy Department has ordered units at five ageing coal plants to stay open instead of shutting down as planned, and Trump has directed the Defence Department to buy more electricity from coal plants to power military installations nationwide.

That's it for the afternoon report for Friday, the 5th of June, 2026.

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I'm Sean Aylmer.

Enjoy your evening.

Exactly.

She said government spending in the federal budget was in line with expectations.

She avoided questions on whether she thought the budget was inflationary.

Bullock pushed back on suggestions that companies are engaging in price gouging behaviour or are using the Middle East as an excuse to raise prices.

She defended the three rate cuts last year.

And then the three rate hikes this year, saying they were the right calls given the circumstances at the time.

Adding that the impacts of US tariffs and the AI boom were upside surprises in terms of the global economy.

I must say, I hadn't thought much about it until I saw it in Senate estimates yesterday.