RADIO BULLETIN NO: 01 FOR 07H00

HERE IS TODAY’S BULLETIN FOR 07H00
SUNDAY, 31 MAY 2026
NAMIBIA PRESS AGENCY

1 (Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the nineties shooter game "Doom" and say they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing.

It's the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain's networking system.

Each so-called "biological computer" contains around 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations.

Having mastered the simple computer game "Pong", where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball across a screen, the brain cells have moved on to bigger things.

Initially, the neurons were at the "level of a beginner who's never played a video game before," Alon Loeffler, Cortical Labs' senior application scientist, told AFP.
AFP


2 (TEHRAN, May 31 (RIA Novosti) - Iran does not intend to make the Strait of Hormuz the subject of negotiations or bargaining, Ebrahim Azizi, the head of the Iranian parliament's committee on national security and foreign policy, told RIA Novosti.

"It is not that we intend to use this issue as a subject for negotiations or to say that the current mechanisms for regulating the Strait of Hormuz can be changed during or after negotiations," Azizi said.

The escalation around Iran led to the actual blocking of the Strait of Hormuz, a key supply route for oil and liquefied natural gas from the Persian Gulf countries to the world market, and also affected the level of oil exports and production of countries in the region. Amid the blockage of the strait, most countries in the world see prices for fuel and industrial products rising sharply.
SPUTNIK


3 (Sri Lanka raised fuel prices by up to six percent on Sunday, in line with IMF plans to recover energy costs and phase out subsidies to stabilise the economy.

Petrol was raised to 434 rupees ($1.33), up from 410, while diesel increased to 407 rupees a litre from 392, the state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation said.

The price hike came days after the International Monetary Fund released a $695 million instalment of a $2.9 billion bailout loan, agreed in early 2023 to stabilise the cash-strapped South Asian nation.
The IMF wants Sri Lanka to ensure cost recovery for both fuel and electricity tariffs, which have been subsidised by the government since the start of the conflict in the Middle East in February.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, in a letter to the IMF made public by the Washington-based international lender, said fuel subsidies will be phased out by September.
AFP


4 (UNITED NATIONS, May 30 (RIA Novosti) - The UN wants all parties to the Ukrainian conflict to refrain from attacks on critical infrastructure, UN Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq told RIA Novosti on Saturday.

The UN wants all parties to avoid attacks against critical infrastructure, Haq said, commenting on the katest drone incident at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP).

Earlier in the day, Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev said that a Ukrainian drone had struck the turbine hall building of Unit 6 of the ZNPP and detonated. There were no casualties or critical damage to key equipment. The turbine hall is located a dozen feet from the reactor hall, the plant told RIA Novosti.
SPUTNIK


5 (Brussels (dpa-AFX) - Belgium's economy grew at a slightly faster pace in the first quarter of 2026, as estimated initially, the latest data from the National Bank of Belgium showed on Friday.

Gross domestic product grew seasonally and calendar-adjusted 0.2% sequentially in the first quarter, following a 0.1% increase in the fourth quarter. The economy has been expanding since the fourth quarter of 2023.

The value added in the construction sector advanced 0.5% compared to the previous quarter, and that in services grew 0.3%. Meanwhile, the industrial sector logged a contraction of 0.2%.

On the expenditure side, private consumption advanced 0.6%, while general government expenditure dropped 0.5%. Gross fixed capital formation was 0.3% higher, and both exports and imports grew by 2.8% and 2.6&, respectively, thereby resulting in a favourable net foreign demand.

The annual economic growth moderated to 0.8% in the first quarter from 0.9% in the final quarter of 2025, as estimated.
DPA