Ukraine's struck a critical bridge connecting Russia and the Crimean Peninsula.

It's security service claims agents mined the supports of the bridge with more than one-thousand kilograms of explosives, severely damaging the foundations.

Europe Correspondent Gavin Grey told Ryan Bridge the bridge is a hated symbol of Russian occupation for Ukraine.

He says it's also a vital piece of infrastructure for Russia.

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Wellington's seen as the ideal place to host a major movie premiere.

That's due to a decade-old agreement between the producers of the Avatar franchise and the Government, given the amount of taxpayers' money that's been contributed.

In return, the producers agreed to roll out a red carpet in New Zealand for at least one of the three movies.

818 Publicity Managing Director Chris Henry told Ryan Bridge Wellington has a wonderful film culture.

He says the capital is also home to the films' director James Cameron, and a number of stars.

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The Building and Construction Minister's confident they're providing the right support while sector liquidation rates remain bleak.

Building Research Association data shows construction companies now make up about a third of all business liquidations – up 25% in 2022.

Minister Chris Penk told Ryan Bridge it's not a great statistic, but they're focusing on what they can control.

He says this includes turning around rules and regulations to make recovery easier.

Penk says the sector's in the midst of a deep boom and bust cycle.

He says times will get better, but they need to do everything in their power to avoid things being tougher for longer.

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Although visitor spending is on the rise, some parts of New Zealand are still doing it tough

A Government survey's found international visitor spending increased by 10 percent and contributed more than 12-billion-dollars to the economy in the year ending March.

That's 9.2 percent up on the previous year.

It reflects an increase in international visitors, topping 3.3-million arrivals, up from almost 3.2-million.

Queenstown Mayor, Glyn Lewers told Ryan Bridge, it's good news but also highlights the uneven nature of the spend across New Zealand.

He says there should be more effort to collaborate and spread the love between different regions

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Tourism mojo.

Louise Upston fired off an enthusiastic press release last night.

International visitor spend on the up” it proclaimed.

New data, which we get from the International Visitor Survey, showed a 10% jump in spending on the previous year.

Sounds impressive, right?

Sounds like we’re getting somewhere.

Finally shaking off the Covid cobwebs.

But. And this is where we start to see the spin doctors earning their keep.

Let’s not forget we’ve been dealing with inflation outside the band over that year. Which means stuff costs more. Restaurants and hotels included.

So, are we actually getting more out of tourism than we were and is the jumping up and down justified?

Well, the measure of success ought to be pre-COVID, when everything was shut down, we bat owned down the hatches and kissed the world goodbye.

By that measure, spending is still only 86% of what it was in 2019.

Now, the very same Minister responsible for last night’s press release was the same Minister responsible for firing one off on March 4th this year celebrating a big boost in tourism spending… up to…. You guessed it… 86% of pre-covid.

So, the king and the short of it is… nothing had changed in real terms between March’s PR exercise and June’s!

The Aussies and most of our big competition for these international tourists revered a long time ago. The number of tourists travelling around the world recovered to pre-pandemic levels last year.

Instead of celebrating no real success month after month.

We ought to be asking why we’re still such a long way off the hip, hit destination we were five years ago.

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Australia's refusing to play ball with the US, which is demanding it up its defence spend to 3.5% of GDP as soon as possible.

Australia's currently tracking to lift spending to 2.33% of GDP in the next eight years.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese seems to be brushing off the demand.

Australia Correspondent Donna Demaio told Ryan Bridge that Albanese has said what you should do in defence is decide what you need, your capability, and provide for it, and that’s what his Government is doing.

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Plenty happened in the sporting world over the long weekend, and Andrew Alderson joined Ryan Bridge to delve into some of it. On today's agenda is the latest from Roland-Garros, the Warriors' win and Mitch Barnett's unfortunate ACL injury, and a social media spat coming out of IndyCar.

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