Good afternoon. Auckland was rocked by a shooting standoff today, just hours before the Women’s World Cup was due to begin. Three people are dead, including the gunman, and six injured at a building site in the city centre, close to where several teams were staying.
The shooting was not politically or ideologically motivated, the New Zealand prime minister, Chris Hipkins, said.
Tonight’s opening match between New Zealand and Norway is to proceed as normal, Fifa has confirmed, and you can follow that game via our live blog.
Top news
Kathryn Campbell suspended without pay | The decision comes days after a royal commission report into the robodebt scheme said Campbell had been “responsible for a department that had established, implemented and maintained an unlawful program”. Campbell was the head of the Department of Human Services at the time, and last year moved into a new $900,000-a-year job in the Department of Defence.
Man shot dead by police in Sydney | Officers were called to a unit complex in inner-western Glebe, just before midnight, over concerns for a man’s welfare. Police say when they arrived they were confronted by a 43-year-old man armed with a knife. One officer discharged a Taser before another officer shot the man, who was treated by paramedics, but died at the scene.
HIV could be eliminated in Australia | Australia has recorded a steady 46% fall in rates of HIV over the past decade and could be on track to virtually eliminate the insidious disease. In 2022, 555 cases were recorded, compared to a total of 1037 in 2013, figures released by the Kirby Institute show.
Unemployment rate falls to 3.5% | Australia’s employers added 32,600 more jobs last month as the economy maintained its resilience despite the increases in interest rates. Telstra might be the exception, however, with an announcement today of 472 job cuts as part of attempts to gain “efficiencies from digitisation, automation and new technology”.
Russia attacks Ukrainian ports | Global wheat prices have shot up 8% after Russian attacks on the port cities of Mykolaiv and Odesa. Russia, earlier this week, pulled out of a year-long deal that allowed Kyiv to export grain to world markets via its Black Sea ports. Ukrainian officials say Russian strikes had destroyed 60,000 tonnes of grain awaiting export.
Protesters storm Swedish embassy in Baghdad | Protesters angered by the burning of a copy of the Qur’an in Stockholm broke into the embassy compound and lit a small fire. The Swedish foreign ministry said all staff were safe.
Trump under investigation for civil rights conspiracy | Federal prosecutors investigating Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results have evidence to charge the former president with three crimes, including section 241 of the US legal code that makes it unlawful to conspire to violate civil rights, two people familiar with the matter said. What the potential charges mean for Trump is unclear.
EU to use Argentine name for Falklands | Forty-one years after the Falklands war, the UK has suffered a diplomatic defeat over the archipelago as the EU appeared to endorse the Argentine name for the disputed territory, Islas Malvinas. Brussels supported an Argentina-backed declaration referring to Islas Malvinas at a summit of EU leaders with Latin America and the Caribbean, which Buenos Aires called a “diplomatic triumph”.
In pictures
We might not have the Commonwealth Games but can we still go for gold, asks cartoonist Fiona Katauskas?
There are now very good reasons to worry about the judgment and capacity of the Andrews Labor government, writes Margaret Simons. Meanwhile, the Gold Coast has put its hand up as a possible host.
What they said …
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“I think the way this [No] campaign has been conducted has been an open invitation to the racists in our nation to come out of the woodwork and vent.” – Kerry O’Brien
The veteran journalist told our Full Story podcast that the language used by the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, in the voice debate was “cowardly”. Read his comments, or listen to the podcast episode.
In numbers
It will only get worse – see the climate crisis in four charts.
Before bed read
We’re hours away from the Matildas’ first World Cup match against Ireland, and sports writer Kieran Pender examines whether coach Tony Gustavsson’s masterplan will come together.
“He brought young talent into the squad, even if it meant losing matches. He rested key players to manage their workload, contributing to the overwhelming defeat to Spain. And he picked a schedule that saw the Matildas consistently play top rivals. Over the past two-and-a-half years, Australia have faced every other team in the Top 10.”
Daily word game
Today’s starter word is: TRIP. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.
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