Good afternoon. Australia’s biggest lender, Commonwealth Bank, has posted a record $10.16bn cash profit, even as more of its customers succumb to rising borrowing rates, prompting a sharp increase in bad debts.
The bank’s 2022-23 results were 6% higher than a year earlier, buoyed by expanding profit margins generated during a period of fast-rising interest rates.
Top news
Inquiry into axed Antarctic climate science projects | The Senate, with backing from the Greens and Liberals, will investigate the Australian Antarctic Division’s plan to cut dozens of crucial climate science projects due to a budget crunch, as revealed by the Guardian earlier this month. Leaked internal documents revealed the affected programs included studies of record low sea ice, rapidly declining penguin populations due to ecological change and a program that cleans up damage caused by human activity, including oil spills.
Man accused of rape seeks access to alleged victim’s old phone data | Prosecutors in the case of a high-profile man accused of rape will decide within a week how much data from the alleged victim’s mobile phone can be disclosed to the defence. The lawyer representing the man, who cannot be named and faces two counts of rape in Toowoomba in October 2021, requested access to six months of data, despite the pair not knowing each other until the date of the alleged offence.
More fish kills as temperatures rise | The Darling-Baaka River at Menindee is on the brink of another environmental catastrophe, with dead fish already appearing along 30km of the river compromised by the last fish kill in March, according to experts.
Homes affairs department kept no real-time record of ChatGPT use | Staff in the home affairs department have said they could not recall what prompts they had entered into ChatGPT during experiments with the AI chatbot, and documents suggest no real-time records were kept. In May, the department told the Greens senator David Shoebridge it was using the tool in four divisions for “experimentation and learning purposes” and said the use was “coordinated and monitored”.
France plays down pre-tournament defeat to Matildas | France are steeling themselves for a hostile atmosphere in Brisbane for their Women’s World Cup quarter-final against Australia on Saturday, as Les Bleues seek to play down the significance of a pre-tournament friendly defeat to the Matildas.
Culture of silence endures in Taiwan’s MeToo movement | In late May, a former staffer in the ruling Democratic Progressive party (DPP) named Chen Chien-jou accused a film director working with the party of having groped and harassed her in 2018, and the head of the party’s women’s affairs department of having dismissed her claims. Chen’s post went viral overnight, prompting hundreds of other complaints and started a national reckoning over harassment in Taiwan, though activists say generational divides and entrenched social expectations still threaten to hold it back.
Win for reproductive rights in Ohio | Ohio voters on Tuesday rejected a proposal that would have made it considerably harder to amend the state constitution in a major win for reproductive rights and democracy advocates in the US state.
Full Story
Leaks and a ‘lapse of judgment’ in the Sofronoff scandal
Last year the then ACT director of public prosecutions, Shane Drumgold, called for an inquiry into Bruce Lehrmann’s criminal trial, which was abandoned due to juror misconduct. Now Drumgold has resigned amid allegations of his own serious misconduct, and the head of the inquiry, Walter Sofronoff, is facing possible legal action over his early release of the findings.
Reporter Christopher Knaus speaks to Jane Lee about the controversy surrounding the Sofronoff report and its findings.
What they said …
***
“The Uluru statement from the heart is one page. It is 439 words.”
Prof Megan Davis, one of the architects of the Indigenous voice to parliament, responding to claims, which were pushed by the Coalition in question time yesterday, that the Uluru statement from the heart is secretly 26 pages.
The claims were first aired by conservative commentator Peta Credlin on her Sky News program last week and have been pushed by no campaigners since.
In numbers
The idea that a sedentary lifestyle is linked to poorer health is now well-established, yet until now it has been unclear what the optimal number of steps people should aspire to.
The largest analysis to date has found walking just 4,000 steps a day may reduce your risk of dying from any cause, although the more you walk, the greater the health benefits.
Before bed read
With the Matildas’ quarter-final clash against France just days away, the Matildas face a Sam Kerr-nundrum.
The basic dilemma is this, writes Kieran Pender: with Kerr returning to fitness and the Matildas having dispatched Canada and Denmark in consecutive games without her (bar those final minutes on Monday), how does coach Tony Gustavsson return his captain to the starting lineup with disrupting the cohesion that has emerged?
Daily word game
Today’s starter word is: ERA. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.
Sign up
If you would like to receive this Afternoon Update to your email inbox every weekday, sign up here. And start your day with a curated breakdown of the key stories you need to know. Sign up for our Morning Mail newsletter here.
