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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Charlotte Graham-McLay

Morning Mail: Amazon acts on party drug loophole, Credit Suisse takeover deal, Perrottet talks pokies

Use of the fake eyelash remover as a recreational drug had caused overdoses.
Use of the fake eyelash remover bought off Amazon as a recreational drug had caused overdoses. Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock

Good morning. A fake eyelash remover has been removed from sale on Amazon and was banned from parties during Sydney WorldPride after its use as a party drug emerged. Guardian Australia understands that police confiscated revellers’ bottles of the product, which was being used like the drug GBL – a precursor to GHB – and could be sold under a loophole that allows for industrial use.

Elsewhere, Vladimir Putin visits the wreckage of Mariupol in occupied Ukraine, the Swiss government has brokered a deal to save Credit Suisse by selling it to UBS amid fears for the stability of the global banking system, and Dominic Perrottet tells our reporter why he risked his career on gambling reforms.

Australia

Specialist climbers abseil down the side of the Sydney Opera House on 18 March 2003 in an attempt to begin cleaning the ‘NO WAR’ slogan painted on the side of the sails earlier in the morning.
Specialist climbers abseil down the side of the Sydney Opera House on 18 March 2003 in an attempt to begin cleaning the ‘NO WAR’ slogan painted on the sails earlier that morning. Photograph: Reuters

World

Russian president Vladimir Putin and deputy prime minister Marat Khusnullin visit the Mariupol theatre during Putin’s visit to Mariupol in Russian-controlled Donetsk region, Ukraine.
Russian president Vladimir Putin and deputy prime minister Marat Khusnullin visit the Mariupol theatre during Putin’s visit to Mariupol in Russian-controlled Donetsk region, Ukraine. Photograph: AP
  • Ukraine war | Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit to the occupied Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, days after the international criminal court issued an arrest warrant for him on war crimes charges. Here’s how Ukraine’s “kidnapped” children led to his arrest warrant.

  • Banking crisis | The Swiss government has brokered a deal for UBS to buy its banking rival Credit Suisse, amid fears the latter’s failure would trigger more instability in a nervous global banking system.

  • Donald Trump | The Manhattan district attorney widely expected to bring an indictment against Donald Trump this week vowed his staff would not be intimidated after the former US president called for his supporters to protest any action against him.

  • Climate crisis | The world must step back from the brink of climate disaster to save the people of the Pacific from obliteration, the prime minister of Samoa urged, on the eve of a landmark report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which is expected to deliver a scientific “final warning” on the climate emergency.

  • French pensions | The French government will face a no-confidence vote tonight, as MPs said they feared for their safety, strike action intensified and police banned demonstrators from parts of central Paris after Emmanuel Macron’s decision to push through an unpopular rise in the pension age.

Full Story

Former British football player and BBC presenter Gary Lineker walks outside his home in London
Former British football player and BBC presenter Gary Lineker, who was suspended by the broadcaster after a tweet criticising the UK government’s asylum seeker policy. Photograph: Henry Nicholls/Reuters

The BBC’s spectacular own goal

A tweet by Gary Lineker led to his suspension by the BBC and set off a weekend of chaos in its schedules. Now with a truce agreed, the Guardian’s Archie Bland talks to Michael Safi about whether it can hold – as well as on lingering questions remain about the BBC’s attitude to impartiality and to whom those rules apply, and the corporation’s relationship with the Conservative government.

In-depth

A young man looks unhappy while lying in bed with his sleeping wife.
A young man looks unhappy while lying in bed with his sleeping wife. Photograph: Goodboy Picture Company/Getty Images

The creeping dread some of us feel at the end of the weekend – known as the “Sunday scaries” – is a real phenomenon, according to researchers, who found the effect particularly pronounced among people who frequently checked their emails during the weekend, had tasks left over from the previous week, and had unreasonably high expectations of themselves. André Spicer writes that the solution could lie with healthy boundaries between home and work.

Not the news

An alligator swimming in water
Scot Hollingsworth was bitten in the upper thigh by an alligator at his front door, and taken to a hospital where he was treated for his injuries. Photograph: David Yeazell/USA Today Sports

A Florida man answering a knock at his front door was promptly bitten by a 9ft long alligator when he opened it to see who was there. Scot Hollingsworth was not expecting the visitor. “It was just total surprise and shock,” he said. “I suspect I surprised the alligator as much as he surprised me.”

The world of sport

Australia’s Mitchell Starc, centre, celebrates the wicket of India’s Suryakumar Yadav during the second one-day international cricket match between India and Australia, in Visakhapatnam, India
Australia’s Mitchell Starc, centre, celebrates the wicket of India’s Suryakumar Yadav. Photograph: Surjeet Yadav/AP

Media roundup

Victorian Liberal MP Moira Deeming is set to be expelled from the party over her involvement in an anti-transgender rally which was attended by neo-Nazis, the ABC reports. The Sydney Morning Herald highlights cases of 82 Australian children whose parents say they have been abducted by their former spouses in Japan, in some cases with years of no contact. And vulnerable psychiatric patients are being intubated in Australian hospitals and during medical flights because of increasing pressure on mental health services, according to an investigation by NT News.

What’s happening today

  • Election countdown | It’s the last week of the NSW election campaign with pre-polling now open. These are the big issues, and here are the key dates and how to vote.

  • Budget statement | The NSW Parliamentary Budget Office is due to issue a final budget impact statement showing all the costed policies and a summary of their net total financial impact.

  • Extradition case | Former US military pilot Daniel Edmund Duggan, who once worked in China as a flight instructor and now faces extradition to the United States over unknown charges, will appear in court.

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Brain teaser

And finally, here are the Guardian’s crosswords to keep you entertained throughout the day – with plenty more on the Guardian’s Puzzles app for iOS and Android. Until tomorrow.

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