Good morning. Climate change is a top priority for voters in this week’s federal election. The big parties are vying to flip the long-held seats of Reid and Parramatta. And from onion eating to the bonk ban, we’ve got the 15 craziest moments in Australian politics sorted.
A white teenager opened fire at a Buffalo, New York supermarket on Saturday, killing 10 people and wounding three others in what authorities have described as a “hate crime and racially motivated violent extremism”. Eleven of the 13 victims were Black and two were white. Authorities said the 18-year-old drove to Tops Friendly Market about 2.30pm “allegedly wearing tactical gear and armed with an assault weapon”. He shot four people outside the grocery, three of whom died, local prosecutors said. He then entered the supermarket, where a security guard, a retired police officer, tried to stop him. The guard was killed, and the shooter shot eight additional people inside the store, six of whom died, authorities said. The attacker was arraigned on a first-degree murder charge hours later. Vigils were held on Sunday across Buffalo for the victims. In striking Tops Friendly, the shooter – a self-confessed white supremacist – was not just hitting at a supermarket, but also a place where locals gathered as a community. The shooting comes amid a rise in racial violence in the US: hate-based crime has been getting worse, largely cultivated in the cauldron of the darkest reaches of the internet.
Australia’s major parties are vying to flip long-held seats of Reid and Parramatta, as many voters remain undecided, uninterested and unsure. Though Scott Morrison’s name may be a negative in the marginal seats of western Sydney, that doesn’t necessarily translate into enthusiasm for Labor.
We asked Guardian Australia readers about the local issues that matter most to them in the forthcoming election. Overwhelmingly, climate change topped the list. From natural disasters to food security and transitioning the economy away from a reliance on fossil fuels, the local effects of climate change will be at the forefront of many voters’ minds.
Australia
Hospital overcrowding and delays to care have never been worse, and the morale among emergency doctors and nurses has taken an enormous hit, writes Stephen Parnis.
Residents of a remote Indigenous community who have been left to drink uranium-contaminated water for a decade will get a new treatment plant by the end of the year.
Julia Gillard has contributed a rare campaign endorsement for Katy Gallagher – the shadow finance minister – an intervention underscoring Labor’s concern that the high-profile independent David Pocock could split the progressive vote in Canberra.
A member of the administrative appeals tribunal has said he was benched from hearing social security cases because he decided too many against the government.
The NSW government has refused to pass laws closing a loophole that allows prison staff to treat children in youth detention as adults, including the use of “oppressive” fully naked strip-searches.
The world
Boris Johnson is poised to give the green light to controversial legislation on the Northern Ireland protocol this week as he flies to Belfast for crunch meetings, gambling that the move will restart stalled talks.
Russia may have lost a third of the invasion force it sent into Ukraine as its offensive continues to struggle in the face of stiff resistance, British military intelligence has said. The Ministry of Defence said the Russian campaign in Ukraine’s east had “lost momentum” and was now “significantly behind schedule”.
North Korea said a total of 42 people had died as the country began its fourth day under a nationwide lockdown aimed at stopping its first confirmed Covid-19 outbreak. At least 296,180 more people came down with fever symptoms and 15 more had died by yesterday, the state news agency said.
Voters in Lebanon have gone to the polls in the first national election since a disastrous economic collapse and an explosion that wrecked the Beirut waterfront in 2020, amid low expectations that the leaders they hold responsible will face a serious challenge to their stranglehold on the country.
The use of Pegasus spyware to target Catalan independence leaders and Spanish politicians – including the prime minister – has plunged Spain into a “crisis of democracy” and national security that can be tackled only with an independent investigation, a leading cybersecurity expert has warned.
Recommended reads
There is a moment a few episodes into Conversations With Friends, the adaptation of Sally Rooney’s debut novel, when it seems as though the makers are deliberately trolling viewers, writes Lucy Mangan. She says she likes a mood piece as much as the next person, but to stretch one out across a dozen episodes is to test the boundaries of even the most willing soul.
I am lucky to have old friends, writes Catherine Carr. Being in their company is one of my favourite things. I have also been married for ages, and I sometimes indulge in the image of me in 2061, clasping the dry old hand of my husband and telling whoever will listen about the young man I married, and our secret to a long and happy life together. But, magnificent as these relationships are, they will probably not be the longest of my life, nor – perhaps – the most formative. Those accolades are reserved for the bonds I have with my two sisters.
Want to make art? You better be rich. Wages are low, work insecure and funding has been gutted. Amid a cost-of-living crisis and a pandemic, is Australia about to lose a swathe of artists to obscurity?
Listen
People with disability say their NDIS support is being cut and the process to appeal the decision is weighted against them. The Coalition has previously claimed the cost of the scheme is blowing out but is promising to “fully fund” it going forward, while Labor is proposing a major overhaul to the NDIS if it wins government.
Laura Murphy-Oates speaks to Guardian Australia’s social affairs and inequality editor, Luke Henriques-Gomes, about reports that crucial disability supports are being cut and what the major parties are planning for the future of the NDIS.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
Leon Cameron coached his last game yesterday. He choked up as he addressed his players beforehand. He told them he had no silverware but no regrets. “I’ll tell you the same thing I told you on day one,” he said. ‘She’s on.” But when Carlton slammed on four goals in the first 10 minutes, she was over. Afterwards, Cameron limped through a guard of honour of the league chief executive and both teams. He looked relieved. He looked exhausted. He is nearly 50 and has worked full-time in football since he was 16. Coaching was “zapping”, he said. It was time to do something else with his life.
Media roundup
They are as sick and tired of mud and rain as they could possibly be but that has not stopped thousands of northern NSW residents from pulling on their gumboots and ponchos for a charity flood relief concert in Lismore, the ABC reports. Anthony Albanese has laid out an ambitious two-term strategy to roll out universal childcare, add superannuation to paid parental leave, expand the scheme and potentially hold a royal commission into the management of the pandemic, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
And if you’ve read this far …
From onion eating to the bonk ban: the 15 craziest moments in Aussie politics – sorted.
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