Good morning. The federal election campaigns continue today, and the first members of the Australian Commonwealth Games teams are to be announced.
A former Australian SAS soldier, anonymised before the court as Person 5, alleged by three newspapers to have ordered the execution of an unarmed elderly man in Afghanistan, will be the first witness-in-reply called by Ben Roberts-Smith in his war crimes defamation trial. Person 5, a former SAS patrol commander, was part of a raid on a compound known as Whiskey 108 in the village of Kakarak in Uruzgan. The former soldier has been accused of ordering the execution of an unarmed elderly man, which three newspapers allege Roberts-Smith did nothing to stop.
The Liberals and Labor parties have their work cut out to win over voters in Bass and Braddon, two marginal Liberal seats in Tasmania. It’s hard to find voters in either seat with a good word to say about Scott Morrison or Anthony Albanese. In Penguin, a conversation with a local barber, Linda Murphy, plays out this way. What do you think of Morrison? “Not a lot.” How about Albanese? “About the same.” For either party to win over locals, they’ll need to address the big issues of concern – rising consumer prices, a shortage of affordable housing and poor health services.
Russia has unleashed a barrage of long-range missiles against Ukraine, in what analysts described as a “softening up” exercise before a major military push by Moscow to conquer the eastern Donbas region. Ukraine’s presidential chief of staff said: “The second phase of the war has started.” Meanwhile, family members of sailors who served onboard the Russian warship Moskva are demanding answers as the ministry has sought to suppress information about what happened to the ship or its estimated 510-strong crew. US defence officials say some Russian soldiers survived the ship’s sinking but Russia has made no efforts to recover the vessel.
Australia
Much of Australia’s wholesale power costs are double the rate promoted by the Morrison government in last month’s budget, which is at odds with the government’s claims that it has lowered electricity prices.
Aboriginal families have been forced to leave the bodies of their loved ones in morgues because they can’t afford a funeral after the financial collapse of their insurer, Youpla Group, which has previously been exposed for its “misleading and deceptive” conduct.
The US will urge Australia to increase its 2030 emission reduction pledge this year to avoid “greater destruction” from the climate crisis. A senior official said it was “a long time ago” when the Abbott government set the target that the Morrison government says is “fixed”.
In a pandemic of medical misinformation, how do you deal with conspiracy believers? Experts suggest that withholding judgment, appealing to critical thinking and restoring a sense of personal control are helpful techniques when speaking to people who believe in health-related conspiracy theories.
Living in a small town can have its advantages when it comes to the rising problem of identity fraud. An attempted identity theft was scuppered in the small NSW town Gilgandra when the local postie “smelled a rat” when a package arrived addressed to a local resident, but to a home that wasn’t hers.
The world
Downing Street has been targeted with “multiple” suspected infections using Pegasus hacking software. A report released by Citizen Lab said the United Arab Emirates was suspected of orchestrating spyware attacks on No 10 in 2020 and 2021.
Pakistan is “inches away from fully fledged civil unrest” two days after ousting Imran Khan as prime minister, according to Khan’s former information minister Fawad Chaudhry.
A surge in violence in India has sparked fears the country is becoming more polarised than ever along Hindu-Muslim lines. At the weekend almost 140 people were arrested in connection with communal violence and rioting.
Recommended reads
On the day her latest single, Lights On, was released, Harriette Pilbeam was stacking and racking clothes in a shop in Brisbane. As the song and its slick music video racked up tens of thousands of plays, Pilbeam tweeted a meme about the “weird dichotomy” she has been living – Hatchie, the popular musician, getting by in the pandemic by working casual jobs. “It’s … common to be living this weird double life; I did tours with Kylie Minogue, but then went home and worked a random cafe job.”
“The government has failed older Australians and anyone who may one day need 24-hour care,” writes Juliane Samara. “As a palliative care nurse practitioner I have looked after thousands of people who have died in residential aged care. I wish I could say that all of them had peaceful, dignified deaths, but I can’t. I’ve seen and heard things you could never imagine. Things that keep me awake at night, dreading the day my family might have to find a place for me in residential aged care.”
Pet cats are a major threat to native wildlife so councils are cracking down – but some kitties can still enjoy an outdoor stroll, as long as they’re leashed. The RSPCA says that, unlike dogs, cats are in charge on a walk: The humans are expected to follow them. But not all moggies like the leash. “They’re just like people. Some are much more sociable, outgoing, and some … like to stay home,” Dr Jacqui Ley says.
Listen
The cost of living in Australia is on the rise, with everyday things like petrol, groceries and rent pushing many into financial stress. But experts claim the government’s cost-of-living measures, unveiled in the federal budget, will disproportionately benefit higher-income earners. In today’s Full Story, Laura Murphy-Oates speaks to inequality reporter Stephanie Convery about the impact of the cost of living on lower-income households, and how the government and the opposition plan to tackle this issue.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
There is a haunting presence in the A-League Men. Shuffling from ground to ground clad in tattered purple, orange, or red and black regalia, they are the ALM revenants: those whose seasons have long since died but continue to walk among us. This is the reality of what confronts Perth Glory, the Western Sydney Wanderers and Brisbane Roar as the 2021-22 season concludes.
Cristiano Ronaldo has announced that his son has died during childbirth, Ronaldo said the birth of the child’s twin sister is providing he and his partner, Georgina Rodríguez, with the strength “to live this moment”.
Media roundup
Breastfeeding advocates are pushing for plain packaging on baby formula to stop “predatory and exploitative” marketing before a federal review of the industry’s voluntary code, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. Victorian and NSW business groups are calling on both state governments to ease isolation rules for Covid household contacts as the compulsory seven-day isolation period for close contacts is causing staff shortages across many industries, reports the Herald Sun.
Coming up
David Littleproud and Julie Collins will debate at the National Press Club.
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