Good morning. The leader of the Islamic State has died. Extreme weather in Western Australia is causing a food supply crisis. And new figures show the ABC’s funding has been cut by $526m since 2014.
Joe Biden on Thursday said United States special forces “successfully removed a major threat to the world” after the leader of Islamic State, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, blew himself up in a pre-dawn raid in Syria. “As troops approached, in a final act of desperate cowardice” Qurayshi blew himself up the third floor of a house, killing his own family members, the US president said. For nearly two decades, Qurayshi was a central figure in the terrorism juggernaut that became the Islamic State. From fighter, to prisoner, strategist to leader, there were not many parts of the insurgency in which the 46-year-old jihadist had not had a hand. But though Qurayshi is now dead, the Islamic State still lurks in the rubble.
