Good morning. Early voting in the federal election opens today. If you’re unable to get to the polls on 21 May, you can now cast your vote at one of the 500 voting centres across the country. Here’s everything you need to know.
Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese bickered over electricity prices, national security and a federal integrity commission in a very messy leaders’ debate, described as “a genuine shit blizzard”. There was no clear winner for the second debate of the election campaign, with Channel Nine’s “viewer verdict” initially naming Morrison the winner, then Albanese, before the result came in at a 50-50 tie. “Unless you crave a bit of biff, or a bout of freestyle jelly wrestling, I’m confident the dialogue between Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese would have been completely incomprehensible for any voter looking for information ahead of the opening of pre-poll voting on Monday,” writes Katharine Murphy.
Sixty people are feared to have been killed after a village school in eastern Ukraine took a direct hit in a Russian air raid, with rescue attempts said by the regional governor to be impossible due to constant shelling. It comes hours after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy met with G7 leaders overnight to discuss the war in Ukraine and new measures to punish Moscow, including sanctions from the US. The G7 group said Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has brought shame on Russia and the sacrifices its people made to defeat Nazi Germany in the second world war, marking the 77th anniversary of the end of the global conflict.
