Good morning. Today state and territory leaders will gather for the first cabinet meeting since Anthony Albanese took office, where the new prime minister will face calls to reform the struggling healthcare system and address the energy crisis.
The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, has hailed a new era of cooperation between the states and commonwealth, while revealing it was former prime minister and “mutual friend” Paul Keating who recommended he and the NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, work closely together on a reform agenda, despite being from different political parties. In an interview with Guardian Australia before today’s national cabinet meeting, Andrews said he was hopeful the leaders could agree on a program of reform for health, energy and skills after a “wasted” decade under the former Coalition government.
Eastern Australia’s energy markets may resume normal operations within a week as more coal-fired power plants return to operation and the cold snap ebbs, Kerry Schott, the former head of the Energy Security Board, has said. As of Thursday, electricity supplies across the regions covered by the national grid – NSW, Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory – appeared to be sufficient without requiring fresh appeals for residents to reduce load.
Donald Trump’s “dangerous” last-gasp attempt to pressure his vice president, Mike Pence, to reject the electoral count brought the US “dangerously close to catastrophe”, said the committee investigating the Capitol attack. Committee chairman and congressman Bennie Thompson said the US was “fortunate for Mr Pence’s courage” in refusing to accept Trump’s scheme to reject electoral counts.
Hundreds of civilians sheltering at the Azot chemical plant in the Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk are no longer able to evacuate because of the sustained Russian artillery barrages, according to Luhansk governor, Serhiy Haidai. The leaders of France, Germany and Italy have vowed to support Ukraine’s bid to join the European Union on a visit to Kyiv.
Australia
Australia’s aged care system is fast becoming unsustainable due to financial losses faced by providers, the worsening workforce crisis and an ageing population that will double the cost to taxpayers within 40 years, a new report warns.
NSW residents are being urged to spend more than $326m worth of remaining Dine and Discover vouchers that are due to expire in two weeks. The scheme was set up during the pandemic to encourage people to support businesses struggling with lockdowns, but more than 13m $25 vouchers remain unused.
Border force officers have searched more than 40,000 mobile devices, including phones, in five years, new data reveals, sparking concern that authorities are coercing travellers into handing over passwords to phones and other devices or copying data unlawfully.
Banana freckle disease has been discovered in the Northern Territory, sparking fears of an outbreak that could threaten the local banana industry. The industry is now scrambling to limit the infestation and prevent it from spreading to Queensland.
The world
The family of Dom Phillips have spoken of their heartbreak over the murder of the British journalist and the Indigenous activist Bruno Pereira.
A Russian spy tried and failed to secure an internship at the international criminal court using the false identity of a Brazilian citizen that he had built up over more than a decade, according to Dutch intelligence.
Boris Johnson has suggested that his ethics adviser resigned in a row over protection for the British steel industry, after being asked for a view about potentially breaking the UK’s obligations to the World Trade Organization.
Hundreds of baby swifts in southern Spain have died after leaving their nests prematurely, attempting to escape extreme temperatures during one of the country’s earliest heatwaves on record.
Recommended reads
When Australian-born artist Judy Cotton was struck down by Lyme disease in the 1990s – having been bitten by a tick at her country home in Lyme, Connecticut – she had to find a way to create art through the crippling pain. Turning away from large gestural paintings, she grouped small panels into expansive bursts of colour for a series titled Swimmers. Now, the artist and journalist has written her first book at 80 – and the result is a confident and lean autobiography, Swimming Home, telling her life story as a mosaic of fragmented memories.
It’s been one year since Dark Mofo was embroiled in a programming controversy which led to public outrage, calls to boycott and an eventual apology. So has the festival learned from its mistakes? Festival director Leigh Carmichael says his Hobart event has changed for good, but there’s still work to be done. “It was definitely not the year to provoke, or prod difficult questions,” Carmichael says of 2022’s more muted program. “It’s a very important festival now for the community and for Hobart, so putting that at risk … feels far more problematic.”
“All through the pandemic, I dreamed of just taking off and travelling Jack Kerouac-style on the road, randomly stopping where I felt like stopping, starting when I felt like starting, making easy friendships at truck-stop cafes – sharing a smoke,” writes Brigid Delaney. “[But] as a non-smoking learner driver with a job, my fantasy road trip had to, by necessity, be taken by public transport in a compressed space of time.” Delaney had two weeks to get 3,500km up the east coast of Australia – but would she survive the first night on the Greyhound bus?
Listen
The Fair Work Commission has handed down its decision in the annual wage review, granting a 5.2% increase to the national minimum wage and 4.6% for award minimums. In today’s Full Story, Laura Murphy-Oates speaks to political reporter Paul Karp about what this means for workers and employers, and Labor’s broader plan for wages.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
The world swimming championships in Budapest gives the Dolphins the opportunity to begin the next Olympic cycle in the best way possible and mark the start of a frenetic quarter for Australian swimming. The world titles are followed in quick succession by next month’s Commonwealth Games and the much-anticipated Duel in the Pool. The next three months will provide an early indication of whether Tokyo was a high point for Australian swimming or the start of a new golden era.
A new book by Nick Guoth and Trevor Thompson, Burning Ambition – The Centenary of Australia-New Zealand Football Ashes, details how Australia and New Zealand wore numbers 28 years before Fifa insisted on them. “The numbers were intended to help fans identify players by matching the numerals on players’ backs with the corresponding names on a scorecard or match program, which could be purchased or provided at the ground.”
Media roundup
Teacher shortages could undermine the NSW government’s ambitious plan to introduce an extra year of education, with thousands of new early childhood teachers required to implement the program, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. The West Australian says the former attorney general Christian Porter has hosted a dinner in Perth to introduce his “good friend” Peter Dutton, the new opposition leader, to some of the state’s most influential figures.
Coming up
Chris Bowen will deliver a speech at IGCC 2022 climate change investment and finance summit.
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