Good morning.
Rwanda has asked Australia to “prosecute or extradite” two men it believes are living in Australia who they accuse of participating in the country’s brutal genocide 30 years ago. As part of a year-long investigation, Guardian Australia/Four Corners travelled to Rwanda to investigate the allegations.
Meanwhile, Australia’s youngest housing minister says she’s a Yimby who’s happy to foot the bill for developers’ council fees, while the death toll for Ukraine’s soldiers reaches 31,000.
Australia
Search for bodies | Police are continuing to search for the remains of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies, with a crime scene established in the Southern Tablelands.
Economy | An alliance between the Greens and Liberal parties in the Senate could force Jim Chalmers to retain a government power that allows treasurers to overrule Reserve Bank decisions on interest rates.
Housing | The country’s youngest housing minister, Meaghan Scanlon, tells Guardian Australia that she’s happy to pick up the bill for developers’ council fees as Queensland races to boost supply of homes.
Undersea mystery | The 120-year-old mystery of the disappearance of a coal ship off the coast of New South Wales has been solved after a commercial company looking for lost cargo accidentally stumbled upon its ocean-floor wreckage.
Health | Australians over 85 years of age have become the country’s age group most susceptible to suicide and a lack of support risks making the problem worse.
World
Russia-Ukraine war | Ukraine’s defence minister (pictured) said his country is “losing territory” in its grinding war with Russia because “50%” of weapons promised by western partners fail to reach Kyiv on time. The death toll for Ukrainian soldiers since the invasion began has reached 31,000, the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said.
Republican primaries | Donald Trump has defeated Nikki Haley in her home state of South Carolina, a stinging setback that narrows her vanishingly thin path to the presidential nomination.
Israel-Hamas war | The UN’s Palestinian aid agency says it has been forced to pause aid to northern Gaza and is at “breaking point” due to a $450m budget shortfall after donor nations froze funds over the organisation’s alleged Hamas links.
Eurovision | Meanwhile, Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, wants to ensure the country competes in the Eurovision song contest after the event’s organisers said they were examining whether the lyrics sung by the Israeli contestant were too political.
British politics | The Tory MP Robert Buckland launched a broadside against senior party members after a series of interventions and remarks where Tory lawmakers have flirted with far-right sentiments. Buckland decried a colleague’s comments about London mayor Sadiq Khan as “racist” and “repugnant”.
Full Story
“Genocide isn’t a crime that grows old”: a special Guardian Australia/Four Corners investigation
Thirty years after one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century, Guardian reporter Ben Doherty travels to Rwanda to investigate claims by Rwandan authorities that two men they believe are living in Australia allegedly participated in genocide. Doherty speaks to genocide survivors, learns first-hand of Rwanda’s difficult path to reconciliation and investigates questions about Australia’s screening processes and willingness to investigate alleged war crimes.
In this special episode of Full Story, we hear what was discovered in this year-long joint investigation from Four Corners and Guardian Australia.
In-depth
“The one image that tormented me for years,” says Frida Umuhoza, “was my mother’s head being chopped off as she was beheaded.”
Her words are a weight on the quiet of a school auditorium in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, where she now lives. “Those memories,” the survivor of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide says, “those images don’t leave you.”
Umuhoza doesn’t know Celestin Munyaburanga – one of the men accused of participation in the genocide who is now believed to be living in Australia. He was not involved in the brutal attack on her family. But she is from the same region as the former school headmaster. And the news that he – and others accused of similar involvement in the pogrom – might be here, is unsettling.
“Where are these people?” she says. “Do they watch us? Do they know where we are?“
Not the news
Paul McCartney has revealed the origin of his famous Yesterday lyric, “I said something wrong.” It’s long been assumed to refer to a romantic relationship, but apparently he actually regretted being rude to his mum. Macca said his mother was “talking posh” and he had upbraided her about it.
“I went ‘Arsk! Arsk! It’s ask mum.’ And she got a little bit embarrassed. I remember later thinking ‘God, I wish I’d never said that’. And it stuck with me. After she died I thought ‘Oh fuck, I really wish … ’”
McCartney wrote the song when he was 24, almost a decade after his mother, Mary, died of cancer.
The world of sport
Cricket | England’s collapse means India require 152 to win the fourth Test and the series. Meanwhile, Australia sealed a T20 series sweep of New Zealand with a resounding win in a 10-over slog.
Matildas | The Matildas’ berth at the Paris Olympics is all but sealed – but coach Tony Gustavsson is demanding more ruthlessness in the second leg of Australia’s qualifier against Uzbekistan.
Football | Liverpool won the Carabao Cup 1-0 against Chelsea. In the Premier League, the Wolves beat Sheffield 1-0.
Media roundup
Labor’s primary vote has dropped ahead of the Dunkley byelection, while the PM’s approval ratings remain in negative territory, the Australian reports, citing Newspoll figures. The Advertiser says that Australia’s biggest arts festival, the Adelaide Fringe, is accused of “inflating” attendance records to bolster its case for more taxpayer funding after luring popular free events into its program.
What’s happening today
Natural disasters | A Unicef report released today says children who experience natural disasters are more likely to earn less and face a mood or substance use disorder, costing the economy billions a year.
Diplomacy | Australia has entered a consular race to the Pacific, but the Lowy Institute’s latest global diplomacy index says the nation is punching below its weight in the diplomatic stakes.
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Brain teaser
And finally, here are the Guardian’s crosswords to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow.
