Good morning. House prices are plummeting across the country, the latest data shows. Business and unions will take a policy to boost paid parental leave to today’s jobs summit. And Donald Trump reportedly bragged he had obtained details of the French president’s sex life from intelligence sources.
Business and unions will take some shared policies to today’s jobs summit including the extension of paid parental leave, the reform of migration skills lists and support for the transition to clean energy. A statement released last night from the Business Council of Australia and Australian Council of Trade Unions also noted a desire to see living standards rise and enterprise bargaining laws made simpler and fairer.
The Nationals have appointed the former state director of the LNP in Queensland, Lincoln Folo, as the party’s new federal director in a move that has angered female candidates who had been pitching for cultural change within the party. Guardian Australia understands that four male candidates were interviewed for the role but the three female candidates did not advance to the interview stage. The party’s leader, David Littleproud, had indicated he wanted more women in leadership positions.
Every capital city in Australia except Darwin is now in a housing downturn, according to a new report, with values falling at a trajectory not seen since the 1980s. CoreLogic’s home value index shows national housing values are falling rapidly after rising about 29% during a period of sharp growth. “We’re seeing housing values falling faster now than what we saw during the global financial crisis and also during the early 1990s and early 1980s recessions,” said CoreLogic’s research director, Tim Lawless.
Donald Trump boasted to close associates that he knew secrets about Emmanuel Macron’s sex life from US intelligence sources, it has been reported. The report in Rolling Stone magazine comes after the release of court documents on the classified and national defence documents found in a search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home on 8 August.
Australia
As part of Guardian Australia’s series on the decline of bulk billing, we asked six experts from different areas how to fix our healthcare system so that more people can access timely and affordable care.
National cabinet has agreed to cut the Covid isolation period from seven to five days for people without symptoms, and to scrap mandatory masks on domestic flights.
Dominic Perrottet’s 11th-hour decision to press the nuclear button in the long-running dispute with rail workers is a high-risk gambit. The New South Wales premier has bet the house on his ability to win a public relations war against the union, writes Michael McGowan.
Determined to change attitudes and help other teens feel comfortable, Bianca Lubke threw a pride party in an unexpected corner of NSW.
The world
The US National Security Agency (NSA) tried to persuade its British counterpart to stop the Guardian publishing revelations about secret mass data collection from the NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden, according to a new book.
Family members of the victims of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre have reached an agreement with the German government over a compensation payment, just days before the atrocity’s 50th anniversary ceremony on 5 September, which the families had planned to boycott.
Vladimir Putin has sent official condolences to the family of Mikhail Gorbachev but has not said whether he will receive a state funeral or be dealt a final snub by the successor who tore down his legacy.
Welsh footballer Ryan Giggs is facing a possible retrial after a jury failed to reach verdicts on charges of assault and controlling behaviour.
An internet prankster has hijacked a website long used to glorify Brazil’s far-right president and turned it into a devastating online excoriation of Jair Bolsonaro’s “clownish”, “neo-fascist” government.
Recommended reads
“We just tore each other down”: Australian metalcore band Parkway Drive cancelled their US tour so they could sort out their differences. Frontman Winston McCall reflects on what they learned.
“My whole life has been leading up to this moment,” says Jordan Barr, which bodes well for this week’s 10 funniest things I have ever seen (on the internet). So brace yourselves for a Les Misérables flashmob, Cole Escola and the British TV show It’s Me or the Dog.
Listen
Jobseekers are being forced to travel hundreds of kilometres, miss work and complete training courses they don’t need to qualify for unemployment benefits. In today’s Full Story, Luke Henriques-Gomes explains to Laura Murphy-Oates why some problems persist under the revamped Workforce Australia program.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
St Helens coach Kristian Woolf will return to Australia in 2023 after agreeing to become one of two assistant coaches at the new NRL franchise Redcliffe Dolphins.
Media roundup
Students at one of Sydney’s most elite private schools set up a secret chat group where vile, racist and homophobic videos and misogynistic rants were posted, the Daily Telegraph reports. And in the Sydney Morning Herald, experts warn a plan for a new cosmetic surgery enforcement unit to police the troubled industry may not catch some “questionable” practices.
Coming up
The national job and skills summit begins today.
Anti-shark net rallies will be held simultaneously in NSW and Queensland.
NSW Nurses are striking for 24 hours.
And if you’ve read this far …
“He looked ridiculous – and couldn’t style it out”: photographers pick their best Boris Johnson shot.
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