Good morning. Vladimir Putin increases the size of Russia’s armed forces. Peter Dutton has denounced the inquiry into Scott Morrison’s secret ministries as a “witch-hunt”. And tropical regions could experience dangerously high heat levels most days of the year by 2100.
Australia’s huge bureaucratic visa backlog has a very human impact: for example Huma, an Afghan woman set alight by the Taliban. She is waiting with her family in Pakistan in fear of deportation, anxiously waiting for a decision on her application which they lodged 12 months ago. This week the family’s Pakistan visa expired and they are in hiding. Their lawyer says their case is emblematic of thousands.
Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to increase the size of Russia’s armed forces from 1.9 million to 2.04 million, as the war in Ukraine enters its seventh month with no signs of abating. The Russian president’s decree appears to point to the country’s aim to replenish its military, which has suffered heavy losses in Ukraine and failed to achieve its objective to capture Kyiv. Meanwhile, fires caused by shelling cut the last remaining power line to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, temporarily disconnecting it from Ukraine’s national grid for the first time in nearly 40 years of operation.
Peter Dutton has denounced the inquiry into Scott Morrison’s secret ministries as fresh concerns were raised about the former prime minister’s power to allocate grants. The government is expected to release today details of an inquiry into the “implications” of Morrison’s hidden ministries. Morrison had the power to give grants through the home affairs department’s $187m safer communities program.
Tropical regions including northern Australia could experience dangerously high heat levels most days by 2100, while southern regions of Australia may experience deadly heatwaves annually, research suggests. Even if the world meets the Paris agreement of limiting global warming to 2C, exposure to dangerous heat will “likely increase by 50-100% across much of the tropics”.
Australia
A White Ribbon appeal asking people to donate money for violence prevention has been taken down after critics accused the organisation of essentially asking people to “sponsor an abuser”.
Clarke Martin, a former suburban mayor, is set to make a third tilt as an independent for the seat of Sandringham at the Victorian election, with the backing of a group that successfully campaigned for the “teal” federal MP Zoe Daniel.
Australia should reject “low bar politics” and act with the courage of Indigenous land rights leader Vincent Lingiari to fight for constitutional recognition and a voice to parliament, Thomas Mayor will argue in the Lingiari lecture this evening.
A call to stop flood-prone parks from allowing long-term rentals will be considered by a new agency.
The world
Britain is threatening human health, marine life and fishing by releasing raw sewage into the Channel and the North Sea, three French Euro MPs say. They have asked the European Commission to seek “political and legal” measures to stop the pollution.
The death of a three-month-old baby at an overcrowded centre for asylum seekers in the Netherlands is being investigated, as Doctors without Borders deployed at the controversial facility for the first time.
The proportion of refugees granted asylum in the UK has reached a 32-year high, as figures show the number of Albanians crossing the Channel in small boats has increased substantially.
Spain’s “only yes means yes” legislation on sexual consent is expected to become law. The law, under which consent must be affirmative and cannot be assumed to have been given by default or silence, was drawn up after the “wolf pack” gang rape in 2016.
A New Zealand soldier who was on leave without pay from his country’s army when he was killed in Ukraine has become the latest foreign fighter and first New Zealander to die in the war.
Recommended reads
I have terminal cancer, writes a Guardian reader. I fear dying and leaving my daughter with my husband. What can I do?
Stella Donnelly approaches difficult topics with grace, compassion and a healthy dose of fury. 2019’s Boys Will Be Boys, the breakthrough track of her debut album Beware of the Dogs, was a crash tackle of rape culture. Her second album, Flood, is a much more internal affair.
He was one of the 20th century’s pioneers of modern American art; she was the Anmatyerre artist who put desert painting on the world stage. Sol LeWitt and Emily Kame Kngwarreye never met, yet one had a profound effect on the work of the other, and led to one of the largest collections of Utopia art outside Australia.
Listen
The Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin made headlines around the world after a video of her singing and dancing at a party was leaked to the media. Critics said it showed a lack of responsibility and care for her job. But when Anthony Albanese showed up at a rock concert, it prompted cheers. In this episode of Full Story, Gabrielle Jackson talks to Lenore Taylor and Mike Ticher about gendered double standards and what makes an “authentic” leader.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
Novak Djokovic has announced that he will not play at the US Open due to his vaccine status. The world No 6, who has not been vaccinated against Covid-19, was hoping “for some good news from USA”. But the US Centers for Disease Control website confirmed that the rule requiring non-citizens to be fully vaccinated to enter will remain in effect.
Victor Kovalenko is going to be the star of a movie. A biopic based on the life of Australia’s most celebrated sailing coach has been in filming for months. Well, it was, until the Ukrainian actor playing him went to war with Russia.
Media roundup
The industry minister, Ed Husic, has given the green light to a series of manufacturing grants which were under review due to fears about the way they were announced by the Morrison government, according to the ABC. And the Herald Sun investigates long Covid, which now leaves more than 30,000 Australians unable to work.
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