Good morning. Australia’s juvenile justice system is facing a reckoning, with calls to reform the system that in some jurisdictions incarcerates children as young as 10. Vladimir Putin will hold a meeting of his security council today after an explosion that caused the collapse of part of a bridge linking the Crimean peninsula with Russia at the weekend.
The juvenile justice system is in crisis and needs urgent reform in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Tasmania, say the families of incarcerated young people, lawyers and human rights advocates. Federal, state and territory governments have committed to reducing juvenile detention rates by 30% by 2031. Holistic and trauma-informed programs and early intervention schemes need to be put in place to divert children at risk of ending up in detention, according to Amnesty International’s Rodney Dillion. “The detention centres end up being like a kind of apprenticeship to the big prisons, the adult prisons,” he says. “What’s gonna happen to those kids that come out of that system?”
Defence projects have blown out by at least $6.5bn, placing even greater pressure on the federal budget, the government will reveal today. It says 28 major defence projects are running behind schedule – or cumulatively 97 years late – including offshore patrol vessels and the battlefield command system. The new figure has led the government to commit to “prudent” future management of projects. It will require monthly reports to ministers and apply “early warning” rules to trigger extra scrutiny on projects that hit trouble.
Vladimir Putin has called the attack on the Kerch Bridge on Saturday an “act of terror” which Russian says was carried out by “Ukrainian special forces”. His remarks set the scene for an expected response by Moscow, with Putin convening his national security council today. The bridge was viewed by Ukrainians as a hated symbol of Russia’s aggressively expansionist ambitions.
Australia
Cannabis would be legal and regulated in Victoria by 2024 under a Greens proposal that the party says could help raise $1.21bn in revenue over 10 years if taxed like alcohol and tobacco.
A funding shortfall has forced a Victorian community legal centre that specialises in police misconduct to stop taking calls from the public. The Police Accountability Project says it can no longer operate a phone intake line that had previously serviced as many as 400 people a year, amid calls for the Andrews government to establish a new police watchdog.
With education and mental health systems under pressure, families are experiencing distress as a result of children refusing to go to school. Here are some of their stories.
As the world prepares to remember the Bali bombings after 20 years, some Australian survivors and families just want to forget.
The world
Iranian schoolchildren were being arrested inside school premises yesterday by security forces arriving in vans without licence plates, according to social media reports as protests against the regime entered their fourth week.
Liz Truss racked up a bill of almost £2m on overseas visits during her final months as the UK’s foreign secretary, according to new analysis that the Liberal Democrats said showed she had “quite literally been taking the taxpayer for a ride”.
A former Liberian rebel commander will go on trial in Paris today charged with acts of barbarity including torture, cannibalism and forced labour, and complicity in crimes against humanity during the country’s first civil war more than 30 years ago.
Recommended reads
Most people will agree that their ideal neighbourhood is filled with friendly faces and neighbours they can rely on in a time of need. But, as is the case with all friendships, getting to know your neighbours takes time and effort – though potentially less than you may expect. Nick Tebbey, national executive officer of Relationships Australia, the not-for-profit organisation behind Neighbour Day, says spring is the perfect season to start getting to know your neighbours – even if it’s just with a wave at first.
The best cookbook is the one you cook from and the one you hand on, complete with splatters and scribbles, to the next generation. Whether you own a handful or a hundred, your cookbooks define who you are as a cook. We’ve gathered and sorted 20 of the best Australian cookbooks. This list is confined, mainly, to general cookbooks aimed at the home cook, with a few cheffy incursions. It works like a timeline, charting our awakening as cooks and eaters.
Small business owners have a lot to grapple with, so tackling the climate crisis in a meaningful way can feel like too big a plough to push. Happily, there are ways to do it that are not only pretty simple, but might even save money. In the latest of our Work Therapy series, we delve into how small businesses can become cleaner, greener operations.
Listen
Australia is preparing to rescue dozens of wives and children of Islamic State fighters, who have been trapped in dangerous camps in Syria for years. It will be Australia’s first repatriation mission in Syria since 2019, when the Morrison government refused to bring home any more Australian citizens, citing security concerns. In today’s Full Story, reporter Ben Doherty explains to Jane Lee who these families are and what their lives could look like when they return home.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
England has beaten Australia by eight runs in the first T20 International. Jos Buttler, playing his first competitive game since mid-August, returned in remorseless, exhilarating style to thrash 68 runs off 32 deliveries. But David Warner once again demonstrated that he is second to nobody when it comes to belligerence as he powered Australia towards a distant target.
Max Verstappen admitted he had no idea he had taken his second Formula One world championship as confusion rather than celebration characterised his title-winning victory at the Japanese Grand Prix.
Media roundup
The daughter of convicted murderer Chris Dawson has revealed to 60 Minutes that under hypnosis she uncovered memories of her father burying her mother Lynette underneath the family’s pool, reports the Courier-Mail. The Brisbane Times says an extra $1m will go towards support services for sexual assault victims in Queensland to cope with an expected increase in demand prompted by an inquiry into the state’s forensics lab.
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