BIDEN HOSTS WORLD LEADERS
Embattled US President Joe Biden is opening the NATO summit in Washington today with world leaders heading to the US capital for the annual event, Reuters reports.
The summit takes place amid immense pressure on the 81-year-old following his disastrous performance in the first debate against Donald Trump last month and calls from some within his own party to drop out of the race.
As the US president was preparing to host the likes of new UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer (who has only been in the job five days), Democrats met behind closed doors for two hours on Capitol Hill, with Biden’s future top of the agenda.
Most refused to comment to the waiting press as they left the meeting, but the lack of consensus over the next steps was apparent. Adriano Espaillat, deputy chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, declared he was “staying with papa,” when asked about Biden, the BBC reports, while Texas congressman Lloyd Doggett, said: “I certainly support President Biden but I think we would be less endangered of a Trump presidency if we had a different candidate.”
The New York Times ($) reports Steve Cohen of Tennessee had a rather more blunt response when asked if the party was on the same page regarding what to do next. “We’re not even in the same book,” he remarked as he walked away.
Trump meanwhile is spending this week hosting rallies and preparing to announce his running mate, Reuters reports. The former president is hosting an event in Florida later today and will be in Pennsylvania on Saturday. The Republican Party’s national convention begins next week.
One of the world leaders not present at the NATO summit is Anthony Albanese, with Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles going in his place.
The Australian ($) reports Marles will pledge fresh support for Ukraine at the summit, expected to include military vehicles and Australian-made 3D printers capable of producing spare parts for weapons at rapid speed.
The war in Ukraine is set to dominate the NATO event and Marles will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy together with the Japanese, South Korean and New Zealand prime ministers.
Speaking to reporters after arriving in Washington, AAP reports Marles told journalists: “Our connection with NATO has never been more important.
“We see that the world is a much more connected place, Ukraine puts that into stark relief, and the significance of that conflict on the Indo-Pacific.”
Marles said he thought Biden had done a “magnificent job”.
Elsewhere ahead of the summit, Zelenskyy didn’t mince his words regarding India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow this week.
“It is a huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy hug the world’s most bloody criminal in Moscow on such a day,” he declared, CNN reports, after a children’s hospital in Kyiv was hit by a missile in Russia’s heaviest bombardment in four months which killed at least 38 people.
WORST WAGE GROWTH
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has reported Australia has some of the worst real wage growth among member nations, the SMH reports.
The latest employment outlook from the OECD declared real wages in Australia remained 4.8% below pre-pandemic levels, putting the country behind the likes of the US, UK, and Canada.
“Real wages grew in 2024 for the first time in nearly three years, but households are still facing pressure under the cost of living crisis,” The Age quoted the OECD as saying.
Anthony Albanese is travelling to marginal seats this week in an attempt to highlight his government’s efforts to tackle the crisis, Nine newspapers report.
Talking of finances, the AFR reports Gina Rinehart hosted two private fundraisers in Queensland for Opposition Leader Peter Dutton last month, with tickets allegedly going for a “minimum of $14,000 a person”.
The proceeds from the fundraisers were reportedly “going towards the federal election campaign (to wherever Peter nominates)”.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE…
Everyone enjoys an ice cream on the beach in summer, regardless of the temperature. What one doesn’t normally expect is to see the ice cream van floating past you as you enjoy a swim in the sea.
That is what happened in Cornwall, UK recently when an ice cream van parked on Harlyn Bay beach, near Padstow, got swept out to sea, thankfully with no one in it, The Guardian reports.
Beachgoer Richard Higman filmed the incident and told Sky News: “The driver had apparently off-loaded the ice cream when the tide came in over the van and swamped it. A load of people on the beach got a rope and tried pulling it and got nowhere.”
Shop owner Abi Fisk said: “The beach was packed. But then the tide started coming in, and he couldn’t drive off. Some people in the car park in a 4×4 tried to winch him out, but the front tyre had sunk into the sand.
“Everyone stood there in amazement. Even the surfers started surfing past the van.”
The van was eventually retrieved after a farmer pulled it back onto the beach once the tide had gone out.
As a way of an introduction, hello! I’m Rich James and I’m thrilled to be starting as the new Worm editor this week. From now on, it will be me delivering the latest and most vital news, analysis and opinion into your inbox each morning.
I have just finished up in London covering the UK election for The i, the 2024 newspaper of the year, where I was the executive news editor. I have run news teams around the world during a 20-year career in journalism and recently spent a number of years in Sydney as news director at BuzzFeed Australia.
Say What?
You guys can’t touch me.
Tennis superstar, and not always the crowd favourite, Novak Djokovic
Djokovic lashed out at the Wimbledon crowd during his press conference on Centre Court after progressing to the quarter-finals, the BBC reported. The 37-year-old, who is chasing a record 25th Grand Slam, did not take kindly to what he said was booing and disrespect during his straight-sets victory over Holger Rune. Next up for Djokovic is Australia’s Alex de Minaur.
CRIKEY RECAP
If Biden had chosen not to run for reelection, declaring he’d left the economy in good shape for blue-collar workers and inviting a new generation of Democrats to contest the nomination, he could have reasonably declared mission accomplished. The Democratic field would have been led by Vice President Harris, who has national name recognition and who is now appearing in polls as far more competitive against Trump than previously thought.
Instead, Biden has offset all the political weaknesses of Trump with his own palpable frailty.
The wider Australian population has progressed … but the media are very out of touch with that reality. The fact that a visibly Muslim senator cannot say the word “inshallah” without a dog-whistling article that leans on “backgrounding” by anonymous Labor politicians painting Senator Payman as some kind of fundamentalist is pathetic.
I think the media for a long time have thought of Muslims as “fair game”, and that is something deeply embedded in how they sell the narrative, leaning on tropes of the extremist or sinister Muslim who has an Islamic agenda.
Things are looking grim for the Australian news industry. While some media leaders are pinning the blame on Meta for ending its lucrative deals, other factors like a soft advertising market and the international, cross-sector competition for eyeballs are also to blame for falling Australian media revenues and diminishing valuations. Not even growing concern about misinformation or a steadying of the number of Australians who are interested in, consume and pay for news is enough to cushion the blow.
Crikey is assembling a list of reported newsroom job cuts at media companies around the country. This list is a work in progress based on reporting and public statements about present and future tipped job cuts. It is subject to change and will be updated as information becomes available.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Israeli attack on Gaza City continues as Hamas says ceasefire efforts at risk (The Guardian)
Left-wing New Popular Front claims it can lead France as minority government (Euronews)
US blocks British court from British territory (BBC)
Russian court orders arrest of Yulia Navalnaya in absentia (CNN)
Europe’s Ariane 6 ready to ‘blast off’ from spaceport in Kourou (Al-Jazeera)
Row erupts over bid to rename Milan’s Malpensa Airport after Silvio Berlusconi (Sky News)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Joe Biden now relies on instruction manuals, so here’s a good one: ‘Walk to podium, smile, wave goodbye’ — Marina Hyde (The Guardian): None of this is how healthy democracies operate. Non-democracies? Oh yes. Petro-state princes are kept alive in Western hospitals long after natural causes have kicked in, with their vast dependent entourages somehow unwilling to switch off the life support machine, what with it being directly connected to the cash tap.
The Russians used to joke about Brezhnev that his daily routine ran as follows: reanimation, makeup, banquet, awards ceremony, clinical death. The people couldn’t do a whole lot about it, but they knew. Everyone knew. Spitting Image portrayed his successor-but-one, Konstantin Chernenko, as something kept in the freezer and only reanimated when occasion demanded. There are currently flashes of this vein of satire in every opening monologue on the US late-night TV shows.
There are no ‘safe’ seats anymore, and here’s why that’s a good news — Ross Gittins (SMH): I think it will be rare for governments to be elected with big majorities in future. Wafer-thin majorities will be the norm, with “hung” parliaments common. The big guys will warn us this will lead to chaos and inaction.
Don’t you believe it! It’s never been true at the state level where, at present, only five of the eight state and territory parliaments are dominated by a majority party.
I think a move to more power for crossbenchers at the federal level could be a good way to break the big-party logjam. It’s hard to see how it could be worse than what we’ve got.
