DUTTON SLIPS PAST ALBO
Peter Dutton has overtaken Anthony Albanese as preferred prime minister in a new poll. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the Liberal leader was backed by 36% of voters, compared with 35% who preferred the Labor leader.
It’s the first time Dutton has beaten Albanese in the Resolve Political Monitor poll, and the bad news for Labor doesn’t stop there: 40% rank the Coalition as best to manage the economy, with only 24% choosing Labor. On the question of national security and defence management, Dutton got 42% compared with Albanese’s 23%.
Labor’s primary vote fell from 29% to 28% in the new poll, while the Coalition’s remained unchanged at 36%. What has happened?
“[Dutton] is coming through loud and clear to a lot of voters on the issues that matter to them,” Resolve director Jim Reed said, comparing Dutton’s rising appeal with that of Tony Abbott during the latter’s time as opposition leader.
LUNCHING WITH THE PREMIER
As Anthony Albanese prepares to host a state lunch for Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Canberra today, Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong has accused Peter Dutton of weakening Australia’s position in the “permanent contest in the Pacific” by vowing to ditch the 2030 emissions reduction target.
Wong told ABC’s Insiders program the Coalition had “abandoned the field in the Pacific, and others have filled that space”.
According to an advance copy of a speech Albanese will give at the lunch, Australia and China have begun to enjoy a “more mature, stable relationship” thanks to the “shelving of differences”, The Australian reports.
Li appears to agree: he said at the weekend ties between the countries were “back on track” after “twists and turns”, according to the Australian Associated Press.
It’s been seven years since a Chinese premier — the country’s number two official — visited Australia, and Li’s visit comes as China prepares to lift trade barriers it had imposed on Australian products such as lobsters and beef.
But thorny issues remain: Wong said on Sunday the Albanese government would press for the release of Australian writer Yang Hengjun, who is imprisoned in China, the AAP reports.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE…
Ever wondered how humans first began taming horses? The earliest horse ancestors originally came from North America, wandered across the Bering Strait, and began flourishing in Asia, while going extinct on their home continent.
Humans have had a close relationship with horses for at least 5,500 years, according to dental remains from early hunter-gatherers in Kazakhstan that showed evidence of the human consumption of horse milk. The earliest evidence of horse riding came about 500 years later. But the horse-handling cultures of that time died out, and it would take until roughly 2200 BCE for the next major milestone in human-horse relations. New scientific evidence has shown that’s when humans, living on the Pontic-Caspian steppe, once again domesticated horses. The bloodline from those steeds gave rise to the horses as we know them today.
One of the co-authors of the new study, French molecular archeologist Ludovic Orlando, told the Associated Press: “We saw this genetic type spreading almost everywhere in Eurasia — clearly this horse type that was local became global very fast.”
The new study, published in the journal Nature, will be “potentially a difficult pill to swallow for a lot in the science community” because it turns some previously accepted notions of horse history on their head, archaeozoologist William Taylor, who was not involved in the study, told Science News.
Say What?
Doc Ronny Johnson. Does everyone know Ronny Johnson, congressman from Texas? He was the White House doctor, and he said I was the healthiest president, he feels, in history, so I liked him very much indeed immediately.
Donald Trump
The Republican front-runner questioned President Joe Biden’s mental state at a rally at the weekend, suggesting “he take a cognitive test, like I did”. But Trump confused the name of the physician that did his test in 2018: it was Ronny Jackson, a medical doctor who has since been elected to Congress representing Texas.
CRIKEY RECAP
“In Canberra, the focus will be on set pieces befitting the visit of a leader of a major world power (although I assume nothing we do will top Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosting Anthony Albanese for a pre-cricket lap of honour in a golden chariot).
There will be a full ceremonial welcome, including a military display and a visit to Governor-General David Hurley. This is the protocol and symbolism due to any official visit.
On the political side, the premier will co-chair the ninth China-Australia Annual Leaders’ Meeting and address Parliament on June 16. President Xi Jinping addressed Parliament in 2014 (followed the next day by Modi — echoing the memorable occasion in 2003 when then US president George W Bush and Chinese president Hu Jintao gave speeches within a day of each other).”
“The battle lines between the Liberal Party and the teal independents became a little clearer with the publication of proposed new federal electoral boundaries for New South Wales, which have pulled the rug from under teal member Kylea Tink by abolishing her seat of North Sydney.
The proposal puts the entirety of the North Sydney local government area in Warringah, where Zali Steggall set off the teal phenomenon by unseating Tony Abbott in 2019, with the rest to be absorbed by Labor-held Bennelong in the west and Liberal-held Bradfield in the north.
Assuming the proposal is adopted in essentially its current form, this leaves Tink with no obvious place to turn. The likeliest option would seem to involve running against Paul Fletcher in Bradfield, which is mooted to absorb Willoughby and its surrounds from North Sydney — an area accounting for less than a third of Tink’s existing constituents.”
I tricked a selfie AI age-verification tool into letting a child ‘buy’ a knife
Governments are looking at using AI to estimate people’s age using a selfie. I fooled it using a stock image and an old aging filter.
“A tool used to estimate age using facial analysis that is being promoted as a way to stop underage children from accessing social media or online pornography can be fooled using an aging filter on a popular photo-editing app.
Raising the minimum age for social media has public support, as governments around the world are struggling with ways to restrict children from accessing restricted content online because of the privacy concerns about uploading a government identification to prove their age.
Yoti is among the world’s best-known companies for handling online age and identity verification. Its technology is already being used by some of the world’s most popular platforms including Meta — owner of Facebook, Instagram and Threads — and has worked closely with the Australian government as it worked on age verification policy.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Major Ukraine summit ends with fresh plea for peace but key powers spurn final agreement (CNN)
Israel’s army says it will pause daytime fighting along a route in southern Gaza to help flow of aid (Associated Press)
Hamburg police shoot man with axe ahead of Euros match (BBC)
The resistance to a new Trump administration has already started (The New York Times) ($)
Adidas probes alleged ‘large-scale bribery’ by staff in China (Al Jazeera)
THE COMMENTARIAT
China wants to keep New Zealand as a passive friend in the Pacific — John Lee (The Australian) ($): “Chinese Premier Li Qiang passed through New Zealand before landing in Adelaide. Many Australians see the New Zealand stop as a minor component of Li’s Australasia trip, the main purpose of which is to endorse Anthony Albanese’s approach of stabilising ties with China. To downplay the New Zealand component is to misunderstand Chinese strategy and intention in our region.
One of the things that really enraged Beijing during the Turnbull-Morrison period was not just that they introduced many policies against Chinese interests. It was very effective activism of the two previous Coalition governments that really fanned the fury. China obviously disliked Coalition policies such as banning Huawei from its 5G network, taking measures to combat foreign interference, and calling out Chinese aggression in northeast and Southeast Asia.
But it was the success these two Coalition governments had in persuading others to do similarly that became intolerable to Beijing. Especially during the Morrison period, Australia assumed a critical role in the frontline of a regional and global pushback against China by many advanced economy liberal democracies, in groupings such as the Quad and by organisations such as the Group of Seven. It is why Chinese officials and state media constantly berated Australia as an upstart.”
Ecuador’s president won’t give up on oil drilling in the Amazon. We plan to stop him — again — Nemonte Nenquimo (The Guardian): “This is not a game. This is not a pastime, a hobby or a phase. This is our home and our existence. This is the possibility of our children’s dreams. Our wealth is the forest. Our wealth is alive. Our wealth is the knowledge we carry and share through song. Our wealth cannot be reduced to ones and zeros and flung across the globe. We’ve stopped the oil companies from stealing our future, and we’ll stop them again.
President Daniel Noboa could still do the right thing. He could still make good on his campaign promise, comply with the law and stop drilling in Yasuní immediately. He could go even further by signing the fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty and showing his country and the world that he knows how to listen, and that he values all of our futures over the short cash fix of the oil addiction.”
