Welcome, readers, to Afternoon Update.
Joe Biden has told a campaign event he “nearly fell asleep on stage” during last week’s presidential debate, attributing his poor performance to international travel.
“I wasn’t very smart,” Biden said at the event in Virginia. “I decided to travel around the world a couple times, going through around 100 time zones … before … the debate. Didn’t listen to my staff and came back and nearly fell asleep on stage. That’s no excuse but it is an explanation.”
The president is due to meet Democratic governors on Thursday amid increasingly concerning polls and growing calls to withdraw his candidacy, including from a congressional Democrat.
However, Biden’s campaign has continued to play down concerns, noting that the president had raised $38m in donations since last week.
Top news
Child missing in suspected NT crocodile attack | A 12-year-old is missing in a suspected crocodile attack near the remote Northern Territory community of Palumpa. The waterways region where Palumpa is located is home to saltwater and freshwater crocodiles.
PM says he expects Fatima Payman may resign in coming days | Anthony Albanese told question time today that the Labor senator has “made a decision to place herself outside the Labor party”, and suggested that he expects Payman may resign from the party “in the coming days”.
New ambassadors announced | Penny Wong has announced five new ambassadors to represent Australia abroad, including Derek Yip as Australia’s next ambassador to Cambodia and Amanda McGregor as Australia’s next special representative on Afghanistan.
Sydney university stabbing accused arrested last year | The 14-year-old boy who allegedly stabbed a university student on Tuesday was previously arrested over a separate incident last year, with the charges later dismissed, the police minister, Yasmin Catley, said today. NSW police are investigating whether the attack at the University of Sydney has links to extremist ideologies.
Qld coalmine fire a ‘disaster’ for climate | The Australian Conservation Foundation has said smoke caused by a fire that has been burning since Saturday at an underground coalmine is Queensland could result in a “toxic cocktail of pollutants” moving to nearby communities.
Melbourne shivers through coldest morning of year | At Olympic Park, temperatures fell to 1C at 7.29am, making it not only the coldest morning of the year so far in the city but the coldest morning since 2022.
UK election: Johnson makes first appearance on campaign trail | With less than 48 hours before voters head to the polls, the former prime minister Boris Johnson made a surprise appearance at a Tory rally in Chelsea, accusing the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, of trying to “usher in the most leftwing Labour government since the war”. Follow our live updates of the UK general election here.
US expels Chinese migrants in rare mass deportation | The US has sent back 116 Chinese migrants in the first such “large charter flight” in five years. The flight, which happened over the weekend, comes amid intense political debate ahead of the US presidential election over the issue of Chinese immigration.
In pictures
Pilots take to the skies at Mildura’s Big Balloon Bash
The ballooning competition commemorates 20 years since the 2004 World Ballooning Championships were held in Mildura. It’s a completely volunteer-run event, a mix of fiesta (fun) and more serious competition flyers from all over Australia.
What they said …
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“Please actually do something about the discrepancies, the disparities, the inconsistencies in current mental health funding and management.” – Elizabeth Young.
Young, whose daughter Jade was of one of the victims of the Bondi Junction stabbing attack, travelled to Parliament House in Canberra on behalf of Jade’s family to urge the government to address gaps in mental health funding.
In numbers
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s biennial report card of Australians’ health this week found life expectancy had decreased for the first time in 30 years. The life expectancy for those born in 2020–22 decreased by 0.1 years for males and females compared with 2019–21. The report found this was likely due to the increase in deaths seen in 2022, of which close to half were due to Covid-19.
Before bed read
Human rights exist to protect all Australians everywhere, every day
One of the most important parts of being human is feeling empathy and practising respect. We deny ourselves that if we deny the rights of others, writes the outgoing president of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Rosalind Croucher.
Daily word game
Today’s starter word is: HUG. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.
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