DNC KICKS OFF
The world’s attention has once again turned towards the US election as the Democratic National Convention kicks off in Chicago, with Kamala Harris set to formally accept the party’s presidential nomination.
President Joe Biden will headline the first night of the convention with a farewell speech that only a few weeks ago he had no intention of giving. Instead of setting out his plan to win a second term in office, Biden will use his speech to highlight how his vice president is the best person to carry on his legacy, The New York Times reports.
Politico writes Biden’s speech is set to deliver a stark warning about the dangers of another Donald Trump term, with the convention as a whole to highlight Biden’s accomplishments and Harris’ readiness for office. The site reports Biden, 81, is entering the four-day event with “mixed feelings” after being pressured by his own party to drop out of the race. Also speaking on the first day of the convention are New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, former secretary of state and 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton, first lady Jill Biden and the Bidens’ daughter Ashley, CBS News reports. Harris will reportedly attend Joe Biden’s speech later, with her own happening on Thursday.
The convention is set to be targeted by numerous protests throughout the week, with the BBC reporting those demonstrating against US support of Israel during the war in Gaza gathering on Monday afternoon with thousands expected to attend. Last week, Axios said House Democrats attending the convention had been advised “not to book hotel rooms under their own names or engage with protesters if confronted”.
Such has been the breakneck speed regarding Biden’s removal from the Democratic ticket and Harris’ ascendancy that the party’s 2024 platform, which delegates will vote on on Monday night, repeatedly refers to Biden’s second term and the accomplishments of his first, the Associated Press points out. Having backed the Biden administration’s goals (what with, you know, being his vice president) and not having had much time to set out her own platform since the dramatic events of July 21, there is significant interest in what Harris will say about her vision for the country on Thursday. NPR has compiled a list of what Harris has said so far, regarding what she’d do if she and her running mate Tim Walz defeat Trump and JD Vance in November.
MOST COMMON WORKERS PRICED OUT OF HOUSING
A parliamentary library analysis requested by the Greens reportedly shows childcare workers, aged carers and teachers are among those being priced out of the housing market, Guardian Australia says. The data is said to show someone working in Australia’s most common job, a general sales assistant, on a full-time income of $62,600 a year would need to save for more than 40 years to achieve a 20% house deposit. If retail managers and aged or disability carers saved 15% of their salary each year it would take them almost two decades.
Guardian Australia reports the data, based on Reserve Bank lending figures, CoreLogic house price data and ATO income data, reveals no-one employed in the top 10 most common jobs in Australia could currently afford to buy a house without experiencing housing stress, where mortgage repayments represent more than 30% of income.
The findings come as the AFR reports new Housing Minister Clare O’Neil has summoned the state housing ministers to Western Sydney for urgent talks. The paper says the federal minister will push her state counterparts to “dramatically step up progress for renters and would-be buyers”.
O’Neil told the paper that while passing the government’s stalled housing legislation, including the Help to Buy scheme and build-to-rent bill, was important, more could be done outside Parliament.
“We’re going to need to find solutions to the housing crisis outside of Canberra, in the cities and regions, working with builders to help them bring more homes online more quickly, and building deeper partnerships with the states, who own many of the housing levers,” she said. “If we push on these partnerships, we can make a big difference to housing supply and affordability, and the Greens and Liberals won’t be able to hold us back or slow us down.”
O’Neil will reportedly also meet with Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather in the coming weeks as his party continues to block legislation, calling for initiatives such as rent freezes, more affordable housing, better conditions for tenants, and tax incentives for property investors, including negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts, to be reduced.
Elsewhere, the AAP reports the minutes from the latest meeting of the Reserve Bank of Australia board will be released later today and no doubt be poured over by traders as they try to predict the central bank’s next move. The decision to hold rates at 4.35% and hint at no rate cut for the rest of the year continues to dominate proceedings.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE…
Are you ready for what has been declared the funniest joke at the annual Edinburgh Fringe festival?
You sure?
OK, here you go.
“I was going to sail around the globe in the world’s smallest ship but I bottled it.”
Boom tish.
The gag is from comedian Mark Simmons, who triumphed in the shortlist of the 15 best jokes at this year’s Fringe. The Press Association quoted Simmons as responding to the win with: “I’m really chuffed to win U&Dave’s Funniest Joke Of The Fringe. I needed some good news as I was just fired from my job marking exam papers, can’t understand it, I always gave 110%.”
The joke shortlist was drawn up as the judging panel of comedians and critics who attended hundreds of shows during the Fringe and submitted their favourites. A public vote involving 2,000 people then picked the winner.
Second place went to Alec Snook for his joke: “I’ve been taking salsa lessons for months, but I just don’t feel like I’m progressing. It’s just one step forward… two steps back.”
Simmons’ victory came ten years after he first performed at the Fringe as a solo act, when his friend convinced him to do an open mic night.
Say What?
Switching nationality was a difficult decision, and not one I took lightly.
Matt Richardson
The 25-year-old cyclist, who won three medals for Australia at the Olympic Games in Paris, has announced on Instagram he is switching nationalities and from now will represent Great Britain. Richardson was born in Kent, England, and moved to Western Australia at the age of nine and maintained dual citizenship, the BBC reports. In Paris he won silver medals for Australia in the keirin and individual sprint, as well as a bronze in the team sprint.
CRIKEY RECAP
And Trump and his campaign are rattled. The first big sign that they weren’t prepared for Harris and were shocked at how well she has been doing was Trump deciding he didn’t want to debate her. He demanded in early August she appear on Fox News instead of the ABC, then reversed himself after a week and said he would debate her after all.
That revealed a lot. Frontrunners prefer not to debate — they have nothing to gain. Remember the contortions Julia Gillard went through in 2010 when the first week of her campaign against Tony Abbott had her cruising to victory, enabling her to dismiss talk of a debate with him, only for Kevin Rudd to blow up her campaign, leaving her the underdog who suddenly insisted Abbott debate her.
The second and more important sign was that Trump’s racist and misogynist abuse of Harris failed to stop her ascension in the polls (or diminish the size of her crowds, a subject Trump has a weird obsession with), forcing him to contemplate the unthinkable: talking about policy.
Foxtel CEO Patrick Delany says an image obtained by Crikey showing him giving a Nazi salute may have been taken while he was “demonstrating the similarity” between the offensive gesture and a gesture used by A-League fans, while on set at Fox Sports.
In a statement provided to Crikey, Delany said he was “shocked” to see the image, which appears to be from the 2010s. “The fact I demonstrated this offensive salute was wrong and I unreservedly apologise,” he said.
Crikey has obtained images showing the then Fox Sports CEO on what looks like Fox Sports’ A-League “Hyundai Matchday Saturday” pre-game program set during the 2014-15 season.
‘Exactly what the Kremlin hoped’: Australia delays Masha Gessen visa over Russia conviction concerns
Writer Masha Gessen has said the Australian government has “functionally denied” them a visa, after delays and a “last minute” request for further documents meant Gessen was unable to board their scheduled flight to Australia this past weekend.
The Department of Home Affairs’ delay apparently stems from concerns over Gessen’s recent conviction in Russia. In mid-July, Gessen — a regular contributor to outlets such as The New Yorker and The New York Times — was sentenced in absentia to eight years imprisonment by a Moscow court after having written about alleged Russian war crimes during the nation’s invasion of Ukraine. The court claimed Gessen had spread “false information”.
“The Russian government’s persecution of me has one purpose: to make me feel unfree even though I am living in exile and they can’t currently jail me. What they can try to do is make it hard for me to move around the world,” Gessen said in a statement. “I am shocked that the first allies the Russians have found in this quest to constrain me are the Australian authorities, who have functionally denied me a visa.”
“This is exactly what the Kremlin hoped would happen,” Gessen added.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Blinken says Israel OKs a plan to break the ceasefire impasse and urges Hamas to do the same (Associated Press)
UK tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch among missing in Sicily yacht sinking (The Guardian)
Ukraine hits third bridge in Russia’s Kursk, says buffer zone is final goal (al-Jazeera)
Philippines, China trade blame after vessels collide in South China Sea (Reuters)
Women harmed by vaginal mesh in England get payout (BBC)
Old aircraft carrier, once part of mighty Soviet fleet, burns in Chinese lagoon (CNN)
THE COMMENTARIAT
I fled Gaza to Australia not by choice but as a matter of survival. How can I be a security risk? — Plestia Alaqad (Guardian Australia): My life in Gaza was constantly at risk, and I could have been targeted and killed at any moment. Had I stayed, there is every chance that I would’ve been one of the 40,000 Palestinians killed by Israel, of which as many as 17,000 are children, over 11,000 women and 113 journalists like me. A Lancet study even suggests that the Gaza death toll could exceed 186,000.
I had less than 24 hours’ notice that I was leaving Gaza, but it wasn’t one of those times where I was excited to pack to go on a vacation. It felt like I was living everything my grandpa once lived through during the Nakba in 1948. I left Gaza with a heavy heart, a fake Dolce & Gabbana top, a black jacket and lipstick.
And now that I’ve fled and survived, I find myself this week a “national security risk” for Australia?
What worries me most about election night — Rachel Maddow (The New York Times): Imagine an election night this November in which the two parties are trading swing-state victories. The Democrats capture Nevada, while the Republicans take Arizona. The Republicans win the big prize of Pennsylvania, while the Democrats top them in Wisconsin and Michigan. The nation is waiting on Georgia. If Georgia goes red, it’s President Trump; if Georgia goes blue, it’s President Harris.
Then, local news headlines start to circulate. There are reports of unspecified “problems” in the vote in Fulton County. And in Gwinnett County. And in DeKalb, Coffee and Spalding Counties. Republican officials are refusing to certify the results in their counties. They say they are making “reasonable inquiries.”
As legal challenges wend through the courts, a wave of disinformation, confusion and propaganda swells, fueled by unproven claims that something is amiss in these Georgia counties, and also by similar noise — and possibly also certification refusals — in Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Nevada. (All have seen local Republicans try the certification refusal ruse since 2020.)
