Good morning. Today marks one year since the Taliban recaptured Kabul and Guardian Australia has spoken to Afghans still stranded abroad, despite having Australian visas. And Malcolm Turnbull, who as prime minister rejected an Indigenous voice to parliament, calling it a potential “third chamber”, says he would vote in favour of Labor’s proposed model.
Many Afghans with Australian visas are stranded in Pakistan and Iran and other countries, living in a legal limbo and struggling to eke out a living. One man who served with Australian troops tells the Guardian he is stranded in a Dutch refugee camp while his family remain in Afghanistan, hiding from the Taliban. The number of Afghans seeking to come to Australia far outstrips the humanitarian places. The government has pleaded for patience, and for people to remain safe.
Malcolm Turnbull has thrown his support behind the government’s proposal to establish an Indigenous voice to federal parliament. He says it won’t be the “third chamber” that he was concerned about when he rejected the idea in 2017. It will become a “very influential and politically powerful part of our democracy”, Turnbull says – and “that is the whole point”.
A man drove into a barricade near the US Capitol in Washington DC early yesterday morning, fired several shots into the air after his vehicle ignited, then shot himself to death, according to police. Officials were quick to note they had not determined a motive for the man’s actions, though they did say there was no indication he was targeting any Congress members, who were in recess at the time.
Australia
NSW police say the shooting that killed two women on a Sydney street was a planned and methodical “assassination”. Two women – aged 48 and 39 – died after the offender opened fire on them as they sat in a car in Panania.
Passengers have been allowed to re-enter Canberra airport hours after a shooting inside the terminal prompted its evacuation. A man was arrested at the airport after allegedly firing about five shots inside. No injuries have been reported.
Australia’s use of indefinite detention for people with cognitive impairments is a breach of human rights and the “outrageous” failure to implement a proper monitoring regime is rendering people with a disability invisible from public view, experts have said.
Victoria’s three remaining coal-fired power plants would be progressively shut down over the next eight years, under a Greens bill to be introduced to parliament this week.
Takeaway businesses are feeling the pinch as prices surge for cooking oil and potatoes – two key ingredients of an Australian staple: fish and chips.
The world
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said his forces will target Russian soldiers who shoot at or from Europe’s largest nuclear power station. Zelenskiy said anyone giving orders for attacks on the site or nearby towns and cities should face trial by an international court.
A US congressional delegation has arrived in Taiwan, days after China held military drills around the island in retaliation for Nancy Pelosi’s visit.
Indonesian labourers picking berries on a farm that supplies British supermarkets Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Tesco say they have been saddled with debts of up to £5,000 by unlicensed foreign brokers to work in the UK for a single season.
At least 40 people have been killed and 45 injured in a fire in a church in the Egyptian city of Giza, according to two security sources.
Salman Rushdie has been taken off a ventilator and was able to talk on Saturday, his agent has confirmed, as the US president hailed the writer’s courage and voiced horror at the attack on him. Rushdie’s “usual feisty and defiant sense of humour remains intact”, his son Zafar said.
Freya the walrus, the young 600kg female who won hearts as she basked in an Oslo fjord, has been put down by Norway’s fisheries due to a “persistent threat to human security”.
Recommended reads
Trying to distil Olivia Newton-John’s varied archive is like trying to avoid the Grease Megamix at a wedding – but superfan Kate Waldegrave is giving it a red hot go. Grease was a defining moment of Newton-John’s career; for many, she will for ever be remembered for her good-girl-gone-bad transformation as Sandy. But like Sandy, Newton-John was constantly reinventing herself and each of her albums offers insight into different stages of her life. This is a top 10 of Newton-John’s greatest (and some perhaps underappreciated) songs that are not from Grease.
After a lifetime of scribbling on scrap paper, a few years ago Josh Nicholas finally started taking drawing seriously. But there was one thing he thought he lacked – natural talent. Yet after some perseverance, he learned that the process of acquiring a new skill is a reward in itself. “I’ve come to realise that while I may never become Senaka, I can always get closer.”
Listen
It’s been a year since Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, when millions of Afghans tried desperately to flee the country. In today’s Full Story, one man who made it out on the last flight shares his story of evacuation and what his life in Australia has been like since then.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
The Wallabies have been unable to back up their opening Rugby Championship success, crashing to a 48-17 loss to Argentina in a helter-skelter affair in San Juan. It was the Pumas’ biggest win over the Australians and, on the back of the thumping bonus-point victory, they moved to the top of the four-nation standings.
Media roundup
Organised criminals involved in drug trafficking, violence and money laundering are exploiting systemic weaknesses in the NDIS to rort it on an unprecedented scale, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. Submissions to a review of Kristina Keneally’s doomed bid for a south-west Sydney seat claim a toxic culture and push to install lawyer and staffer Tu Le killed Labor’s chances, the Daily Telegraph reports.
And if you’ve read this far …
From anal probes to Thom Yorke: here are the 25 best South Park episodes.
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