Morning, everyone. As the violence continues in the Middle East, echoes of the conflict are felt on this side of the world by Australia’s Arabic and Jewish communities. Today we hear from people who have been abused in the street, confronted hatred online or seen neighbours turn against them. Plus we have the latest on the Israel-Hamas conflict.
At home do read our politics team’s major dissection of how the referendum campaign failed. And there is surprising news on the most popular days to commute as workers return to the office.
Australia
Exclusive | As an increasing number of Australians favour the office over working from home, new research shows, with Thursday and Friday emerging as the most popular days to commute and be among colleagues.
‘Really challenging’ | A surge in hostility towards Palestinians and antisemitism towards Australian Jews is causing alarm among advocacy groups on both sides as they seek to deal with the ripple effects of the Israel-Hamas war. Sarah, a year 11 student in Canberra, has taken time off school to escape anti-Palestinian backlash, while a writer for a Jewish website talks about dealing with “a carload of people in Melbourne who said they were “hunting for Jews”.
Truth telling | Almost nine in 10 Australians support truth in political advertising laws, with majorities of both yes and no voters concerned about “lies and misinformation” during the voice referendum debate.
‘We can’t be bystanders’ | A war between the US and China over the future of Taiwan would be “so grave” that Australians cannot be passive bystanders, the defence minister has said.
Electric shock | The high court dealt a big blow to all states when it declared Victoria’s tax on electric vehicles to be illegal. Here’s an explainer about the issue and why the court backed the challenge by two Melburnian drivers.
World
‘The other team’ did it | Joe Biden has backed Israel’s claim that yesterday’s devastating blast at a Gaza hospital was caused by rockets misfired by the group Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Read this detailed analysis of what the evidence shows. A British-Palestinian doctor working in the hospital has described seeing “hundreds of severely injured and dead”. The US, meanwhile, vetoed a UN move to call for a “humanitarian pause” in the fighting to help civilians in Gaza flee. With more protests against the Gaza hospital deaths expected across the Middle East today, Israel faces a diplomatic crisis after being blamed for the bombing by Arab allies.
Jordan loses again | The hard-right congressman Jim Jordan has vowed to fight on after he lost a second vote in his bid to become the House of Representatives speaker – despite his backers sending a “barrage” of calls and texts to his fellow Republicans.
Just Stop Oil activism | Greta Thunberg has been charged with a public order offence over a protest at an oil industry forum in London.
‘There is no hope here’ | In the first of a series on migration, five African reporters talk to people from their home countries about why they are willing to risk everything to start a new life abroad.
Drone delivery | Amazon has announced plans to start delivering packages via drone for the first time in the UK and Italy.
Full Story
How to continue the fight for Indigenous rights
In the wake of the referendum’s defeat, Laura Murphy-Oates speaks to Widjabul Wia-bal woman Larissa Baldwin-Roberts of the progressive political organisation GetUp about where the fight for First Nations people goes from here.
In-depth
A galvanised opposition, the yes campaign’s poor messaging and disjointed organisation, Indigenous leaders voting no, and yes deciding to change to a more aggressive campaign too late in the day all contributed to the referendum failing. Katharine Murphy and Josh Butler dissect the two campaigns and offer insight where it went wrong for yes but right for no, whose “divisive algorithms of social media” worked their “dark magic”. Thomas Keneally, who is writing for us today to mourn the loss, agrees as he lays into the “fables” spread by a brutal press campaign.
Not the news
Charlie Brooker, the creator of the cult TV show Black Mirror, was the star of the SXSW festival in Sydney yesterday where he told the audience that he had tried to employ ChatGPT to write an episode but found it wanting. Brooker said the bot’s script was “derivative” and was “just sort of vomiting” back at him whatever it could find online about the shows. “I can’t quite see it replacing messy people,” he said.
The world of sport
Football | When the A-League Men’s season kicks off tomorrow, any team brave enough and smart enough is in with a shout of winning the title – as the Mariners proved last time.
Cricket | New Zealand have continued their strong start to the World Cup by hammering Afghanistan by 149 runs.
Football | Newcastle United are in danger of losing their $100m signing Sandro Tonali to a lengthy ban amid reports that he has admitted betting on games for his old club, Milan. In Spain the Barcelona president, Joan Laporta, is under investigation for suspected bribery of referees.
Media roundup
The Sydney Morning Herald gets a sneak preview of Sydney’s new state-of-the-art Metro station near Town Hall which will be called Gadigal. A strike by dairy workers could result in rationing for shoppers in Victoria, the Herald Sun reports. The NT government has passed new laws to bring greater accountability to private schools but the opposition says it won’t fix the mess, according to the NT News. It took weeks but Port Adelaide have landed all their key targets in the AFL trading window, the Advertiser says.
What’s happening today
Canberra | The social services minister, Amanda Rishworth, will hold a media conference on a “ground-breaking” workplace initiative.
Melbourne | An application will be heard in a class action against Monash IVF, with patients claiming that viable embryos may have been destroyed.
Sydney | The Hot Potato – Story of the Wiggles musical will have its world premiere tonight.
Sign up
If you would like to receive this Morning Mail update to your email inbox every weekday, sign up here. And finish your day with a three-minute snapshot of the day’s main news. Sign up for our Afternoon Update newsletter here.
Prefer notifications? If you’re reading this in our app, just click here and tap “Get notifications” on the next screen for an instant alert when we publish every morning.
Brain teaser
And finally, here are the Guardian’s crosswords to keep you entertained throughout the day – with plenty more on the Guardian’s Puzzles app for iOS and Android. Until tomorrow.
