Good morning. The centrepiece of tomorrow’s federal budget will be a $14.6bn package of cost-of-living relief, paid for in part by savings of $17.8bn. The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has confirmed there will be new measures in the cost-of-living package in tomorrow’s budget; while he hasn’t provided a breakdown, he’s previously hinted at “additional measures” for renters, and some are tipping a broad increase to the jobseeker payment.
Meanwhile, MasterChef Australia is back, King Charles’ coronation concert kicks off, and authorities investigate a pair of mass killings in Texas.
Australia
Budget 2023 | The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, says support won’t be limited by age as reports suggest a small jump in the jobseeker base rate, bolstering anti-poverty advocates’ hopes that the increase will take effect across the board.
Cost of living | Guardian Australia meets members of a growing group, according to a new report: people living alone and in poverty, as rent increases hit hardest for single-person households.
MasterChef Australia | Celebrity chefs including Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay, Nigella Lawson and former boss Marco Pierre White remembered Jock Zonfrillo in a televised tribute dedicated to the late MasterChef Australia judge a week after his sudden death. It came as the show returned for its 15th season.
Drugs | Stronger heroin on the streets of Melbourne has led to a spike in overdoses, with community health organisations saying they are buckling under the increased strain.
Endangered species | Feral horses in the Australian alps pose an imminent threat to the Albanese government’s zero extinctions target, according to a scientific committee that advises the government on endangered species.
World
Russia-Ukraine war | The head of Russia’s Wagner group appears to have ditched plans to withdraw his forces from Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine, after receiving promises overnight that they would get all the arms needed to capture the devastated city.
Dallas shooting | Nearly a day after a gunman killed eight people at a suburban Dallas, Texas, shopping mall, authorities have provided few details. The gunman was killed by a police officer who happened to be nearby. Meanwhile, in a separate incident in Brownsville, Texas, seven people were killed after a driver plowed their car into the crowd outside a shelter serving migrants and homeless people.
King’s coronation | Police who arrested anti-monarchy protesters before King Charles III’s coronation have “destroyed whatever trust might have existed between peaceful protesters and the Metropolitan police,” the chief executive of the campaign group Republic said. By the way, here’s our live blog for this morning’s coronation concert in Berkshire.
Thai election | Back on the campaign trail just days after giving birth, Paetongtarn Shinawatra – the daughter of an exiled former Thai prime minister – is confident of a landslide victory when the country votes this weekend.
#MeToo Germany | Germany’s culture minister was forced to intervene over reports of a “climate of fear” dominating the country’s film sets after numerous allegations of bullying and abuse were made against one of the industry’s biggest stars.
Full Story
Is Australia misusing its anti-terror powers?
The federal and New South Wales governments have wielded extraordinary powers to detain or control individuals for potential future crimes using a terror risk assessment tool with flaws that were kept secret for years. Christopher Knaus and Nino Bucci discuss Australia’s powerful anti-terror laws, and why legal bodies and the national security law watchdog want them to change.
Meanwhile, Guardian Australia speaks to an 11-year-old – one of about 30 minors awaiting repatriation from Syria’s Roj detention camp – who faces being taken from his family to an adult jail.
In-depth
In 2018, Guardian Australia reporter Melissa Davey received a phone message from a woman making a shocking claim. An obstetrician working for a New South Wales hospital had paid a patient to have an abortion at almost 20 weeks, the woman told Davey. He thought he had harmed the patient’s unborn baby during a medical procedure, the woman said, and wrote her a cheque to cover the termination.
“You immediately think: if that is true, that’s a huge story,” Davey says. It turned out to be much bigger: Dr Emil Gayed had mutilated scores of NSW women. Here’s how it was uncovered.
Not the news
Are you the member of your family constantly slapping at your exposed arms and legs outdoors as mosquito bites redden and swell, while everyone else remains blithely unbothered? Well, help may soon be at hand.
Charlotte Lytton investigates an “unprecedented” new repellant that acts as a “chemical camouflage” to derail the cues that mosquitoes use to select their victims.
The world of sport
AFL | The rise of Geelong and Collingwood proves the game has changed since Richmond’s premiership years, writes Jonathan Horn. Can the Tigers evolve to find success again?
NRL | The Rabbitohs blew away the Storm to hop into place as premiership favourites.
Women’s rugby | Fijiana Drua beat the Queensland Reds 38-30 to claim consecutive Super W titles.
Premier League | West Ham beat Man United 1-0; Arsenal beat Newcastle 2-0.
Super League | For a pre-game warm-up, players in France fled a raging bull.
Media roundup
The Sydney Morning Herald speaks to a growing number of people in the city queuing for food help and sleeping in cars. Cocaine worth more than a million dollars was found buried in a Darwin park, NT News reports. Victoria’s building industry regulator completed hundreds of virtual online audits rather than physically attending construction sites even after being told the practice might break the law, according to the Age.
What’s happening today
Police conduct | An independent inquiry probing misconduct in the prosecution of Bruce Lehrmann for the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins will hold its first public hearing.
Jarryd Hayne | The former NRL star will be sentenced for a rape conviction.
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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.
