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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Chris York

Morning mail: climate breakdown supercharging extreme weather, fears for jailed teens, China’s military drills

A man on a rooftop looks at approaching flames
A comprehensive analysis of scientific studies has revealed how people across the world are losing their lives and livelihoods due to more deadly and frequent extreme weather events. Photograph: David McNew/Getty Images

Good morning. The catastrophic effect of the climate crisis has been laid bare in the most comprehensive analysis of scientific studies to date. At least a dozen of the most serious events, from killer heatwaves to broiling seas, would have been all but impossible without human-caused global heating. And it was a mixed day for Australia at the Commonwealth Games with defeat for the women’s netball team but gold in swimming and cycling.

Advocates have sounded the alarm after a teenager detained in a maximum-security adult prison in WA required medical treatment after self-harming, warning “we will see a death” unless changes are made. The teenager was taken to hospital this week from a facility in Perth’s Casuarina prison.

The devastating intensification of extreme weather is laid bare in a Guardian analysis that shows how people across the world are losing their lives and livelihoods due to more deadly and more frequent heatwaves, floods, wildfires and droughts brought by the climate crisis. The analysis of hundreds of scientific studies demonstrates beyond any doubt how humanity’s vast carbon emissions are forcing the climate to disastrous new extremes.

China has raised tensions across Asia after launching huge military exercises in the air and seas around Taiwan, including firing ballistic missiles close to the island, some of which landed in Japanese waters. The brazen show of force disrupted one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes and diverted hundreds of flights. The exercises, which included rockets, attack helicopters and gunships, were arranged in reaction to a defiant visit to the island by the US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi.

Australia

Cattle near a windfarm near Bungendore, 40km east of Canberra
Cattle near a windfarm near Bungendore, 40km east of Canberra. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Australia’s climate change targets will become law, so what happens now? Here’s what we know the new bill means for climate action and what happens once we have legislated targets.

A jobseeker has questioned why her Workforce Australia provider made her complete an online personality test that asked how well she expressed love, whether she gives into temptation, and that judged if “spirituality” and “zest” were among her strengths.

A passenger with a disability has lodged a discrimination complaint after he was turned away at the gate when trying to board a Jetstar flight in Sydney.

The legality of the encrypted app An0m, which Australian federal police used to run a global crime sting, is being challenged in the courts a year after its highly publicised unveiling.

A controversial program that would lead to pharmacists receiving $275 from Philip Morris when they order its VEEV vapes has been paused, amid growing concern about the ethics of the tobacco giant incentivising the sale and promotion of its products.

Three people have died in a shooting at a cattle property near the north Queensland town of Collinsville, police have confirmed. Police said they found three bodies in the remote rural location. A man who was taken to Mackay base hospital earlier told police he and three other people had been shot.

The world

Two-time Olympic gold medallist and WNBA player Brittney Griner is escorted to hear the court’s verdict in a court near Moscow
Two-time Olympic gold medallist and WNBA player Brittney Griner is escorted to hear the court’s verdict in a court near Moscow. Photograph: Maxim Shipenkov/EPA

A Moscow court has convicted the US basketball player Brittney Griner on drug charges, sentencing her to nine years in prison and a 1m rouble fine in a politically charged verdict that could lead to a prisoner swap with the US.

The UN is setting up a fact-finding mission to investigate the killing of dozens of prisoners of war at a prison in a Russian-occupied region of eastern Ukraine that Moscow and Kyiv accuse each other of carrying out.

The Biden administration is reported to be planning to declare the US monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency in an effort to empower US officials to expedite countermeasures including vaccines and treatments.

Recommended reads

Richard Gere’s character presents a gift to Julia Roberts in a scene from the film Pretty Woman
A scene from Pretty Woman. Photograph: Touchstone/Sportsphoto/Allstar

“I’m the opposite of Pretty Woman. People think I’m obscenely wealthy.” In this week’s diary, Brigid Delaney regales us with the tale of how she accidentally bluffed her way into the elite housing market. Well, the part of the elite housing market just before you actually have to lay down $15m to buy a mansion. “I felt trapped and self-conscious,” she writes. “Like an intruder – a class intruder – and I did something dumb. I pretended that the house was of no interest to me because it was too small.”

Each month Guardian Australia editors and critics pick out the upcoming titles they’ve devoured – or can’t wait to get their hands on – and this month’s selection include books deemed “essential”, “quietly hopeful” and “propulsive”.

Crowds can be a bit hit and miss. If you’re at a gig they’re great, if you happen to be in the middle of a riot, not so great. Richard Tognetti has spent the last few years thinking about crowds, and has created The Crowd and I, which pairs footage of riots and protests with live music from the Australian Chamber Orchestra, of which he is artistic director. Brigid Delaney spoke to him about how the project came to be.

Listen

Last week in a historic speech at the Garma festival, Anthony Albanese made a promise to push forward with a referendum, asking Australians a simple question: Do you support a constitutionally enshrined Indigenous voice to parliament? In this episode of Full Story, Gabrielle Jackson talks to Lenore Taylor and Lorena Allam about the long road to recognition.

Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.

Sport

Grace Brown of Australia crosses the finish line as she competes in the women’s cycling individual time trials
Grace Brown of Australia crosses the finish line as she competes in the women’s cycling individual time trials. Photograph: Rui Vieira/AP

As Grace Brown was preparing for the first leg of an Australian clean sweep of the Commonwealth Games individual time trials, the task ahead was brought into harsh focus. The English rider Hayley Simmonds articulated perfectly the demands of the event. “It’s called the race of truth,” Simmonds told the BBC. “In the end, it’s just you and the pain in your legs and thoughts in your head … It is literally the strongest rider who will win.” By midway through Thursday afternoon on a complex course in Black Country, Wolverhampton, the evidence was clear. Brown was the strongest woman by far.

Jhaniele Fowler led the way as Jamaica defeated Australia in a stunning 57-55 upset, beating netball’s No 1-ranked side to take top spot in their Commonwealth Games pool. But there was better news in the swimming pool, where Australia picked up yet more golds, and in the cycling to bring Australia’s total golden tally to 50 at the time of writing.

Australian former featherweight world champion Johnny Famechon has died in Melbourne at the age of 77. The boxer’s most memorable victory was his world title win against the Cuban José Legrá at London’s Albert Hall in 1969.

Media roundup

The federal and state governments have questioned the King’s School over planned spending on a plunge pool for the headmaster’s residence and business-class flights for senior staff to attend a prestigious British regatta, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. The ABC looks at financial elder abuse, a “hidden issue” that lawyers say is on the rise in Australia.

Coming up

The Reserve Bank will give a statement on monetary policy.

And if you’ve read this far …

A cute and extremely rare multicoloured sea slug has been spotted in British waters for the first time.

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