Good morning. Peter Dutton has delivered his budget reply speech, focusing on rising power prices and again calling for a discussion around nuclear power. It came hours before the UN warned there was now “no credible pathway” to limiting global temperature rises to 1.5C, the goal set to avoid the worst effects of the climate crisis.
Two weeks after the Medibank cyber-attack, the question that remains unanswered is: will the company pay a ransom? The hacker claimed to have extracted 200GB of files with data on all of the company’s 3.9 million customers. Richard Buckland, a professor of cybercrime at the University of New South Wales, said the Medibank case was one of the few where a company should pay the ransom, contrary to official advice.
The climate crisis has reached a “really bleak moment”, one of the world’s leading climate scientists has said, after a slew of major reports laid bare how close the planet is to catastrophe. The UN’s environment agency has said there is “no credible pathway to 1.5C in place” and the failure to reduce carbon emissions means the only way to limit the worst impacts of the climate crisis is a “rapid transformation of societies”.
The grieving mother of 15-year-old Cassius Turvey, killed in an alleged violent attack in Perth, has questioned why police took only a brief statement from the schoolboy before he died in hospital. She said she was frustrated that police, apart from taking a brief statement from Cassius the night he was admitted to hospital, did not take a further statement from him before he died. “We did not hear from any detectives, no police. Nothing. For five full days. That was their opportunity. That was their window,” Turvey said.
Australia
A chance discovery has ended the trial of Bruce Lehrmann for the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins, with ACT supreme court chief justice Lucy McCallum forced to abort the trial after it was found that a juror was thought to have brought in outside research material into the court. But the chaos of the last minutes of the trial did not stop after McCallum’s decision.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has put cost of living concerns at the centre of his budget in reply speech, accusing Labor of a “missed opportunity” to help Australians in need.
Energy ministers should agree to impose a price cap on gas at about a third of current market offers when they meet on Friday to help ease inflation threats, the head of one of Australia’s largest industry groups has said.
Organisers of a nationwide schools science roadshow have dropped gas company Santos as its main sponsor after a senior climate scientist said the fossil fuel funding was inappropriate.
Homeowners in areas where major flooding poses a “catastrophic risk to life” in New South Wales’s northern rivers region will be eligible to sell their property to the government as part of a long-awaited $800m housing scheme.
The world
Kyiv is facing a “sharp deterioration” in the region’s electricity supply after a fresh wave of Russian strikes aimed at sapping public morale as the country’s cold winter approaches. It comes as Vladimir Putin has said that he directly ordered his defence minister to make a series of calls to top Nato commanders this week over the potential detonation of a “dirty bomb” in Ukraine.
Fears are growing that Jair Bolsonaro could refuse to accept defeat in Brazil’s crunch election this Sunday after his politician son claimed Brazil’s far-right president was the victim of “the greatest electoral fraud ever seen” amid unproven allegations of foul play.
Protests against the Iranian government have regained momentum as funerals for those killed and a highly emotional commemoration of the movement have stretched security forces drawn into a further cycle of arrests and repression.
Elon Musk has claimed he has “acquired Twitter” in a post to the social network reassuring advertisers it will stay a safe place for their brands, amid fears one of his first actions as chief executive will be to restore Donald Trump’s account.
Recommended reads
Halloween is fast approaching, and with it comes questions about the excessive confectionary kids gather in the course of their trick or treating. So, with buckets of sweets on the horizon, should parents let them binge the sweet stash in one fell swoop before returning to healthier programming?
“I’m in love with this planet and the people who inhabit it,” Heather Rose writes in her memoir. But it is not until you come to the last chapters of the memoir that you understand how hard won this has been. Rose has chosen to live with joy.
Listen
Netball Australia has been in the news after players expressed concern over wearing the logo of mining company Hancock Prospecting on their uniform. But netball isn’t the only sport to make headlines recently relating to claims of sportswashing. The Socceroos issued a statement this week about human rights abuses in Qatar ahead of the World Cup next month. In this episode of Full Story, Gabrielle Jackson talks to Lenore Taylor and Josephine Tovey about players finding their voice, the politics of sport, and sportswashing.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
Zimbabwe have claimed a sensational last-ball win over Pakistan in the T20 World Cup, leaving the latter’s tournament campaign in tatters.
Trump, alligators and a $50m prize: the controversial LIV Golf’s first season has reached its finale in the wildest and weirdest of golfing times.
The Wallaroos are tapping into a professional mindset for their World Cup clash with England. Australia believe they are amateur in name only as the team begins to click ahead of their quarter-final in Auckland this weekend.
Media roundup
The federal government’s budget has come under fire on the ABC’s Q+A for not doing enough to help young people or address cost-of-living problems in Australia. In the Sydney Morning Herald, Port Macquarie has seen a push to tear down a statue of the nation’s first prime minister over his legacy of racism. And the Australian reveals yet another big data breach, this time at a big strata management firm.
Coming up
The BoM will face an estimates hearing.
Energy ministers will meet to discuss a potential price cap on gas.
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