Good morning. The federal election campaign finish line is approaching and the Australian Greens believe they are in a position to gain up to three seats in the Senate. Israel will not launch a criminal investigation into the killing of a US-Palestinian journalist. And Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have ordered all female TV presenters to cover their faces on air.
Australians go to the polls tomorrow but not everyone will be able to have their say due to an AEC anomaly preventing thousands of Covid-positive people from voting. A high-profile independent, Monique Ryan, who is running against the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, in Kooyong, is planning a federal court challenge over the issue. On the final day of the campaign, Labor is pledging to establish an independent environment protection agency to enforce national conservation laws and collect data on the plight of the country’s wildlife. Despite the independents taking media attention away from the Greens, the minor party is in a position to gain up to three seats in the Senate, with a potential, though unlikely, addition of another lower house seat in Brisbane. And the United Australia party may have more support than we realise, analysts say, with people too embarrassed to publicly admit they will vote for them.
Australia had the highest levels of greenhouse gas pollution from coal per person than any other developed country in 2021, according to new data. But it shows per-capita greenhouse gas emissions from coal fell sharply last year, with a surge in solar and wind energy seeing rates drop well below the average of the previous five years. Australia is the second most coal-dependant country for power generation in the OECD, behind Poland, according to the data compiled by UK-based thinktank Ember.
Israel will not launch a criminal investigation into the killing of the US-Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh, which Palestinian officials and witnesses have blamed on Israeli soldiers. The Israel defense forces claimed that because Abu Aqleh was killed in an “active combat situation”, an immediate criminal investigation would not be launched, although an “operational inquiry” would continue. According to a report in the Haaretz, the Israeli military police branch has accepted the assurances of Israeli troops that they were not aware she was in a village adjacent to the Jenin refugee camp when she was killed on 11 May. The Biden administration and the UN security council have called for a transparent investigation.
Australia
Photograph: Christopher Hopkins/The Guardian
National disability insurance scheme participants are spending months longer than needed in hospital as they await funding packages from the agency that runs the scheme, a new report shows.
The aged care sector has urged the government to reinstate Covid prevention funding as it grapples with outbreaks in almost 30% of the nation’s residential facilities. The call comes as aged care workers in South Australia and Queensland prepare to walk off the job over unfair pay and conditions.
Chinese Australian community leaders are warning that the Coalition’s use of hardline rhetoric against China is turning voters off – and that it could potentially cost the government in the seat of Bennelong.
With the cost of living rising and wages stagnating, Anthony Albanese supports lifting the minimum wage by 5.1%. But Scott Morrison says this will make inflation worse. Is he right? Antoun Issa checks the facts.
We asked Guardian Australia readers about the local issues that matter most to them this election. Broadband speeds, regional public transport, support for children with cleft palates and pollution topped voters’ lists of concerns. We put their questions to candidates.
The world
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have ordered all female TV presenters to cover their faces on air, the country’s biggest media outlet has said. The order came in a statement from the Taliban’s virtue and vice ministry, as well as from the information and culture ministry, the Tolo news channel tweeted on Thursday. The statement called the order “final and non-negotiable”, the channel said.
The US House of Representatives has passed legislation that would bolster federal resources to prevent domestic terrorism in response to the racist mass shooting in Buffalo, New York – but the bill faces the increasingly familiar burden of an uphill climb to pass the Senate.
Students at a school in Bremerhaven, northern Germany, used chairs and tables to barricade themselves in their classrooms after several shots were fired at the building, seriously injuring an adult woman. Police say an armed attacker used an unidentified weapon to injure a female employee at the Lloyd Gymnasium secondary school yesterday morning.
Recommended reads
In 2018, after a bruising divorce, the British singer Sarah Brown was “broke, financially, emotionally and spiritually – I had nothing to live for”. At her lowest ebb, she turned to a voice that had given her crucial guidance and succour when she was a child: Mahalia Jackson, the pre-eminent gospel star of the 20th century. “Pop music was banned in my home growing up,” Brown says. “But my father owned records by Jim Reeves, Aretha Franklin and Mahalia Jackson. And Mahalia’s voice opened my spirit up. I grew up in a volatile home – my father beat my mum, he beat my older brother. I was seven years old, living in fear.” But in Jackson’s volcanic, resonant, impassioned voice, Brown found much-needed shelter and catharsis. “I was able to scream along with her, and release that fear. Mahalia helped release me.”
Emmanuel Carrère was no stranger to depression but it was late in life that a major episode led to him being hospitalised and diagnosed as bipolar. In some ways it made sense of his problems, but in the midst of it, everything was broken. “It’s disturbing, at almost 60 years of age, to be diagnosed with an illness that you’ve suffered from your whole life without it ever being named,” writes Carrère. “Your first reaction is to protest.”
Listen
This weekend Australians head to the polls. After a long and at times hollow campaign, devoid of big picture and big policy, have the major parties earned your vote? Or have the minor parties and independents influenced the campaign for the better? In this episode of Full Story, Gabrielle Jackson talks to Lenore Taylor and Mike Ticher about the Guardian view on the election, and the challenges ahead.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
AFLW players have had their pay almost doubled under a new one-season deal struck with the AFL. The deal covers the seventh season of the AFLW competition, which has been brought forward to start in late August.
Cody Simpson always had a dream. It wasn’t to be a global pop star and heartthrob. Or date models and celebrities, perform on Broadway and act on television. His dream was to swim for Australia – just as his parents did. After having his swimming dream “sidetracked” by fame in the US, the Gold Coast prodigy has now qualified for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Media roundup
Major media outlets have published editorials outlining their view on who is best to lead the country. The Sydney Morning Herald and the Age say Scott Morrison does not deserve another term; the Australian is backing the Coalition, arguing that Anthony Albanese is not ready. The AFR also says Labor has not made its case.
And if you’ve read this far …
From Abba to Zingers: here are the moments that lit up the election campaign.
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