Good morning. A warning has been sounded about potential disruption to aviation due to a staffing shortage at Australia’s air traffic control agency. And an earthquake in Afghanistan has left at least 1,000 people dead and many more injured.
The air traffic control agency is relying on hundreds of hours of overtime as it struggles to fill shifts, a union analysis of rostering documents shows. A staff union has warned that problems at Airservices Australia are severe, saying: “The consequences ultimately are a reduction of air service provision, which could mean airspace closures, potentially, or a restriction of services or hours.”
The Albanese government could sign up to Joe Biden’s push to limit global methane emissions by 30% from 2020 levels by the end of the decade as part of efforts to signal Australia has turned a corner on climate ambition. The resources minister, Madeleine King, confirmed the new government was considering signing the global pledge but stressed no final decision would be taken without careful consultation.
At least 1,000 people are dead after a powerful earthquake struck at night in a remote area of Afghanistan’s Paktika province. According to Taliban officials, at least 1,500 more were injured in what appears to be the deadliest quake in two decades. Photographs from the area showed collapsed houses and bodies being dug out of the rubble. The death toll is expected to rise further.
Australia
House prices in some areas of Australia are more than 20% above pre-pandemic levels, and several cities have seen greater than 8% annual rent rises, even as the nation’s population growth stalled amid two years of border closures.
The family of a Happy Panda delivery rider killed in Sydney in 2020 will receive more than $800,000 under the NSW workers’ compensation scheme, in what the union says is the first case where a gig economy worker has been considered an employee.
A public servant who directly reported to John Barilaro was the “final decision-maker” in appointing the former deputy premier to a $500,000-a-year trade job in New York, the premier, Dominic Perrottet, has told parliament.
Energy markets face further turbulence within weeks as more retailers decline to take on new customers and others exit the industry, a situation the NSW energy minister, Matt Kean, warns will result in less competition and higher prices.
The federal health minister, Mark Butler, says the commonwealth will not increase its share of hospital funding before the national partnership agreement with the states and territories expires in 2025, putting an end to the states’ hopes of an urgent financial boost for their struggling hospitals.
The world
Finland has prepared for decades for a Russian attack and would put up stiff resistance should one occur, its armed forces chief said. Once a non-aligned country, it is now applying to join Nato over concerns Russia could invade.
A Chinese city has been stripped of its “civilised” title as the fallout from the assault of four women at a restaurant this month continues. The attack on four diners by a group of men on 10 June shocked the nation and sparked a wider conversation among Chinese people on the internet about violence against women.
Israeli archaeologists have unveiled a mosque in the country’s south that antiquities officials say sheds light on the region’s transition from Christianity to Islam. The remains, believed to be more than 1,200 years old, were discovered during works to build a new neighbourhood in the Bedouin city of Rahat.
The elementary school in Texas where a gunman killed 19 children and two adults will be demolished, according to the local mayor.
Recommended reads
Lentils are flexible, nutritional powerhouses – for about 18 cents a serve. Given their dazzling range, how do you pick the perfect pulse for your dish? Natascha Mirosch talks you through the six best dishes you can make with this versatile ingredient.
The writer and comedian Bronwyn Kuss takes us on a trip through the 10 funniest things she has ever seen (on the internet), including a 1990s rugby league ad and a fight from Home and Away. “I’m bad at the internet,” she says. “I’ve always been more of an observer than a participant. My cousins were the first in our family to get a computer and the internet. I remember climbing on to a very high barstool watching my older cousin play The Sims while she ignored me. I’ve kept my distance ever since.”
In an interview with Sian Cain, the composer Dean Stevenson discusses how his latest project has been “traumatic” and has changed him for good. Under the constant gaze of curious art lovers at Mona, the 50-year-old has spent the last 10 months writing a piece each day, stopping about 4pm when musicians from Tasmania’s Symphony Orchestra arrive to perform whatever he has written, good or bad.
Listen
Australia and China’s defence ministers have met in person for the first time since China froze its communications with high-level Australian politicians in 2019. In today’s Full Story, foreign affairs and defence correspondent Daniel Hurst speaks to Jane Lee about the key tensions that remain unresolved.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
A day out from the third Test between England and New Zealand and Headingley could scarcely have looked more ripe for the occasion, with azure skies overhead, the white roof of the new football stand shimmering in the sunshine and the combination of a beige pitch and cambered green outfield hinting at another feast of runs. There is a huge appetite for this match, too. England may be 2-0 up with one to play but the swagger shown during the run chase at Trent Bridge last week has left about 400 tickets spare on days one and four, with two sellouts sandwiched in between.
The controversial Collingwood star Jordan De Goey has been given personal leave by the AFL club, with no time frame set for his return. This comes a day after he was hit with a $25,000 suspended fine and he apologised for his “disrespectful” conduct while partying in Bali.
Media roundup
A senior founding executive from the Judith Neilson Institute has accused its leadership of lacking transparency, reports the Age. Australians who test positive to Covid-19 would receive text messages advising them to speak to a doctor about antiviral drugs under an Albanese government plan to ease pressure on hospitals, reports the Australian.
Coming up
The Australian Energy Market Operator will today remove its unprecedented intervention in the east coast energy market.
A report on WA’s mining industry is expected to lay bare evidence of widespread sexual abuse and harassment.
And if you’ve read this far …
A 92-year-old man is thought to have become the oldest person to sit a British GCSE exam after he completed a maths paper alongside a school hall full of 16-year-olds.
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