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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Luca Ittimani

Afternoon Update: Trump files Harris complaint; AFP dismisses robodebt allegation; and busting gladiator myths

US vice president Kamala Harris speaks at her first campaign rally since president Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race.
US vice president Kamala Harris speaks at her first campaign rally since president Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race. Photograph: Kamil Krzaczyński/AFP/Getty Images

Good afternoon. Donald Trump’s campaign has filed a complaint against the US vice-president, Kamala Harris, accusing her 2024 campaign of violating federal campaign finance laws by taking control of funding under Joe Biden’s name.

The complaint, filed to the US Federal Election Commission, argued that the Biden campaign could not roll over $91m and rename its committee from “Biden for President” to “Harris for President” once Biden had dropped out of the race on Sunday.

The Trump campaign has looked to slow down Harris’s momentum after she quickly became the presumptive Democratic nominee, by stopping her from accessing Biden’s funds. Talk has already turned to potential running mates, with three leading contenders emerging.

Top news

  • Australia’s environment could be fixed for 0.3% of GDP, experts say | Saving Australia’s threatened wildlife, repairing degraded land and restoring ailing river systems is possible and would cost just 0.3% of the country’s GDP, according to a new blueprint produced by more than 60 experts.

  • Nine Entertainment staff allegedly attacked in Paris | Two members of the company’s broadcast team were allegedly assaulted in what colleagues have described as a suspected robbery of a “serious physical nature”.

  • Teens jailed for Melbourne street attack murder of 16-year-old | Four teenagers have been jailed for almost 20 years each for murdering 16-year-old Declan Cutler. The group kicked, stomped on and stabbed Cutler in Melbourne’s north in March 2022.

  • King Charles gets £45m pay rise (A$88m) | The king’s official annual income will rise by more than 50% after the crown estate delivered profits of £1.1bn (A$2.15bn). Part of the increase will also go towards the ongoing 10-year renovation of Buckingham Palace.

  • Federal police dismiss robodebt false testimony allegations | The AFP has finalised an investigation into allegations a witness gave false testimony to the royal commission, saying it did not “identify sufficient admissible evidence” that the alleged offender had intended to mislead.

  • Sanders condemns speech to Congress by ‘war criminal’ Netanyahu | Bernie Sanders has called Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “war criminal” presiding over a “rightwing extremist government”. Netanyahu is expected to give a speech to the US Congress on Wednesday afternoon (Thursday AEST).

  • Surfer’s leg washes up on beach after Port Macquarie shark attack | The severed leg of a 23-year-old surfer was retrieved after it washed up on a beach following a shark attack off the mid-north coast of New South Wales.

  • Rubbish balloons from North Korea land on presidential office in South Korea | One of the thousands of trash-carrying balloons launched by Pyongyang has for the first time directly hit the presidential compound in Seoul, which is protected by scores of soldiers and a no-fly zone.

  • At least 22 cattle dead after truck smashes into Melbourne rail bridge | Some injured cows were euthanised at the crash scene, with transport groups questioning why the route was used. Many of the other cattle were injured and at least one was seen jumping from the trailer. There were also reports of at least two cattle wandering through streets.

What they said …

***

“There’s no space for more patients. There’s no space in the operating theatres. There is a lack of medical supplies, so we cannot save our patients.” – Mohammed Zaqout, director of Nasser hospital in Gaza.

Doctors in the largest hospital in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis pleaded for supplies for a facility overwhelmed by wounded people, as Israeli airstrikes continued for a second day.

In numbers

The figure is the lowest recorded since 2006, almost 14,000 fewer births than the previous year.

Before bed read

Rampant slaughter! Sexy armour! Tiger maulings! We bust the gladiator myths

Gladiators rarely actually died in colosseum combat. Instead, they tended to have long, healthy careers. Ralph Jones breaks down the epic inaccuracies as a new TV show brings swords and sandals back to the screen.

Daily word game

Today’s starter word is: RICE. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.

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