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The settlement adds $112m interest to the $1.76bn in unlawful debts the commonwealth has agreed to wipeA “shameful chapter” in public administration has led to the federal court approving a settlement worth $1.8bn between the commonwealth and victims of the Coalition’s robodebt scheme.Justice Bernard Murphy in Friday’s judgment criticised the federal government’s “massive failure”, noting the court had heard “heart-wrenching” stories of pain and anguish from victims of the Centrelink debt recovery program. Continue reading...

Despite new laws to combat the problem, a rape is reported every 15 minutes, leaving victims and families crying out for justice

Eight films. Twenty-four hours. One nervous breakdown. Ahead of the latest instalment, one writer caught up on the pec-drenched petrolhead franchise

11 June 1946: Italians vote in an institutional referendum to replace the monarchy with a republicRome, 10 June

Critics say focus on the prime minister glosses over the experience of the Muslims still struggling with aftermath of mosque shootingsPlans for a Hollywood film focusing on prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s response to the Christchurch mosque terror attacks have prompted frustration and disgust in New Zealand, with accusations that Muslim victims have been sidelined.The film is set to star Australian actor Rose Byrne as Ardern, according to the Hollywood Reporter, and is called They Are Us – a line derived from one of Ardern’s speeches at the time. It is to be directed by New Zealand film-maker Andrew Niccol, and produced by FilmNation. Continue reading...

UN secretary general says he’s concerned that the richest nations have pumped billions more into fossil fuels than clean energy since the pandemicWealthy countries risk an “unforgivable lost opportunity” by not emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic with newly green economies to address the climate crisis, the United Nations secretary general has warned.Before meeting the leaders of the world’s major economic powers at the G7 summit in the UK, António Guterres said he was concerned that the richest nations have pumped billions of dollars more into fossil fuels than clean energy since the pandemic, despite their promises of a green recovery. Continue reading...

Magistrates and jurists agree that without the now controversial law Giovanni Brusca wouldn’t have spent a day in prisonAt 5.57 pm on 23 May 1992, a car carrying the Sicilian mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone was thrown into the air as a powerful explosion ripped a 15-metre crater in the motorway connecting Palermo to its airport. On a hillside overlooking the devastation stood one of the mafia’s most notorious killers, Giovanni Brusca, nicknamed u scannacristiani (the people-slayer), who milliseconds earlier had detonated the 300 kilos of explosive placed in a culvert under the road. He killed Falcone, his wife, Francesca Morvillo, and three escorting officers.Brusca, 64, believed to have murdered more than 100 people before he broke the oath of omertà and turned police informant, was released after 25 years in prison last week, thanks to a law championed by Falcone. Continue reading...

Rates spike among 20-29-year-olds, says Public Health England; WHO regional director warns governments to exercise caution as Delta variant spreads; Matt Hancock questioned by MPs on UK response

Friday: G7 meeting in the UK gets underway. Plus: Brisbane a step closer to securing the 2032 Olympic GamesGood morning – especially to Melbourne readers ready to venture out after the city’s two-week lockdown. Making headlines this morning: world leaders are arriving in Cornwall ahead of the G7 Summit which starts on Friday, Brisbane is a step closer to securing the 2032 Olympics and Australia and Singapore have agreed on travel bubble arrangements to allow international students to return to universities.Melbourne’s lockdown will end today, but residents will still need to mask-up outdoors as the state recorded another four new locally acquired cases of Covid. The Victorian testing commander, Jeroen Weimar, listed a series of new exposure sites, mostly around the Melbourne suburb of Reservoir, and urged locals there to come forward for testing. Queensland also recorded another case, but state authorities said the risk of an outbreak was low. Continue reading...

The G7 summit risks being overshadowed by the bitter standoff over BrexitThe French president last night ramped up the pressure on Boris Johnson over the Northern Ireland protocol by insisting “nothing is negotiable” as the G7 summit of world leaders risked being overshadowed by the bitter standoff over Brexit.In a defiant intervention as he prepared to travel to the UK, Emmanuel Macron warned Boris Johnson that France is not open to renegotiating any aspect of the protocol – and even appeared to raise questions about whether the UK could be trusted. Continue reading...

Council calls Department of Health ‘irresponsible’ after virus passed from hotel staff to people in community

The Productivity Commission recommends changes including allowing consumers to make ‘super complaints’ to the watchdogIt should be easier for Australians to get their smartphones, tablets and other devices repaired or replaced, the Productivity Commission has found.The commission reviewed the so-called “right to repair” in Australia and received more than 300 submissions and comments. Many consumers complained that companies were making it harder and more expensive to get devices repaired by anyone other than the manufacturer. Continue reading...

In a Mediterranean city where summer is lived outdoors, residents delight in revelling in the streets once moreIn a city as boisterous as Marseille, a summer curfew can be considered something of an affront. Summer is when the Marseillais live outdoors. From May to September, a post-work apéro can easily stretch well into the night. And at the weekend anything goes. As the days became sunnier, France’s second city began to chafe under an early evening curfew that had been in place since October. But on Wednesday there was some respite, with the nightly national curfew moved from 9pm to 11pm.The city centre squares where the Marseillais come to play – Cours d’Estienne d’Orves, Cours Julien and La Plaine – heaved with revellers delighted to be out beyond sunset. Around the Old Port of Marseille, happy crowds converged on bars, shisha cafes and restaurants. On the corniche, joggers took advantage of the cooler twilight air. The Maghreb-inflected rap for which the city is famous drifted from passing cars. Continue reading...

Coroner says ‘fatigue or distraction’ may be cause, while families state they will ‘never fully understand’A mother and her three children died when their family car collided with an oncoming lorry, an inquest has heard.Zoe Powell, 29, and Phoebe, eight, Simeon, six, and Amelia, four, were killed in the crash on the A40 near Oxford at about 9.50pm on 12 October last year. Continue reading...

Khan was shot dead after fatally stabbing Jack Merritt and Saskia Jones during a prisoner rehabilitation conference in November 2019Usman Khan, a convicted terrorist, was lawfully killed on London Bridge by armed police after stabbing two people at a prisoner rehabilitation event while wearing a fake suicide belt, an inquest jury has concluded.The 28-year-old jihadi, originally from Stoke-on-Trent, was shot dead by armed officers outside Fishmongers’ Hall in November 2019. Minutes earlier he had killed Saskia Jones, 23, and Jack Merritt, 25, who were helping to organise the event in the hall, hosted by Learning Together, a prisoner education initiative run by Cambridge University. Continue reading...

Court in Valence convicts Damien Tarel on charge of violence against a person invested with public authorityA French court has sentenced a 28-year-old man to four months in prison for slapping France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, in the face.Damien Tarel was quickly arrested after the swipe that caught Macron’s left cheek with an audible thwack on Tuesday, as the French leader was greeting a crowd. Continue reading...

Analysis: Northern Ireland row dashes Johnson’s hopes of greeting world leaders as PM of a newly emboldened and nimble UKWhen Boris Johnson selected Cornwall as the venue for this weekend’s G7 summit, he must have imagined greeting the world’s leaders against the backdrop of a blazing blue sky on the English riviera, while getting to grips with the great global challenges of climate breakdown and Covid.Instead, his first face-to-face meeting with Joe Biden on Thursday had to be moved from the picturesque St Michael’s Mount to the conference hotel in Carbis Bay, because of the Cornish mizzle – and Brexit was frustratingly high on the agenda. Continue reading...

Manuel Souto took matters into own hands to provide resting place for wife on daily walks in Spanish townWhatever the rustic bench that sits on a street in the north-west Spanish town of A Estrada may lack in finish and elegance, it more than makes up for in the devotion shown behind its creation.The pale wooden seat was cobbled together after Manuel Souto, an 82-year-old retired lathe operator, decided to find somewhere for his wife to sit and rest on their daily walks. María Souto, who is 79 and has osteoarthritis, walks with a stick and finds her morning exercise more and more difficult. Continue reading...

Already multiplatinum in their native Italy, the swaggering rock quartet now have two singles in the UK chart. They discuss their rise to success – and that drug-taking allegationBefore their momentous Eurovision victory with Zitti e Buoni, placing Italian rock back on the world stage and earning praise from Simon Le Bon and Miley Cyrus; before a baseless accusation of snorting cocaine almost veered into a full-blown diplomatic crisis; and before their post-win ping-pong tournament became a twee secondary narrative, the Italian band Måneskin had already raised eyebrows in Rotterdam, this year’s host city.After a rehearsal session ended late, says the bassist, Victoria De Angelis, they were parched – but realised there was no drinking water in their hotel rooms. “We went to the hotel reception, but they said there was no water around,” De Angelis says. “So we made it into the kitchen and took some.” Continue reading...

The husband of a woman who travelled from Melbourne to the Sunshine Coast via NSW also tests positive to coronavirus in Queensland

International lawyer Geoffrey Robertson to argue Australia failed to protect Dungay’s right to life and denied family justice for his 2015 death in Long Bay jailInternational human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson will take the case of the death in custody of David Dungay to the United Nations, arguing that Australia violated his human rights and those of his family by denying them justice and accountability for his 2015 death in prison custody.Robertson’s London-based Doughty Street Chambers will lodge the complaint on behalf of the Dungay family at the UN human rights committee in Geneva. In it they will say that Australia has failed to protect his right to life and failed to undertake investigations into anyone or any organisation responsible for his death. Continue reading...

Court has in effect liquidated the opposition politician’s movement by classifying it as ‘extremist’A Russian court has outlawed opposition politician Alexei Navalny’s nationwide political organisation on the grounds it is “extremist”, in a landmark step for Vladimir Putin’s crackdown on political dissent.The court decision, which had been anticipated, in effect liquidates Navalny’s non-violent opposition movement and bars his allies from running for office for years, as the Kremlin seeks to erase the jailed opposition leader from Russian political life. Continue reading...

‘Patience wearing very thin,’ says EU negotiator, while Joe Biden expected to raise ‘deep concerns’ about issue at summit

Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper used tuition fees and donations to a California Catholic school to subsidize her casino expensesA retired nun has admitted to embezzling $835,000 over 10 years from a Catholic school in California to fund her gambling habit, according to federal prosecutors.Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, 79, a former principal at St James Catholic School in Torrance, California, used tuition fees and donations to subsidize casino gambling expenses and credit card payments, the authorities said. Continue reading...

The past decade has seen the formation of a vibrant and strange genre of music called hyperpop. Its growth has been spurred on by the internet – through Soundcloud, Twitter and now Spotify – and it has been linked to some of the most exciting young artists worldwide.Freelance music writer Shaad D’Souza speaks to Laura Murphy-Oates about the rise of hyperpop and what it tells us about the influence of big corporations such as Spotify.You can also read: Continue reading...

The US president has become convinced that Beijing is the main adversary in a global battle of governance systemsThe unifying theme behind Joe Biden’s European tour this week is a country which will not be at any of the meetings and may not even be mentioned in the final communiques: China.Before setting out on his first foreign trip as president, Biden has made clear that the competition between the world’s democracies and its authoritarian regimes – mostly importantly Beijing – is the defining global challenge of the age, with victory anything but guaranteed for the US and its allies. Continue reading...

Four men on trial in absentia in the Netherlands over downing of flight with 298 onboard over UkraineMultiple witnesses saw an anti-aircraft missile launcher that had secretly crossed into eastern Ukraine from Russia in the hours before it shot down the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, a trial in the Netherlands has heard.The Buk system crossed the border in darkness in the early hours of 17 July 2014. It was then loaded on to a trailer and taken to the rebel-held city of Donetsk, the court heard on Wednesday, before it headed east towards the town of Snizhne. Continue reading...

Analysis: there may have been no breakthrough but Lord Frost’s calm outlook suggests all is not lost

Latest updates: scientist speaks as UK records 7,540 new cases - highest daily figure since 26 February

‘When I first visited the Yanomami tribe, they were completely isolated – they hadn’t seen a camera and didn’t know what photography was’

Prosecutors accuse suspect of failing to ensure protection of convoy that was attacked in February

It’s not just plastic clogs that are being elevated right now – flip-flops, trainers and hiking boots all have heels right now. And just when we were all yearning for comfortName: Balenciaga Crocs.Age: Super new. Not even out yet. Continue reading...

Christian Drosten says disease likely to recur for several years but be kept under control by vaccine top-ups

Activists fear that an increase in attacks on the country’s LBGT community is fuelled by a culture of homophobia at the very top

Vital services including grants financed by UK unavailable without identity cards, with women and the elderly worst affected

Here are the current coronavirus hotspots and case locations in Queensland and what to do if you’ve visited them.

Survey shows many consider project ‘broken’ although still back membership and more cooperation

Victorian Covid-19 restrictions are easing in as the Melbourne coronavirus outbreak comes under control. Can you leave home? Is mask-wearing compulsory? Are schools closed? Is travelling permitted? What is the 25km radius for? Here are the new rules

Queensland’s crisis accommodation model is leaving women with ‘impossible choice’ of secondary homelessness or returning to unsafe homes, refuge operators sayWomen and children fleeing domestic violence in Queensland have spent years “trapped” in refuges and other crisis accommodation due to a chronic shortage of secure long-term housing.Community organisations that run domestic and family violence refuges say the situation creates a bottleneck in crisis accommodation – leaving vulnerable women with an “impossible choice” of living for extended periods in secondary homelessness or choosing to return to unsafe or violent relationships. Continue reading...

Guardian analysis shows more than 10% rise in monthly exemptions after state push to tighten approvalsAlmost 12,000 Australians received permission to travel overseas in May, a higher rate than the preceding three months, despite the federal government promising to look at tightening exemptions.According to a Guardian Australia analysis of Australian Border Force (ABF) statistics, some 11,879 citizens and residents were granted exemptions in May, a jump of more than 10% on the average of 10,353 a month between February and April. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Experts say staffing records obtained under freedom of information show the government’s lack of preparationThe branch responsible for the federal government’s aged care Covid-19 response was left with just three staff members at times in the pandemic’s early stages, internal documents show.The Coalition has faced persistent criticism for failing to prepare for Covid-19 in aged care, including from the aged care royal commission, which found its actions were “insufficient to ensure preparedness” in the sector. Continue reading...

Gallery staff exploring ways of deterring pests from damaging priceless 16th-century tapestriesThe exquisite set of Raphael tapestries currently on display in the grand gallery of Madrid’s royal palace has survived five tumultuous centuries of wars, rebellions, bombs, bullets and fire – only to find itself menaced by the more quotidian threat of opportunistic pigeons and their droppings.The nine tapestries, which depict scenes from the Acts of the Apostles, were created in Brussels in the mid-16th century using the original sketches drawn by the Italian master whom Pope Leo X commissioned to design a set of lifesize hangings to adorn the Sistine Chapel in 1514. Continue reading...

Judgment means 78-year-old former Bosnian Serb military chief will spend the rest of his life in prison

Commissioner made the remark when speaking more widely about violence against women and girlsBritain’s most senior police officer has admitted that there is the occasional “bad ’un” within the ranks of the Metropolitan police service.Her comments came on the day that one of her officers pleaded guilty to the kidnapping and rape of Sarah Everard, who went missing in March while walking home in south London. Continue reading...

A member of the public slaps the French president during a visit in southern France. Footage shows Macron walking up to a group of people in Tain-l'Hermitage, outside the city of Valence. As he begins to interact with the crowd, a man slaps him, reportedly shouting, 'Down with Macronia,' before security staff intervene Continue reading...

Two arrested after man shouted ‘down with Macronism’ before assaulting French presidentEmmanuel Macron was slapped in the face by a man during a walkabout in southern France.The president’s security detail immediately pulled the man to the ground and moved Macron away from the crowd, though the president appeared unhurt and determined to continue meeting the public. Continue reading...

Analysis: Armin Laschet’s campaign to succeed Angela Merkel is copying her strategy of skirting around hard political choicesAngela Merkel’s method of winning elections has earned its own phrase among German political scientists: “asymmetric demobilisation”, the art of running a campaign that skirts around hot-button issues in order to present voters with a choice between personalities rather than policies.Three and a half months before Germany goes to the polls, Merkel’s aspiring successor Armin Laschet seems to have taken her strategy to heart. With a campaign that has so far failed to tackle the country’s hard choices on carbon emissions, digitisation, eurozone integration and military spending, the leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its candidate for chancellor may get away with it too. Continue reading...

Twin sister punched crocodile in head after it attacked in a lagoon where they had been swimmingA British woman is in a medically induced coma in Mexico after she was attacked by a crocodile in a lagoon where she and her twin sister had been taken by a tour guide.Melissa and Georgia Laurie, 28, from Berkshire, had been swimming in the lagoon, about 10 miles from Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, on the south-east coast of the country, when Melissa was attacked. Continue reading...

Metals bourse, founded in 1877, reopens in September after member resistance to all-electronic tradingThe London Metal Exchange, the last remaining in-person trading floor in Europe, is to reopen on 6 September after its management decided not to permanently close the trading ring, which has been operating since 1877.The LME’s proposal at the start of 2021 to move to all-electronic trading following the pandemic was opposed by some traders. Continue reading...