Good morning. It’s Tuesday 11 May, which means one thing – budget day! So hold on tight as economic news will be dominating the headlines this week. We’ve also got plenty on the controversial India travel ban, which looks set to remain in place until 15 May, and more on the increasing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
The federal budget drops today, and will pump billions of dollars into the economy as the government attempts to cement Australia’s economic recovery after last year’s downturn. Aged care, infrastructure and childcare will be some of the major focuses – here’s what we know to expect so far. There will also be a raft of policies aimed at addressing housing affordability. But the Morrison government’s incentives to help people become homeowners may come to nothing without an increase in housing supply.
Australians are divided about the merits of the Morrison government’s controversial India travel ban, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll. The poll found 56% think Australian citizens should be permitted to return from Covid-ravaged India, while 41% agreed with jail time for breach of the ban. But the federal court has rejected an urgent bid to overturn the ban. Justice Thomas Thawley dismissed the first two grounds, which argued that the health minister, Greg Hunt, failed to ensure the ban was “no more restrictive or intrusive than is required”; and that the Biosecurity Act was not clear enough to override Australians’ common law right to enter their country. With that said, experts say the ban is simply politics and not based on science. “Some of it comes down to whether you respect one medical expert over another, and that’s when the government has the opportunity to take a political decision,” says expert Robert Booy.
Tensions between Israel and the Palestinians have escalated dramatically as militant groups in Gaza fired rockets into Israel and Israel responded with strikes on the Palestinian coastal territory following a police raid on the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem that left more than 300 people injured. Israeli police stormed the sacred Jerusalem compound that holds the Dome of the Rock amid mounting international concern over the worsening violence in the city. The European Union had called on authorities to “act urgently to de-escalate the current tensions in Jerusalem”.
Australia
A majority of Australians want the Nazi swastika banned, according to a survey about attitudes to antisemitism. The Australian federal police also support legislation banning the extremist symbol.
More than 20 community groups are prepared to privately sponsor refugees in Australia if the federal government approves a new program modelled on a Canadian policy, in which private groups or community organisations cover the financial costs and settlement support.
Experts remain baffled by reports of an explosion heard across south-west Sydney on Saturday with no identified sources nor any indication as to where it came from.
The world
The Biden administration has invoked emergency powers as part of an “all-hands-on-deck” effort to avoid fuel shortages after the worst-ever cyber-attack on US infrastructure shut down a crucial pipeline. The FBI confirmed the DarkSide hacking group were behind the attack.
Dozens of bodies believed to be Covid-19 victims have washed up on the banks of the Ganges River in northern India. Some media reports said the number of corpses could be as high as 100 and may have been dumped in the river because cremation sites were overwhelmed or because relatives could not afford wood for funeral pyres.
The Colombian city of Cali has become the centre of Colombia’s anti-government protests against poverty and inequality, exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, which are threatening to spiral out of control.
A man was left stranded on a 100m high glass-bottomed suspension bridge in China after sudden gale-force winds of up to 150km/h shattered the transparent panels around him.
Recommended reads
Anna Spargo-Ryan loves Melbourne when it gets cold. You will find her kicking around in her tallest boots and thickest scarf, tweeting about how happy she is until her frozen fingers snap clean off. “I am just an indoors person who likes to enter a cafe and shout, ‘Bit chilly, innit!’ at the people who work there. I like food that takes the whole day to cook and watching footy players slide in the mud and pretending my visible breath makes me a dragon. Also, it’s nice to enjoy frigidity while that’s still something that exists. You know, before we are all consumed by the rising oceans.”
If you spot web-like filaments in your starchy pantry items such as rice, flour, oats or sugar, or bits of dry dust on shelves and holes in food packets, you could be facing an invasion of insects such as moths or weevils. But how evil are the weevils? Not evil enough to panic, according to the experts. “It doesn’t hurt if you eat them and it’s all extra protein,” says entomologist and food scientist Skye Blackburn. “The average person will eat about a quarter of a kilogram of insects in their diet every year anyway!”
Listen
Is Australia stopping the world’s poorest nations from accessing cheap Covid vaccines? Last week the United States became the latest country to declare its support for a vaccine patent waiver, which would allow cheaper versions of vaccines to be manufactured and sold. So why are so many countries still against it? In today’s Full Story podcast, Elias Visontay breaks down the case for a vaccine patent waiver, and how Australia continues to stand in the way.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
When Super Netball last year dropped a proverbial bomb – in the shape of the contentious super shot fewer than 40 days out from the start of the season – clubs had little time to recalibrate their game plans. But already this season, it is clear that the final five minutes of each quarter has been on the minds of many coaches over the off-season.
Sam Kerr is no doubt one of Australia’s most iconic sporting figures, and the striker’s voice holds a lot of weight, but she has recently done all her talking on the pitch, after winning the Golden Boot and helping Chelsea retain their title of the Women’s Super League.
Media roundup
The Australian Financial Review says the Australian sharemarket and the price of the economy’s biggest export, iron ore, has roared to record highs, but the ABC has questioned whether the “record recovery” can remain.The Australian reports the post-Covid jobs boom will slash the forecast budget deficit by $53bn this year. Meanwhile, Queensland teachers are calling for an overhaul or halt to Naplan testing, calling the reading, writing and numeracy test “broken” and “a distraction of what teachers should be doing”, according to the Brisbane Times.
Coming up
Today is the deadline for Christian Porter to file a reply to the ABC defence in defamation action.
James Cook University is set to release a new report on the Great Barrier Reef.
And if you’ve read this far …
A not-so-friendly kitty was out on the loose in the US on the weekend. A Bengal tiger was filmed roaming Houston before its owner piled it into a car and drove off.
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