Photograph: Craig Lassig/EPA
Good morning. A verdict has just been announced in the trial over the police killing of George Floyd. Murdoch media is under fire from the former US director of national intelligence, and Australia’s flawed vaccination program is having devastating ramifications for those stuck abroad.
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has been found guilty of murder over the killing of George Floyd. US president Joe Biden earlier said he was “praying the verdict is the right verdict” and described the evidence against Chauvin as “overwhelming”. Three thousand National Guard troops have been deployed in Minneapolis and St Paul, a region that has been on edge, not only about whether there will be violent unrest but also whether justice will be done in the death of Floyd, one of so many Black people killed by police in America. Just nine days ago, police in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center shot dead 20-year-old Daunte Wright after a traffic stop.
A former US director of national intelligence has backed a call by former prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull for a royal commission into the Murdoch media, saying Australia needs to take preventive steps to avoid any slide into “truth decay”. James Clapper told Guardian Australia the storming of the US Capitol had demonstrated a clear connection between truth decay and the risk of civil disobedience and unrest. “Rupert Murdoch and Fox is part of a larger issue we have in this country,” he said. Rudd and Turnbull have spoken out against Australia’s lack of ambition on climate change, blaming “a toxic coalition of the Murdoch press, the right wing of the Liberal and National parties, and vested interests in the fossil fuel sector.”
Huge numbers of Australian aged care workers remain unvaccinated and frustrated by the federal government’s confused and flawed rollout in the sector, but for some of the 36,000 Australians stranded overseas, the lack of clarity is a matter of life and death. Andre Rivenell, who has Parkinson’s disease, is stuck in Texas and unable to get home due to flight cancellations, skyrocketing prices and quarantine arrival caps. His health is deteriorating and after he was rejected for government emergency loans, he is running out of time and options. Vaccination issues and the resulting delays to reopening Australia’s borders are also forcing expats in Australia to forgo visits to sick family overseas.
Australia
Australians living in regional and remote areas face huge hurdles when trying to access mental health care. Guardian Australia looked at the Victorian town of Horsham as an example of the obstacles faced by people looking for adequate mental health care outside the big cities. “Anything that’s happening in the metro areas is amplified in the rural areas,” says Prof Harriet Hiscock.
Australia’s third-largest greenhouse gas emitter and Queensland’s largest power generator, Stanwell Corporation, has revealed plans to transition its business from fossil fuels to renewables, including curtailing the output of its coal-fired power plants.
The Morrison government has flagged $540m for regional hydrogen hubs and carbon capture and storage projects. The extra technology roadmap funding comes as critics say the Coalition is increasingly isolated due to a lack of climate ambition.
The federal government will not allow Australians to see the key instructions Scott Morrison has issued to his ministers, prompting criticism that it is using cabinet “as a transparency shield”.
The world
Chad’s president, Idriss Déby, has died from wounds sustained in combat, the country’s military says, sending shock waves through the region as rebel forces continued to advance on the capital N’Djamena.
The Kremlin is preparing sweeping crackdowns on Alexei Navalny’s followers, threatening to liquidate his entire political organisation as he fights for his life in a Russian prison.
Plans to curtail the number of tourists flocking to the balcony where Romeo is said to have wooed Juliet have been blocked amid a feud over the site that has lasted more than a decade.
Recommended reads
The internet can be an angry place full of cynical opinions but there’s one realm where it’s actually too positive: online reviews. Researchers have found that reviews on websites like Yelp and Amazon are overwhelmingly positive – something they believe renders star ratings unreliable. In Australia 64% of reviews on the website are four or five stars. About 8.5% are two or three stars and the rest are one star. This all poses a positivity problem. “The basic idea behind the positivity problem is how do you know what to choose if everything is rated so positively? How do I choose one-four-and-a-half star restaurant versus another?” says researcher Matthew Rocklage.
The vaccine rollout in Australia has been marred by many issues, and a proper framework needs to be in place to close the gap in patient confidence about the vaccines, writes Ranjana Srivastava. “Gaps in communication had already frustrated doctors, even before it became evident that the AstraZeneca vaccine was going to be a hard sell. I didn’t realise just how hard until a GP … received 50 AstraZeneca vaccines but when the staff called the first 50 elderly people, only eight agreed to come … This vaccine is more than ‘good enough’ at a population level. Swimming, drinking and driving are all more dangerous than being vaccinated,” she says.
She’s worked with heavy hitters including Kendrick Lamar, ASAP Rocky and Flume – but now the Australian producer, Laura Jane Lowther, known as Kučka, is writing for herself. Kučka remains something of an underground phenomenon as a solo artist, especially in Australia where the overwhelming majority of top-tier electronic producers are men. “It’s usually a dudefest,” she laughs. “I’ve gone into a few sessions [in LA] where it’s been one guy in the room and he immediately jumps on to the computer to produce, even though there’s a few other people who can do it. We’re like, ‘Oh, can we also get in on that?’ And he says, ‘Oh, sorry.’ It’s not even malicious. It’s more of an assumption.”
Listen
What happens if you didn’t have a spare $5 to buy pads or tampons when you have your period? That’s the predicament many girls, women and gender diverse people find themselves in each month. It has been a government blind spot for decades, and advocates are pushing for period products to be made more easily available. So, how close is Australia to eradicating period poverty? Listen to today’s Full Story to find out.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
Chelsea and Manchester City are to withdraw from the European Super League. Chelsea’s decision emerged during protests by their fans outside Stamford Bridge and after their players had told the club’s chairman, Bruce Buck, that they would not want to play in the Super League if they were banned from participating in international football.
After three separate incidents and three separate rulings on the spot by the referee or by the bunker during round six of the NRL, there have been calls for greater consistency in officiating decisions. But inconsistency gives the game colour and if it were always one way, rugby league would be bland, writes Matt Cleary.
Media roundup
Senior diplomat Frances Adamson has called the military coup in Myanmar “one of the sharpest challenges our region faces” and warned that the crisis risks bogging down south-east Asia’s premier regional body, Asean, the ABC reports. NSW MP John Sidoti has admitted he signed documents without reading them for years and never thought to declare his wife’s income to parliament. The Sydney Morning Herald reports Sidoti made the comments to the corruption watchdog, which is investigating whether he misused his position to improperly influence Liberal councillors from 2011-18.
Coming up
Deputy head of mission at the embassy of the People’s Republic of China Wang Xining and Jane Golley, the co-editor of the China Story Yearbook series, will address the National Press Club.
A Victorian parliament inquiry into cannabis use will sit today.
And if you’ve read this far …
As police line-ups go it is probably cuter than most: rather than the usual suspects, one force has released mugshots of stolen dogs it hopes to reunite with their owners.
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