Good morning, this is Helen Sullivan bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Monday 29 April.
Top stories
The Coalition has narrowed the gap to Labor in the latest Newspoll, which gives the opposition a 51%-49% lead, two-party-preferred. The two party leaders head to Perth for their first debate this evening, as pre-poll voting opens and the campaigns move into top gear with three weeks to go. The Australian Conservation Foundation is less impressed with the Coalition, giving it a miserable 4/100 on its climate change policy scorecard, which notes it has made “piecemeal promises for pumped hydro storage” but has no plan to lift renewable energy above 23%. The scorecard rates Labor much higher, on 56%, but says it is held back by “fairly weak” policies on stopping the burning of coal and an “unclear” position on Adani’s Carmichael coalmine. In other election news, at least 19 United Australia party candidates have submitted incomplete or inconsistent information to the Australian Electoral Commission, failing to provide evidence they are eligible to run for parliament.
The liquor, hotels and gaming lobby made its highest level of donations in seven years in 2017-18, pumping more than $1m into the Liberal, Labor and far-right parties. Harm-reduction groups have renewed their calls for the industry to be banned from making federal donations, saying the money is warping policy and being used to thwart tax and advertising reform. The Australian Hotels Association gave $1,013,625 in donations across the political spectrum in 2017-18, donations data shows. It is the highest amount since 2010-11, when it donated $1,207,304, and more than 10 times the amount it gave in 2016-17, according to a Guardian Australia analysis.
Spain’s ruling socialists appear to have won the most votes but fallen short of a majority in a snap general election, but the far-right Vox party has carved into the vote for the traditional conservative party. A poll for the state-owned broadcaster, RTVE, published after voting finished gave Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist Workers’ party 116 to 121 seats. The late poll gave Vox as many as 38 seats but early results indicated it might be more like 24. Either way, it has been a terrible night for the mainstream conservative People’s party. Follow the latest updates on our live blog.
World
The rabbi wounded in the shooting at his synagogue in San Diego has issued a plea from hospital for “senseless hate” killings based on religion to stop. He said he was shot at point blank range and lost a finger as he held his hands up in defence, before a congregant, Lori Gilbert Kaye, hurled herself in front of him and was killed.
The US attorney general, William Barr may, not attend a Thursday hearing to review the special counsel Robert Mueller’s report of the Trump-Russia investigation, after he expressed objections over the panel’s questioning format.
Five people have died and aid workers have reported scenes of destruction in the wake of Cyclone Kenneth, the second tropical cyclone to lay waste to parts of Mozambique in five weeks.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the comedian who last week won Ukraine’s presidential election, has pledged to grant citizenship to Russians who “suffer” under the Kremlin’s rule after dismissing an offer by Vladimir Putin to provide passports to Ukrainians.
The organisers of a half-marathon in the Italian city of Trieste have backtracked on a decision to exclude African runners, which they claimed was meant to draw attention to their exploitation.
Opinion and analysis
Only two rental listings across Australia were affordable for the 500,000 single people on the Newstart allowance last month, a new report suggests. And of those homes considered affordable for those on the unemployment benefit, none were in an Australian capital city, according to Anglicare’s 10th annual snapshot of the rental market. “What this snapshot shows is that finding an affordable home in the private rental market is a complete fiction for people on low incomes,” the report says. Resourcefulness and sacrifice is the only thing keeping a roof over the heads of many Australians.”
As Game of Thrones make the internet a landmine field of spoilers, Calla Wahlquist is actively seeking them out. She thinks she knows the next big twist in the HBO show but it is not ruining it for her. She writes: “When you say a spoiler ruined a television show for you, what you really mean is you found out, a little ahead of time, that the story was rubbish anyway.” No spoilers ahead!
Sport
Manchester City remain on course for the Premier League title after a 1-0 win at Burnley, thanks to a goal from Sergio Agüero. The ball was shown to have crossed the line by only 29.51mm, but that was enough for City to retain their lead at the top over Liverpool, with two matches remaining.
If A-league seasons are a marathon, not a sprint, the A-League premiership campaign that concluded on Sunday was one of those incorporating a fun run – where the stragglers cross the line in fancy dress hours after the medallists, writes Jonathan Howcroft.
Thinking time: Bottled water sales show we don’t really care
For all the innovation and choice that define the food and drink industries, if you want to make money, you could do a lot worse than bunging some water in a bottle and flogging it. A litre of tap water, the stuff we have ingeniously piped into our homes, costs less than 200 times a litre of bottled water, especially for something fancy that has been sucked through a mountain. Yet the bottled water market is more buoyant than ever, defying the plastics backlash inspired by stricken albatrosses on the BBC’s Blue Planet, and a broader, growing sense that something has to change.
Sales in the UK increased 7% last year, or 8.5% by volume according to a different measure. Imagine laying out half-litre bottles on the pitch at Wembley Stadium. You could fit 1.7m bottles on the grass, packed into a tight grid. Now imagine building up layers of bottles, covering the same area, to build a tower. To contain all the bottled water we buy each year, you would end up with a 514m skyscraper. Environmental campaigners are struggling to fathom why nations blessed with clean tap water grow only fonder of the bottle. “It’s very surprising to me,” says Sam Chetan-Walsh, a political adviser at Greenpeace and campaigner against ocean plastic. “Public awareness has never been higher, but the message is not quite reaching all the people it needs to.”
Media roundup
Game on: poll race tightens is the headline on the Australian’s front page after the latest Newspoll. The Daily Telegraph says the chief sniper during Sydney’s Lindt Cafe siege is suing NSW police for negligence, claiming he and other officers were not allowed to do their jobs the way they were trained. And the Sydney Morning Herald reveals that “a former high-ranking police officer is being investigated for potentially accepting bribes” as part of a security guard scam at the University of Sydney.
Coming up
Scott Morrison and Bill shorten face off in the first leaders’ debate of the campaign in Perth, from 7pm AEST. Follow live coverage at Guardian Australia.
Kathleen Folbigg, jailed in 2003 for killing her four babies, is due to give evidence at the inquiry into her convictions in Sydney.
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