Good morning. The new federal attorney general has been asked to use his mercy powers for two wrongly convicted Indonesian children who spent years in maximum security prisons. The Scott Morrison’s secret ministries scandal rumbles on with legal experts warning a constitutional crisis could have been triggered. A new government plan would see big polluters forced to cut emissions. And many are feared dead after a huge explosion ripped though a mosque in Kabul.
Australia’s big polluting industries are likely to have to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by between 3.5% and 6% a year from next July under the Albanese government’s plan to respond to the climate crisis. The “safeguard” mechanism introduced by Tony Abbott’s Coalition government would be reformed to close loopholes that saw pollution and carbon emissions continue to rise.
Why didn’t the governor general push back against Scott Morrison’s secret ministries? David Hurley addressed “questions about secrecy” on Wednesday, saying he had “no reason to believe” Scott Morrison wouldn’t reveal his appointment to five ministerial portfolios. Morrison says David Hurley “acted with absolute propriety”. Experts say this saga has exposed how vital cogs of parliament are dictated by tradition, rather than law. And after Morrison’s bamboozling press conference on Wednesday, here are 10 glaring inconsistencies in what he said.
Two Indonesian children who were imprisoned as adult people smugglers in Australia using deeply flawed evidence have asked attorney general Mark Dreyfus to use his mercy powers and resolve the “mockery of justice” overseen by his predecessor. Earlier this year, Guardian Australia revealed federal police had placed fictitious dates of birth on sworn legal documents to prosecute eight Indonesian children as adult people smugglers. The children, some as young as 13, were jailed as adults in maximum security prisons in Western Australia in 2010, and spent years housed with some of the state’s worst criminals.
A huge explosion has struck a mosque in Kabul during evening prayers, witnesses and police said, with many feared dead or injured. One Taliban intelligence official told Reuters that as many as 35 people may have been wounded or killed, and the toll could rise further. Al Jazeera quoted an unidentified official as giving a death toll of 20. The city’s emergency hospital tweeted that it had received 27 patients wounded in the blast, including a seven-year-old child.
Australia
Three robotic submarines will be built on Sydney Harbour within three years to help “mitigate” a looming capability gap, military technology company Anduril’s Palmer Luckey has said during a visit to Australia.
The first diocese of Australia’s breakaway Anglican church has officially launched. New conservative Diocese of the Southern Cross – which explicitly forbids same-sex marriage – is headed by bishop Glenn Davies.
Sugarcane farmers in northern New South Wales are rushing to get their crops planted following a warning from the Bureau of Meteorology that the east coast may be in for a third consecutive La Niña.
The proposal to build a new Dungowan Dam in Barnaby Joyce’s seat of New England at a cost of $1.27bn appears to be dead, after Infrastructure Australia delivered a scathing assessment.
The world
Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney has announced she is considering her own run for the White House in an all-out effort to prevent Donald Trump from winning another term as US president, despite losing her seat in Congress earlier this week.
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has accused Israel of committing “50 Holocausts”, at a joint press conference with Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, in Berlin, drawing condemnation from Germany and Israel.
A pregnant teenager will be blocked from getting an abortion, a Florida court ruled on Monday.
More than 580 people have died and thousands have lost their homes across Pakistan as torrential rains batter the country.
In another sign of the turmoil affecting living standards around the world, five major producers of instant noodles have urged the Thai government to allow them to increase their prices within a week, the first such price hike in 14 years.
Recommended reads
Elizabeth Quinn has a cautionary tale for all Australians based on recent experience – never buy before you sell. She learned this the hard way after putting her faith in the Reserve Bank, but now faces a financially uncertain retirement after a lifetime of avoiding risks. “‘My beloved family home was put up for sale four weeks ago and only a handful of buyers have come to look at it.”
A new Melbourne international film festival installation called Gondwana transports viewers to the Daintree rainforest and covers 100 years in 24 hours in one ‘epic’ VR film. Every 14 minutes, the environment jumps forward in time by one year – heading towards a speculative 2090, immersing viewers inside the pulsating heart of the Daintree and inviting them to stay for as long as 24 hours. Its creators tell Sophie Black how they built an entire ecosystem.
Listen
Unlike most other medical procedures, abortion services in Australia come with an unusual caveat: doctors can refuse to provide them on religious or moral grounds. According to reproductive healthcare advocates, this is compounding longstanding access issues, with at least five women in one metropolitan area of Queensland having to continue unwanted pregnancies in recent months. In today’s Full Story, reporter Sophie Black explores how a doctor’s right to refuse abortion on religious or moral grounds is weighed against a woman’s right to healthcare in Australia.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Media roundup
Russia has been stripped of a prime embassy site in Canberra, sparking a diplomatic row, amid fears it had sought to bring in spies to work on the building, the Australian reports. 9 News has details of the first-of-its-kind “portable PCR test” to hit Australian shelves this year. And the ABC reports on fears for patients over a shortage of hundreds of vital medicines.
Coming up
Anthony Albanese is travelling to Thursday Island today to consult Torres Strait leaders on his plan to create an Indigenous voice to parliament.
Former PM John Howard will discuss his new book at the National Press Club.
And if you’ve read this far …
From time machines to threesomes: 12 of the funniest jokes from the Edinburgh fringe comedy festival.
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