Australian spinners rip through Sri Lanka to wrap up first Test inside three days

  • Sri Lanka 212 & 113; Australia 321 & 10-0 (0.4 overs)
  • Australia win by 10 wickets in Galle to take 1-0 series lead

Australia have thrashed Sri Lanka by 10 wickets in Galle, bowling the hosts out in a session and claiming their fastest Test victory in 20 years. In a comprehensive display, Australia took only 22.5 overs to roll through Sri Lanka for 113 in their second innings on Friday, with Nathan Lyon and Travis Head taking four wickets each.

That left Australia needing five runs to win, with David Warner (10 not out) finishing the job inside an over with a four and a six. The win came in 153.2 overs for the Test match, Australia’s fastest since they demolished Pakistan in Sharjah in 2002.

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Anthony Albanese raises case of jailed Australian engineer Robert Pether with Iraqi PM

Exclusive: Pether, who has been imprisoned for 14 months in Baghdad, has become ‘gravely ill’ according to his family

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has raised the case of jailed engineer Robert Pether with the Iraqi leader, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, as the Australian’s family warns he has become “gravely ill” and is rapidly deteriorating in his Baghdadi jail cell.

Pether has now been imprisoned for more than 14 months following a commercial dispute between his engineering firm and Iraq’s central bank, which had hired Pether’s company to help build its new Baghdad headquarters. Pether’s family say he is innocent and the trial was unfair and compromised.

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Kiribati faces constitutional crisis after government suspends both high court justices

Second judge suspended as legal challenge from first judge due to begin, escalating ongoing controversy over separation of powers

Kiribati is embroiled in a constitutional crisis after the government suspended its chief justice, leaving the judiciary in disarray as experts raise concerns about the rule of law. The move escalates an ongoing controversy over separation of powers in the Pacific nation, after Kiribati’s only other high court justice, Australian David Lambourne, was suspended in May.

On Thursday the chief justice, distinguished New Zealand judge William Hastings, was due to begin hearing a legal challenge brought by Lambourne. The suspended judge was seeking initial orders restoring his salary and facilitating his return to the country, ahead of a constitutional challenge to the suspension.

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Acting PM says Australia will stand up for national interest amid fading hopes of China reset

Richard Marles signals change in tone with biggest trading partner but pledges to avoid Coalition’s ‘chest-beating’

Australia’s acting prime minister has declared the government won’t take any “backward step” in pursuing the national interest, after Chinese state media said hopes of a diplomatic reset were “diminishing by the day”.

Richard Marles, who is acting in the top job while Anthony Albanese is in Europe, told Guardian Australia the new government would avoid “chest-beating” about China but admitted there may be limits to what a change in tone could achieve.

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Landmark report calls for affirmative consent laws in Queensland

Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce’s final report includes call for campaign to dispel ‘rape myths’

A major review has called for Queensland to adopt affirmative consent laws among sweeping reforms to the handling of victims of sexual assault and violence in the state’s criminal justice system.

The long-awaited final report of the Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce includes 188 recommendations to improve experiences with the justice system.

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Serious defects discovered in patrol boats Australia supplied to Pacific Islands

Potentially serious faults in Guardian-class patrol boats may force some countries to pause use of vessels

Pacific island countries may halt the use of Australian-provided patrol boats after potentially serious defects were discovered, in a blow to a $2.1bn maritime security program.

The Australian government is now considering how to work with Pacific nations to close any gap in their maritime surveillance activities while the issues – including carbon monoxide entering part of the boat – are resolved.

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UK trade deal with Australia amounts to ‘offshoring’ pesticide use, MPs warn

Select committee says ministers want to rush through deal allowing food imports that fall below UK environmental standards

The government is rushing through a trade deal with Australia that would allow food produced with pesticides banned in the UK to be imported into the country, campaigners and MPs have warned.

The international trade select committee in parliament has called for a vote on the deal, which would result in food produced below British domestic environmental standards being sold in the UK.

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Cameron Green bats Australia to safety after storm causes first Test chaos in Sri Lanka

  • Sri Lanka 212; Australia 313-8 (69 overs) | Australia lead by 101
  • Day two delayed after wild weather causes stand to collapse

Cameron Green helped bat Australia to the safety of a 101-run lead in the first Test in Galle, after a morning of chaos caused by heavy rain and wild winds. Green’s 77 was the highlight of day two for Australia, before they went to stumps at 313-8 in reply to Sri Lanka’s 212 as bad light stopped play.

It came after more than two hours of play were lost to a morning storm that caused the roof of a makeshift grandstand in Galle’s International Stadium to collapse. Sightscreens were also torn down and a glass panel in a marquee smashed, as gusts of more than 60kph thrashed the coastal city.

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New eradication zone established and 600 hives destroyed as NSW bee industry battles varroa mite

Producers and apiarists remain concerned about future almond harvest and potential for mites to carry deformed wing virus

As many as 600 beehives and at least six million bees have been destroyed and another eradication zone has been established in New South Wales following the deadly varroa mite outbreak.

Concerns remained around almond harvest as well as the threat of the mites having a virus of their own, compounding problems for the state’s bees after the deadly parasite was discovered last week at hives near the Port of Newcastle.

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Victoria to demand governments set completion dates for energy transmission projects

State energy minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, says investors need confidence electricity grid will be ready for renewables

Victoria will demand at the next meeting of federal and state energy ministers that governments set dates for the completion of transmission links to ensure renewable energy projects worth billions of dollars can be connected to the grid on time.

The latest roadmap for updating the National Energy Market, released on Thursday by the Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo), identified five major new transmission lines requiring urgent action so enough new clean energy and storage capacity is built in time for the expected accelerated exit of ageing coal-fired power plants from the grid.

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Former Australian chief scientist to head review of carbon credit scheme after whistleblower revelations

Climate change minister to announce Prof Ian Chubb will lead six-month probe of scheme labelled ‘largely a sham’ by one expert

The former Australian chief scientist and senior academic, Prof Ian Chubb, has been appointed to head a thorough review of Australia’s carbon credit scheme as experts escalate calls for a complete overhaul of the system.

Chris Bowen, the climate change minister, will announce on Friday that Chubb, a neuroscientist and former vice-chancellor of the Australian National University, will lead the six-month review of the scheme, after a respected whistleblower described it as a fraud and waste of taxpayer money.

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Nation records 60 Covid deaths as SA reports first monkeypox case – as it happened

Nation records 60 Covid deaths; SA records first monkeypox case; Anthony Albanese meets Justin Trudeau at Nato summit. This blog is now closed

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has renewed his calls for China to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, declaring that Vladimir Putin “has made a strategic mistake because what his actions have done is unite the democratic world”.

Albanese – who has been in Madrid for a Nato summit – spoke to reporters yesterday after having a meeting on the sidelines with the leaders of Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.

There we discussed the important focus of this Nato’s summit on the Asia-Pacific region. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has solidified the support amongst democratic countries for the rules-based international order and a determination to continue to provide support to the government and the people of Ukraine who are suffering as a result of this breach of international law and this brutal invasion by Vladimir Putin’s regime.

Vladimir Putin has made a strategic mistake because what his actions have done is unite the democratic world and provide a real determination to make sure that the resilience being shown by the Ukrainian people is backed up by resilience and support from democratic countries, including Nato, but also countries throughout the world.

Well, what we saw is prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we saw a without-limits partnership between Russia and China. We’ve seen a failure of China to condemn any of the Russian aggression that has occurred against Ukraine. China must look at what is happening and look at the resolve that is there from throughout the world and should be condemning Russia’s actions.

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What makes a song sound happy? It depends on your culture, study finds

The perception of music in major keys as happy and minor keys as sad is not universal, Australian researchers say

What makes a piece of music seem happy or sad? Whether it has been composed in a major or minor key is a significant factor. It’s part of what distinguishes the cheeriness of Walking on Sunshine from the pensiveness of Ain’t No Sunshine, for example.

But the perception of major keys as happy and minor keys as sad is not universal, according to Australian research that suggests the effect may result from the influence of western culture.

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Just 24 health workers helped under Morrison government scheme to bring 2,000 medics to Australia

Travel program set up by Greg Hunt in 2021 discontinued after two months with two dozen people receiving direct assistance

Just 24 medical practitioners received direct assistance to come to Australia under a travel program announced by the Morrison government which promised to bring an extra 2,000 doctors and nurses into the country.

As Australia faces skills shortages across the health and aged care sectors, information obtained from the Department of Health shows that a program set up by the former health minister Greg Hunt in October last year that promised to bring in an extra 2,000 health practitioners over six months was discontinued after just two months.

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Unseasonal deluge to bring wet and windy end to Australia’s east coast winter dry spell

New South Wales and Queensland set for coastal showers with wet weather to last into mid-next week

The winter dry spell is set to end this week with the east coast of Australia set to receive a deluge leading up to the weekend, while record-breaking rainfall is expected for parts of northern Australia.

A cold front moving towards the east coast will bring coastal showers and wet weather to most of the New South Wales and Queensland coast.

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Families of murder victims Hannah Clarke and Doreen Langham join call for specialist police stations

‘Women have had enough,’ says Prof Kerry Carrington, who has been advocating for domestic violence stations since 2015

The violent murders of Doreen Langham and Hannah Clarke by their former partners should be a wakeup call to all Australian jurisdictions to consider specialist domestic violence police stations, according to experts and family members of the victims.

A trial of specialist stations has been recommended twice this week by deputy Queensland coroner Jane Bentley, as she handed down findings from separate inquests into the murders of Langham, on Monday, and Clarke and her children – Aaliyah, Laianah and Trey – on Wednesday.

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‘Covid has broken us’: warnings of a mass resignation among Victorian paramedics

Exclusive: 16% plan to look for new jobs according to survey of 348 Ambulance Victoria staff

Bill Briggs had worked as a paramedic for more than three decades when, during Victoria’s second extended Covid lockdown, he “lost the plot”.

“I was just plodding along, doing the job, not getting any complaints from anyone and then I had a disagreement with another paramedic and I just exploded, which is not like me at all,” Briggs says.

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Lismore ice-cream factory ‘will need to stand down 240 people’ unless flood support extended

Norco says 44 workers who lost homes would be affected if government assistance ends

An ice-cream factory will stand down 240 workers in Lismore next month – including 44 who lost their homes in floods earlier this year – unless government support is extended.

Michael Hampson, the chief executive of Norco, the factory operator, said the decision came in the absence of further details of any federal assistance and confirmation the state government would not contribute to any further support package.

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Nations must work together through ‘conflict and crisis’ to reduce climate change risks, Albanese tells OECD

Prime minister will say food insecurity has become a significant challenge and Australia has a major role to play in meeting the challenge

Australia’s prime minister Anthony Albanese will declare the world must raise ambition to reduce the risks of runaway global heating and cooperate amid national policy differences even when “long shadows of conflict and crisis are threatening our shared security”.

The prime minister will use a speech to a special session of the council of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris to launch a clarion call for international cooperation on climate policy, as well as practical measures to safeguard energy and food security, as the world grapples with disruptions created by the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

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Police concerned about impact of The Teacher’s Pet on witnesses, Chris Dawson murder trial hears

Lead investigator said they were cautious with the reliability of witnesses who had appeared on or listened to podcast about Lynette Dawson’s disappearance

The lead investigator into Lynette Dawson’s disappearance has said in court he was concerned about whether journalist Hedley Thomas could have contaminated evidence through his podcast, The Teacher’s Pet.

Detective senior constable Daniel Poole returned to the NSW Supreme court on Wednesday to give evidence in Christopher Michael Dawson’s murder trial.

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