Good morning. Labor has reached the magic number of 76 seats with a win in the Melbourne electorate of Macnamara. The victory gives it a majority government despite voters embracing independents and a record non-major party vote.
Australians are comfortable with the substantial increase in the number of independents in the new parliament, where Labor has now secured a majority, according to the first Guardian Essential poll since the federal election. Two-thirds of respondents said an expanded crossbench would be positive because a wider range of views could be represented. Only 36% expressed concern about the potential for instability or delay in decision-making. The survey also suggests support for a constitutionally enshrined voice to parliament and a treaty with First Nations peoples is on the rise.
More than 6,000 survivors of childhood sexual abuse are still waiting for redress claims to be processed, new data reveals. The average wait has blown out to almost 12 months, close to double the intended timeframe, which lawyers say results from resourcing issues. A spokesperson for DSS said about 2,000 claims had come “in the last few months” and that the complexity of applications “is more significant than originally forecast”. The scheme is supposed to issue payments to 80% of applicants within six months.
Russian tanks and troops have begun advancing into Sievierodonetsk, the largest city in Donbas still held by Ukraine. Witnesses said the town was being bombed “200 times an hour” as Russian forces tried to cut off reinforcement lines and surround its remaining defenders. Russia will stop supplying gas to the Netherlands tomorrow after the government-backed trader GasTerra refused to pay the supplier in roubles. And EU leaders failed to agree on a Russian oil import ban before the two-day summit in Brussels. While the leaders of the 27 countries will agree in principle to an oil embargo, the details of their draft conclusions are yet to be decided.
Australia
Energy groups say government support for storage technologies may help achieve emissions reduction goals. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
The Albanese government should redirect some of the $20bn earmarked for its rewiring the nation plan to support a storage goal that would turbocharge the take-up of batteries and other methods to store power, according to a new report.
The largest private water donation in Australian history could help restore wetlands in the Murray-Darling Basin thanks to a new financial model. Kilter Rural’s donation of 5.4 gigalitres of water to 21 wetlands may be a model that can bring together farmers, First Nations people, and environmentalists.
Cryptocurrency markets and investments should have strong financial regulation, according to consumer groups, who say crypto assets are “complex, volatile and high-risk products that can cause harm to Australian consumers”.
The world
Conservative whips spent the day shoring up support for the embattled Boris Johnson. Photograph: Reuters
Boris Johnson’s lurch to the right after Partygate is fuelling even more anger among rebel Tory MPs, with momentum now building for a leadership challenge next week. Several Conservative MPs told the Guardian they believed the threshold of 54 letters withdrawing support for Johnson was nearly crossed – or may have been already.
The glass screen encasing the Mona Lisa has been smeared with cake in a purported protest against artists not focusing enough on “the planet”. A 36-year-old man has been arrested and placed in psychiatric care.
According to a report, an Israeli airstrike on an agrochemical warehouse during last year’s war in Gaza amounted to the “indirect deploying of chemical weapons” after it created a a toxic plume that has left residents with health problems.
Companies with links to deforestation have sponsored the Queen’s jubilee tree planting scheme, campaigners say.
Recommended reads
A model walks the runway during Australian fashion week 2022 at Carriageworks in Sydney. Photograph: Mark Nolan/Getty Images
Politicians talked the talk, fashion models walked the walk, and an on-field tackle was heard worldwide. Here are some of the best photos from May.
At 70, the ambient music legend Midori Takada is enjoying a late-career bloom thanks to the internet. Takada etched her name in musical history with the enigmatic ambient classic Through the Looking Glass, which she recorded over two days in 1983, engineering the album and playing gongs, ocarinas, chimes, and every other instrument herself. Although the album fell into obscurity, Takada has become a cult figure, and her work has been revived for millennials and generation Z through endless recycling on social media. She talks to Guardian Australia about her prog rock past and escaping western influences before a Melbourne’s Rising festival performance.
A well-organized wardrobe saves time and stress when getting dressed and can help cut down on dry cleaning bills and time spent ironing. So how do you fulfill the fantasy of opening your wardrobe to find neat rows of color-coded shirts, jackets, and pants? We have expert advice on what should be hung versus what should be folded, and the best order to store things in.
“Australia’s parliament has to change – because autistic people like me can’t,” writes Christina Cushen. “Here in Australia, we have little representation of federal parliamentarians living with a disability, and none identifying as autistic. This kind of representation is so important to our community because it means we have people with lived experience advocating for policy and research on the things that matter most to us. It also empowers us with the belief that we too could be sitting in parliament one day, helping to make decisions and shape our country’s future for the better.”
Listen
Last Tuesday, 19 children and two teachers were killed in a mass shooting in Texas, the 27th school shooting in the US this year. There are more guns than people in the US, and the industry can still sell almost 2m a month. Ryan Busse, a former gun company executive, explains how we got here in an episode originally aired on the Guardian’s global news podcast Today in Focus.
Full Story
Inside the US gun industry
Sorry your browser does not support audio. You can download it here and listen https://audio.guim.co.uk/2020/05/05-61553-gnl.fw.200505.jf.ch7DW.mp3
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcasting app.
Connor Pain of Western United celebrates after the final whistle of the A-League mens grand final match against Melbourne City. Photograph: Mike Owen/Getty Images
Sport
“It’s time for the A-League to take stock after a calamitous and underwhelming season,” writes Joey Lynch. “There are bright sparks that can be built upon, but the APL’s list of issues to address during the off-season is lengthy.
France’s interior minister has blamed counterfeit ticket sales on an “industrial scale” for chaotic scenes at the Champions League final on Saturday.
Media roundup
A pandemic strain of the flu that disproportionately affects children is helping to drive an unusually early start to the 2022 flu season, the Age reports. South Australia’s debt is forecast to reach more than $64bn if unchecked annual spending growth of 4% continues, the Advertiser says. And in WA Today, about 220,000 hectares of forests previously logged in Western Australia could still be subject to tree removal for ecological thinning beyond a 2024 native timber logging ban.
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