| | | 06/03/2024 Tesla accuses car lobby of ‘false claims’, Super Tuesday polls in the US, Ukraine sinks Russian warship |
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| Martin Farrer |  |
| | | Morning everyone. It’s not every day that a company run by one of the richest people in the world lends the Labor government a helping hand. But Elon Musk’s Tesla has launched a fierce attack on the Australian car lobby for misleading the public about the impact of the Albanese government’s clean car policy. We have the full, exclusive story, plus a new UN report describes the abuse of Palestinian detainees in Israeli detention centres, and Taylor Swift urges her fans to vote as the US Super Tuesday elections get under way. |
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| Sign up for The Crunch newsletter | | Get the most important charts and dataviz direct to your inbox every fortnight. | | Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties | | |
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 | Australia | | Coral fears | Scientists fear excessive ocean heat – which is bleaching corals in parts of the Great Barrier Reef – is now hitting the world’s most southern coral reef at Lord Howe island (pictured). And global heating could also see ice-free Arctic summers within 10 years, scientists fear. | Exclusive | Tesla has launched a scathing attack on Australia’s main auto industry lobby group, accusing it of attempting to delay climate action by repeatedly making “plainly false” claims to the public about an Albanese government clean car policy. | Disability delay | Claims for the disability support pension took more than 80 days on average in the final months of last year and some local government areas are experiencing average wait times of more than 200 days, data has revealed. | ‘Negative impacts’ | A Melbourne private school launched an unsuccessful legal bid to block a 24-hour mental health facility from being built next door, after it argued it posed a risk to students’ safety and would affect its future viability. | Electric Euro dream | South Australia’s dance pop duo Electric Fields, made up of vocalist Zaachariaha Fielding and Michael Ross on keyboards, will represent Australia at Eurovision in May, after missing out on the honour in 2019. |
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| World | | Super Tuesday | Voting is under way in the US “Super Tuesday” primaries with Donald Trump expected to wrap up the Republican presidential nomination, while Taylor Swift has urged her fans to make sure they vote. Follow the action at our live blog. And according to a leading historian, the US supreme court “erred badly” in ruling Colorado was wrong to seek to remove Trump from the ballot. | Abuse allegations | An internal UN report describes the widespread abuse of Palestinian detainees in Israel, detailing beatings and sexual assault. It comes asnegotiations aimed at brokering a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza war appear to have stalled, days before an unofficial deadline of the beginning of Ramadan. | Menopause ‘misinformation’ | Many companies have a commercial interest in portraying menopause as a “medical problem”, leaving women inundated with misinformation, a series of papers published in the Lancet has found. | ‘Historic humiliation’ | Ukraine has sunk a Russian warship near the Kerch strait in occupied Crimea, it said, in a further challenge to Moscow’s naval power and its control over the Black Sea despite Ukrainian losses elsewhere. | Tarde response | Spain’s leftwing labour minister has drawn a storm of criticism after describing the country’s custom of keeping restaurants open until late into the night as “madness” and bad for the mental health of staff. |
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| Full Story | | Black Box episode one: the connectionists To begin our podcast series Black Box delving into the world of artificial intelligence, we have the story of Geoffrey Hinton, a man who set out to understand the brain and ended up working with researchers who invented a technology so powerful that even they don’t truly understand how it works. | |
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| In-depth | | Sam Kerr’s shock court appearance in London has stunned her loyal fans. They, like football administrators and coaches back in Australia, had no idea about the story until media reports about an incident that happened in January last year. The Matildas star player denies the charges. Jack Snape considers what’s at stake for the game’s golden girl. |
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| Not the news | | If you’re looking for a good read, our resident bookworms have sifted through the best books published in Australia last month. Recommendations include the “generous intellectual tapestry” of Nam Le’s 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem, to Appreciation, Liam Pieper’s “spot on” satire of the Australian art world, and from the “irresistibly” titled Loving my Lying, Dying, Cheating Husband by Kerstin Pilz to Emma Darragh’s thought-provoking Thanks for Having Me. |
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| Media roundup | The Malaysian prime minister has urged the world to accept China as a superpower in comments at odds with Penny Wong’s own remarks to the Asean summit, the Age reports. Firefighters tell the Newcastle Herald their worst fears appear to have come true after a faulty lithium battery sparked a house fire that killed two women near Lake Macquarie. Work will start on the long-delayed cycle ramp at the northern end of the Sydney Harbour Bridge this year, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. |
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| What’s happening today | Canberra | Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather will debate the Property Council chief executive on the housing crisis at the National Press Club. | Adelaide | South Australia government application to keep Snowtown murders accomplice under watch. | Perth | Family lawyers of Aboriginal woman Miss Dhu, who died in police custody, meet Western Australia government to discuss their civil claim. |
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| Brain teaser | And finally, here are the Guardian’s crosswords to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. | |
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| Contact us | If you have a story tip or technical issue viewing this newsletter, please reply to this email. If you are a Guardian supporter and need assistance with regards to contributions and/or digital subscriptions, please email customer.help@guardian.co.uk |
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| | | Lenore Taylor | | Editor, Guardian Australia |
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| | I hope you appreciated this newsletter. Before you move on, I wonder if you would consider supporting Guardian Australia. As we look ahead to the challenges of 2024, we’re aiming to power more rigorous, independent reporting.
In 2023, our journalism held the powerful to account and gave a voice to the marginalised. It cut through misinformation to arm Australians with facts about the referendum and exposed corporate greed amid the cost-of-living crunch. It sparked government inquiries and investigations, and continued to treat the climate crisis with the urgency it deserves.
This vital work is made possible because of our unique reader-supported model. With no billionaire owner or shareholders to consider, we are empowered to produce truly independent journalism that serves the public interest, not profit motives.
And unlike others, we don’t keep our journalism behind a paywall. With misinformation and propaganda increasingly rife, we believe it is more important than ever that everybody has access to trustworthy news and information, whether they can afford to pay for it or not.
If you can, please support us on a monthly basis from just $2. It takes less than a minute to set up, and you can rest assured that you’re making a big impact every single month in support of open, independent journalism. Thank you. | | |
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