| | | 21/05/2024 Assange wins right to appeal, debt collectors investigated, Britain’s ‘day of shame’ |
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| Martin Farrer |  |
| | | Morning, everyone. The Julian Assange saga has entered a new phase after judges in London granted him leave to appeal against extradition to the US over espionage charges. More than half of us have found ourselves in financial stress and, when everyday Australians go to the wall, there is one industry that gets more business: the debt collectors. Today Guardian Australia puts the sector under the spotlight, with a new investigation revealing some shocking findings. Plus, we farewell the Australian-raised singer who had a small part in the rise of the Beatles. |
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| Australia | | Legal aid ‘swamped’ | Legal Aid lawyers who deal with domestic violence cases in NSW (pictured) say they are swamped every day by women needing their help – and, even when they help someone, they know there are many more people waiting. | ‘Lukewarm’ budget | A majority of voters approve of the main measures in Labor’s third budget, although three in five think the Albanese government’s $300 electricity bill rebate should have been better targeted, according to our latest Guardian Essential poll. | Closure delay | Eraring, the nation’s biggest coal-fired power station, may need to delay its closure to ease blackout threats in NSW, while other eastern states also face “periods of high risk” because of the slow rollout of renewables, the Australian Energy Market Operator warns. | Pandemic divide | Disposable income has shot up for the richest 10% of households, while the rest of the country have found their financial situation going backwards, new analysis by the Productivity Commission shows today. | Switch it off! | With governments across Australia exploring ways to regulate the use of social media by young people to protect them from harmful content, we look at how any bans might work. |
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| World | | Iran turmoil | Activists in Iran have said there is little mood to mourn the death of the country’s president Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash near the border with Azerbaijan on Sunday. His death comes at a time of huge turmoil in the region and suddenly exposes the republic’s opaque electoral process to scrutiny. Whatever the outcome, the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, will continue to set the country’s hardline foreign policy. | ‘Shameful’ case | Julian Assange’s wife, Stella, called on the US to abandon its “shameful” case against the WikiLeaks founder after the high court in London gave him a legal lifeline by granting the right to appeal against his extradition. | ‘War crimes’ warrants | The chief prosecutor of the international criminal court is seeking arrest warrants for senior Hamas and Israeli officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Joe Biden has condemned the move. | ‘Day of shame’ | Rishi Sunak has declared a “day of shame for the British state” as he apologised for the failures of successive governments over the infected blood scandal and promised to pay whatever it took to compensate the victims. Thousands of people became infected or died from contaminated blood in an avoidable tragedy inflamed by a “subtle, pervasive and chilling” cover-up by the NHS and the government, a scathing report has concluded. | Cohen ‘stole’ | Michael Cohen has told the Donald Trump hush-money trial that he stole from Trump Organization as the former president’s lawyers continued to question the witness’s credibility. |
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| | | | | We're funded by readers, not billionaires The Guardian is fiercely independent, which means we can report on fact, not fiction, at a time when powerful people are getting away with more and more. | | |
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| Full Story | | What keeps the world’s top climate scientists up at night? Hundreds of climate experts expect global temperatures to rise to at least 2.5C above preindustrial levels by 2100. Damian Carrington reports. | |
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| In-depth | | In June 2022 Victoria’s consumer watchdog penned a strongly worded letter to one of Australia’s biggest private debt collection firms, Panthera Finance. The company had been blacklisted two years earlier for prior unlawful conduct. The federal court found it had unduly harassed three consumers over money they did not owe. In no uncertain terms, the regulator told the company it was prohibited from operating in Victoria and any continued debt collection activity must “immediately cease”. Within weeks Panthera struck deals with both Origin and Optus, buying up old, uncollected debt from the energy and telco giants, and claims it has not broken any rules because the debt collection is being done by a sister company. Guardian Australia reveals how the company dodged its own blacklisting. You can also read about why we’re investigating the sector. |
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| Not the news | | When Frank Ifield recommended that his agent should book a foursome from Liverpool as his support act, he played a small part in ushering in the pop music revolution that saw his brand of crooning covers swept away by bands like his esrtwhile backers, the Beatles. Ifield, who has died aged 86, was born in Britain but raised in Dural in NSW where country music radio inspired him to pursue his talent and rack up a series of chart-topping hits. |
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| Media roundup | Melbourne University has threatened to call police to clear pro- Palestinian protesters from the campus, the Age reports. Channel Seven has poached one of Nine’s rising stars to front its beleaguered flagship current affairs show, Spotlight, the Daily Telegraph claims. One pub ran out of beer several times as Caxton Street businesses enjoyed a roaring trade due to the NRL Magic Round at the weekend, the Courier-Mail says. |
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| What’s happening today | Canberra | There will be a public hearing of the Senate select committee on adopting artificial intelligence. | Brisbane | There will be a pre-inquest conference into the shooting of two police officers and a resident at Wieambilla. | Perth | Australian energy producers are attending a conference and exhibition. |
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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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