Gaza polio warning, Kamala Harris faces surge of abuse, Australia kick off Olympics with a win

Flying the flag | Tokyo gold medal-winning paddler Jess Fox and Kookaburras veteran Eddie Ockenden have been chosen to carry the Australian flag at the Paris 2024 opening ceremony, chef de mission Anna Meares announced on Wednesday.

Exclusive | The “incredibly alarming” discovery of the poliovirus in Gaza only adds to the besieged territory’s status as one of “the most dangerous places to be a child right now”, the head of the UN children’s agency has warned in an exclusive interview for Guardian Australia.

Food fears | The food industry in Australia is allowed to use labelling and marketing tactics to distract from the harmful ingredients in ultra-processed foods due its outsize political power, health experts say.

Reporters axed | Some of News Corp’s most experienced journalists, including health reporter Sue Dunlevy, have been made redundant amid significant cuts to the national reporting team as well as the Herald Sun and Daily Telegraph.

Fly food | Australian scientists are genetically engineering a common fly species so that it can eat more of humanity’s organic waste while producing ingredients for making everything from lubricants and biofuels to high-grade animal feeds.

Washington protest | Benjamin Netanyahu has addressed a raucous joint session of the US Congress that was boycotted by dozens of Democratic lawmakers and saw thousands protest outside. Police arrested five protesters who disrupted the speech and used pepper spray on some of those outside.

Harris attacks | Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, have been targeted with a fresh wave of racist insults, misogynistic tropes, antisemitic conspiracy theories and viral memes since she emerged as the Democrat challenger to face Donald Trump in the US election in November. The attacks come despite Republican leaders urging supporters not to use racist slurs against Harris and her husband, who is Jewish.

Paris ‘plot’ | A Russian chef who has lived in France for 14 years has been arrested on suspicion of plotting with a foreign power to stage “large scale” acts of “destabilisation” during the Olympic Games in Paris.

Emissions surge | A surge in new oil and gas production in 2024 threatens to unleash nearly 12bn tonnes of emissions, with the world’s wealthiest countries leading a stampede of fossil fuel expansion, new dats reveals.

Putin’s ‘lies’ | Vladimir Putin is “peddling lies” about the strength of the Russian economy that must be refuted, EU ministers have said, with growing signs of deterioration in Moscow’s war machine in the face of biting sanctions.

Paris Olympics | Australia’s rugby sevens players kicked off the nation’s Olympics overnight by beating Samoa in Paris while there was chaos in the football tournament when the match between Argentina and Morocco was stopped by crowd trouble.

Drone scandal | Canada’s Olympic women’s football team is in turmoil after a member of their support team used drones to spy on their upcoming opponents New Zealand.

Cycling | The Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar says the Slovenian federation’s decision not to select his girlfriend Urska Zigart for the Olympics was one of the reasons behind his decision to withdraw from the Paris Games.

Equestrianism | A video of the Team GB star Charlotte Dujardin repeatedly striking a horse with a long whip has led the animal rights group Peta to call for all equestrian events to be banned from the Olympic Games.

Sydney | First case management hearing in Bruce Lehrmann’s appeal of defamation loss.

Indigenous Australians | US museum to return 20 culturally significant objects.

Environment | World Heritage Committee decision due on whether to list Great Barrier Reef.

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