| | | 12/06/2024 Hunter Biden found guilty, capital city rents fall, UN reports ‘grave violations’ against children in Gaza |
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| | | Morning everyone. After barely three hours’ deliberation, a jury in Delaware has found Joe Biden’s son Hunter guilty on all three counts in his trial for violating federal gun laws in yet another politically charged American court case. We have the full story and reaction, plus how rents are falling in Australian capital cities in a sign of hope for tenants, and a cruise for the Socceroos and backstroke queen Kaylee McKeown. |
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| Australia | | Rents fall | Average asking rents in Australia’s capital cities fell 0.5% in May, the largest percentage monthly decline in more than four years – but one expert warned the crisis was “far from over”. | Climate plea | The owners of Australian coal and gas-fired power plants have joined the country’s leading business groups in saying the Coalition should keep Labor’s 2030 climate target if it wins the next election. | Consulting inquiry | A federal inquiry is due to release its final report into consulting services today in long-awaited findings that could redefine how the sector operates in Australia after the PwC tax leaks scandal. | Flight secrecy | The details of more than $25m in taxpayer-funded VIP flights for Australian ministers and dignitaries will be kept secret, fuelling calls for the federal government to fully explain why it no longer publishes the information. | Paramedic pose | A man who wore a uniform, drove a vehicle closely resembling an ambulance and charged for emergency health services he was not qualified to perform has been deemed a risk to public health and safety and ordered to stop. |
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| World | | ‘I will be there for Hunter’ | Joe Biden said he accepted the outcome of the trial that found his son Hunter guilty of all three counts of breaking federal laws relating to buying a handgun while being a user of crack cocaine. After a one-week trial, the jury in Wilmington, Delaware, took about three hours to reach its verdict after which Biden Sr said he “always be there” for Hunter. | ‘Unprecedented’ | More grave violations against children were committed in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel than anywhere else in the world last year, according to a UN report due to be published this week. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said the Hamas leadership needed to sign off on Washington’s UN-backed peace deal. | French crisis | The French far-right leaders Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen have hinted they are in negotiations with members of the mainstream right to field joint candidates in the snap general election this month. | Tory tax promise | Rishi Sunak has urged British voters not to give Keir Starmer “a blank cheque” in next month’s election as he launched the Tory manifesto promising tax cuts but Labour accused him of “cosplaying Liz Truss”. Keep up to speed with our campaign newsletter. | Animal protest | Animal rights activists have pasted a picture of Wallace from Wallace and Gromit over the new portrait of King Charles, in a protest highlighting alleged cruelty at RSPCA-accredited farms. |
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 | Full Story | | How a far-right push in Europe triggered a shock election in France The far right has made significant gains in the European parliament elections. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has responded with a high-stakes gamble. Europe editor Jon Henley dissects what it all means. | |
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| In-depth | | A Guardian investigation published today shows how drug cartels are forcing migrant children to work as foot soldiers in Europe’s booming cocaine trade. Our reporters uncover a white powder trail linking hundreds of vulnerable African minors with ruthless gangs.Belgian police say vulnerable minors “turn like shipwrecked sailors drawn by the reassuring light of a lighthouse”, with the brightest, biggest, lighthouse belonging to a Moroccan cocaine network colloquially known as the “Mocro Maffia”. |
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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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| Not the news | | Having been determined not to be one of those parents who becomes obsessed with their kids’ sporting activities, Myke Bartlett has now succumbed and spends weekends and weekdays shuttling them around to various “uncharted places”. Reflecting on his transformation (he’s also now a coach), he waxes about the “theatre of the pitch”, the “cerebral thrills of strategy” and the key message that you can always improve. |
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| The world of sport | | Football | The Socceroos made it six wins from six in the first stage of World Cup qualifying with a 5-0 win over Palestine last night thanks to two goals from their rising star Kusini Yengi and a cameo from teenager Nestory Irankunda. | Swimming | KayleeMcKeown put an exclamation mark on her dominance of the 100m backstroke by setting the second-fastest time in history – just eight one-hundredths of a second off her own world record – at the Olympic trials in Brisbane last night. | T20 World Cup | Jos Buttler has urged his England players not to panic regarding net run-rate as they try to resurrect their T20 World Cup defence from a perilous position if Scotland do well against Australia. |
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| Media roundup | Coalition cuts to skilled migrants would cost the economy $211bn, according to a study cited by the Sydney Morning Herald. A councillor in Melbourne is creating a storm by suggesting that property investors should pay more rates, the Age reports. The Queensland treasurer, Cameron Dick, has set aside a “$184m war chest” with only 137 days to go before the state election, the Courier Mail says. A Commonwealth gold medal-winning cyclist has been revealed as the victim of a stabbing at Aldinga Beach, the Adelaide Advertiser says. |
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| What’s happening today | New South Wales | Appeal judgment for Jarryd Hayne after rape conviction. | Courts | Conciliation hearing as landlord sues Bruce Lehrmann. |
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