Morning mail: hospital recruitment failure, Albanese’s climate plea, row over Trump’s alleged car ‘lunge’

Thursday: A scheme to recruit an extra 2,000 doctors and nurses from abroad assisted just 24 people. Plus: record-breaking rainfall expected

Good morning. Anthony Albanese will today give a speech at a special session of the council of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris, asking nations to raise ambitions for tackling the climate crisis.

Just 24 medical practitioners received direct assistance to come to Australia under a travel program announced by the Morrison government that promised to bring an extra 2,000 doctors and nurses into the system. Despite skills shortages across the health and aged care sectors, the scheme announced by the former health minister Greg Hunt in October last year was discontinued after just two months.

Anthony Albanese will today declare the world must be more ambitious to reduce the risks of runaway global heating and cooperate over national policy differences even when “long shadows of conflict and crisis are threatening our shared security”. The prime minister will use a speech to a special session of the council of the OECD in Paris to launch a clarion call for international cooperation amid global disruptions created by the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine. At home, the Australian Energy Market Operator has released a blueprint recommending that work urgently begin on five big transmission projects to wean the electricity grid off fossil fuels without shortages and cost blowouts.

A high-stakes row has broken out after explosive testimony at the House January 6 committee painted an unhinged and violent portrait of Donald Trump on the day of the Capitol attack. But senior Secret Service agents are reportedly prepared to testify the then-president did not lunge for the wheel of his vehicle or physically attack the chief of his security detail after his speech near the White House on January 6 – as a former aide said he did in sworn testimony yesterday.

Australia

Grab an umbrella because the winter dry spell is set to end this week, with the east coast of Australia forecast to receive a deluge leading up to the weekend, while record-breaking rainfall is expected for parts of northern Australia.

A Senate inquiry chaired by the outgoing Labor senator Kim Carr is expected to reiterate its call to “disassemble” the administrative appeals tribunal, lobbing an explosive idea in the lap of attorney general, Mark Dreyfus. Dreyfus has made no secret of his concern about the Coalition’s practice of appointing former staffers and politicians to the powerful tribunal, which reviews the merits of government decisions in areas including welfare, immigration and the NDIS.

The climate change minister, Chris Bowen, is poised to unveil a sweeping review into Australia’s carbon credit system after an expert whistleblower characterised it as a fraud and a waste of taxpayer money.

As the gap between private property rental prices and apartments continues to widen, Australians are turning to apartment living in record numbers – but do they meet our needs?

And Australia is already off target to meet a key Closing the Gap goal, just two years after the revised targets were introduced, new data reveals.

The world

Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the 10-man unit that struck Paris in coordinated terror attacks in 2015, has been found guilty of murder. The 32-year-old Brussels-born French citizen was found guilty of taking partin the series of bombings and shootings across the French capital that killed 130 people and injured more than 490.

First-hand accounts from survivors and expert analysis have discredited Moscow’s account of the deadly missile strikes on a shopping mall in the Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk. Russia’s defence ministry said its military fired a “high-precision air attack at hangars where armament and munitions were stored” but a mountain of evidence shows otherwise.

The singer R Kelly has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for sexually abusing women, girls and boys more than 20 years after he first faced allegations.

President Joe Biden has announced that the US will increase its military forces across Europe with more land, sea and air deployments. The commitment forms part of Nato’s revamped European defence force, which will comprise 300,000 troops across the continent placed at high readiness in case Russia threatens any member of the alliance.

Recommended reads

The ABC is marking its 90th birthday this year with a special live event going to air on Thursday. To celebrate, Guardian staff have nominated their favourite moments and programs from ABC television, radio and the digital era – shows that brought their families together, made them laugh or kept them in touch with Australia while overseas. From Countdown to Roy and HG, make yourself comfy and settle down for a trip into nostalgia land.

Pumpkins are versatile, long-lasting fruit – for less than $4 a kilo. What’s even better is you can use them for every course: soups, desserts, roasts and more. Natascha Mirosch has six ways to make the most of this allotment staple, from roasting to curries to brownies.

What makes a song sound happy? It depends on your culture, an Australian study has found. It’s been a long-held belief that songs composed in major keys inherently sound happy and those composed in minor keys sound sad. But the research suggests this is not a universal phenomenon.

A family returns home, a nation under inflation, a city lit up and nude swimmers take an icy dip – a visual feast awaits in this edition of Australia’s best photos of the month.

Listen

Australian Border Force officials searched more than 40,000 mobile phones, laptops and other devices at the border between 2017 and the end of 2021. ABF has broad powers to search travellers and ask for their passcodes. In Today’s Full Story, reporter Josh Taylor talks to Jane Lee about what these powers are for and the difficulties in refusing these requests.

Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.

Sport

Australian hopes are sky high at the Tour de France this year, with at least two yellow jersey hopefuls eager to match Jai Hindley’s grand tour win. First up is Ben O’Connor, who announced himself on the world stage at last year’s event with a remarkable solo win in the Alps. The other is Jack Haig, perhaps the most highly rated Australian climber of the generation during his youth.

Australia ceded an early advantage in first Test in Sri Lanka. A late Steve Smith run-out highlighted Australia’s jitters in after Nathan Lyon joined elite company with his 20th five-wicket haul in Test cricket.

Media roundup

Victoria’s Indigenous truth-telling commission has been urged to delay the release of its first report into the impact of colonisation, the Age reports. Sky News reports that the deputy Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, has rejected Labor’s claim that the Morrison government deserves “zero credit” for Australia’s AAA credit rating.

Coming up

Teachers from NSW public and Catholic schools will begin a one-day strike over a dispute about staff shortages and pay.

Verdicts are expected to be handed down at 10am by the SA supreme court in the 1994 NCA bombing trial.

And if you’ve read this far …

Watch this video of male British MPs trying out a vest that simulates menopause hot flushes as part of an event raising awareness about the UK’s acute shortages of hormone replacement therapy products.

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