| | 27/06/2024 What next for Julian Assange, cruel blow for Ticehurst family, Blues blitz Maroons |
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 | Martin Farrer |  |
| | | Morning everyone. Julian Assange will wake up to his first day of freedom for 14 years today after arriving back in Australia last night. We have news, analysis and a couple of cracking reads on the role of the government in securing his release and the reaction across the country. Plus, a trial date is set for Linda Reynolds’s defamation case against Brittany Higgins, the Blues take the Maroons to an Origin decider, and could taking multivitamins actually increase the risk of death? |
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| Australia | | Reynolds-Higgins trial | Linda Reynolds’s defamation case against her former political staffer Brittany Higgins over a series of social media posts will go to trial in August after attempts at a settlement failed. | Assange ‘needs time’ | Julian Assange’s wife, Stella, has pleaded for privacy for the WikiLeaks founder and his family as he adjusts to freedom after his dramatic release culminated in emotional scenes at Canberra airport last night. “Julian needs time to recover. To get used to freedoms,” she told the media. Our political editor says it was also a triumph for Anthony Albanese who can point to how his diplomacy delivered results for an Australian in strife. | Payman praised | Labor Friends of Palestine have praised Fatima Payman’s decision to cross the floor to support Palestinian statehood as “entirely consistent with Labor principles and policy” and rejected federal Labor’s stance as a “weakening” of its commitment on the issue. | Inflation headache | As inflation shows no sign of falling soon, it’s another headache for small businesses in a period marked by lockdowns, reopenings, hybrid office trends and worker shortages. Cafes are among those facing tough choices over how to keep going – they say people are buying less food as they trim their budgets. | Cruel blow | Molly Ticehurst’s family has been dealt another cruel blow after it emerged that thieves stole precious items from her home such as a gold pendant just days after she was allegedly murdered. |
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| World | | Multivitamin risk | Taking a daily multivitamin does not help people to live any longer, and may even be harmful, a major study has found. | Trump lashes out | Donald Trump has unleashed a fusillade of baseless accusations against Joe Biden and CNN moderators ahead of the first US presidential debate tomorrow in an apparent “pre-bunking” exercise designed to have his excuses ready-made if he is declared the loser. | Voting boost | Although it is still expected to win a landslide next week, the UK Labour party is planning to introduce automatic registration for voting to boost rolls for future elections. | Paris Hilton ‘abused’ | Paris Hilton, the American socialite and media figure, has told a congressional panel looking into strengthening child welfare protections that she was “force-fed medications and sexually abused by staff” while she was institutionalised as a teenager. | Starliner problems | Two astronauts on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft will remain in space with no clear plan about when they will return in the latest public relations disaster for the aerospace company. |
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| Full Story | | Inside Australia’s first truth-telling commission Victoria’s Yoorrook justice commission will soon wind up its formal hearings, with other states expected to plan their own truth-telling processes. Yoorrook’s chair, Wamba Wamba and Wergaia elder Prof Eleanor Bourke, speaks to Jane Lee. | |
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| In-depth | | When Julian Assange stepped onto the tarmac at Canberra airport last night, it was the culmination of a long legal battle by the self-described “consultant, journalist, computer programmer, producer, editor and documentary editor” and his supporters. Daniel Hurst looks at how relentless lobbying by the government and a “garden party ambush” played their part in freeing Assange, while Tory Shepherd considers the reaction in Australia where some welcome him home as a hero of free speech while others see him as a “traitor”. He may seek solitude and ordinariness now, Tory writes, but the clamour over his return home is unlikely to be easily quieted. |
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| Not the news | | To keep you warm through the cold winter weather, we’ve put together a mouth-watering menu of the best chicken soup recipes from our roster of star food writers. The recipes on offer include Nigella Lawson’s Sunday night chicken noodle, Yotam Ottolenghi’s chicken and parmesan soup with pappardelle pasta (pictured), and Mandy Yin’s chicken curry laksa. |
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| What’s happening today | Politics | Anthony Albanese to speak at the CEDA state of the nation conference in Canberra. | Economy | RBA deputy governor Andrew Hauser gives a speech and Q&A at the A50 Australian Economic Forum. | Sydney | Conciliation hearing as landlord sues Bruce Lehrmann over apartment paid for by Seven. |
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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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