Latest from The Guardian
The Guardian
22 minutes ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Morning Mail: Trump's two-week window for Iran attack, Olympics ditch diversity, the five ways we've changed
Morning everyone. Donald Trump has given himself two weeks to decide whether or not to attack Iran, according to the White House. Plus, Queensland's government is reversing the diversity quotas for the Brisbane Olympics board, John Pesutto's $1.5m lifeline, and the five key ways in which the lives of Australians are changing. Recycling reboot | States should double the current 10c refund for returning bottles and cans if Australia wants to improve its record on recycling, campaigners say. Brisbane Olympics | The Queensland government plans to repeal a requirement that half the board overseeing the organising of the 2032 Games be women and at least one member Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. Pesutto lifeline | The Victorian Liberal party has thrown a $1.5m lifeline to former leader John Pesutto to ensure he can pay Moira Deeming's legal fees and avoid bankruptcy. Koala gap | The long-promised great koala national park is not expected to get any additional funding in next week's New South Wales budget despite being a centrepiece of the state government's environment policy. Pay to play | Parents are now paying more than $500 a year on average for their children to play football, cricket and basketball, according to a national survey, as states pledge millions of dollars to ensure sport is not just for the wealthy. Bibi's 'sacrifice' | Benjamin Netanyahu has cast the conflict in the long view by comparing it to the liberation of Jewish people from captivity in Babylon 2,500 years ago by the Persian ruler Cyrus the Great. Earlier he visited a hospital that was hit by an Iranian missile and pointed to his own family's sacrifice: the second postponement of his son's wedding. Bunker doubts | Donald Trump has denied a report in the Wall Street Journal that he has approved US plans to attack Iran's underground nuclear site with 'bunker-buster' bombs, while our reporting suggests he is not persuaded of the bomb's ability to destroy the complex. The White House said a decision would be made 'within two weeks'. Follow updates from Washington live. Our defence editor judges that the conflict has exposed Iran's weaknesses but things could yet turn in its favour. Gaza deaths | Dozens more Palestinians were killed or injured in Gaza as they sought desperately needed aid overnight, with reports that Israeli forces close to one distribution point had opened fire – the third such incident in as many days. Climate blockers | Rampant climate misinformation is turning the crisis into a catastrophe, according to a new report, which says climate action was being obstructed and delayed by fossil fuel companies, politicians and governments. Pride plan | The mayor of Budapest has vowed to go ahead with the city's Pride march next weekend, declaring he will 'come up with a plan C' even if the police try to impose a government-backed ban. Newsroom edition: the consequences of the Israel-Iran war Bridie Jabour speaks to Guardian Australia's international editor, Bonnie Malkin, and deputy editor, Patrick Keneally, about how the Israel-Iran war erupted and what could happen next. Sorry your browser does not support audio - but you can download here and listen $ Australia's changing way of life is highlighted by five key trends in two pieces of research released today by the e61 Institute and by KPMG. Luca Ittamani finds that young people are living with their parents for longer compared with 25 years ago thanks to the housing crisis, and are less likely to be living with a partner. Another result of expensive housing is that young families are more likely to move around to find cheaper accommodation. In Europe the fashion for taking a dip in an urban waterway is becoming quite the thing. From Berlin to Oslo and from Paris to Copenhagen our correspondents speak to people taking advantage of their local rivers. Sign up to Morning Mail Our Australian morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Rugby union | Joe Schmidt (pictured) has picked his 36-man Wallabies squad to take on the British Lions but he might come to regret the lack of playmakers, writes Angus Fontaine. Football | Kylian Mbappé has been admitted to hospital with acute gastroenteritis after he missed Real Madrid's opening game of the Club World Cup in the US. Cricket | Ben Stokes has called for his England team to do better when 'we're up against the wall' as they prepare to start a four-match series against India at Headingley. A victim of a gang rape tells the Sydney Morning Herald that offenders should lose their right to anonymity. Former test wicketkeeper Tim Paine is taking up a 'significant post' with Cricket Australia as it revamps its coaching ranks, the Herald Sun claims. Queensland's teachers have called their latest pay offer an 'affront' and promised new action, the Courier Mail says. Victorian Liberal leader Brad Battin is suffering from the 'stench' of the Pesutto-Deeming affair, an Age opinion piece says. New South Wales | Directions hearing for mothers suing police over 'disruptive and intimidating' home visits. Darwin | Indigenous Australians minister to attend meeting on Closing the Gap. Sport | Launch of device to make AFL more inclusive for vision-impaired fans. If you would like to receive this Morning Mail update to your email inbox every weekday, sign up here, or finish your day with our Afternoon Update newsletter. You can follow the latest in US politics by signing up for This Week in Trumpland. And finally, here are the Guardian's crosswords to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword
The Guardian
31 minutes ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The Mortician review – so queasy it will stay with you for ever
The smart thing about comparing something to The Jinx is that you're essentially daring viewers to stick with you until the very end. After all, as good as The Jinx was, it didn't reach legendary status until its final few moments, when notorious murder suspect Robert Durst paused an interview with his microphone still on, and muttered a confession while using the toilet. The Mortician, it has to be said, is pound for pound more staggering than The Jinx. Joshua Rofé's three-part documentary about California cremator David Sconce is a feat of construction, patiently doling out larger and larger transgressions until the whole thing becomes swamped in unimaginable horror. It's the kind of documentary where, when the credits roll, you realise that you haven't drawn breath for several minutes. As with most true crime documentaries, Sconce's case is a known one. Perhaps you watched it unfold at the time, or perhaps you like to spend your time trawling the darker corners of Wikipedia. This is the downfall of many products of this ilk; they're flashy retellings that add very little of value. The Mortician is not that. The Lamb Funeral Home scandal made enough of a splash to have inspired more than one novel, and yet The Mortician deserves to go down as the definitive version. On some level, it's the story of a very efficient businessman. As the figure in charge of Pasadena crematorium Lamb Funeral Home, David Sconce was determined to undercut his rivals. He would perform long round-trips around mortuaries in his rundown van, collecting bodies, burning them and returning them for the low, low price of $55. But cremations are slow. It takes from two to three hours to burn a body and let the remains cool enough to safely gather them. So Sconce started burning a few at a time. And then more and more, breaking bones to cram as many as he could into his incinerator. In barely any time at all the business went from performing 194 cremations a year to 8,173, handing bereaved relatives urns scooped from bins brimming with the mixed ashes of countless different people. Incredibly, it only gets worse from there. To reveal too much would be to spoil the cascade of monstrosities that follow, but it makes for extremely queasy viewing. The thefts, the desecration, the complete detachment between the human life that ended and the wholesale scavenging that followed. It is unbelievably dark. At the centre of it all is Sconce himself. Met by the documentary crew outside jail, where he had just finished serving a 10-year sentence, Sconce is a weirdly charismatic presence. Described by one talking head as 'Richie Cunningham' from Happy Days, he has a big, open, all-American face, and golly-gees his way through much of his interviews despite the atrocities laid at his feet. At best, he defends his actions with a cold logic – 'People have got to be more in control of their emotions,' he says at one point of the appalled bereaved; 'That's not your loved one any more' – but at worst there's a showboating bravado, as if he can't get enough of his own performance. And this is ultimately what gets him. The Mortician has received so many comparisons to The Jinx because of how it ends. During an unguarded moment when he believes the camera is no longer running, Sconce appears to admit to something awful. It's left vague, since there's nothing as concrete as Durst muttering that he 'killed them all', but it's still enough for Rofé to publicly encourage renewed investigation. However, while the climax will grab all the headlines, the journey is just as important. The Mortician isn't only about one grim individual who did horrendous things to thousands of corpses; it's about the dehumanising effects of unfettered capitalism and our own relationship to death. In the cold light of day, how should we treat the people we love once they are gone? Is the dignity we afford their bodies purely ceremonial? Do they simply become matter to be disposed of by whatever means necessary? It is a harrowing journey to get to the end of the programme – the faint of heart should be warned that the series includes talk of concentration camps, infants, organ harvesting and something nefariously referred to as 'popping chops' – but it's worth it. The Mortician is so much more than a gussied-up Wikipedia page. It's something that is unlikely to ever leave you. The Mortician is on Sky and Now in the UK. In the US, it airs on HBO and Max. In Australia, it airs on Max
The Guardian
an hour ago
- Business
- The Guardian
News live: NSW to make legal move on privatised hospital; Israel boasts ‘close collaboration' with Australia
Update: Date: 2025-06-19T20:27:55.000Z Title: NSW government moves to end partnership deal over Northern Beaches hospital Content: The Minns Labor government is arming itself with new powers to terminate the public-private partnership (PPP) with bankrupt Northern Beaches hospital operator Healthscope in the event that it cannot reach an agreement. The government announced today it would introduce amendments to a private member's bill brought forward by the member for Wakehurst, Michael Regan, next week so it could – if required – terminate the Northern Beaches PPP contract. This follows the appointment of receivers to the parent entities of Healthscope, which the NSW government considers a default under the contract. Healthscope has argued that the termination would be ' voluntary' and would attract compensation as set out on the contract. The government said this would run to hundreds of millions of dollars. 'This is not a decision we take lightly,' the NSW treasurer, Daniel Mookhey, said. But we are now in a position where the Liberals' privatisation mess means Healthscope's receivers are negotiating the future of the Northern Beaches hospital. While an agreed exit from this failed PPP contract remains my preference, I must ensure the government has the right to step in and protect the Northern Beaches community from this dragging on. Update: Date: 2025-06-19T20:27:02.000Z Title: Welcome Content: Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I'm Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then Nick Visser will be in the hot seat. Israel's deputy foreign minister told the ABC's 7.30 last night that her country had 'a very close collaboration' with Australian security agencies. However, when pressed on the question she did not elaborate on whether that included sharing intelligence about Iran's nuclear program. More coming up. The Minns Labor government is arming itself with new powers to terminate the public-private partnership (PPP) with bankrupt Northern Beaches hospital operator Healthscope in the event that it cannot reach an agreement. More coming up on that too.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Five ways Australians' spending, housing and dating habits have changed over the last 25 years
The way Australians live has changed in the last 25 years, as soaring house prices have forced some young people to live with parents longer, and others to move rentals more often. New research from the e61 Institute breaks down why some Australians are more reluctant to move house, while consulting firm KPMG has looked at how household spending has changed by generation. Each explored data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Here are five ways Australians' lifestyles have changed – and how it's affecting the housing crisis. Fewer Australians are moving house as often as they did before the 2000s, mostly because young people are more likely to live with their parents, e61 research found. This is linked to more 18 to 24-year-olds trying to save money, potentially for a deposit, before moving out. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email The trend of living in the family home for longer is also because fewer young people are in relationships, says Nick Garvin, research manager at e61. 'It is possible that housing costs are contributing to this drop in moving out with partners, but we are also seeing a general drop in the number of 18 to 24-year-olds that have a partner at all.' The percentage of young men and women living with parents increased from 53% and 42%, respectively, in the 1990s to 60% and 53% by the early pandemic years. Younger Australians entering the workforce are prioritising living on their own, rather than with partners or in share houses, meaning their spend on furniture has increased. Households headed by 25 to 34-year-olds spent an extra $2,161 each year on appliances and furniture in 2024, compared to 2014, according to KPMG. Homewares spending rose as a share of that age group's budget, accounting for inflation, according to KPMG urban economist Terry Rawnsley. 'Ten years ago, young people were more likely to be living in a share house and so would be sharing a fridge,' Rawnsley says. One-person homes accounted for more than 20% of all 25 to 34-year-olds' households in 2024, up from 15% a decade earlier, boosting spending at furniture giants like Temple and Webster. Rents took up a smaller average share of young households' spending in 2024 than 2014, as people moved away from shared living to smaller one-bedroom apartments with cheaper overall rents, KPMG found. Falling home ownership and rising rents have forced a growing share of young families to move around more often. The share of 25 to 44-year-olds moving home in the last 12 months has risen since 2011, in line with the rising share of people who don't own their own home, e61's analysis of census data found. Garvin says rapid price growth over the 2010s forced younger households to wait longer to save up deposits. Ongoing high prices could see yet more young workers move more often in coming years, he says. 'Renters move far more frequently than homeowners do, so that appears to be what's driving the pickup since 2011.' Millennials have worse access to housing and a smaller proportion own their own home than gen Xers did at the same age in 2014, ABS data shows. But those in the 35 to 44-year-old cohort in 2024 are on average spending $12,000 more to pay off home loans than their predecessors did a decade ago, KPMG found. 'There's lower home ownership, but the people who are getting into [homes] are spending more and more of their incomes on housing,' Rawnsley says. Older Australians with little to no mortgage debt and growing incomes have faced less pressure from the changing cost of living and instead picked up their spending on luxury goods. Growing numbers of Australians with ongoing work and tertiary qualifications moved into the 55 to 64-year-old bracket from 2014 to 2024, ABS data shows. Separate data shows the median 55 to 64-year-old household's wealth rose from $1m to more than $1.3m from 2014 to 2022. Rising incomes have gone straight to nonessential purchases such as recreational goods, KPMG says. Alcohol and cigarettes grew as a share of total expenditure for households in the 55 to 64-year-old group, while all other groups between the ages of 25 and 54 cut back, KPMG found. Older workers also dedicated more money to dining out, takeaway meals, clothing and footwear. 'These are people who've paid the mortgage off largely, they've got the kids out the door in a lot of cases, and they have that disposable income,' Rawnsley says. 'The younger baby boomers or the older [gen] Xers who might see themselves as having a treat of getting some designer footwear [are upgrading] from just having something on the rack to put on every day.'
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Ice agents denied entry to Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, reports say
Department of Homeland Security agents near Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Thursday were denied entry on to venue grounds when they tried to enter parking lots, according to multiple reports. DHS vehicles, with masked officers, were spotted near Dodger Stadium, according to several local journalists, as the city continues to reel from Ice raids targeting immigrants. It remains unknown what these federal agents were doing, and whether they arrested anyone, the Los Angeles Times reported. The agents refused to tell a Times reporter why they were at Dodger Stadium. These DHS vehicles were apparently located near the stadium's downtown parking lot entrance. A source told the newspaper that federal agents met near Dodger stadium for a briefing but departed when photos of their meeting started to spread on social media. Kevin Takumi, a videographer and photographer for Fox's Los Angeles affiliate, posted aerial video on X showing several vans and SUVs, and apparent immigration officers, around entrances to the stadium. 'Ice agents are taking up positions at the entrances to Dodger Stadium, media and crowd beginning to arrive,' Takumi wrote. Jack Harris, the Dodgers beat writer for the Los Angeles Times, said on X: 'Regarding the photos going around on social media this morning about ICE agents at Dodger Stadium: sources say Ice agents tried to access Dodger Stadium today, but were denied entry to the grounds by the team.' Another journalist, Fabian Ardaya, who covers the Dodgers for the Athletic, wrote: 'Ice agents attempted to access Dodger Stadium this morning but were denied by the Dodgers. Images had circulated this morning of agents appearing to use the parking lots as a staging area.' Protesters arrived at Dodger Stadium after photos of federal agents circulated on social media. Police formed a line in front of one of the Dodger Stadium entrances, LAist reported. The presence of federal agents comes as the Dodgers are expected to announce plans for helping immigrant communities harmed by recent raids – and amid fear of ramped-up enforcement. Prior to this planned announcement, the Dodgers had remained silent for weeks as Ice bore down on Los Angeles, spurring mass protests and military deployment. Neither DHS nor Ice immediately responded to a request for comment. The Dodgers' press contacts did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Dodgers and San Diego Padres are facing off in Los Angeles this evening. There will also be a celebrity softball game to celebrate Black Heritage Night, CNN said.
