Morning mail: Albanese to meet with Macron in relationship ‘reset’, US overturns handgun law

Good morning. Anthony Albanese will meet the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in a relationship “reset”. European leaders have opened the door to EU membership for Ukraine. And the US supreme court has overturned a strict New York handgun law.

The US supreme court has made it easier for almost all law-abiding Americans to carry concealed and loaded handguns in public places after the conservative majority struck down a New York law that placed strict restrictions on firearms outside the home. The majority decision renders the New York law an unconstitutional violation of the second amendment right to bear arms. The law had required anyone wanting to carry a handgun in public to prove they had a “proper cause” to do so.

Anthony Albanese has confirmed he will visit France to meet Emmanuel Macron and is considering travelling to Ukraine during next week’s trip to Europe for the Nato summit. Albanese said he was also looking forward to “having further dialogue” with the Chinese government, but admitted the relationship would remain “problematic” for some time.“I’ve been invited by president Macron to meet with him in France. I’ll be doing that in a week’s time. We do need to reset. We’ve already had very constructive discussions,” Albanese said.

The National Farmers’ Federation has warned the Albanese government not to rush any plan to sign on to Joe Biden’s global methane pledge, declaring the consequences of such a decision taken on the fly “could be calamitous”. Australia’s resources minister, Madeleine King, revealed on Thursday the new government was considering signing the push to limit global methane emissions by 30% from 2020 levels by the end of the decade – an initiative Scott Morrison declined to join. Meanwhile, the Albanese government has extended funding for Australia’s world-leading solar energy scientists.

European leaders have granted Ukraine candidate status, in a historic decision that opens the door to EU membership for the war-torn country and deals a blow to Vladimir Putin. EU leaders meeting in Brussels approved Ukraine’s candidate status on Thursday night, nearly four months after the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, launched his country’s bid to join the bloc in the early days of the Russian invasion. Moldova was also given candidate status.

Australia

At least 31 Aboriginal families are struggling to pay for funerals for loved ones who have died since the collapse of the funeral business ACBF-Youpla, amid claims that people are collecting aluminium cans to raise money for burials.

The Albanese government has extended funding for Australia’s world-leading solar energy scientists as they race to increase panel efficiency and shift to more abundant materials, before constraints on silver and other metals hobble the industry’s growth. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency will announce on Friday it will grant $45m over the next eight years to the University of NSW-based Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics.

A group of senior Victorian ministers – including the deputy premier, James Merlino – is set to retire, forcing a major reshuffle of cabinet ahead of the November state election. Several sources have confirmed to Guardian Australia that Merlino, the health minister, Martin Foley, police minister, Lisa Neville, and minister for tourism, sport and major events, Martin Pakula are expected to announce their retirements as soon as Friday.

The deputy opposition leader, Sussan Ley, has backed Peter Dutton’s decision to oppose government legislation to cut emissions by 43% by 2030, but signalled the Coalition’s climate policy could shift before the next federal election.

Unions, human rights groups and environmental organisations say police overreached in their treatment of protesters arrested after a bungled raid on the weekend, and have urged officers to act responsibly amid plans for climate action across Sydney in coming days.

The world

Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government has appealed for more international aid as it struggles to cope with the devastating earthquake in a mountainous eastern region that has left more than 1,000 people dead and many more injured.

The industrial farming of animals such as pigs, poultry and cattle to provide meat for hundreds of millions of people may reduce the risk of pandemics and the emergence of dangerous diseases including Sars, BSE, bird flu and Covid-19 compared with less intensive farming, a major study by vets and ecologists has found.

The second 24-hour national rail strike has emptied railway stations across Great Britain as commuters opted to work from home while ministers pushed ahead with controversial plans to allow agency staff to break strikes.

Boris Johnson will have a potentially awkward meeting with the Prince of Wales in Rwanda after the heir to the throne criticised the government’s policy of sending asylum seekers to the east African state.

A tsunami could soon hit major cities on or near the Mediterranean Sea including Marseille, Alexandria and Istanbul, with a nearly 100% chance of a wave reaching more than a metre high in the next 30 years, according to Unesco.

Recommended reads

New research has found that lockdown loneliness has, for many people, lingered. Even though most restrictions have been lifted, social networks that were disrupted by the pandemic haven’t been stitched back together in the same way. People on low incomes, who had disabilities or who were carers were less likely to recover quickly post-lockdown, a study by the University of Wollongong and the University of Sydney shows.

A self-published book has been shortlisted for the Miles Franklin for the first time in the award’s 65-year history, with Michael Winkler’s cult hit Grimmish clearing the final hurdle before Australia’s most prestigious literary prize is announced on 20 July. Announced on Thursday evening, Grimmish joins Michael Mohammed Ahmad’s The Other Half of You, Michelle de Kretser’s Scary Monsters, Jennifer Down’s Bodies of Light and Alice Pung’s One Hundred Days to compete for the $60,000 prize.

For years, Tsang Tsou-choi daubed his eccentric demands around Hong Kong, and the authorities raced to cover them up. But as the city’s protest movements bloomed, his words mysteriously reappeared.

Listen

On the night Anthony Albanese was elected, he promised an end to the so-called climate wars. But a looming energy crisis has immediately hit the new Labor government. As a cold winter and the war in Ukraine put strain on the energy grid, we look at the pressures and opportunities facing the new government.

In this episode of Full Story, Gabrielle Jackson talks to Lenore Taylor and Mike Ticher about Labor’s response to the energy crisis, and the opportunity to have a more intelligent debate about climate action.

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

Sport

Animal welfare advocates in the US have filed a civil lawsuit against a California-based sportswear and equipment retailer which they alleged are selling football shoes made of kangaroo leather, despite a 50-year-old ban on the products in that state.

Media roundup

A doctors’ group is demanding “insane” restrictions on lifesaving antiviral drugs be reviewed, saying GPs are turning away patients at high risk of severe Covid-19 because of excessively narrow ­criteria for prescribing the medication, reports the Australian. Cabinet ministers have started work on spending cuts in the federal budget after identifying programs they want to scrap, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Coming up

Terence Kelly, who has pleaded guilty to abducting four-year-old Cleo Smith from her family’s West Australian campsite, will face a sentence mention hearing. The Chinese ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, will deliver an address on the state of relations between the two countries.

And if you’ve read this far …

A woman enjoying a noisy end to sex is a cliche of TV and film. But is there any truth to it?

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