Morning mail: Penny Wong deployed in Liberal seats, US refocus on gun access, sewing storytellers

Good morning. It’s crunch time for politicians on the home stretch of campaigning to sway undecided voters. And the US is reeling from a weekend of gun violence, with a refocus on the rhetoric pushing extremism and access to deadly weapons.

The Labor frontbencher Penny Wong is being deployed to campaign in Liberal-held seats where voters are dissatisfied with Scott Morrison and there is a lack of teal independent to back. Strategists say Labor’s internal polling points to opportunity in four Liberal-held seats – Brisbane and Ryan in Queensland, Bennelong in Sydney and Higgins in Victoria. A new poll has predicted the independent Allegra Spender is on track to take the seat of Wentworth in Sydney’s east from the Liberal MP, Dave Sharma, based on preference flows. And in the seat of Groom, which has been held by conservatives since federation, Labor and independent candidates are shaking up the race.

The massacre by a white supremacist gunman of Black shoppers at a Buffalo grocery store in the US and a spate of gun violence at the weekend has refocused attention on the toxic interplay of political ideology and easy access to handguns and battlefield weapons. The Buffalo shooting, in which 10 people were murdered, has drawn renewed scrutiny of Republican figures who have embraced the racist “great replacement theory” he is alleged to have used as justification for the murders. The extremist ideology expounds on the view that immigration will ultimately destroy white values and western civilisation.

After Sweden and Finland yesterday confirmed plans to join Nato, Sweden is seeking to quell Turkish opposition by sending diplomats to the country. The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has said he will not approve Finland and Sweden joining the alliance and that delegations should not bother coming to Turkey to try convince him otherwise. Meanwhile, 20 civilians, including a child, were killed in Russian shelling in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Australia In response to the far-right terror attack in Christchurch in 2019, the Australian government established a taskforce to counter violent extremism online, but it was quietly disbanded in 2021. Photograph: Jorge Silva/Reuters

Australia has quietly shut down a taskforce set up to counter violent extremism online after the Christchurch terror attack. The white 18-year-old charged with the murders of 10 people at a convenience store in Buffalo cited the manifesto of the Christchurch shooter in his own manifesto.

Uber drivers have warned that there will be a mass industry exodus if base rates don’t increase to sustainable levels. The rising cost-of-living pressure and fees and charges are making rideshare services unprofitable for drivers.

Mount Isa has been named the most polluted postcode in Australia, according to the Australian Conservation Foundation. Mount Isa Mines is responsible for 91% of the city’s emissions, despite having an “industry-leading air quality management framework”.

The home affairs minister, Karen Andrews, has sought to block federal funding for a Gold Coast light rail expansion that would run directly past an investment property she co-owns with her husband.

The world Élisabeth Borne comes from a centre-left background, which is crucial for Emmanuel Macron’s parliamentary election campaign. Photograph: Christian Hartmann/Reuters

Élisabeth Borne has been appointed France’s prime minister – the first woman to hold the post in more than 30 years and only the second female prime minister in modern French history.

Boris Johnson has said a legal move to ditch parts of the Northern Ireland protocol is only an “insurance” policy as it emerged that the legislation has been delayed for some weeks.

The financial crisis engulfing Sri Lanka will get worse and “the next couple of months will be the most difficult ones of our lives”, the country’s new prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, has warned.

“Apocalyptic” food prices caused by Russia’s invasion could have a disastrous impact on the world’s poor, says the Bank of England governor, who has blamed the war in Ukraine for the highest inflation in the UK for three decades

Recommended reads Nobody is doing much kissing of babies at the moment, but general perception of a candidate’s trustworthiness or competence remains important. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

When it comes to getting more votes, political alignment and marketing razzle-dazzle are key. Let’s say that every person has some innate political preference – left, right or somewhere in between. The argument was that people vote for the party who is the closest to their position. Over time, Australians have become more likely to identify strongly with one side or the other. Yet it is still true that we are most likely to be centrists, and sit on the fence – at least in our own reckoning. So, what wins more votes: making speeches, kissing babies or digging holes?

Ask a visible mender to explain why they love to repair clothes using patches or colourful darning and the response will usually include storytelling. Most menders pride themselves on adding to the history of a garment: a cleverly patched hole is evidence of something saved from landfill. They’ll also insist it shouldn’t be perfect. The charm of the visible mend lies in the character of its flaws, so the important thing is to have a go. Here’s some advice from expert visible menders on how to get started.

“When I lost a parent to suicide, there was a week or two of numbness,” writes Isobel Beech. “I suppose it was shock. And then I began pretending everything was fine. I began writing my book, Sunbathing, in the winter of 2019 while attending a writing residency in Italy … I wrote late into the night. I wrote about fear and grief and what being left behind feels like. I wrote about relationships and regrets and what we’re supposed to do with the knowledge that people can exit this earth willingly, and it will sometimes feel like your fault. In writing, I found that there was a whole room of things I needed to say.”

Listen

This week more than 1.2 million people are voting for the first time – a cohort made up of young people and new citizens. But a Plan International report has found three-quarters of young women voting for the first time don’t feel politics is an equal space for women and people of colour. In today’s Full Story, Laura Murphy-Oates speaks to two women voting for the first time about the significance of casting their vote, and reporter Matilda Boseley breaks down what first-time voters need to know.

Full Story Is Australia listening to first-time voters?

Sorry your browser does not support audio – but you can download here and listen https://audio.guim.co.uk/2020/05/05-61553-gnl.fw.200505.jf.ch7DW.mp3

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

Sport

Andrew Symonds, who has died aged 46 in a single-car accident in north Queensland, has been remembered as a great all-rounder, having played 26 Tests and 198 one-day internationals for Australia when they were the best team in the world at both.

The Blackpool forward Jake Daniels has become the first male football player in the UK to come our as gay since 1990. Daniels only made his senior debut for the club this month but the 17-year-old says he is ready to act as a role model for others in the game after deciding “the time is right to be myself, be free and be confident” in his identity.

Media roundup

Melbourne’s CBD will have five floating wetlands created as part of a $40m plan to return the Yarra River to a more natural state, reports the Age. A family is demanding answers after their 80-year-old grandmother died from a suspected heart attack after waiting more than two hours for an ambulance, reports WA Today.

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