Albanese in Alice Springs amid crime crisis; another California shooting; and a stone age comet returns

By Antoun Issa

The focus today is on Alice Springs, where the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has touched down amid escalating levels of crime in the town.

The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has?called?for federal action, including possibly sending the Australian federal police, to restore order, while the local mayor has?called?for assistance that might include the army.

Both suggestions were hosed down today by the Northern Territory police commissioner, who said “we’re not going to arrest our way out of that”.

Lorena Allam, Guardian Australia’s Indigenous affairs editor, has?pointed to a Morrison government decision?to allow bans on alcohol in remote communities to lapse in July last year as a possible factor, with Aboriginal organisations warning at the time it would result in a dramatic rise in harms.

You can follow the latest developments on the PM’s visit and any announcements?via our live blog.

Top news

• Another California mass shooting |?Seven people?have been killed?in an agricultural region of northern California, the latest shootings to rattle the state in recent days. Police have arrested a 67-year-old suspect in connection with the shooting.
• Penny Wong to go to France to heal rift |?The foreign affairs minister will be joined by the defence minister, Richard Marles, as the pair?aim to repair relations?with France following the Morrison government’s abrupt decision to cancel a submarine deal in 2021.

• Melbourne heroin overdose spike |?Delays to the city’s planned second safe-injecting room is?putting lives at risk, drug experts say, amid a spike in heroin overdoses in the Melbourne CBD since a return to regular trading resumed.
• Two dead in fiery Sydney crash |?Two males were?killed when a car rolled?and caught fire during a police chase in Sydney, while another man has died in a separate fiery crash on the New South Wales far north coast.

• Gender pronoun fines |?Republicans are?pushing more than 100 laws?across the US targeting LGBTQ+ rights. One bill in North Dakota sought to impose a US$1,500 fine on people affiliated with schools or institutions receiving public funding for using gender pronouns other than those assigned at birth.
• Killer cough syrups |?The WHO has?urged action after more?than 300 children – mainly aged under five – in the Gambia, Indonesia and Uzbekistan died of acute kidney injury in 2022, in deaths linked to contaminated cough syrups.

• Elephant seal?causes havoc at a Victorian beach |?A 500kg elephant seal has?reappeared on a Mornington Peninsula beach?after drawing crowds on Friday at Point Lonsdale – on the other side of Port Phillip Bay – where it came ashore and smashed windows at a service station. The seal appeared to be spooked by its reflection in the windows.
• Comet not seen since stone age returns |?An exotic green comet that has not passed Earth since the time of the Neanderthals?has reappeared in the sky?ready for its closest approach to the planet next week. Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is calculated to orbit the sun every 50,000 years, and will come closest to Earth mid-next week.

What they said …

“I’m not sure that the imagery of Australian soldiers … dealing with First Nations people in a way that sees them having to effect arrests of them and place them in police vehicles and the like is the imagery that we really want for Australia.” – NT police commissioner

Jamie Chalker, the NT police commissioner,?rejected calls?for a military-style intervention in Alice Springs.

In numbers

These latest numbers from the Productivity Commission come as the Palaszczuk government pledges new “tough laws made even tougher” on youth crime.

Before bed read

How can we debate a national holiday without knowing our own history? Much of the debate both for and against changing the date is being done from positions of ignorance,?Matthew Bach writes.

“It should be compulsory for all secondary students to complete units on Australian history from 1788 to 1914. These units should cover, among other things, Indigenous responses to colonisation, disease, the frontier wars, the establishment of western institutions and norms, official policies regarding Indigenous Australians (including the removal of Indigenous children) and the framing of the constitution.”

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