TRANSCRIPT
The Republican Party is acclaiming J-D Vance as the ideal man to serve Donald Trump’s agenda as U-S vice-president.
Delegates at the party’s national convention have formally endorsed Mr Vance- Mr Trump’s pick to be his running mate.
Mr Vance is a 39-year-old Senator from the key mid-western state of Ohio.
He was previously a harsh critic of Mr Trump, but has become one of his biggest supporters in recent years.
Addressing delegates, Bernie Moreno, a Republican Senate candidate, also from Ohio, says Mr Vance has experienced many of the problems of ordinary Americans.
"To JD Vance, America First is not just a slogan. He knows what it's like to live in poverty, forgotten by Washington politicians. He is dedicated to ensuring that no American is ever forgotten again.”
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U-S president Joe Biden denies he’s engaged in rhetoric that would inspire political violence.
Mr Biden yesterday called for the intensity and anger in U-S politics to be toned down after the assassination attempt on his opponent, Donald Trump, over the weekend.
But he says the comments he has previously made about Mr Trump have not been too harsh, and only based on Mr Trump’s own behaviour.
"How do you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real, when a president says things like he says. Do you just not say anything because it may incite somebody? Look, I have not engaged in that rhetoric."
However, Mr Biden says he regrets comments from a few days before the assassination attempt, when he told donors to his Democratic Party that it was time to put Mr Trump in a bullseye.
The U-S Department of Homeland Security says it will begin an investigation into the assassination attempt in the coming days.
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A new opinion poll shows the cost of living crisis is costing the federal Labor Party.
The latest Resolve poll, which tracks 1600 voters, shows the government's primary vote at 28 percent, while the coalition rose from 36 to 38 percent.
More than half of the households surveyed said cost of living was the biggest issue, ahead of housing and rental affordability, and crime.
Voters were split on how they felt about personal finances, with 30 per cent saying they were earning less than they were spending, 38 per cent earning the same as they were spending and 27 per cent saying they were earning more than they were spending.
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Australia's big four banks are being accused of failing to meet climate targets, after a report found they lent $3.6 billion to fossil fuel projects last year.
The Banking Climate Failure report says Commonwealth Bank, ANZ, NAB and Westpac have loaned a total of $61 billion to fossil fuel projects since the Paris climate agreement.
While the big four did not directly finance any new or expanded coal or gas projects in 2023, the report still found them to be in "complete violation" of the accord.
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The federal government is committing 45 million dollars to have more armoured four wheel drives to be built in Bendigo for the Army.
The money will be given to French multinational company Thales [[tallis]], to build an additional 15 Bushmaster vehicles.
Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy says the project is not just supporting jobs in the local economy, but assisting a necessary transformation of the Australian Defence Force.
He says, to address future threats, the Army needs to be able to hit long-range targets from land.
"Bushmasters save lives. We've seen them save Australian soldiers' lives in the Afghanistan deployment. These are critical to us standing up our new regiment of long-range fires that will deploy High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems as part of the transformation of the Australian Army to one equipped for long-range strike."
Since coming to office, the present federal government has invested more than 200 million dollars to make Bushmasters in Bendigo.
The government says it is part of its broader Future Made In Australia policy.
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In rugby league, New South Wales State of Origin captain Jake Trbojevic [[tr-boya-vitch]] says his team isn't concerned about their poor record in Brisbane in series-deciding State of Origin matches.
The series is tied at one match all heading into tomorrow night's third and final game between New South Wales and Queensland in Brisbane.
There have been 13 previous series-deciding third games in Brisbane; New South Wales has only won two of them, and Queensland has won the last six in a row.
But Trbojevic says his team is not daunted by history, but, rather, excited by the challenge.
He says they are focused on getting even better than they were in their victory in game two, which forced this series-deciding game, after they lost the first game of the series.
"I'm just looking at it as a great opportunity for us. Everyone's talked about the history- we haven't really worried about that too much. Game one went the way it did, and then we really improved game two, and we're looking to just keep building, keep building on that, keep improving, which has been a real big theme for us this week. And, yeah mate, it's really exciting for us. It's going to be a great test, but we'll be up for it, yeah."
