Good morning, this is Helen Sullivan bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Wednesday 5 June.

Top stories

At least four men are dead and a woman is injured after man went on a shooting spree in Darwin’s city centre. NT police have arrested the suspected shooter, believed to be member of a motorcycle gang newly released from prison and described as a Caucasian man who is about 45 years old. He was in hospital under police guard on Tuesday night. The police commissioner, Reece Kershaw, said the alleged gunman was “well known to police” and confirmed he had been released on parole in January. “We’re still trying to establish the intent and the motivation behind this,” Kershaw told reporters. He said the shooting was not related to terrorism.

Cardinal George Pell begins a legal fight today to have his conviction for child sexual abuse offences overturned. Pell, 77, was convicted in December of four charges of an indecent act on a child under the age of 16, and one charge of sexual penetration of a child under 16. In March he was sentenced to six years in jail, with a non-parole period of three years and eight months. Usually a single judge considers the appeal application. If there are grounds for appeal, the matter immediately proceeds to a hearing, more often than not beginning on the same day, and is overseen by three judges who review the key evidence.

Jeremy Corbyn has accused Donald Trump of spreading hatred and and division as he addressed tens of thousands of protesters, massed within shouting distance of Downing Street to demonstrate against the US president’s visit to London. Trump said he had refused to meet the “negative” Labour leader on the second day of his state visit, during which he has been hosted by the Queen and Theresa May, and has set out his ambitions for a “phenomenal” post-Brexit trade deal with the UK, which he said could include US access to the NHS. Back in the US, it has emerged that the Trump administration twice approved licences for the export of nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia after the murder of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

World

Facebook Twitter Pinterest More than 100,000 people have taken part in a candlelight vigil in Hong Kong. Photograph: Tyrone Siu/Reuters

More than 100,000 people have gathered in Hong Kong for a candlelight vigil to mark the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by the second largest amount in the past six decades, the seventh consecutive year in which steep increases have been recorded.

Paramilitaries who killed 35 people when they attacked pro-democracy protesters in Khartoum, Sudan, on Monday also committed multiple sexual assaults, and threatened medical workers with reprisals if they provided care to the wounded, witnesses have said.

Police in Dallas have asked the FBI for help after the latest murder of a transgender woman in the city. The death has raised questions about the possibility of a serial attacker.

The Florida police deputy who failed to confront a gunman during last year’s Parkland school shooting has been arrested on 11 charges, prosecutors have said.

Opinion and analysis

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Annika Smethurst at the 2017 Walkley awards. Photograph: Adam Hollingworth

“The police raid on Annika Smethurst shows her surveillance exposé hit a nerve,” writes Amy Remeikis. “It was dismissed as “nonsense” and “completely false”. But Smethurst’s report suggesting that the nation’s surveillance agency, the Australian Signals Directorate, was seeking to broaden its powers to spy on Australian citizens without their knowledge was immediately referred for police investigation. On Tuesday, 401 days after Smethurst published her report, AFP officers raided her home as she was preparing to go to work, with a warrant to search her home, her phone and her computer.”

The at-home genetic testing company 23andMe has teamed up with Airbnb to offer travel itineraries based on your DNA. “Based on my DNA results, for example, 23andMe suggested I try falconry in the United Arab Emirates or a traditional Irish music pub crawl,” writes Arwa Mahdawi. “Weirdly, despite the fact I’m half-Palestinian, it didn’t suggest I try a relaxing stay in one of the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank listed on Airbnb, or a traditional military checkpoint crawl.” Mahdawi argues that DNA advertising is also helping to bring outdated and unscientific ideas about “race” and genetics to the mainstream.

Sport

Roger Federer has won a Swiss scrap to book a French Open semi-final against Rafael Nadal. “Victory, though, has delivered him an even tougher assignment, the ultimate test on clay: a semi-final against the surface’s finest exponent, Nadal, in their 39th career encounter,” Kevin Mitchell writes.

State of Origin will embark on its 38th edition in Brisbane tonight. The excitement of the unknown is swirling around Suncorp Stadium in the lead-up to this year’s series opener.

Women’s World Cup

The women’s football World Cup is nearly upon us. Hosts France get things under way in Paris on Friday (Saturday morning AEST) before the Matildas open their campaign against Italy on Sunday. The Guardian will bring you unrivalled coverage, with live blogs of every match, news, analysis and opinion from a stellar team.

In the first of her weekly columns today, the former Australian international Joey Peters gives her thoughts on what to expect over the next four weeks, and what the World Cup means beyond the action on the field.

Thinking time: ‘I’m going to wear my Eid clothes and try to be happy’

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Syria’s White Helmets volunteer group carry a wounded man on a stretcher after a reported airstrike in Maaret al-Numan, Idlib. Photograph: Abdulaziz Ketaz/AFP/Getty Images

As Muslims around the world celebrate Eid, war-weary citizens in Idlib, Syria, are marking the end of Ramadan under attack from the Assad regime, which continues to bombard the province. More than 270,000 people have been displaced in recent weeks, during a ferocious aerial campaign on Syria’s last rebel stronghold by Bashar al-Assad and his Russian allies.

“Sara Akhtib loves her new Eid outfit. It was made by her mother: a flowing gold and black dress embroidered with black flowers on the hem,” writes Bethan McKernan. “The 21-year-old student was celebrating the end of Ramadan. However, instead of visiting relatives, Akhtib, her parents and three younger brothers did not leave the basement below the family home. The Syrian president’s warplanes were still in the sky and it was too dangerous to go outside. ‘We spent last night in the basement with our neighbours,’ Akhtib said over the phone from her home in Kafranbel. ‘A rocket hit a house in our neighbourhood and the fire almost spread to our house. My brothers can’t go out and play. But I’m going to wear my Eid clothes and try to be happy. I don’t have a choice.’”

Media roundup

The top story in the Australian this morning is the Reserve Bank governor, Philip Lowe, demanding that “banks pass on the full cut in the off­icial interest rate to help drive economic growth”, after ANZ and Westpac decided to cut mortgage rates by fewer basis points than the official rate. Scott Morrison has had a dig at Donald Trump, the Sydney Morning Herald reports, warning in a speech in London that world leaders should avoid becoming “nothing more than the sum of our deals”. While in the UK Morrison gave the Queen a copy of the official biography of the racehorse Winx, the ABC reports.

Coming up

Scott Morrison will attend D-day commemorations and meet other leaders to build support for the proposed G20 initiative to stop terrorists exploiting the internet and social media after the Christchurch shooting.

National accounts data out today is expected to show growth remained soft in the March quarter.

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