Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Tuesday 8 May.

Top stories



Voters rank funding for hospitals and schools, and help for job-creating industries as more important than the personal income tax cuts the government is poised to deliver as the centrepiece of Tuesday’s budget. The latest Guardian Essential poll suggests tax cuts would need to be in the order of $25 to $35 a week to make a practical difference to families at a time of stagnant wages growth. Asked to rate their budget priorities, the survey of 1,033 voters nominated increased spending for healthcare (67%), age pensions (56%), education (55%) and affordable housing (52%).

The government has also foreshadowed spending on infrastructure in the states that will determine the outcome of the next federal election, and a return to budget balance earlier than forecast, on the back of a substantial improvement in revenue collections. There will also be a substantial package for aged care, including a big spend on expanding in-home care. We will have live coverage of the budget throughout the day, with full reports and analysis when Scott Morrison begins his speech at 7.30pm AEST.

The British foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, has pleaded via television with Donald Trump not to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. Johnson is not scheduled to meet Trump on his US visit, and instead appealed via an opinion piece in the New York Times and a more direct channel: an appearance on Fox & Friends, the president’s news show of choice. The Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, has suggested Iran and European countries could maintain the pact even if the US dropped out. Speaking live on state TV, Rouhani said “getting rid of America’s mischievous presence will be fine for Iran”. Trump has said he will make a decision by Tuesday 2pm.

The former prime minister Bob Hawke has been admitted to hospital in Sydney. The reason for his admission is unknown, but the 88-year-old has been using a wheelchair for some time, as well as a walking stick. Hawke was Australia’s third-longest-serving prime minister and was in power from 1983-1991. Hawke’s wife, Blanche d’Alpuget, told the Daily Telegraph her husband was “OK”.

Linda Reynolds, the Liberal senator who has spearheaded a six-month inquiry into the mess created by section 44 of the constitution, has warned there is “no easy fix”, as the government ponders administrative solutions to the quagmire. The lack of options means that only a referendum can finally resolve the citizenship crisis, despite the Coalition’s reluctance to go down that path. The committee will soon report on options to reform what Reynolds called the “profoundly undemocratic” section, which disqualifies foreign citizens and public servants from running for office.

Rockets and heavy machine guns fired from Afghan government helicopters killed and wounded at least 107 boys and men attending a religious ceremony in Afghanistan last month, a UN report has confirmed. The report underlined the risks of a new strategy, developed with US advisers, which has led to a significant increase in Afghan airpower, with helicopters and attack aircraft deployed to try to break a stalemate with the Taliban. Last month, the Afghan government said the attack was intended to hit members of a senior leadership group based in the Pakistani city of Quetta.

Sport

The inclusion of Daniel Arzani and Fran Karačić in Bert van Marwijk’s preliminary World Cup squad betray the Socceroos’ coach’s anxieties, most pointedly over his lack of options at right-back. But the coach’s selections also offer optimism, writes Richard Parkin.

Dermott Brereton, one of the greatest AFL players of his generation, joined a chorus of disillusioned voices last week when he said he didn’t love the game any more. But despite the complaints the game is arguably in as good a state as ever, writes Craig Little.

Thinking time

Two groups of five men are onstage, seated at computer monitors. Headphones on, hunched forward, they sit almost completely immobile save for their flickering hands and darting eyes. Their coaches pace grimly behind them, watching the screens and muttering directives into their microphones. Behind them, two enormous television monitors broadcast their onscreen actions to an enraptured crowd of 18,000 people. We’re at the Intel Extreme Masters, a three-day professional video game tournament that rivals anything Sydney’s Qudos stadium has hosted in terms of scale and spectacle.

For more than a year-and-a-half, Donald Trump’s wife Melania has been a picture of absent diplomacy; but that’s about to change. Today, the first lady launched policy initiatives focused on children. For supporters, it is a welcome if overdue emergence. For critics, it is too little too late; a futile gesture by a woman who was dealt a bad hand and played it badly.

Apart from the daily racism and discrimination inflicted on brown and black women, there is another type of trauma that is becoming normalised: the trauma caused by the tactic many white women employ to muster sympathy and avoid accountability, says Ruby Hamad. “As I look back over my adult life a pattern emerges. Often, when I have attempted to speak to or confront a white woman about something she has said or done that has impacted me adversely, I am met with tearful denials and indignant accusations that I am hurting her ... I either flare up in frustration at not being heard (which only seems to prove her point) or I back down immediately, apologising and consoling the very person causing me harm.”

What’s he done now?

Donald Trump has said on Twitter he will make a decision on the Iran nuclear deal by 2pm Tuesday, Washington time (4am Wednesday AEST). Earlier in the day, Trump criticised John Kerry after reports that the former secretary of state has been promoting the Iran nuclear deal, saying on Twitter: “The United States does not need John Kerry’s possibly illegal Shadow Diplomacy on the very badly negotiated Iran Deal. He was the one that created this MESS in the first place!”

Media roundup

The Herald Sun splashes with a crackdown on serious offenders, reporting that Victoria’s most dangerous criminals could be held for seven days without charge and be housed in two new prison units designed for the state’s high-risk offenders. The Australian reports that seniors will be the biggest winners in today’s budget, with multibillion dollar aged-care and retirement packages heading their way, with the aim of keeping older Australians looked after at home. Technology designed to clean up the great Pacific garbage patch could become a piece of garbage itself, critics have told the ABC, as the machinery could trap and kill vulnerable marine life.

Coming up

The treasurer, Scott Morrison, will deliver his third federal budget with small tax cuts and a promise of substantial infrastructure spending. Follow our live coverage throughout the day and evening.

The federal court in Melbourne will hear a case brought by the consumer watchdog against Apple. The ACCC is alleging that Apple made false, misleading or deceptive representations about consumers’ rights.

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