Good morning, this is Richard Parkin bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Tuesday 7 August.
Top stories
Melting ice, warming seas and dying forests could tilt the Earth in a “hothouse” state, rendering human efforts to reduce emissions almost futile, a group of leading climate scientists has warned. They investigated the combined consequences of 10 climate change processes, including the release of methane trapped in Siberian permafrost and the impact of melting ice in Greenland on the Antarctic.
They warn that the hothouse trajectory “would almost certainly flood deltaic environments, increase the risk of damage from coastal storms, and eliminate coral reefs” by the end of this century. “I do hope we are wrong, but as scientists we have a responsibility to explore whether this is real,” said Johan Rockström, executive director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre. “We need to know now.”
A lack of earthmoving equipment has hampered rescue attempts on the Indonesian island of Lombok, with some rescuers resorting to digging by hand in the search for survivors following Sunday’s earthquake, which has killed at least 98 people. Collapsed bridges, debris-blocked roads and electricity and communications blackouts are also hindering efforts, with about 20,000 people seeking temporary shelter. Rescue workers described the situation as “catastrophic” and said they were working against the clock to reach people in need.
Greens leader Richard Di Natale has called for greater transparency surrounding a Labor business function, at which attendees pay $10,000 to mingle with Bill Shorten and members of the shadow cabinet. The two-day event starts in Sydney today, and Di Natale argues that in the absence of national donation laws, voters deserve to know who is gaining such access. “It’s not good enough for Labor to promise voters they’ll prioritise essential services over big corporations and then have cosy, closed summits with business leaders to shape their election platform,” he said.
Dramatic cuts to foreign aid budgets and a decreased emphasis on climate change under Tony Abbott’s government have left Australia “playing catchup”, a report into the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has found. Reductions to the aid budget of $11bn reduced Australia’s contribution to its lowest levels in 40 years, while in the approach to the Paris agreement climate talks in 2015 “Australia did not provide dedicated additional climate financing”, the report concluded, “with climate action subsumed into general aid programming”.
Facebook, Apple, YouTube and Spotify have banned the American conspiracy theorist Alex Jones following Apple’s decision to remove five podcasts by Jones and his Infowars website. Facebook unpublished four pages run by Jones for “repeated violations of community standards”, the company said on Monday. YouTube terminated Jones’s account over him repeatedly appearing in videos despite being subject to a 90-day ban from the website, and Spotify removed one of Jones’s podcasts for “hate content”. Jones is best known for spreading conspiracy theories around events such as the 9/11 attacks and Sandy Hook school shooting, but none of the violations that prompted Monday’s removals from the tech platforms were related to those.
Sport
The history of women’s sport is littered with stories of protest, such as Billie Jean King and other rebels who fought for gender equality in tennis. And after news the AFLW season could be cut to just six rounds, Kate O’Halloran asks whether it’s time to break ties with the men’s game.
Think of footy in the Northern Territory and names such as Michael Long, Cyril Rioli or Ben Barba leap to mind. But tonight it will be soccer taking centre stage as Darwin’s Hellenic Athletic, led by 48-year-old Helio Carvalho, take on Western Sydney Wanderers in the FFA Cup, writes John Davidson.
Thinking time
“Bathurst is full of ghosts,” says Wiradyuri elder Dinawan Dyirribang, a direct descendant of famed warrior Windradyne. “Aboriginal spirits and settler ghosts are all over the place around here. That’s because so many bad things happened about Bathurst in colonial times.” Almost two centuries after the “Bathurst war”, Paul Daley visits the New South Wales city as the battle revs up between Indigenous elders and local authorities over plans to expand the Mount Panorama racetrack – known for thousands of years as Wahluu – complete with a go-kart track on what the elders insist is a sacred site.
“We are a same-sex couple and we have a beautiful three-year-old daughter Scout.” In the second of our Men at Work series on paternity leave, meet Richard Hedger, a father who lives in Sydney with his partner and daughter. “Apparently, there is a social shift to male primary carers but I am sure it has been happening for years. There are many variations of the family unit regardless of gender. Of course family life is not without its challenges but that’s what life is all about. As a same-sex couple we are met with exactly the same surprises and learning curves as any family unit.”
For 10 wretched months between 1860 and 1861, the Burrangong goldfields – near Young in NSW – were consumed by riots. Chinese miners were attacked by white miners and martial law was proclaimed. In the wake of the Lambing Flat riots, as they came to be known, new laws were passed that paved the way for the White Australia policy decades later. A bold new exhibition in Sydney offers a different perspective on the Burrangong Affray. “In broader Australian history, there’s little known about the riots and it has been avoided, because it’s difficult,” says researcher Karen Schamberger. “I think there’s a lot of shame around it, to be honest. And that shame has been there since the beginning. But if you look at it from the Chinese-Australian perspective, it’s definitely in the popular memory.”
What’s he done now?
Donald Trump has weighed in again on the California wildfires, calling on governor Jerry Brown to “allow the Free Flow of the vast amounts of water coming from the North and foolishly being diverted into the Pacific Ocean”. A California Republican strategist described Trump’s baffling suggestion as “nuts’’ and “low water IQ”.
Media roundup
Under-pressure federal Labor MP Emma Husar has provided a detailed defence to allegations of sexual harassment and bullying claims, accusing political opponents of leaking to undermine her, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. The Australian focuses on the banking royal commission, where super fund trustees have been accused of fee gouging and being “surrounded by temptation”. NAB has already refunded $35m to more than 220,000 people charged unwarranted fees. And the West Australian details a war of words between the West Coast Eagles and Fremantle football clubs following Andrew Gaff’s off-the-ball punch that broke the jaw of Dockers defender Andrew Brayshaw.
Coming up
Former high court justice Michael Kirby is giving a public lecture on gay rights and the Catholic church at the University of Queensland in Brisbane tonight.
Australia’s population is estimated to officially reach 25 million at 11pm.
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