Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Thursday 25 April.
Top stories
Turkish authorities have arrested a suspected Islamic State member they believe was planning to attack an Anzac commemoration at Gallipoli, attended by hundreds of Australians and New Zealanders. Turkish police allege the suspect was planning the attack as retaliation for the mass shooting in March at Christchurch mosques. The Syrian national was arrested after a police operation in Osmaniye and was among several Isis members detained. Police assessed the threat to be serious but gave no details about the nature of the proposed attack. Two sim cards are central to the case against him.
Nauru’s government has branded claims by its former president that the country’s offshore detention deal with Australia led to corruption and greed “pure fiction”. Sprent Dabwido, who was president of Nauru from 2011 to 2013 told Ten’s The Project that he regretted signing a deal with Australia’s then prime minister Julia Gillard to restart offshore processing. “In doing that we have turned our country upside down,” he said last week. The Nauruan government has hit back, claiming Sabwido mismanaged finances and is a known “leftwing activist”: “It is a great shame he has chosen to leave a legacy of dissension and dishonesty about our country and we are obliged, on behalf of the people of Nauru, to correct the record.”
New questions have arisen over the calculations of the volume of water bought by the federal government for $80m from Eastern Australia Agriculture, as the department of agriculture used data which ended in 1995 and failed to take account of climate change. Documents produced to the Senate and obtained by Guardian Australia show the department relied heavily on figures produced by the company, and which used a long-term average based on historical data from 1922 to 1995. The company figures were produced by a consultant employed by EAA, Tony Reid, a former director of the company who also happens to be a long-term business partner of the energy minister, Angus Taylor. Reid has told the Guardian he undertook this work for EAA on his own behalf and not through the consultancy he owns with Taylor.
Clive Palmer and the Liberals are preparing to pair up – just forget those Nazi references. In the past Scott Morrison has referred to Palmer as a circus sideshow, and Palmer called the PM Himmler, but it’s all water under the bridge now, with the PM questioned extensively on Wednesday about how the Liberals and Nationals could seal a preference deal with Palmer’s United Australia party, despite the treatment of workers at Queensland Nickel. Although Palmer has now promised to pay workers $7m in outstanding entitlements, the commonwealth had to step in to pay $74m through the unpaid wages safety net when the company went into liquidation. Morrison brushed off any suggestion that past bad blood between the Coalition and Palmer should prevent a deal: “Look, I’m not going to be held back by that, nor am I here to offer any defences of Mr Palmer,” he said.
World
Sri Lankan authorities were told by foreign security agencies more than four months ago that a network of violent Islamist extremists was active in the country and likely to commit terrorist attacks, the Guardian can reveal. The news that officials may have known last year about the threat will fuel outrage at what appear to be multiple and systematic intelligence failings.
Donald Trump has repeated unproven and unverified accusations that British intelligence agencies spied on his election campaign, just a day after the UK confirmed he had been invited to London on a state visit to meet the Queen. The tweet prompted GCHQ to reiterate that the US president’s claims were “utterly ridiculous”.
Mourners at the funeral of the murdered journalist Lyra McKee have implored politicians to make her murder a turning point for Northern Ireland. “Why in God’s name does it take the death of a 29-year-old woman with her whole life in front of her to get us to this point?” said Fr Martin Magill, addressing a congregation who included a rare gathering of all Northern Ireland’s main political players.
Theresa May has survived an attempt to change Tory party rules to make it possible to oust her within weeks, but backbench MPs have demanded a “roadmap” for her departure in a fresh blow to her authority.
Nicola Sturgeon is to introduce legislation to stage a second Scottish independence referendum, claiming one must be held by May 2021 if Brexit goes ahead. The first minister said Brexit would have such a catastrophic impact on Scotland’s economy and Westminster’s approach to it had been so chaotic that Scottish voters must have the option to choose independence.
Opinion and analysis
Saved from homelessness at the last minute, Susan Mathewson says she is luckier than many older Australians living in poverty. A report for the Melbourne Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation found that between 2012 and 2017 the number of older women couch surfing increased by 83% and there was a 75% increase in older women sleeping in their cars and presenting at homelessness services. “I fell into a heap, and I couldn’t get back up again,” Mathewson says. “Now I can’t get a job for love or money. I don’t fit into the normal departments or categories of things, I am unmarried, no family, no super, no existing career path now because where do you go?”
The latest inflation growth figures show that both major political parties and the Reserve Bank have got their settings massively wrong. We need to start facing up to the fact that the economy is in trouble, writes Greg Jericho. “There is no demand in the economy pushing up prices, and right now the fiscal policy argument being played out across the election campaign is pretending everything is sweet and dandy. It is not.”
Sport
After her ‘best year yet’ in 2018, the Australian cyclist Amanda Spratt is eyeing off Giro Rosa success and the Olympics. Kieran Pender speaks to the world championships silver medallist on her journey from Penrith to the Ardennes. “I had been working so hard for so many years – it was nice to have everything just come together,” she says. “You never get bored of winning.”
Sir Mo Farah has launched an astonishing attack on the distance great Haile Gebrselassie, for ignoring his pleas after he had £2,500 in cash, an irreplaceable watch and two mobile phones stolen at the Ethiopian legend’s hotel last month. Farah said he had always thought highly of Gebrselassie but the robbery soured their relationship.
Thinking time: The day the clock stopped in Vietnam
For some of the Australian soldiers fighting in Vietnam, 21 July 1969 was the worst day of their lives. It was also the inspiration for Redgum’s classic I Was Only 19. Bill Wilcox’s watch stopped dead at 2.20pm on the fateful day and never restarted. A field engineer in 1 Squadron in the Royal Australian Air Force, he had been up in the Long Hai hills in south-eastern Vietnam for about 10 days. He and his mates were due for a break but instead they were subjected to one of the bloodiest days of battle for Australians during the war. A day none of the soldiers have ever forgotten.
In 1983, after the song’s release, Wilcox was driving trucks. He was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and had been unable to settle into regular work. It was on long-haul shifts that he heard I Was Only 19 on the radio. It took a while for the penny to drop. “It never hit me until it was pointed out to me that it was about our set-up. It might have been weeks before I even realised. It’s still a very moving thing when I hear it.”
Media roundup
Survivors of the Bali bombings are outraged at plans by local developers to build a five-storey restaurant and bar at the sight of the tragedy, the ABC reports. Dozens of Australians died in the 2002 attack. The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, is pushing ahead with an inquiry into drug use to examine pill testing, the Australian reports, despite previously voicing her opposition to the practice being introduced at music festivals. And the Sydney Morning Herald reports on a World Health Organisation study which has found that children under the age of one shouldn’t be exposed to electronic devices at all, while children aged two to four shouldn’t watch screens for more than an hour a day.
Coming up
Anzac Day dawn services and marches are being held across Australia to commemorate the 104th anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli.
The federal election campaign has agreed to a day off campaigning. The Morrison bus is leaving the NT and expected to head to Townsville, while the Shorten camp is set to travel to Darwin.
