Good morning, this is Richard Parkin bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Thursday 6 February.
Top stories
Hazard reduction burning had little to no effect in slowing severe fires that devastated more than 5m hectares across NSW this summer, research from forest scientists has found. Scott Morrison told parliament on Wednesday that hazard reduction was at least as important as reducing greenhouse gas emissions in protecting Australians from future fires, but given the size of fires prescribed burning did not “seem to have done much at all”, the lead author Patrick Baker said. Meanwhile, a group of 31 former fire and emergency bosses will write to the prime minister on Thursday arguing that any royal commission into the bushfires will be a waste of time and money if it fails to examine the role of climate change in exacerbating them.
A $165,000 Liberal party donation from a close friend of Scott Morrison who is also vying for a $1bn government contract has been slammed by Labor as “fishy”, with the party first confirming on Monday it had received the money – before the company director Scott Briggs and a Liberal spokesman both subsequently called that disclosure a mistake. A confidant of Morrison and former colleague of the immigration minister, David Coleman, Briggs heads a consortium that leads a bid to privatise Australia’s visa processing system. It’s not clear how the party came to accidentally declare the donation from a political consultancy business he founded. Labor’s Andrew Giles has called for a “full and proper explanation”.
The global death toll from the coronavirus is approaching 500, with a newborn baby diagnosed with the virus just 30 hours after birth, the youngest of 24,500 confirmed cases. In Australia, there have been 14 confirmed cases. The home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, on Wednesday suggested Australians being evacuated from Wuhan could be sent to isolated mining camps should Christmas Island reach capacity. Near Japan, thousands of people, including up to 200 Australians, face the next fortnight trapped on the luxury cruise ship the Diamond Princess after 10 passengers on board tested positive. The cruise company says two Australians are among the confirmed cases.
Australia
A landmark inquiry into potentially illegal strip searches conducted on minors by police in NSW has been cut short, after the government sacked the commissioner responsible for overseeing the investigation.
The government has called for a national expansion of the cashless welfare card despite claims by Indigenous and welfare organisations that the program is discriminatory. Luke Henrique-Gomes answers key questions about the card, while Nijole Naujokas explains how demeaning the experience can be for welfare recipients.
The former Australian cricket captain Darren Lehmann will undergo heart bypass surgery at the weekend after being admitted to hospital on the Gold Coast with chest pains. Lehmann has told fans he’s confident he’ll be back on his feet soon.
The world
The Iowa Democratic party has released an incomplete tally from Tuesday’s bungled count that has Pete Buttigieg with a leading percentage of delegates with 26.8%, ahead of Bernie Sanders (25.2%), Elizabeth Warren (18.4%) and Joe Biden (15.4%). Nearly 30% of the count remains to be confirmed.
More than half a million Syrians have fled Idlib province after weeks of aerial bombardment from Bashar al-Assad’s and Russian forces. Turkish troops have clashed with Syrian government fighters killing at least 20, amid fears of further escalations.
Benjamin Netanyahu has backtracked on an immediate annexation of large parts of the West Bank, angering settlers who were led to believe that Donald Trump’s “vision for peace” would fast-track their hopes.
Early signs of cancer can appear years – even decades – before diagnosis, extensive research based on more than 2,500 tumour samples and 38 different types of cancer has suggested.
Recommended reads
There have been more than 10,000 nominations since the first Oscars ceremony in 1929. With the 92nd Academy Awards taking place on Sunday and gender representation once again in the spotlight, Guardian’s data team have crunched the numbers.
There’s nothing so compelling as watching things go wrong – especially in the self-important world of broadcast news, writes James Colley. Like “the kind of fiasco you’d usually associate with a school theatre production”, from being bitten live on air by a pelican to fishing segments going horribly wrong, you can’t beat bloopers.
Stumped for what to listen to? Each month, Guardian Australia adds 20 of the best new Australian songs to our Spotify playlist. From Cable Ties to Alex the Astronaut, Montaigne to Missy Higgins, enjoy new Aussie music curated by Nathan Jolly.
Sport
Super League bosses have voted unanimously to allow clubs a future veto over controversial signings in a response to the French club Catalan Dragons’s signing of Israel Folau. The Catalans owner, Bernard Guasch, was absent from the meeting.
AFLW footy is back. But after a bruising off-season filled with shock retirements and ongoing dissatisfaction over the competition schedule, Kirby Fenwick writes, none of the off-field conversations are quietening down.
Media roundup
More than 50,000 people are on hospital waitlists across Victoria, a blowout of 27% in the past six months, the Herald Sun reports, with some hospitals experiencing an increase of nearly 100%. Sales of electric cars have more than tripled in Australia in 2019, with industry figures encouraging Australia to follow the UK’s lead and ban internal combustion engine vehicles by 2035, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. And heavy rain is predicted for parts of drought-ravaged NSW, the ABC says, but rainfalls could be so significant on the mid-north coast that flash flooding could occur.
Coming up
The British foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, will visit Canberra and meet officials. It is Raab’s first overseas trip since the UK left the EU.
Nicola Gobbo, the gangland barrister turned informer dubbed Lawyer X, will continue to give evidence at a royal commission into police use of informers.
And if you’ve read this far …
A couple who won £1m in the UK national lottery have decided what to spend it on: a pair of new knees. Fifty-year-old pub landlady Bev Dixon has been in constant pain, her husband, Malcolm, said. The couple initially thought they’d won £1,000, saying Bev was “absolutely over the moon” – and that was before they realised their mistake.
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