Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Friday 21 June.
Top stories
Independent MPs who passed legislation allowing the medical evacuation of asylum seekers are urging Jacqui Lambie to use her crucial Senate vote to keep the laws in place. The Coalition has indicated it will move to repeal the so-called medevac laws when parliament resumes next month but it will need the support of four crossbench senators to do so. One Nation’s two senators and the independent Cory Bernardi support the government’s bid to wind back the laws, while Labor, the Greens and Centre Alliance are holding firm in support of the legislation. This means Lambie is likely to have the deciding vote.
Interest rates are heading for unprecedented lows below 1% and the Reserve Bank could even be forced into extraordinary measures such as money printing or quantitative easing to stimulate the struggling economy, economists believe. The governor of the Reserve Bank Philip Lowe raised expectations that the cash rate will be cut again next month when he said yesterday that “the possibility of lower interest rates remains on the table”. It prompted many forecasters to price in a 0.25% reduction in the cash rate at the bank’s next monetary policy meeting in July or in August. The dovish comments also raised the prospect of more reductions in the borrowing rates of Australia’s million of mortgage holders, with some market watchers tipping home lending rates to fall to 3%.
Papua New Guinea’s prime minister has declared that Manus Island will become a corporate tax-free zone, prompting fears it could become a Pacific tax haven. James Marape made the announcement at an investor summit in Port Moresby on Wednesday, where he outlined his vision to boost PNG’s economic prospects. “Let me just give you an indication as where we might go: Manus will be declared as the first corporate tax-free zone in our country,” he said. “We can still collect tax from other areas.”
World
Donald Trump has stopped short of escalating the worsening standoff with Iran in the Gulf, suggesting that the shooting down of a US drone could have been carried out by a “loose and stupid” Iranian officer without authorisation from Tehran, and emphasising that the aircraft was unmanned.
Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt will battle it out to become Britain’s next prime minister after a day of drama at Westminster that saw Johnson’s team accused of conniving to knock his bitter rival Michael Gove out of the race.
Ten European cities have demanded more help from the EU in their battle against Airbnb and other holiday rental websites, which they argue are locking locals out of housing and changing the face of neighbourhoods.
Facebook usage has plummeted over the last year, according to data seen by the Guardian. Actions such as shares and likes are down nearly 20%, though user numbers still growing, the company says.
More than 20,000 Christians have signed a petition calling for the cancellation of Good Omens, the television series adapted from Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s 1990 fantasy novel – unfortunately addressing their petition to Netflix when the series is made by Amazon Prime.
Opinion and analysis
In certain corners of Instagram you might have seen a beauty trend that describes a luminous, poreless complexion – one that is so smooth as to resemble glass, writes Natalie Reilly. “If cosmetics and Instagram technology already exist to eradicate pimples, lines and freckles, then the benchmark for what is unacceptable gets moved. It might be worth remembering that the place the trend began, South Korea, has the highest rate of plastic surgeries in the world. Glass skin is not simply the erasure of ordinary faces, or the desire to look youthful. It is the final tilt towards grand objectification. For what is glass but an object?”
A new report published in Britain finds locals aren’t going out so much any more; with the findings linking a reduction in social connection to a decline in wellbeing. But isolation, loneliness and solitude are different things, writes Fay Bound Alberti. “It should be recognised that plenty of people don’t want to be sociable – especially when they are tired, broke and annoyed with the very people they are expected to see. And people won’t go out to eat when they are worried about money; they might eat alone when they are exhausted from their zero-hours contract work or living in a bedsit hundreds of miles from friends and family. But people also eat alone meditatively, savouring the calm after a hectic day.”
Sport
Australia has beaten Bangladesh by 48 runs in the World Cup, with David Warner building the platform for Australia’s victory, amassing a total that Bangladesh never looked like chasing. Australia now have five wins from six in tournament, at 381-5; Bangladesh 333-8.
The teams have been named and the battle lines drawn. State of Origin Game 2 is ready to rumble in Perth on Sunday night and, as usual, the focus has been near-completely upon the NSW Blues – and, more specifically, coach Brad Fittler’s team selection.
Thinking time: Is breast really best?
Breast milk is said to make your child healthier and smarter, leading women who are unable to breastfeed to feel immense shame. But do all the claims about its benefits add up? Emily Oster crunches the data in this long read. One of the much-touted breast is best claims is that breastfed children have higher IQs. Oster debunks this claim but supports the contention that breastfeeding does help sooth babies’ tummies in the first year, results in lower rashes for infants and is especially important for pre-term babies. Protection against obesity though? Not so.
“Many of the benefits women hear about are speculative, or do not show up in the best data. It can feel as if policy is centred around the idea that, if women just believe this is important enough, it will magically work for them. But many women don’t need the promotion, they need support. They need help figuring out how to get breastfeeding to work, they need help managing supply, they need help with cracked and bleeding nipples. When women return to work, they need help with pumping logistics and support.”
Media roundup
The Australian reports that the attorney general, Christian Porter, has flagged an overhaul of the protection of whistleblowers in the public service, after this month’s media raids. The front page of the Age splashes with an in-depth look at the heroin epicentre of Melbourne, where needles are scattered “like confetti” and housing estate tenants remain in staunch opposition to a nearby injecting room. And giant stone jars used to bury the dead in Laos are confounding Australian archeologists, the ABC reports, which says they are unsure which civilisation they were used by and how and why they were transported to their final resting places.
Coming up
Anti-Adani protesters take to the streets of Brisbane at 5pm today, while Extinction Rebellion activists will march in Melbourne this evening to declare a climate emergency.
The auditor general’s report into commonwealth national parks is due to be tabled in federal parliament at 1.30pm.
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