Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Friday 11 May.
Top stories
Israel and Iran have been urged to step back from the brink after their most serious direct confrontation, with Israeli missiles being fired over Syria in a “wide-scale” retaliatory attack many fear could drag the foes into deepening conflict. Hostilities erupted after Donald Trump’s announcement on Tuesday that the US was pulling out of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, a move that infuriated Tehran and raised tensions across the Middle East.
The British prime minister, Theresa May, phoned her Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, to condemn the Iranian rocket attacks, and called for “calm on all sides”. On Thursday Israel claimed it had hit nearly all key Iranian military targets in Syria during strikes launched in response to a rocket attack on its troops in the occupied Golan Heights. Both the UN and the EU have appealed for restraint.
Bill Shorten has pledged to “go further and do better” for low- and middle-income Australians, almost doubling tax relief from 2019-20 for up to 10 million workers after supporting the government’s first phase of budget tax cuts. The Labor leader used his budget reply speech to launch Labor’s campaign for the byelections triggered by this week’s high court decision in the Katy Gallagher case – outbidding the Coalition on tax relief for its heartland. Shorten also promised to scrap upfront fees for 100,000 Tafe students, create a $2.8bn “better hospitals fund” and set aside $25m for a corporate crime taskforce.
The Coalition’s plan to dramatically flatten Australia’s income tax scales by 2024-25 would provide a tax windfall to the richest households in Australia’s capital cities, while leaving regional areas with noticeably fewer gains. A study from the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling shows the biggest concentration of the largest tax cuts in NSW would go to households in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, inner harbour and north shore; and in Victoria to Melbourne suburbs such as Toorak, South Yarra, East Melbourne, Prahran and Brighton. Three other independent modellers have now come to similar conclusions.
Harvey Weinstein’s former wife Georgina Chapman has given American Vogue her first full interview since the string of sexual assault charges against the disgraced Hollywood producer. Asked if she had had suspicions about Weinstein, Chapman said: “Absolutely not. Never.” The 42-year-old fashion designer said: “I had what I thought was a very happy marriage. I loved my life … There was a part of me that was terribly naive – clearly, so naive. I have moments of rage, I have moments of confusion, I have moments of disbelief. And I have moments when I just cry for my children. What are their lives going to be? … What are people going to say to them?”
An app developed by the Swedish government to curb drinking among university students actually led them to drink more, while a globally popular fitness app made almost no difference to the weight of those who used it, a review of the effectiveness of health apps has found. Researchers from Bond University in Queensland found only 22 apps of the quarter of a million available had been studied as part of a systemic review, and only one of those was shown to have good results. The research, published in Nature, found “the overall evidence of effectiveness was of very low quality, which hinders the prescribability of those apps”.
Sport
Lewis Hamilton believes he is not in a position to fight competitively for the world championship, despite holding a four-point lead over his key rival, Sebastian Vettel. The Mercedes driver has also criticised Formula One management for failing to consider drivers’ opinions in designing new circuits.
Manchester United have secured second place in the Premier League with an uninspiring 0-0 draw at West Ham.
Thinking time
The Office star Martin Freeman has found global fame in the Hobbit and Marvel franchises – but the pressure from fans and the press to be “affable” is making him anything but, he tells Benjamin Lee. “I think I’m a pretty decent person,” he says. “I’m not horrible or unfriendly. But I’m my own person and I think sometimes people think ‘affable’ is going to mean ‘doormat’ or ‘just grateful all the time for any attention’ – and I’m not.”
On Wednesday a private member’s bill for the decriminalisation of sex work in South Australia was introduced to the state parliament. But the closure of the website backpage.com by the FBI has destroyed stable conditions for sex workers worldwide, and a proposal by the Liberal party in Victoria to adopt the Nordic model of criminalising clients has the potential to further endanger workers, says Gala Vanting, a sex worker and educator. “Criminalisation renders sex workers unable to lay claim to any of the basic labour rights afforded workers in legal industries. Make no mistake about it: this, more than any other factor affecting a sex work transaction, is the single most significant contributor to the exploitation of sex workers and their labour.”
Arwa Mahdawi researched advice given by centenarians on living a long life: some of their tips include gin, chocolate and afternoon naps. In 2015 Jessie Gallan, then Scotland’s oldest woman, said her “secret to a long life has been staying away from men. They’re just more trouble than they’re worth.” Gallan, who died that year at 109, also advised eating porridge.
What’s he done now?
Donald Trump has announced on Twitter that the five most wanted leaders of Isis have been captured by Iraqi forces. Iraq had described the capture of the Isis commanders as “some of the most wanted” leaders of the group. The list did not include its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Media roundup
The Courier-Mail reports that the LNP is in line to win the marginal seat of Longman from Labor thanks to One Nation preferences in the byelection caused by the resignation of Susan Lamb over dual citizenship. The Hobart Mercury highlights the Australian cricket captain Tim Paine’s remarks that David Warner would be welcomed back into the Test team. And a shortage of Panadeine is pushing patients on to stronger medications, such as addictive codeine painkillers, the ABC reports.
Coming up
The winners of the 2018 Archibald prize, and the Sulman and Wynne prizes, will be announced at the Art Gallery of NSW.
An inquest into opioid deaths in NSW will hold its last day of hearings. There are concerns that fentanyl is being widely misused.
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