Good morning, this is Helen Sullivan bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Monday 25 March.
Top stories
US attorney general William Barr has handed a summary of the special counsel’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election to members of Congress, revealing that Robert Mueller, the special counsel, found no “Trump campaign official or associate conspired or knowingly co-ordinated” with Russian operatives during the 2016 campaign. The report reveals that Mueller has not filed any further criminal indictments following an almost two-year-long investigation that has seen some of Donald Trump’s closest advisers criminally prosecuted and convicted. The weekend saw growing and bipartisan calls for the full document to be released to the public, after Mueller delivered his report on his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election to the Department of Justice on Friday. The special counsel was also unable to draw a conclusion “one way or the other” whether President Trump or anyone in the White House obstructed justice during the investigation.
New analysis shows 22 of Australia’s largest companies are actively working to undermine the Paris agreement targets, betting shareholders’ money on strategies that assume global climate change action fails. Investor action group Market Forces says those companies – worth a combined $121bn and representing 7% of the ASX300 – are “out of line and out of time” and has called on shareholders to divest their holdings. The list of “uninvestables” includes mainly resource and energy companies – including Whitehaven, New Hope, Woodside, Santos and Oil Search – but also diversified investment vehicles including WH Soul Pattinson and Seven Group Holdings.
Leaked video, audio and images have revealed allegations of excessive force and harassment inside Australia’s network of onshore detention centres. Last year the federal court overruled a ban on detainees having phones, which has allowed snippets of life inside the centres – long closed to media and cloaked in secrecy – to be recorded and leaked out. The secret recordings form part of a Guardian Australia investigation which has uncovered serious concerns about transparency and accountability, as well as allegations of assaults, arbitrary transfers and cover-ups. The investigation found guards had allegedly discouraged detainees from pursuing complaints; allegations of abuse and mistreatment of detainees; allegations by a former Serco employee that complaints were “covered up”; claims of “prison-like” conditions in detention centres and allegations of an increasingly militarised approach from authorities and rising tension within the centres.
Gladys Berejiklian has said she is confident the Coalition will return to government in New South Wales with a razor-thin majority as counting continues after Saturday’s state election. The premier, who is the daughter of Armenian migrants, reiterated her objection to comments by the Labor leader, Michael Daley, about young Sydneysiders leaving the city and being replaced by “Asians”, which surfaced in the final week of the campaign, suggesting her background had helped her connect with voters. The Coalition has likely secured 46 of the 47 seats it needs to form majority government, but Berejiklian said on Sunday she was not conceding any Liberal losses and believed the Coalition could finish with a majority of between one and three seats.
World
Ministers have denied plotting to oust Theresa May as the UK prime minister. May, who is trying to find a way to cling on to her job and get her deal through the Commons, is preparing to meet Brexit rebels Boris Johnson, Dominic Raab, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Steve Baker and Iain Duncan Smith at her Chequers country retreat. Meanwhile, European media covered Saturday’s mammoth anti-Brexit demonstration in London with ill-concealed relish.
Cyclone Idai’s death toll has risen above 750 in the three southern African countries hit 10 days ago by the storm, as workers try to restore electricity and water and prevent an outbreak of cholera. In Mozambique the number of dead has risen to 446, with 259 dead in Zimbabwe and at least 56 dead in Malawi.
Venezuela’s opposition is bracing for a severe political crackdown, after Nicolás Maduro lashed out at the “diabolical pro-imperialist puppets” he claimed were trying to remove him from the presidency and vowed to imprison them all.
An advertising campaign by Germany’s transport ministry to persuade cyclists to wear helmets has sparked accusations of sexism, as it features a model wearing just a helmet and underwear. With the slogan: “Looks like shit. But saves my life,” the advert features a model sporting a violet coloured helmet and a lacy bra.
Opinion and analysis
The result of the New South Wales election – while good on face value for the Liberal party – is a shocker for the National party, writes Gabrielle Chan. “A conservative assessment of the first-preference results shows devastating swings against the Nationals, especially in Dubbo, Barwon, Murray, Orange and Wagga Wagga. The senior federal Nationals minister Darren Chester blamed the drought. But there is a deeper, fundamental breakage in rural electorates which, if not repaired, threatens any politician who forgets the fundamental mission of a local representative. The message is that you can no longer take rural seats for granted.”
What happens after antibiotics? Antimicrobial resistance – the process of bacteria, yeasts, and viruses evolving defence mechanisms against the drugs we use to treat them – is progressing so quickly that the UN has called it a “global health emergency”. At least 2 million Americans contract drug-resistant infections every year. So-called “superbugs” spread rapidly, in part because some bacteria are able to borrow resistance genes from neighbouring species via a process called horizontal gene transfer. In 2013, researchers in China discovered E coli containing mcr-1, a gene resistant to colistin, a last-line antibiotic that, until recently, was considered too toxic for human use. Colistin-resistant infections have now been detected in at least 30 countries. But, writes Oliver Franklin-Wallis, there is still hope.
Sport
Adelaide and Carlton are worthy AFLW finalists – as their weekend performances showed. But it’s another missed opportunity to promote the women’s game as off-field distractions once again stole headlines, writes Kirby Fenwick.
On 17 December last year Mauricio Pochettino was one of the most admired and sought-after coaches in European football, writes Andrew Anthony. His team, Tottenham Hotspur, were third in the Premier League after playing 17 matches, having gained 39 points, six points behind Liverpool, who had set a phenomenal pace. More significantly, perhaps, Spurs were 13 points ahead of Manchester United, a team with enormously larger resources and José Mourinho for a coach. And then something happened that changed the fortunes of both teams.
Thinking time: ‘poo transplants’ changing lives
Bonnie Wortmeyer has spent the past few years plagued by ill health. While recovering from a double lung transplant, Wortmeyer was exposed to numerous courses of antibiotics, which made her susceptible to contracting the Clostridium difficile bacteria. C diff, as it’s known, is a nasty, life-threatening bacteria which makes life almost unbearable for its sufferers. For Wortmeyer C diff meant constant diarrhoea and debilitating stomach cramps. “I’m not exaggerating, I thought I was going to die,” she says.
A few years later, Wortmeyer broke her leg and was once again in hospital, with large doses of antibiotics administered. This hospital visit brought her into the path of gastroenterologist Dr Sam Costello, the founder of Australia’s first public stool bank, BiomeBank in Adelaide, in 2013, which he now runs with Dr Rob Bryant. Costello prescribed a faecal transplant for Wortmeyer, who felt the effects of the treatment within hours. “I think it was instant,” she says. “I had to wait an hour after the procedure to use my bowels and, from that moment on, I was absolutely fixed.”
Media roundup
The Liberals’ NSW win is dominating front pages this morning. The Daily Telegraph’s headline is Glad the bear tamer; The Australian’s is Gladys Triumph: PM eyes May 11, and the Australian Financial Review’s is NSW’s head prefect puts on efficient masterclass in how politics is done. The ABC reports that Michael Daley will face a leadership challenge following Labor’s “election flop”. The Sydney Morning Herald, meanwhile, reveals that a legislative loophole “meant the Mosman Swim Centre did not have to report a complaint of an ‘inappropriate hold’ nine months before a swimming teacher was arrested on multiple charges of child sex abuse.”
Coming up
Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame will open the inquest into the disappearance and suspected death of William Tyrrell.
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