Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Thursday 14 March.
Top stories
British MPs have inflicted a fresh defeat on Theresa May, rejecting the idea of Britain leaving the EU without a deal and clearing the way for Brexit to be delayed. MPs voted initially by 312 to 308 to rule out a no-deal exit, then by 321 to 278 – a majority of 43 – in a second vote as parliament descended into chaos and confusion. Follow our live blog for more developments and analysis of what it all means.
One Nation’s campaign for the New South Wales election is being predominantly funded by loans from its Queensland branch, raising questions about the party’s compliance with the stricter NSW campaign finance laws. The two states have different rules about who can contribute towards election campaigns. In NSW, contributions from property developers, liquor, tobacco and gambling industry business entities and their associates are all banned. One Nation in Queensland has received at least $17,000 in donations from the liquor and gambling industry since 2017, including a $10,000 donation from the Australian Hotels Association last month. The donations are legal in Queensland. The party maintains it is compliant with all NSW regulations.
A Sydney woman who says she was admitted to hospital several times during her pregnancy remains locked in a battle to be exempted from the government’s ParentsNext program. Lucy Timu, who gave birth last month, first learned she had been placed on the compulsory pre-employment scheme when her payments were suspended in October. She was five months’ pregnant at the time. People with children under six months are supposed to be exempt and many are exempted during pregnancy, but as Timu has found out, the process to be spared from the program’s “mutual obligations” is not always easy.
World
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been sentenced to an additional three and a half years in prison on conspiracy charges, on top of the roughly four-year term he received last week for bank and tax fraud. He was immediately charged with a further 16 felonies.
Ten people have been killed in a school shooting near São Paulo, including six high school students and the two killers, who turned their guns on themselves when police arrived.
Donald Trump has grounded Boeing’s 737 Max fleet, days after the second fatal crash involving the plane in five months. The US had stood virtually alone in allowing the plane to keep flying.
Up to 3,000 children born into Islamic State families are being housed in camps inside north-eastern Syria, Unicef estimates, with many younger than six years old and living in “extremely dire conditions”. The figure is sharply higher than earlier assessments.
A one-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict is gaining ground, with belief in the two-state solution crumbling among young Palestinians as up to 600,000 Israeli settlers remain on occupied land.
Opinion and analysis
A year ago, when Adam Morton looked at Australia’s environmental protections at the start of the Our Wide Brown Land series, many observers said they were failing. So when Labor announced it would bring in a new environment act and a national environment protection authority if elected, it felt like a significant breakthrough. But since then policy detail has been sparse. As Lyndon Schneiders, the national director of the Wilderness Society, said: “A speech is not a policy.” The series is coming to an end, but our commitment to strong environmental reporting remains. Readers can now support our new series The Frontline: Australia and the climate emergency.
Hugh Hunter is 15 and lives on a farm in Gunnedah in regional NSW. On Friday he is joining students around the world to strike from school and call for political action on climate change: “As school students, we can’t vote yet. But it’s us who will have to clean up the mess that our politicians are leaving behind. This is not fair, and that is why we are striking. The scientists tell us we have just over a decade to turn the climate crisis around. I will not even be 30 by then. My whole life will be ahead of me, as will the lives of today’s almost 2 billion children.”
Sport
Usman Khawaja struck his second century in three matches as Australia beat India by 35 runs in their final one-day international, to seal a comeback 3-2 series victory in Delhi. Bowler Adam Zampa led the way in denying the hosts on their home turf.
The uncertain role and influence of agents is an under-scrutinised aspect of football in Australia, especially in the salary-capped A-League where almost two-thirds of players every season jostle for new deals. Richard Parkin delves into the world of agents, brokers and intermediaries.
Thinking time: Is this the age of the four-day week?
As dozens of firms are trying out shorter working hours – and finding it’s good for workers, customers and the bottom line – has the time finally come to cull a working day in the pursuit of work/life balance? The five-day week has been a staple of western culture since Henry Ford adopted it in 1926, but now a growing number of employers are giving their workers an extra day off for the same pay as a five-day week. There is emerging evidence that it can boost productivity for bosses and happiness for workers, and with each company that follows suit, talk of family lives reinvigorated and stress levels plunging abounds. But sceptics warn workers not to get their hopes up, with many convinced the gig economy, the pervasive reach of digital technology and the rising cost of living makes a four-day week out of reach for most.
“The economic fundamentals are going against the grain of the politics of hours reductions,” said Torsten Bell, director of the Resolution Foundation thinktank. “Our object should be to get them on track.” But for workers who are given the option, there is now no going back. “I am more focused and driven because I appreciate the extra time off,” says Jon Freeman whose employer has adopted the arrangement. “I used to really watch the clock at the weekend because I never felt like I had long enough off, but now when I come back on Monday I really attack it.”
Media roundup
Most papers splash with Cardinal George Pell’s sentencing. “You may not live to be released” at the Canberra Times. “You might die in jail” at the Sydney Morning Herald. And “Sinner, day of justice” at the Herald Sun. The rental crisis is worsening in Tasmania, the Mercury reports, with Hobart’s vacant rental rate at just 1.5%, the second worst in the country. The ABC analyses the royal commission into disability, saying it is important to pay attention, even if you may have “royal commission fatigue”.
Coming up
Organisations representing more than 2 million Australians will rally at Sydney Town Hall tonight to demand urgent action to alleviate housing and energy costs.
The NRL season kicks off tonight as the Melbourne Storm take on the Brisbane Broncos.
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