Good morning, this is Helen Sullivan bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Monday 29 October.
Top stories
The 11 people killed in a shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue have been named. Among the victims, the youngest of whom was 54, the oldest 97, are two brothers and a husband and wife, who died on what the city’s mayor, Bill Peduto, called the “darkest day of Pittsburgh’s history”. Peduto rejected calls from Donald Trump to use armed guards in houses of worship, to combat mass shooters. “We’re dealing with irrational behaviour,” he said. “There is no way you can rationalise a person walking into a synagogue during services and taking the lives of 11 people. The approach we need to be looking at is how we take the guns – which is the common denominator of every mass shooting in America – out of the hands of those that are looking to express hatred through murder.”
Among the victims were Melvin Wax, Jerry Rabinowitz and Joyce Fienberg. They were remembered by loved ones on Sunday night. “He was such a kind, kind person,” said Myron Snider, chairman of the New Light congregation’s cemetery committee about Wax. “He and I used to, at the end of services, try to tell a joke or two to each other. Most of the time they were clean jokes. Most of the time.” Rabinowitz, a physician, was described as “truly a trusted confidant and healer.” Joyce Fienberg was an intellectual powerhouse, who, among other things, studied the practices of highly effective teachers. Dr Gaea Leinhardt, Fienberg’s research partner for decades, said she was devastated by the murder of her colleague and friend.
The Sri Lankan minister Arjuna Ranatunga’s bodyguards have opened fire on protesters. One person has died and two were injured after the bodyguards of fired on a crowd amid a deepening constitutional crisis in the island nation. Ranatunga, the petroleum minister and a former Sri Lankan cricket captain, was trying to enter a government agency in the capital, Colombo, about 3pm on Sunday when he was confronted by supporters of the president, Maithripala Sirisena. Amid jostling, Ranatunga’s bodyguards began shooting, injuring three people, two of them critically, according to a police spokesman, Ruwan Gunasekera. One of the injured died later in hospital.
Jobs are front of mind for voters in the lead-up to the Victorian election. Gay Alcorn checks in on the electorate of Morwell in the Latrobe Valley and finds that while the 2014 closure of the Hazelwood power station wasn’t quite the unemployment disaster that was feared, coal politics are still at the forefront. The interactive is the first in a Guardian Australia series looking at what voters are really saying in key seats that could tip the Andrews government into minority, or put the Coalition in power. Alcorn will return to Morwell as the campaign progresses towards the 24 November vote to take the seat’s pulse again.
A third of Australia’s foreign workers are paid half the minimum wage. The most comprehensive study conducted to date on wage theft and working conditions among international students, backpackers and other temporary migrants in Australia has found almost a third earned half the minimum wage or less. The survey also found large-scale wage theft was worst in fruit and vegetable-picking and farm work. The findings show that for every 100 underpaid migrant workers, only three went to the fair work ombudsman. Of those, more than half recovered nothing. “Our study confirms that Australia has a large, silent underclass of underpaid migrant workers,” said one of the researchers, Bassina Farbenblum. “The scale of unclaimed wages is likely well over a billion dollars.”
Leicester City’s owner, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, is understood to have been on board a helicopter that crashed outside a stadium in Leicester on Saturday night. The helicopter, carrying at least five people, was seen spiralling down to earth shortly after leaving the ground. It is understood that there are no survivors. Hundreds of supporters – from various teams – have arrived at the stadium to lay bouquets of flowers, shirts and scarves to pay respect to the Thai billionaire, who has become a hugely popular figure at the club. He will be remembered as the man who brought an improbable and historic Premier League title to Leicester in 2016, defying odds of 5,000-1.
Sport
Saturday’s A-league football pitted evolution against revolution, writes Jonathan Howcroft. The Sydney derby was a contrast in styles as one club’s commitment to long-term planning triumphed.
The Wallabies are stretching their fans’ faith to the limit. Their 37-20 loss to the All Blacks in Yokohama makes any successful World Cup campaign look unlikely. Fans need proof if they’re to heed Michael Cheika’s calls for belief in the team.
Thinking time
As Brazilians cast their votes, Jair Bolsonaro appears on the brink of victory. Cristina Gozdal headed to the polls on Sunday morning wearing the yellow and green colours of Brazil’s national flag and hoping her country was about to elect its very own Donald Trump. “He thinks like the people think,” she said of the far-right candidate. Around her, other voters chimed in with their support of the man who stands on the verge of leading the world’s fourth-largest democracy despite – or perhaps because of – his venom-filled tongue and oft-voiced nostalgia for dictatorship. On the eve of the election, polls gave Bolsonaro an 8% to 10% advantage over his leftist rival, Fernando Haddad.
When Linda Jackson was young, she wanted to be “everything”. The artist and designer who helped establish a distinctly Australian fashion aesthetic speaks to Alexandra Spring about her “greatest achievement”: Rainbow Menagerie, her picture book filled with her trademark designs inspired by native Australian animals, published this month. Jackson is known for her colourful prints created with Jenny Kee in the 70s and her Bush Couture label in the 80s.
Farewell, false love, the oracle of lies. What became of Sir Walter Raleigh’s severed head? On the eve of the 400th anniversary of his execution for treason, a discovery at a medieval manor in Surrey may help solve the mystery. A red silk velvet bag found in the attic of West Horsley Place, the former home of Raleigh’s son, could have been used by Raleigh’s widow to carry around his embalmed head.
Media roundup
Scott Morrison’s approval rating has slipped into the negative, according to a Newspoll conducted for the Australian, with 44% of voters dissatisfied with the prime minister’s performance. Meanwhile, trust in banks has fallen to a new low, too, the Australian Financial Review writes, with just one in five Australians believing banks act ethically. A landmark $1.1m settlement between a student who was sexually assaulted and one of the country’s most elite private schools could unleash a wave of court action against institutions that have made modest payments to victims of abuse, including the Catholic church, the Age reports.
Coming up
Cricket Australia is due to release the results of its independent cultural review, which was called after the South Africa tour ball-tampering scandal.
Bill Shorten will address the Lowy Institute in Sydney this afternoon, delivering a speech on Australia’s foreign policy.
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