Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Friday 1 March – welcome to autumn.
Top stories
Scott Morrison will continue his efforts to reboot the Coalition’s energy policy today, by launching public consultations on a national hydrogen strategy. His government will engage the chief scientist Alan Finkel to develop a roadmap with the cooperation of Canberra and the states as part of its policy reset that has seen the prime minister travel to the Snowy Hydro scheme and resurrect Tony Abbott’s “Direct Action” emissions plan. It follows Labor’s commitment to spend $1bn on developing clean hydrogen energy, which is being promoted as a replacement for natural gas and is being used overseas in the transport sector and in electricity generation. Australia has the infrastructure and renewable energy capability to scale the production, Finkel says.
Israel’s attorney general intends to indict the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in three corruption cases, the Israeli justice ministry has said. The decision comes just six weeks before a general election, and the announcement could severely damage Netanyahu’s chances in a tight race. The charges include bribery, fraud and breach of trust. The country’s second-longest serving PM who runs the most rightwing government in its history, Netanyahu has denied all accusations, dismissing them as part of a witch-hunt orchestrated by the press. He has previously pledged not to resign if indicted and would be under no legal obligation to do so.
The New South Wales auditor general has released a damning report into the inability of the state’s gun registry to track ownership and to make decisions about licences. Margaret Crawford’s report says the registry’s owner database was out of date, with 7% of renewal notices being returned every month because they had been sent to the wrong address. In addition, junior staff were often left to make crucial decisions about licence suspensions with the result that more than a quarter of appeals against revocations were successful in the three years to 2016.
World
Pakistan says it will release a captured Indian pilot as a “peace gesture” between the neighbours, amid the gravest military crisis in the subcontinent in two decades. The pilot was shot down on Wednesday during a dogfight in the Himalayan foothills, the first between the countries to be publicly acknowledged for 48 years. The Indian pilot, a wing commander identified as Abhi Nandan, appeared in a bloodied uniform as he gave his name and rank in a video released by the Pakistani armed forces. India earlier said one of its air force Mig-21 fighter aircraft has been “lost” in an engagement with Pakistani aircraft in the Indian portion of Kashmir and that its pilot was missing.
Donald Trump has said he took Kim Jong-un “at his word” when he denied any responsibility in the imprisonment and torture of Otto Warmbier that led to the US student’s death in 2017. “Some really bad things happened to Otto,” Trump said. “But Kim tells me that he didn’t know about it and I will take him at his word.”
The second summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un has ended in failure, with the two sides far apart on the central issues of disarmament and sanctions relief. The abrupt end to the Hanoi meeting, which was cut short by several hours, was a setback from both leaders, and there are no plans for a third summit.
An 11-year old girl who became pregnant after being raped was forced to give birth after Argentinian authorities refused to allow her the abortion to which she was entitled. The authorities ignored repeated requests for an abortion from the child, called “Lucía” to protect her identity, as well as her mother and a number of Argentinian women’s right activists.
YouTube will disable all comments on videos featuring younger children, the company says, in a move designed to stave off an advertiser boycott sparked by the discovery of an organised paedophile ring operating in plain sight on the video-sharing platform.
Opinion and analysis
The Kimberley is one of the most stunning places in Australia but is has been likened to Syria for the supposed ongoing cycle of trauma being experienced there – so what is the truth? A caseworker takes us through the court system and what is really going on when a child is committing crimes. “It is imperative that the link between mental health and crime becomes common knowledge soon,” the anonymous case worker writes. “Victims of crime are growing impatient, and the spectre of retribution lies smouldering in the north’s wet season heat.”
There is a reason Scott Morrison has started softening the Coalition’s climate and energy policies: Liberal and National MPs are vulnerable to independent challengers who can appeal to concerns about issues such as climate, water and regional services. Barnaby Joyce in New England and Angus Taylor in Hume are among those facing well-connected local candidates in their seats who could profit as centre-right voters drift towards more typically centre-left issues. Gabrielle Chan speaks to three independents hoping to reach Canberra after the election, and in this week’s politics podcast she shares her thoughts with Guardian Australia’s political editor, Katharine Murphy, about why rural voters are deserting the Coalition.
Sport
The Matildas have begun a new era with a comfortable 2-0 win over New Zealand in the Cup of Nations. Ante Milicic’s first game in charge was victorious, and the new coach chose not to rock the boat, and opted for continuity in players and tactics instead. Emily Gielnik in particular started brightly as most of the Matildas’ forward play came down the right-hand side.
As Black History Month comes to an end, African American golfers discuss how much progress the sport has made, why it can still be intimidating and the huge influence of Tiger Woods.
Thinking time: ‘There are consequences for starving a woman’s mind’
Maggie Gyllenhaal made her name in a drama about sadomasochism – and broke the mould again as a porn director in The Duece. But it’s her hotly debated new film, The Kindergarten Teacher, that might prove to her most transgressive yet. She sits down with the Guardian’s Gwilym Mumford to discuss why there should be consequences for disrespecting women sexually, and why The Kindergarten Teacher serves as a warning on the risks of overlooking a women’s mind and needs.
“She is a woman who is starving, a woman with a vibrant, curious, artistic mind which has not been fed,” Gyllenhaal says of her character Lisa, a teacher who courts an increasingly problematic relationship with a gifted pupil. “I think many women right now in America – and I imagine it’s the same in the UK – are waking up to that feeling. And, in some ways, I think it’s a cautionary tale. There are consequences for starving a woman’s mind, and the consequences here are … extreme.”
Media roundup
The Australian leads with the appointment of Ita Buttrose as chair of the ABC, saying the prime minister has instructed Buttrose to deliver the broadcaster “back to the people” and stay clear of insularity. The ranks of public servants continue to grow in Queensland, the Courier-Mail reports, with the average cost of a public servant climbing 12% in five years. An expensive federal tourism campaign aimed at luring more tourists to WA will be immediately overhauled, the West Australian reports, after it pictured a couple at Perth’s Kings Park watching the sun set ... in the east.
Coming up
Suppression orders protecting the identity of Victoria gangland informant Lawyer X are due to be lifted at 4.15pm.
The NSW coroner will hand down findings on the deaths of six people from opioids in 2016.
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