Good morning, this is Richard Parkin bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Thursday 14 May.
Top stories
Australian children are facing an increased risk from abusers during the Covid-19 pandemic, with predators creating and sharing an online grooming manual describing ways to manipulate and exploit the increased number of children at home and online during the lockdown, according to Australia’s e-safety commissioner. Child sexual abuse material reports increased 27% in March and 37% in April 2020. “Supervision is recommended for younger children as well as encouraging your child to apply critical thinking skills, like questioning suspicious behaviour or ‘friend’ requests from other users online,” the Australian federal police said.
The federal government faces more scrutiny over the ongoing sports rorts saga, with Sport Australia failing to find a legal basis for then sports minister Brigid McKenzie to make “captain’s calls” over the allocation of $141m worth of grants. The long-running issue resurfaced in federal parliament this week after new evidence from the Australian National Audit Office implicated the prime minister’s office in authorising the grants. Scott Morrison had previously told reporters that the ANAO’s conclusion that McKenzie lacked authorisation to award grants was “not correct”.
Every country in Africa is now affected by the coronavirus, with Lesotho, the last nation without a confirmed positive infection, reporting the disease’s spread. Brazil and Mexico have recorded their highest one-day death tolls, raising fears of a surge of cases across Latin America, with 881 people dying in Brazil and 353 in Mexico. Nurses have protested in Brasília, commemorating 109 frontline staff who succumbed to the virus. Chinese authorities are preparing for “10 days of battle” – announcing an ambitious plan to test more than 11 million citizens in Wuhan – the site of the first recorded cases – after a cluster of new infections this week. Meanwhile, the UN has forecast that global trade will contract by 27% during the second quarter of 2020.
Australia
Fossil fuel concerns have prompted Norway’s gigantic sovereign wealth fund to dump its stake in the Australian energy company AGL, with BHP put on an “observation list” suggesting major divestment could occur in the future. The Norwegian central bank, which manages the US$1.1tn Government Pension Fund Global, dumped its $65m stake in AGL, following stricter rules about its investment in fossil fuels.
Eleven Australian banks and lenders have paid out $160m in compensation over “junk” insurance sold to more than 434,000 credit card customers and other borrowers. The big four banks, Bank of Queensland and Bendigo Bank are among those found to have acted unfairly.
A leading business group has exhorted the federal government not to engage in “megaphone diplomacy” with China, with the chief executive of the Australian Industry Group counselling that government ministers “need to find ways to make the relationship work”.
The world
Former neighbours of the perpetrator of Canada’s worst mass shooting had warned police of his violence and illegal gun collection, local media have reported. The Royal Canadian mounted police have yet to respond to the allegations.
A record $73bn was spent on nuclear armaments last year – with the US spending nearly as much as the eight other nuclear-armed nations combined. The Trump administration spent $35.4bn last year – the highest expenditure on nuclear arms since the height of the cold war.
The disgraced former chair of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, Paul Manafort, has been released from prison just over a year into his seven-year sentence, after lawyers argued for home confinement due to the risk of Covid-19.
Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum has released online the most detailed photograph taken of Rembrandt’s The Night Watch, with the 44.8 gigapixel image allowing art lovers to zoom in on every brushstroke and random fleck of paint in the masterpiece.
Recommended reads
As Australia looks to rebuild its post-coronavirus economy there’s a once-only opportunity to move towards a zero-emissions world. After a lost decade embroiled in climate wars, writes Adam Morton, it’s not just climate activists, but industry, banks, energy companies, unions and major investors agitating for a fresh approach.
Pencil pines are one of five species of conifer endemic to Tasmania’s high country but, with climate change rendering the trees too stressed to seed, a two-man mission is harvesting by hand to give the 150m-years-old Gondwana-era plants a chance to thrive, writes Calla Wahlquist.
Even before the pandemic struck, wages in Australia were struggling, and that’s before we see what effect a sudden surge in unemployment will have, writes Greg Jericho: “At this point we should perhaps pause and say a small eulogy for the wage-growth predictions in December’s mid-year economic and fiscal outlook. They were utterly absurd even then; now they just look sad.”
Listen
As the world’s second most-populous nation comes to terms with Covid-19, is an increasingly authoritarian Indian government looking to use a public safety app to snoop on its citizens? On this episode of Full Story, Rachel Humphreys speaks to the Guardian’s south Asia correspondent, Hannah Ellis-Petersen.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
Daniel Riccardo is expected to join McLaren for the 2021 Formula One season as a result of Ferrari’s swoop for Carlos Sainz. The Scuderia have announced that Sebastian Vettel will leave, with Charles Leclerc promoted to lead driver.
Kiyotaka Suetake, the 28-year-old sumo wrestler known as Shobushi, has died from Covid-19. His death was confirmed by the Japanese Sumo Association, citing multiple organ failure. Suetake is the first Japanese person in their 20s to die from the coronavirus.
Media roundup
An independent study suggests some 2m government-approved Covid-19 antibody tests imported and sold within Australia are wildly inaccurate, reports the Age, with research suggesting a 55% accuracy rate. WA’s premier, Mark McGowan, has offered to use his contacts inside the Chinese government to help Scott Morrison avoid a trade war, writes the West Australian, amid fears the state’s mining sector could lose out. And house prices could collapse by a third over three years depending on the severity of unemployment caused by Covid-19, says the Sydney Morning Herald.
Coming up
A report from the Lowy Institute to be released today suggests 59% of Australians trust the prime minister as a preferred source of Covid-19 information.
A bail decision will be made for Richard Pusey, the driver who allegedly filmed and taunted a police officer dying on Melbourne’s Eastern Freeway after a crash.
And if you’ve read this far …
Stéphane Bourgoin has written more than 40 books and is regarded as a leading authority on serial killers – except that he made it all up. No, he hasn’t interviewed more than 70 murderers, he never trained with the FBI, and no – a serial killer didn’t murder his wife in 1976, for the simple fact: she never existed. “I am profoundly and sincerely sorry. I am ashamed of what I did, it’s absolutely ridiculous,” Bourgoin finally confessed.
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