Good morning! We’ve got a bit of everything today on Wednesday 10 March– an attempted spy recruitment, the government ignoring the disability royal commission, the Queen’s comments on the Meghan and Harry interview, and a “biting incident” at the White House.
Buckingham Palace has broken its silence on explosive claims by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. A palace statement on behalf of the Queen said: “The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan. The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning.” Read the full statement here. Meghan Markle’s estranged father has also spoken out, saying he will continue speaking to the media until his daughter talks to him. The tell-all interview with Oprah hasn’t just rocked Buckingham Palace, it has also reignited talk of Australian independence. The former PM Malcom Turnbull has chimed in saying an Australian should be Australia’s head of state. The interview’s controversy in the UK media has led to more than 40,000 complaints against comments made by Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan, who is stepping down from the show after storming off.
The British-Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert has said Iran tried to recruit her as a spy “many times” during the two years she was imprisoned in Tehran. In her first sit-down interview since her release in November 2020, Moore-Gilbert told Sky News she had rejected the repeated attempts by guards to get her to agree to spy for Iran in exchange for her release. “I knew the reason they didn’t engage in any meaningful negotiations with the Australians was because they wanted to recruit me,” she said. She also spoke of the “psychological torture” of being sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment on espionage charges in a secret trial.
Scott Morrison and Christian Porter have been accused of ignoring the disability royal commission’s “urgent” request for an extension to the inquiry, after failing to reply to the commissioner for more than four months. In its interim report in October, the commission said it needed a 17-month extension, pushing the report’s due date from April 2022 to September 2023. Jordon Steele-John, a Greens senator who lives with cerebral palsy, said the government should immediately grant the request. “For the royal commission to be forced to make its final recommendations in just over a year’s time would be to deny disabled people and their families the justice they deserve,” he said.
Australia
The federal health minister, Greg Hunt, was in hospital over night with a “suspected infection”. He is expected to make a full recovery and his condition is not thought to be related to the Covid vaccine he received at the weekend.
Macquarie University’s dean, Prof Magnus Nydén, has “unequivocally” apologised for making “ill-judged” comments about the biological differences between men and women at an International Women’s Day event.
The NSW planning minister, Rob Stokes, last year warned against carving out rural zones from koala protection areas, a policy the government has effectively adopted.
Independent phone repairs companies could soon become extinct as tech conglomerates make it impossible for third parties to fix their devices, the Productivity Commission’s Right to Repair inquiry has heard.
The Morrison government has been urged to back a World Trade Organization plan to let developing countries make cheap copies of Covid vaccines.
The world
A powerful image has gone viral of Sister Ann Rose Nu Tawng kneeling before a group of heavily armed Myanmar police officers, begging them to spare “the children” and take her life instead.
One in four women and girls around the world have been physically or sexually assaulted by a male partner, according to the largest study yet of the prevalence of violence against women.
The Chinese government has breached every single article of the UN genocide convention in its treatment of Uighurs in Xinjiang, according to a landmark legal report.
Employees at Teen Vogue have protested against the hiring of Alexi McCammond as editor-in-chief after racist anti-Asian tweets by McCammond 10 years ago emerged.
Recommended reads
As the new series of SBS’s film revitalisation project Australia in Colour airs, Guardian Australia’s film critic, Luke Buckmaster, considers the consequences of the trend of recolouring in film-making. “Choosing colours and shades to apply to these kinds of productions involves making decisions informed by various sources, from weather records to letters, newspaper reports and interviews with historians. The idea that we are watching the exact colours once observed in real-life is absurd. So we have an interesting paradox: through the pursuit of historical accuracy the film-makers have ushered into existence a new kind of fiction. Some believe this sort of fiction – born in the era of sophisticated digital manipulation – has altered the very nature of cinema.”
It’s a travesty so many Australian aged care patients are malnourished, writes Ranjana Srivastava. “Today, studies suggest up to half of nursing home residents are malnourished. This is evident in their weight, their skin, their stamina and emotional reserve. In hospital, they have difficulty recovering from fractures and wounds, are more prone to severe infections and rarely return to their previous level of function after relatively minor setbacks ... What’s needed is a multidisciplinary transparent and accountable structure of malnutrition screening, assessment, nutritional planning, provider education and indeed, a shift in the way we imagine what elderly and vulnerable residents ‘deserve’.”
From alkaline waters to beauty elixirs, added oxygen and probiotics, many brands claim they have “enhanced” water – but what do the experts think? Wendy Syfret asked them to find out if the quest to improve water has actually worked.
Listen
In today’s episode of Full Story, Guardian reporters Archie Bland and Aamna Mohdin discuss the impact of Oprah Winfrey’s interview with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
Nothing in sport is certain anymore. But season 2021 of the NRL promises to be big-dreaming, hyper-aggressive and full of new rules – and that is just Peter V’landys.
Media roundup
Australians will be asked to accept a new “risk framework” that opens the economy as vaccines roll out, ending an era of state border closures, shutdowns and sudden social controls, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. And plans for a world-class national school curriculum are in disarray after a proposal to base the teaching of mathematics around “big ideas” was rejected twice, says the Australian. In WA police are searching for those responsible for throwing a package containing powder at premier Mark McGowan’s office, and delivering an envelope containing an “unhinged” letter and tin foil package to the federal Labor MP Madeleine King’s office, reports the West Australian.
Coming up
AFR business summit guests will include Phil Lowe and Anthony Albanese.
Three separate Senate inquiries will take place, into the underpayment of employees, the Western Sydney airport, and three new police and intelligence powers.
And if you’ve read this far …
Not everyone is on their best behaviour at the White House. Joe Biden’s dogs Champ and Major have reportedly been returned to the family home in Delaware after a “biting incident”.
Sign up
If you would like to receive the Guardian Australia morning mail to your email inbox every weekday, sign up here.
