Good morning, this is Helen Sullivan bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Wednesday 20 February.
Top stories
Bernie Sanders has announced his 2020 run for the White House. The independent senator from Vermont whose 2016 presidential campaign helped energise the progressive movement and reshaped the Democratic party, cast his candidacy as the best way to accomplish the mission he started three years ago. “Together, you and I and our 2016 campaign began the political revolution,” he said in an email to supporters. “Now, it is time to complete that revolution and implement the vision that we fought for.” Sanders, 77, believes he can prevail in a crowded and diverse field and beat Donald Trump, whom he called on Tuesday “the most dangerous president in modern American history”. Asked on CBS what would be different about his 2020 campaign, Sanders replied: “We’re gonna win.”
Alan Jones has delivered an on-air apology to Malcolm Turnbull for branding him a “traitor to the nation” during a program broadcast by Sky News. Jones delivered the unqualified apology, which is understood to be in response to a lawyer’s letter from the former prime minister, at the start of his TV show Jones and Co on Tuesday night. “I went too far in my criticism,” Jones told viewers, adding: “I acknowledge that I had no justification for making that false statement and I unreservedly apologise to Mr Turnbull for doing so.”
Labor has launched an offensive on the banks, releasing its policy on fixing cultural problems exposed by the royal commission and introducing three bills to crack down on dodgy banks and insurers. Under the policy released today, Labor says it will force the big four banks, the Australian Banking Association and the financial regulators Apra and Asic to develop royal commission implementation plans by 1 August. They will have to report on their progress to Labor’s proposed royal commission implementation taskforce in the Treasury department every six months. Chief executives of the big four banks and the ABA will also have to report to the House of Representatives economics committee and attend public hearings every six months.
World
The fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld has died aged 85. One of the most prolific and admired designers of modern times, his influence on the industry was unparalleled.
The family of Shamima Begum, who left the UK at the age of 15 to join Islamic State in Syria, has been told her British citizenship will be revoked. Begum, now 19, gave birth to a boy in a refugee camp at the weekend.
The Vatican has acknowledged for the first time the existence of secret guidelines for priests who break their vows of celibacy and father children. Alessandro Gisotti, a Vatican spokesman, said the “fundamental principle” of the 2017 document was the “protection of the child”.
Thousands of people are expected to take to the streets across France on Tuesday night in protest at antisemitic attacks, including on a Jewish cemetery in Alsace, where about 80 headstones were defaced with swastikas.
Analysis of one of the biggest trials yet of the four-day working week has revealed no fall in output yet decreases in stress and increased staff engagement, fuelling hopes that a better work-life balance for millions could be in sight.
Opinion and analysis
The converted warehouse in the inner west of Adelaide has none of the glitz and glamour you would expect of one of Australia’s most successful circus companies. “As Gravity and Other Myths rehearse their new production, industrial air-conditioning whirls to override summer outside,” writes Jane Howard. “An inopportune metal pole is shielded by a pool noodle. An artist climbs a ladder to re-tape plastic sheeting against a window to keep the room dark.”
Not many people understand dividend imputation, for the simple reason that they are not rich enough to care about it. Richard Denniss explains why some of the wealthiest Australians pay negative tax and still get to call themselves self-funded retirees. “If those cashed-up voters want to call themselves ‘self-funded’, Scott Morrison isn’t going to burst their (taxpayer-funded) bubble,” he writes.
Sport
Alysa Liu covered her face and cried as the results were announced at the US ladies figure skating championship in Detroit last month. Liu had just won the national title at the age of 13, making her the youngest athlete to have done so, and with two triple axels, no less. But is 13 too young to be an elite athlete, asks Kristen Doerer.
Caster Semenya’s lawyers have hit back at the IAAF on day two of the hearing at the court of arbitration for sport, claiming the world governing body’s proposed testosterone limit for women is “flawed” and “hurtful”.
Thinking time: Palm reader
The fruit of the oil palm tree, which grows in tropical climates, contains the world’s most versatile vegetable oil. Its combination of different types of fats and its consistency after refining make it a popular ingredient in packaged baked goods. Its low production costs make it cheaper than frying oils such as cottonseed or sunflower. It provides the foaming agent in virtually every shampoo, liquid soap or detergent. Cosmetics manufacturers prefer it to animal tallow for its ease of application and low price. It is increasingly used as a cheap raw material for biofuels, especially in the EU. It functions as a natural preservative in processed foods, and raises the melting point of ice-cream. Palm oil can be used as an adhesive that binds together the particles in fibreboard. Oil palm trunks and fronds can be made into everything from plywood to the composite body of Malaysia’s national automobile.
Worldwide production of palm oil has been climbing steadily for five decades. Between 1995 and 2015, annual production quadrupled, from 15.2m tonnes to 62.6m tonnes. By 2050 it is expected to quadruple again. Today 3 billion people in 150 countries use products containing palm oil. Globally we each consume an average of 8kg of palm oil a year. Of this, 85% comes from Malaysia and Indonesia, where worldwide demand for palm oil has lifted incomes, especially in rural areas – but at the cost of tremendous environmental devastation and often with attendant labour and human rights abuses. So is it too late to break the habit?
Media roundup
The Daily Telegraph says it has uncovered an unsecured access pit a few hundred metres from Parliament House, where “anyone with a $150 device could hack into the government’s ‘dark fibre’ secure intranet”. The Sydney Morning Herald reveals that the former treasurer Joe Hockey, Australia’s ambassador to the US, asked his embassy staff to meet the corporate travel company Helloworld in April 2017 before it lobbied for government work – despite Hockey being “close friends” with the company’s chief executive. Helloworld’s 2017 annual report lists Hockey as one of the company’s 20 biggest shareholders, with a stake now worth $1.3m. The Australian reports that Bill Shorten’s mentor Bill Ludwig has backed a campaign against Labor candidates in Queensland who do not support Adani’s Carmichael coalmine.
Coming up
Senate estimates continue, with Treasury, health, business and defence among the portfolios under scrutiny.
A legal challenge to the controversial demolition of Allianz Stadium begins in Sydney.
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