Good morning, this is Helen Sullivan bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Tuesday 26 November.
Top stories
The environment department has blocked access to emails about Angus Taylor’s attack on Clover Moore, claiming they are exempt from freedom of information laws because they relate to an unspecified “ongoing process”. In response to Labor’s FOI request, the department has refused access to two emails sent at 8.52am on 25 October – the day after Guardian Australia revealed the controversy – and a second email chain at 3.23pm the same day.
Donald Trump issued a direct order to halt disciplinary measures against a Navy Seal accused of war crimes in Iraq, the US defence secretary has revealed. Mark Esper said the president had given him an instruction on Sunday for Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher to retain his right to wear the Trident pin, the insignia of the elite unit, reversing a demotion by a navy disciplinary board. Gallagher was acquitted of a murder charge related to the 2017 stabbing of an Isis militant in Iraq but was found to have posed for a “trophy” photo with the corpse.
The Australian minders of the Chinese defector Wang Liqiang have been urged to “double up” protection duties as experts raise significant fears about his safety. Chinese state media have sought to discredit Wang as a convicted “fraudster”, liar and a fake after he revealed his role within Chinese intelligence and his bid for Australia’s protection on Saturday in the Sydney Morning Herald and Age newspapers. Wang is staying in an undisclosed location in Sydney. He is in the country on a tourist visa and has applied for asylum.
Australia
Environmentalists say a Victorian government plan to preserve old growth forest may instead open up protected areas. The government’s promise to protect 90,000 hectares of old growth forest comes just weeks after it announced a major transition plan for Victoria’s timber industry.
Private health insurance will continue its death spiral unless exorbitant specialist bills are reined in, a Grattan Institute report has found.
Alan Jones’s 2GB breakfast show has lost hundreds of advertisers since he suggested Scott Morrison shove a sock down Jacinda Ardern’s throat, according to activist groups.
The world
The UK has urged China to give UN observers “immediate and unfettered access” to detention camps in Xinjiang, where more than a million people from the Uighur community and other Muslim minorities are being held without trial.
Seven people have died as violent storms swept through parts of France, Greece and Italy at the weekend, causing flash floods, landslides and the collapse of an overpass.
A UK funeral firm described customers as “gazelles” to be hunted, whistleblowers have told the Guardian. Workers at a UK call centre have been subjecting elderly people to dozens of calls a week to sell them expensive funeral packages, according to former staff.
China’s government has issued a warning in response to a stunning landslide victory for pro-democracy candidates in the Hong Kong elections by emphasising that the city will always be ruled from Beijing.
Recommended reads
It’s the climate, not immigration, that keeps Australians awake at night, writes David Marr. “Something happened in 2017. Australia is second only to Canada in welcoming immigration on a large scale. Our faith in the benefits of accepting newcomers of all faiths and races is rock solid. But a couple of years ago we began to grow impatient about the government’s management of the immigration program, impatient in particular about overcrowding in our cities. This is the verdict of the Scanlon Foundation’s 2019 Mapping Social Cohesion report, published on Tuesday.”
“Australia has now not had a three-year period of above-average growth for more than a decade. One major concern is the massive drop in the growth of productivity,” writes Greg Jericho. “It seems almost impossible, but the past three years have seen worse productivity growth than occurred in 2007-08 under the WorkChoices regime. It’s quite astonishing that while this is happening the treasurer could argue less than a week ago that, ‘When it comes to the Australian economy, we have our fundamentals in a pretty good place.’”
Listen
David Dungay Jr’s family say they’re still searching for justice. Last week the Dungay family heard from the coroner when he handed down his findings into the death of the 26-year-old. This week, in the final episode of Breathless, the family wants you to hear from David one last time. We go through the coroner’s report and hear the phone calls David made to his sister and mother less than an hour before he died. If you want to follow the story from the beginning you can start with episode one, where we first meet David’s family.
Sport
The W-league’s plans to formalise an Australian-US accord comes a risk – to the wellbeing of the game’s greatest assets, writes Samantha Lewis.
Rugby Australia’s negotiation of its next broadcast deal has got off to a shaky start with Foxtel reportedly threatening to cut ties with the sport, but the future of the game in the country will depend on the outcome of the agreement, writes Brett Harris.
The Wallabies have emerged from a challenging year with a significantly stronger connection to their fanbase, according to new research, while the Matildas remain Australia’s most relatable national sports team.
Media roundup
The Sydney Morning Herald reveals that “a man who allegedly tried to install a Chinese agent into federal parliament made a multi-million dollar offer to take control of a company based in the CSIRO’s building” and speaks to Australian paramedics earning $100,000 in overtime, who say they are “dangerously overworked”. “Westpac CEO Brian Hartzer told his executives on Monday that the bank’s pedophile money scandal was ‘not an Enron or Lehman Brothers’,” the Australian reports. And today’s Herald Sun reports on evidence presented before Victoria’s anti-corruption body Ibac: “A multi-millionaire developer and a former Casey mayor discussed the idea of ‘a few heavy guys’ beating up a rival councillor, secret phone recordings reveal.”
Coming up
The Reserve Bank’s deputy governor, Guy Debelle, will give the keynote address at the Australian Council of Social Services conference.
And if you’ve read this far …
An 82-year-old bodybuilder beat up a 28-year-old man who tried to break into her home in Rochester, New York. Willie Murphy said she had jumped on the intruder, poured shampoo on his face and hit him with a broom. She even tried to drag him out of the house but he was too big. By the time police and emergency workers arrived, she said: “I had really did a number on that man … I think he was happy when he went in the ambulance.”
Sign up
If you would like to receive the Guardian Australia morning mail to your email inbox every weekday, sign up here.
