Good morning, this is Helen Sullivan bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Wednesday 23 January.
Top stories
The US supreme court has allowed the Trump administration to limit transgender people from serving in the military while the legality of such a plan continues to be debated in lower courts. The court voted 5-4 in favour of issuing a stay on efforts to block a plan to restrict transgender people’s ability to serve, meaning the plan can be implemented. The dissenting justices were the four liberals on the court. The result means hundreds of transgender people already in the US military can continue their service but transgender people cannot join up. The policy also allows people who serve “in their biological sex” to join the military. The LGBT civil rights group Lambda Legal said the court’s Tuesday decision was “perplexing, to say the least”. Meanwhile, Trump has defended the high school students who were filmed apparently confronting a Native American activist and military veteran. In a tweet on Tuesday, the president said the students “have become symbols of fake news”.
Scott Morrison has promised $17m to Australian commercial television networks to provide content to Pacific broadcasters. There’s only one problem – the broadcasters didn’t ask for it and don’t know what content to provide. The plan’s critics say public broadcasters are far better placed to provide soft diplomacy in the region. Former head of the Australia Network, Bruce Dover, said the policy did not meet the needs of the Pacific and was effectively a taxpayer subsidy to commercial TV in the lead-up to the election. “It’s bad policy, it smacks of white colonialism,” he said. “The announcement makes a mockery of recent government reviews of soft power and Australian broadcasting in the Asia Pacific, both of which are yet to report and make recommendations.”
Roma and The Favourite will go head to head at the Oscars after they received 10 Academy award nominations each. Roma, Alfonso Cuarón’s memoir of childhood in 1970s Mexico City, topped many critics’ lists of 2018 (including the Guardian’s) and scored nominations including best film and best director. Scabrous period comedy The Favourite also received 10 nominations, including best actress for Olivia Colman and best original screenplay for Australian Tony McNamara. A Star is Born picked up eight nominations, as did Vice, a comedy about Dick Cheney. Here is the full list of nominations, in which no women have been nominated in the best director category, which means that only one woman – Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird in 2018 – has been nominated for the award since Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win it in 2010 for The Hurt Locker. The Guardian, meanwhile, has received its first ever Oscar nomination, for Black Sheep, a short documentary.
World
The EU has confirmed it will enforce a hard border on the island of Ireland in the event of a no-deal Brexit, despite the risk it would pose to peace. Jean-Claude Juncker’s chief spokesman said it was “pretty obvious” border infrastructure would be necessary if the UK were to leave without an agreement.
Americans’ concerns about climate change have surged to record levels with a total of 72% of Americans polled now saying global warming is personally important to them and 73% of Americans accepting that global warming is happening, outnumbering those who don’t by five to one.
Brazil’s new rightwing president Jair Bolsonaro has prompted fresh alarm among environmentalists after stressing, in a speech at Davos, that protecting his country’s unique ecosystem has to be consistent with growing the economy.
Mexico’s murder rate broke a new record in 2018 as the country’s drug war drags on. Figures released this week by the country’s public safety secretariat show that 28,816 homicide case files were opened in 2018, a 15% increase over the previous year.
The Zimbabwean president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, has called for “national dialogue” and promised an investigation into widespread violence by security forces during which at least 12 people were killed and 78 treated for gunshot wounds.
Opinion and analysis
Today’s titans of tech and finance want to solve the world’s problems – as long as the solutions don’t threaten their own wealth and power, Anand Giridharadas writes in today’s Long Read. A successful society is a progress machine. America’s machine is broken. The same could be said of others around the world. And now many of the people who broke the progress machine are trying to sell us their services as repairmen. The average pretax income of the top 10th of Americans has doubled since 1980, that of the top 1% has more than tripled, and that of the top 0.001% has risen more than sevenfold – even as the average pretax income of the bottom half of Americans has stayed almost precisely the same. So are we ready to hand over our future to the plutocratic elites, one supposedly world-changing initiative at a time?
Including more old people on screen, television and film could shift our perceptions, writes Nayuka Gorrie. Imagining the elderly is imagining people having futures. I want to see older black people in all of their complexity. I want to see them make mistakes, have sex, fall in love, finally leave people they’ve been stuck with for 40 years, learn new things, practice and pass on culture, buy motorbikes, start a band, keep families strong, come out, lead campaigns, maybe go to a festival and take the best pinger of their life. Except perhaps for the last point (although you never know!), these things already happen in reality. Why can’t art catch up?
Sport
Petra Kvitova has defeated hometown favourite Ashleigh Barty at the Australian Open. The 28-year-old Kvitova, one of the nicest people in tennis, is in her first semi-final here in seven years, after defeating Barty 6-1, 6-4. Meanwhile 20-year-old Stefanos Tsitsipas has set up an Australian Open semi-final against Rafael Nadal, after winning 7-5, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2) against Frances Tiafoe.
With the Six Nations fast approaching, here’s some recommended reading for the players: a copy of Stuart Barnes’ latest book, Sketches from Memory, would serve them well as they prepare for the all-consuming annual frenzy.
Thinking time: ‘If you think this is bad, just wait’
A week after the Menindee fish kills Anne Davies stood on the bank of the Darling with two men who were fighting back tears as they pointed to more dead and dying Murray cod. But the town of Menindee has more on its mind than the deaths of hundreds of thousands of fish. Locals say its very survival is at stake. With a population of just over 500 people, Menindee is a pint-sized example of how resources and infrastructure can drive the fortunes of a town up and down. Now a project lodged by the NSW government with the Murray-Darling Basin Authority proposes shrinking the Menindee Lakes and draining them more often, threatening the town’s biggest tourism draw.
For the Indigenous people along this stretch of the river, the Barka, the concept of a drier river, flowing less frequently, is devastating. Literally “the river people”, the Barka have been granted native title along the river and co-manage Kinchega National park. But they are watching their land die around them.
Meanwhile, a private conservation group has spent $55m to protect a Murray-Darling swamp, in one of the most ambitious private conservation efforts attempted in Australia.
Media roundup
Xi Jinping has given a speech urging China’s top officials to be “highly alert” to unexpected economic risks, saying that the country faced “profound and complicated changes”, the Australian Financial Review reports. Close to 11m Australians who earn money from platforms such as Uber and Airbnb will be subject to a new tax reporting regime, according to the Australian. The Sydney Morning Herald reveals that corporate and consumer watchdog commissioners and staff have been accepting gifts and hospitality from the industries they regulate.
Coming up
A 26-year-old man accused of murdering 22-year-old British tourist Grace Millane in New Zealand will appear in Auckland’s high court today.
Quarterfinals in the women’s and men’s singles events continue at the Australian Open, with Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic both playing on centre court today.
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