Good morning, this is Helen Sullivan bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Tuesday 26 February.
Top stories
A former staffer on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has filed a federal lawsuit against the president, claiming he kissed her without consent. Alva Johnson, who was director of outreach and coalitions in Alabama in 2016, told the Washington Post Trump “grabbed her hand and leaned in to kiss her on the lips”, as the then candidate got out of a vehicle at a rally in Tampa on 24 August 2016. According to the Post, “Johnson said she turned her head and the unwanted kiss landed on the side of her mouth, which she called ‘super-creepy and inappropriate’”. The Post quoted her as saying: “I immediately felt violated because I wasn’t expecting it or wanting it. I can still see his lips coming straight for my face.” In a statement to the newspaper, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders dismissed Johnson’s allegation as “absurd on its face”.
Labor remains ahead of the Coalition on the two-party-preferred measure 52% to 48% in the latest Guardian Essential poll, which suggests Australian voters like social spending more than they like tax concessions, but points to mixed views on the medical evacuations bill. The largest group in the survey, 38%, said the medical evacuations bill struck the right balance between strong borders and humane treatment, while 15% said it did not go far enough to protect people in offshore detention, and 30% felt it would weaken Australia’s borders. On tax, over half of the sample (53%) were more likely to support closing off loopholes and concessions and directing the revenue towards funding for schools, hospitals and other social programs.
Exclusive: Australians have paid about $2m from the Morrison government’s emissions reduction fund to mining giant Rio Tinto for a diesel-fired power station at a mine in Arnhem Land. The multinational company qualified for climate funding from the now rebranded “climate solutions” policy, to help pay for the fossil fuel plant at its Gove Peninsula bauxite mine, despite the generator being commissioned before the fund opened. A number of other fossil fuel developments by large companies have been registered with the fund. Tim Baxter, an associate with the Australian-German Climate and Energy College, said the project could end up being double counted with taxpayers paying polluters to make cuts they were supposed to pay for themselves to meet their baselines.
World
In the UK, Labour has announced it will back moves for a second referendum on Brexit this week, which Jeremy Corbyn will tell MPs will “prevent a damaging Tory Brexit being forced on the country”.
Spain has warned it will not back any military intervention in Venezuela after the South American country’s opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, urged other nations to consider “all options” to remove the president, Nicolás Maduro, from power.
Russian state television has broadcast a map of the US showing military facilities Moscow would target in the event of a nuclear strike, in a report that was unusual by even its own standards.
A Nasa astronomer has discovered potentially the furthest object in our solar system. Named FarFarOut, the newly identified body is thought to be 140 times further away from the sun than our own planet is.
More than 20,000 staff at the BBC have been sent an email, written in character, from their new “colleague” Alan Partridge, ahead of his return to the broadcaster after 24 years. It starts by saying that Partridge is standing in for John Baskell, who is ill. “Well, although my diary is as clogged as John’s arteries (get well, John!) I have agreed to drop everything and step up,” writes Partridge, before mocking the BBC and someone called “Karen or Kate or Kath” who works in compliance.
Opinion and analysis
There are wars that seem to slip under the wire almost unnoticed. A UN report into South Sudan is a case in point, writes Peter Beaumont. In a statement about the report’s findings, UN commission on human rights in South Sudan chair Yasmin Sooka said: “Rapes, gang rapes, sexual mutilation, abductions and sexual slavery, as well as killings, have become commonplace in South Sudan.” Dark even as that summary sounds, it does not come close to depicting a reality where – as the report suggests – a quarter of victims of sexual violence, used by all sides to sow terror, are children as young as seven.
This week, the Guardian is investigating concrete and its impact on the modern world. Because of the heat needed to decompose rock and the natural chemical processes involved in making cement, an ingredient of concrete, every tonne made releases one tonne of C02, the main greenhouse warming gas. If the cement industry were a country, it would be the third-largest in the world, its emissions behind only China and the US. So great is its carbon footprint that unless it is transformed and made to adopt cleaner practices, the industry could, on its own, jeopardise the whole 2015 Paris agreement.
Sport
It is hard to imagine any sport enduring an offseason where so much damage has been done. The NRL must act now to ensure players facing serious criminal charges for violence against women are stood down, writes Nick Tedeschi.
The plane that crashed in the Channel carrying the Cardiff City footballer Emiliano Sala fell thousands of feet in the space of 20 seconds after making a 180-degree turn, minutes after the pilot requested a descent, air accident investigators have found.
Thinking time: Any other way
Many things stood out about Jackie Shane’s singing – her conviction, phrasing, power and range, for starters. But, given her backstory, one quality seems particularly surprising: her poise. Amid the tense and manic music that backed her, a hallmark of the 60s R&B and soul she favoured, Shane’s vocals seemed almost supernaturally controlled. Hers was a voice of sublime confidence, delivered by someone sure of her power and purpose. She really had to be, writes Jim Farber. Shane, who died last week at the age of 78 of undisclosed causes, was a transgender woman performing in the clubs of Nashville and Toronto in guises, and with affectations that, at the very least, would suggest homosexuality, if not the full truth of her identity, during a time of profound ignorance about such things.
Sporting a bouffant, full makeup and a sequined top over a pantsuit, some patrons at the clubs where Shane performed thought she was a lesbian. Only those very close to her, including her highly supportive family, knew that she identified as a woman. Fast-forward 40 years and something remarkable happened: an archival record company, Numero Group, managed to convince the highly elusive star to at last sanction an official compilation of her 60s work. Sixteen months ago, they released it under the title Any Other Way. Earlier this month, the album was nominated for the best historical package Grammy.
Media roundup
The Australian leads with Stop Adani guide given to ALP MPs, as well as prominently featuring the headline Life, romance and relationships, the Jordan Peterson way. Labor to tax rich for nurses, the Sydney Morning Herald reports, as the party announces a tax on luxury cars and yachts to fund nurse-patient ratios. University of Notre Dame vice chancellor Celia Hammond has quit her job, declaring her intention to run in Julie Bishop’s seat, the West Australian reveals.
Coming up
A judge in the New South Wales land and environment court will decide today on whether to issue a temporary injunction preventing the demolition of Allianz Stadium in Sydney.
John Howard will discuss the key economic challenges facing Australia and the world and how these are driven and responded to by public policy, at the Warren Hogan Memorial Lecture at the University of Technology, Sydney this evening.
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