Good morning, this is Helen Sullivan bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Tuesday 4 June.
Top stories
Donald Trump has kicked off his state visit to the UK on the offensive against “fake news” and the mayor of London. The president heralded his arrival with a Twitter tirade against his old adversary Sadiq Khan, condemning the mayor as a “stone-cold loser”. More than 250,000 protesters are expected to take to London’s streets on Tuesday, but on Monday the US president was all smiles as his arrival was marked by two 41-gun salutes, a guard of honour and a white-tie-and-tiara banquet. Richard Wolffe says the status accorded by such a reception is all Trump wants from his UK visit; Hannah Jane Parkinson analyses what the photos of the visit mean; and Zoe Williams warns Brexiters that allying with Trump will do nothing to preserve Britain’s sovereignty. Trump is expected to demand that the UK rethinks its plan to do business with Huawei when he meets Theresa May in Downing Street, amid much speculation that she will accede to the wishes of the US.
Queensland government biosecurity workers were exposed to a carcinogenic and gene-altering chemical for six months after its use was banned in the mid-1990s. A leading occupational medical expert has said workers’ exposure to the highly toxic fumigant ethylene dibromide was “more likely than not” the cause of debilitating and serious illnesses suffered over two decades. One chronically ill former employee of the Queensland department of primary industries said the use of the chemical in defiance of long-known risks and forceful warnings from health authorities amounted to “state-sanctioned poisoning”. A Guardian Australia investigation into the landmark papaya fruit fly eradication program has also revealed claims that long-term unemployed people were recruited to work with unconventional pesticides and told they were “guinea pigs”.
Australian musicians including Midnight Oil, Cloud Control, Vance Joy and Regurgitator have banded together to create a new investment platform that allows musicians to build and invest in solar farms. Launching today, it will help artists offset the extremely high emissions output of touring and music production. Cloud Control’s Heidi Leffner, who led the project, said she wanted to tap into the creative drive of her industry to find a solution to a complex problem. “The environmental movement often lacks a positive premise for action,” she said. “It is exciting to own a piece of a solar farm. To do that collectively, we can leave a lasting, tangible infrastructure legacy and say, ‘We built that together.’”
World
An attempt to extradite Julian Assange to Sweden has suffered a setback after a court in Uppsala rejected a request to detain him. The ruling by the district court prevents Swedish prosecutors from applying immediately for an extradition warrant.
Safety regulators in the US have identified a further problem in Boeing’s grounded 737 Max model and the generation of planes that preceded it. The Federal Aviation Administration has told airlines to check more than 300 737 aircraft, including 179 of the Max model, for improperly manufactured parts.
Boris Johnson has pulled ahead of his closest rivals for the leadership of the UK Conservative party, with a slew of endorsements from prominent party moderates and Brexiters.
Kevin Spacey appeared on Monday at a Massachusetts courthouse where a judge was set to hold a hearing in the case accusing the actor of groping a young man at a Nantucket bar in 2016. His appearance was a surprise as he was not required to attend the hearing.
Apple has announced that the iPhone is going to get faster, the iTunes app is dead on the Mac and the iPad is getting its own operating system, as it launches its latest products.
Opinion and analysis
Eighteen-year-old Ollie Nancarrow mowed a giant phallus into a field to greet Donald Trump as the US president flew into the UK’s Stansted airport on Monday morning. He’s not the first to employ such imagery, writes Leo Benedictus in his short history of penis protests. And, while the schoolteachers of your childhood would likely not agree, some drawings of penises are extremely big, and actually quite clever.
On Tuesday the Reserve Bank is expected to cut interest rates to a record low of 1.25%. It is not all doom and gloom, but the Australian economy is not doing well, writes Greg Jericho: “The GDP figures released on Wednesday are likely to confirm that real household incomes remain flat. Should the increased investment lead to stronger demand for workers and thus higher wages, it is likely it will take a year or so to flow through.”
Sport
Ashleigh Barty has made it to the French Open quarter-finals after beating American Sofia Kenin. Barty’s impressive run at the Open continued on Monday when the Australian saw off Kenin 6-3, 3-6, 6-0.
Pakistan have stunned England with a 14-run win at the cricket World Cup, despite centuries from Joe Root and Jos Buttler. Pakistan set a daunting target of 349, in utter contrast to the feeble performance against West Indies in their opening match of the tournament.
Thinking time: The Big Exhale
As Papua New Guinea’s notorious mobile squad – a paramilitary police unit – has been deployed around a Manus Island refugee camp amid a dramatic rise in self-harm and suicide attempts, Kurdish asylum seeker Farhad Bandesh has released a soaring new song. Bandesh has been detained on Manus for six years. Over a scratchy phone line from the island, he describes his life. “I’m one of those guys who are here and trapped in limbo,” he says. “Here I am in Hillside compound. This camp, the conditions are really harsh because people are really depressed. There’s lots of pressure and they’re trying to kill themselves. Some of my friends really did that.”
Bandesh’s music provides a means of spiritual escape, and his new song – written and arranged across borders with the help of David Bridie from Not Drowning, Waving, and with a music video featuring the Melbourne City Ballet – is shot through with the feelings of hopelessness and trauma that define a life of indefinite detention. “Six years is enough,” he says. “It’s too much.” Bridie’s involvement stemmed from his deep engagement with the music of Papua New Guinea, which predates the arrival of a detention centre on Manus. “I wanted to collaborate with an Australian musician,” Bandesh says, “and my friend suggested that I contact David Bridie. When I messaged him he really loved the music.”
Media roundup
Peter Dutton’s Sri Lankan trip to stop boats is the splash in the Australian this morning, with the paper writing that the visit “is designed to signal Australia’s determination that there will be no let-up in a vigorous approach to border protection”. Australia is among the countries urging Britain to prevent Huawei contributing to new mobile networks, the Sydney Morning Herald says. And the Age reports that a Melbourne gardener has launched legal action against Monsanto in the first Australian case to link cancer with the weedkiller Roundup.
Coming up
The RBA is tipped to move rates for the first time in three years on Tuesday with the market already pricing in a new record low of 1.25%. Follow the decision from 2pm with our live blog.
Scott Morrison continues his jam-packed week of travel, heading to London for D-day commemorations having concluded his lightning-fast visit to the Solomon Islands.
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