Good morning, this is Helen Sullivan bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Thursday 28 March.
Top stories
Theresa May has said she will step down as UK prime minister if her Brexit deal passes, in a bid to get Eurosceptic MPs to back her EU withdrawal deal. May said she would make way for another Conservative leader after listening to the demands of MPs, but did not set a date for her departure as she spoke to backbenchers. “I have heard very clearly the mood of the parliamentary party. I know there is a desire for a new approach – and new leadership – in the second phase of the Brexit negotiations and I won’t stand in the way of that,” May said. Boris Johnson, the Brexiter former foreign secretary, was one of several MPs who said her decision meant they would now vote for May’s deal. Meanwhile, parliament was holding a series of indicative votes on alternative Brexit proposals late into the UK evening. Follow the developments live.
The Greens will today set out the climate policies they plan to take into the forthcoming federal election, including a cut-off point of 2030 for the final thermal coal exports from Australia and the phasing out of coal-fired power stations. The announcement will raise the bar for climate ambitions and put pressure on Labor, which could need Greens support to form a government if it falls short of an overall majority in May. The minor party proposes to ban “new internal combustion vehicles by 2030” and a 17% tax on “luxury fossil fuel cars” .
One in five of the submissions to Tim Wilson’s inquiry into Labor’s franking credits policy contain text written by the Liberal MP himself. At least 249 of the 1,300 submissions have been pushed to the inquiry from a campaign website that Wilson created and authorised, stoptheretirementtax.com. The site allows individuals to send in a pro-forma submission opposing Labor’s policy. It is partly funded by fund manager Geoff Wilson, an opponent of Labor’s policy and distant relative of Tim Wilson.
World
A merchant ship has been hijacked by the refugees and migrants it had rescued in the Mediterranean, when they learned they were being returned to Libya. And the European Union is to stop the sea patrols that have rescued thousands, after Italy’s populist government threatened to veto the entire operation.
The first cases of cholera have been reported in the cyclone-ravaged Mozambican city of Beira, complicating an already massive and complex emergency in the southern African country.
The French public has reacted with incredulity to recommendations from health officials that they should drink no more than two glasses of wine a day – and not every day either.
Israeli soldiers shot dead a teenage Palestinian medic in the occupied West Bank, his colleagues and the Palestinian health ministry have said.
A well-preserved frescoed “fast food” counter is among the latest discoveries unearthed in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii. The typical menus of the 150 or so thermopolia, or snack bars, dotted across the city included coarse bread with salty fish, baked cheese, lentils and spicy wine.
Opinion and analysis
Pauline Hanson and Mark Latham are not inevitable, writes Alex McKinnon. With the election of Latham to the New South Wales upper house, some see One Nation as a party that’s here to stay. But an analysis of their primary vote shows they could have a lot in common with a John Farnham farewell tour: the same old act, with steadily diminishing returns.
“I am a civil servant from Bahrain. I write from Isa Town prison, 22km away from the Bahrain International Circuit, which hosts Formula One’s annual grand prix. This weekend, fans of Formula One will flood into Bahrain, brimming with anticipation for this year’s race. For me and my fellow Bahraini citizens, it is nothing but an annual reminder of our suffering in our fight against tyranny and repression,” writes Najah Yusuf. “In April 2017, a week after Sebastian Vettel took to the podium to celebrate his victory in the Bahrain Grand Prix, the most horrific experience of my life began.”
Sport
Steve Smith and David Warner are free to represent Australia once again as their 12-month bans finally come to an end today. A year on from the shocking events of Cape Town, how far has Australian cricket come?
Like the great Suzanne Lenglen 100 years ago, Nick Kyrgios is unfathomable in every way, writes Kevin Mitchell. “He is an irreverent innovator who sees things others do not, and who plays without the fear of consequence.”
Thinking time: ‘A classic love story’
Most romances don’t end in indictment – but then again, the relationship between Maria Butina and Paul Erickson isn’t like most romances. If anything, the love story between a gun-loving Russian covert agent and a conservative activist-cum-alleged fraudster, reads like a Coen brothers movie. There’s the intrigue of a legal thriller (Bridge of Spies), the self-defeating scheming of a crime drama (Fargo), the excess of a cult classic (The Big Lebowski), and even a bit of romance (just about everything, really, ever).
But Butina will be in no mood for plot twists when she appears in court on Thursday for what she hopes will be the last hearing in a saga that has had her sitting in solitary confinement since her arrest in Washington last summer, and on FBI watchlists for years. She stands accused of acting as an undercover influence agent for Russia and exploiting personal connections, as part of a larger Kremlin-backed plan to infiltrate influential conservative groups, most notably the National Rifle Association, and steer American politics in Moscow’s direction, according to a criminal complaint. Butina was arrested last July, the same month that Robert Mueller indicted a dozen other alleged Kremlin-linked intelligence agents in Russia for hacking Democratic computers in 2016. But how she leveraged her connection to a black-sheep GOP operative with a history of taking on questionable causes sets her story apart. For one thing, it’s a love story – “a classic love story” – to hear her lawyer tell it.
Media roundup
Bill Shorten has gone on WeChat to talk directly to Chinese-speaking voters and to distance himself from Michael Daley’s “Asians with PhDs” comments, the ABC and the Australian report, with the Oz’s headline reading: Let’s chat: Shorten in direct pitch to Chinese. The Sydney Morning Herald reveals that air traffic control at Sydney airport is “at breaking point”, with flights restricted on average once a month. The Age trumpets the fact that Melbourne will be Australia’s biggest city by 2026, and highlights Sarah Ristevski’s statement that her father, who killed her mother, was “a good dad”, as does the Herald-Sun.
Coming up
A directions hearing is due in the case of far-right extremist Phillip Galea, who faces terrorism charges over plans to attack Melbourne Anarchists Centre.
The William Tyrrell inquest continues in Sydney, and the Lawyer X royal commission goes into its second day in Melbourne.