Good morning, this is Graham Russell taking over briefly to bring you the main stories and must-reads on Thursday 21 September.
Top stories
Donald Trump’s speech to the UN general assembly was “ignorant, absurd and hateful rhetoric” that was “unfit to be heard at the United Nations”, Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, has said. Speaking at the UN a day after Trump’s bombastic speech in which he threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea, Rouhani also said his country would respond “decisively and resolutely” if the US were to walk away from the nuclear deal agreed with other countries in 2015. “It would be a great pity if this agreement were to be destroyed by rogue newcomers to the world of politics,” Rouhani said. Hillary Clinton has said Trump’s speech was “dark, dangerous”.
On Wednesday, Trump told journalists he had decided whether to withdraw certification of the 2015 nuclear deal by a congressional deadline of 15 October. The US president – a former TV reality show host who clearly enjoys building anticipation for his announcements – said “I have decided” and repeated it three times, but did not say what he had decided, telling reporters: “I’ll let you know.” If he does not certify the agreement, under which Iran radically reduced its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief, Congress would have 60 days to decide whether to reimpose US sanctions. If the legislature makes no decision, the onus passes back to the president. The other signatories of the agreement – the UK, France, Germany, Russia and China – have confirmed Iran is sticking to its obligations, and have urged Washington not to walk away from the deal. Trump was also criticised at the UN by a less expected source – British prime minister Theresa May urged leaders to maintain a “rules-based” international order, including support for the Paris climate change accord that Trump rejects.
Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto has declared three days of national mourning after the country was hit by a 7.1-magnitude earthquake that has so far killed 225 people. The Twitter account of his office wrote: “Mexico shares your pain.” You can read the latest developments on our live blog here. Dozens of people have been pulled alive from the rubble of destroyed buildings, including a school in which 20 children died, and the rescue work continues with cutting tools and sniffer dogs.
Australian consumer advocates have sounded a warning over the growth of the buy-now pay-later scheme Afterpay, saying the industry is unregulated and people are being allowed to overcommit because companies are not obliged to check whether consumers can actually afford to make repayments. Low-cost flight carrier Jetstar last week announced it had begun offering the option for airfares costing up to $1,000. It joins more than 7,000 retailers, including brands such as General Pants Co, The Iconic and Optus, who are offering the scheme.
A Liberal MP, phoned by a robo-call claiming same-sex marriage would lead to “radical gay sex education”, has labelled it push polling designed to “mislead and deceive” the Australian public. The robo-poll from WPA Intelligence, a Republican-aligned research company in the US, first appeared on Tuesday last week and is now the subject of a complaint by the Equality Campaign because it does not say who authorised it. The call asks a series of neutral questions before re-testing support for same-sex marriage after the proposition it “may lead to negative consequences such as radical gay sex education being taught in school, threats to freedom of speech and freedom of religion”.
Councillors should be banned from having any role in the handling of projects by developers who have donated to their campaign, Queensland’s parliamentary Speaker has said, after fresh controversy over developer donations erupted on the Gold Coast. The independent MP Peter Wellington said legislative reforms should not only stop councillors voting on donor-related developments, but also prevent them taking up those matters with council staff and others behind the scenes. It follows revelations the Gold Coast deputy mayor, Donna Gates, voted more than 30 times in favour of developments linked to donors who gave tens of thousands of dollars to her 2016 election campaign. A Four Corners report noting that Gates did so legally, despite declaring potential conflicts of interest, prompted the premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, to acknowledge concerns about developer influence and flag possible legislative changes.
Sport
The Matildas have become role models for young girls finding their own love for the sport through their feats, but their skills, style of play and approachability have also appealed to young boys, made converts of sceptical men and made women all over proud, writes Ann Odong. See also our cartoonist David Squires on the Matildas, “Australia’s best national sports team”.
The joy of winning an AFL preliminary final is always tempered with “we still have one more to go”, but a defeat is the worst sporting loss any team can suffer, writes diehard Adelaide fan Greg Jericho, who is awaiting for Friday’s clash with Geelong with trepidation.
Thinking time
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is the biggest production the Australian Ballet has ever undertaken and one of the most spectacular. Choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon for the Royal Ballet and designed by Bob Crowley, it involves puppetry, optical illusions, immersive projections and more. For this gallery of spectacular images, the Australian Ballet’s design co-ordinator, Sukie Kirk, and Kat Chan, the design associate for the production, talked Guardian Australia through the stories behind the designs – from a Cheshire cat operated by eight people to a dress that is also a working cupboard – and the challenges in bringing them to life.
Brigid Delaney describes You Am I frontman Tim Rogers’ new memoir as “honest to the point of discomfort for the reader – as if one were trespassing through his hinterland.” She met up with him in Melbourne to talk about how he mined his past with such rawness: the drinking, the drugs, the self-harm and the broken relationships, as much as the moments of beauty and tenderness. “Any time I felt like I was trying to evoke sympathy I needed to cut that right out,” he told her, “because I felt like whoever the protagonist is in those [parts] is ready to take the blame.”
What? Genocide? Really? How awful, is there a GoFundMe or a Facebook page? First Dog on the Moon records the Australian government’s response to the Rohingya crisis.
Media roundup
The Herald Sun headlines with “Footy vote brawl” after the AFL changed its logo to support same-sex marriage, a move that has apparently divided fans, clubs and some of the code’s big names. The Canberra Times splashes on Tony Abbott accusing the ACT education minister Yvette Berry of “ outrageous interference” after she reminded schools of their obligation to be inclusive of LGBTI students. And the ABC reports concerns that a Melbourne-to-Brisbane inland railway line will be built across a floodplain that was devastated in recent years. It says Darren Chester has opted for a route across the Condamine floodplain in Queensland that was inundated in 2010, destroying farmland.
Coming up
One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts will face questions in the high court about how he renounced his UK ties before standing for parliament in a hearing scheduled to include experts from London. He is due to be cross-examined by government lawyers about his knowledge and “state of mind” in relation to his UK citizenship.
The New South Wales parliament will consider a cross-party euthanasia bill to be introduced to allow terminally ill people over the age of 25 the right to end their own lives with medical help. In Victoria, right-to-die advocates will use a graphic “horror” movie depicting the agonising last days of a man dying from cancer to escalate their campaign.
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