Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Wednesday 16 August.
Top stories
A global mining giant seeking public funds to develop one of the world’s largest coalmines in Australia has been accused of fraudulently siphoning hundreds of millions of dollars of borrowed money into overseas tax havens. Indian conglomerate the Adani Group is expecting a legal decision in the “near future” in connection with allegations it inflated invoices for an electricity project in India to shift huge sums of money into offshore bank accounts. Details of the alleged 15bn rupee (US$235m) fraud are contained in an Indian customs intelligence notice obtained by the Guardian, excerpts of which are published for the first time.
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) file, compiled in 2014, maps out a complex money trail from India through South Korea and Dubai, and eventually to an offshore company in Mauritius allegedly controlled by Vinod Shantilal Adani, the older brother of the billionaire Adani Group chief executive, Gautam Adani. Vinod Adani is the director of four companies proposing to build a railway line and expand a coal port attached to Queensland’s vast Carmichael mine project. The proposed mine, which would be Australia’s largest, has been the source of intense controversy for years, as well as legal challenges and protests over its possible environmental impacts. The Adani Group fully denies the accusations, which it has challenged in submissions to the authority.
Donald Trump has held an at-times rowdy press conference defending far-right protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, insisting that “not all of those people were neo-Nazis, not all of those people of white supremacists”. Speaking in the lobby of Trump Tower he was asked if white nationalist James Alex Fields Jr was a terrorist after Heather Heyer died when he drove his car into a group of counter-protesters. Trump responded: “The driver of the car is a disgrace to himself his family and his country ... is it murder? Is it terrorism? Then you get into legal semantics.”
He also condemned leftwing counter-protesters who came to the Virginia university town to challenge the far-right marchers. He insisted that many of those in the crowds brandishing Nazi flags and engaging white power salutes were simply “there to protest the taking down the statue of Robert E Lee”.
Australia’s peak body for psychiatrists has warned drug-testing welfare recipients will not address drug or alcohol addiction and is at odds with 50 years of evidence about behavioural change. The criticisms of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists add to a growing weight of concern from physicians, drug policy researchers, frontline support workers and welfare advocacy groups about the Coalition government’s plan. The president of the college, Kym Jenkins, said the evidence generally suggested punitive approaches to drug addiction were ineffective. “Generally, it’s recognised that motivation rather than punishment is the way to go with any behavioural change,” Jenkins said .
A leading trade economist has denounced the Palaszczuk government’s “Buy Queensland” policy as “crackers” after New Zealand’s trade minister hinted that a highly unusual trade war targeting Australia’s third-largest state was possible. Now a second foreign government has also complained. The office of the trade minister, Steve Ciobo, will not reveal its identity but says more countries are certain to complain about violations of free trade pacts. Annastacia Palaszczuk last month announced that her government would ignore restrictions in free trade pacts when evaluating bids on state contracts worth $18bn a year, favouring local suppliers with price subsidies of up to 30% on their tenders.
Israel has lodged an official complaint after a hotel in Switzerland posted signs telling Jewish guests to shower before using the pool and restricted their access to a kitchen freezer. The Paradies apartment hotel in the Alpine village of Arosa, in eastern Switzerland, has been accused of antisemitism after a guest photographed a range of disturbing signs at the hotel, including one that read: “To our Jewish guests, women, men and children, please take a shower before you go swimming. If you break the rules I’m forced to [close] the swimming pool for you.” Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Tzipi Hotovely, described the notices as “an antisemitic act of the worst and ugliest kind”. The owner of the hotel has said she is not antisemetic and she “wrote something naive on that poster”.
Sport
The end to Australia’s cricket pay dispute has been met with great relief at grassroots level, as Helen Davidson found out in Darwin, where the national team is assembled for a practice match before they leave for a two-Test tour of Bangladesh later this week. Pace spearhead Pat Cummins said the money would mean more opportunities and better facilities for young players: “We’re so lucky in Australia to have so many volunteers around the junior clubs, so I guess it’s a way to help them teach cricket and coach cricket, and hopefully that reflects in it being more enjoyable for the kids.”
Bob Murphy, the 18-season Western Bulldogs veteran, has called time on his career and will depart the AFL at the end of this season not only as a great footballer and a true leader of men, but also as a political hero, writes Kate O’Halloran.
Thinking time
“Will 2017 be the year love wins?” In this candid video, eight members of Australia’s LGBTI community talk about their hopes and fears for marriage equality in Australia. They reflect on the pain of the debate and the risk to vulnerable young people. And they have a few pointed words for Malcolm Turnbull, too.
The death of the Olympic gold medal-winning track cyclist Stephen Wooldridge has left the Australian cycling community in mourning and questioning why. In a sport often riven with division, no one ever had a bad word to say about Wooldridge. The 39-year-old won gold at the 2004 Olympics in Athens and claimed four world titles; but most importantly he was a gentleman, and a role model. “We are all looking for answers” says Australian cycling coach Gary Sutton. “ I am just lost for words.”
The school lunchbox staple might not be so boring after all. Geneticists have traced the humble apple’s exotic lineage all the way to the Silk Road. The fruit’s evolutionary history has been unpicked for the first time by studying 24 species of apple ranging from wild apples found in North America and China to domestic apples including ancient, cultivated varieties as well as those found in our supermarkets. The new research suggests about 46% of the genome of modern, domestic apples is likely passed down from M sieversii plants from Kazakhstan, with 21% from the European crabapple and 33% from uncertain sources.
What’s he done now?
Whoopsie daisies. Donald Trump has published and deleted a flurry of tweets overnight, including an image of a “Trump train” running down a person with a CNN logo on their face, shared a tweet by a man calling the president a fascist, and another by a conspiracy theorist.
Media roundup
Dramatic headline of the day goes to the Canberra Times, which splashes with yesterday’s trans-Tasman drama “Coalition of Chaos: stoush to escalate”. The Age has an exclusive, revealing it was Penny Wong’s chief of staff, Marcus Ganley, who contacted New Zealand MP Chris Hipkins regarding queries around citizenship. “It’s understood Mr Ganley, who is from New Zealand, spoke to Mr Hipkins about citizenship laws but did not mention Mr Joyce.” The West Australian takes a local look at the political scandal, saying as many as 12,000 West Australians may be New Zealanders without knowing it.
And the ABC reveals Australian defence personnel will take part in a joint training exercises between the United States and South Korea, finding themselves in the middle of the escalating North Korean military crisis.
Coming up
The House of Representatives and the Senate sit again today with the government likely to face further questions over the citizenship status of some MPs, including the deputy PM.
Just down the road at the National Press Club, Angus Campbell, the chief of army, will be speaking on the army’s domestic violence awareness program with the theme “Silence is the accomplice”.
And in Sydney, Fairfax Media and Seven West Media will release their full-year results. Seven has had a particularly torrid year with the fallout from the affair between chief executive Tim Worner and former employee Amber Harrison being publicly played out in courtrooms and in the media.
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