Sunday, August 13, 2017

Morning mail: Trump told 'call evil by its name'

Morning Mail

Morning mail: Trump told 'call evil by its name'

Monday: US president condemned for response to deadly violence at far-right rally. Plus Labor's push to improve tax transparency for companies

Activists protesting in New York, the day after the fatal attack on counter-protesters at the Unite the Right rally organised by white nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Activists protesting in New York, the day after the fatal attack on counter-protesters at the Unite the Right rally organised by white nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia. Photograph: Joe Penney/Reuters

Eleanor Ainge Roy


Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Monday 14 August.

Top stories

"Call evil by its name"– Donald Trump is facing criticism for failing to condemn the white supremacists who sparked off a weekend of violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. Far-right extremists clashed with counter-protesters on Saturday at a rally event that culminated in a car running into an anti-racism crowd, killing at least one person and injuring 19. The US president said he lamented "hatred, bigotry and violence from many sides", but failed to explicitly condemn the white supremacists, who had marched through the streets carrying flaming torches, screaming racial epithets and setting upon their opponents. The man accused of murdering a woman by deliberately driving into her during protests against a far-right rally, James Fields, 20, was photographed earlier in the day standing with the neo-Nazi group Vanguard America. Fields was one of four people who have been arrested over the violence on Saturday.

Trump's lack of clear language and strong leadership on the violence was met with scorn from both sides of the political spectrum. Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, described the car ramming as an act of domestic terrorism. The Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio tweeted that it was "very important" that the president describe events as they are: "a terror attack by #whitesupremacists". The Republican senator Cory Gardner of Colorado tweeted: "Mr President – we must call evil by its name. These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism."

Six hundred of Australia's biggest private companies could finally be forced to publish high-level tax information, under a new push by Labor to repair a notorious piece of legislation. Labor will introduce a private senators' bill on Monday to amend the Taxation Administration Act 1953, to require private companies with more than $100m in turnover to release their tax information to the public annually. The former Labor government passed similar legislation in 2013 but the provision was wound back by the Coalition in late 2015 before the changes could take effect.

Two mental health patients who have been ordered to undergo compulsory electroconvulsive treatment are challenging the decision in the Victorian supreme court, saying they were incorrectly declared as too unwell to give consent by the mental health tribunal. Under the Mental Health Act 2014, an authorised psychiatrist may make an application to the tribunal to perform a course of ECT on a patient if they do not have the capacity to give informed consent and the psychiatrist is satisfied there is no less restrictive way for the patient to be treated. It is the first time the legislation has been tested before the supreme court.

Labor has attacked the Coalition's move to apply normal electoral laws to the marriage equality postal vote, saying they "should have thought of that before they foisted this ridiculous postal survey on Australians". On Friday the Turnbull government first floated the possibility of an urgent bill to apply protections against misleading information, fraud, bribery and intimidation. The shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, told the ABC's Insiders program that Labor would "look at whatever the government puts forward" but warned the process may undermine advocates' high court challenge to the postal vote. Also on Sunday the Coalition ministers Simon Birmingham, Christopher Pyne and Josh Frydenberg said they would encourage Australians to vote in favour of marriage equality in the vote.

Danish police believe the submarine linked to the case of a missing Swedish journalist was sunk on purpose. Amateur submarine maker Peter Madsen is in custody in Copenhagen as police investigate the disappearance of Kim Wall, 30, who had been onboard his vessel before Madsen is alleged to have deliberately sunk it off Denmark's east coast. Madsen claims Wall disembarked safely from the submarine onto an island three and half hours into the journey on Thursday night, but there has been no sign of her for four days. On Sunday the submarine was raised from the sea bed and searched but no body was discovered. The search for Wall in the water, from the air and on land, continues.

Sport

Julian Forte, Yohan Blake, Usian Bolt and Omar McLeod after the 4x100m race at the World Athletics Championships in London.
No fitting end: Julian Forte, Yohan Blake, an injured Usain Bolt and Omar McLeod after the 4x100m race at the World Athletics Championships in London. Photograph: Paul Mcfegan/Sportsphoto Ltd./Allstar

Mo Farah has accused sections of the media of trying to "destroy" his achievements with unfounded allegations against his coach Alberto Salazar, and insinuations about how he attained his success. Speaking the morning after his glittering championship track career came to an end with a painful 5,000m defeat in the London Stadium, Farah said: "History doesn't lie … What I achieved over the years, people are proud of me. You can write what you like."

The Guardian's Andy Bull looks back at the disapointing final race of the great Usain Bolt, whose glittering career ended yesterday when he hobbled over the finish line with a pulled hamstring in the 4x100m. An ending unfit for the king of the track.

Thinking time

A photo taken at Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex (aka Tidbinbilla Tracking Station) which is located just outside Canberra, Australia.
Saturn calling: Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex (aka Tidbinbilla tracking station), where Australian experts guide Nasa's mission to Saturn. Photograph: Jonny Weeks for the Guardian

Just outside Canberra, in scrubby farmland, a team of dedicated Australians are guiding Nasa's Cassini spacecraft on its historic but suicidal course to Saturn from the Tidbinbilla tracking station. It's the grand finale of a 20-year mission that has revolutionised our understanding of the solar system and sent home more than a quarter of a million stunning images of Saturn and its moons. Guardian photographer Jonny Weeks paid them a visit: view his photo essay here.

Writer Andrew Stafford examines how journalists talk about mental health and people in crisis, particularly in the frenzy of modern news reporting, speaking from his own personal experience. "On the evening of 22 February 2016, I scrawled a note to my former partner, threw a handful of clothes and possessions in the car, and took off into the night," he writes. "I didn't know what I was doing, or where I was going: north, south, east or west. Somewhere along the way, I fired off three tweets that were unfortunately reflective of my state of mind before deactivating my social media accounts ... [When I stopped] my face was on the front of news websites. I'd been officially declared missing."

Literary journalist Robert McCrum has contended with death not once but twice as his journey to the final goodbye accelerates – and he has come to believe it is words that are the best weapon with which to come to terms with ageing. In an extract from his new book, McCrum writes: "To me, the mystery of death and dying is only equalled by the mystery of life and living. Consoling narratives must be patched together from transient fragments of experience."

Media roundup

The Canberra Times splashes with a report on youth employment in the capital, and says exploitation, underpayment, harrasment and unsafe work practices are "far too prevalent", based on a Unions ACT survey finding that 76% of those aged 15-25 reported having been underpaid, while more than half had been made to work unpaid trial shifts.

The NT news has a morbid front page about council's "grave decision" to charge ratepayers more for burial costs, while the West Australian splashes with a powerful front page of the Charlottesville white supremecist attacks over the weekend, as does the Australian.

And the ABC has an interesting read on how a 19th-century poem by Rudyard Kipling, 'If', read by Australian actor Jack Thompson is a latest tool being used to help address men's mental health issues.

Coming up

It's the first court date for former Queensland University of Technology students Jackson Powell and Calum Thwaites against the information commissioner and the Human Rights Commission over the QUT 18C racial vilification lawsuit.

Australian sports broadcaster and journalist Les Murray will be farewelled in a state funeral at St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, later this morning.

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