Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Thursday 28 September. Top stories Poker machines are big business in Australia, with players losing $11bn on them every year. A special Guardian interactive shows how they use a range of design features that leverage psychology to keep people playing. In an accompanying investigation, Melissa Davey dives into the opaque science and emotional pull of pokies. "One time late at night at a bar in regional Victoria, I saw a lady who was hugging the machine in a very affectionate manner," Charles Livingstone, an expert on pokies, tells her. "Research has shown there are some people who tend to anthropomorphise poker machines." Poker machines are in the spotlight in a a landmark court case in Melbourne against Aristocrat Technologies (the makers of the Dolphin Treasure pokies) and Crown Casino. Former gambler Shonica Guy's lawyers argue that Aristocrat Technologies and Crown are engaging in deceptive, misleading and unconscionable conduct by providing Dolphin Treasure pokies to the public. Crown Casino told the court they were doing nothing more than making authorised machines available; Aristocrat Technologies said it has "followed the [industry] standards to the tee" and the way the machines worked was not a secret. More than 92% of voters in Iraqi Kurdistan have voted for independence from Baghdad. Euphoria on the streets of Erbil in recent days is likely to be short-lived as a landmark moment in a centuries-old push for self-determination has been met with the threat of air and land blockades from the Iraqi prime minister. Masoud Barzani, the de facto president of the region's Kurds, had hoped to use the poll as political leverage that could help negotiate independence from Iraq. But his moves have been met with increasing hostility from the region, as well as the US and Britain, raising the prospect of isolation and blockade. A week on from Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico's hospitals are at breaking point. Donald Trump has repeatedly praised his administration's relief efforts but the situation on the ground is growing dire as millions of Americans trapped in the disaster zone. The island's few functioning hospitals are at capacity and have scant electricity of fuel. Downed power lines rest in fetid floodwaters that stink of sewage and 44% of residents don't have clean drinking water. Puerto Rico's health infrastructure was already fragile before Maria struck, described by the Urban Institute as "financially unstable". Now it can cope no more. "This has been building up, we've had health issues for years," said Lourdes Inoa Monegro, a community health activist. "This is the outburst." The results of the 2016 National Drug Strategy Household Survey are in and they reveal a mismatch between the way respondents think money should be spent tackling drug abuse and how the government is spending it. Participants nominated education, treatment and harm reduction as the areas that should have most invested in them, but governments continue to spend an estimated 64% of their drug budgets on law enforcement. "What you've got is a situation where the number of drug deaths in Australia is 10 times higher than it is in Portugal," says Associate Prof David Caldicott from the Australian National University. "And this is the case because Portugal have reallocated money from law enforcement to health and, lo and behold, people have stopped dying. This is widely known but it doesn't seem to be leading to policy changing in Australia." Japanese scientists claim to have found evidence of life from 4bn years ago, with fragments of carbon in rocks from Canada the remnants of ancient organisms, they say. The claim suggests the first organisms to emerge on Earth did so during a violent period of history, when asteroids and comets pounded the planet. Yuji Sano, a senior researcher at the University of Tokyo, said prior to his team's discovery, life was thought to have emerged around 3.8bn years ago. Sport How does a player, especially a debutant, cope with the pressure, anxiety, intensity and scrutiny of an AFL grand final? Craig Little speaks to Glenn Archer, the 1996 Norm Smith medallist. "When it's your turn to go, you go," he says. "If you prepare for that, the rest will fall into place."
Ben Stokes has retained his place as England vice-captain for the Ashes as the squad was announced last night – despite his arrest on suspicion of actual bodily harm and nursing a broken finger. Both, writes the Guardian's Ali Martin, are subject to change. Elsewhere Vic Marks says the selection of batsmen Gary Ballance and James Vince, both with mixed Test records, smacks of a "pick your mates" strategy. Thinking time |
Acclaimed fantasy novelist Isobelle Carmody's celebrates the writing of her new favourite up-and-coming Australian author, Daniel Findlay. Findlay's debut novel Year of the Orphan tells of a post-apocalyptic Australia, where scavengers roam and a young woman seeks answers in the ravaged desert. "But above the drama of the narrative, the brilliantly detailed landscape and the world-building employed, Findlay's novel finds its greatest power in the broken and degraded language in which it is told," says Carmody. Days away from Stoptober and SoberOctober the Guardian asked readers for advice on how they broke their worst habits, including drinking, smoking and nail-biting. Self-help books (the good ones) were a common route, and incremental changes seemed to have staying power rather than going cold turkey. "I had brought a boyfriend back to my flat and he accidentally opened the door to my hoarding cupboard and got a shock." says Lauren. " I realised if I wanted to really let anybody in emotionally, I'd have to kick the hoarding". Can we save the world's coral with "assisted evolution", "assisted gene flow" and synthetic biology? Or is it just an expensive and futile exercise in scientists "playing God"? Planet Oz columnist Graham Readfearn looks at the science on this contentious solution to the harm warming sea waters are having on precious reef biodiversity. What's he done now? Donald Trump has a new enemy – and its one of America's greatest tech success stories. "Facebook was always anti-Trump. The networks were always anti-Trump hence, Fake News, @nytimes (apologized) & @WaPo were anti-Trump. Collusion?" suggested the president overnight. "But the people were Pro-Trump! Virtually no president has accomplished what we have accomplished in the first 9 months – and economy roaring." Media roundup The Sydney Morning Herald splashes with a report that Nine and Fox Sports have told the NRL and the government they want smaller stadiums because screening rows of empty seats on their rugby league broadcasts are "a bad look". The Hobart Mercury reports that the Tasmanian premier Will Hodgman has denied claims of a government cover-up over the death of a baby last week who was the focus of two child safety investigations. Labor says child protection services are in crisis, with chronic staff shortages reported. A deradicalisation helpline set up by the government has received five calls in two months, the ABC reports, with the $3.9m service failing to gain traction. "It costs millions, but only a few people have called it," a source told the ABC. "One call was a wrong number, the other was a parent worried their kid was dating a Muslim." Coming up A legal challenge to the Fair Work Commission's decision to cut Sunday penalty rates will be heard in the federal court in Melbourne. The appeal brought by unions representing hospitality and retail workers is set for three days of hearings. The high court is due to publish reasons for its decision in the failed legal challenge to the same-sex marriage postal survey. Supporting the Guardian We'd like to acknowledge our generous supporters who enable us to keep reporting on the critical stories. If you value what we do and would like to help, please make a contribution or become a supporter today. Thank you. |
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Pokies cost Australians $11bn a year. Photograph: Daniel Munoz/Reuters 
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