Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Morning mail: North Korea fires ballistic missile

Morning Mail

Morning mail: North Korea fires ballistic missile

Wednesday: Pyongyang conducts its first test launch since September. Plus: scientists discover Great Barrier Reef 'life support system'

A North Korean Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile shown during a test launch
A North Korean Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile shown during a test launch. Photograph: KCNA/Reuters

Eleanor Ainge Roy


Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Wednesday 29 November.

Top stories

North Korea has fired an unidentified ballistic missile, according to reports citing South Korean military chiefs who say Pyongyang has conducted its first launch since it fired a missile over Japan in September. The BBC has reported that the Pentagon is still assessing the "probable" launch, which took place at approximately 3.30am local time.

According to South Korean news agency Yonhap, the missile flew to the east of the country and the the South Korean military are analysing details of the launch with the US. The launch comes shortly after news agency Reuters reported that US government experts believed North Korea was poised to conduct a new missile test. It also follows several weeks of seeming de-escalation between the US and North Korea, after tensions reached boiling point in September when the rogue regime fired two ballistic missiles over Japanese territory in a fortnight. The September launch was understood to be an apparent show of defiance, days after the UN security council approved a new round of sanctions against the regime. Flight data shows the missile travelled higher and further than the one involved in the 29 August flyover of Japan, suggesting the regime is continuing to make advances in its missile and nuclear weapons programs.

Dozens of "source" reefs have been identified that could form a life support system for the Great Barrier Reef, helping to repair damage caused by bleaching, starfish and other disturbances. A new study has discovered 112 reefs that had "ideal properties" to facilitate recovery by spreading fertilised eggs to replenish other areas. "Finding these 100 reefs is a little like revealing the cardiovascular system of the Great Barrier Reef," said the University of Queensland's Prof Peter Mumby. "It gives us a bit more hope that the capacity for the barrier reef to heal itself is greater than we expected." However, other experts questioned whether the system would be enough to heal devastated areas, particularly in the north, and ensure the tourist hotspot's long-term viability.

Pope Francis has failed to mention the plight of Rohingya in his speech during a visit to Myanmar, an omission that has been criticised by human rights groups. Speaking in the capital, Naypyitaw, the pontiff said the country was suffering from civil conflict and hostilities "that have lasted all too long and created deep divisions" and people needed to "respect the rights of all who call this land their home". The Pope's visit was viewed as extremely delicate, and it was feared that violent protests could erupt if he so much as mentioned the 620,000 Rohingya from Rakhine state who have fled to Bangladesh after a military crackdown that the UN, US and UK have described as ethnic cleansing. Mayyu Ali, a Rohingya refugee said: "If he avoids speaking up for persecuted Rohingya during his visit to our country, it would be something like he also is a bystander of the suffering we have [had] since decades."

Australian companies need to start building scenario-based analyses of climate risks into their business outlooks so shareholders know how climate change will affect profit, a progressive thinktank has said. The Centre for Policy Development's call echoed warnings from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority but it added that companies needed to do so in a standardised way, so investors and regulators could easily understand the risks posed to whole industries. It said Australia's biggest businesses should use the Paris climate agreement as the centrepiece for their scenario planning, saying it provided a credible, long-term anchor for policies that limit global warming to well below 2C.

Three people have been killed in opposition rallies a few miles from where Uhuru Kenyatta has been sworn in for a second five-year term as president of Kenya, in a move few believe will signal the end of political instability in the east African country. The main opposition leader, Raila Odinga, boycotted the election, saying it wouldn't be "free and fair" and called Kenyatta's government "illegitimate". The political turmoil in east Africa's richest and most developed economy was triggered when Kenya's supreme court nullified the first presidential election in August citing irregularities. Kenyatta, a US-educated multimillionaire, said the past few months "have been a trying time" and he called for an end to hate and divisiveness. Kenya is more polarised and divided that at any time since ethnic violence killed more than 1,000 people in 2008, observers say.

Sport

Ben Stokes is readying himself to make an astonishing England return during the ongoing Ashes series in the event that he is cleared by police after his late-night arrest in Bristol two months ago, with the all-rounder having flown to New Zealand to get match fit in the event he is called up.

Our resident football cartoonist, David Squires, muses over Fifa's preparations for the 2018 World Cup and imagines the hard yards being put in by Gianni Infantino and Vladimir Putin to ensure the Cup draw goes off smoothly

Thinking time

Gang of Youths accept the Aria for album of the year
Gang of Youths accept the Aria for album of the year. Photograph: Zak Kaczmarek/Getty Images for Aria


Gang of Youths and Paul Kelly were the big winners at the 31st Aria awards on a night that saw the Indigenous rap duo AB Original declare "change doesn't come from everyone being comfortable" after Triple J's decision to move the date of the Hottest 100. The Sydney band Gang of Youths picked up the most awards on the night, winning album of the year, best group and best rock album, but it was the rappers Briggs and Trials who delivered the performance of the night with Kelly and Dan Sultan. Their updated, explicitly political, cover of Dumb Things saw Briggs rap the now-prescient line: "The date's changin'."

Australia is a decent country where ugly discrimination is on the rise, writes David Marr, unpacking the Scanlon Foundation's 2017 Mapping Social Cohesion Report. The mission of the foundation is to measure how the migrant nation of Australia hangs together, and author of the report, Andrew Markus of Monash University, says wild swings of opinion are not the danger he identifies here. What he sees are figures shifting a little each year into hostile territory. "It's not just the numbers," he says. "It's the way the numbers move."

The tireless Indigenous activist Tracker Tilmouth never wrote anything down, instead committing events to memory and discussing them in great detail immediately after to firm up his thoughts. For the Miles Franklin award-winner Alexis Wright, this paucity of written record is the starting point for a hefty, sprawling biography which draws on voices and anecdotes of people who knew Tracker.

In a long read, the Guardian US journalists Sam Levin and Lois Beckett explore how US gun violence has spawned a new epidemic: conspiracy theorists harassing victims online. After surviving mass shootings, victims and victims' families are now facing a second and seemingly never-ending round of attacks online.

What's he done now?

Two senior US Democrats have boycotted a meeting with the president after he tweeted that he saw no deal being done with them. "Meeting with 'Chuck and Nancy' today about keeping government open and working. Problem is they want illegal immigrants flooding into our Country unchecked, are weak on Crime and want to substantially RAISE Taxes. I don't see a deal!" Trump tweeted, prompting Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to snub the scheduled White House meeting, saying it seemed fruitless if the president had indicated he was unwilling to negotiate on spending, healthcare and immigration.

Media roundup

The Sydney Morning Herald and the Age splash with an exclusive claiming the Labor senator Sam Dastyari had his phone tapped and was aware of it, and later warned Chinese Communist party-linked political donor Huang Xiangmo that he was probably being bugged by government agencies. Dastyari and Huang met in person on the grounds of Huang's Sydney mansion, as the senator advised that would be the safest way to avoid intelligence surveillance. The Australian delves into the inside story of Ali Khalif Shire Ali, the 20-year-old son of Somalian refugees who was arrested yesterday and charged with allegedly planning a terrorist attack in the heart of Melbourne. And the ABC tags along as University of Tasmania students dissect a dolphin alongside CSIRO scientists. The slightly gory but important dissection allows scientists to study the state of the animal's organs, what it has been eating, and if it has been afflicted by any diseases.

Coming up

A cross-party bill on marriage equality is expected to pass the Senate on Wednesday, after proposed amendments to the bill failed on Tuesday evening.

An appeal case will be heard today in Sydney on the Bowraville murders. The court is to consider whether there is new and compelling evidence to retry a man previously cleared of the killing of Indigenous children in the New South Wales town in the 1990s.

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