Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Wednesday 22 November. Top stories The president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, has resigned after 37 years in power. The speaker of parliament announced the news during a hearing to impeach the 93-year-old leader, a week after the military took over the country. A letter from Mugabe said his decision was voluntary, and wild celebrations broke out among MPs upon hearing the news, which soon spread to the streets of Harare where people cheered Mugabe's demise. "We are elated. It's time for new blood," said William Makombore, who said he worked in finance. "I'm 36 and I've been waiting for this all my life. I've only known one leader." Mugabe's fall will reverberate across a continent where hundreds of millions of people still suffer the authoritarian excesses of rapacious, ruthless rulers, are denied justice by corrupt or incompetent officials and struggle to hold even elected governments to account. Impeachment proceedings against Mugabe began earlier on Tuesday, buoyed by thousands of people who turned up outside parliament to urge on MPs. Though some still consider the former guerrilla a hero of the liberation struggle, many more revile him as a dictator prepared to sacrifice the economic wellbeing of 16 million people to remain in power. By the end, few options were left to Mugabe, who ruled Zimbabwe through a mixture of coercion, bribery and revolutionary rhetoric. The way is now clear for Emmerson Mnangagwa, the vice-president fired by Mugabe 13 days ago, to take power. The Turnbull government is turning up the heat on recalcitrant states who have greeted its national energy guarantee plan with hostility. The Coalition has released summaries of modelling it commissioned showing household power bills between 2020 and 2030 would be "in the order of" $120 a year lower in today's dollars, than under a business-as-usual scenario, if the policy applied across the national electricity market. The material is designed to encourage the states to come to Friday's energy talks in a cooperative frame of mind, since their approval is needed to implement the policy. But a spokesman for the South Australian premier, Jay Weatherill, is continuing to insist that the state will not commit to the national energy guarantee unless he sees data showing its specific impact on the state. The tree-clearing explosion in Queensland, usually reported in seemingly impossibly large numbers of hectares or square kilometres, is now being documented using publicly available satellite and aerial photography. This method reveals the graphic disfigurement of the remaining untouched bushland there. Analysis by Martin Taylor at WWF shows that large amounts of the clearing revealed on the satellite imagery is within 50 metres of water bodies that flow into the Great Barrier Reef. Trees in those areas are among the highest priority for protection, which would be provided by regulations proposed by the state Labor party if it wins power in this weekend's Queensland election. A suicide bomber has killed dozens of people in a terrorist attack on a mosque in Nigeria. Boko Haram is thought to be behind the devastating attack in Adamawa state in the country's north-east. Although the militants are yet to claim responsibility, they have killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions in the region. The group has used children as young as five to carry out hundreds of attacks on busy marketplaces, checkpoints and mosques, including in the holy city of Medina, in the past few years. Abubakar Sule, who lives near the mosque, told Agence France-Presse: "The roof was blown off. People near the mosque said the prayer was midway when the bomber, who was obviously in the congregation, detonated his explosives." Centrelink is hiring – sort of. The welfare agency plans to add up to 1,000 temporary staff from labour-hire firms to help it recover debts and enforce the compliance of welfare recipients, and the union is not happy. The Community and Public Sector Union's national secretary, Nadine Flood, described the outsourcing as "new and scandalous", saying it would place labour-hire staff in sensitive roles, including handling those caught up in the robodebt crisis, which should be filled by "well-trained public servants". The Department of Human Services describes it as a "temporary surge" in the use of private contractors and maintains it is neither new nor unusual. Sport Through the most daring of hands, Danni Wyatt last night steered England to the least likely of victories over Australia, as the visitors ended their Women's Ashes campaign by knocking off the highest successful run chase in the history of women's Twenty20 Internationals. Sydney FC completed a domestic treble in 2017 with a thrilling 2-1 extra-time victory over Adelaide United, but not before an ugly melee towards the end of the game after a ball boy was knocked to the ground by the Reds defender Michael Marrone. Thinking time |
'You'll never work again': actors, comedians and journalists talk to the Guardian about sexual harassment in the workplace, and how such encounters have threatened to ruin their careers. "There are coming to be consequences for those actions but it's too little, too late," said the former DC Comics editor Janelle Asselin. "For the people who were harassed and assaulted, the consequences are something we've been living with for years." When the religious freedom detractors wanted more detail for the same-sex marriage legislation, Malcolm Turnbull was optimistic and vague. He assured us that we would see parliament "at its best" to nut out the details. But on the Indigenous voice to parliament proposal, the prime minister used "lack of detail" as an excuse not to have a vote. Shireen Morris says: "He showed no such leadership on Indigenous recognition. On this issue, he was a deliberate wet blanket." Channel Nine has announced it will retain eight of the same white men for its summer of Ashes commentary. The announcement drew the ire of an acerbic Twitter audience and revealed Nine as out of touch with both public sentiment and other broadcasters. The network's familiar brand of middle-aged, blokey banter pervades Australia's favourite sports, writes Kate O'Halloran. What's he done now? CNN has put together Donald Trump's latest hit-list – the 10 people or institutions he has attacked online in the past seven days. Although on the campaign trail Trump pledged to act boring and "presidential", he has adjusted that pledge, in July tweeting: "My use of social media is not Presidential - it's MODERN DAY PRESIDENTIAL. Make America Great Again!" Read CNNs round-up of Trump's current enemies here, which include two news organisations, three UCLA basketball players, a professional football player and two sitting senators. Oh, and Hillary Clinton of course! Media roundup The Canberra Times front page has a photo of what it describes as "traffic hell". It says one of the capital's busiest roads has been turned into a gigantic construction site as the city builds its light rail networkDelays are expected to worsen over the weekend, leading to "peak" chaos, it says. "Zen and the art of political campaigning" reads the headline at the Sydney Morning Herald – where Tony Wright joins Pauline Hanson on her "battler bus" as she campaigns around Ipswich. Hanson is pictured with a large Jersey cow called Nola. And the ABC crunches census data to explore why millennials are increasingly getting stuck in low-paid jobs. Australia's youngest workers are now much more likely to be employed in hospitality and food preparation jobs, despite their level of qualifications. Coming up With the Queensland election still up in the air, both major parties will be doubling their efforts to lock in votes. The Liberal National party is headed on a coastal seat blitz, while Labor tries to bed down central Queensland, with One Nation at their heels. 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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A portrait of Robert Mugabe is removed amid celebrations after his resignation. Photograph: Jekesai Njikizana/AFP/Getty Images 
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