Morning mail: Australia's carbon emissions reach record levels Monday: Use of diesel and aviation fuel helps push emissions, excluding land use, to new high. Plus: Netanyahu makes tense visit to Europe Transport emissions are at record levels. Photograph: Bloomberg via Getty Images Mike Ticher Good morning, this is Mike Ticher, standing in for Eleanor Ainge Roy, bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Monday 11 December. Top stories Australia's emissions over the past year were the highest on record, when relatively unreliable emissions from land use are excluded, according to estimates by the carbon consultancy NDEVR Environmental. The latest quarter showed the second highest rise for any quarter since 2011, despite electricity emissions being driven down by wind generation. Emissions from transport were at record levels, with jumps in the use of diesel and aviation fuel. The government's official release of data on emissions is now six months behind and NDEVR Environmental's estimates attempt to mirror its methodology. Released in partnership with Guardian Australia, the results have proved very accurate when compared with data eventually released by the government. The ever-increasing emissions are taking Australia further from both its carbon-reduction commitments made in Paris and the much bigger reductions recommended by the government's Climate Change Authority. In both 2015 and 2016, the government held on to the data showing rising emissions for months before quietly releasing it in the days before Christmas. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has arrived in Europe on his first foreign trip since US recognition of Jerusalem as the the country's capital triggered a wave of condemnation and protest. A 25-year old man was seriously injured in stabbing attack in Jerusalem as tensions remained high between Israelis and Palestinians. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, hosted Netanyahu for a working lunch in Paris on Sunday, where he was expected to challenge the Israeli prime minister to explain whether he still supported a two-state solution or regarded continued occupation of the West Bank as a viable long-term solution. Macron has been leading the criticism of the US decision. Australia's deforestation and land-clearing crisis is spreading from the east coast to the Northern Territory, where land targeted for clearing has increased nearly tenfold in just a few years. Applications for enormous amounts of clearing have been approved in the past two years, with the trees set to be burned and regrowth controlled with toxic herbicides. On one station alone, an area about one-fifth the size of the ACT is planned to be cleared, most of it to accommodate more cattle. Changes to laws in NSW are also expected to dramatically increase rates of clearing there and Australia's richest graziers are eyeing the pristine Kimberley region of WA as the next frontier to strip of native vegetation. Thirteen companies that paid no tax in 2015-16 made $1.7m in political donations to the Liberal and Labor parties in that year, the Greens say. On Thursday the tax office released fresh tax data that showed 36% of the 2,043 largest public companies and multinational entities in Australia paid no tax in 2015-16. Last week the government announced new laws to combat foreign interference, including by banning foreign political donations. The Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, said: "Our democracy is broken when 13 companies have paid zero dollars in tax but can still find $1.7m to donate to the Labor and Liberal parties. This information exposes that simply cracking down on foreign donations will not end the influence of big money over our political system." The most hotly anticipated and controversial Russian ballet in years has had its premiere as Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre finally staged Nureyev, which tells the life story of the dancer. The theatre's best dancers took to the stage on Saturday night with much of the Russian elite in the audience. But the ballet's director, Kirill Serebrennikov, was conspicuously absent, having spent the past few months under house arrest. Nureyev's summer premiere was cancelled at the last minute, with speculation that gay themes in the ballet may have angered some government figures. Rudolf Nureyev, who began his career at St Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre – known as the Kirov in Soviet times – is widely regarded as ballet's most gifted male dancer. He defected to the west in 1961, had gay relationships and died from an Aids-related illness in 1993 aged 54. Sport Two goals from set pieces have given Manchester City a 2-1 win over their local rivals United, stretching their lead at the top of the Premier League to a monstrous 11 points. In the Merseyside derby a Wayne Rooney penalty rescued a 1-1 draw for Everton. As the Ashes series moves to Perth, with England in disarray, Ali Martin looks back at the history of the Waca ground, which will host its last Test on Thursday. "Even when empty, a stroll around the Waca is an evocative one. Though the seats are sun-bleached, the paint peels off in many places and the slightly ramshackle facilities are a throwback to the past, this outgoing Ashes venue still feels mighty special." Thinking time Sylvia Ŋulpinditj, an announcer for Yolŋu Radio, conducts an interview in the field. Photograph: Yolŋu Radio In 2015, when two cyclones battered the northern coast of Arnhem Land in less than a month, many remote homelands had just two ways to get news: a payphone or Yolŋu Radio. During Cyclone Lam, the category-four storm that made landfall first near Elcho Island, announcer Sylvia Ŋulpinditj, production manager Gaia Osborne and another colleague delivered more than 170 cyclone updates in Yolŋu languages, working around the clock from the Darwin studio. The station – run by the ARDS Aboriginal Corporation – broadcasts across more than 40,000 sq km of Yolŋu country, including the six major communities of north-east Arnhem Land and 15 homelands where, for many, it is the only freely available media source. Taylor Swift sums up the two biggest issues for journalism in 2017, control and trust, writes Jane Martinson. In one sense, her desire for control is an affront to journalism's ability to seek out truth and hold the powerful to account – and Swift is powerful. But at the same time it's hard not to have some sympathy for her decision to do things on her own terms. Swift is far from some sort of Instagram Joan of Arc, carrying the sword of truth and justice. She hasn't always got everything right, and her brand of feminism has justifiably been a lightning rod for many who argue that white women, notably rich ones, ignore the problems of others while appropriating their contributions. But speaking up for yourself and not letting somebody else do it for you is a powerful message for many young women, Martinson argues. Parliament may have finished for the year, but the dual citizenship crisis is not going away. The first Labor politicians to be referred, Katy Gallagher and David Feeney, are off to the high court early next year. And there could be more referrals after that. The next wave of cases is likely to focus on the question of whether MPs and senators did everything they could to renounce their other citizenship before they nominated to stand. Needless to say, the Coalition and Labor have different ideas about how this should be judged. Here is what you need to know about the reasonable steps test. What's he done now? Donald Trump is feeling incredibly positive about the US economy (a subject "Fake News spends as little time as possible discussing!"), and especially his looming tax cut bill, which is shaping up "even better than projected", he tweeted overnight. "End result will be not only important, but SPECIAL!" Media roundup Australia's ties with China are prominent on the front pages, with the Australian reporting business fears that the relationship is at a "tipping point". The Sydney Morning Herald has a new claim on the Sam Dastyari affair, alleging that the Labor senator tried to stop the party's deputy leader, Tanya Plibersek, meeting a pro-democracy activist in Hong Kong in 2015. The Adelaide Advertiser splashes on the search for a teenager, apparently part of a visiting Indian school sport team, after four others were rescued at Glenelg beach late on Sunday. Coming up The result of the Australian bird of the year poll will be announced this morning, live on ABC News Breakfast and the Guardian Facebook page from 7.30am. Follow all the news, controversy and reaction on our live blog from 7am. Malcolm Turnbull makes a solo appearance on the ABC's Q&A tonight.  Guardian News & Media Limited - a member of Guardian Media Group PLC. Registered Office: Kings Place, 90 York Way, London, N1 9GU. Registered in England No. 908396