Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Thursday 8 March. Top stories A pro-gun lobby group that helped to bankroll One Nation's push for seats in the Queensland election has links to a far-right anti-Islam group whose leader once advocated for Adolf Hitler's portrait to be hung in classrooms, a Guardian investigation reveals. Founded in 2016 in response to the controversy about the importation of the Adler lever-handled shotgun, the Firearm Owners United group describes itself as a buttress to "the many hysterical voices calling out for further gun control in this country". It seeks to represent the interests of lawful gun owners and advocates for the abolition of the firearms registry set up under John Howard after the 1996 Port Arthur massacre. The group has 60,000 Facebook followers and claims to have several hundred paid members. Its founder, James Buckle, says the FOU is a voice for "law-abiding firearm owners". The Guardian has uncovered evidence linking him to the far-right anti-Islam group the United Patriots Front. The FOU is now recruiting electorate captains to lobby MPs and candidates in seats across Australia. Last year it made its first financial contribution to a campaign during the Queensland election, donating $1,000 to Pauline Hanson's One Nation party and Katter's Australian party. The former Russian spy Sergei Skripal was poisoned with a nerve agent in a case that police are now treating as attempted murder, British police have confirmed. The officer who first attended the father and daughter is also "seriously ill" in hospital, said Scotland Yard, though details of what poison was used are not being released. The medical and chemical evidence point to a sophisticated nerve toxin. Although further details are awaited, the suspicion in Downing Street will be that the Kremlin has carried out another brazen assassination operation on British soil. Richard Di Natale's former chief of staff has launched legal action against the NSW Greens. Cate Faehrmann is vying to take a seat soon to be vacated by Mehreen Faruqi in the NSW Legislative Council. But Faehrmann, who was a Victorian Green, is being barred from contention owing to NSW rules restricting the immediate transfer of individual members between states. Faehrmann has launched action in the NSW supreme court seeking an urgent hearing to overturn the party's decision. The move is a continuation of infighting within the Greens, which has included stoushes between the federal senator Lee Rhiannon and the NSW upper house MP Jeremy Buckingham. Trump officials have denied that the departure of the top economic adviser Gary Cohn has left the White House's economic team in disarray, with the US president sticking to his guns over his controversial trade policy. "From Bush 1 to present, our Country has lost more than 55,000 factories, 6,000,000 manufacturing jobs and accumulated Trade Deficits of more than 12 Trillion Dollars," he tweeted. "Last year we had a Trade Deficit of almost 800 Billion Dollars. Bad Policies & Leadership. Must WIN again! #MAGA." Steven Mnuchin, the treasury secretary who, like Cohn, worked at Goldman Sachs and is part of the administration's diminished "globalist" wing, defended the planned trade tariffs – 25% on steel and 10% on aluminium – but raised the prospect of exceptions for certain countries. Members of the Tennant Creek community in the Northern Territory have accused the government of failing to address their pleas for help with high rates of alcohol and drug abuse, violence and child protection issues, after the alleged rape of a two-year-old girl last month. The territory minister and local MP Gerry Barkly has responded by saying the community itself needs to "change their tack". Barb Shaw, the general manager of the Anyinginyi Health Aboriginal Corporation, said the feeling of being a "forgotten town" was real for people in Tennant Creek, and there were major problems with the way governments cared for people in regional and remote Australia. Sport The Matildas have ended a mixed Algarve Cup campaign with a whimper, falling 2-1 to Portugal in their third-place play-off. Caitlin Cooper scored for Australia but Emily van Egmond missed a penalty as the team struggled to play with their usual panache. Player movements are commonplace in professional sport but the shuffling of the decks that has taken place in the NRL over the off-season has been remarkable. While it's torn young hearts asunder to see their once-favourite players pull on the colours of another club, the swapping has added considerable intrigue to the 2018 season. Thinking time | 
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Firearm Owners United donated $1,000 to Pauline Hanson's One Nation party and Katter's Australian party. Photograph: Darren England/EPA 
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