Good morning, this is Stephen Smiley bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Thursday 15 August.

Top stories

Sugarcane industry managers funded by grants from the Queensland government to help canegrowers reduce pollution flowing on to the Great Barrier Reef are promoting lectures by a controversial scientist who argues farm runoff is no threat to the reef. Peter Ridd began a speaking tour of regional Queensland on Monday amid fierce opposition to proposed state regulations that would set restrictions for sediment and chemical runoff. His lectures – which dispute the overwhelming consensus of reef scientists – argue that pollution from farmland is not seriously damaging the reef. The events are hosted by regional branches of the sugar canegrowers peak body, Canegrowers, and the Australian Environment Foundation, a charity set up by the rightwing thinktank the Institute of Public Affairs.

The woman murdered in a vicious knife attack in Sydney has been named as Michaela Dunn. The 24-year-old was allegedly killed at an apartment on Clarence Street in Sydney’s CBD on Tuesday by Mert Ney, a 20-year-old who police said had a history of mental health issues. Dunn was a former Rosebank College and Notre Dame university student from Sydney’s west. On Wednesday her family issued a statement through the NSW police requesting privacy. A friend, Joan Westenberg, said she had known Dunn since she was 14 and told Guardian Australia she was “an incredible person. In every single way.” Ney is expected to be charged with murder and serious assault.

The Coalition is under pressure from faith groups to include protections for institutions in its proposed religious discrimination bill, which is expected to go to cabinet next week. But LGBTQI advocates say the government should resist the push, saying it would create an “extremely unorthodox” piece of legislation that differed from traditional anti-discrimination laws. Christian Porter and Scott Morrison, have been consulting with church groups about the proposed laws. The prime minister quietly met with 21 leaders of Australia’s key religions in Sydney last week, promising not to rush the laws, while assuring them he was working towards securing a “workable balance” between religious freedom and competing rights.

World

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Boris Johnson at 10 Downing Street. Photograph: Downing Street/PA

Boris Johnson has hit out at what he described as a “terrible collaboration” between MPs and the EU trying to block Brexit. The British prime minister has refused to rule out shutting down parliament and holding a general election after leaving on 31 October, and said the longer the standoff continued, the more likely a no-deal Brexit was becoming.

Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, has threatened to “teach Delhi a lesson”, and vowed to fight until the end against any Indian violations in disputed Kashmir.

The teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has set sail from Plymouth in the UK on arguably her most daunting challenge yet. The 16-year-old Swede will add her increasingly influential voice to appeals for deeper emissions cuts at the Climate Action Summit in New York on 23 September, and the the UN climate conference in Santiago in early December.

And a Stockholm court has found A$AP Rocky guilty of assault but spared him prison. The case that outraged the US rapper’s fans had sparked a diplomatic row, after Donald Trump questioned the fairness of Sweden’s judicial system.

Opinion and analysis

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The seasonally adjusted wage rise of 2.3% lower than the 2.5% rate predicted. Photograph: Julian Smith/AAP

It’s becoming clear that until underemployment levels fall significantly, the prospects of wages growth are non-existent, writes Greg Jericho. Things aren’t looking good for the Australian government: “Not only was the seasonally adjusted wage rise of 2.3% lower than the 2.5% rate predicted in the April budget, but the slowing of the growth does not bode well for the government’s prediction that wage growth will be up to 2.75% this time next year.”

Getting up before dawn is more common than you might think, and can be great for exercise, self-improvement and wildlife watching. A study suggests that extreme early risers – people who are willingly up by 5.30am – may not just be restricted to a handful of tech CEOs and your annoying cat. About one in 300 people tracked over nearly 10 years had naturally early awake times and, while some early risers grow depressed, miserable and lonely, others fill their cherished early hours with self-improving activities like meditation.

Sport

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The umpires inspect the pitch before calling a halt to day one of the second Ashes Test. Photograph: Stu Forster/Getty Images

There was not so much as a coin toss, let alone a ball bowled, on the the first day of the second Ashes test at Lord’s, with persistent rain keeping players in the pavilion. Australia have brought in Josh Hazlewood for James Pattinson, which means that Mitchell Starc has been rested again, while England will put their faith in two bowlers who did not play at Edgbaston, Jack Leach and Jofra Archer. It seems the traditionalists will get their wish, with the Lord’s Test to start on a Thursday after all.

In Istanbul, the Uefa Super Cup is up for grabs, as Liverpool take on Chelsea. It’s the first all-English meeting in the fixture’s history. Follow our minute-by-minute report live.

Thinking time: Australia’s creative industry is shockingly white. But don’t be discouraged

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Beverley Wang, the host of Stop Everything on the ABC Photograph: Teresa Tan

There’s a popular saying among those of us who champion representation, writes Beverey Wang: that you cannot be what you cannot see. If you have leafed through Diversity Arts Australia’s report into the state of cultural diversity in Australian arts, media and creative sectors, which was launched on Wednesday, you know that we absolutely cannot see enough diversity in the leadership of our arts, media and creative organisations. The report, entitled Shifting the Balance, is a survey of 200 of Australia’s leading arts and culture organisations: it found that while culturally and linguistically diverse Australians make up 39% of the population, just over half (51%) of the organisations surveyed had no CALD representation at any leadership level.

That means more than half of these organisations have no creative directors; no senior executives; no CEOs; no awards judges; no board members; no board chairs or deputy chairs from a migrant background. That is a lot of boardroom tables in the arts and cultural sector without a single seat to represent 39% of the population. It’s shocking – and, as Prof James Arvanitakis, the chair of Diversity Arts Australia notes, it matters.

Media roundup

The ABC reports that the personal health information of 317 people applying for Australian visas was accidentally emailed to a member of the public in a bungle that occurred when a spreadsheet was sent to an unknown individual’s email address because of a typo. The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that the NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, is urging her upper house colleagues to consider amending an abortion bill to ban gender selection as she scrambles to quell anger among conservative MPs. And the Australian reports that India believes the approval of the Adani mine in Queensland has strengthened its trading relationship with Australia.

Coming up

Scott Morrison is in Tuvalu for the Pacific Islands Forum.

A parliamentary inquiry into the impact on security laws on press freedom will resume in Canberra.

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