Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Friday 11 January.

Top stories

The defects found at Opal Tower in Sydney’s Olympic Park are probably “just the tip of the iceberg”, says David Lambert, who led a review into New South Wales building standards in 2015. He was commissioned by the state government after a fire in a building in Bankstown in 2012 revealed shocking breaches of the building code. His report found significant building defects in NSW, at higher rates than other states. He says the government has failed to implement almost all of nearly 150 recommendations, and the building boom since then has made things worse. “There are hundreds of smaller projects, mainly medium rise in the suburbs, that will have problems.” An emergency review of the Opal Tower cracks is due to report today.

The New South Wales police minister, Troy Grant, has apologised for comments criticising a magistrate over the sentencing of the former Adelaide archbishop Philip Wilson, six months after his comments were met with outrage by the legal community. In July, Grant criticised magistrate Robert Stone’s decision to sentence Wilson to six months in custody for concealing child sexual abuse, describing it as “appalling” and “not a deterrent”. The NSW Law Society said government officials should respect the rule of law, the separation of powers and judicial process. Wilson’s sentence was quashed on appeal in December.

The cotton industry has gone on the defensive over the mass fish kill in the Darling River at Menindee, saying the drought was to blame and claiming it has suffered too. The immediate cause of the mass fish deaths is a sudden drop in temperature that killed algal blooms in the water, depleting it of oxygen and causing fish to die. But locals and some scientists claim that over-extraction of the river’s water upstream by irrigators has contributed to the deaths. Cotton Australia’s general manager said the cotton industry was “growing very tired of being ‘the whipping boy’ for all the problems that are being brought on by this crippling drought.”

World

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Huge waves pound Ocean beach in California. Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters

The world’s oceans are warming more quickly than previously estimated, new research has found, meaning sea levels are likely to rise about 30cm by the end of the century, on top of the rise from melting ice and glaciers. Warmer oceans are also a major factor in increasing the severity of storms, hurricanes and extreme rainfall.

Donald Trump has signalled he is prepared to declare a state of national emergency and have the military build a border wall with Mexico if he cannot get congressional approval. “I’ll probably do it, maybe definitely,”, he told reporters. Trump has also announced he will not attend the world economic forum in Davos, Switzerland, tweeting “my warmest regards and apologies”.

Downing Street has said that if Theresa May’s Brexit deal is voted down, any debate over a plan B would be 90 minutes long and only one amendment would be allowed. Meanwhile Japan’s prime minister has told May “the whole world” wants her to avoid a no-deal Brexit.

A woman and her two sons have suffocated in a windowless shed to which they were banished in the latest tragedy linked to the illegal practice of chhaupadi, whereby women in Nepal are forced to sleep in “period huts”. The UN has linked the practice to reports of diarrhoea, pneumonia and respiratory illnesses as well as sexual abuse or attacks by wildlife.

Russia has accused the BBC of promoting terrorist propaganda and threatened legal action against the British public broadcaster, in a move that looks set to escalate a spiralling media dispute between London and Moscow.

Opinion and analysis

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Benjamin Law. Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian

When the third and final season of the Family Law premieres on SBS this weekend, it will become the first Australian series about teen queer sexuality. The six episodes focus entirely on the main character, Benjamin, coming out as gay – and according to the series’ writer, Benjamin Law, it’s the show he wishes he’d had growing up. “When sections of media still treat teenagers like abstract, political issues, refusing to engage with them directly, those same teenagers will find their spaces and stories elsewhere,” he writes. “Adults should help them or get out of their way.”

In his latest contribution to the Life on the Breadline series, Mick Smart recalls how trying to keep a treasured pet alive is made so much harder when you’re living in poverty. A week after moving into a friend’s spare room, Smart’s beloved dog Phoebe was hit by a car. “All too familiar financial barriers went into play that somewhat mirrored my own experiences, as our friend had to call friends, family and various pet charities to cover the cost for her admission, surgery and aftercare, scrounging and begging in order to save a life. Meanwhile I had emptied my bank account to cover food and transport.”

Sport

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Australia’s Ashleigh Barty. Photograph: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images

No Australian has won a singles title at the Australian Open since 1978. Let’s not beat around the bush, writes Jonathan Howcroft, there is only one local hope who stands a chance of breaking that drought in 2019, and her name is Ashleigh Barty.

The Socceroos are chasing the first points of their Asian Cup title defence when they face Palestine in a must-win encounter tonight. Our cartoonist David Squires delivers his take on the tournament so far before our liveblog brings you a blow-by-blow account of the tonight’s game, which kicks off at 10pm AEDT.

Thinking time: Is hosting the Oscars the worst gig in town?

Facebook Twitter Pinterest 90th Academy Awards host Jimmy Kimmel on stage. Photograph: Lucas Jackson/Reuters



The Academy Awards looks set to feature a calvacade of stars instead of a single host, which Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw thinks will be “a nightmare”. Bruised by the Kevin Hart debacle – in which that planned presenter was dropped for refusing to apologise afresh for past homophobic comments – wary of the likes of Ricky Gervais’s acid tongue and preemptively bored by the James Francos and Anne Hathaways of Hollywood – what is the alternative for this ailing dinosaur?

“What a nightmare it sounds: an exponential increase of audience unease and megastar self-love, slowing down the show’s momentum and pace. None of these big names will be allowed to develop audience rapport. Nor will the audience be allowed the reassurance of a single thread of continuity – what with all of these egos having to be rolled on and off stage during musical breaks, like 18-wheeler pantechnicons being negotiated in and out of a pub car park.”

Media roundup

The Great Ocean Road is at risk of being washed away, the Age reports, as surging seas spark calls for the Victorian government to reroute parts of the famous coastal drive. One beach has closed in Hobart, with more likely to follow suit, as high levels of faecal contamination in the River Derwent spark health fears, the Mercury reports. And the Australian says crayfishers are fighting the WA government’s attempt to seize one fifth of the prized lobster catch in the country’s most lucrative fishery, which would make it the industry’s single biggest licence holder.

Coming up

John Finnin, who was once one of Australia’s top diplomats, will appear in Melbourne magistrates’ court today on a string of charges related to grooming boys for sex.

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