Good morning, this is Helen Sullivan bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Wednesday 28 November.

Top stories

Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort met secretly with Julian Assange months before Russia email hacks were published. Manafort held secret talks with Julian Assange inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London and visited around the time he joined Trump’s campaign, the Guardian has been told. Sources have said Manafort went to see Assange in 2013, 2015 and in spring 2016 – during the period when he was made a key figure in Trump’s push for the White House. It is unclear why Manafort would have wanted to see Assange and what was discussed. But the last apparent meeting is likely to come under scrutiny and could interest Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor who is investigating alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

A well-placed source has told the Guardian that Manafort went to see Assange around March 2016. Months later WikiLeaks released a stash of Democratic emails stolen by Russian intelligence officers. Manafort, 69, denies involvement in the hack and says the claim is “100% false”. His lawyers declined to answer the Guardian’s questions about the visits. Manafort was jailed this year and was thought to have become a star cooperator in the Mueller inquiry. But on Monday Mueller said Manafort had repeatedly lied to the FBI, despite agreeing to cooperate two months ago in a plea deal. According to a court document, Manafort had committed “crimes and lies” on a “variety of subject matters”. The White House is currently holding its first press briefing in nearly a month.

John Howard has urged federal Liberals not to panic and has declared there is no prospect of a split. The former prime minister used an interview on the ABC on Tuesday evening to play down the significance of recent electoral setbacks, and warn his former colleagues not to allow political opponents and “people who are not friendly to us as a Liberal collective” to define the Liberal party ideologically. Howard’s intervention follows a decision by the Victorian Liberal Julia Banks on Tuesday to quit the Morrison government and sit on the crossbench as an independent. With the backing of the expanded and emboldened crossbench, Labor is circling in an effort to refer the home affairs minister Peter Dutton to the high court.

The world must triple climate change efforts or face catastrophic climate change, says the UN. Countries are failing to take the action needed to stave off the worst effects of climate change, a UN report has found, and the commitments made in the 2015 Paris agreement will not be met unless governments introduce additional measures as a matter of urgency. Joyce Msuya, deputy executive director of UN Environment, said: “The science is clear: for all the ambitious climate action we’ve seen, governments need to move faster and with greater urgency. We’re feeding this fire, while the means to extinguish it are within reach.” The report comes as the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation has warned that a climate-warming El Niño is very likely in 2019.

Businesses ‘can sack workers for refusing to use fingerprint scanners’, the Fair Work Commission has ruled. The ruling, which will be appealed, was made in the case of Jeremy Lee, a Queensland sawmill worker who refused to comply with a new fingerprint-scanning policy introduced at his work in Imbil, north of the Sunshine Coast, late last year. The biometric data was stored on servers located off-site, in space leased from a third party. Lee argued the business had never sought its workers’ consent to use fingerprint scanning, and feared his biometric data would be accessed by unknown groups and individuals.

“Do you feel safe at home?” This was the question that appeared on a black envelope – illustrated with a hooded figure – containing pamphlets promising a crackdown on crime that arrived in postboxes in the marginal seat of La Trobe, Victoria, on Tuesday. The Liberal campaign material, authorised by the federal Liberal MP Jason Wood, has been delivered to homes just days after the party’s failed Victorian state campaign on law and order issues. The campaign material indicates the incumbent, a former police officer, intends to run on law and order issues – including visa cancellations of “violent thugs” – in the Victorian marginal seat, which is held by the Liberals by just 1.46%.

Sport

The 2018 ICC Women’s World Twenty20 was an outright success and a joy to be a part of. Australia’s devastating win over England capped a glorious 12-day Caribbean carnival of cricket, writes Lisa Sthalekar, who covered the tournament as a commentator.

Pep Guardiola believes Manchester City’s critics will claim his side has fallen short of being considered one of the greats if they fail to win the Champions League. Follow the City v Lyon match now on our liveblog.

Thinking time

The murders of two elderly Jewish women in Paris, one year apart, shook France and inflamed debate. The French Republic is founded on a strict universalism, which seeks to transcend – or, depending on your viewpoint, efface – particularity in the name of equality. The state not only frowns on hyphenated identities, but does not even officially recognise race either as a formal category or a lived experience. Since 1978, it has been illegal in France to collect census data on ethnic or religious difference. But eliminating race did not eliminate racism or racist violence. In the case of Lucie Attal, the inescapable fact of the matter is that a Muslim killed a Jew in a society where those distinctions are supposed to be irrelevant. More than a year later, exactly how to label Attal’s death remains a matter of bitter, and perhaps unresolvable, debate.

The Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art is probably the only Australian show of its kind that can lay claim to being globally significant, writes Andrew Frost. The sprawling Brisbane event features art from countries of the Asia-Pacific region and beyond, and in 2018, boasts 400-plus works from 80 artists and maker groups. And the APT9 is not full of those made-on-site works you find at events such as the Sydney Biennale, or video works that require only a projector and a data stick sent through the mail. The APT9 is a show of things – sculptures, paintings, photographs, large installations and hundreds of other objects.

It’s amazing what an electoral drubbing can do to the principles of our elected representatives. After Daniel Andrews’ victory, being progressive has become the new “sensible centre”, writes Richard Denniss. However, it’s not at all obvious that it is good for our democracy, or for our economy, for the Liberal National Coalition to suddenly change course now. While many in the commentariat and business community yearn for “bipartisanship”, in reality democracy thrives on competing visions.

Media roundup

The Australian Financial Review is leading with Scott Morrison setting a “shaky course to election”, and the Sydney Morning Herald declares his “hold on power shaken by defection”. The Australian labels Julia Banks a “deserter”, “Turnbull’s hero” and a “Morrison pariah”. Also on the Oz front page: Scott Morrison’s fast-tracked 2 April budget will mark the earliest delivery of a federal budget in 25 years.

Coming up

Keith Urban hosts the 32nd annual music industry Aria awards in Sydney.

ANZ boss Shayne Elliott will appear at the banking royal commission after AMP acting chief executive Mike Wilkins finishes his evidence.

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