Good morning, this is Richard Parkin bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Thursday 16 January.

Top stories

Donald Trump has signed the first phase of a new trade agreement with China after two years of tension between the two superpowers that have rattled economies around the world. Some $250bn worth of US tariffs will stay in place on Chinese industrial goods but tariffs will halve elsewhere on electronics and footwear, while China will buy about $200bn of US goods and services. But analysts have warned this first phase “hardly addresses in any substantive way the fundamental sources of trade and economic tensions between the two sides”, suggesting that considerable negotiation still lies ahead.

The peak body representing farmers in NSW has questioned the state government’s failure to fund a promise to provide regional towns with renewably sourced emergency backup power during disasters. Thirty million dollars had been pledged for the regional community energy fund but the money has not yet been delivered, to the ire of NSW Farmers. “The bushfire crisis has further prioritised the need for small scale alternative and local renewable energy sources,” it says. “Like many others, dairy farmers on the south coast lost power and had to dump fresh milk and stop milking.”

Russia’s prime minister, Dmitri Medvedev, has stepped down alongside his entire government as Vladimir Putin embarks on a sweeping reshuffle of Russia’s leadership. Putin has called for a national referendum to reform the constitution, installing future two-term presidential limits from 2024, prompting analysts to believe the 67-year-old will look to return as a prime minister with significantly enhanced powers when his current presidential term concludes. The opposition figure Alexei Navalny dismissed the proposals: “What idiots (and/or crooks) are all those who said that Putin would leave in 2024”.

Australia

An aerial view of Wollemi national park where endangered Wollemi pines are being protected from bushfires by a specialist team. Photograph: NSW NPWS/Reuters

A specially deployed team of firefighters has successfully prevented the extinction of “dinosaur trees”, with Wollemi pines, recorded as far back as 200m years ago, being saved thanks to “an unprecedented environmental protection mission”.

The decision to defund a climate change adaptation research body in 2017 has left Australia “not well positioned” to deal with fires and the “silent killer” of drought, the program’s director has said.

The science minister, Karen Andrews, has supported Scott Morrison’s pivot on his government’s climate policy but there are doubts whether backbenchers including Craig Kelly, George Christensen and Barnaby Joyce will toe the new line.

An Australian journalist, Scott McIntyre, has received a suspended sentence after being found guilty by a Japanese court of trespassing during an attempt to locate his children, whom he has not seen for eight months.

The world

‘The drumbeat of the Anthropocene’: alarming heat records revealed. Photograph: Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images

Global climate scientists have revealed that the past decade has been the hottest in 150 years, with one researcher calling the succession of records being broken year-on-year “the drumbeat of the Anthropocene”.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has warned Europe its Middle East-based troops “could be in danger” after the UK and leading EU nations paved the way for the potential reimposition of international sanctions on Iran.

The US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has named her seven trial managers, allowing the Trump impeachment trial to begin in earnest next week. The president stands accused of obstructing Congress and being guilty of abusing his power.

Japan’s environment minister, Shinjiro Koizumi, will become the nation’s first sitting cabinet minister to take paternity leave, announcing he will leave his post for two weeks in a move many hope will positively impact attitudes towards male parenting.

Recommended reads

Saoirse Ronan as Jo March in Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Little Women. Photograph: Columbia Pictures/Allstar

From Patti Smith to Greta Gerwig, Louisa May Alcott’s character Jo March has inspired generations of women. But Little Women’s heroine, like the book’s author, was subjected to strictures of the times that meant an underwhelming resolution of her story. As self-confessed Jo fan, Jo Tovey says the new adaptation of Little Women offers a long-overdue rework.

The economic flow-on effects of the Australian bushfires crisis are hard to forecast but as businesses return from January holidays the argument for fiscal stimulus is strong, writes Greg Jericho. “It is clear that we did not end 2019 with any great sense of economic optimism, and the bushfires will have done nothing to improve that.”

He has been targeted by George Christensen and accused of advocating terrorism but Perth-born Abdul Abdullah just wants his art to provoke. “I’m a seventh-generation Australian and I’ve got the Australian sensibility of relentlessly giving people shit,” he tells Jenny Valentish.

Listen

Twenty months on from their highly publicised royal wedding Harry and Meghan want out, unleashing myriad questions – from taxpayers’ support for the royals to the future of the institution itself. On this episode of Today in Focus Anushka Asthana speaks with Hadley Freeman, as well as Dan Sabbagh about ongoing intelligence threats from the Chinese telco Huawei.

Sport

‘No sooner had Nick Kyrgios pledged $200 to the fireys for every ace he hit this summer than the online razor gang of Kyrgios haters stood at ease.’ Photograph: Matt King/Getty Images

Perhaps the least predictable outcome of the Australian bushfires crisis has been the public redemption of Nick Kyrgios. Having prompted a movement of sports-related philanthropy, now we await on-court redemption, writes Russell Jackson.

It’s been 15 years since Australia could lay claim to consistent cricketing dominance but with an unrivalled bowling attack, a generational No 3 unearthed and an undefeated summer under their belts, Sam Perry asks whether Australia are back.

Media roundup

The NSW Labor leader, Jodi McKay, says the Berejiklian government cannot claim that the state’s bushfire response was a success and is demanding an independent public inquiry into the fires, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. A Chinese-owned company’s plan to tap 100m litres of local groundwater in the drought-hit Southern Downs region of Queensland has left farmers and landholders furious, writes the Australian, after the council approved plans in exchange for upgrading local roads. And bones unearthed in WA in 2017 have been confirmed as being from the largest carnivorous dinosaur found in Australia, the ABC reports.

Coming up

The Australian Open draw will be announced during a ceremony with defending champions Novak Djokovic and Naomi Osaka in Melbourne tonight.

And if you’ve read this far …

It’s official – an active sex life past your 50s could keep you smarter, for longer. That’s the verdict of the latest research from Coventry University, which according to Sirin Kale is just one of six good reasons why regular sex could be good for you.

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