Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Thursday 5 July.

Top stories

The Australian government has agreed to move a seriously ill refugee girl from Nauru to Australia within days – at least the seventh child to be moved from offshore islands after legal action was commenced on their behalf. The young girl, who has been held on Nauru with her parents for several years, is suffering from acute mental health issues. The National Justice Project brought an urgent interlocutory hearing in the federal court seeking orders to bring the girl and her family to Australia.

Australian courts have consistently found that healthcare on Nauru is inadequate, particularly for children suffering mental health issues, and that Australia has a duty of care to protect and treat them. In at least three cases in the past seven months, judges have ordered that young children be immediately brought to Australia for care. George Newhouse, principal solicitor with the National Justice Project, said: “Their health is rapidly deteriorating, particularly the children’s mental health.”

The poisoning of a couple in Wiltshire was caused by the nerve agent novichok, Britain’s top counter-terrorism officer has announced. Scotland Yard’s statement followed a day of mystery about what caused the collapse of the couple on Saturday, which was first thought to be drug-related. Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley remain in a critical condition. A park in Salisbury – five minutes’ walk from the bench where the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia collapsed – was one of at least seven areas cordoned off in the city.

Malcolm Turnbull’s government has revealed a radical overhaul of the distribution of GST revenue, saying it will leave “all states and territories better off”. The Coalition has rejected a key recommendation from the Productivity Commission that would have sent billions of extra goods and services tax dollars flowing to NSW and Western Australia, while leaving every other state worse off. It has proposed its own model, to be phased in over eight years. The government says the current distribution system, which attempts to lift the fiscal capacity of every state to the same level as the strongest state, is no longer working.



Australia needs to resolve the decade-long war on climate and energy policy if it wants long-term reductions in power bills, a report from an influential business group has found. AI Group says resolving the stoush would “help to ease electricity prices by unblocking investment in new supply and reinvestment in existing assets”, and notes that the role of gas in the system remains a significant challenge with or without an ultimate resolution of the Coalition’s national energy guarantee. It found power prices will not ease in eastern Australia unless the reliance on gas generators can be reduced.

The former NSW supreme court justice Anthony Whealy says it would be “disturbing” to prosecute the former spy Witness K and his lawyer in secret over their role in revealing Australia’s bugging of Timor-Leste’s cabinet, saying: “This is Australia ... not Russia.” The solicitor Bernard Collaery and his client, the intelligence officer known as Witness K, are facing criminal charges for bringing to light the bugging during sensitive negotiations over a $40bn oil and gas treaty in 2004. The spy operation was designed to give Australia an upper hand and derive a commercial benefit, but Witness K believed it was unlawful. Whealy, now chair of Transparency International, said the plight of Collaery and Witness K was “deeply disturbing”.

Sport

In an exclusive interview, Erin Phillips, the Australian basketball legend and Australian rules football champion, talks about her latest venture – coaching in the US – and what the AFLW can learn about gender diversity from the WNBA.

The stars continue to tumble at Wimbledown with Ekaterina Makarova beating Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 1-6, 7-5, Serena Williams defeating Viktoriya Tomova 6-1, 6-4 and Sloane Stevens, Maria Sharapova and Petra Kvitova all knocked out. In the men’s tournement, could we see another Federer domination? The veteran player beat Lacko 6-4, 6-4, 6-1 without breaking a sweat. Plus: flying ants cause chaos on centre court.



Thinking time

Is Jeff Bezos holding Seattle hostage? Amazon is looking for a home for its second headquarters. But in its current home critics are issuing stark warnings about playing host the megacorporation; surging rents, homelessness, traffic-clogged streets, overburdened public transport, an influx of young men in polo shirts and a creeping uniformity rubbing against the city’s counterculture.

“It was 9 November 2016 and my thinking around fitness changed almost overnight,” writes Brigid Delaney. “In tune with the times, it became more Trump, less Obama. In the spirit of Donald, I drank more bottles of Diet Coke and ate more McDonald’s. I dropped the gym – embracing Trump’s belief that we are given a certain amount of energy and if we use it then we are depleting a finite resource.” When Brigid returned to the gym last week, her fitness – like a finite resource – had gone. In the age of Trump, can she ever get it back?

Indian audiences traditionally see the small screen as a poor cousin to Bollywood movies. But Netflix is hoping a new gritty crime series, Sacred Games, will pull in younger, less-affluent, internet-savvy viewers. “It is very much an experiment,” the Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan concedes. “On Netflix, people are willing to watch programs from other countries with subtitles because good stories transcend boundaries. However, we also want to get a lot of Indians into Netflix, [because] the internet is a big thing in India and a lot more affordable. Also, it has got to be something cooler, something edgier than regular television.”

What’s he done now?

Donald Trump repeatedly raised the possibility of invading Venezuela in talks with his top aides at the White House, according to a new report. Trump brought up the subject of an invasion in public last August, saying: “We have many options for Venezuela, including a possible military option, if necessary.” But, according to AP, his musings on an invasion had been circulating for much longer in private.

Media roundup

Bulk-billing clinics in Victoria are turning away children and mental-health patients, the Age reports, because stagnating Medicare rebates do not cover the cost of long, complex consultations and needs. Compensation claims by teachers after being physically attacked by students are on the rise in Queensland, the Courier-Mail reports. Common incidents include chairs being thrown and teachers being stalked. And the ABC has an explainer on the volatility of the Australian dollar, becoming renowned for its rollercoaster-like peaks and dives.

Coming up

Three men will appear in Melbourne magistrates court charged over rioting outside a Milo Yiannopoulos event in Flemington.

The Climate Council will launch a new Great Barrier Reef report that has groundbreaking findings about the frequency of coral bleaching around the world.

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