Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Friday 9 February.

Top stories

The US has said it killed more than 100 fighters loyal to the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad as it repelled an assault on a US-controlled base in eastern Syria – the most serious clash between the US-backed alliance and government forces. News of the battle emerged amid another bloody day in Syria that signalled the complete unravelling of a nationwide ceasefire.

Syrian government forces shelled and bombed eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, on the third day of a relentless campaign that has killed 21 people so far on Thursday alone. “There is a new massacre in eastern Ghouta and new violations against humanity,” said Raed Srewel, a journalist based in Douma. “God is our only solace.” The escalating violence came days after a failed peace conference in Sochi sponsored by Russia, the Assad regime’s main backer. After the conference, the regime and its allies stepped up attacks in Ghouta and Idlib, two of the opposition’s last major strongholds. Assad’s forces also clashed with US forces in the eastern province of Deir ez-Zor in their first large-scale confrontation on Syrian territory.

Coalmining companies were given approval to clear nearly 10% of what is now a critically endangered forest in the NSW Hunter Valley over the past decade, according to evidence before a government commission. The Lock the Gate Alliance is contesting a state planning department recommendation to allow mine operators Glencore and Peabody Energy to clear 250 hectares of the endangered area to allow two existing coalmines to become one open-cut mine. The alliance says the mine’s assessment did not factor in nine previous decisions to allow clearing of 3,109 hectares of lowland forest – about 9% of what remained. Lock the Gate’s state coordinator, Georgina Woods, said the federal government had warned the habitat could be extinct in 40 to 60 years: “This is a scandal.”



A Rohingyan refugee is pleading with the Australian government to grant him a travel document allowing him to speak at the European parliament about the persecution of his people. Habiburahman –arrived in Australia by boat in 2009. He has been stateless since 2000, when he fled Myanmar aged 19 after facing harassment, arrest and forced labour. After a conviction stemming from a protest in immigration detention he was placed on a removal pending visa, which does not allow him to re-enter Australia if he leaves. His book, First They Erased our Name – co-written with the French author Sophie Ansel, charts his life and the persecution of his people. “This is my chance to speak for my people, who continue to suffer, but who are voiceless,” Habiburahman told the Guardian.

Quentin Tarantino has apologised for remarks he made about Roman Polanski’s sexual assault of Samantha Geimer, calling his earlier opinion “ignorant”. In a resurfaced interview with Howard Stern, the film-maker defined the attack as “not rape” because he believed that the 13-year-old wanted to have sex. “I want to publicly apologise to Samantha Geimer for my cavalier remarks on The Howard Stern Show speculating about her and the crime that was committed against her,” Tarantino said. “Fifteen years later, I realise how wrong I was. Ms Geimer WAS raped by Roman Polanski.”

While a hospital funding row is expected to dominate today’s Council of Australian Government talks, the GST carve-up is going to be hotly debated, too. South Australia’s premier, Jay Weatherill, will also raise objections to a potential loss in revenue as part of radical changes floated last year by the Productivity Commission. A draft report handed down four months ago put the cat among the pigeons on the GST carve-up, proposing an overhaul of distributions that would see Australia’s eastern states lose billions to Western Australia.

Sport

Glenn Maxwell’s on-field performances, not personality clashes in dressing rooms, are the only concern for the national Twenty20 selector Mark Waugh, who says selectors have been at the 29-year-old to play leading roles in victories.

The case for Ben Simmons to be included in the NBA All-Star team has gone all the way to the Australian parliament. The MP Tim Watts made an impassioned plea for the Philadelphia 76ers player to become the first Australian to make the prestigious line-up.

Thinking time

Alan Hellier still has the watch he was wearing on the night of Australia’s worst military peacetime disaster. It has been stopped since 8.54pm on 10 February 1964, the minute he was submerged in waters of the Pacific along with fellow crew members on HMAS Voyager, fearing – expecting – that he wouldn’t get out alive. He was probably the last to escape the night the destroyer was struck and cut in two by the much larger aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne. Eighty-two of the Voyager’s 314 crew were killed on impact or drowned, trapped in the bow section which sank 10 minutes after the collision. The episode has been the subject of two royal commissions but Hellier believes the full truth has not been uncovered.

We should all care about the axing of Channel Nine’s House Husbands, writes Luke Buckmaster. You might not give two hoots about the end of a show following the daily tribulations of stay-at-home dads. But in the broader context of locally produced narrative content, the news is significant. If a high-rating program gets axed, what does that say about the state of Australian television?

Macroeconomic researcher and author of Australia: Boom to Bust, Lindsay David, argues that the banking royal commission is an “utter dud” before it has even begun. “The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and Australian Securities and Investment Commission who are supposed to protect society from financial misconduct, appear to be caught up in what is described as ‘regulatory capture,’” he writes. David says government regulatory agencies “should hold as much accountability (if not more when the financial system fails its consumers) as the banks and lenders and insurance companies they regulate that acted with misconduct in the first place”.

What’s he done now?

The reality-show of Donald Trump’s presidency get ever more real, with the leader crowing about the producer behind The Apprentice appearing at the national prayer breakfast. “Will be heading over shortly to make remarks at The National Prayer Breakfast in Washington. Great religious and political leaders, and many friends, including T.V. producer Mark Burnett of our wonderful 14 season Apprentice triumph, will be there. Looking forward to seeing all!” Trump tweeted overnight.

Media roundup

Undergrads who want to attend the University of Melbourne will have to pass an online course on sexual consent to be eligible, the Age reports. The AFL is suffering in Tasmania owing to a lack of attention from the powerful mainland bodies, writes Richard Hinds for the ABC. The state has no A-League, W-League, NRL, NBL, WNBL, NRL or Super League, alongside a lack of football-age males.



Coming up

The former PM Kevin Rudd will mark the upcoming 10th anniversary of the national apology to Indigenous peoples with speech to the NSW parliament before official commemorations next week.

The ABC is holding hold its first annual public meeting this morning, where members of the public are invited to ask the board and leadership teams questions.

The Pyeongchang Winter Olympics opening ceremony will begin at 10pm AEDT.

Supporting the Guardian

We’d like to acknowledge our generous supporters who enable us to keep reporting on the critical stories. If you value what we do and would like to help, please make a contribution or become a supporter today. Thank you.

Sign up

If you would like to receive the Guardian Australia morning mail to your email inbox every weekday, sign up here.