Good morning, this is Helen Sullivan bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Wednesday 6 November.

Top stories

The world’s people face “untold suffering due to the climate crisis” unless there are major transformations to global society, according to a stark warning from more than 11,000 scientists. There is no time to lose, they say: “The climate crisis has arrived and is accelerating faster than most scientists expected. It is more severe than anticipated, threatening ecosystems and the fate of humanity.” The scientists say the urgent changes needed include ending population growth, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, halting forest destruction and slashing meat eating. Meanwhile, the economist Ross Garnaut says Australia could set a path to 100% renewable electricity, a highly reliable grid and significantly cheaper wholesale prices by introducing a handful of policies consistent with the government’s election platform.

The NSW police performed strip-searches on more than 100 girls in the last three years, including two 12-year-olds. After the police watchdog’s investigation into the allegedly illegal strip-search of a 16-year-old girl at a music festival, data obtained under freedom of information laws show she was just one of 122 under 18 who have been forced to undergo the controversial practice since 2016. The revelations come after the watchdog revealed last week that it had investigated six allegations of misuse of strip-search powers last year.

Cartel gunmen in Mexico have killed at least six children and three women in an ambush that left six other children wounded. There are reports that another child is missing. Victims and survivors of the attack belong to a Mexico-based Mormon family who have dual US/Mexican citizenship. The massacre prompted three tweets from Donald Trump, urging Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to “wage WAR on the drug cartels and wipe them off the face of the earth”.

Australia

The alleged exploitation of frail and elderly Indigenous artists by unscrupulous art dealers amounts to “modern-day slavery”, the chair of the APY Art Collective has said.

The Asia-Pacific trade deal highlights Australia’s perilous balancing act between its commercial and strategic interests. The deal includes China and Japan and covers almost one-third of the world’s economy.

The Australian National Audit Office has blasted the administration of a $200m program to boost regional jobs and growth, after an audit found found that ministers declined to fund 28% of grants recommended by officials, and approved 17% that had not been recommended to them.

The world

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Boris Johnson outside the Conservative party HQ in London. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images

British Conservative candidates in the UK general election will be told not to sign up to pledges on protecting the NHS from privatisation or tackling climate change, according to a leaked internal document from party headquarters.

Yemen’s UN-recognised government has signed a Saudi Arabian-brokered power-sharing agreement with separatists in the country’s south after months of fighting in the area. The deal aims to create a government capable of challenging the Iranian-backed Houthi forces that control the capital, Sana’a, and the north.

Two teenage boys have been jailed for murdering a schoolgirl who was lured to an abandoned house, savagely beaten and sexually assaulted in a case that has horrified Ireland.

Vladimir Putin has called for the creation of a more “reliable” Russian version of Wikipedia. The government plans to allocate nearly 1.7bn rubles (A$38.7m) to developing an online reference resource in the next three years.

Recommended reads

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Australian governments are ‘reverting to myths and delusions’ on water. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Governments seem intent on trashing John Howard’s legacy when it comes to water reforms, writes John Williams. “At a time when the World Economic Forum continues to urge that water be given high-level strategic attention as one of five global issues, it appears our Australian governments are walking away from water reform and its strategic management and reverting to myths and delusions. Yet for over a quarter of a century, Australia has been at the forefront of progressive water reform from policy to implementation and the evolution of institutional governance. Not any more.”

Learning to cook has given Elias Jahshan a sense of home – if even if the lessons were over FaceTime: “Whenever I have my weekly FaceTime catch-up with Mum, there’s always a guarantee food will be discussed. She’s Lebanese after all and, like millions of other Arab families – especially in the diaspora – our food is an integral part of our cultural identity.”

Every day this spring, in this part of Australia, has been a good day to hang washing, writes Brigid Delaney. “It’s been weeks of swirling winds and dry air, and always the droning, reliable sun – sucking the moisture out of everything. But perpetual sunshine can feel relentless, oppressive even. Everything is washed out in its yellow glaze. In the build-up there is tension, and a longing for release. How long can we go without rain? It happened on Sunday … a massive, game-changing and hugely joyful amount of rain. It smells like childhood and high summer, relief and restoration.”

Listen

Bita is an Iranian refugee who came to Australia by boat and was sent to Nauru. She has chronic back pain and mental health issues and her doctors on Nauru recommended she be transferred to Australia for medical treatment. While waiting, her back pain became so severe she had to use a wheelchair. Under the medevac law passed last year, Bita was transferred to Australia for care. But the government is intent on repealing medevac. What does the law actually do and what will happen to people like Bita if it is repealed? Guardian Australia’s immigration reporter, Helen Davidson, and the journalist and academic Saba Vasefi talk to Laura Murphy-Oates in today’s episode of Full Story.

Sport

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sam Kerr of the Matildas celebrates a goal. Photograph: Tony Feder/Getty Images

The Matildas’ equal pay deal is part of a global shift recognising value of women in sport, writes Samantha Lewis. Amid the headlines, the wider history and context of the fight for equal pay in women’s football has largely been ignored.

As Australia worked through the seven stages of grief (with heavy doses of anger and denial) following Saturday’s defeat at Eden Park, Tonga experienced rugby league deliverance – a seminal, life-changing moment of shared hope in which the giant killing team had for the first time defeated Tier 1 heavyweights Great Britain and then the Kangaroos in consecutive weeks.

Media roundup

“Eight Australian regulators have struck a secret deal to use their respective ‘formal powers’ to probe Facebook on Libra,” the Australian reveals. The Australian Financial Review pieces together how $11m vanished in the Huang Xiangmo property deal. “Take a Vow”, “Hey True Blue”, “Australia Day”, and “Advance Australia Declare” are among this morning’s Melbourne Cup headlines.

Coming up

There will be a hearing in Universal Music’s lawsuit against Clive Palmer claiming copyright infringement over his party’s use of a version of the Twisted Sister song We’re Not Gonna Take It.

The former South Sydney NRL captain Sam Burgess is due to face a NSW court after police became involved in an alleged dispute between him and his wife’s father.

And if you’ve read this far …

John Martin wants you to vote for the sulphur-crested cockatoo in the bird of the year poll. “There are many reasons why we love cockies,” he writes. “In my experience, a key behaviour that sets this bird apart from the majority is that they sit back and look you in the eye. They appear to consider who you are, what you are doing and whether they want to be ‘friends’. I am specifically talking about the sulphur-crested cockatoo. I wouldn’t want you to vote for the wrong cockie.”

Sign up

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