Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Friday 15 February.

Top stories

The outlook for the Murray-Darling basin is “extremely challenging”, particularly in the north, according to the authority’s outlook for the next year. It says there will be almost no scope for environmental flows unless it rains, and the focus will be “on providing drought refuges and avoiding irreversible loss of species”. The authority also warns that there are almost no reserves of environmental water in the northern basin and that, as a result of above-average temperatures and low inflows over successive years, some important wetlands and floodplain forests have not received water for long periods. Conditions in the lower Darling are particularly severe and the length and duration of cease-to-flow events have skyrocketed since 2000, the report says. It acknowledges this is due to extraction by irrigators upstream as well as climate.

Michaelia Cash’s former chief of staff, Ben Davies, said in a statement to police that an employee of the union regulator told him police were set to raid the offices of the Australian Workers Union, a court has heard. Davies gave evidence in federal court on Thursday. His former boss, Cash, is due to appear in the witness stand for the civil trial today. The union is seeking to quash an investigation into historic donations it made to GetUp, a probe launched by the Registered Organisations Commission launched in October 2017. Cash was forced to front the Senate to address her previous claim that only one member of her staff had been involved in the leaks – and that her former media adviser David De Garis had learned about the raids from a “media source”.

A day of high drama in Canberra culminated with the Senate president withdrawing the parliamentary pass of Pauline Hanson’s senior adviser, James Ashby, after his altercation on Wednesday night with former One Nation senator Brian Burston. Burston vowed to refer the scuffle to police and to seek a restraining order against Ashby, but also offered an apology for smearing blood on the door of Hanson’s office that evening. It’s not the first time Ashby has courted controversy in his colourful career. And, after a day of political intrigue, insults and time-wasting, Katherine Murphy’s writes that it’s hard to capture “the precise form of unhinging that is playing out” in the final days of the 45th parliament.

World

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Theresa May leaves parliament in Westminster after a Brexit vote in the House of Commons. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

Theresa May has suffered an embarrassing defeat at the hands of hardline Brexit supporters who refused to support her approach to leaving the EU. A group of Eurosceptics led by Jacob Rees-Mogg abstained on a government motion because they were unhappy that it appeared to rule out a no-deal Brexit. May was not present for the House of Commons defeat, by 303 votes to 258, in which she again lost control of her party in the crucial final weeks before Britain is due to leave the EU on 29 March.

The former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe has said top Trump administration officials talked seriously about removing Donald Trump from office just months after he become president. McCabe said there were meetings at the justice department to discuss whether he could be removed under the 25th amendment.

The UK security minister has said he would not put officials’ lives at risk to rescue UK citizens who went to Syria and Iraq to join Islamic State, insisting “actions have consequences”. The statement comes after Shamima Begum, one of three pupils from London who joined Isis four years ago, told the Times she wanted to return to the UK.

The creators of a revolutionary AI system that can write news stories and works of fiction – dubbed “deepfakes for text” – have taken the unusual step of not releasing their research publicly, for fear of potential misuse. The company, backed by Elon Musk, say they need more time to consider the ramifications of the technological breakthrough, and the consequences of it falling into the wrong hands.

An experimental drug that bolsters ailing brain cells has raised hopes of a treatment for memory loss, poor decision making and other mental impairments that often strike in old age. Tests in the lab showed that old animals had far better memory skills half an hour after receiving the drug, and after two months brain cells which had shrunk in the animals had grown back, scientists found.

Opinion and analysis

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Zoe Foster Blake, the author of Love! and founder of skincare brand Go-To

Zoë Foster Blake is a 38-year-old powerhouse who is responsible for nine books, two kids, 600,000 Instagram followers and a cult skincare line – but says she never set out to achieve so much. So why has this this beauty and love guru captured the hearts of Australian millennial women – and will she ever allow herself a break? “I need to see a therapist, because I want to know where it’s coming from,” she says. “It’s a chronic over-busyness. If I have a void I have to fill it ... I actually don’t think it’s healthy; I wish I could just stop sometimes.”

Brigid Delaney only spent 70 nights at home last year, so upon returning to her property she decided to host some drinks for the neighbours. Then finds out what has been happening at her house while she’s been away, and happened there before she owned it. “My neighbours were such innocents. Why did I have to taint this piece of rural paradise with these weird, horny guests?”

Sport

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Former Matildas’ head coach Alan Stajcic. Photograph: Joel Carrett/EPA

Since the shock decision nearly a month ago to sack Matildas coach Alen Stajcic, the timbre of conversation surrounding women’s football in Australia has degenerated precariously. But Saturday’s W-League grand final between Sydney FC and Sam Kerr’s Perth Glory will put focus back on the football and give the players a chance to return to centre stage, after a lamentable few weeks for the game, writes Richard Parkin.

Caster Semenya’s lawyers said the 800m Olympic champion is “unquestionably a woman”, who will be fighting for her right to compete internationally without “unnecessary medical intervention” when she appears at the court of arbitration for sport in a landmark case next week. The IAAF fears athletes with differences of sexual development and transgender competitors could dominate the sport.

Our football cartoonist again turns his hand to the case of Hakeem al-Araibi, and the heroic efforts of Craig Foster in securing the refugee footballer’s release from a Thai prison.

Thinking time: Pansexual, the freedom to love as you please

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jezz Palmer. Photograph: Sam Frost/The Guardian

Rigid definitions of sexuality are on the way out as a younger generation embraces a “never say never” approach to sex and gender. The pansexual revolution has seen sexual fluidity become mainstream; last year “pansexual” briefly became the online dictionary Merriam-Webster’s most searched word of the day. So what is it and how does it work? Gaby Hinsliff reports.

“I always describe my sexuality as: ‘If you’ve got nice hair and pretty eyes, I’m down for it,’” explains Jezz Palmer, a 26-year-old editor working in historical publishing. “It’s not that gender doesn’t matter, because it can be important, but it’s a bit of an afterthought. It’s just like, ‘Oh, hello.’ … It took me a while to figure it out.”

Media roundup

A ministerial inquiry will investigate claims of bullying at Royal Prince Alfred hospital, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. The inquiry comes amid increasing levels of concern about the exploitation of junior doctors. The front page of the NT News reports that a child abuse or neglect incident is recorded every 21 minutes in the territory, with abuse cases rising between 2017 and 2018. Eighty per cent of reports relate to welfare concerns for Indigenous children, the paper says. The ABC and the West Australian report on a dramatic start to the trial of the accused Claremont serial killer Bradley Robert Edwards. Prosecutors are hoping to present “extreme pornography” as evidence against Edwards, who is accused of murdering three women.

Coming up

Two 21-year-old men charged over the jail stabbing of the drug kingpin Tony Mokbel are due to appear at Geelong magistrates court today. Each is charged with attempted murder, intentionally causing serious injury and causing serious injury intentionally in circumstances of gross violence.

The NSW Labor leader, Michael Daley, will announce his support for regulation to protect workers in the so-called gig economy.

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