Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Friday 2 August.

Top stories

The teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has hit back at Andrew Bolt for writing a deeply offensive column that mocked her autism diagnosis. The Swedish schoolgirl posted a tweet overnight calling out the “hate and conspiracy campaigns” run by climate deniers like Bolt, adopting his insult that she was “deeply disturbed” and turning it back on him. Bolt used his significant platform to take aim at the 16-year-old campaigner, dismissing her followers as members of a cult and disparaging her decision to sail across the Atlantic to attend UN climate summits. He repeatedly referred to Greta’s mental health, saying she was “deeply disturbed”, “freakishly influential” and “strange”.

The government MP George Christensen billed taxpayers $1,600 to travel to the Great Barrier Reef and meet the far-right identity Lauren Southern, but the controversial YouTuber failed to show. The latest records of MPs’ financial interests reveal that Christensen accepted a free “reef trip from Cairns to Great Barrier Reef” from a company named Axiomatic Events. Axiomatic organised last year’s Australian tour by Southern, a Canadian who was barred from entering the UK for “alt-right” provocations. Axiomatic had arranged for Southern to meet up with Christensen on 16 July, taking a fishing charter out to the reef. But Southern did not turn up.

The Morrison government’s main climate change policy, the emissions reduction fund, has been labelled “a joke” after its latest auction bought cuts equivalent to only 0.01% of Australia’s annual greenhouse gas pollution. The first post-election auction from the fund dedicated less than $1m to just three eligible emissions reduction projects, which promise to cut emissions by 59,000 tonnes over a decade – just 0.06% of the 100m-tonne cut Morrison said the rebadged “climate solutions” fund would deliver. It will reinforce the expert view that Australia will not meet its Paris commitment under current policy settings.

NSW police are told to film people being strip searched, internal documents reveal. Amid growing concern about the increasing and sometimes unauthorised use of strip-search powers, documents obtained under freedom of information reveal that officers routinely film searches.

World

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Lynton Crosby and Boris Johnson. Photograph: Alan Davidson/Rex/Shutterstock

The lobbying firm run by Sir Lynton Crosby, a close ally of Boris Johnson, has secretly built a network of unbranded “news” pages on Facebook for dozens of clients ranging from the Saudi government to major polluters, a Guardian investigation has found.

Women in Saudi Arabia will no longer need the permission of a male guardian to travel, according to local news reports. The policy, if confirmed, would mark a key step in dismantling controls that have made women second-class citizens.

Jeffrey Epstein, the financier accused of sex trafficking, planned to develop a super-race of humans using genetic engineering and artificial intelligence.

The UK is now less able to cope with a hard Brexit than it was in the spring, with the real risk of panic-buying in the run-up to Christmas and civil disorder if the country leaves the EU without a deal on 31 October, an official document reveals.

The most detailed 3D map yet of the Milky Way has been revealed, showing that our galaxy is not a flat disc but has a “warped” shape like a fascinator hat.

The Netherlands’ burqa ban has been rendered unworkable on its first day, after both police and Dutch transport companies signalled an unwillingness to enforce it.

Opinion and analysis

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The rapper Cardi B. Photograph: Amy Harris/Invision/AP

Everyone wants to encourage young people to vote, writes Joel Golby, but can Cardi B and Bernie Sanders really fix US politics? And is getting a rapper and a senator together in a nail salon the best way to do it? “I have a troubling vision of this becoming a trend in British politics, which we can all agree is “just like American politics, but worse,” Golby writes. “Leading pop stars doing serious-face in the direction of cool young-buck MPs in a deliberately chosen chic-but-casual venue is absolutely not what we need when we are staring down the barrel of no deal.”

On a sunny day in Berlin Brigid Delaney and two friends rent bikes and sail through the city. “It’s funny how time slows down before you have an accident. We seemed to almost leisurely veer towards each other, each turning a wheel towards the flower bed, mouths forming an O, a primal Arggghhh coming out.” After escaping the accident with only a throbbing knee, Delaney thought she had – for once – averted catastrophe. It was not to be.

Sport

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Steve Smith celebrates his century on the first day of the Ashes. Photograph: Graham Hunt/ProSports/Rex/Shutterstock

Steve Smith’s century has rescued Australia on the first day of the Ashes. His innings was not a thing of beauty – they rarely are – but it was a masterful display on a day when no other batsman hinted at permanency. His 144 meant Australia posted a total of 284.

The reasoning behind Fifa’s decision to expand number of teams at the Women’s World Cup from 24 to 32 is twofold: to capitalise on the growth of women’s football around the world, and to incentivise more member associations to “organise their women’s football program knowing they have a realistic chance of qualifying”. These are noble aims but they are also unrealistic.

Thinking time: From herding cows to music stardom

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Les Filles de Illighadad: Fatou Seidi Ghali, Fatimata Ahmadelher, Alamnou Akrouni and Abdoulaye Madassane. Photograph: Álvaro López

Les Filles de Illighadad are in their dressing room, listening to music on their phones and scrolling through social media apps. Fatou Seidi Ghali, the band’s lead guitarist and singer, once had to practise on her brother’s guitar in secret, now she and her band are taking the world by storm. The group are from a small village in the Tuareg region of the Sahara in western Niger. While the region has produced some celebrated guitarists, Fatou is the first Tuareg woman to play guitar professionally.

A brother introduced her to the instrument, albeit inadvertently, when he brought one home from Libya. Fatou, aged about 10, began teaching herself to play. The sight of a girl holding the guitar was in itself controversial. “My father told me to stop wasting my time,” says Fatou, talking through an interpreter. “I should be busy looking after the cows.” But she persisted, and people began to take notice.

Media roundup

The Age has secured access to “a massive leak of documents” from within NAB, which reveal what its top executives and consultants think about the bank’s customer care, and what they knew of rip-off products. A police office has been convicted of distributing so-called “revenge porn” of another officer, the NT News reports, and also harassed and threatened the woman via text. And the ABC’s Indonesian correspondent reveals what daily life is like in one of the world’s most polluted cities, Jakarta, and the persistent cough of his infant child that proved the last straw.

Coming up

The Garma festival, Australia’s largest Indigenous-led cultural exchange, begins in the NT. Guardian Australia’s Helen Davidson will bring you all the news.

The first hearing of the ABC’s case against federal police raids on its Sydney headquarters will take place in the federal court.

Sign up

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