Good morning, this is Helen Sullivan bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Tuesday 18 June.

Top stories

The Australian government has been challenged by the EU and by China about whether it can meet its Paris commitments given rising emissions, and about growing pollution from vehicles, before a progress meeting about climate commitments in Bonn next week. Nineteen countries, including Australia, will gather on 24 and 25 June for a multilateral assessment of progress made under international climate commitments, and countries have submitted a range of questions about the performance of signatories in meeting their targets. As well as questions about rising emissions, the EU and Canada have also queried the government’s decision to use carryover credits from the Kyoto protocol in its latest carbon budget. Meanwhile, among Australians, support for nuclear plants is rising – but most don’t want to live near one.

A major new report has found that Australia is at a crossroads, facing a choice between slow economic and social decline – or prosperity. The report brings together the thinking of more than 50 leaders in business, academia, NGOs and the community sector, working with the CSIRO to model alternative futures for Australia. The report is described as a “clarion call” for the nation: it concludes that while Australia has enjoyed almost three decades of economic growth, with enviable social cohesion and strong institutions, it risks “drifting into the future” if it fails to respond to challenges in a fast-changing world. Those identified are the rise of Asia, rapid technological change, climate change and the environment, changing demographics, declining trust in institutions and business, and strains on social cohesion.

The Human Rights Commission says the Australian onshore immigration detention system is unlike similar operations in any other liberal democracy and is becoming “more and more like prison”. It is also now holding people for an average of about 500 days – far longer than any comparable jurisdiction, and is increasingly using restraints. The commission urged the government to “take very seriously” its latest report, which examined risk management in detention and found that amid a growing proportion of people being detained on “character grounds” and corresponding structural changes to make centres more secure, all detainees, including young female asylum seekers, were being subject to harsher treatment.

World

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, 67, died Monday during a court trial on espionage charges. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Egypt’s ousted president Mohamed Morsi has collapsed during a court session and died, almost six years after he was forced from power in a bloody coup. Morsi, 67, was attending a session in his trial on espionage charges on Monday when he blacked out and then died, according to state media. Morsi was Egypt’s first democratically elected president: read his obituary here.

Thirteen journalists who were investigating damage to the environment have been killed in recent years, with many more suffering violence, harassment, intimidation and lawsuits. The Committee to Protect Journalists, which produced the tally, is investigating a further 16 deaths.

Thirty people were killed when three people blew themselves up on Sunday night in a busy market in north-east Nigeria, which has seen an increase in attacks by militant groups.

Communication issues resulted in police and members of the public being left to treat victims of the London Bridge terrorist attacks – and not knowing why paramedics were not coming to their aid, an ambulance service boss has told the inquest.

Ireland has unveiled an ambitious plan to tackle the climate emergency by weaning the state, businesses, farms and households off fossil fuels. The government published a long-awaited report that sets a path for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Opinion and analysis

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A migrant worker sorts through plastic bottles at a plant in Samut Sakhon, Thailand. Photograph: Diego Azubel/EPA

A Guardian investigation has found that hundreds of thousands of tons of US plastic are being shipped every year to poorly regulated developing countries – for the dirty, labor-intensive process of recycling. The consequences for public health and the environment are grim. A team of Guardian reporters in 11 countries working on a new Guardian series, the United States of Plastic, has found that last year, the equivalent of 68,000 shipping containers of US plastic recycling were exported to developing countries that mismanage more than 70% of their own plastic waste. The newest hotspots for handling US plastic recycling are some of the world’s poorest countries, including Bangladesh, Laos, Ethiopia and Senegal, offering cheap labor and limited environmental regulation.

“The latest labour force figures released last week made it clear that hopes for an increase in wages growth is a long way off,” writes Greg Jericho, “and the government’s predictions in its budget are absurdly optimistic. Just how in need of stimulus is the economy? Consider that the day before the Reserve Bank cut the cash rate to 1.25% the market was predicting there was a strong chance of further cuts to 0.75% to occur sometimes late next year. Now, just two weeks later, the market is fully pricing in a cut to 0.75% to occur by the end of this year and around a 30% chance of a cut to 0.5% to occur next year.”

Sport

Germany sealed top spot in Group B of the Women’s World Cup as they eased past South Africa with a 4-0 victory in Montpellier on Monday. Spain and China, meanwhile, played out a goalless draw in Le Havre – meaning that both sides secured progression into the last 16 as a result.

There are calls for Australia to cut another Super Rugby team after only one side, the Brumbies, reached the playoffs this season. This comes just two years after the axing of the Western Force, but it appears Australia does not have sufficient depth to support even four Super Rugby teams – let alone five.

Thinking time: A national plan to save wombats from mange

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Grasso the wombat. Photograph: Elena Guarracino

Last month Grasso wasn’t doing well. The bare-nosed wombat, dubbed Fatso in Italian, was infected with mange. The devastating skin disease caused by parasitic mites had left his skin crusted, bleeding and constantly irritated. His eyes and ears were so affected he could barely see, hear or even smell. The nocturnal animal was out grazing during the day, desperate for nutrients because of his raised metabolic rate, but he was gradually wasting away. Untreated, he faced a certain and agonising death.

A volunteer wildlife carer, Elena Guarracino, from the Looking after our Kosciuszko orphans mange management group, was alerted to Grasso’s plight in early May. She set off to find him, somewhere on a property at Avonside, NSW. He was in such poor condition that euthanising him could have been considered the kindest option. But Guarracino thought he was plump enough to survive for a while, and so, despite a 120km round trip, she treated him four times over the next 25 days. When she last saw him at the beginning of June, Grasso was much improved. And now, there are calls for a national plan to tackle mange – and the incoming environment minister, Sussan Ley, has a clear opportunity to improve the situation for wombats and for their carers – if she makes it a priority.

Media roundup

The ABC reveals that the “details of costly blowouts and delays on troubled military projects are being kept hidden from public view by the Defence department”. The Australian Financial Review’s front page bears the headline “Tax cuts no handout to the rich”. Australian universities are split over free speech, the Australian reports.

Coming up

The Reserve Bank should shed more light on its reasoning behind this month’s cut to the cash rate when it releases the minutes of its last meeting.

The 25th National General Assembly of Local Government will be held in Canberra, featuring an address from deputy prime minister, Michael McCormack. Recycling, drought, climate change and electric vehicles will dominate the event.