Good morning, this is Helen Sullivan bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Friday 5 July.

Top stories

Scott Morrison has declared the passage of the government’s $158bn tax cut package through the Senate a victory for “quiet Australians” after Labor capitulated and joined the Coalition to vote for the 10-year plan. Speaking after the package passed with only the Greens voting against it, the prime minister said parliament had voted to “reward aspiration”. The Coalition’s tax plan was supported by Labor even though the party had argued it was “irresponsible” to lock in benefits for higher income earners. The bill passed the Senate shortly after 7pm on Thursday, paving the way for the tax cuts to flow from the end of next week. Here’s how much money you can expect to get.

Planting billions of trees across the world is by far the cheapest way to tackle the climate crisis, according to scientists who have made the first calculation of how many more trees could be planted without encroaching on crop land or urban areas. New research estimates that a worldwide planting program could remove two-thirds of all the emissions that have been pumped into the atmosphere by human activities, a figure the scientists describe as “mind-blowing”. The world’s six biggest nations – Russia, Canada, China, the US, Brazil and Australia – contain half the potential restoration sites.

The Northern Territory government is still fighting civil claims from Don Dale detainees by arguing the use of spit hoods on minors was “reasonable”, despite having since banned their use and agreeing to royal commission recommendations to outlaw the practice. The NT banned spit hoods and restraint chairs in youth detention in 2016 after shocking footage surfaced showing their use on Dylan Voller in Darwin’s Don Dale youth detention centre.

UN human rights inspectors will have “completely unfettered access to all places of detention” when they visit Australia in coming months. This week the UN subcommittee on prevention of torture announced it would visit six countries to inspect places of detention, including Australia and Nauru. The chair of the subcommittee, Malcolm Evans, told Guardian Australia inspectors had “the right of unannounced access to any place of detention or any place we believe people might be being deprived of their liberty”. The inspectors will have a broad brief, including prisons, youth detention, immigration detention, psychiatric hospitals, police stations and social care environments such as aged care and disability homes.

World

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Despite criticism that he is politicising the holiday, Trump set to deliver a speech about patriotism at the ‘show of a lifetime’. Photograph: Erik S Lesser/EPA

White House aides have reportedly struggled to draw crowds to Donald Trump’s Fourth of July celebrations, with service chiefs of the army, navy, air force and Marine Corps set to skip the planned display of military might.

More than 80 people trying to reach Europe from Libya are feared dead after their boat capsized off the coast of Tunisia, according to the UN migration agency.

British Royal Marines have helped seize an Iranian supertanker suspected of carrying oil to Syria off the coast of Gibraltar, escalating tensions between the UK and Tehran as the agreement aimed at halting Iran’s nuclear program unravels.



New York has seen a significant rise in women travelling across state lines for abortions amid tightening restrictions and access to services across the country.

Residents of Florida have been urged to kill iguanas “whenever possible”. Non-native iguanas are multiplying rapidly in the state’s south. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission did not say how civilians should try to kill them.

Opinion and analysis

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Inside the 21st-century British criminal underworld. Photograph: Chris Radburn/PA

There are almost 5,000 criminal gangs in the UK. But the old family firms are gone – today’s big players are multinational, diversified and tech-savvy, writes Duncan Campbell. “Britain was once dealing with drugs imports from half a dozen countries; now it is more than 30. A young person who would in the past have sought an apprenticeship in a trade or industry may now find that drug dealing offers better career prospects. And, apart from drugs and guns, British trading channels now facilitate the trafficking of women from eastern Europe and Africa for prostitution and children from Vietnam as low-level drug workers.”

The stereotype that Brits are stuck-up or aloof couldn’t be further from the truth, writes Brigid Delaney, as she tries to make sense of unprecedented levels of gloom and despair in the UK. “Every time I am lost in London, I’m staggered by how helpful and friendly complete strangers are. They will walk blocks out of their way to make sure you get to the right pub – and then they’ll offer advice on whether it’s a good pub or you should have picked the Kings Head to meet your friends instead.” The pubs, the walks, the TV presenters and the newspapers are all welcoming signs to an outsider, no matter how much Britain beats itself up.

Sport

Ashleigh Barty was in ruthless mood at Wimbledon on Thursday as she raced into the third round with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Alison Van Uytvanck of Belgium.

Rafael Nadal emerged victorious against Nick Kyrgios, winning 6-3, 3-6, 7-6, 7-6, but the bad feeling between the two showed no signs of easing in a spicy second-round contest.

When Caleb Ewan takes to the Tour de France start line on Saturday, he will wonder what might have been. He may only be 24, but the Australian has coveted a start since he was a teenager, eager to prove himself at this grandest of Grand Tours. Kieran Pender speaks to the Australian sprinting prodigy as he gears up to make his Tour debut after several false dawns.

Thinking time: Majak Daw’s return

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Majak Daw is set to return to the football field this weekend after falling from a bridge last year. Photograph: Michael Dodge/Getty Images

How do you enter the world of Majak Daw, a man who comes from a place few of us understand firsthand – from fleeing a Sudanese civil war as a young boy, to being found in the murky waters of the Yarra a week before Christmas last year with the horrific injuries that come from a 6ft 5in man nudging 100kg hitting the murky water from the height of the Bolte Bridge. While we can barely begin to know where Daw has come from, it is difficult not to regard his return to football this weekend as the best story the AFL has to tell in 2019.



Earlier this year it was all Daw could do to walk. He had 15cm rods inserted in either side of his pelvis. When he had recovered to leave his hospital bed, he was restricted to walking laps of North Melbourne’s Arden Street home. Then he worked the leg press. And then small jumps. Only then did he begin to run again. His former teammate Brent Harvey recalled going to the hospital and seeing Daw unable to walk. “I went back a week later, and he still couldn’t walk and all my local friends, who don’t know a lot about football, asked me if he’ll play again and I said he’s got no chance.”

Media roundup

The Australian’s front page declares a $15bn kickstart for the economy. The Sydney Morning Herald leads with a $100bn social services shock for NSW, reporting that 7% of people who are under 25 will account for half of the estimated $100bn cost of the state’s social services by the time they are 40. Happy birthday to the Mercury, which is 165 years old today.

Coming up

Findings will be handed down after the inquest into the death of an Indigenous woman, Rebecca Maher, who was detained for being “intoxicated”, and was later found dead in Maitland police station.

Anti-Adani protesters plan to disrupt traffic in central Sydney and Brisbane this evening as they demonstrate against the mine’s approval.

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