Good morning, this is Helen Sullivan bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Friday 25 october.

Top stories

The 39 people found dead in a lorry trailer in Essex were Chinese nationals, police have confirmed, as they secured extra time to hold a Northern Irish man on suspicion of murder. The victims, discovered in a refrigerated trailer in Grays on Wednesday, were eight women and 31 men. On Thursday, lorry drivers and officials at Zeebrugge port suggested the victims would have boarded the container – likely under the supervision of people smugglers – well away from Zeebrugge’s tight security. “The grisly discovery of 39 dead Chinese men and women in the back of a lorry in Essex on Wednesday was the culmination of two fateful journeys,” write Jamie Grierson and Molly Blackall, as they retrace the paths taken by the lorry driver and Chinese nationals to Essex.

Labor is calling for a police investigation into whether a document was forged in Angus Taylor’s office with the purpose of influencing the exercise of duty by the lord mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore, with Labor declaring it will refer the matter in the next 24 hours. “The most unfortunate outcome of this affair is that it will once again diminish the already fragile trust in both politicians and journalism. In this era of fake news, the fact that a politician sent a document containing false figures to a journalist, who then relied on it to publish a story, does no one any favours,” writes Anne Davies.

Coral coverage around some of the most popular tourist islands on the Great Barrier Reef has dropped by almost half in the last 18 years, according to a new study. Scientists analysed data from monitoring dives between 1999 and 2017 at 100 different locations across the Whitsunday Islands, Magnetic Island, Keppel Islands and Palm Islands. Daniela Ceccarelli, of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University, said: “The loss [of hard corals] was between 40 and 50% at each island group. We were pretty shocked actually.”

Boris Johnson will ask MPs next week to back a pre-Christmas general election. The prime minister has abandoned his “do or die” pledge to leave the EU by 31 October and written to Jeremy Corbyn saying he will give parliament one last opportunity to scrutinise his withdrawal agreement bill and “get Brexit done” by 6 November. But he will also table a motion under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act next Monday asking for an early general election. MPs would then vote on the motion the same day.

Australia

The tribunal tasked with hearing tens of thousands of refugee appeals is struggling under a growing workload despite record clearance rates.

A leading Australian climate scientist has said his views have been misrepresented by conservative media commentators, who have used a “misspoken” statement to dismiss the links between climate change and drought.

Parliament’s intelligence and security committee has ordered the government back to the drawing board for laws to establish a national facial recognition database, saying the legislation needs to be redrafted to ensure citizens’ rights are protected.

The artist Mary Leunig has declared her brother, Michael Leunig, should “speak to people and listen to people more,” and said he unfairly picks on women and mothers, after the cartoonist was roundly criticised for his latest work.

The world

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A photographer takes a shot amid a shower of embers during California wildfires on Thursday. Photograph: Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images

A northern California wildfire exploded in size early on Thursday after dangerously dry, windy weather prompted the state’s largest utility to impose electrical blackouts in an effort to prevent fire catastrophes.

Sixteen Bangladeshis have been sentenced to death for the murder of a 19-year-old student, Nusrat Jahan Rafi, who was burned to death in April after complaining of being sexually harassed by her school principal.

Author JK Rowling has called on students around the world not to volunteer at orphanages, pointing to emerging evidence that “orphanage tourism” drives family separation and child trafficking.

Recommended reads

Facebook Twitter Pinterest What’s the point of going to an ocean pool if you don’t Instagram it? Composite: Brigid Delaney/AAP/The Guardian

Brigid Delaney was set a formidable task by an editor at the Guardian: No more than an hour of phone time a day – and that included checking the time. But then Leunig struck. “Quick check of Twitter. Who is everyone hating today? I must know!!! Ah, it’s the cartoonist Michael Leunig. I join the pile-on and fire off a tweet. The tweet is short – to minimise time online – “Michael Leunig fell out of a pram.” It barely makes sense but almost immediately, before I have a chance to put my phone down, it’s getting lots of likes. Ugh. Shouldn’t have tweeted. So deeply have I internalised the rhythms and rewards of checking for likes that I become sucked in again, checking and making more jokes about Leunig.”

Catriona Menzies-Pike, a former “gin-addled bookworm” used to eye runners with suspicion as she nursed her lattes and hangovers, writes Jenny Valentish in an exploration of the connection between exercise and quitting drugs and alcohol. “She’d spent a decade adrift after the sudden death of her parents before it struck her that she’d been preoccupied with distance and endurance, and running away, so perhaps the logical answer was actual running. Now the Sydney-based editor has run five marathons.”

Listen

Australia is running in short supply when it comes to long-term strategies to tackle the drought. In 2018 Barnaby Joyce became drought envoy but what did he actually do for drought-stricken farmers? In this episode of Full Story, chief political correspondent Sarah Martin takes host Laura Murphy-Oates through what we know about his movements and ask the question: did we get value from the taxpayer funds spent on the role? And what does this appointment tell us about the Coalition’s broader drought policy?

Sport

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Robbie Fowler opens up on wanting to be taken seriously as a manager – and staying up into the early hours to watch the Premier League on TV. Photograph: Dan Peled/AAP

Robbie Fowler, Brisbane Roar’s new coach, says he might be a “test case” for inexperienced English managers looking to cut their teeth in Australia.

Liam Williams has been ruled out of the World Cup and will miss Wales’ semi-final with South Africa after the full-back picked up an ankle injury in training. Warren Gatland’s side will take on the Springboks in Yokohama on Sunday, but Williams will not feature. It is a huge blow to Wales’ chances of reaching the last two.

Media roundup

The NT News’ front-page headline on the last time the public will be able to climb Uluru is End of an era. “Australians fighting with Islamic State are being investigated over allegations they bought Yazidi women, raped them and held them as sex slaves, as part of a widening AFP probe into jihadis,” the Australian reports. The Sydney Morning Herald reveals that more than 12 regional NSW towns are at “high risk” of running out of water, and that consumer sentiment for the region has fallen to levels last seen after the 2008 GFC.

Coming up

Federal agriculture minister Bridget McKenzie will meet state ministers in Melbourne to discuss the racehorse industry.

And if you’ve read this far …

A museum dedicated to vaginas has been granted an alcohol licence despite residents’ concerns it could attract rowdy stag and hen parties. The Vagina Museum is due to open on 16 November at Camden Market in London, with the aim of increasing knowledge of “gynaecological anatomy and health”.

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