Good morning, this is Richard Parkin bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Friday 6 September.

Top stories

Boris Johnson has claimed he would “rather be dead in a ditch” than agree a Brexit extension, in a distracted and sometimes rambling speech in West Yorkshire after another bruising day for the prime minister in which his own brother resigned from the government. Johnson reiterated his commitment to forcing a general election before the mooted 31 October Brexit deadline, with the possibility that should the government fail to garner the required two-thirds of MP support on Monday for an early election, it could call on a no-confidence vote on itself. Johnson also defended the decision to purge 21 Conservative MP “rebels” including the grandson of Winston Churchill from the party, and hinted at the renegotiation of EU defence pledges as a possible bargaining chip with the EU.

Legal experts have raised concerns about the “inferior” fast-track refugee assessment process that saw members of the Tamil family from Biloela refused protection, as the family awaits Friday’s hearing on an injunction against the federal government’s attempts to deport them. The University of Queensland law lecturer Peter Billing said the government policy was “arguably flawed”, with researchers finding that the Immigration Assessment Authority found 87% of applicants not to be refugees, despite this figure being adjusted significantly on review. A case worker examining the specifics of the Sri Lankan family’s case suggested “inaccurate information” had been related by the interpreter during an interview “which formed the foundation of the refusal”. The family’s case now hinges on the federal court’s ruling on whether two-year-old daughter Tharunicaa’s asylum claim can be assessed.

The death toll from Hurricane Dorian has been revised to 20 but it is expected to rise as a crisis on the Bahamas’ northernmost islands continues to unfold. Winds of up to 300km/h have pummelled the archipelago for days as the slow-moving category five storm destroyed most of the property on the Abaco Islands. About 70,000 people in the Bahamas are in need of some form of disaster relief in the wake of Dorian, the UN says. Some 20 relief organisations have mobilised, including the US Coast Guard and the Royal Marines who have run emergency evacuations for critically ill people. “I still don’t think we’ve seen all the body bags yet,” said one senior relief official.

World

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tens of thousands protest outside parliament in Cape Town against a spate of gender-based violence. Photograph: Nic Bothma/EPA

Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in South Africa calling for a state emergency to be declared after a string of brutal attacks on women. At least 137 sexual offences are committed each day in the country.

Pope Francis could use an “apostolic exhortation” to condemn Brazil’s Amazon fires, with a senior Brazilian archbishop expected to use next month’s papal synod to denounce President Jair Bolsonaro’s role in the fires, deemed a “true apocalypse”.

A potential suspect and key witness in the shooting down of MH17 has been released by a Ukrainian court, with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy being urged not to allow him to depart for Russia as part of a prisoner exchange.

Irish press have accused the US vice-president, Mike Pence, of betrayal and “humiliation” during a visit in which the proud Irish American reiterated support for Brexit, with one columnist writing that the “much-anticipated visitor … shat on the new carpet”.

The Loch Ness monster could be a giant eel, a team of scientists from New Zealand have suggested, after using DNA to document about 3,000 species in the loch.

Opinion and analysis

Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘Boris Johnson is prepared to risk the country’s economic stability by crashing out of the EU.’ Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images

“With a cabinet in thrall to a ruinous hard-Brexit agenda and negotiations for a new withdrawal agreement with Brussels going nowhere, Mr Johnson is prepared to risk the country’s economic stability by crashing out of the EU,” reads the Guardian’s editorial on Boris Johnson’s latest cunning plan. It gives rise to the remarkable prospect of Johnson becoming the shortest-lived occupant of No 10 Downing Street at under 50 days, with an unlikely but not impossible scenario in which Jeremy Corbyn becomes the nation’s next PM. “Mr Johnson’s government could roll the dice on Monday and, in topsy-turvy times, call a vote of no confidence in itself. An election would follow if opposition parties could not form an alternative government after 14 days.”

As Mike Pence prepared for a meeting with the Irish president by staying at one of Donald Trump’s hotels (more than 225km away), Ross Barkan wonders at what point corruption has become normalised? “Republicans have spent at least $20m at Trump-family hotels since 2015, according to a Center for Responsive Politics study, a brazen ethical breach that puts Trump in league with any craven, tinpot dictator straining to enrich family and friends at the expense of everyone else.”

Sport

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Steve Smith has put Australia in a commanding position. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

A double century for Steve Smith has put Australia in a commanding position to reclaim the Ashes, with the visitors declaring at 497-8 on day two before England lost their newly promoted opener Joe Denly to finish 23-1 at stumps.

For a club of their talent, Geelong have not fared well in AFL finals, writes Jonathan Horn. It’s a horror run since 2012 and it hangs over this weekend’s key finals clash with Collingwood.

Thinking time: Tina Arena on ageism in Australia

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tina Arena poses in Paris in 2018. Photograph: Eric Fougere/Corbis via Getty Images

Tina Arena still works as though there’s a devil on her heels. Bursting on to Australian screens in 1974 in the children’s talent show Young Talent Time, the little girl with a big voice was so popular with viewers that the station was inundated with requests to give her a regular spot. She worked six-day weeks during her seven years on the show while also studying.

At 51 – still tiny, still with a big voice – Arena has endured decades in the public eye. One of the few globally famous Australian pop stars, she has sold more than 10m albums worldwide, with her second solo album, Don’t Ask (1994), yielding the hits Sorrento Moon (I Remember) and Chains. She has worked across genres and media, appearing in musicals, on reality TV (Dancing with the Stars) and at music festivals. But as she tells Guardian Australia’s Brigid Delaney, despite working unrelentingly, the landscape suddenly changed. “I hated the fact I hit 40 and radio wouldn’t play me. I think it’s bullshit. I don’t get it … Someone of a certain age and certain experience and certain gender is no longer relevant – says fucking who?”

Media roundup

The leading regulators Allan Fels and Graeme Samuel are calling for major accounting firms to be banned from providing consulting advice to companies they are auditing, reports the Australian. Huang Xiangmo, the Chinese developer at the centre of the Icac inquiry into political donations to the NSW Labor party, has denied making any donations, according to the Australian Financial Review. And nine airline staff are facing charges of trafficking more than $20m of drugs, writes the Herald Sun.

Coming up

The will be a federal court hearing over the deportation of the Biloela Tamil asylum seeker family.

Queensland’s Crime and Corruption Commission will reveal whether it will investigate the deputy premier, Jackie Trad, over a house purchase.

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