Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Monday 9 July.

Four boys have been rescued from the cave in Thailand where they had been trapped for two weeks, but eight remain inside with their football coach as monsoon rains continue to fall. The first two boys emerged from the cave wearing full-face scuba masks just after 5.30pm local time (8.30pm AEST) on Sunday, and were embraced by the divers who led them out. Two hours later, two more boys emerged 10 minutes apart – hours ahead of even the most optimistic predictions authorities had given earlier that day. “Today was the best situation, in terms of the kids’ health, water and our rescue readiness,” said Narongsak Osatanakorn, who was coordinating the rescue. “It has been our masterpiece work.”

Authorities have yet to release the names of the rescued boys, as anxious relatives wait for news. The four received preliminary health checks at the scene and were taken to a hospital in Chiang Rai. The rescue operation was scheduled to resume at 7am local time (10am AEST), as the rescuers needed between 10 and 20 hours to rest and prepare their equipment, Osatanakorn said. We will have live coverage of the resumed rescue attempt throughout the day.

A woman who was exposed to the nerve agent novichok in the English town of Amesbury has died in hospital. Theresa May said she was “appalled and shocked” by the death of Dawn Sturgess, 44, who was taken ill a week ago. Police have launched a murder investigation. Sturgess’s partner, Charlie Rowley, remains in a critical condition. Assistant commissioner Neil Basu, the head of UK counter-terrorism policing, said the “terrible news” had “only served to strengthen our resolve to identify and bring to justice the person or persons responsible for what I can only describe as an outrageous, reckless and barbaric act”.

Matt Canavan has defended the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, after claims that oversight of the fund was “severely inadequate”. The Labor and Greens-heavy committee examining Naif recommended the finance minister take joint responsibility for administering any approved funds. It also pushed for increased transparency in an attempt to flush out any potential conflicts of interests over the investment decisions, after concerns were raised about Naif board members’ links to the mining industry. But Canavan, the minister in charge, told Guardian Australia he believed the fund was working as it should.

Mike Pompeo has appealed for North Korea’s leadership to follow Vietnam’s path in overcoming past hostilities with the US after Pyongyang’s blistering rebuke of his efforts to forge a denuclearisation deal. The US secretary of state called on Kim Jong-un to replicate Vietnam’s “miracle” of economic growth by improving ties with the US, vowing that the US kept its promises to former foes. Pyongyang’s statement on Saturday made clear it had no intention of carrying out the comprehensive unilateral disarmament Donald Trump crowed about after the Singapore meeting.

Conservation groups say the Leadbeater’s possum should retain its “critically endangered” status, based on new advice from the government’s scientific advisory body. In a draft consultation document, the threatened species scientific committee says the Victorian possum meets at least one of the criteria to make it eligible for listing as critically endangered. The forestry industry and the former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce have been pushing the government to downgrade the species’ status, to open up protected areas of forest for logging.

Sport

Amid scenes of disbelief and national hysteria in England (mostly, but not all, good-natured), it is clear this World Cup has brought something beyond the usual extremes of triumphalism and despair, writes Barney Ronay. “Above all, it has been a surprisingly funny World Cup. Ever get the feeling everyone just really needed a good laugh?”

After a week of shocks at Wimbledon, the big guns will be on red alert on Manic Monday, when all 16 fourth-round matches are played in the men’s and women’s singles. Roger Federer is aiming to stop Adrian Mannarino’s run, while Serena Williams faces another mother, Evgeniya Rodina, in a wide open women’s draw.

Thinking time

Guy Pearce is back as PI Jack Irish in the second season of his namesake show, a week after the ABC wrapped up Mystery Road. The format of these two franchises bears some similarities, with the neo-noir genre a great space to explore social issues, and scrutinise those in power. As much as Aaron Pedersen and Pearce’s hard-bitten characters are stony warrior types, they are also stamped with the countenance of wary men. Their challenge is ultimately intellectual, their end goals nothing if not related to truth and accountability, writes Luke Buckmaster.

The former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright decries the global rise of authoritarianism in her new book, Fascism: A Warning. In an interview with Andrew Rawnsley, she discusses her meetings with figures including Slobodan Milošević, Kim Jong-il, Victor Chávez, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Viktor Orbán, and how today’s leaders might deal with Donald Trump. “The device, theoretically, is to tell him how wonderful he is. And to agree with whatever he says – and that’s distasteful. He is unpredictable except when people flatter him and allow him to dominate. I know what it’s like to be in diplomatic discussions with people that you don’t respect. You do begin in some kind of civilised way, but ultimately you have to say what you think.”

Peter Carey and Julian Barnes have shared their doubts about the future of the Man Booker prize over its decision to allow American writers to enter, with Carey calling it “an exercise in global corporate branding” and Barnes labelling it “daft”. The 2013 decision to widen the eligibility from Commonwealth authors to any book written in English has been hotly debated, with dissenting authors citing the ubiquity of American authors in particular on the prize’s longlists. In February, 30 publishers signed a letter urging the organisers to reverse the change, or risk a “homogenised literary future”.

Media roundup

All the major papers splash with the overnight rescue in Thailand. “Prayers for the boys,” says the NT News, “Miracle at Tham Luang,” says the Sydney Morning Herald and “Into the light,” says the Daily Telegraph. A third of Australians experience symptoms similar to jetlag owing to lack of sleep, the Canberra Times reports, a condition exacerbated by screen use before bed. And the Australian reports that SAS soldiers are undergoing additional training in ethics and morality as the army braces for the release of a report expected to detail alleged war crimes committed by troops in Afghanistan.

Coming up

The Australian Electoral Commision will reveal citizenship declarations by candidates for the five federal byelections to be held on 28 July.

Hundreds of people are due to strip off for photographer Spencer Tunick’s latest work at a rooftop Woolworths car park in the Melbourne suburb of Prahran this morning.

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