Good morning, this is Helen Sullivan bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Wednesday 26 June.

Top stories

Australians are increasingly wary about China and worry about the potential for foreign interference in our democracy, according to new polling from a major foreign policy thinktank. The survey comes on the same day Scott Morrison will deliver a speech warning of “collateral damage” in the region from the US-China rift. The Lowy Institute poll suggests trust by Australians in China to be a responsible global actor has hit its lowest point since the survey began 15 years ago. Clear majorities also feel Australia is too economically dependent on China (74%) and there is too much inbound investment from Beijing (68%).

A whistleblower has accused the government of flagrantly breaching laws to thwart the release of politically sensitive documents, including records of Tony Abbott’s taxpayer-funded entitlements. A freedom of information officer who has worked across the federal government blew the whistle internally in late 2017 on what he described as a “culture of disdain for the rule of law” within the prime minister’s department. The whistleblower alleged the department had breached FoI law in one of every two requests it received, particularly when the documents were embarrassing or sensitive. The whistleblower collated 25 examples of requests that had been handled unlawfully, saying they showed a “politically motivated, pervasive, and toxic” disregard for the law. The complaint aligns with the concerns among experts and former insiders at the information watchdog, who fear that, in some cases, documents are being deliberately withheld until the “heat” has gone out of political controversies.

Public health experts are appalled the Woolworths-owned BWS alcohol chain has partnered with the Dry July Foundation, which raises money for cancer sufferers. BWS announced its support for the charity last week, saying it will help promote no-alcohol beers, ciders and spirits and sales staff will take part in the annual fundraiser. The Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education chief executive, Michael Thorn, described the arrangement as “ill-conceived” and said it should be dumped immediately. Thorn said it was akin to big tobacco companies supporting a lung cancer charity or arms dealers sponsoring the Australian War Memorial.

World

Donald Trump and Hassan Rouhani. Composite: AP

The Iranian and US presidents have traded insults, with Hassan Rouhani suggesting that Donald Trump suffers from a “mental disorder” and Trump once more threatening Iran with “obliteration”. The first phase of the Trump administration’s long-awaited peace plan for Israel and Palestine has, meanwhile, been rolled out to scepticism, anger and outright derision, with a deal seeming further away than ever.



Boris Johnson has hardened his position on leaving the EU “do or die” by the end of October, as hardline Eurosceptics extended their influence on his faltering campaign to be the UK’s PM.

Breakdancing has moved a step closer to being included in the 2024 Olympic Games. Known as breaking in Olympic circles, it is one of four sports Paris wants to add to its program, though the other three – skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing – will make Summer Games debuts next year in Tokyo.

Cities around the US are no longer recycling many types of plastic dropped into recycling bins, a Guardian investigation has found. From Los Angeles to Florida to the Arizona desert, officials say, vast quantities of plastic are now no better than garbage.

A record high of 45C is expected in France as an unprecedented, potentially deadly early summer heatwave sweeps across Europe. National high temperature records set mostly in late July or August are likely to be broken across the continent.

Opinion and analysis

The Dominican Republic is enduring its worst drought in 30 years. Photograph: Ricardo Rojas/Reuters

The world is increasingly at risk of “climate apartheid”, a report from a UN human rights expert has said, where the rich pay to escape heat and hunger caused by the escalating climate crisis while the rest of the world suffers. Philip Alston, UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, said the impacts of global heating are likely to undermine not only basic rights to life, water, food and housing for hundreds of millions of people, but also democracy and the rule of law. Alston is critical of the “patently inadequate” steps taken by the UN, countries, NGOs and businesses, saying they are “entirely disproportionate to the urgency and magnitude of the threat”. His report to the UN human rights council concludes: “Human rights might not survive the coming upheaval.”

It’s no longer ideologies that define and divide Australian politics, writes Richard Denniss. “While the philosophical positions adopted by political parties might be all over the shop, the interests they support remain remarkably stable. The right tend to line up behind wealth, power and the establishment, and the left fire up to support new industries that solve new problems, and to protect marginalised groups from established institutions.”

Sport

Jofra Archer of England looks frustrated after bowling to Australia at the Cricket World Cup. Photograph: Graham Hunt/ProSports/Rex/Shutterstock

Australia has delivered a hammer blow to England’s Cricket World Cup hopes with a comprehensive 64-run victory, in which Australia dominated from start to finish.

Andy Murray has tasted doubles defeat at Eastbourne, while Dan Evans is prospering, writes Kevin Mitchell. “If Andy Murray epitomises artful struggle – and the Scot’s first stumble in his comeback here on Tuesday, when the excellent Juan Sebastián Cabal and Robert Farah beat him and Marcelo Melo 6-2, 6-4, in just over an hour, was not a seismic shock – Evans is the hero of the artful dodgers, a reformed rebel with educated hands and a quick brain.”

Thinking time: Meet the network of thinkers transforming capitalism

‘For almost half a century, something vital has been missing from leftwing politics in western countries.’ Illustration: Nathalie Lees/The Guardian

“There is a dawning recognition that a new kind of economy is needed: fairer, more inclusive, less exploitative, less destructive of society and the planet,” writes Andy Beckett. The 2008 financial crisis and the previously unthinkable government interventions that halted it have discredited two central neoliberal orthodoxies: that capitalism cannot fail, and that governments cannot step in to change how the economy works.

“A huge political space has opened up. In Britain and the US, in many ways the most capitalist western countries, and the ones where its problems are starkest, an emerging network of thinkers, activists and politicians has begun to seize this opportunity. They are trying to construct a new kind of leftwing economics: one that addresses the flaws of the 21st-century economy, but which also explains, in practical ways, how future leftwing governments could create a better one.”

Media roundup

The Morrison government has said Australia is “in consultation with our allies and partners” over rising tensions between the US and Iran, and “shares the international community’s concerns over Iran’s destabilising behaviours,” the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age report. The Australian reveals that financial backing for Israel Folau’s legal campaign, given via a fundraising site set up by the Australian Christian Lobby, has reached $1.5m. The Courier-Mail reports that the former Billabong CEO Matthew Perrin has been released from jail a year before his parole eligibility date.

Coming up

The Victorian CFMMEU union boss John Setka is scheduled to appear in court in Melbourne accused of harassing a woman.

Scott Morrison will deliver a major foreign policy speech in Sydney.

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