Good morning, this is Helen Sullivan bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Tuesday 9 April.

Top stories

The Australian Conservation Foundation has warned the government will make itself vulnerable to a legal challenge if it rushes remaining approvals for the Adani coalmine before the election, or if the decision maker, the environment minister, has been subjected to political interference. On Monday night the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, was peppered with questions about the Coalition’s support for the controversial Queensland coal project, and the government’s lack of action on climate change, during a solo appearance on the ABC’s Q&A program. The Coalition is under pressure over Adani in southern city electorates, including Frydenberg’s own Melbourne seat of Kooyong, where new polling indicates he is in a close race with the Labor candidate. Nationally, the Coalition still trails Labor by 52-48 on the two-party preferred measure despite an overall positive reception for last week’s federal budget, according to the latest Essential poll.

Donald Trump has announced that he will remove Secret Service director Randolph “Tex” Alles from his position, as one anonymous official described “a near-systematic purge” at the Department of Homeland Security. Trump’s move against Alles came a day after homeland security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who oversaw the Secret Service, was forced to resign. Meanwhile, the United States has designated Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist organisation, Trump said on Monday, marking the first time Washington has formally named a branch of the armed forces of a foreign government as a terrorist group.

Residents of Tripoli have spoken of their fear and confusion as clashes continue in the Libyan capital’s suburbs. Violence escalated on Monday between UN-backed government forces and troops loyal to Benghazi strongman Khalifa Haftar, after the Tripoli based government announced on Sunday it was launching a counter-offensive against Haftar’s advance. “We are sandwiched between the forces, people are wondering what to do, we are frightened,” said one woman. Several dozen people have been killed in the fighting and international organisations are evacuating non-essential staff, following the lead of the US which withdrew some of its troops over the weekend.

World

Theresa May is under fresh pressure to quit. Photograph: Downing Street/AP

A fresh attempt to oust Theresa May as UK Tory leader is under way over her decision to enter into talks with Jeremy Corbyn, with leading Brexiter MPs plotting ways to force a vote showing that the majority of the party has lost confidence in her.

Tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in Sudan, amid signs of growing divisions among security forces that could pose a serious challenge to the repressive rule of the president, Omar al-Bashir.

The actor Felicity Huffman has agreed to plead guilty in the college admissions cheating scandal, the biggest celebrity name so far to admit to her involvement. Court documents made public on Monday show that 12 other prominent parents will also plead guilty.



Russian authorities will free nearly 100 whales held in cages in the country’s far east, according to reports. After months of delays, the decision to release the whales coincided with a visit to the enclosures by the French oceanographer Jean-Michel Cousteau.

Burger King’s plant-based Whopper has received a glowing review – from a meat lobbyist. “If I didn’t know what I was eating, I would have no idea it was not beef,” wrote Eric Bohl, director of public affairs at the Missouri Farm Bureau.

Opinion and analysis

Tanwarin Sukkhapisit, Thailand’s first transgender MP. Photograph: Tanwarin Sukkhapisit

Meet Tanwarin Sukkhapisit, Thailand’s first transgender MP. Thailand is no stranger to political instability, but last month’s election, the country’s first in eight years, proved to be a new frontier in chaos. Ineptitude and inaccurate results led to widespread confusion and accusations of cheating, with two opposing parties claiming victory, and Thailand is no closer to knowing who will form a government. Among the clamour, it was easy to miss one small but significant outcome of the poll. When the elected politicians eventually gather in parliament, Sukkhapisit will be among them as Thailand’s first transgender MP.

“All budgets contain a certain level of silliness. But as absurd as it is to suggest delivering a budget containing a promise of a surplus next year means you are now ‘back in the black’, that was not the silliest part of this year’s budget narrative,” writes Greg Jericho. “Not content with telling a nice tale about the next four years, this year’s budget went into full fantasy mode by throwing in a prediction for the next 11 years. A prediction of reducing net debt to zero by 2029-30.”

Sport

Pep Guardiola has refused to entertain talk of the quadruple but perhaps the question has been wrong all along: How about the quintuple? He and his Manchester City players are chasing three more trophies before the end of May and the quest continues at Tottenham in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday night.

There are signs women’s rugby in Australia is in the ascendancy, writes Jill Scanlon. But building a competitive national competition is always going to be a long-term prospect when the balance of power, resources and participation rates are not uniform.

Thinking time: water politics goes into hyperdrive

The confluence of the Murray (right) and Darling rivers at Wentworth in NSW. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Farmers from NSW and Victoria will ride their trucks and tractors into the centre of Albury-Wodonga on Tuesday morning to protest about the issue that is proving a touchstone for the growing rural and regional rebellion against the Coalition: water rights. Amid drought and intense political discussion about the adequacy of the Murray-Darling basin plan, the protesters believe they are not getting a fair deal and that large operators to the north and South Australian growers in marginal seats are taking too much water.

In her latest Bushmail dispatch, Gabrielle Chan says the upcoming federal election battle in the seat of Farrer – held by government minister Sussan Ley but under challenge from independent Kevin Mack, Albury’s mayor – will be a key test of voter discontent.

“It is a primal scream by those who believe they are not getting treated fairly under the Murray-Darling Basin plan and who are angry about actions of huge irrigators, some of whom have been accused of water theft and fraud. They are angry about the water-buying power of very large agribusiness companies such as Australia’s biggest walnut grower, Webster’s, which is run by former Patrick’s boss Chris Corrigan. Some are also concerned at the conflicts within irrigation companies, which deliver water, regulate water and privately trade in water.”

Media roundup

The Sydney Morning Herald and the Age feature allegations from their joint investigation with the ABC’s Four Corners that the Chinese Communist party-aligned billionaire Huang Xiangmo paid tens of thousands of dollars to the former minister Santo Santoro to secure a one-on-one meeting with Peter Dutton as Huang was seeking Australian citizenship. The Herald Sun reports that Victoria’s anti-corruption watchdog is investigating claims that taxpayers’ money was spent on fake printing jobs for MPs to boost the power of Labor factions in Victoria. Cancer doctors: Labor plan won’t cure system is the Australian‘s front page headline, with one oncologist interviewed by the paper labelling the ALP’s plan un-Australian “because it overlooked patients with other diseases such as heart disease, the top cause of death in Australia”.

Coming up

Jaymes Todd, who has confessed to the murder and rape of Melbourne comedian Eurydice Dixon, is the subject of a plea hearing in Victoria’s supreme court.

Lending data for households and business will be released by the Bureau of Statistics this morning.