Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Tuesday 6 February.

Top stories

Donald Trump has attacked senior figures in the intelligence community as “liars and leakers”, chief among them the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, Adam Schiff. “Little Adam Schiff,” the president tweeted, “who is desperate to run for higher office, is one of the biggest liars and leakers in Washington, right up there with Comey, Warner, Brennan and Clapper! Adam leaves closed committee hearings to illegally leak confidential information. Must be stopped!”

Schiff responded, tweeting: “Mr President, I see you’ve had a busy morning of ‘Executive Time’. Instead of tweeting false smears, the American people would appreciate it if you turned off the TV and helped solve the funding crisis, protected Dreamers or … really anything else.” The other figures who Trump derided as “liars and leakers” have all either taken part in the investigation or criticised Trump regarding his conduct toward the intelligence community. They were James Comey, the FBI director fired by Trump in May 2017, Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee; John Brennan, the former CIA director under Barack Obama; and James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence.

Environmental lawyers and academics have called for a comprehensive rethink on how Australia’s natural landscapes are protected, warning short-term politics is infecting decision-making and suggesting the public be given a greater say on development plans, writes Adam Morton. The expert panel found the current system of different tiers of government working together hadn’t succeeded in protecting the environment. Instead the body of expert opinion was strongly in favour of the commonwealth taking responsibility for the environment. Meanwhile, investors in the mining giant Rio Tinto are being recruited to demand the company quit the Minerals Council of Australia.

Labor’s factional divisions have intensified after leftwing frontbencher Pat Conroy took public aim at party rightwingers for opposing party democratisation. Conroy said some on the right see efforts to hand more power to the rank and file as “a threat to their power base”. ALP president mark Butler has led the calls in recent weeks, which has stirred suggestions that former federal treasurer Wayne Swan could try to win the presidency for the right.

Seven people in New South Wales have been charged with a total of 127 offences relating to the historical alleged child sexual and physical abuse of three boys under the age of eight. Four women, two men, and a teenage girl were arrested on Monday evening by detectives from the child abuse and sex crimes squad operating under Strike Force Baillieu. Police allege the group participated in the ongoing sexual and physical abuse of the three boys, who were known to them, between 2014 and 2016 in the Blue Mountains.

Australia’s Nobel peace laureate has spoken out about Donald Trump’s aggressive new nuclear policy, calling it “a blueprint for nuclear war” that returns the world to a cold war mentality. Tilman Ruff, the founding chair of the Melbourne-founded International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons said the newly released US nuclear posture review was “a chilling document”. Speaking in Sydney on Monday he said the document “clearly flags that great power confrontation with Russia is back on again”.

Sport

Not even a Super Bowl MVP award could make Nick Foles’s head swell. Barely 12 hours after firing the Philadelphia Eagles to a sensational 41-33 victory over New England – in which he threw for three touchdowns and caught another – he stood on a podium and told reporters that this noted individual prize was actually a team one, and he had “daily struggles’.



In the latest episode of Football Weekly, Max and the podders discuss Salah magic, flying starts for Arsenal new boys, Jordan Ayew’s undershorts and Birds of a Feather.

Thinking time

More than 30 years after the devastating Chernobyl disaster hundreds of stray dogs have learned to survive in the woods around the exclusion zone – mainly descendants of those left behind after the nuclear disaster, when residents were banned from taking their beloved pets to safety. Julie McDowall visits the approximately 300 stray dogs in the 2,600km² exclusion zone, who live among the moose and lynx, the hares and wolves that have also found a home here.

Acclaimed Canadian director Robert Lepage sits down with Van Badham to discuss war, theatre and sibling rivalry as his acclaimed play The Far Side of the Moon arrives on Australian shores. “As a performer, designer, director and writer, he has created profound theatrical explorations of history and the tiny humans swept up within it,” writes Badham. “Puppets and dolls, transforming sets, models, cameras and projection and moving parts synergise with moments of stage naturalism, filmic drama, kabuki, dance, poetry or anything else in service to Lepage’s unique dramatic vision.”

News of “mind-blowing” Prince music on the way isn’t the first time rumors of posthumous unheard songs have been teased from beyond the grave. How many hidden tracks from major stars have we never heard, and why? Jemayel Khawaja does some digging to find out how likely a new hit from David Bowie, the Beatles or Amy Winehouse really is.

What’s he done now?

Donald Trump has enraged people in the UK by criticising its much loved public healthcare system, the NHS, tweeting: “The Democrats are pushing for Universal HealthCare while thousands of people are marching in the UK because their U system is going broke and not working. Dems want to greatly raise taxes for really bad and non-personal medical care. No thanks!” British Prime Minister Theresa May rebuked Trump for his comment, saying via a spokesperson: “The prime minister is proud of having an NHS which is free at the point of delivery.”

Media roundup

“Bloody oath, it’s booming”. The Canberra Times splashes with the renaissance in the wool industry with wool prices hitting highs not seen since the 1980s at $18kg. But despite the boom, finding enough shearers is proving tough in the ACT, and around the country. The Sydney Morning Herald reports on the alleged sexual abuse of children at a circus school in the Blue Mountains, with seven people charged with offences alleged committed against three boys over two years. A leading American investigator into the illegal ivory and rhino horn trade, Esmond Bradley-Martin, has been found stabbed to death in his home in Kenya, the ABC reports. “It’s a very big loss for conservation,” conservationist Paula Kahumbu said.

Coming up

The Reserve Bank board has its monthly interest rate-setting meeting but, despite a turbulent share market, borrowing costs are likely to remain on hold.

Former nurse, Lisa Barrett, in court in South Australia over the deaths of two babies during home births.

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