Good morning, this is Helen Sullivan bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Wednesday 27 March.

Top stories

Downing Street aides asked hard-Brexit Conservatives whether Theresa May’s resignation as prime minister would get them to back the Brexit deal, it has emerged. An afternoon summit at the prime minister’s country retreat on Sunday was carefully choreographed so that Boris Johnson, Iain Duncan Smith, Jacob Rees-Mogg and other Tory rebels present ended up in one-to-one chats with key No 10 staffers when the main meeting periodically broke up. A source said that in those private conversations several aides to the prime minister present asked whether it would help them vote for the controversial Brexit deal if May were to quit. “It didn’t look like a coincidence; aides like this are not meant to think for themselves,” the source added.

The detailed personal information of more than 60,000 Australians was exposed in a massive cyber-attack on Facebook last year. Internal documents reveal the attack on Facebook in September 2018 affected an estimated 111,813 Australians, among roughly 29 million worldwide. About 48,000 had only basic personal information – their name, email and phone number – compromised. But hackers were able to access information on 62,306 users’ hometown, current location, most recent check-ins, birthday, education, work history, Facebook search history, name, email, phone number, gender, relationship status and religion.

Austria’s leader has called for authorities to “ruthlessly” investigate possible ties between an Austrian nationalist group and the alleged Christchurch mosque gunman, after it emerged that a prominent Austrian far-right activist had received a donation in the suspected shooter’s name. Christoph Poelzl, spokesman for Austria’s Interior Ministry, confirmed on Tuesday that the country’s BVT domestic intelligence agency searched the Vienna apartment of Martin Sellner, head of the Identitarian Movement of Austria Vienna. Sellner said on social media that police seized electronic devices during the search after he received a “disproportionately high donation” from a person named Tarrant – the same surname as the suspected Christchurch shooter.

World

Facebook Twitter Pinterest In a letter on Monday night, the justice department said it is backing a Texas judge’s controversial December ruling that Obamacare is unconstitutional. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images



The Trump administration now believes that the entire Affordable Care Act should be struck down. The major shift in the federal government’s position is one that could endanger health coverage for millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions.

Yemen is marking a grim anniversary this week: it has been four years since a western-backed military coalition led by Saudi Arabia intervened in its civil war, a move which has led to the deaths of at least 60,000 people and caused the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis.

Prosecutors agreed on Tuesday to drop criminal charges against Empire actor Jussie Smollett for faking a hate crime attack in Chicago. Smollett was charged with 16 counts of felony disorderly conduct for allegedly hiring two men to stage a racist, homophobic attack against him in downtown Chicago earlier this year.

Nasa’s plans for the first all-female spacewalk have fallen through – at least in part because the agency doesn’t have enough spacesuits to fit the female astronauts. What should have been a giant leap for womankind has turned into a stumble after Nasa said on Monday night that they will only have access to one correctly sized spacesuit top by Friday when the walk was scheduled.

A Dutch art detective has said he has recovered a valuable painting by Pablo Picasso 20 years after it was stolen from a wealthy Saudi Arabian’s yacht in France. Arthur Brand said he took possession of the 1938 painting Buste de Femme two weeks ago, after trailing it for years in Amsterdam.

Opinion and analysis

Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘Wade Robson and James Safechuck said Jackson spoke to them at length about the emotional and physical abuse his father subjected him to as a child.’ Photograph: Joshua Bright/The Guardian

“We are not exactly short these days of celebrities accused of exploiting their fame to mask predatory behaviour. Yet the Michael Jackson case is different,” writes Hadley Freeman. “In his lifetime, he talked happily about sharing his bed with little boys, and was rarely photographed more than six feet away from one, even after he was publicly accused – four times – of child sexual abuse. But with every other high-profile story of child abuse, the adult predator is presented solely as just that: an adult predator, a fully formed, inexplicable monster. With Jackson we have, uniquely, witnessed an entire life of abuse played out in front of our eyes, in which the once-adorable little boy, whose father notoriously physically abused him, grew up to become himself the most notorious abuser in modern music.”

“The practice of medicine should be straightforward but increasingly it comes wrapped in layers of politics,” writes Ranjana Srivastava, as she shares the story of one of her patients. “A large part of my practice is looking after refugees, and unfortunately, they die like other cancer patients. But what made this particular death poignant is that it happened at the same time as Australia’s home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, warned the country of the risks of transferring critically ill asylum seekers and refugees held in offshore detention to the mainland for necessary medical treatment.”

Sport

It is a truism of professional sport that television gets what television wants. TV is the ultimate arbiter of who plays what, where and when. And talk of the NRL’s relocation and expansion has come about because Foxtel and Channel Nine would like another 80 minutes of entertainment each week with which to sell advertising space and set top boxes, writes Matt Cleary.

David Beckham is desperate to keep Inter Miami out of the suburbs, writes Graham Ruthven. The former England captain wants his team to play in downtown Miami, as soccer in North America markets itself as an urban game

Thinking time: why are there so many flamingos in Mumbai?

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The birds’ polluted habitat appears to hold clues the cause of the huge spike in the flamingo population. Photograph: Vidyasagar Hariharan

There is an air of anxious excitement among the urban professionals and tourists on board our 24-seater motorboat as we enter Thane Creek. A chorus of “oohs” and “aahs” breaks out as we spot the visions in pink we came to see – hundreds of flamingos listlessly bobbing in the murky green water – followed by the furious clicking of cameras. Then, almost as one, the birds skim the water and take off in sync. “They always stay together,” says Prathamesh Desai, who has been organising birding excursions in the city for seven years. “They are an extremely gregarious species.”

These birds have begun congregating in India’s largest city in astonishing numbers. A count in January this year found 120,000 flamingos in the city – three times their highest population in at least four decades. “Flamingos began migrating to Mumbai in the 1980s and 1990s,” says Rahul Khot, assistant director of the Bombay Natural History Society, one of the oldest scientific institutions in India. “Records show that since then their numbers have hovered between 30,000 and 40,000 each season.” The flamingo population of India’s largest city has tripled. Is it thanks to sewage boosting the blue-green algae they feed on? asks Payal Mohta.

Media roundup

PM plea: desert One Nation is the headline on the Australian’s front page this morning. Nationals MP George Christensen spent 294 days in the Philippines over a four-year period, according to the Herald Sun, and “for two consecutive years was in Manila for more days than he was in federal parliament”. Scott Morrison has conceded to the Nationals by agreeing to investigate underwriting a new coal plant in Queensland, the Australian Financial Review reveals. “A Mosman swim instructor ­accused of sexually abusing eight girls during their lessons allegedly sexually assaulted a seven-year-old eight times in three weeks,” reports the Daily Telegraph.

Coming up

Victoria’s “lawyer X” royal commission into the police use of informants is due to hold its first public hearing.

Tech companies will gather in Sydney for a public forum where they will call for amendments to the controversial encryption-cracking bill.