Good morning, this is Stephen Smiley bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Tuesday 8 October.

Top stories

Victorian Labor has used a tightly held submission to a review of the May election result to argue for states to have more input into the national campaign, arguing a “one size fits all” approach was a key reason for the party’s bruising loss. While not explicitly mentioned in the document, which was prepared by the Victorian branch for the review being conducted by Jay Weatherill and Craig Emerson, Labor sources familiar with it say it is understood to be in reference to the difficulty the party had over the Adani coalmine. Guardian Australia understands that the submission suggests that individual branches should have more input into the party’s policy development, with one source suggesting that had this been in place before the May election, the Queensland branch may have ensured climate change action was framed as a driver of jobs growth, rather than as a moral issue.

The New South Wales opposition has warned of a “crisis of confidence” in the state’s planning system following revelations that 13 corporations hid their donations from the state’s planning authorities. A Guardian investigation on Monday found some of Australia’s biggest companies – including Woolworths, Caltex, Origin Energy and AMP – had failed to declare sizeable donations to planning authorities while seeking to develop or approve property in the state, which is typically considered a criminal offence. NSW Labor’s Adam Searle said the current planning system remained “opaque” despite reforms, and allowed “developers and other special interests” to get favourable outcomes by influencing government behind closed doors.

Challenges against the election of Josh Frydenberg and Gladys Liu must fail because they do not prove that voters changed their vote after reading controversial Chinese-language signs, the Australian Electoral Commission has said. The AEC has asked the federal court to throw out both cases, arguing the petitions do not contain enough detail to overturn the election of the treasurer and deputy Liberal leader in Kooyong, and the Liberal MP in Chisholm. The petitions from the unsuccessful independent candidate for Kooyong, Oliver Yates, and Chisholm constituents Naomi Leslie Hall and Vanessa Claire Garbett complain that Chinese-language signs were likely to mislead voters because they used the AEC’s purple colours and instructed voters that the “correct” or “right” way to vote was to put a 1 next to the Liberal party candidate.

Manchester Museum is returning a number of sacred artefacts to Indigenous Australians, nearly a century after the items came into its possession. The repatriation of 43 ceremonial objects is the first of its kind from the UK under a project to mark the 250th anniversary next year of Captain James Cook’s first voyage to Australia. The first artefacts will be repatriated in a formal ceremony in November. Mangubadijarri Yanner, a spokesman for the Gangalidda Garawa Native Title Aboriginal Corporation, said the handover was a “fundamental part of the healing and reconciliation process”.

World

Syrian Kurdish women carry banners on 7 October as they demonstrate against Turkish threats in north-eastern Syria. Photograph: Delil Souleiman/AFP via Getty Images

Across the Kurdish-held territories of north-eastern Syria, people are steeling themselves for a long-threatened assault by Turkish forces – which now seems imminent after Donald Trump withdrew US forces from the area. Meanwhile, Australia has been urged to act quickly to get families out of Syrian refugee camps.

The European Union’s devastating point-by-point rejection of Boris Johnson’s Brexit proposals has been revealed in documents obtained by the Guardian. The leaked documents lay bare the scale of multiple faults highlighted by the Europeans during recent talks.

A federal judge in New York has dismissed Donald Trump’s challenge to a subpoena, and ordered the release of eight years of the president’s tax returns. But Trump’s lawyers immediately appealed, with the second US circuit court of appeals awarding a temporary stay.

Indigenous protesters have paralysed roads around Ecuador and blocked a main highway into the capital in a fifth day of action against government austerity measures that have sparked the worst unrest in years, resulting in 477 arrests.

Lab-grown meat has been successfully cultured in space for the first time, with an Israeli food technology startup announcing it has grown meat on the International Space Station.

Opinion and analysis

The Australian drought and Boris Johnson confirm that democracy is not idiot-proof, writes Martin McKenzie-Murray. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/EPA

Unlike the McDonald’s kitchen, democracy is not idiot-proof. But great comedy, and fatigue, follows from the refusal to admit it, writes Martin McKenzie-Murray: “The McDonald’s kitchen is designed by geniuses to be mastered by children. It’s meant to be idiot-proof. But two months into a job there, I disproved its invulnerability to fools: unsupervised, I threw two frozen meat-cakes on a decommissioned press, shut the lid and prepared the buns. In a heroic display of honour, I later offered to apologise to a victim of my idiocy, and then offered my resignation. Now compare my teenage magnanimity with British leader Boris Johnson, who in just two months has lost every vote he’s initiated in the House of Commons, unlawfully suspended parliament and mislead his Queen. Boris is not mortified or ashamed. He’s not even chastened.”

The US withdrawal from northern Syria creates the perfect climate for war crimes, writes Simon Tisdall: “Donald Trump’s rash and foolish decision to pull the remaining US ground troops out of north-east Syria is a shocking betrayal of the Kurdish forces that were instrumental in destroying the Islamic State ‘caliphate’. It’s contemptible and, coupled with Turkey’s illegal land-grab, it represents the final, miserable collapse of western policy in Syria. It marks the abandonment of any remaining pretence that the US and Europe have the will, the commitment and the humanity to rescue the Syrian people from a murderous regime, make good on the reform promises of the Arab spring, and create a viable path to democratic self-governance. It’s a failure that’s printed on all of our foreheads.”

Sport

Sydney FC start the new season with an improved squad, write Jonathan Howcroft and Richard Parkin. Photograph: Jason McCawley/Getty Images

After a period of stagnation, the A-League has set rancorous infighting over governance behind it and welcomed a first new club to the mix since 2012-13. Our columnists run the rule over the now 11 contenders.

The NBA has a dilemma. It has been growing its fanbase in China, but it has also won plaudits for encouraging its players to express their views on social issues. But this week, it has being accused of “assisting censorship” through its reaction to one of its executives speaking out on the anti-government protests in Hong Kong.

Thinking time: what it’s like to be your parents’ least favourite child

In a recent study, 85% of respondents believed that their mothers had a favourite among their siblings, writes Amelia Hill. Illustration: Guardian Design



Diya says she was never in any doubt her mother had a favourite child – and that it was not her. Now, with three young children of her own, the 27-year-old thinks it is because she looks like her father, who left when she and her sister were very young. “I remember my dad coming to my defence once when I was about 12, telling my mum that she couldn’t choose to love one daughter more than the other. That was the last time my mum let him in the house,” she says.

Diya’s big fear now is seeing the favouritism pass down the generations. In that, she’s far from alone. In a recent study, 85% of respondents believed that their mothers had a favourite among their siblings. The finding chimes with many years of research about parental favouritism, which has found that many parents admit to having a favourite child. So what’s it like to feel like an intruder in your childhood home?

Media roundup

The Age and Sydney Morning Herald report that Australia is on track to post a new annual record for asylum seekers who arrive by air. The ABC reports that, in a now-deleted tweet, a French company appeared to confirm that planning was under way to potentially move submarine maintenance work from Adelaide to Western Australia. And the Australian reports that a new agreement will grant Australian law enforcement agencies the ability to access data held by US technology companies.

Coming up

The case of spy-turned-whistleblower Witness K – accused of revealing Australia bugged East Timor’s cabinet rooms – returns to court in Canberra.

Committal hearing for Bradley Edwards, who has been charged with the murder of Ioli Hadjilyra, whose body was found in a north Brisbane park in September.