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Chevron’s Gorgon LNG development in Western Australia. The Morrison government has agreed to 21 of 26 recommendations by an expert panel to reduce emissions, including support for CCS projects. Photograph: Ray Strange/AAP

Morning mail: polluters applaud climate plan, Jackie Trad speaks, 'incel' terror attack

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Chevron’s Gorgon LNG development in Western Australia. The Morrison government has agreed to 21 of 26 recommendations by an expert panel to reduce emissions, including support for CCS projects. Photograph: Ray Strange/AAP

Wednesday: Gas and coal sectors welcome the government’s proposed climate measures. Plus, if you failed to tick off your quarantine to-do list, join the club

Good morning, this is Emilie Gramenz bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Wednesday, 20 May.

Top stories

Fossil fuel industry groups have applauded new climate change measures proposed by the Morrison government, while environmentalists say they direct emissions-reduction funding to polluting companies. The government has agreed to 21 out of 26 recommendations from a panel asked to find new ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at low cost. Global carbon dioxide emissions had fallen dramatically by early April, according to a definitive study, but experts say the lockdown-related fall is no cause for celebration.

China’s decision to impose tariffs on Australian barley imports has highlighted how reliant some sectors are on Chinese demand, with wool producers now “particularly exposed” by the threat of a further escalation in trade tensions. Meanwhile, the industry minister, Karen Andrews, will today call on governments to streamline project approvals and foreshadow plans to develop a stronger manufacturing sector. Andrews will address the National Press Club and chart plans for economic recovery out of the coronavirus crisis. Senior fellow at thinktank Per Capita, David Hetherington, writes that Australia risks returning to “business as usual” rather than using the crisis as an opportunity to reform. Australia’s death toll from coronavirus rose to 100 yesterday.

Brazil has overtaken the United Kingdom to become the country with the third-highest number of confirmed coronavirus infections, behind only the United States and Russia. Cases are growing in South Africa and India and the World Bank is warning the crisis could push 60 million people into poverty. The UK’s chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has warned Britain is facing a “severe recession the likes of which we haven’t seen”. Experts fear Boris Johnson’s efforts to ease England’s lockdown are “recklessly premature” compared with a more cautious approach in Ireland, Scotland and Wales. And in the United States, the White House has confirmed Donald Trump is taking an unproven malaria drug as a defence against Covid-19, despite his own administration’s warnings the drug could have dangerous side effects.

Australia

Queensland’s former deputy premier and treasurer, Jackie Trad, who resigned from the cabinet last week amid an integrity scandal says she has been targeted because of her progressive views. In an exclusive interview with Guardian Australia, she says she has been the focus of a campaign by political and media opponents.

A man who rescued a whale calf trapped in nets off the Gold Coast from a small boat may face a fine of almost $27,000. The man rescued the stricken animal on Tuesday morning as officials took more than two hours to respond.

The world

Police in Canada are treating a machete attack in which a woman was murdered and two others injured as an act of terrorism, after allegedly discovering evidence suggesting it was motivated by violent misogyny. It’s thought to be the first time terrorism charges have been brought in a case connected to the so-called “incel” ideology.

Hungary’s parliament has voted to end legal recognition for trans people. The new law defines gender as based on chromosomes at birth, removing previous provisions whereby trans people could alter their gender and name on official documents.

Thousands of visitors descended on Yellowstone national park in the US, which opened for the first time since March. America’s oldest national park and the nearby Grand Teton national park are the most recent to have partially reopened with the support of the Trump administration.

A court in Madrid has dismissed an appeal from a woman claiming to be Salvador Dalí’s daughter. Tarot card reader and psychic Pilar Abel was ordered to pay for the 2017 exhumation of the artist’s body for a failed paternity test.

Tales of sourdough bread are going to figure heavily in people’s post-quarantine catchups. Photograph: Dylan Martinez/Reuters

With the prospect of increased socialising on the horizon, Deirdre Fidge is facing up to the fact she’ll never complete her own “quarantine syllabus”. While she’d set what seemed like realistic goals in the first blush of isolation – daily exercise, learning Spanish, finally knocking over that to-be-read pile – the reality was more like days wiled away in a mixture of anxiety and lethargy. But she writes that’s a perfectly appropriate response to the times: “Unless you are hoarding essential groceries or stealing hospital hand sanitiser, now is the time to relinquish judgment of ourselves.”

Although Nadine Cohen has hardly seen anyone in months, she says she’s never felt less alone. While she used to be “paralysed with dread” when she saw call notifications and feel too self-conscious to video chat, during the pandemic she has actually been picking up – providing a way to connect with friends she’d otherwise rarely see.

While the world went into lockdown, Sam West went somewhere he could escape: the world of Dungeons & Dragons. The once maligned D&D was already experiencing a boost in popularity after Game of Thrones and its bit part on Stranger Things, but the pandemic has made its opportunities for adventure and imagination even more absorbing.

Listen

Today Full Story examines how an audacious coup attempt in Venezuela backfired. An attempt earlier this month to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power ended in farcical failure as a seaborne invading force was captured easily following a series of mishaps. World affairs editor Julian Borger tells the bizarre story.

Full Story

How an audacious coup attempt in Venezuela backfired

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Full Story is Guardian Australia’s news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.

Sport

Station commander senior instructor Brian Aubusson, father of NRL players Mitch and James, died last week. Photograph: Fire and Rescue NSW


A wonderfully talented footballer passed away recently, but not someone you are likely to have heard of. Brian Aubusson didn’t reach the greatest heights of NRL, but proved there are more important things in life than kicking a footy.

The English Premier League has revealed that six players or staff across the league tested positive for coronavirus over two days of testing. The league carried out 748 tests in recent days as part of a process to allow matches to restart in June.

Media roundup

Regional travel in NSW will be allowed for any reason from 1 June, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. The Mercury reports there’s still no start date for an independent review of the deadly coronavirus outbreak in north-west Tasmania. And as the Northern Territory’s dry season sets in, the NT News says caravan parks are struggling to survive without the flood of grey nomads.

Coming up

There will be a public hearing in a federal parliamentary inquiry into the auditor-general’s report on Australia’s future submarines project.

And if you’ve read this far …

Covid-19 has taken so much from us, but now it’s come for our emojis too. The Unicode Consortium, which sets standards for digital typography, has had to delay the next set of updates – from March until September 2021. That means Apple and Google will struggle to implement new designs on their normal timescale, so 2021 may bear no new emojis. Blushing wide-eyed face, side-eye face, gushing tears face!

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