‘We want the world to trust us’

WORDS V ACTION

The Taliban have held a press conference overnight, claiming there will be no revenge attacks on the US and that women could work and study “in accordance with Sharia Law”, ABC reports.

A quick explanation, thanks to the BBC: Sharia Law is Islam’s legal system, giving instructions on prayers, fasting, and donations to the poor as per God’s wishes. The Conversation says some women have used Sharia to push for their rights because it’s open to interpretation — for example, there is an Islamic teaching that to educate a girl is to educate a nation. But there are serious doubts over the supposed “freedoms” Afghan women will have under the Taliban’s new rule considering the atrocities committed against them in decades prior — besides, women are already being turned away from universities and offices in Afghanistan.

Also overnight, journalist Beheshta Arghand made history when she became the first woman to interview a senior Taliban official inside the country’s borders, The Guardian says. It sounds like a PR stunt, but maybe not: the station said they gave the interviewee, Mawlawi Abdulhaq Hemad, a heads up beforehand and he was reportedly fine with it. In the same hour as the press conference, first Vice-President Amrullah Saleh has staked his claim to the presidency, citing a constitutional rule that when a president flees — as Ashraf Ghani did — he would become president. The New York Times is blogging developments if you’d like to follow along.

[free_worm]

CASE IN POINT

COVID has hit home for the federal Labor party after shadow finance minister Katy Gallagher’s child tested positive for COVID. Evie, who’s 14, was among 17 new cases in the ACT on Tuesday and is “pretty unwell”, Gallagher said, describing it as “the more severe end” of a childhood virus. Gallagher, who was in Parliament House but has since tested negative, told the ABC she felt the government had “let these kids down”. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he wasn’t sure whether Federal Parliament will resume its scheduled fortnight of sittings next Monday in the wake of the scare.

There has been backlash after BreastScreen NSW confirmed it would temporarily suspend all routine breast screening by Thursday so staff could help the pandemic efforts, the SMH reports. Police Minister David Elliott, whose wife was treated in 2012, said he couldn’t understand the decision and would be personally raising it with Premier Gladys Berejiklian. Federal Liberal MP for Wentworth David Sharma, NSW Liberal MP for Vaucluse Gabrielle Upton, and Labor MP and breast cancer survivor, Sophie Cotsis, all wrote to Health Minister Brad Hazzard about the decision after constituents told them about cancelled mammograms. In their letter, they pointed out that early detection of breast cancer can mean the difference between life and death.

TWIG TO THE POSSIBILITIES

Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest had promised Australia will become the renewable green hydrogen superpower of the world, The Australian ($) says. Fortescue Metals Group’s (FMG) subsidiary Fortescue ­Future Industries will commit to 15 million tonnes of green hydrogen a year by 2030, scaling up to 50 million tonnes “over time”, he says. Forrest’s FMG — which he founded 18 years ago — has generated more than 2 million tonnes of greenhouse gas a year, but the businessman said he plans to “crack the code to decarbonising heavy industry”. Green hydrogen is hydrogen that is made through the electrolysis of water, leaving nothing but oxygen as a byproduct, Columbia University’s Climate School explains.

It comes as BHP is betting billions on a lower-carbon future, too. The mining titan is planning to dump oil and gas assets into Perth-based Woodside Petroleum, The Guardian reports, which would make Woodside one of the biggest energy producers in the world. BHP’s exit from petroleum, which made up 5% of its annual earnings, will speed up its departure from fossil fuels, Reuters says. BHP will also be combining the Australian and UK arms into one company and will bail on the London Stock Exchange in the process (the company’s primary listing will now be in Sydney, The Wall Street Journal says).

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

A rags-to-riches tale worthy of a Hollywood movie has emerged from the ancient Roman metropolis of Pompeii. A guy named Marcus Venerius Secundio was doomed to a life of slavery as the caretaker of the Temple of Venus. One imagines there was lots of scrubbing the lava-stones (yep, they were part of the temple’s interior design) with some sort of toothbrush-looking thing.

But perhaps the grandeur of the temple’s oceanic views inspired Secundio to pursue a finer life. He managed to ascend his lowly class to join the ranks of Augustales — a hand-picked group of holy people who basically ensured the emperor maintained his revered standing. Secundio even scored himself a lovely wife (they think), named Novia Amabilis, whose urn was discovered in his tomb. The fact that he was buried in this lavish tomb shows Secundio died a fairly well-respected man — and he lived a fairly long life by ancient standards. Initial tests say he died at about 60.

Most remarkably, his remains are thought to be the best-preserved human remains ever discovered in Pompeii. They actually found Secundio’s white hair and his partially visible ear — even though he died at least 1940 years ago.

Hoping the world surprises and delights you today.

THEY REALLY SAID THAT?

We’ve met every target. Australia’s a good nation, you’ve got to remember. China’s not. China’s going to emit more emissions than all of the other OECD countries combined.

Barnaby Joyce

Again showing his aptitude for words, the deputy PM continued to point the finger at China despite the fact that Australia is one of the biggest per-capita emitters and has refused to progress its emissions promise since 2016, something experts say is “against the spirit of the [Paris] agreement”.

CRIKEY RECAP

The Taliban used WhatsApp to retake Afghanistan. Now they’re using it to govern

Cam Wilson

Aug 17, 2021

5

“Despite their fundamentalism, the Taliban embraced social media over the past decade for the distribution of their communications. WhatsApp exists somewhere between personal communication and broader social media; it allows groups of up to 256 people, and the forwarding of messages. Taliban organisers used it to be in constant two-way contact with small, decentralised groups of Afghans, constantly repeating messages, forwarding central communications or answering questions.

“It also served an important function for the operation of the Taliban organisation itself. It has been used to coordinate military action. Spokespeople for the group used WhatsApp to issue statements directly to journalists or to share Taliban-produced content with them. “

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Dear Dr Chant, please accept my thanks on behalf of all those whose lives you touch

Madonna King

Aug 17, 2021

35

“You haven’t just arrived on centre stage. The time you spent in the pubic health unit of Sydney’s south-west area health service must have been invaluable. Plotting the state’s HIV strategy, early on, must have delivered superb negotiation skills. And you’ve served as deputy chief health officer, before taking the big job 13 years ago.

“That experience is reassuring. So is the fact that you don’t play politics. You just tell us what we need to know: that daily number. And you try, in the most gracious and serious way, to tell us to treat this monster more seriously. It must have been difficult this week to read out that list of people who have had their lives cut short by COVID. Especially 15-year-old Osama Suduh, who also came from Sydney’s south-west.”

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NSW is setting a national agenda on living with COVID-19

Amber Schultz

Aug 17, 2021

41

“NSW has started setting its own goalposts, with NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian openly discussing a strategy of living with the virus, flagging potential freedoms for fully vaccinated residents, such as being allowed to visit pubs and bars, in regions with high vaccination rates and low case numbers.

“This is the first clear pathway to freedom Australians have had. While the federal government’s vague four-stage plan flags eased restrictions when 70% of the adult population is vaccinated, it doesn’t provide further details.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Heartwarming scenes as Olympians finish quarantine and return home (The Australian) ($)

‘If we were shocked, so were the viewers’: These Four Corners stories couldn’t be ignored (ABC)

US officials declare first-ever water shortage for Colorado River (Al Jazeera)

Executives paid millions as top companies refuse to pay back JobKeeper (The New Daily)

Belgian Formula 1 chief dead in suspected murder-suicide (news.com.au)

Florida hospitals are “stacking patients in hallways” as the Delta variant surges (Buzzfeed News)

Naomi Osaka struggles in return to tournament news conferences (The New York Times)

‘We need help’: Thousands displaced by Haiti quake demand support (Al Jazeera)

Children are lonelier than ever. Can anything be done? (Quillette)

China set to pass one of the world’s strictest data-privacy laws (The Wall Street Journal)

‘It happened so fast’: Inside a fatal Tesla autopilot accident (The New York Times)

Israeli firefighters battle blaze near Jerusalem for third day (Al Jazeera)

THE COMMENTARIAT

Malala: I Fear for My Afghan Sisters — Malala Yousafzai (The New York Times): “In the last two decades, millions of Afghan women and girls received an education. Now the future they were promised is dangerously close to slipping away. The Taliban — who until losing power 20 years ago barred nearly all girls and women from attending school and doled out harsh punishment to those who defied them — are back in control. Like many women, I fear for my Afghan sisters.

“I cannot help but think of my own childhood. When the Taliban took over my hometown in Pakistan’s Swat Valley in 2007 and shortly thereafter banned girls from getting an education, I hid my books under my long, hefty shawl and walked to school in fear. Five years later, when I was 15, the Taliban tried to kill me for speaking out about my right to go to school.”

Protracted lockdown and home schooling are shredding our sanity — Saman Shad (Guardian Australia): “He’s writing the letter ‘h’ but it looks terrible. The letters are either illegible scrawls or look like n’s. I correct him patiently but he doesn’t want to know. He wants to be doing anything other than this. ‘You and me both, babe,’ I want to say but don’t … We gave up trying to complete all the tasks after the first week. At current check, a bold red number notifies me that my son has 124 outstanding tasks. Each day that number grows bigger.

“In our bedroom down the hall I can hear my husband on a Zoom call for work. Between his Zooms he puts on the teacher hat so I can focus on my work. It is like this all day, each of us passing the baton to each other till we collapse in a heap on the couch at the end of the day … The only timeouts we are currently having in our house are for the parents. I give myself a timeout in the bathroom as that is, for at least five minutes, a place where I can lock the door and give myself room to breathe.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Australia

• The clean energy industry will launch a new campaign, Renewable Energy is Here Now, with businessman Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest, author Rebecca Huntley, Brighte CEO Katherine McConnell, and ACTU president Michele O’Neil.

• It’s day two of the Better Futures Forum, with the architect of the Paris agreement and former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon, the deputy to the US Special Envoy on Climate Jonathan Pershing, and former Irish president and UN Climate Envoy Mary Robinson.

• Education and Youth Minister Alan Tudge will deliver a National Press Club address about lifting standards in Australian schools.

• Infrastructure Victoria chief executive Michael Masson will address a CEDA event on the state’s infrastructure outlook.

• MP Fiona Patten launches author Barbara Minchinton’s new book, The Women of Little Lon.

Kaurna Country (also known as Adelaide)

• The City of Charles Sturt will host a seminar on how businesses can adapt for climate change.