Morning mail: Mueller speaks, Labor's new team, John Cleese outcry

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/may/30/morning-mail-mueller-speaks-labors-new-team-john-cleese-outcry

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Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Thursday 30 May.

Top stories

Robert Mueller, the US special counsel who investigated the Trump administration’s links to Russia, has reignited demands for the president’s impeachment by breaking his two-year silence to deny that the US president is innocent of a crime. In a sudden and dramatic turn, Mueller, whose report on Russian election interference and Trump campaign links to Moscow was published last month, delivered a sombre nine-minute statement that many construed as a signal to Congress to act on his finding that Trump sought to obstruct justice. “If we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said that,” Mueller said. Several Democratic presidential hopefuls immediately responded by calling for Trump’s impeachment.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese will unveil his new shadow ministry today, elevating fresh faces to his new frontbench while fighting a rearguard action from factional heavyweights in the party. The new leader secured his first victory on Wednesday for his shadow ministerial team, as Ed Husic stood aside to allow NSW senator Kristina Keneally on to his frontbench, but MPs remain split over whether she should be elevated to a leadership position in the Senate. Queenslander Jim Chalmers is expected to take on Treasury, with Andrew Leigh likely to be dropped from the ministry, and Albanese will have to decide whether there is room for the former leader Bill Shorten, who has expressed an interest in the health portfolio.

Salty, sugary and fatty products are scoring too highly in Australia and New Zealand’s health star food rating system, according to a new study, due to loopholes in the system, and unhealthy items often avoid carrying the labels entirely. Public health researchers from the George Institute for Global Health found the influence of the food industry was reducing the system’s potential as an effective tool to improve public health.

World

The Boeing 737 Max aircraft will not return to the skies before August, according to the head of aviation’s main trade body. The 737 Max was grounded by regulators in the wake of two crashes which claimed hundreds of lives.

Nearly £100m ($180m) of public money has been spent on private consultancy firms to provide Brexit advice to the UK government, including no-deal planning, a leaked Whitehall report reveals.

The leader of Flanders’ far-right separatist party has had an audience with the king of Belgium for the first time in the modern political era. Nearly 19% of Flemish voters chose the Vlaams Belang in last week’s European elections, a stunning reversal of fortune for a party recently in decline.

The death of thousands of tufted puffins in the Bering Sea may have been partly caused by the climate breakdown. Between 3,150 and 8,500 seabirds died over a four-month period from October 2016, and researchers believe the birds died of starvation partly caused by a loss of energy-rich prey species.

John Cleese has been criticised for repeating his 2011 claim that London was no longer an English city. Cleese, who lives in the Caribbean, tweeted that friends outside the UK agreed with his observation, concluding: “So there must be some truth in it.”

Opinion and analysis

Uber has launched a quiet ride service in the US, where passengers can request that a driver refrain from talking during their trip. Penelope Blackmore hates the idea: “We know we need to connect with other human beings instead of shouting into the echo chamber of Facebook and Twitter, but do we know that strangers fall into this category? We need the fleeting intimacy and bad jokes and exaggerated smiles that come with conversing with an Uber driver much more than the promise of a silent chauffeur, whizzing us through the city while we check our never-ending stream of DMs and emails and WhatsApps.”

A happiness expert says wives are more miserable than other women. Is it because they find they have married another child, asks Hadley Freeman. “Various theories have been put forward since about why single, child-free women are happier than married mothers, all of which can be summed up as: “Um duh, because of the freedom, HELLO?!” And this is no doubt true, but it also skips a crucial factor: if married mothers aren’t happy, and don’t feel free to enjoy themselves, the problem isn’t marriage – it’s the men they’re married to.”

Sport

The cricket World Cup gets under way today in the UK, and Australia go in with a happier and better functioning team than the version that could barely win a game over the previous couple of years. But whether it is capable of beating the rest of the world week after week, is another matter.

At the French Open overnight Johanna Konta held her nerve against Lauren Davis to seal her place in the third round, while there were wins for Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Marin Cilic was defeated by Grigor Dimitrov, while Kei Nishikori fought back from a set down to eliminate Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Thinking time: Is it possible to enjoy the monthly flow?

Exhausted with doctors not taking periods seriously, a new wave of authors is asking whether menstruation can ever be tolerable – even enjoyable. Maisie Hill, a women’s health expert, says she enjoys her period – and she isn’t alone, with a new wave of books aiming to educate women about their monthly cycle. “I’ve gone from thinking, ‘Oh, how awful,’ every time it came, and counting how many periods I would have to have in my life, to wondering, ‘How many have I got left?’” says Hill. “I really get something out of getting my period.”

Hill says she is a “last-chance saloon” for women with menstrual problems when all other avenues have been exhausted. Although she began training as a nurse, she saw a need for someone who could give women hours of her time (and charge for them) when most patients struggle to get 10 minutes with their GP. The idea that Hill, and many of these authors are embracing, is far less radical than the concept of “menstrual tripping”, although it is certainly connected. It is the idea that positive outcomes can come from women being attentive to their bodies, even if it just means taking a quiet moment in a darkened room to acknowledge the pain.

Media roundup

The Australian Financial Review reports that 22 “rookies” have joined the rich list , including a little-known Malaysian investor with ties to Andrew Forrest, and the gambling partner of David Walsh. The Age splashes with an interview with Indigenous Australians minister Ken Wyatt, who says reconciliation efforts could be set back decades if Australia rushes towards a referendum without a consensus on constitutional reform. And the ABC has interviewed the retired US immigration judge who rejected the claim for asylum by two Rwandans subsequently resettled in Australia as part of a refugee swap. He says they posed a danger to the US, and both men were potentially violent.

Coming up

The Fair Work Commission will hand down its decision in the annual wage review at 11am. The panel is sitting in Melbourne and the decision will be livestreamed.

The New Zealand government will unveil what it says is the world’s first “wellbeing budget”.

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