Morning mail: Bill English buoyant ahead of New Zealand election

Good morning, this is Will Woodward standing in for Eleanor Ainge Roy to bring you the main stories and must-reads on Friday 22 September.

Top stories

New Zealand prime minister Bill English heads into tomorrow’s general election with a large poll lead as voters appear to be swinging back to him after the “Jacindamania” of the early part of the campaign. The last two polls before Saturday’s election show English’s National party seven to 10 points ahead of Labour, led by Jacinda Ardern.

Seven weeks ago Ardern, charismatic but untested as a political figurehead, took over and almost overnight Labour surged in the polls, offering the first genuine threat to the governing National party in close to a decade. But English is ahead on the preferred prime minister rating as well. Our correspondent Eleanor Ainge Roy, who caught up with English in Maungaraki on the outskirts of Wellington, found him in a chipper mood as he ruffled children’s hair and took pictures with supporters, who generally don’t bother to ask about National’s policies because they have already had nine years of government to judge. “Bill is safe; I like that. He holds the money well,” one voter said. English told another voter: “Don’t worry, everything will be back to normal on Monday.”

A refugee on Nauru has told how he is being forced to choose between seeing his daughter for the first time and the prospect of freedom, Ben Doherty reports. Arash, an Iranian who has been held in offshore detention for four years, faces an impossible choice: bring his unwell wife and infant daughter (whom he has never met) from Australia to “hell”, where they may or may not be resettled as a family in the US; or apply for US resettlement alone, but with the very real possibility he might never be allowed to see his child. “I feel like I am being held hostage, and for no reason,” Arash says. The Guardian understands at least seven parents are separated from their children between Nauru and Australia.

The earthquake in central Mexico is reported to have left entire towns flattened as the death toll reaches at least 250. Parts of Mexico City, which is built on a drained lakebed, have been devastated, but details of the destruction outside the capital are only now starting to emerge. There is growing anger at alleged attempts by the armed forces to raze collapsed buildings less than 72 hours after the 7.1 magnitude earthquake, prompting fears they could destroy buildings where survivors remain trapped.

The Australian Christian Lobby’s Lyle Shelton has been mentioned more times in the media than three leading yes campaigners combined, despite the no campaign claiming it has being “silenced”, new analysis shows. The research, compiled for Guardian Australia by media analysts Isentia Research and Insights, shows Shelton has been mentioned 2,506 times across radio, television, print and online news outlets in the past two weeks. Three of the most prominent yes campaigners – Alex Greenwich, Tiernan Brady and Sally Rugg – have together had 2,052 mentions in the same period. Meanwhile Tony Abbott has said he was “headbutted” by a man wearing a “Vote yes” badge in Hobart, leaving him with a swollen lip. Tasmanian police are investigating.

Donald Trump has issued a new executive order that expands US sanctions on North Korea’s shipping, banking, ports and manufacturing. The US president also claimed China’s banking system had shut down business with the country, although there was no immediate confirmation from Beijing that it had done that. Trump announced the move during a working lunch with his South Korean counterpart, Moon Jae-in, and Shinzō Abe, the Japanese prime minister. “Our new executive order will cut off sources of revenue that fund North Korea’s efforts to develop the deadliest weapons known to humankind,” Trump said. The Guardian’s Julian Borger says it remains unclear whether any amount of financial or economic pain would induce Kim Jong-un to relinquish North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missiles, which Kim believes are essential for the regime’s survival.

Sport

Australia collapsed in Kolkata in the one-day international against India, losing their last eight wickets for 117 runs to fall to a 50-run defeat. Captain Steve Smith scored 59 in his 100th ODI but when he was out things went pear-shaped. Spinner Kuldeep Yadav took a hat-trick, dismissing Matthew Wade, Ashton Agar and Pat Cummins. Australia, 2-0 down in the series, now need to win Sunday’s match in Indore to keep the five-match series alive.

Richmond are flying as they prepare to play GWS in Saturday’s preliminary final, attempting to secure a place in the AFL grand final at the end of a season in which the Tigers have brushed aside recent calamities and restored their swagger. How? Several reasons, reckons Jonathan Horn, including Dustin Martin’s stunning form. “From the opening 30 seconds of the season, there was a joyous brutality to his game.”

Thinking time

Eight years on from endorsing the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Australia too often fails to meet its standards, writes Labor senator Patrick Dodson. Australia’s Indigenous peoples are still on the receiving end of policies and programs dreamed up by authorities who do not themselves have to suffer the consequences of their decisions. And now there is increasing evidence that mistakes of the past are being repeated and policies imposed that have not properly engaged Indigenous people.

Australian director Jennifer Peedom’s latest film, Mountain, is a cinematic and musical collaboration with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. In an interview she explains how she worked with the orchestra to bring the film together. Shot by the world’s best adventure cinematographers and written by bestselling author Robert Macfarlane, the documentary explores the troubled and triumphant history of our timeless fascination with mountains, from the challenge of climbing to what she calls the “sheer, unbridled joy” of skiing.

The world’s richest woman, Liliane Bettencourt, has died aged 94. The heir to the L’Oreal hairspray empire, whose net worth was estimated at €33bn ($50m) was at the centre of a long-running French courtroom saga over alleged hangers-on who took advantage of her frailty to elicit money and gifts, an inquiry that threatened to engulf then-president Nicolas Sarkozy. Our Paris correspondent Angelique Chrisafis looks back on the life of Bettencourt, the daughter of Eugène Schueller, a chemist and one-time Nazi sympathiser who made a fortune as the inventor of modern hair dye.

What’s he done now?

A new analysis shared with the Guardian shows that 80% of top jobs in the Trump administration have gone to men, putting the US president on track to assemble the most male-dominated government in close to quarter of a century. Men also outnumbered women three-to-one in a separate group of about 400 people the administration hired as it transitioned to power.

Media roundup

The alleged assault on Tony Abbott in Hobart happened just as he was leaving the offices of the Mercury, and naturally the paper splashes with the story, as do the Canberra Times, the Herald Sun in Melbourne and the Sydney Daily Telegraph. “Abbott cops a headbutt” is the Mercury’s headline. Elsewhere football finals fever kicks in with the Adelaide Advertiser’s full-page splash saying simply “Here we go” ahead of the Crows’ tie with Geelong. The Brisbane Courier Mail’s poster front is “Frenemies of the state”, declaring: “Queensland friendships will be put aside when Brisbane take on Melbourne for a spot in the NRL grand final. Broncos captain Darius Boyd and Storm legend Cameron Smith are among 13 players on the field who represented the Maroons in this year’s State of Origin.”

Coming up

The Australian foreign minister, Julie Bishop, is due to address the UN general assembly in New York at the end of a week of deliberations dominated by the North Korean nuclear crisis.

Adelaide host Geelong in the first AFL preliminary final – join our liveblog from 7.20pm AEST for a 7.50pm start. In the NRL preliminary final, Melbourne Storm take on Brisbane Broncos at AAMI Park.