Morning mail: not much to stop Trump going nuclear

Good morning, Eleanor is on holiday so this is Will Woodward bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Thursday 24 August.

Top stories

Donald Trump’s access to the nuclear codes is “pretty damn scary”, the former US intelligence chief James Clapper has said. Clapper, the director of national intelligence for seven years under Barack Obama, questioned the US president’s “fitness to be in this office” after his demagogic performance at a rally in Phoenix, and expressed anxiety about Trump’s power to launch nuclear weapons without consulting Congress or any other official. Once a president has verified his identity with a code kept constantly on his person or nearby, the military has no power to block his launch orders. The Guardian’s Julian Borger reflects that Clapper did not mention Richard Nixon, who was involved in a stand-off with Pyongyang in 1969, after the regime shot down a US spy plane. Nixon is reported to have got drunk and ordered a tactical nuclear strike, which was averted only by his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger.

Meanwhile Hillary Clinton has told how she considered telling Trump to “back up, you creep!” during one of the presidential debates. In the first extract released from her new book, she writes “my skin crawled” when he invaded her personal space. Clinton then describes how, “aided by a lifetime of dealing with difficult men trying to throw me off”, she chose to stay calm, “biting my tongue, digging my fingernails into a clenched fist, smiling all the while determined to present a composed face to the world”.

Today is the last day Australians can enrol or check their details to vote in the postal survey on same-sex marriage. Updated figures from the Australian Electoral Commission showed that between 8 and 22 August 54,545 people enrolled for the first time, with a further 523,334 enrolment updates, making a total of 577,879 enrolment transactions. The campaign group GetUp has developed a website to coordinate groups campaigning for marriage equality that could be launched as early as Friday. Meanwhile 17-year-old Cameron Warasta from Victoria has lodged a discrimination complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission to challenge the exclusion of 16- and 17-year olds from the survey, disputing the government’s case that only “electors” on the electoral roll should be counted. For all the background to the marriage equality vote, check out the Guardian’s definitive briefing here.

Today also brings the first hearing in the high court about the Australian politicians who have discovered they are not just Australian after all. After six weeks of various senators and MPs declaring they accidentally held dual citizenship after being elected, the court will begin it hearings in Brisbane. Barnaby Joyce, the deputy prime minister, is the most senior politician whose case will be heard. Canberra will be watching closely. The directions hearing this week precedes an expected full court hearing next month. We have the full explainer on why the politicians case is in court and what could happen.

Bonuses for supposedly “exceptional” performance are still routine among Australia’s top corporate bosses, despite their average pay packets remaining flat since the global financial crisis, new figures show. Some 86% of CEOs of the biggest listed companies pocketed one in 2016 according to a report by the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors. Domino’s Pizza boss Don Meij was the third highest-paid chief executive in Australia on $21m, a “remarkable” result given his reported salary was $4m, the report said. Meij’s windfall came from cashing in options in a share price surge that came to a screaming halt this month when Domino’s missed profit targets, and following months of publicity about problems in its franchises including claims of underpayments amounting to millions. The averaged “realised” pay among ASX 100 chief executives in 2016 was $5.7m, which was 93 times the average Australian earnings as of November last year. Comparative data about gender pay equality in top corporate ranks was impossible: “sadly the pool of female CEOs” in the biggest 200 listed companies – nine women – was too small for meaningful analysis, ASCI noted.

There’s a new Taylor Swift album coming, titled Reputation, which will be out on 10 November; and an as-yet-unnamed lead single, which will be released this week. Swift has been on an extended hiatus for over a year now and the album will be her first for three years since the stunningly successful 1989, which spawned seven singles and won the Grammy for album of the year.

Sport

In an exclusive interview Sam Kerr, the hottest property in women’s football right now, tells how the Matildas are ready to deliver on their rich promise. Kerr made history by scoring four times for her US club side, Sky Blue FC, in their 5-4 win at the weekend. She has also enjoyed some scintillating seasons for Perth Glory in the W-League and was one of the leading lights of Australia’s Tournament of Nations win. “The last few years we’ve talked about it but now we are really walking the walk,” she says.

Wayne Rooney, England’s most capped outfield player, has retired from international football. Having been dropped by manager Gareth Southgate last season, he declined an invitation to return and instead to bow out after 119 caps and a record 53 goals. He admitted that not playing in a successful England side will be “one of my very few regrets”. Read Dominic Fifield’s assessment here.

Thinking time

In the first part of a major report for Guardian Australia about the decline of coal, Adam Morton investigates an energy industry on life support, the mirage of “clean coal” and the business leaders and investors wanting to pull the plug. With the pace of coal plants shutting down meaning that Australia’s coal fleet could be gone before 2040, the transformation underway, Morton says, is enormous – and inevitable.

Australian cinema has another magnificently talented prince of darkness who will emerge as a major force in 2017, writes Guardian Australia’s film critic Luke Buckmaster. The Tasmanian-born writer-director Damien Power’s holiday-from-hell thriller Killing Ground combines great aesthetic elegance – including beautiful cinematography and naturalistic editing – with an acrid, lingering foulness, derived from knife-edge performances and a terrifying premise executed with airtight verisimilitude.

A new survey about the performance of each Australian state suggests that the Australian economy might have turned a corner. But, our economics columnist Greg Jericho writes, the improvement revealed by the new ANZ report is unlikely to translate into higher wages, so consumers will probably be less delighted.

Media roundup

Wading in with characteristic subtlety to the debate over an inscription on a Captain Cook statue in Sydney, the Daily Telegraph protests at “PC vandals’ bid to tear down our history”. Yes, they are the “Aussie Taliban”. The Canberra Times flags new fears for the ACT economy as growth and jobs stall. The Australian’s front page features Nick Warner, the head of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, copying Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte’s “signature fist-pump gesture” in a meeting in Manila. In the Sydney Morning Herald, Judith Ireland writes in praise of Jacinda Ardern, the new Labour party leader in New Zealand, for how she has energised her party and her cool response to Julie Bishop’s complaints in the Barnaby Joyce citizenship row. “Whatever the outcome, however, Ardern’s recent success shows you don’t need to wear a stunt burqa, stare at the sun or stir up anger and fear to re-engage and re-energise a tired electorate.”

Coming up

One Nation will hold its annual general meeting in Brisbane, including a keynote speech from the party’s leader, Pauline Hanson.

Nine Entertainment will release its full-year results.

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