This was published 7 years ago
Donald Trump says it's a 'tremendous honour' to be Time's Person of the Year
Every Monday to Friday I'll be delivering a personally-curated newsletter. Call it the double espresso of news – the morning news kickstart for busy people who want to know what they need to know before they get going.
By Latika Bourke
1. Trump is Time's Person of the Year
The thin-skinned President was upset when in 2015 Time magazine made Angela Merkel its person of the year. But it's 2016 and Trump is most deservedly the magazine's person of the year. [Reuters]
But is that "for better or for worse?" [Nancy Gibbs/Time] (For context, Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin (and a computer) have all been previous Persons of the Year.)
"I consider this a very, very great honour," Trump said in an eleven-minute phone interview on breakfast television. [US Today]
There were some really interesting take-outs from the interview Trump gave to the US Today program.
After leading the hurtful birther movement for years - which pushed the idea Obama was not a US citizen - Trump has now come full circle and says he really likes the outgoing president.
He says he takes Obama's advice on appointments and believes they have a chemistry together! So by that logic, all need is for Trump to meet a Mexican!
And his language on the South China Sea is important to mark. Trump said China is "not supposed to be doing" what it's doing (military build up) and earlier spoke of the US engaging in a military build up under his leadership. He described his Defense Secretary James Mattis as a "tough cookie" and said the country would need a "tough cookie."
A short time later he named John F. Kelly as his Homeland Secretary. [The Washington Post]
2. Pakistan plane crash
Around 40 people are dead after a Pakistan International Airlines flight crashed over the country's northern mountainous region. Witnesses said the plane was on fire before it crashed. [Reuters
3. Turnbull's complete capitulation on climate
Yesterday I wrote in Double Shot that we can accept Malcolm Turnbull does care about climate change.
Then I read the transcript of his media conference where he disowned any sort of price on carbon, the sort he backed in 2009 and lost the Liberal leadership over, forever, despite the advice of his handpicked advisor. [Phillip Coorey/Financial Review]
I'm not even being slightly sarcastic here. What on earth is the point of Turnbull? Why did he want to replace Tony Abbott if he has nothing better or different to offer other than remove Knights and Dames.
Turnbull is proving to be the ultimate political hollowman.
Don't dismiss this is as just further proof of the political ineptitude which plagues this government. Chris Kenny was Turnbull's chief of staff when it all went sour the first time. He wrote that an industry insider told him last week a carbon price was part of the government's thinking. [The Australian]
And as Laura Tingle points out, this went through Cabinet. [Financial Review]
This is dangerous territory for Turnbull. He has confirmed what the right feared all along - that he would lunge for his Labor-lite instincts if made PM. And perversely, his rise has emboldened the hard-right, especially his foe Cory Bernardi, who was struggling to get right-wing issues addressed by the so-called conservative former PM Tony Abbott.
Bernardi is getting more wins under Turnbull than he ever did with Abbott - including: destroying Kevin Rudd's hopes, making headway on reforming the Racial Discrimination Act and now with the carbon price.
And "every time Turnbull gives up on something he once stood for, and adopts instead the approach forced on him by the right of his party, the public's ears become a little more blocked," writes former Gillard and Rudd advisor Sean Kelly. [The Monthly] (This is a breath-takingly good piece of writing and my must-read for today.)
It also leaves the government in a complex place on the policy front. How will it hope to meet future emissions reduction targets if it has demonised the Renewable Energy Target, its emissions reductions fund is running out of money and they won't consider a carbon price?
Niki Savva writes Turnbull believes Australia will meet its targets without any government intervention. [The Australian]
4. Syria
The leaders of Britain, the United States, France, Canada, Italy and Germany have all condemned Russia and Iran for blocking humanitarian aid to Syria. [Reuters]
Syria accused Israel of attacking Damascus for a second time this week. [Bloomberg]
5. Italian PM formally resigns.
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has just formally resigned. What next for Italy? I had a chat with our former ambassador to Italy Mike Rann, who remains very well connected in Rome. Rann says there is a possibility of a snap election after all (this wasn't the case just yesterday) and he calculates that would be an enormous risk given the populist Five Star Movement's rise in Italy. [My report/Fairfax]
6. Assange
Julian Assange has released details of text messages sent by the woman at the centre of the rape allegations levelled against him in Sweden. Assange claims they show he is "entirely innocent" and the sex was consensual. [Steve Cannane/ABC]
And that's it from me today, you can follow me on Facebook for more.