Morning mail: heat record, Covid deniers check-in, Morrison’s muse

Thursday: Italy records the highest temperature in European history; Australia's Covid crisis moves west, Plus: meet the PM's favourite climate protester

Good morning. Europe faces an unwelcome new climate record, Australia is urged to do more on emissions reduction by a top US climate aide and Covid-19 deniers fan the take-up of a fake check-in app across Australia's east coast. Plus: meet Scott Morrison's favourite protester.

The chief executive of a Newcastle aged care facility has said vaccine access" was a factor behind a Covid-19 cluster that has infected 14 people - 11 residents and three staff. Fewer than one in three staff at the venue had received vaccines, with two of the three infected workers awaiting a scheduled appointment. Anti-lockdown activists and Covid conspiracy theorists have been blamed for the rapid rise in circulation of a fake check-in app, with networks promoting spoofing software providing a near identical" check-in screen to government-run apps in NSW, Victoria and Queensland. Melbourne has extended its lockdown by a week after recording 20 new cases, while NSW has extended restrictions across the state, with the north-west region around Bourke placed into lockdown after 344 new cases were recorded in the state.