Scott Morrison announces major changes to Australia’s vaccine rollout after emergency national cabinet meetingUnder-40s will finally be allowed to get the AstraZeneca vaccine if they want it, while aged care workers will have to get at least one vaccine dose by mid-September, as Australia moves to “war game” its bungled vaccine program.Scott Morrison, who spent more than two hours with the nation’s premiers and chief ministers in an ‘emergency’ national cabinet meeting on Monday evening, emerged to announce long called-for changes to the commonwealth’s vaccine rollout. Continue reading...
by Jessica Murray Midlands correspondent on (#5KKXK)
Zephaniah McLeod appears in court over attacks in 2020 which killed university worker Jacob BillingtonA man has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of a university worker in a series of knife attacks in Birmingham last year which left seven other people injured.Zephaniah McLeod, 28, of Selly Oak, Birmingham, also admitted four counts of attempted murder and three charges of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. Continue reading...
Dozens of Nobel laureates sign open letter condemning treatment of economist Andreu Mas-ColellThreats of massive fines against the economist and former Catalan finance minister Andreu Mas-Colell for his alleged role in Catalonia’s failed independence bid in 2017 have prompted international condemnation.Mas-Colell, 76, who served as finance minister from 2010-16, is among 40 officials, including the former Catalan presidents Artur Mas and Carles Puigdemont, accused by a tribunal of illegally using €4.8m of public money between 2011 and 2017 to further the cause of independence. Continue reading...
by Aamna Mohdin Community affairs correspondent on (#5KKRZ)
Report launched in aftermath of George Floyd murder cites example of 2018 death of Kevin Clarke in UKA UN report that analysed racial justice in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd has called on member states including the UK to end the “impunity” enjoyed by police officers who violate the human rights of black people.The UN human rights office analysis of 190 deaths across the world led to the report’s damning conclusion that law enforcement officers are rarely held accountable for killing black people due in part to deficient investigations and an unwillingness to acknowledge the impact of structural racism. Continue reading...
That 10% fee buys a novelist like me more than the chance of a big book deal – from a hand with the DIY to a shoulder to cry on after yet another knockbackA few weeks after the sudden death of my agent, Deborah Rogers, in 2014 the colleague deputed to take me on phoned. “I’ve found something in Deborah’s desk.”“Yes?” Continue reading...
A loner photographer looks down on white settlers without realising he’s part of the problem in a striking, ambiguous historical dramaColonisation does not come off well in this sparse and striking drama, set in snowbound 19th-century Tierra del Fuego. It’s a sombre study of the corrupted values and decayed morals that enabled a genocide; it centres on a photographer who considers himself superior to the coarse white settlers around him, but is really part of the same system. This is Pedro (Alfredo Castro), a middle-aged loner who has been brought to this end-of-the-world location to take the wedding portrait of Mr Porter, the big landowner. But when he arrives, Mr Porter is nowhere to be found; only his bride, Sara, who looks little older than a teenager. In an early, uncomfortable scene, Pedro blithely “arranges” Sara into what he considers an attractive pose, pulling her wedding dress off her shoulders, ostensibly for the groom’s benefit: “He’ll like it better this way.” The scene is to be reprised even more excruciatingly later on, after Pedro takes a shine to Sara and sets up a more “artistic” photoshoot.Pedro doesn’t find much else to appreciate here. In Mr Porter’s absence, he is consigned to an extended stay among the (overwhelmingly male) settlers, whose exploits he dignifies with his camera but whose company he shuns – initially, at least. These Europeans are making their first inroads into this landscape: erecting houses, putting up fences, and killing and kidnapping the indigenous population. They are paid according to the number of human ears they bring back. “Think of it as humanitarian work,” one of them tells Pedro. Continue reading...
Police called as crowds gather in field in breach of Covid guidelinesThousands of people gathered at an illegal rave on farmland in West Sussex overnight, breaching Covid guidelines.Sussex police said the unlicensed rave had taken place in a remote field forcing multiple road closures in the rural town of Steyning. At least 23 people have been arrested on suspicion of offences including drink and drug-driving, possession of drugs and theft, and have been taken into custody, the force said. Continue reading...
Working horses not only outperform tractors on tricky terrain but provide a natural way to improve health of soil and cropsIt’s early morning and the air vibrates with the sound of birds and frogs at the L’Affût wine estate in Sologne, north-central France. Draught horses Urbanie and Bambi are slowly working their way between rows of vines. Carefully guided by their owner, Jean-Pierre Dupont, and his son, they each pull a cultivator that drags up grass growing between the grapevines.Several times a year, Urbanie and Bambi can be seen working at L’Affût, often to the surprise of passersby: working horses can be deemed obsolete, relics of a time before the mid-20th century’s mechanisation of farming. Continue reading...
Twenty-five years after Sapphire’s novel Push was published, Tayari Jones salutes its groundbreaking heroine, PreciousIn the Reagan years, I was a teenager, more reader than writer, when I discovered the work of Sapphire. As a college student, I hung out with a cluster of intense, arty types, sharing battered copies of chapbooks, zines and small-press volumes. My good friend Angela passed me a sheaf of xeroxed pages by an author who called herself Sapphire. What I remember most clearly was a poem from the point of view of Celestine Tate Harrington, the quadriplegic boardwalk singer who fought the city for custody of her child. The poem was defiant as the speaker focused less on the joys of motherhood and more on ownership of her sexuality. Angela speculated that Sapphire would likely never receive her due in the world of letters, because she had chosen as her subject the people whose bodies are stigmatised, whose families are pathologised, and whose very lives are held up as everything America rejects. “She is a hero,” Angela declared, and I nodded in solemn agreement.Some critics were appalled by the very idea of this story being held up as an important work of literature Continue reading...
Pentagon says air strikes were in response to drone attacks against US personnel in IraqThe US has carried out airstrikes against Iran-backed militia in Iraq and Syria, in response to drone attacks against US personnel and facilities in Iraq.The strikes on Sunday targeted operational and weapons storage facilities at two locations in Syria and one location in Iraq, the Pentagon said. Continue reading...
The pandemic has hit tourism but retraining and a range of initiatives have enabled staff to stay and even hit the slopesMasiane Nthina made her way nervously from the kit room to the slopes. Shuffling with skis on her feet for the first time is not easy.Nthina, an intern at the Lesotho Tourism Development Corporation, lives close to Afriski Mountain Resort, but had never visited it. She had always viewed the resort as the preserve of the elite and thought that on her meagre wages she could not afford to go. Continue reading...
by Haroon Siddique Legal affairs correspondent on (#5KKNF)
Exclusive: ‘They are not collateral damage’ – bereaved families appeal for meeting to learn of UK’s role in killingsRelatives of people killed in drone strikes in Yemen have written to the defence secretary to ask about UK involvement in the killings and request that he meet them.The family members said they have suffered “immense loss” of loved ones – including children – at the hands of US targeted drone strikes and are demanding to know what part the UK has played. Continue reading...
Homosexuality remains illegal in the country, where a conviction carries a jail term of up to 14 yearsFor a few hours over the weekend the streets of Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, were covered in rainbows, as about 50 members of the country’s persecuted LBGTQ+ community took part in the country’s first Pride parade.The risks to those who took part are high. Homosexuality remains illegal in Malawi, and those who identify as anything other than heterosexual face arrest and imprisonment. Continue reading...
by Martin Chulov Middle East correspondent on (#5KKKF)
As the country suffers from hyperinflation and shortages of fuel and medical supplies, pressure is growing at home and abroad to address its governance quagmireThe lights dimmed further in Lebanon last month when two giant barges that had boosted its electricity grid were switched off. The result was six hours less power a day for most homes, or more need for generator fuel for those who could afford it.However, fuel is also in short supply in the crisis-hit nation. Giant queues clog roads near filling stations and top-ups are limited to 20 litres, making most journeys precarious. Continue reading...
British Columbian village sets new record, with most of western Canada subject to heat warningCanada has set its highest temperature on record after a village in British Columbia reached 46.1C (115F) on Sunday.The temperature in Lytton, in the south of Canada’s western-most province, surpassed the previous national high of 45C (113F), set in Saskatchewan in 1937. Continue reading...
Fung Wai-kong is seventh senior figure from publication to be arrested in two weeksA senior journalist of the now-defunct Hong Kong pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily was arrested at the airport while attempting to leave the city.Fung Wai-kong was believed to be leaving for the UK when he was arrested on Sunday night, local media reported. Continue reading...
How does Australia’s coronavirus vaccine rollout compare with other countries, when will Australia be fully vaccinated and when will you be eligible to get your dose? We bring together the latest numbers on daily new Covid-19 cases, as well as stats and live data on total vaccination figures in Victoria, NSW, Queensland and other states.
by Sid Lowe at Stadium La Cartuja Sevilla on (#5KKDQ)
Down in the stands, Kevin De Bruyne expressed the way they all felt, nerves shred, tension rising, pleading with his his team-mates to hang on. Alongside him, Eden Hazard sat too. Both men had been withdrawn, injured, now all they could do is watch as Belgium desperately hung on to a Thorgan Hazard goal that would see them go through.If, that was, Portugal couldn’t find a way through, the pressure rising all the time. Continue reading...
Monday: new lockdowns and restrictions across Australia as coronavirus sweeps nation. Plus: MasterChef double eliminationGood morning. Millions of Australians are waking up in lockdown today as states and territories attempt to prevent the spread of the latest Covid outbreak. Similar restrictions are also being put in place internationally as the Delta variant continues to spread. Barnaby Joyce has reshuffled his cabinet, and Victorian premier Daniel Andrews is set to head back to the office today after recovering from a fall in March.New South Wales reported 30 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday as a string of new outbreaks across Australia forced states and territories to introduce sweeping new restrictions and prompted urgent calls for vaccine eligibility to be widened. Gladys Berejiklian warned Sydney to prepare for a further increase in cases over the coming days. “Given how contagious [this strain] of the virus is we do anticipate over the next few days case numbers are likely to increase even over what we have seen in the last few days,” she said. The 30 new cases were all linked to the Bondi cluster and half were in insolation while infectious. Several new exposure sights have been released for Sydney and Queensland. Continue reading...
Tracy Brabin was leafleting with colleagues for byelection when group was allegedly followed and assaultedLabour activists in the Batley and Spen byelection have been pelted with eggs and kicked in the head while on the campaign trail, the region’s mayor has said.Tracy Brabin, the newly elected mayor of West Yorkshire, said she was leafleting with colleagues, volunteers and campaigners in the Whitaker Street area of Batley on Sunday when they were followed, verbally abused and physically assaulted by a group of young men. Continue reading...
by Nazia Parveen Community affairs correspondent on (#5KK6Y)
Extinction Rebellion activists wanted to send message to ‘four billionaire owners of 68% of the UK’s print media’Six climate activists have been arrested after protests in which manure was dumped outside newspaper offices in central London.Seven tonnes of fertiliser was dumped outside the west London building that houses the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, i, Independent and Evening Standard. The offices of the Daily Telegraph at Victoria were also targeted. Continue reading...
by Libby Brooks Scotland correspondent on (#5KK5H)
Conservative Graeme Campbell says he has been driven from his South Lanarkshire home by criminalsA councillor who says he has been driven out of his home by criminals has claimed that Scotland risks becoming a “lawless society” as he steps back from politics following a campaign of intimidation that has left him “broken”.Graeme Campbell, who lives in the South Lanarkshire town of Strathaven – best known for its hot air balloon festival – has been targeted by fire and acid attacks three times in the past three years, the latest one taking place last weekend. Continue reading...
Teachers contact counter-radicalisation programme after mistakenly believing he said ‘arms’An 11-year-old primary school pupil was referred to the government’s controversial counter-radicalisation Prevent programme after a teacher mistook the word “alms” for “arms” during a classroom discussion.The boy’s teacher asked what pupils would do if they found themselves in possession of a lot of money. According to a legal challenge against the school lodged by the boy’s parents, he said he would “give alms to the oppressed”. The teacher interpreted this as “give arms to the oppressed” and made the Prevent referral. Continue reading...
Surviving page from notebook all but destroyed in fire in 1720 expected to fetch as much as £600,000A drawing bought in a small French sale by a buyer with a hunch has been identified as a rare surviving page from an important notebook made by a young Peter Paul Rubens.If Rubens’ original Theoretical Notebook still existed it would be a true art wonder, but it was all but destroyed in a fire in 1720. Only two pages were thought to have survived, treasures of collections in London and Berlin. Continue reading...
The physiologist and survival expert on the joys and dangers of cold water immersionDr Heather Massey is a researcher at the University of Portsmouth’s Extreme Environments research group and a seasoned open water swimmer. Having swum the Channel and competed in the world ice swimming championships, her research into the effects of extreme temperatures on the body is personal.During lockdown the number of people enjoying wild swimming soared, but so did the number of deaths. Massey’s research examines whether cold water swimming is more likely to kill or cure. Continue reading...
Second-round voting begins after record low turnout in first round left the two rivals disappointedFrance has begun voting in the second round of regional elections after a first round that resulted in a drubbing for Emmanuel Macron’s ruling party, disappointment for Marine Le Pen’s far right and a record low turnout.For some observers, the outcome of the 20 June first round raised doubts over whether the 2022 presidential election would come down to a duel between the president and Le Pen in a runoff long seen as the most likely scenario. Continue reading...
Sydney’s Bondi cluster grows to 110, Virgin Australia flight attendant tests positive, Darwin locks down, WA imposes restrictions and Queensland reports outbreak of Alpha variant
by Naaman Zhou (now) and Michael McGowan (earlier) on (#5KJPZ)
NSW reports 30 new Covid cases; Perth and the Peel region enter stage-one restrictions after returned traveller from NSW tests positive; Queensland reports three new local cases and NT records four; ACT mandates mask-wearing; Virgin Australia flight attendant tests positive. Follow latest updates
Investigators in Germany are using Google Earth, YouTube clips and social media posts to bring political crimes to the courtsWith its high ceilings, white walls and bleached pine furniture it could be one of the many artist’s studios or galleries that dot this corner of central Berlin. A grey curtain with plastic holes, stitched together by Franco-Italian artist Céline Condorelli, snakes between desks to divide the room into public and private spaces.In fact, this second-floor space inside a beige brick former soap factory is something closer to a newsroom or a detective agency, tripling up as a lawyers’ chambers. Next month it will formally be launched as the home of the Investigative Commons, a kind of super-hub for organisations whose work has revolutionised the field of human rights activism. Continue reading...
Family and fellow musicians pay tribute to inventor of influential ‘fourth world’ musical aestheticJon Hassell, the influential American avant garde composer who invented the global-minded “fourth world” musical aesthetic, has died aged 84. In a statement, his family said the “iconic trumpet player, author and composer” died in the early hours of 26 June, after just over a year of health complications.In spring 2020, Hassell broke his leg in a fall at his recording studio and spent four months recuperating in hospital, in isolation owing to the coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading...
Less than 50% of adults in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana have received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccineIn the United States, to bring about a long-awaited end to the Covid-19 pandemic, federal and state health officials have been urging all Americans to get vaccinated. But, amid stagnating national vaccine rates, some states in the south have been lagging behind when it comes to vaccinating their populations, raising fears of deepening regional disparities.That raises the prospect that for a complex web of reasons much of the southern US will continue to experience the pandemic in a different way than the rest of America. That is especially worrisome as the south contains more communities that are more vulnerable to the virus. Continue reading...
The passenger was taken to hospital after jumping from the aircraft as it was taxiing to the runwayA passenger has been taken to hospital after jumping out of a moving plane at Los Angeles international airport, authorities say.United Express flight 5365, operated by SkyWest, was pulling away from a gate shortly after 7pm Friday when the man unsuccessfully tried to breach the cockpit by pounding on the door. Continue reading...
Sharon Graham says troll accounts targeted her after she refused to quit the race to replace Len McCluskey as general secretaryThe only woman running to be the next leader of the powerful Unite union has revealed that she received “disgraceful” online abuse for refusing to stand aside for two more prominent male rivals.Sharon Graham, who has attracted an unexpected level of grassroots support, said she experienced a “rough ride” after refusing to end her campaign. She said troll accounts had mocked up pictures of her as Margaret Thatcher, and she had warned her family that she might lose her job because of the row. Continue reading...
Weapons licensed for export to two-thirds of states on ‘not free’ register, including Libya, Saudi Arabia and TurkeyTwo-thirds of countries classified as “not free” because of their dire record on human rights and civil liberties have received weapons licensed by the UK government over the past decade, new analysis reveals.Between 2011-2020, the UK licensed £16.8bn of arms to countries criticised by Freedom House, a US government-funded human rights group. Continue reading...
A reporter from the 26-year-old Hong Kong newspaper describes its final daysA Hong Kong police national security operation has forced the closure of the city’s most vocal and pro-democracy newspaper, Apple Daily. Its senior executives arrested, companies charged, and accounts frozen, the paper survived for less than a week after hundreds of officers raided the newsroom, accusing it of foreign collusion. Here a reporter from the 26-year-old paper describes the final days. Continue reading...
Planning a trip across state borders during the school holidays or a weekend away? Before you leave home, check our state-by-state guide to coronavirus travel restrictions to see if you can travel into our out of Sydney city suburbs, from NSW to Qld, between Victoria and South Australia or to NZ
Here are the current coronavirus hotspots and Covid-19 public exposure sites in Sydney, regional New South Wales and Canberra, and what to do if you’ve visited them. Our analysis and map shows where Covid cases are increasing, and a live data update tracks the daily case numbers in NSW
Incoming secretary of state faces daunting task while mastering his new position in the Department of Health as quickly as possibleSajid Javid may have already served in two of the most testing offices of state, as chancellor of the exchequer and home secretary. But on Saturday he walked into what is now arguably the biggest and most challenging of all: the job of health secretary.Not only does Javid have to steer the country out of what will hopefully be the final stages of the pandemic, ensuring we reach the end of what Boris Johnson has called the “irreversible road to freedom”. Continue reading...
Federico Chiesa came on to the Wembley pitch with six minutes of normal time left and this tight, fretful last sixteen tie still goalless. The story of the game to that point had been a stirring, finely-wrought defensive performance from Austria, who showed great resolve against a team most expected to simply blow them away.The final whistle came as a relief to Italy’s players, who fell into an angsty-looking huddle around their manager. Roberto Mancini’s message was to take breath, to re-set the throttle. And Italy did find another gear at last. Continue reading...
Reversal of fortune sees former Tory leadership candidate return to cabinet after run-ins with Dominic CummingsSajid Javid’s appointment as health secretary sees him return to a Cabinet he abruptly left in shock fashion 16 months ago.Javid was just six months into his role as chancellor, and less than a month away from delivering his first budget, when he quit after being told he must sack all his advisers if he wanted to keep his job. Continue reading...