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Outbreak comes as country also prepares for lunar new year holiday, when millions of people normally travel to see family

Nightingale hubs being created at some hospitals as part of a move to provide up to 4,000 extra beds

Scott Morrison says 5,097 people in Australian hospitals have Covid; NSW records 20,293 new cases and 18 deaths; Victoria reports 34,808 cases and two deaths, Queensland 9,581 cases, SA 4,024 cases, ACT 938, NT 404, WA three; Mark McGowan says federal government has not met vaccine commitments for WA. Follow all the day’s news live

After a successful reopening, Covid-19 has yet again forced many hit shows to either take a hiatus or close for good but industry insiders are optimisticAt the curtain call, Hugh Jackman put his arm around Kathy Voytko, an understudy suddenly thrust into the role of leading lady Marian Paroo in The Music Man.“Kathy, when she turned up to work at 12 o’clock, could have played any of eight roles,” Jackman, who plays Harold Hill in the musical, told the cheering audience. “it happened to be the leading lady. She found out at 12 noon today and, at 1 o’clock, she had her very first rehearsal as Marian Paroo.” Continue reading...

What started as a Facebook page is now an investigative news operation with millions of readers a dayIt was 7.55am one February day in 2018 when members of an elite Italian police squad raided the Naples office of small news website. The previous day it had revealed links between elected politicians and organised groups in an illegal waste dumping racket, and its staff already at their desks looked on incredulously as the officers searched through their files.The story sent shock waves through the political establishment and helped make fanpage.it what it is today: one of Italy’s most successful news sites. Continue reading...

President urges rescheduling of payments amid food and electricity rationing after pandemic hit tourism sectorCash-strapped Sri Lanka has sought to reschedule its huge Chinese debt burden in talks with visiting foreign minister Wang Yi, the president’s office said.“The president pointed out that it would be a great relief if debt payments could be rescheduled in view of the economic crisis following the pandemic,” President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s office said in a statement on Sunday. Continue reading...

20-year-olds contemplate an uncertain future shaped by the coronavirus pandemic and Japan’s skewed demographicsOn the second Monday in January every year, Japan’s 20-year-olds put on their best kimono and suits, brave the winter chill and congregate at event halls across the country to celebrate their official passage into adulthood.In happier times, Coming of Age Day is a time to reunite with old school friends from the same neighbourhood and take endless commemorative photos, knowing that a party invariably involving the legal consumption of alcohol will be just reward for sitting through dreary speeches by local dignitaries. Continue reading...

A fire swept through a Rohingya refugee camp in south-eastern Bangladesh on Sunday, destroying hundreds of homes, according to officials and witnesses, though there were no immediate reports of casualties.The blaze hit Camp 16 in Cox’s Bazar, a border district home to more than a million Rohingya refugees, most of whom fled a military-led crackdown in Myanmar in 2017.Mohammed Shamsud Douza, a Bangladeshi government official in charge of refugees, said emergency workers had brought the fire under control. The cause of the blaze has not been established, he added

Monday: Novak Djokovic’s court hearing begins as tennis star fights to stay in Australia. Plus: is the ballerina’s tutu out of date?Good morning. A bid to delay Novak Djokovic’s visa hearing has been rejected. Federal and state governments scramble as Covid cases spike. A momentous week of diplomacy gets under way in Europe as Ukraine’s fate hangs in the balance.A bid by the Morrison government to delay Novak Djokovic’s visa hearing by two days has been rejected by the federal circuit court. In an order, published on Sunday, judge Anthony Kelly rejected the move which would have delayed the hearing until Wednesday – after Tennis Australia’s stated deadline to include the world No 1 in the Australian Open draw. But legal experts have warned even with the hearing proceeding on Monday, there is no guarantee Djokovic could secure a court order restoring his visa in time to play. The Serbian star could also face his visa being revoked again on fresh grounds. Continue reading...

Court filing before Monday’s hearing says there is no such thing as an assurance of entry for a non-citizen and Djokovic’s visa could be cancelled again even if he wins in courtDjokovic pictured maskless at public event one day after positive Covid testLawyers for Australia’s Department of Home Affairs have insisted Novak Djokovic was never given any assurances his medical exemption would allow him to enter Australia.While also confirming that the world No 1 is unvaccinated, the legal team from the Australian government said ahead of Monday’s appeal hearing that there is no valid reason for Djokovic to be granted access to Australia for the tournament which begins on 17 January. Continue reading...

The ‘exceptional find’ was discovered only feet from a badger’s den in the northern region of AsturiasA trove of 209 Roman coins in a cave in northern Spain – hailed by researchers as an “exceptional find” – is believed to have been uncovered by a badger desperately foraging for food.The coins, dating from between the third and fifth century AD, were spotted in a cave in the municipality of Grado in the northern region of Asturias. They were found mere feet from the den of a badger, months after Storm Filomena dumped heavy snow across swaths of the country. Continue reading...

Hundreds of homes destroyed by blaze in area that is home to at least a million people who fled military crackdown in MyanmarA fire swept through a Rohingya refugee camp in south-eastern Bangladesh on Sunday, destroying hundreds of homes, according to officials and witnesses, though there were no immediate reports of casualties.The blaze hit Camp 16 in Cox’s Bazar, a border district home to more than a million Rohingya refugees, most of whom fled a military-led crackdown in Myanmar in 2017. Continue reading...

Singer says 17-year-old left hospital while ‘on suicide watch’ and condemns Irish health service and family agencySinéad O’Connor has criticised the Irish authorities after the death of her 17-year-old son, Shane, whom she alleges left hospital while “on suicide watch”.The singer announced the news of Shane’s death on social media on Saturday, writing: “My beautiful son, Nevi’im Nesta Ali Shane O’Connor, the very light of my life, decided to end his earthly struggle today and is now with God. Continue reading...

Lang worked with Artie Kornfeld, John Roberts and Joel Rosenman to stage epic counterculture event in farmland north of New York

Researchers attribute 20,890 cases – compared with 17,140 documented up to 22 December – to spread of Omicron variant

Human rights advocate Princess Basmah, a critic of the crown prince’s crackdown on dissent, was imprisoned without charge in 2019A Saudi princess and human rights advocate has returned to her home in Jeddah after three years in a state prison without charge, her supporters and lawyer have confirmed.Princess Basmah bint Saud bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, 57, a staunch critic of her cousin and Saudi Arabia’s effective leader, Mohammed bin Salman, was released on Saturday, along with her daughter, Souhoud al-Sharif, who was arrested with her in March 2019. Continue reading...

A standout 2021 episode reflecting on the 20-year anniversary of the Tampa affair. Afghan refugee Abbas Nazari, then a seven-year-old child on the MV Tampa, and Guardian journalist David Marr remember the humanitarian and political crisis that shapes Australia’s policies on asylum seekers and their claims to this dayRead more: Continue reading...

NSW and Tasmania fear the controversial federal bill could override their state-based anti-discrimination laws

Man, 25, fears he will be killed after fleeing forcible conscription into Bashar al-Assad’s army in 2017The Home Office has told a Syrian asylum seeker he can return to the country he fled during the war because it is safe to do so, in what is thought to be the first case of its kind.The 25-year-old asylum seeker sought sanctuary in the UK in May 2020. He fled forcible conscription into Bashar al-Assad’s army in 2017, saying that he would have been forced to kill other Syrians. He said that if he is forced back to Syria he will be targeted as a draft evader, arrested, detained and killed. Continue reading...

Almaty and other cities calm after violent protests, but authorities say ‘counterterrorist operation’ still underwayAuthorities in Kazakhstan have said 164 people were killed in the unrest that rocked the country in the past week, including three children.The health ministry said 103 of the deaths were in Almaty, the country’s largest city and the centre of the violence. Continue reading...

More than 13,000 sign petition backing Tracey Scholes, who was dismissed after 34 years of serviceMore than 13,000 people have joined a campaign to support one of Greater Manchester’s first female bus drivers who was dismissed for being “too short”.When Tracey Scholes, 57, walked into Manchester’s Queen’s Road depot in 1987 as the first, and only, woman, she said “you could have heard a pin drop”. Continue reading...

Head of King’s College NHS trust concerned that 10% of 14,000 workers are not fully vaccinated

Former Brexit minister also calls for shake-up of Boris Johnson’s advisory team in first major interview since resigning from cabinetBoris Johnson’s former Brexit minister who quit last month has warned him to commit to low taxes and the free market or risk losing the next election, as the prime minister comes under continuing pressure from the Conservative right.David Frost, a former lobbyist whom Johnson made his chief Brexit negotiator and later gave a peerage, said in his first major interview since quitting as a cabinet minister that the Tories needed to “focus on rebuilding the nation and be proud of our history”. Continue reading...

Chief of Scottish parents’ organisation says health and wellbeing survey ‘not fit for purpose’Scotland’s largest parents’ organisation is calling for the SNP government to withdraw its schools’ health and wellbeing census, which has attracted opprobrium for asking 14-year-olds about their experience of anal sex.The controversial poll has united rightwing pro-family campaigners and progressive children’s rights advocates, with both groups fearing it may end up causing harm to the young people it intends to help. Continue reading...

Government refusal to link carbon market to EU’s has led to higher cost for British businessesBritish businesses are paying substantially more to produce carbon dioxide than their EU rivals because of the government’s refusal to link the UK carbon market to the bigger European market after Brexit.The difference is putting UK industry at a significant competitive disadvantage to European rivals, at a time of soaring energy prices, but does not result in any additional benefit to the environment. Continue reading...

Can ‘confidence-whisperer’ Nate Zinsser help Jamie Waters boost his wavering self-belief?Dr Nate Zinsser, a top US army psychologist renowned for helping lieutenants and officers build their confidence, is giving me a talking-to. We’ve been discussing highly disciplined writers who sit at their desks at 9am each day, no matter the circumstances, and assertively punch out stories. “I definitely don’t do that,” I say, remarking that I envy their confidence to sit and deliver. An aggressive perfectionist streak combined with niggling impostor syndrome insecurities mean I need conditions to be just-so in order to have faith that I’ll produce anything decent. Zinsser blanches.“The statement ‘I don’t do that’ is a decision you’re making about yourself,” he says, speaking over video call from his office at the US Military Academy in upstate New York; behind him there’s a whiteboard, ornamental Japanese swords and photos of athletes he’s counselled, including the Olympic-medal-winning US men’s bobsled team. “A constructive shift in your thinking would be the idea that, ‘Whether or not I got the right amount of sleep the night before or had a good breakfast, once 9 o’clock strikes, I am at my desk, lights on, ready to go – and I’m producing good stuff,’” he says. “That’s a belief about yourself that you can de-li-be-rate-ly cultivate,” he adds, stretching out each syllable in “deliberately” so there can be no question that in this matter, as in all self-confidence-related issues, change lies with me. Continue reading...

Racist contenders are stirring Islamophobic fears in their rush to take the presidencyFrance is both beautiful and brutally bleak. It is a country studded with towns and rural vistas that take your breath away, but pockmarked with districts of soulless, desolate concrete, especially in the suburbs of its cities, the banlieues. It’s as though French planners and architects, in their embrace of modernity, lost touch with what it means to be human. It has been an important trigger for a toxic brew of Islamophobia and wider cultural despair.The political consequences, now playing themselves out, will ricochet around Europe and the west. The presidential elections this spring will be dominated by the right, overtly mouthing implacable opposition to immigration that even Nigel Farage, who shares similar sentiments, dares not use so openly in Britain. Continue reading...

NSW records 30,062 new Covid cases and 16 deaths; Victoria reports 44,155 cases and four deaths; Queensland records 18,000 cases, South Australia 4,506 cases and one death, Tasmania 1,406 cases, ACT 1,039, NT 481 and WA one. This blog is now closed

Abtin’s death was ‘aided and abetted’ by the Iran’s government, says US human rights group PEN AmericaThe dissident Iranian poet and filmmaker Baktash Abtin has died of Covid-19 in hospital after being released on a furlough from prison where he was infected.Abtin was transferred to hospital in the capital Tehran “but the treatment did not succeed and he died”, the semi-official ISNA news agency said on Saturday. Continue reading...

Government scheme to replace EU agricultural payments fuelled by ‘blind optimism’ and still lacking crucial details, say MPsThe government’s plans for a post-Brexit scheme to support British farming are based on little more than “blind optimism” and risk increasing the UK’s reliance on food imports, a parliamentary inquiry has warned.The EU’s scheme of subsidies – known as the common agricultural policy (CAP) and worth £3bn-a-year to UK farmers – was one of the long-running complaints of Eurosceptics, who saw the ability of Britain to draw up its own scheme of payments as one of the major benefits of Brexit. Ministers had said the new scheme would be used to increase the environmental benefits of agriculture. Continue reading...

The tragic events of last week, in which dozens lost their lives, have exposed hidden political tensionsFor many Kazakhs, the full story behind the unrest of the past week remains as murky as the mist that enveloped Almaty, the country’s largest city and the centre of violence, at the same time.People were unable to access accurate information, as an internet blackout froze almost all access to the outside world during a tragic few days of violence in which military vehicles rolled through the streets, government buildings burned and state television carried rolling threats that “bandits and terrorists” would be eliminated without mercy. Continue reading...

Teaming with husband Alan Bergman, she composed songs for many television shows, films and stage musicalsMarilyn Bergman, the Oscar-winning lyricist who teamed with husband Alan Bergman on The Way We Were, How Do You Keep the Music Playing? and hundreds of other songs, died at her Los Angeles home Saturday. She was 93.She died of respiratory failure not related to Covid-19, according to a representative, Jason Lee. Her husband was at her bedside when she died. Continue reading...

Group led by former Democratic party leader Sali Berisha used iron bars and hammers to break into the buildingPolice in Albania used a water cannon trick and teargas to disperse protesters who broke into the headquarters of the country’s main opposition party in an internal squabble over the party’s leadership.Scores of officers pushed back hundreds of protesters who had stormed the ground floor of the centre-right Democratic party’s headquarters. They detained 25 of the trespassers and eight party staff members as the two sides clashed, authorities said. Continue reading...

Rising tension over Anglophone zones threaten to disrupt football tournamentThe much-anticipated Africa Cup of Nations football tournament opens today, hosted by Cameroon for the first time for 50 years.

Many in the Saposa Islands are wrestling with the dilemma of starting a new life on the mainland or staying to watch their homes vanish. Deputy editor, David Munk, introduces this storyYou can read the original article here: ‘My father will go down like the captain of the Titanic’: life on the Pacific’s disappearing islands

Former BBC Breakfast presenter says she is speaking out to help other victims of harassment copeLouise Minchin has revealed it was “truly blood chilling” for her and her family to be threatened by a stalker last year.The former BBC Breakfast presenter said she was speaking out about the experience to help other victims cope. Continue reading...

The claims by Carolyn Andriano, who testified at Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial, will add pressure on the princeCarolyn Andriano, who testified in the trial of sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell in New York last month, has claimed that Virginia Giuffre told her in 2001 that she slept with Prince Andrew.The claims, made in an interview with the Daily Mail, will ratchet up the pressure on the prince, as it is a contemporaneous report of his alleged sexual assault of the then 17-year-old Giuffre. He has vehemently denied the claims and his lawyers have been urging a US judge to dismiss Giuffre’s civil suit against him. Continue reading...

Irish musician says Shane O’Connor, last seen on Friday morning, ‘was the very light of my life’Sinéad O’Connor’s 17-year-old son has died, two days after he was reported missing.The musician shared the news on social media, writing that he “decided to end his earthly struggle” and asked that “no one follows his example”.In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org. Continue reading...

Thousands affected at popular destination of Murree with eight of those killed from same familyAt least 22 people have died after heavy snow trapped them in their vehicles as tens of thousands of visitors thronged Pakistan’s hill town of Murree, officials have said.Atiq Ahmed, an Islamabad police officer, said eight of the 22 fatalities were from the family of fellow Islamabad police officer Naveed Iqbal, who also died. All 16 died of hypothermia, officials said. Continue reading...

Adm Tony Radakin says any attempt by submarines at damage would be treated as ‘act of war’The head of the UK’s armed forces has warned that Russian submarine activity is threatening underwater cables that are crucial to communication systems around the world.Adm Tony Radakin said undersea cables that transmit internet data are “the world’s real information system”, and added that any attempt to damage them could be considered an “act of war”. Continue reading...

The Booker winner discusses work, wisdom and the drive to teach, plus seven key tips on how to write wellWhile George Saunders was writing his latest book, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, he noticed something strange. The book examines seven Russian short stories, which Saunders has taught on the creative writing course at Syracuse University, New York, for 20 years. Many writers teach, and many have a difficult relationship with teaching, but Saunders long ago “decided to not let it be like that”. He sliced his weeks into three days of teaching, four of writing, a clear division of roles. But when he started the Russian book, however, his two lives merged.He adopted his “teaching stance” while he wrote, and was amazed by “how much fun” he had. “There’s a different sensibility when I walk into a classroom,” he says. The outward appearance is the same – “sloppy balding hippy” – but “I’m a slightly nicer and less egotistical person”. With this slightly nicer, less egotistical person at the keyboard, interesting things began to happen, and his fiction-writing self “got a real boost”. Continue reading...

Drones are helping in searches across tricky terrain and their role could grow as technology improvesScotland’s mountain rescue teams have begun using sophisticated drones to search for injured and missing climbers lost in often dangerous and isolated terrain across the Highlands.The drones, weighing just under a kilo, can be fitted with torches, heat-detecting cameras, loudspeakers and even radio handsets, enabling rescuers to search inaccessible gullies and remote areas more quickly and safely than before. Continue reading...

Karim Masimov was fired this week as unrest raged across the country, with dozens killed and public buildings ransackedThe former head of Kazakhstan’s domestic intelligence agency has been detained on suspicion of high treason, the agency said, after he was fired amid violent protests.The National Security Committee, or KNB, said in a statement on Saturday that its former chief Karim Masimov had been detained on Thursday after it launched an investigation into charges of high treason. Continue reading...

Legal advice says any challenge under equalities law would have reasonable chance of success

The actor knew her father had served in the merchant navy, but it wasn’t until she read about Britain’s mistreatment of Chinese seamen in the 40s that she understood just how much his experiences had shaped her family“Take the rest of the noodles and the pak choi and you can have it for your lunch tomorrow.” My dad pushed the takeaway containers and their remaining contents across the table towards me.“I’ve got loads of food at mine, why don’t you and Mum keep it?” I protested. I knew he’d insist I take the leftovers with me. This routine would always play out at the end of family dinners once I’d left home and, this time around, it felt both familiar and oddly comforting – because it had been a while since our last dinner. Continue reading...

PM relied on party factions to get into No 10, but amid Covid and climate crisis is finding them difficult to contain

Country records over 116,000 cases as Victoria surpasses NSW with 51,356 cases including rapid test results; Nick Kyrgios says Djokovic treatment ‘not really humane’; Queensland grapples with flood emergency. This blog is now closed