Good morning, this is Emilie Gramenz bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Friday 28 August.
Top stories
More than 100 ancient Aboriginal sites in Western Australia – some of which date before the last ice age – could be destroyed by mining companies which have already obtained legal permission to do so. Guardian Australia has spoken to traditional owners in the iron ore-rich Pilbara who reveal their fears for sacred sites, including rock shelters with painted walls and scar trees. A federal inquiry was established in response to the destruction by Rio Tinto of a 46,000-year-old rock shelter at Juukan Gorge deemed to be of the highest archaeological significance.
The UK has recorded the highest number of new coronavirus cases since 12 June. Both the daily case number and the seven-day rolling average are now higher than on 23 March, the day national lockdowns were announced. France has recorded a new post-lockdown record of daily cases and Italy has the country’s highest daily tally since 6 May. The World Health Organization warns Europe is entering “a tricky moment” as children go back to school, with Germany set to ban large events. Italian health authorities are tracing visitors to the former Formula One team boss Flavio Briatore’s Sardinian nightclub amid fears of a cluster after more than 60 cases were linked to the venue.
Privately operated aged care homes are behind the devastating Covid-19 infection rates in Victorian health workers. Nurses would not be infected at such rates if more of the homes had surge workforce plans in place and were audited regularly to ensure those plans were adequate, the nurses’ union says. Australian Twitter users focused on panic buying, while tweets with anti-China language and hashtags were predominantly from the US, a Monash University analysis of 2.5m tweets from six countries in the early months of the pandemic shows. And Anthony Albanese says Australia’s aged care sector will need “structural changes” after the royal commission has completed its work.
Australia
Business, industry, farming and environmental leaders have joined forces to warn Australia is “woefully unprepared” for the impact of climate change over the coming decades. The statement urges the government to do far more to cut emissions and improve the country’s resilience.
Women in their late teens are more likely than other Australians to be victims of sexual assault, while young men of the same age group are most likely to be perpetrators. The findings come from a new report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
Google is lobbying Labor and crossbench MPs to oppose a proposed code that would require digital platforms to pay news media companies for content. The tech giant’s lobbying efforts supplement a major digital campaign to mobilise its huge user base against the proposal.
An analysis shows a NSW mining industry push for approval of 21 new coal projects would add seven years’ worth of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere, if they were all developed.
The world
Police in Kenosha, the Wisconsin city rocked by protests and deadly violence since the shooting of Jacob Blake, have named the officer who fired multiple bullets into Blake’s back. Rusten Sheskey has been employed by the police department for seven years.
Walmart has partnered with Microsoft to bid for the US operations of hugely popular video-sharing app TikTok. The world’s largest retailer wants to become a force in the fast-growing digital media sector.
Anti-war campaigners in the UK are calling on the army to drop proceedings against a soldier who was arrested after he staged a one-man protest against Britain’s involvement in the Saudi bombing of Yemen near Downing Street.
Recommended reads
The appointment of former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott as a British trade envoy is a baffling choice, writes Malcolm Farr: “His lack of sales craft is exposed by the fact he was sacked by his own party as prime minister in 2015, and by his local constituents as an MP in 2019. Certainly he won the prime ministership, but it was from a Labor party which had changed leaders three times in six years. The ALP was begging to be defeated. Abbott is the hairy-chested variety of deal maker, preferring bulldozer tactics to finesse.”
Should you give up cooking with gas? Beloved by chefs and home cooks alike, gas-burning stovetops come with drawbacks for human, financial and planetary health. A future without gas stoves is already looking likely for some Australians. In the ACT, plans are under way to phase out domestic gas use.
If you’re looking for something new to read this weekend, The Labyrinth by Amanda Lohrey is a meditative and sprawling novel to lose yourself in. The Patrick White literary award-winner’s latest book is ideal for the meandering uncertainties of 2020. The characters who wander the pages are searching for meaning beyond the various trappings of their lives.
Listen
Unlike past recessions, this one has decimated predominantly female jobs. Women have also taken on the burden of home-schooling and care work. Some economists say the outcome could set back gender equality by a generation. Gabrielle Jackson speaks to Hex, who lost her job as a chef in Melbourne, and to Per Capita’s Emma Dawson about what the government can do.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
Michael Hooper’s sabbatical in Japan next year will be a great outcome for the Wallabies captain and the Australian Test team but it will be a body blow to Super Rugby and the NSW Waratahs, writes Bret Harris.
The 2020 Tour de France, scheduled to start in Nice on Saturday, is edging closer to collapse. The Alpes-Maritimes region, site of the opening stages of the race, was placed on red alert owing to the spread of Covid.
Our cartoonist David Squire looks at how Melbourne City and Sydney FC made it to the A-League title decider.
Media roundup
Fewer than one in three commuters is using a face mask on Sydney’s public transport network, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. The Australian Financial Review examines how buy now, pay later leaders Afterpay and Zip have doubled their revenue over the past financial year but kept their bottom lines in the red. The Courier-Mail says next year the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane will bring major works by Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Turner, Van Gogh, Goya, Vermeer, Renoir and Monet to Australia for the first time.
Coming up
Scott Morrison will join Anthony Albanese, Gladys Berejiklian and others at a bush summit in Cooma.
A Senate committee will hear evidence about Rio Tinto’s destruction of the ancient Juukan Gorge rock shelters in Western Australia.
And if you’ve read this far …
It’s nothing to smile about for lovers of Dutch art. Police have reported that Two Laughing Boys with a Mug of Beer, by the old master Frans Hals, has been stolen for a third time.
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