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Australia could have 200,000 new Covid cases a day by late January without low-to-medium restrictions under a “worst-case scenario”, according to Doherty Institute modelling. That scenario would only be reached “if we do nothing” and is based on people not altering their behaviour, no change to the booster schedule and only basic public health restrictions being in place, according to a senior source. The modelling will be discussed in national cabinet today, along with the spike in Omicron cases and the vaccine booster program. Meanwhile, families could miss out on seeing loved ones in aged care over Christmas as inconsistent restrictions are causing confusion. Advocates are pushing for coherent guidelines and calling for a balance to be struck so residents are protected but not isolated.
Australia wrote to France a week before the submarine contract was cancelled, acknowledging the completion of one requirement for moving to the next stage of the project. The document also included a cautionary line that the next stage of the project remained “subject to government approval”. The correspondence with Naval Group in the lead-up to the decision is a key piece of the Aukus puzzle, although to date the documents released do not show Australia giving a concrete assurance that the project would proceed.
The US federal regulators are expected to approve the first pills to treat Covid-19 as early as this week. The news comes as countries around the globe scramble to get on top of the Omicron variant. Many countries are waiting until after Christmas to impose new restrictions. Portugal ordered nightclubs and bars to shut doors and is issuing work-from-home orders from 26 December. Likewise, the UK PM has hinted that new measures could be imposed post-Christmas, and Germany will reimpose tighter rules from 28 December, including a ban on gatherings of more than 10 vaccinated people. The European Commission has emphasised the importance of booster shots and said Covid vaccine certificates would be valid for only nine months without a third jab.
Australia
The Department of Social Services underpaid almost 70 current and former staff more than $400,000 over nearly five years, FOI documents revealed. The underpayments related to the failure to pay overtime to staff who were required to monitor the media after hours.
Parents are running into difficulty booking Covid vaccine appointments for kids aged five to 11, with some being told to “check again in the next few weeks”. The AMA says it is unaware of supply constraints but it has been “given no information about how much is arriving”.
The world
The ruler of Dubai has been ordered to pay a divorce settlement which could reach more than half a billion British pounds to protect his ex-wife and their two children from the threat he poses to them.
Vladimir Putin has said he will consider a military response if Russia feels threatened by Nato, in a sign that he is not ready to de-escalate tensions over a potential invasion of Ukraine.
Donald Trump has provoked controversy after he announced he will hold a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort on 6 January, the first anniversary of the deadly attack on the US Capitol.
More than 160 people drowned in two separate shipwrecks off the coast of Libya in the past week as refugees seek safety in Europe.
Recommended reads
Understanding service workers’ challenges and adjusting your expectations accordingly can ease shopping frustrations, writes Nadine von Cohen in an etiquette guide for holiday shopping. “As we approach our second Christmas at the mercy of a virus that just won’t quit, one would think people would have accepted that supply chain issues and other Covid-related problems might mean low stock and delayed deliveries, as has been the case for going on two years. But after speaking to business owners and frontline retail staff, it seems this is far from true.”
During lockdown, Alex McKinnon burned through all the TV he would normally watch and was forced to start picking shows he wouldn’t ordinarily go near, including Boss, a 2011 political drama starting Kelsey Grammer as the hard-as-nails mayor of Chicago. Despite good reviews, Boss was cancelled after two seasons. “But that doesn’t matter, because you don’t watch a show like Boss to see what happens to the characters or where the plot goes,” he writes. “You watch a show like Boss because it is completely bananas. Boss will give you a collection of moments so surreal, it will feel like you dreamed them after drinking too much cough syrup before bed.”
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From reckonings on race and gender inequality, to Australian sporting heroes shining on the international stage, Guardian Australia’s sports editor, Mike Hytner, and deputy sports editor, Emma Kemp, talk to Laura Murphy-Oates about the biggest moments in sport in 2021 for today’s Full Story.
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For three hours, writer Debbie Lustig fends off traffic and protects the ducklings like a crazy lollipop lady with a fishing net. Assistant news editor Rosemary Bolger introduces this gripping story for this edition of Australia Reads.
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Sport
The former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has questioned Joe Root’s leadership aftter his comments about England’s bowlers during the Ashes, in which he said his bowlers needed to bowl fuller and “be a bit braver”. Ponting said that as captain of the touring side the onus is on Root to make changes.
Media roundup
Lockdowns have been ruled out and the Boxing Day Test will go ahead as planned, according to the Age, but Victorian officials may bring in density caps on events to prevent a worst-case Covid wave. Millions of Australians face a “cyber security ticking time bomb”, with sophisticated cyber actors exploiting new software vulnerabilities across more than 100,000 devices, apps and online games, the Australian reports.
Coming up
National cabinet meets at midday today.
And if you’ve read this far …
A senior barrister who sued the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service after a colleague asked him to stop farting in the room they worked in together has lost his case. The lawyer said his flatulence was caused by heart medication and argued that the request violated his dignity.
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