Good morning, this is Richard Parkin bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Friday 24 July.
Top stories
Medical experts have warned that Victoria’s aged care system is on the verge of collapse, and the federal government’s announcement that part-time and casual staff will be banned from working across multiple facilities to reduce potential infection is only expected to exacerbate the situation. Sixty per cent of the sector’s workforce is either part-time or casual. In NSW, an aged care facility in Sydney’s inner west has been closed after a staff member tested positive to Covid-19. The worker was linked to a restaurant cluster involving 46 confirmed cases.
A cut of $150 a week in the jobseeker supplement could drive 370,000 Australians into poverty, research by the Australia Institute suggests. The change, announced by the federal government on Tuesday, could be disproportionately felt in Victoria, which is already battling the impact of a second lockdown. Nationally, 80,000 children are included in the calculations. The coronavirus supplement had relieved the threat of poverty from nearly half a million people, but with unemployment projected to reach 9.25%, a reduction in support could have a knock-on effect across the economic system. Federal leaders will meet Friday to discuss the latest on the Covid-19 outbreak, with a proposed overhaul of environmental approvals also on the agenda.
South Africa has emerged as one of the nations worst-affected by the coronavirus, with more than 10,000 new infections daily contributing to a 60% rise in excess deaths. The nation’s official death toll stands at 5,940, but independent research suggests there have been at least 17,000 deaths over recent weeks ascribed to natural causes. The WHO has warned South Africa’s increases constitute “an acceleration of [the] disease in Africa”, and a “precursor” to impending outbreaks across the continent. Meanwhile, a French hospital in Lyon has been trialling a “breathalyser-style” test that can inform patients of their status within a matter of seconds.
Australia
The Queensland coal-fired power station company at the centre of a wrangle over a $4m federal grant was asked to lodge an application for the money two days after it was announced as the successful recipient, despite having no energy sector experience, Guardian Australia can reveal.
Less than 1% of all water licences in Australia are held by Aboriginal people, a major new study has found. Indigenous owners hold 0.1% of the Murray-Darling water basin rights, valued cumulatively at more than $16bn.
Decisions by one federal circuit court judge have been overturned by superiors on more than 20 occasions, a court review has shown, with a recent reversed decision involving contrarian academic Peter Ridd just the latest under scrutiny.
The world
The mayor of Portland has accused Donald Trump of conducting “urban warfare”, after he was teargassed by federal agents while standing alongside protesters. The Oregon state attorney general has also filed a lawsuit accusing federal officers of arresting protesters without probable cause.
The US and UK have accused Russia of launching a projectile “with the characteristics of a weapon” into space, threatening international satellites through the risk of creating debris.
Lawyers for Elton John’s ex-wife have claimed Renate Blauel went into hiding and adopted a new name, in order to escape association with the singer, claiming a recent film and autobiography breached a three-decade divorce agreement.
The volume of plastic waste in the world’s oceans is expected to triple over the next two decades, despite efforts to reduce pollution, new research suggests. Around 11m tonnes of plastic reaches the ocean, each year, the journal Science has reported.
Recommended reads
After months restricted at home by the global pandemic – there’s a new virus spreading across fashion: Covidcore. Like normcore, but with more of a “slothy-Brokeback-Seinfeld vibe”, Josephine Tovey has been rocking a flannelette shirt over thermal top, with high-waisted mom jeans and sneakers look. “Bras were triumphantly banished, activewear became all-day-wear and we perfected the news anchor art of being camera-ready by dressing for work from the waist up”.
Once famously lost in the staticky gloam of cult movie timeslots, the novel that inspired the film Wake in Fright begins from an almost formulaic premise. But it’s the descent into horror that makes Kenneth Cook’s 1961 work a masterpiece, Briohny Doyle explains: “It’s a particularly Australian horror story. Cold beer makes the unseemly affable, slakes a man’s mania for violence. Cooke captures the torments of an intoxicated brain perfectly.”
As an uncritical celebration of all things toxic and masculine WWE wrestling was an unusual childhood obsession for a quiet, closeted boy. But as Luke McCarthy writes, amid the searing boredom of lockdown a stumble down memory lane was indulged. “The first thing I latched on to as I sat down to watch these large, muscular figures do battle was not the physicality. Rather it was the drama.”
Listen
Reckoning with the past. In the remote Western Pacific nation of Guam the church has long been the bedrock of island community life. But as person after person emerges telling stories of sexual abuse by priests it’s a time for serious introspection. On this episode of Full Story, Anita Hofschneider talks with Walter Denton about his pursuit for justice.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
He’s the teen with a lofty price tag on his shoulders – but Rugby Australia has strenuously denied offering schoolboy star Joseph Suaalii a $3m deal to turn his back on rugby league. Either way, it could be a recipe for disaster, writes Bret Harris, for the code and also for the player.
And just when you think you’ve heard every story from the world of boxing – Mike Tyson’s return to the ring has been confirmed. The 54-year-old will pull on the gloves once again, 15 years after his last fight, to take on former four-division world champion Roy Jones Jr.
And, it wouldn’t be Friday without David Squires … on the wait to crown the A-League premiers.
Media roundup
The final Closing the Gap agreement expected to be signed next week has dropped several bold targets, including the halving of Indigenous women and girls who have been victims of violence, the Australian has reported. A record peacetime deficit of $184.5bn and national debt of $850bn has not dampened the enthusiasm of ratings agencies, who have affirmed Australia’s AAA status writes the Financial Review. And, a Walkley-winning journalist and person of colour has detailed the humiliation of being surrounded by police and asked to provide grocery receipts in a Sydney shopping centre, in a Daily Telegraph feature.
Coming up
Prime minister Scott Morrison and state and territory leaders will meet in the national cabinet to discuss environmental laws and a second Covid-19 outbreak.
The NSW supreme court will continue to hear a police challenge to Tuesday’s BLM protest.
And if you’ve read this far …
Before the coronavirus, a cool little number called smallpox was termed the “most dreadful scourge of the human species”. Believed to have killed between 300m and 500m people during the 20th century, it’s not exactly known how it spread so widely, so quickly. Until now – that is; turns out it was the Vikings.
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