Good morning. Covid cases are dropping around the country but the flaws in the aged care vaccine rollout continue to emerge. Two-thirds of staff working at a Sydney aged care facility are unvaccinated, SummitCare’s chief operating officer has confirmed. Three aged care residents at the facility in Sydney tested positive on Saturday night, while two staff members were infected last week. NSW reported 16 locally acquired cases on Sunday, more than halving Saturday’s high of 35. Gladys Berejiklian said 13 of the new cases had spent their entire infectious period in isolation. “We are seeing numbers go the right way. But I do say cautiously that that could still bounce around,” she said. Meanwhile a group of St George Illawarra Dragons players are under investigation for potentially breaching lockdown orders after being caught at the house party of a veteran player.
In Covid news abroad, Luxembourg’s prime minister, Xavier Bettel, has been admitted to hospital as a precautionary measure after testing positive last week. And the US will soon see surges in cases of the highly infectious Delta variant in areas where vaccination rates are low, Anthony Fauci has predicted, calling resistance to vaccination “sad” and “tragic”.
The top US diplomat in Australia, Mike Goldman, has declared both countries need to set “more ambitious climate goals” and tackle the climate crisis “head on”, as international pressure mounts on the Morrison government to act. “As partners, we have a shared obligation to protect our planet by taking the climate crisis head on, just as we’ve taken on every crisis over the past 70 years,” Goldman said in a video message on Sunday. The Australian government is facing growing international pressure to formally commit to net zero emissions by 2050, despite resistance from the Nationals.
The Taliban’s rapid advance through northern Afghanistan continued on Sunday, with more than a dozen districts falling to the militants as foreign forces begin to pull out of the region. Senior sources had said the US and British missions would end on 4 July but, after Joe Biden backed away from that date, London appeared to follow suit. According to the UN, at least 50 of Afghanistan’s nearly 400 districts have fallen to the Taliban since May. “Whatever happens, more death and suffering are inevitable,” writes Julian Borger. “Joe Biden and the US will not be able to escape some degree of responsibility, even if they are no longer there.”
Australia
Experts say now’s the time to get on top of the destructive impact of feral deer. While they may have been in the headlines recently, feral deer have not had the same profile as other invasive species but they have a similarly destructive impact on vulnerable ecosystems.
A senior federal government minister has said any inappropriate behaviour should be reported after the former Liberal MP Julia Banks alleged she was inappropriately touched by a male Coalition MP. But the federal finance minister, Simon Birmingham, suggested a proposed complaints mechanism wouldn’t cover past incidents.
Simon Birmingham has dismissed criticism of the Coalition’s discredited commuter car park fund, declaring that “the Australian people had their chance and voted the government back in”.
The world
A deadly forest fire in Cyprus, the worst to hit the island in decades, is close to being brought under control. The blaze killed four Egyptian labourers, destroyed 50 homes, and forced the evacuation of 10 villages.
At least 45 people were killed and more than 50 injured when a Philippine military aircraft crashed after missing the runway.
The EU fears that Boris Johnson wants to “dismantle” the Northern Ireland protocol, the Irish foreign minister has said, as relations between Brussels and London deteriorated again after “strange” remarks by the Brexit minister, David Frost.
The death toll from the Miami condo collapse stood at 24 on Sunday, with 121 still missing. Rescue crews made way for demolition teams as officials shifted their focus to bringing down the unstable remainder of the structure before a tropical storm.
Recommended reads
It’s been 11 years since Natalie Imbruglia last released an album of originals and it was dead on arrival. Since then she’s been on a musical hiatus, except for an equally unsuccessful cover album in 2015. But that’s the past. Her new track, Build It Better, goes back to what she does best: life-affirming pop, where love is messy and best served with breezy production and huge, hooky choruses. Build It Better is one of 20 tracks added to Guardian Australia’s Spotify playlist this month. Read about 10 of our favourites here – and subscribe on Spotify.
A psychiatrist’s life is nothing like a Woody Allen or Jack Nicholson film, or most depictions in popular culture, says Saretta Lee. “Everyone has an image of the New York psychiatrist’s couch and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, even if, like me, they’ve never seen it ... Another trope not understood or depicted well in film is the relationship between mental health and psychological trauma.” In the modern mind, a column where experts discuss mental health issues they are seeing in their work, Lee discusses how popular culture can do a disservice to those who have experienced trauma.
Like many parents, Sarah Ayoub has found herself struggling to juggle working from home with bored kids in Sydney’s lockdown. She’s not alone, 49% of parents say they find it difficult to combine work and care responsibilities. So what can you do? Here, experts suggest how to keep kids engaged while everyone is home at once. “Every time you find something for them to do, you are teaching them that their entertainment is dependent on other people,” says a resilience educator, Fiona Perrella “Lockdown is an opportunity to let your kids develop the ability to entertain themselves.”
Listen
A mental health crisis led to a very public breakdown for Britney Spears, and in 2008 she was placed under a conservatorship which, overseen by her father, took control of her finances and many of her personal affairs. This week a judge ruled he would be rejecting an earlier petition to remove her father from the conservatorship. In today’s Full Story, the Guardian’s deputy music editor, Laura Snapes, and the Guardian’s US correspondent, Sam Levin, describe how Spears is challenging the situation in court.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
After 16 rounds of AFL, it is safe to say Western Bulldogs, Melbourne, Brisbane, Port Adelaide and Geelong will fight it out for the double chance that goes with finishing in the top four. But who is timing their run to the finals and who is showing signs of fatigue? We look at each club’s prospects.
Joe Biden weighed in on the suspension of sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson over marijuana use, saying “the rules are the rules”.
Media roundup
A fit-for-purpose quarantine facility is one step closer after the Queensland government drafted specifications for a 1,000-room facility near Brisbane airport in “a sign that a long-running standoff over the housing of returned Australians could soon be over”, reports the Courier-Mail. The Mercury has the latest on Tasmania’s Labor leader David O’Byrne’s resignation, following allegations of misconduct by a female colleague during more than a decade ago.
Coming up
Sydney residents await the latest Covid cases numbers after positive signs on Sunday the outbreak could be coming under control.
Naidoc Week begins.
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