Good morning. Australia’s coal-fired power plants are likely to shut more rapidly than expected. The Omicron variant is in 57 countries. And the bogong moth has been added to the endangered species list.
Coal-fired power plants are likely to shut at almost triple the pace now announced, with Victoria’s brown coal fleet to be closed in just over a decade and the main electricity grid becoming coal-free by 2043, according to the market operator. The draft Integrated System Plan 2022, an industry blueprint updated every two years and released today, plots how the grid serving eastern Australia will change to meet emissions reduction and market goals. It details four scenarios based on extensive consultation over 18 months. The most probable path, dubbed the “step change” option, anticipates a nine-fold increase in large-scale renewable energy.
The Omicron variant has now been reported in 57 countries, the World Health Organization says. But the latest epidemiological report from WHO says it is still too early to draw any conclusions about its global impact, given that the Delta variant remains dominant, particularly in Europe and the US. But the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has predicted Omicron could become dominant in Europe within months. In South Africa, Covid cases have surged by 255% in the past seven days but there is mounting anecdotal evidence that Omicron infections are provoking milder symptoms than in previous waves.
The bad weather brought by La Niña could create a spike in Covid cases by forcing people indoors at the same time as the Omicron variant is spreading in Australia, say epidemiologists who are warning health authorities to delay the easing of social distancing measures. Epidemiologists say higher humidity allows virus particles to linger longer in the air.
The bogong moth is among the 124 Australian additions to the endangered species list. The addition of the moth, famously seen in swarms at Parliament House in Canberra during its annual migration to the Australian Alps, should be a wake-up call about declines in Australia’s invertebrates, experts say. “It is a really big step for the beautiful bogong moth to be listed as endangered,” scientist Marissa Parrott said. “It is a really sad moment that a species that is so iconic to Australia, that people remember from their childhood as blocking out the moon, has now collapsed to the point of being listed as endangered.”
Australia
Australian children aged five to 11 will receive the Pfizer against Covid from 10 January after the federal government accepted a recommendation for its use from immunisation experts.
One-third of large companies in Australia still don’t pay any tax despite a crackdown that has been under way for five years. Transparency data released by the Australian Taxation Office on Friday shows 782 out of 2,370 of Australia’s biggest companies paid no tax in the 2019-20 financial year.
The government has ordered a review into the operation of Australia’s ports, setting up a stoush with Labor over the maritime union’s industrial might.
A solicitor who prepared a will for a wealthy Sydney man has denied that he had an obligation to ask why his client was leaving tens of millions of dollars to his GP. Raymond McClure, who died aged 84 in 2017, altered his will twice in the five months before he died, eventually leaving Dr Peter Alexakis 90% of his $30m estate.
The world
Uyghur people living in Xinjiang province in China have been subjected to unconscionable crimes against humanity directed by the Chinese state that amount to an act of genocide, an independent and unofficial tribunal in London has found.
China has said that Australia, Britain and the US will pay a price for their “mistaken acts” after deciding not to send government delegations to the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February, in the latest warning demonstrating China’s escalating diplomatic tensions with the US and its major allies.
The UK has proposed US-style waivers for EU citizens crossing the Irish border. EU citizens and other non-Irish or non-British nationals will require a waiver known as an Electronic Travel Authorisation as part of the new post-Brexit immigration nationality and borders bill.
Joe Biden’s announcement that a group of Nato countries will hold talks with Moscow has caused concern among officials in Poland and other eastern and central Nato countries, who worry that any trade-off could increase the danger they face from an expansionist Russia.
Recommended reads
In Kim Stanley Robinson’s novel The Ministry for the Future, climate disasters kill tens of millions of people – and that’s a scenario he portrays as relatively optimistic. “Robinson’s optimistic view is that human nature is fundamentally thoughtful, and that it will save us,” writes Daniel Aldana Cohen. “It’s a perspective worth thinking about – so long as we’re also organising.”
When Kathryn Bigelow’s 1991 film Point Break was released in the early 90s, critics were quick to dismiss it as shallow, blathering machismo. But Tiia Kelly says these critics have misunderstood this anti-establishment classic. “In Bigelow’s hands, a potentially conventional story becomes a subversive, anti-establishment film about being seduced, blackmailed and radicalised by your crush,” she writes.
For most, our previous pandemic is a distant memory. But for these five polio survivors, new health problems have just begun. Features editor Lucy Clark introduces personal stories that take us around Australia.
Listen
Book It In, Guardian Australia’s latest podcast, explores what books teach us about the world we live in. Dear Son is a searing anthology of letters by First Nations fathers and sons. Two of Australia’s best authors discuss the tenderness and strength of Indigenous masculinity, in conversation with the author and journalist Paul Daley.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
Swimming Australia has defended its response to allegations made by the Olympic swimmer Maddie Groves that she was sexually assaulted over five years by a man still involved in the sport. On Wednesday Groves alleged on the ABC’s 7.30 Report she was sexually molested as a teenager over a five-year period by a man she refused to identify. In the ABC program, Groves said she had not made an official complaint about the man she alleged had molested her but he still worked in swimming.
Media roundup
More than 5,000 hectares of bushland have been razed by a massive fire threatening people’s lives and properties in Western Australia’s most famous wine and surfing region, the ABC reports. Thousands of people could spend Christmas in isolation as Covid cases rise in Sydney, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
Coming up
The Australasian Emissions Reduction Summit takes place in Sydney. And the NSW inquiry into voluntary assisted dying continues to unfold.
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