Good morning. Fresh warnings are being issued over the devastating impact Covid continues to have in Australia, particularly on those in aged care. And Queensland are celebrating one of the greatest State of Origin boilovers in a dramatic decider.
Almost 100 aged care residents are dying from Covid each week, new data shows, with active cases linked to the more than 700 outbreaks in facilities reaching near-record levels for 2022. The industry fears that two-thirds of aged care homes across Australia may be grappling with outbreaks in the next six weeks. The data comes as the health minister Mark Butler, warned that “millions” of people will be infected in coming weeks, with a heartfelt plea from a vulnerable family urging politicians to follow medical advice on Covid measures, including masks.
Rents have hit record highs across Australia’s capital cities, with house and unit rentals up 12% in the past year alone, data released by Domain reveals. The annual increase is the largest in 14 years, making it very much a landlord’s market, Domain’s chief of economics and research, Dr Nicola Powell, told Guardian Australia. “What we’re seeing is affordability constraints impact tenants, and it is steering demand to units due to the affordability constraints of a house rental,” she said, adding that the reopening of the borders and return of international students was also taking up some supply.
Donald Trump is facing growing legal peril as the House January 6 committee lays out a case that appears increasingly geared to making a criminal prosecution all but inevitable. The panel’s seventh hearing on Tuesday argued that Trump instigated an attack on the US Capitol that was premeditated rather than spontaneous and that he could not hide behind a defence of being “wilfully blind”. And a late revelation that Trump had tried to contact a person talking to the committee about potential testimony – raising the prospect of witness tampering – was only likely to compound pressure on the Department of Justice to investigate the former president.
Australia
In the postcodes worst hit by Youpla funeral fund collapse, older Aboriginal people are “torn apart” by the thought they have no way to pay for a funeral they thought they had already paid for. In the north Queensland community of Yarrabah, more than 30% of adults were signed up to ACBF-Youpla.
Anthony Albanese has met the Solomon Islands prime minister in Suva to discuss common interests of climate change and regional security issues, despite tensions between the two nations over China.
A Noongar grandmother has said she fears her teenage grandson could die if the WA government goes ahead with its plan to transfer 20 boys – some as young as 14 – from Perth’s Banksia Hill juvenile detention centre to a maximum-security adult jail.
The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, says the party’s support for the government’s climate legislation may hinge on whether it continues to back new fossil fuel projects, vowing to push Labor to go “further and faster” on its emission reduction goals.
Australia’s national science agency, the CSIRO, has agreed to work with a controversial deep-sea mining project in the Pacific, despite the Federated States of Micronesia this week joining Samoa, Fiji and Palau in calling for a moratorium.
The world
A traffic jam of more than 130 cargo ships loaded with Ukrainian grain is waiting in the Black Sea to pass into the Danube as negotiators from Moscow, Kyiv, the UN and Turkey began talks in Istanbul on allowing Ukrainian agricultural exports.
The British DJ Tim Westwood is facing allegations from a woman who says he first had sex with her when she was 14 and he was in his 30s. The woman claims Westwood had sex with her on several occasions in the early 1990s.
John Bolton, a former national security adviser to Donald Trump and before that ambassador to the UN under George W Bush, said he had helped plan coup attempts in other countries. When pressed on the remark, he said: “I’m not going to get into the specifics.”
In the race to become the next UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak took an early lead in the Conservative leadership contest, as Jeremy Hunt and Nadhim Zahawi were knocked out.
Recommended reads
Should Australians cut down on charcuterie? This is the question being asked after French health authorities confirmed a link between additives in processed meats and bowel cancer. France’s national food safety body now recommends reducing the consumption of nitrates and nitrites found in processed meats including prosciutto, bacon and chorizo. What are these compounds, and does the finding mean Australians should forgo their next charcuterie board? Donna Lu has the answers.
It’s not just schmaltz: the humble supermarket chook has lots to offer as leftovers between bread, pastries, tortillas and more, writes Natascha Mirosch, as she offers six rotisserie chicken recipes. “The hot chicken is ubiquitous, she says, “sold everywhere from upmarket specialty shops to supermarkets, golden-brown and glistening with fat. And the cost – from $11 for a whole bird – means that, while it may indeed be a bachelor’s best friend, the rotisserie chicken is also held in affectionate regard by cash-conscious family cooks.”
Stuart Daulman loves “super silly” humour, so expect to see a lot of it as the comedian takes you through the 10 funniest things he has ever seen (on the internet). There’s a fake Bunnings ad, scary Ainsley Harriott and, of course, 10 hours of Gandalf dancing to saxophone music.
Listen
The lethal livestock virus foot-and-mouth disease has resurfaced in Indonesia for the first time in more than 30 years, dramatically raising Australia’s threat level. In today’s Full Story, Guardian Australia’s rural and regional editor Gabrielle Chan explains to Jane Lee what could happen if the disease enters Australia and what governments and farmers are doing to try to prevent an outbreak.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
Backs to the wall, ranks broken with injury and illness and still staggering after a walloping in game two, Queensland produced one of the great State of Origin boilovers, defeating NSW 22-12 in a brutal, brilliant decider at Suncorp Stadium before 52,385 fans. The opening minutes were crazy in their intensity and physical carnage – Angus Fontaine offers a roundup of all the action.
Media roundup
Pacific minister Pat Conroy says Australia is open to collaborating with China on infrastructure in the Pacific but has warned that Beijing must lift the quality of its projects and hire more local workers, reports the Brisbane Times. The Australian Conservation Foundation has warned the Greens not to block Labor’s bill enshrining a 43% carbon emissions reduction target in law, according to the Australian.
Coming up
Anthony Albanese is in Fiji for the Pacific Islands Forum leaders’ meeting in Suva.
The parliamentary budget office will publish its 2022 election commitments report outlining the budget impacts of the major parties’ election commitments.
And if you’ve read this far …
It sounds too good to be true – a pill that can stop you getting a hangover. Tim Dowling bravely volunteers to find out if it works.
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