Good morning, this is Tamara Howie bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Tuesday 10 November.
Top stories
A Covid-19 vaccine is in sight with the announcement that a Pfizer/BioNTech candidate is 90% effective. The first interim results in large-scale trials show a much better performance than most experts had hoped for and brings into view a potential end to the pandemic. “Today is a great day for science and humanity,” said Dr Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s chairman and chief executive. The news has been met with excitement and apprehension among other researchers and scientists. The Oxford University Prof Peter Horby, who runs the Recovery Covid drug trial, said it seemed like an important moment: “This news made me smile from ear to ear. Of course we need to see more detail and await the final results, and there is a long, long way to go before vaccines will start to make a real difference, but this feels to me like a watershed moment.” The UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, has also warned it was still “very early days” but still released a list of who should get priority for vaccination.
Donald Trump has fired the defense secretary Mark Esper, naming Christopher C Miller, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, as acting secretary. The move seems to be an effort by Trump to emphasise his presidential powers, as president-elect Joe Biden launches his transition. Biden has announced a coronavirus taskforce to examine how best to tame the pandemic with the US “still facing a very dark winter”. He said it would be “many months” before the vaccine is “widely available”. Biden also noted that 200,000 more Americans could die from coronavirus in the coming months.
Christian Porter was confronted by the then-prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, in 2017 over allegations of inappropriate conduct with a young woman in a bar and warned him “the risk of compromise is very real”. Turnbull went on to appoint Porter his attorney general a fortnight later, it was revealed on last night’s Four Corners program. Porter said the “depiction of interactions in the bar are categorically rejected” in a statement after the broadcast. The program also detailed allegations by a female staffer who said she had an affair in 2017 with the then-human services minister, Alan Tudge, before Turnbull’s so-called “bonk ban” was introduced in early 2018. The ABC described “a heady, permissive culture, a culture that can be toxic for women” in the “Canberra bubble”.
Australia
The former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has told the ABC’s Q+A that News Corp has become an organisation for “pure propaganda” that has done enormous damage through its promotion of climate change denial. Turnbull clashed with the Australian’s editor-at-large, Paul Kelly, over the media organisation’s treatment of climate science. Turnbull told the program that News Corp had gone from being an organisation that “tended to lean more right than left to become pure propaganda”. “The campaign on climate denial is just staggering and has done enormous damage to the world, to the global need to address global warming,” he said.
Australian workers lost $47bn in wages during the first eight months of Covid recession, according to an Australian National University study, with workers born overseas and older Australians bearing the brunt of cuts to hours. Despite the hefty price tag, the calculation suggests that total losses have been more than offset by jobkeeper wage subsidies, which had paid out $69bn in early October, and early superannuation withdrawals totalling $35bn on Monday.
Former leaders of Australia’s renewable energy agencies have called on MPs to reject the government’s changes to the publicly owned green bank that would explicitly allow it to fund fossil fuel projects.
The number of Australians stranded overseas wanting to return home for Christmas has soared to 35,700 and Dfat has warned citizens that scammers impersonating officials are trying to sell fake tickets for evacuation flights.
The world
Greta Thunberg has blasted politicians as hypocrites and international climate summits as empty words and greenwash. Leaders are happy to set targets for decades ahead but flinch when immediate action is needed, she says.
Two people have died after a Russian military helicopter was shot down over Armenia, threatening to draw Moscow further into an escalating conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan that has left thousands dead.
An Uighur genocide complaint to the international criminal court has been backed by backed by more than 60 parliamentarians from 16 countries. The letter says the Chinese government may be committing crimes amounting to genocide and other crimes against humanity against the Uighur and other Turkic peoples.
Migrants to Europe must learn the language of their new home countries and encourage their children to integrate in the light of the Islamist terrorist attacks, EU governments plan to say in a declaration drafted by France, Austria and Germany. There is some unease among fellow EU governments who have traditionally pushed back against those who have viewed migration and religion through the prism of security.
Recommended reads
“To me, this muesli is like eating a bar of soap that has been crumbed, fried and rebranded,” writes Nicholas Jordan. The food journalist embarked in a passion project the depths of Sydney’s lockdown back in April after discovering there was no good source of information about whether a muesli was good or “full of dried paw paw, unidentified syrups and oats so dusty they create a spore bloom”. He started the Instagram account @is_this_muesli_good_or_shit – which, unlike so many breakfast cereals, does exactly what it says on the packet.
More jobs for Australian teenagers is good news for them but not for recovery, writes Greg Jericho. While the US presidential count was occurring last week, the latest Australian payroll job figures were released, showing just how slowly the recovery is going, with jobs for both men and women falling across every state in October. The ABS estimates 20% more under-20s are working in retail now than in March – but there are 4% fewer jobs for everyone else.
Listen
After days of tense counting in key states, Joe Biden was confirmed as the winner of the US election. But as David Smith explains, his job of uniting the country begins now – and it won’t be easy.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
After severing ties with longtime broadcast partners Fox Sports and Network Ten, Rugby Australia has taken a calculated gamble on its new “landmark” partnership with Nine. Potentially, the three-year deal – worth $100m in cash and contra – can make or break the game in Australia. The key question is, how much of the deal is cash and how much is contra?
Last year, after losing the State of Origin series opener, Brad Fittler stated (perhaps self-evidently) that his NSW side simply had to make it happen in game two. “We can’t sit back and wait,” he said. “The video review of game one we did earlier this week showed that we were just waiting for things to happen in Brisbane. It won’t happen in Perth.”
Media roundup
Jobseeker coronavirus payments will be extended at a reduced rate until the end of March, according to the Australian, which reports cabinet’s expenditure review committee was considering a $150 supplement, down from the current $250. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the NSW government will employ 5,500 tutors to help school students struggling after months of home learning. The news of a potential Covid vaccine has seen the stock markets explode, the Australian Financial Review says.
Coming up
The federal parliament is sitting after allegations aired against two ministers, Christian Porter and Alan Tudge.
An extra estimates committee hearing will talk to officials from the transport department and Western Sydney airport.
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