Good morning. The 2020 Paralympic Games begin today and we have stories from some of the 179 Australian athletes competing and all the information on how to watch. Plus plenty on Australia’s Covid vaccination rate and the debate over when it’s safe to reopen the country.
Australia’s national plan to end lockdowns once 80% of the adult population is vaccinated could result in 25,000 deaths and 270,000 cases of long Covid, new modelling warns. It predicts more than 10 times as many deaths as the Doherty Institute modelling that underpins the national four-phase roadmap. It comes as the Doherty Institute director, professor Sharon Lewin, confirmed vaccination rates of 70% and 80% would still protect Australia from “healthcare overload” even with a higher starting case load. Co-authors of the new report are calling for a 90% vaccination rate among all Australians, including children, and a 95% rate for vulnerable populations. Dr Zoë Hyde warned the new modelling showed it was “simply too dangerous to treat Covid-19 like the flu”. Changes in Pfizer access has led to 10,000 people a day cancelling or failing to turn up to their Covid-19 vaccination appointments in Victoria. The premier, Daniel Andrews, urged Victorians to show up for AstraZeneca bookings.
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has challenged the states over their resistance to opening up the country once 70% of the adult population is vaccinated, saying Australia can’t “stay in the cave forever”. But the states are concerned the Doherty Institute modelling was agreed as part of the national roadmap before the Delta outbreak in NSW escalated. NSW reported 818 local Covid cases on Monday while Victoria recorded 71 and the ACT 16.
Britain has begun a last-ditch scramble to get people out of Kabul amid warnings that staying past the 31 August deadline may not be realistic and risks provoking the Taliban. Sir Laurie Bristow, the British ambassador to Afghanistan, said the Taliban would not tolerate western forces staying into September. A spokesman for the Taliban said on Monday this would cross a “red line” and “provoke a reaction”. Meanwhile Germany is looking at options for keeping Kabul airport running to allow for evacuations beyond 31 August. As tensions escalate, there are also fears Afghanistan could start to run out of food as early as September.
Australia
The Australian Research Council says it is “looking into” a controversial rule change that affects academic grant applications, after more than 450 “concerned members of the Australian research community” called for it to reconsider the change that bans applicants from citing preprint material in proposals for funding. Researchers are worried the ban will diminish the nation’s scientific potential.
A food delivery driver who was allegedly sacked by Chinese food delivery company Easi after trying to raise concerns about pay and worker safety has had his case taken to the Fair Work Commission by the Transport Workers’ Union, who will argue the driver qualifies as an employee, not a contractor.
Voters in Sydney’s Liberal “heartland” are more worried about climate than Covid, with global heating proving to be the number one concern for many, according to new polling.
The world
A raging fire in northern California has burned more than 100,000 acres and destroyed more than 500 structures as it ripped through small towns.
Iran has been urged to accept western vaccines as supplies are close to exhausted in many areas as the country battles its fifth and most deadly wave of Covid.
A Seychelles giant tortoise has been filmed chasing and eating a baby bird in a “horrifying and amazing” attack by a species previously thought to be a strict herbivore.
The police officer who shot dead Ashli Babbitt during the attack on the US Capitol acted lawfully and will not face internal discipline.
Recommended reads
It can be hard to tell exactly what you’re buying when shopping online, and spending a lot of time in lockdown has led to some regretful – and hilarious – pandemic purchases for Australian consumers. There’s plenty of errors in volume – six mandarins that became 6kg; 12 bottles of wine that turned out to be 12 cases (“a dangerous blessing in disguise” the buyer quipped). Then there are the miscalculations of ambition, or the thwarted hopes that normal life would resume sometime soon, including a pair of nice high heels (“I didn’t wear heels before lockdown, now I don’t even wear shoes”) and a set of glittering false eyelashes (“When am I going to wear these? To Coles?”).
Not many athletes can say they broke a world record by accident. But for visually impaired runner Jaryd Clifford, it is no humblebrag. In April, Clifford was pacing his friend and training partner Michael Roeger at a qualifying race in Sydney. When Clifford sat down after 36km, his coach had a message for him: “You just have to get up and jog around, you’ll break the world record for your class.” Clifford did as instructed and duly broke the world record. Clifford is one of 179 Australian athletes competing across 18 sports at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, and Guardian Australia spent time with some of the athletes, coaches and staff collectively going for gold.
A strong surge in Australians getting vaccinated does not hide the fact that our rollout began far too slowly, and we’re now playing catch-up, writes Greg Jericho. “The prime minister suggested early this month that in parliament: ‘It doesn’t matter how you start the race, it is how you finish the race.’ That of course is idiotic … After 180 days of our vaccine rollout, 42% of Australians (including those younger than 16) have had at least one dose, compared with the OECD median of 50%, 61% in the UK and 65% in Canada. You can see that the rollout pace remains poor, even with the extra urgency that has come from the NSW outbreak in the past 70 days.”
Listen
Debate continues over whether Australian workplaces should mandate vaccinations for their employees. Questions have been raised about the legality and ethics of it all. Laura Murphy-Oates talks to political reporter Paul Karp about what mandatory vaccinations in workplaces would look like.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
The Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games open today! So how can sports lovers see all the action and when do the first Australians compete? Your questions answered here.
Power plays and player power seem to be at the heart of the dispute threatening to tear Australian and New Zealand rugby apart, after a decision was made for the All Blacks not to play the Wallabies in Perth as scheduled on Saturday night. But the fractured trans-Tasman relationship will heal, if only because the two countries are mutually dependent on each other, writes Bret Harris.
Media roundup
Tasmanian Labor MP David O’Byrne announced he would quit the parliamentary Labor party caucus, but would remain in parliament as a Labor member despite numerous calls to resign following sexual harassment allegations, reports the Mercury ($). Two young children abducted from their home in Melbourne have been found safe, and four people are in police custody following the home invasion, reports the Age. And in the NT News, the murder trial of police officer Zachary Rolfe has been postponed indefinitely.
Coming up
Federal parliament is sitting again today, albeit with many attending virtually due to lockdowns. Tasmanian Labor MP David O’Byrne will make a statement following calls for his resignation. The Tokyo 2020 Paralympic games begin today.
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