Good morning, this is Emilie Gramenz bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Wednesday, 22 July.
Top stories
Six Victorian prisons have been placed in lockdown after an officer working at a men’s jail in Melbourne tested positive for Covid-19, prompting calls from legal groups to release low-risk prisoners during the pandemic. Australia’s two largest health insurers have denied claims they failed Australians during Covid-19. And one global expert on airborne particles says governments in Australia and elsewhere should have been promoting the use of face masks much earlier.
Conservationists have criticised a Morrison government plan to rush through legislation implementing new environmental approval rules. They’re warning the laws will be too vague and will not improve wildlife protection. The environment minister, Sussan Ley, has promised draft laws to change the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act will be introduced to parliament next month, before a review of the legislation has been concluded.
A comprehensive data review has found the US is failing to report vital information on Covid-19 that could help track the spread of the disease and prevent tens of thousands of deaths. The review blames Trump for a chaotic approach to “life-and-death information”. Covid-19 is showing no signs of slowing down in the Americas with surges in Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru. EU leaders have reached a historic agreement on a €750bn coronavirus pandemic recovery fund and their long-term spending plans following a long and at times acrimonious summit. The UK government aims to secure stocks of not one coronavirus vaccine or even two but up to 12.
Australia
The former SBS newsreader Lee Lin Chin has confirmed she resigned from SBS after 30 years in 2018 because she was unhappy with management’s treatment of staff and the corporate direction of the multicultural broadcaster.
Guardian Australia can reveal the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, watered down company disclosure laws despite the corporate regulator warning against key changes. Frydenberg said his move, made using emergency Covid-19 powers, was aimed at protecting companies from the “threat of opportunistic class actions for allegedly falling foul of their continuous disclosure obligations if their forecasts are found to be inaccurate”.
Qantas says airlines are in the middle of the biggest crisis the industry has yet faced and could require government support beyond March next year. The Senate select committee on Covid-19 has heard evidence on the impact of job losses and uncertainty across the sector.
The world
Donald Trump has signed his executive order aimed at excluding undocumented persons from being counted in the 2020 census. If implemented, the order could cause areas with large populations of undocumented persons to lose funding and congressional representation.
Confrontations between protesters and police and federal agents in Portland, Oregon, have become a national flashpoint in the US. Trump’s law-and-order campaign has run up against ongoing anti-racism protests.
A blood test can pick up cancers up to four years before symptoms appear, researchers say, in the latest study to raise hopes of early detection. A team led by researchers in China say the non-invasive blood test – called PanSeer – detects cancer in 95% of individuals who have no symptoms but later receive a diagnosis.
Amber Heard has admitted punching her ex-husband Johnny Depp, saying it was to prevent him from pushing her sister down a flight of stairs and claiming he had previously done this to his ex-girlfriend Kate Moss. Depp is suing the Sun’s publisher and its executive editor over an article that called him a “wife beater”.
Recommended reads
“Thankfully there is no shortage of drugs or equipment, but nothing can make up for the fact that our patients are alone,” writes oncologist Ranjana Srivastava. She describes hospital corridors that have fallen quiet due to visitor bans, and the sharp uptick in phone calls from upset relatives wanting information on their loved ones: “Everywhere one looks people need hope, but those charged with nourishing the hopes of patients require their own measure of hope and understanding.”
Shaun Micallef claims not to understand alcohol, setting himself up as an impartial observer of booze culture. As a teetotaler of a few decades, he’s something of a foreign correspondent for his three-part ABC documentary series, On the Sauce. The “refreshingly honest” series features well-known faces – Jack Thompson, Dave Hughes – as well as community sports clubs and 18th birthdays. Micallef even breaks his dry streak by getting on the turps himself.
A single five-on-five basketball match offered Nick Bhasin a fleeting sense of pleasure he had not felt since before lockdown started. “When I got to the venue and stepped on the court, I was greeted by friends I hadn’t seen in a long time. There were elbow taps all around and a palpable excitement – it was clear what had been missing from our lives.”
Listen
On Full Story today: life inside Melbourne’s public housing towers. On 5 July, police surrounded nine public housing towers in Melbourne, locking around 3,000 residents inside due to fears of an uncontrolled spread of Covid-19. But the police presence triggered fear because of a history of over-policing in this multicultural, tight-knit community. Nor Shanino and Ahmed Dini tell us about what it was like to grow up in the towers and the incredible resilience of their residents.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
A quarter of community sports clubs across the nation are at risk of closure if suitable financial support is not quickly secured, according to a survey. The Australian Sports Foundation, a non-profit sports fundraising organisation and charity, estimated the country’s 70,000 grassroots clubs need $1.2bn to survive the economic fallout of the pandemic.
For Perth Glory defender Alex Grant, being apart from his new family and largely confined to the team’s accomodation is not easy. Take a look at life inside a sporting hub, where players only leave their rooms for training and matches.
Media roundup
The ABC reports some security guards were hired to work at Melbourne’s Covid-19 quarantine hotels through WhatsApp messages. In the Australian, the mayor of Colac in regional Victoria, which has 27 Covid-19 cases, is calling for a short lockdown. And thousands of NSW residents who may have been exposed to coronavirus have been told to isolate for 14 days even after receiving a negative test result, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.
Coming up
A state funeral will be held in Darwin for John Ah Kit.
Senior public servants, including the head of the prime minister’s department will appear at the sports grants inquiry.
The remaining Qantas 747 jumbo jet will depart Sydney for the last time.
AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw will speak at the National Press Club in Canberra.
And if you’ve read this far …
Venice’s gondoliers have reduced capacity on their boats, blaming the increased burden of “overweight” tourists. The limit on a gondola da nolo, which offers the classic tour of the city’s canals, has been reduced from six to five people, while on a gondola da parada, boats mainly used to cross the Grand Canal, the number has decreased from 14 to 12.
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