Good morning, it’s Imogen Dewey bringing you news of more coronavirus cases and a scandal for the Queen on Monday 8 February – the week of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.
A second hotel quarantine worker has tested positive in Melbourne (where plans to bring in more defence personnel to help with the program were derailed last night). The infected woman is working with contact tracers, and authorities have named three potential exposure sites in Melbourne’s west. Just as top medical experts turn their eyes to a national proposal to test returned travellers two days after exiting their fortnight of hotel quarantine, a Wollongong resident, who returned from overseas, has tested positive to Covid-19 … two days after leaving hotel quarantine. Nine Sydney businesses have been fined for Covid breaches. And health authorities in South Australia, where testing numbers are dropping by thousands, are urging people to stay vigilant.
This week Donald Trump faces an impeachment trial in the US Senate. In some ways it will be a replay of last year’s, but Trump is the first to be tried by the Senate after leaving office, and as one commentator said, it’s likely to be “dramatic”. It may also take longer than planned, as one of Trump’s lawyers has requested the trial be suspended so he may observe the Sabbath. And Republican ranks are far from united: Mike Pence has been cast out, and House leader Liz Cheney censured for her vote to impeach. Cheney has also raised the possibility of Donald Trump being criminally investigated for provoking violence during the 6 January US Capitol insurrection, pointing to a tweet attacking Pence that was posted after the assault had begun.
And according to documents discovered by the Guardian, the Queen successfully lobbied the UK government to change a draft law in order to conceal her “embarrassing” private wealth from the public, dispatching her private lawyer to put pressure on ministers. The monarch is not supposed to meddle in parliament, writes David Pegg and Rob Evans. But that key principle (and perhaps the UK’s democracy) is now in doubt.
Australia
How good is Australia? A new report from a Labor MP tries to answer Scott Morrison’s favourite rhetorical question by measuring our successes against the rest of the world – and says we need to look at the data, not just take the government’s word for it.
Demand for arts and humanities university courses is still high despite the Coalition government’s fee increases. Meanwhile, as cuts and closures continue across tertiary art education, Andrew Frost ponders the future of art school.
Michael McCormack has said agriculture could be excluded from the 2050 net zero emissions target. The Coalition is facing an increasingly testy party room as its climate skirmishes continue, but the Nationals leader and deputy PM says he’s focusing on now, not 2050.
After floods followed devastating fires, Western Australia is seeking federal disaster relief to help fast-track road repairs in the state’s north-west.
The world
About 130 people are feared dead in northern India after a Himalayan glacier broke off, sweeping away one dam in its path and damaging another.
Tens of thousands of people poured on to the streets across Myanmar for a second day of protests, vowing to continue until their elected leaders are released and democracy returns.
UK importers are bracing for “disaster” as new Brexit customs checks loom. Both the EU and UK have been accused of behaving like an “absentee landlord” with Northern Ireland, as a new report warns of more conflict “if the UK fails to manage the relationship” with Brussels.
The US Department of Justice has served an arrest warrant on a top London law firm in an effort to seize hundreds of millions of dollars alleged to be the proceeds of a major international fraud.
Recommended reads
“It’s not just the cold, hard cash that makes the lunar new year important to the Chinese calendar. It is an opportunity to clear your house of all the bad luck from the previous year and welcome the good fortune of the year to come; to gather with your family, acknowledge your ancestors, and feast on auspicious food. Carrying on into the early hours of the morning with too much cognac while playing mahjong is optional.” Read Jess Ho’s advice on how to cook a lunar new year feast and welcome in the year of the ox – without losing your sanity.
Joey King is 52 and has been living in his car for nearly two years on what used to be Newstart, now the jobseeker payment – which is slated to be cut to pre-pandemic levels at the end of March. “I think the general public has no real comprehension of what it’s like to be homeless,” he says. “I sleep in the front seat with Finley, my terrier. If the jobseeker rise was permanent I think I could afford to move into a home … it would make me feel like a human being again. It would make me feel like I had choices.”
Listen
After an independent investigation, the Do Better report highlighted a culture of structural racism at the Collingwood AFL club. After the report’s release, comments from the club’s president – media personality Eddie McGuire – raised concerns about how the issue would be dealt with.
In today’s episode of Full Story, Guardian Australia’s Indigenous affairs editor Lorena Allam discusses the history of racist controversies linked to the club and the need for leadership when reckoning with structural racism.
Collingwood’s past has finally caught up with its present, writes Paul Daley, suggesting McGuire’s response “shows he has not learned, and should be replaced”.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
The first AFLW Pride game was played in 2018 between the Western Bulldogs and Carlton after Australia said “yes” to the gruelling and harmful marriage equality plebiscite. This year the celebration extended to a full round, featuring players in Pride guernseys and rainbow socks, goals kicked from a rainbow 50m arc and umpires waving rainbow flags. Bright and beautiful.
Top-ranked Ash Barty cashed in on her first championship point in the Yarra Valley Classic and Daniil Medvedev clinched the ATP Cup title for Russia within seconds of each other Sunday, as the six tune-up tournaments for the Australian Open culminated the eve of the year’s first major.
Novak Djokovic believes Nick Kyrgios’s talent is good for tennis but the world No 1 has told reporters he has no respect for how the outspoken Australian carries himself off the court.
Media roundup
According to the Australian, a post-Christmas lobster slump is threatening up to one-third of the jobs in the industry ($). A lengthy investigation wrapping up in China into the origins of the pandemic has found “important clues” about a Wuhan seafood market’s role ($), the Sydney Morning Herald reports. In the same paper: three NSW council areas that suffered more than $300m in bushfire damage did not receive any funding from a state and federal program ($). NSW treasurer Dominic Perrottet has told the Australian Financial Review that states need to snap out of “decades of dormancy” and take the lead on economic reform ($).
Coming up
The Australian Open tennis tournament starts today, with more than 400,000 spectators expected over two weeks.
And if you’ve read this far …
Wealthy residents of an extremely tall building in New York are complaining of leaks, malfunctions and wind sway – much to the delight of the city’s earthbound inhabitants.
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