It’s Tuesday 23 March and today we’ll be covering all the latest from widespread flooding on Australia’s east coast. There’s more trouble in Canberra with an adviser sacked for a “disgusting and sickening” lewd act. Plus Chinese officials are facing sanctions over the country’s treatment of Uighur people.
Top stories
Some 10 million Australians spent the night under a weather warning as the east coast braced itself for another 50-100mm of rain today. Flooding across the region has left a trail of destruction, with dozens of communities declared disaster zones and more than 18,000 people forced to evacuate. The New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, described it as a “miracle” that no lives had been lost. Even residents in places along the Hawkesbury River, who are no strangers to flooding, are feeling tense about the situation. “Usually the floods are kind of exciting,” says Zac Brookes. “This stopped being exciting pretty quickly. It became, like, OK, this is pretty serious.” And if it wasn’t nightmarish enough already, some residents are dealing with swarms of spiders fleeing floodwaters.
The political crisis about workplace culture in Parliament House has deepened with an adviser sacked after pixelated images of the unnamed man allegedly performing a solo sex acts on the desks of female MPs were broadcast last night. The Ten Network reported allegations that a group of at least four Coalition staffers shared images and videos of sex acts via Facebook Messenger. Scott Morrison says the reports are “disgusting and sickening” and the behaviour is “totally unacceptable”.
Britain and the EU have taken joint action with the US and Canada to impose sanctions on senior Chinese officials involved in the mass internment of Uighur Muslims. It is the first time for three decades the UK or EU has punished China for human rights abuses. The UK foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said that China’s treatment of the Uighur minority was “the largest mass detention of an ethnic and religious group since the second world war”. The sanctions will be imposed immediately and include travel bans and asset freezes against four officials. The Chinese ambassador to the EU, Zhang Ming, said there would be countermeasures.
Australia
Kate Fotheringham’s wedding plans didn’t include a natural disaster, but even that wasn’t going to stop the ceremony on the NSW mid-north coast. “It took three months to plan the wedding, 12 hours for it to go to hell and six hours for it to come together again,” she says.
Concerns over the workplace behaviour of Frank Zumbo, a chief aide to MP Craig Kelly, were taken to the highest levels of the Liberal party multiple times over the past six years and were also brought to the attention of two prime ministers.
GPs are becoming overwhelmed as a flaw in the Covid vaccine booking website is allowing Australians to book in prematurely for a second jab within days of getting the first, despite a recommended three-month gap.
The world
At least 20,000 Rohingya have fled a huge blaze engulfing shanty homes at refugee camps in south-eastern Bangladesh, in the third fire to hit the settlements in four days.
Data has shown the collapse in trade of UK food and drink exports due to Brexit and weaker demand during European lockdowns. Figures reveal huge year-on-year falls in trade, with whisky, cheese and chocolate worst hit.
A Teen Vogue photographer has said the hiring and swift axing of editor-in-chief Alexi McCammond over anti-Asian tweets shows publisher Condé Nast does not “value” its Asian staff members.
Recommended reads
Sharks are critical in helping ecosystems recover from extreme climatic events, according to a new study in Australia. The conclusions came after scientists were able to determine the importance of the apex predator to a unique ecosystem following an extreme marine heatwave in 2011, which wiped out a quarter of one of the world’s largest and most biodiverse seagrass meadows in Shark Bay, Western Australia. “When everything is hunky dory, we might not realise how important predators are. But when things go wrong – like a climatic event – that’s when you can see the importance of predators,” said Dr Mike Heithaus.
Australia’s latest unemployment figures suggest the Covid recession is almost over, but a focus on the industry hit hardest by the pandemic, the tourism sector, shows that there is still a long way to go, writes Greg Jericho. The ABS estimates that 23,700 jobs in cafes, restaurants and other food services were lost in 2020 and 21,100 in accommodation. The loss of full-time work in the tourism sector has been felt most acutely by women. Prior to the pandemic, women accounted for 60% of jobs in accommodation and 55% of the 832,000 jobs in food and beverage service.
The UK is considering legislative changes that would allow the government to send migrants who have claimed asylum to be sent to processing centres in third countries, similar to Australia’s “offshore processing” system. But Australia’s asylum processing centres on the islands of Manus and Nauru have been widely condemned for systemic abuses and human rights violations. Australia’s offshore regime achieved little and resolved less, said journalist and author Behrouz Boochani, an Iranian Kurdish refugee who was detained on Manus Island. “Australia has created a tragedy. I don’t think the people of the UK want their government to create the same tragedy in their name.”
Listen
Christian Porter is suing the ABC for defamation over an article reporting that an anonymous senior cabinet minister had been accused of rape in 1988. Porter later identified himself as the minister in question and strenuously denied the allegation. In today’s Full Story, Paul Karp explores how this case could play out, and whether Porter can continue to do his job while fighting to clear his name.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
The AFL tribunal must throw the book at Patrick Dangerfield when it convenes tonight, writes Scott Heinrich. The Geelong star can already wave goodbye to his hopes of winning another Brownlow medal after his unseemly hit on Adelaide’s Jake Kelly. But if the AFL means what it says about concussion, if it genuinely wants to change player behaviour, a trifling suspension will not do.
In the past week, five players in the NRL have been sent to the casualty ward with “concussion” next to their names, prompting criticism towards the league over a perceived lack of protection for vulnerable players. But perhaps another critical point of focus should be how many dangerous brain injuries have been missed altogether.
Media roundup
James Packer is set to make the biggest bet of his life, according to the Australian, after New York private equity giant Blackstone Group lobbed an unsolicited $8bn takeover bid for Crown. The Australian Financial Review says Crown Resorts shareholders believe the bid undervalues the casino giant and will flush out more suitors. The government has scrapped a policy to allow people escaping domestic violence to withdraw up to $10,000 of their super after criticism that victims of abuse should not have to fund their own efforts to escape dangerous situations, says the ABC.
Coming up
More news on the torrential rain forecast for NSW.
Senate estimates: senior government officials to face questions in areas across environment and communications to legal and constitutional affairs.
And if you’ve read this far …
The truth is out there and Donald Trump’s former intelligence director John Ratcliffe is dishing it out. US military pilots and satellites have recorded “a lot more” sightings of unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, than have been made public, Ratcliffe says. “We are talking about objects … that frankly engage in actions that are difficult to explain, movements that are hard to replicate, that we don’t have the technology for.”
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