Good morning, this is Richard Parkin bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Friday 17 April.
Coronavirus
The federal government has flagged that a “road out” of lockdown restrictions could be charted in a month’s time, including a relaxing of home isolation rules. The prime minister advised parents to take instruction from state premiers on the issue of school attendance however, as individual states and territories continue to adhere to differing timelines. Virgin Australia and Qantas will be supported to the tune of $165m to maintain key domestic flight routes over the next two months, the deputy prime minister has confirmed, saying that a strong aviation network is “critical to Australia’s success”. And new modelling suggests that Australian states – with the exception of Tasmania – are on track to contain the spread of Covid-19, but health experts have welcomed the news with caution, saying: “The virus has a habit of surprising us.”
The president of the European commission has said the EU owes Italy “a heartfelt apology” for failing to assist the nation sufficiently in the early stages of the pandemic. Speaking at the European parliament, Ursula von der Leyen praised Europe today as the “world’s beating heart of solidarity” but chastised the failure by nations to help Italy via the EU’s emergency mechanism as the outbreak took hold. The UK’s foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has confirmed the nation will remain in lockdown for three more weeks, instructing Britons to “stay at home, protect the NHS, and save lives”. And, in the US, a further 5 million workers have registered for unemployment benefits, bringing total job losses across the past month to over 22 million.
Fears about food shortages in Australia are misplaced, according to the government’s federal agricultural research body. Shortages of rice, pasta or flour have been a result of panic buying, not fundamental disruption to production, with Australia remaining a net exporter of basic foodstuffs, its report says. An alliance of customer and consumer groups have called for a ban on payday lending during the pandemic, warning that high household debt is already at “crisis point”. And a Senate committee examining Australia’s response to the crisis expects “maximum cooperation”, the chair has warned, and has promised to avoid “political grandstanding” in its findings.
Australia
Malcolm Turnbull has branded his former deputy, Barnaby Joyce, “a champion of traditional marriage while practising traditional adultery”, giving his account of the scandal surrounding the former deputy prime minister and his extramarital affair, in his soon-to-be-released memoir.
An unorthodox scheme to help shade and cool coral on the Great Barrier Reef has been trialled, with scientists hoping to expand the experiment. The trial involves spraying tiny salt crystals into low-altitude clouds to help reflect more sunlight away from the ocean surface, thus cooling water and diminishing coral bleaching.
The federal court has banned a high-profile Queensland redevelopment group from advertising two of its investment products after Asic targeted the group, Mayfair 101, accusing it of misleading and deceptive conduct in its advertising.
The world
Ivanka Trump has drawn criticism for defying social-distancing guidelines issued by her father’s administration, travelling interstate with her husband and children to celebrate Passover at a golf club owned by Donald Trump.
Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has sacked the nation’s health minister after weeks of public disagreement about the best response to the coronavirus threat. A poll suggested 76% of Brazilians backed Luiz Mandetta’s prioritising of health, as opposed to 33% who supported the president’s focus on economic recovery.
South Korea’s ruling party has won a landslide victory – the biggest in the national assembly since the nation’s transition to democracy in 1987. The record vote has been seen as an endorsement of the centre-left Democratic party’s handling of the Covid-19 outbreak, which has kept deaths to just 229 despite more than 10,000 infections.
Retreating ice in Norway has revealed “spectacular” Viking-era artefacts, including knitted mittens, leather shoes and arrows still with their feathers on, dating from the third century AD.
Recommended reads
Artists trapped in isolation have a long history of producing fine works, writes Jonathan Jones, all the way back to the Venetian painter Giorgione and his masterpiece, The Sleeping Venus. And new photos of Banksy’s redecorated bathroom are showing that sometimes alone time is invaluable. “There’s something tragicomic about trying to see the bright side of coronavirus. Isolation does, however, seem to be releasing modern art’s inner hermit.”
Brigid Delaney’s diary this week was meant to be about the joys of acceptance and stillness but then something in her snapped: “I was filled with a deep, sudden and volcanic rage. I was a rage vessel. I’m not proud of this but, in the surge of anger and energy running through me, I picked up the dirty dishes and smashed them in the sink. Glasses, a bowl and some ceramic thing that I quite liked, shattered. In the process I cut my hands on the broken glass – but I DIDN’T CARE!!”
Easter is usually a peak time for air travel but fleets around the world have been grounded. So what could be the long-term impacts of Covid-19 on the aviation industry? Gwyn Topham takes a look at some of the key changes, including smaller planes, potential fare falls by up to 35% and a sharp reduction in business class travel.
Listen
Dating during the coronavirus: with physical distancing measures in place, lots has been written about difficulties in seeing family and loves one – but how are singles coping? In this episode of Full Story, producer Ellen Leabeater sets out to find how Australia’s singles are adapting to dating during the lockdown and discovers that some creative measures being taken.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
A key health adviser to the Scottish government has dubbed plans to stage the Tour de France in August a “recipe for disaster”, warning that “thousands of people from all over the world, gathered together, moving around, from town to town” could let the virus thrive and even prompt a second round of lockdowns.
The Rangers coach, Steven Gerrard, has called the SPFL’s handling of the vote to abandon the professional football season “an absolute mess”. Celtic are poised to receive their ninth straight title, despite there being eight games in the season remaining.
Media roundup
Rules restricting gay men from donating blood could be eased by the NSW government, writes the Sydney Morning Herald, with the Theraputic Goods Administration recommending such changes to boost blood stocks. A fifth of Australians have reported they feel depressed “most” or “all” of the time, the Australian reports, according to a survey that will track attitudes during the Covid-19 crisis. And a third of Australian wineries could close down, the peak wine industry body has warned, as cellar doors lose out on business, the ABC reports.
Coming up
Judgment is to be delivered in the case of the Tamil family from Biloela who are fighting their deportation to Sri Lanka.
And if you’ve read this far …
They’re being described as fruity and irresistible. Yes, researchers in Japan have for the first time identified the use of sex pheromones in primates and it’s blown open the secret of how ring-tail lemurs attract their mates. Apparently, it’s all in the wrists.
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