Good morning. Greater Sydney will remain in lockdown for an extra week and schools won’t open as expected after the holiday break, as NSW battles to get on top of its growing Covid outbreak. Eighteen new cases were reported yesterday. Twenty-six patients are in hospital, six in the ICU, with two on ventilators. The premier, Gladys Berejiklian, is expected to announce this morning that existing restrictions will remain in place until midnight on Friday 16 July. Students in greater Sydney will be required to attend classes online next week from Tuesday to Friday but regional schools will reopen for face-to-face learning.
The Australian government will ask businesses to help deliver Covid vaccines in the workplace, using a similar model to how flu vaccinations are provided to employees. The treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, and Lt Gen John Frewen will discuss plans with Australia’s largest employers including Qantas, Telstra and Optus, major supermarkets and the big four banks for an end of year “sprint” for the vaccination program. While the government attempts to find solutions to the blundered rollout, 163 year 12 students at one of Sydney’s most expensive private schools have been given the Pfizer vaccine. NSW Health agreed to vaccinate Indigenous boarders at St Joseph’s College but, “through an error”, all year 12 boarders were inoculated.
The Nationals’ top pick for the Senate in NSW, Ross Cadell, was the subject of an apprehended domestic violence order application made against him by police on behalf of his former wife. Cadell, who was endorsed for guaranteed Senate spot despite senior figures being aware of the 2014 AVO application, denies any wrongdoing and confirmed that the application was withdrawn.
The bodies of two Australians have been recovered from the Miami condo collapse, bringing the death toll to 28, with 117 people still missing. Former Sydney residents Ingrid and Tzvi Ainsworth, aged 66 and 68, were identified as victims of the Champlain Towers South building collapse in Surfside. A search-and-rescue effort has continued almost around the clock after the building came down on 24 June. No one has been found alive since the first hours after the collapse.
Australia
Australia is demanding world heritage experts carry out a monitoring mission to the Great Barrier Reef before an international committee decides whether it should be listed as “in danger”. The environment minister, Sussan Ley, has called for “due process” to be followed.
Australia has been urged to rapidly step up its assistance to Indonesia, amid warnings the sharp rise in Covid cases is fuelling an “escalating crisis right on our doorstep” and fears that the Indonesian health system is on the verge of collapse.
Queensland authorities are investigating whether the layout or air conditioning system in a Brisbane quarantine hotel caused the Covid infection of a mineworker, whose nine-hour stopover triggered lockdowns in the Northern Territory, as pressure grows for purpose-built quarantine facilities.
The world
US forces plunged their main operating base in Afghanistan into darkness and abandoned it to looters when they slipped away in the middle of the night without notifying their Afghan allies.
French authorities have been accused of “grave negligence” and are facing legal action over worrying lead levels around Notre Dame Cathedral in the wake of the devastating fire two years ago, which sent an estimated 460 tonnes of lead into the air.
Leonardo da Vinci has 14 living relatives, according to a study into the family history of the Italian Renaissance artist.
Recommended reads
Briggs began his career as a rapper but these days you’re just as likely to find him in a writer’s room as you are a recording booth. He will discuss his career and more at the Sydney Opera House as part of Vivid’s 2021 program. Also up for discussion will be Briggs’ latest TV credit: a job writing on Disenchantment, the animated sitcom from the Simpsons creator, Matt Groening. That gig would have been a big deal for any writer but it felt especially momentous for the self-professed “Simpsons nerd”. His most cherished possession, in fact, is a Simpsons script. Briggs tells us how he got his hands on that priceless piece of memorabilia, as well as the story of two other important belongings.
No five-year-old knew more about dinosaurs than Clem Bastow did. But some models of autism frame special interest as something unsettling and obsessive. This is an unfair double standard, says Bastow. “The clinical literature often refers to the types of domains that special interests can fall in as ‘non-social’, which seems like a polite way of saying ‘you don’t make friends with steam train engine facts’... It is considered odd to engage with one’s (autistic) passion for hours, rejecting food, socialisation and sleep. And yet, on the other hand, we can observe neurotypical neoliberal fantasies of mastery that essentially present the same behaviours (stripped of autistic context) as aspirational.”
NSW lifted its ban on genetically modified crops this month after an 18-year moratorium. The move has been welcomed by GM proponents as helping farmers become more resilient to the effects of climate change, but opposed by organic farming representatives. GMOs are widely considered to be safe to human health and the environment, so why are they controversial, and what difference will lifting the ban make to farmers and the food they produce?
Listen
A landmark report by Human Rights Watch has detailed accounts of pro-democracy students and academics in Australia who are being harassed and threatened over their comments relating to China. In today’s Full Story, the Guardian Australia reporter Daniel Hurst explains why academics and students are experiencing this harassment, and what Australia can do about it.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
Ash Barty has made it through to the Wimbledon semi-finals after defeating Ajla Tomljanović 6-1 5-3. She will face Angelique Kerber for the clash on Thursday.
Mark Cavendish continued his fairytale return to the Tour de France in Valence by holding off the Belgian national champion, Wout Van Aert, to take the 33rd stage win of his professional career in the race.
Media roundup
Former Honey Birdette employees have accused the lingerie giant of exploitation and sexist working conditions that required staff to wear stilettos for up to 12 hours and wink at male customers, reports the Daily Telegraph. Indigenous groups want the Coalition to embrace a stronger plan to legislate a voice in the constitution, amid fears a conservative backlash will block change before the election, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.
Coming up
The Australian Bureau of Statistics scheduled to release its first underemployed workers report.
And if you’ve read this far …
It’s the kind of story that Australia is known for – not Austria. An Austrian man “felt a ‘nip’ in the genital area” as he was bitten by a 1.6-metre python during an early-morning visit to the toilet at his home. The unexpected visitor was a neighbour’s pet. The snake was caught by an expert, washed and returned to its owner.
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