Good morning, this is Richard Parkin bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Thursday 27 August.
Top stories
A 17-year-old is in police custody in the United States after the shooting deaths of two protesters engaging in Black Lives Matter demonstrations in Wisconsin, with the state governor announcing that 500 more national guards will be brought in as street protests entered a third night. Witnesses allege the teenage shooter was part of a “militia” of heavily armed counter-protesters, with footage posted on social media capturing the shooting. The city of Kenosha has been rocked by protests since the shooting of Jacob Blake by police that has left the 29-year-old “fighting for his life”. The two protest victims, a 26-year-old and a 36-year old, both from Wisconsin, have not yet been identified.
A failure to implement workforce pandemic plans in privately operated aged care facilities is a major factor behind the devastating rates of Covid-19 among Victorian healthcare workers, the nurses’ union has said, with at least 2,799 professionals infected during the state’s second wave. Only 6% of those affected acquired the disease outside of the workplace, investigations have found – in contrast to government claims that most infections had occurred in the community. Elsewhere, the aged care royal commission has found that the sector would require $621m in funding per year to lift all facilities to “basic standards”, with $3.2bn a year required to reach a sector-wide “high-quality” standard. A health governance report has also slammed Australia’s economic response to Covid-19, arguing it fails to address insecure work, privatised services such as aged care, low housing supply and climate change. And as Greg Jericho writes, the tentative Australian economic recovery appears to have stalled.
Russia is preparing to approve a second vaccine against Covid-19 by late September or early October, deputy prime minister Tatiana Golikova has announced. Russia’s claims that a first vaccine, called Sputnik V, is already safe and effective has been met with international scepticism, with the Kremlin announcing it will be rolled out to 40,000 during final trials before its international availability. In Croatia, the summer tourism season has been blamed for the Balkan nation recording its highest number of daily coronavirus infections – 358 new cases – while France has recorded 5,429 cases overnight. A new study meanwhile has suggested that obesity increases the chances of dying from Covid-19 by nearly 50%, and could also reduce the effectiveness of vaccines.
Australia
Staff at RMIT University have expressed concern over millions of dollars of funding going to a blockchain research body – the technology behind cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin – with strong links to the rightwing thinktank the Institute of Public Affairs.
Financial giant HSBC has teamed up to create what it is calling the world’s largest investment firm dedicated to “natural capital” projects, with a view to helping meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement through “investing in the resilience of nature”.
UK Labour has criticised reports that Boris Johnson is preparing to appoint Tony Abbott as a post-Brexit UK trade envoy, with the shadow trade secretary, Emily Thornberry, calling the former prime minister a “Trump-worshipping misogynist”.
The world
Up to half of the world’s water supply is stolen by agricultural companies and farmers every year, a major international study led by Australian researchers has found. A lack of enforceable punishments has been cited as a key driver of ongoing theft.
Brussels has denounced a “completely wasted” summer in terms of Brexit negotiations, with Germany cancelling discussions on the topic at a major diplomatic meeting next week due to a lack of “any tangible progress”.
A celebrity congresswoman in Brazil is facing assassination charges of her husband, who was also once her adopted son. Parliamentary immunity currently protects Flordelis dos Santos de Souza, who stands accused, alongside seven of her 55 adopted children.
Twenth-nine-year-old Dutch author Marieke Lucas Rijneveld has become the youngest writer ever to win the International Booker prize, taking the award for their “visceral and virtuosic” debut novel, The Discomfort of Evening.
Approximately 60% of Antarctica’s ice shelves could be vulnerable to fracture, accelerating the loss of the Antarctic ice sheet and increasing sea-level rise, according to a new study published in the journal Nature.
Recommended reads
Chantelle Doyle has a ruddy great chunk missing from her right calf, where a juvenile 2.5m great white shark took a bite off Shelly Beach in NSW. ““It was like being bitten by a dog – it’s painful but it’s more this intense pressure and squeezing and crushing.” A furious 10-second barrage of punches thrown by her partner, Mark, eventually saw the shark let go. But rather than succumb to nightmares, Doyle is now using the encounter to defend sharks and help fundraise for better marine protection, writes Graham Readfearn.
The Western Australian town of Kalbarri might be postcard perfect but there’s no jobs. But that could be set to change with a proposal for a mammoth 5,000MW renewable hydrogen export operation. Using a combination of wind and solar power to power the production of hydrogen from seawater – the so-called “green” hydrogen could become a major export for Asian powerhouses like Korea or Japan. And with giants like Siemens circling, Australia is poised to become the Saudi Arabia of renewable energy, writes Royce Kurmelovs.
From its onset, the coronavirus pandemic has changed the emotional timbre of everyday interactions, writes Josephine Tovey, “bringing an unexpected vulnerability to exchanges with strangers or acquaintances we wouldn’t usually open up to”. But with heightened openness comes a speedier sense of fatigue, prompting many to retreat to ready, graspable shorthand responses.
Australian artist John Nixon was a “curator of perspicacity”. And following his death this month friends and fellow artists are now celebrating his “prodigious output” over nearly five decades with an exhibition of 116 of his works of geometric abstraction.
Listen
Australians stranded overseas. Thousands of Australians abroad have struggled to get home in recent months, hindered by cancelled flights and exorbitant fares. On this episode of Full Story, reporter Elias Visontay examines whether the ticket bottleneck could have been avoided.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
Melbourne City have booked their first ever A-League grand final, joining defending champions Sydney FC after beating Western United 2-0, courtesy goals to Jamie Maclaren and an own goal to Tomoki Imai. Sydney FC will contest their fourth grand final in six seasons after defeating Perth Glory by the same margin.
Tim Tszyu has announced himself in the world of Australian boxing, overcoming former world champion Jeff Horn in eight rounds in Townsville last night. The 25-year-old’s win extends his career run to 16 fights unbeaten.
Media roundup
Scott Morrison is seeking veto rights over agreements between state governments, councils and universities, claims the Australian Financial Review, in a bid to curb China’s creeping influence domestically. It’s expected the federal government will table the legislation next week. Sydney’s CBD is suffering a $10bn downturn due to working-from-home provisions, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, with hospitality, arts and retail bearing the brunt of losses. And a special undercover police technique that helped catch one of the nation’s most notorious child-killers has solved another cold case, writes the West Australian, with a 53-year-old pleading guilty to the murder of Dianne Barrett.
Coming up
Sentencing for the Australian gunman, who pleaded guilty to murder and terror charges over the Christchurch mosque attacks that killed 51 people, continues.
The health department and the Australian Sports Commission will give evidence at the federal parliamentary inquiry into the sports rorts affair.
And if you’ve read this far …
It’s time for your dose of Guardian Australia’s 10 funniest things we have ever seen (on the internet) – this week brought to you by comedy duo Freudian Nip. Randy parrots? Harry Potter? Magda Szubanski? Tick, tick, tick.
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