Good morning, this is Emilie Gramenz bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Monday 20 July.
Top stories
Axing the coronavirus supplement in the jobseeker payment would push more than 650,000 Australians into poverty, according to research from a progressive thinktank. With the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, signalling that the current supplement is “not an ongoing arrangement”, analysis by the Australia Institute finds the introduction of the payment during the first wave of the pandemic lifted 425,000 Australians out of poverty. Cormann has also indicated the jobkeeper wage subsidy will be extended after September but in a different form, and will be targeted to businesses that “genuinely need it”. Meanwhile, Victoria’s premier, Daniel Andrews, has announced face masks will be mandatory across Melbourne as the state attempts to control a second-wave outbreak. Yesterday the state recorded 363 new Covid-19 cases and three more deaths.
The coronavirus situation in Hong Kong is “really critical”, with a record 100 new infections recorded yesterday, said the territory’s leader, Carrie Lam. Hong Kong was held up months ago as a model for its success but its caseload – although still low by European and American standards – has grown by a third in the past fortnight. Senior doctors in the UK are pleading with the public to help prevent a second wave that could “devastate” the NHS. Boris Johnson has insisted he can avoid imposing another England-wide lockdown later this year. The EU’s internal tensions have been on display during a bitter summit on the virus. And in Bangladesh, the number of people being tested has fallen by almost half. Donald Trump is seeking to block billions of dollars in funding for testing and contact tracing efforts as cases surge across the US, where some 70,000 people are testing positive each day.
Trump has refused to commit to accepting the election result in November as his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, enjoys a poll lead. In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Trump said: “I’m not losing, because those are fake polls.” He also called the leading public health expert Dr Anthony Fauci “a little bit of an alarmist”, and equated support for the Confederate flag with the Black Lives Matter movement. Meanwhile, Roger Stone, the political operative whose 40-month prison sentence Trump commuted, used a racial slur on air while verbally sparring with a black radio host.
Australia
Labor has urged the presiding officers of the federal parliament to establish a bipartisan working group to ensure the chambers can continue to sit amid a second wave of Covid-19 infections. The party argues “the parliament can’t get cancelled every time there’s an outbreak”.
The NSW premier is facing fresh calls to bring into force Australia’s strongest anti-slavery laws. The laws remain in limbo amid fears the government is coming under pressure from the business community.
Doctors and businesses are backing novel ideas such as opening up public spaces and car parks to small retailers. Epidemiologists and corporate leaders are suggesting more restaurant and cafe tables on footpaths as a way of mitigating the risk of coronavirus in indoor gatherings.
The world
China’s ambassador to the UK has given a brazen defence of his country’s human rights record, insisting the Uighur people live in “peaceful and harmonious coexistence with other ethnic groups”. He was confronted with footage of shackled prisoners being herded on to trains in Xinjiang.
Witnesses at Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial will give testimony up to three times a week starting in January. The judge’s ruling opens a high-profile case in which the Israeli leader is accused of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. He has denied any wrongdoing.
The UK government is launching a communications campaign to reach the estimated 1 million British citizens living in the EU to ensure they know what steps to take if they wish to remain in their host countries after Brexit. It is also urging all EU member states to accelerate the process to enable British nationals to secure their rights.
The UK’s carbon emissions have begun to rebound after the easing of lockdown measures. It’s causing the “carbon savings” triggered by coronavirus to halve within weeks.
Recommended reads
Anna Poletti was told she probably had a “mild case” of Covid-19 – which meant burning lungs and exhaustion for weeks. “I caught the virus very early, and I can’t tell you how long it takes to recover from it, because I have not recovered,” she writes. As she lives in the Netherlands, and the Dutch only started widespread testing in June, to this day she has not been tested for the virus. But the burning lungs, tinnitus, shortness of breath and bone-crushing exhaustion have lasted months.
While many focus on the physical aspects of gender transition, for Cadance Bell the greatest benefit was existential, like putting the right fuel into an engine. “Trans women often describe the emotional benefit of their transition not so much by feeling something new, but by resolution,” she writes. “We’ve upgraded to high-definition emotions, feelings which are just below the surface instead of buried in entrenched layers of gender dysphoria.”
The Australian book you should read next is The Secret River by Kate Grenville. Stephanie Wood offers the latest in the Unmissables series: “Grenville’s tense, sweeping story of William Thornhill, his wife, Sarah, their grim, foul London lives, his transportation for the term of his natural life, the river, its characters – including the vile Smasher – and the psychopathic violence with which its Aboriginal owners are evicted, is shocking, riveting, vivid, sensory.”
Listen
Today’s Full Story examines Facebook, white nationalists and becoming the target of a hate campaign. In November Julia Carrie Wong reported on the continued presence of white nationalist organisations on Facebook – and a weeks-long campaign of racist and sexist harassment followed. She discusses the impact it had on her and why she believes Facebook has played a role in creating the conditions that enable that kind of harassment.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
Ante Milicic has stepped down from his role as the Australia women’s coach because of the delay to the Tokyo Olympics. Milicic had been contracted to the Matildas until after the Games in Japan, which were originally scheduled to begin this month. He agreed in May last year to lead the A-League expansion club Macarthur FC, who are scheduled to join the Australian competition in the 2020-21 season.
Harry Kane double lifted Tottenham and dented Leicester’s top-four hopes overnight. Tottenham’s fourth win in five games came in a curious encounter whose overwhelming majority was played in their half.
Media roundup
The Victorian government’s top epidemiologist says the state’s residents were doing a better job at social distancing than other Australians before the surge in cases, according to the Age. Mining giants are in talks with WA authorities about creating Fifo travel bubbles if the state’s borders stay shut, reports the West Australian. And the Australian the reports nearly 10% of Australia’s aspiring teachers are failing to meet basic literacy and numeracy standards.
Coming up
Victoria’s hotel quarantine inquiry will have its first public hearing.
A federal parliamentary inquiry into temporary migration will hear from the education and home affairs departments.
And if you’ve read this far …
A worn metal tool with a hefty-looking handle, a delicate gadget with pedals, arms and cogs, and a piece of glassware with a snail-like coil in the middle. They might seem a motley collection of objects but they have one thing in common: they are all mysteries … and the public are being asked to help identify them.
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