Category Archives: Australia news

Sydney faces curfew and longer lockdown as Australia’s Delta outbreak grows

Posted on by

City’s western reaches, already in lockdown, will have a curfew imposed from Monday after huge rise in coronavirus cases

Sydney’s coronavirus lockdown is being extended for another month, with large swathes of the city facing curfew from Monday, as authorities battle a Delta outbreak that has seen record case numbers this week.

New South Wales reported 642 new local cases and four deaths on Friday, prompting premier Gladys Berejiklian to require masks to be worn outdoors throughout the state at all times except when exercising.

Continue reading...

Covid Australia live news update: greater Sydney lockdown extended until end of September; NSW announces 642 cases, four deaths; Victoria records 55 cases

Posted on by

ACT chief minister Andrew Barr calls on colleagues to stop presenting 70% or 80% vaccination targets as ‘freedom day’ ahead of meeting. Follow latest updates

Berejiklian:

I also want to stress that from Monday midnight, unless you’re exercising masks should be worn outdoors everywhere across New South Wales.

Our concern is that when people are walking past a group of people or accidentally bumping into people that, that can cause that fleeting contact can cause transmission, and even when you’re exercising, you need to have the mask unless you’re doing some strenuous exercise.

Berejiklian:

So from Monday at midnight, the greater Sydney lockdown will extend until the end of September... but I also want to state that the Central Coast and Shell Harbour will be defined as regional.

So Greater Sydney includes all those areas that are currently in lockdown in Greater Sydney but for the Central Coast and Shellharbour which will be defined as rural and regional as we announced yesterday.

Continue reading...

‘Favouring industry’: protesters demand stronger Aboriginal heritage bill to protect sacred WA sites

Posted on by

Proposed law comes after 46,000-year-old rock shelters destroyed but traditional owners say it doesn’t do enough

Traditional owners and their supporters have marched on Western Australian parliament to demand the government halt its controversial new Aboriginal heritage bill, saying it favours mining and isn’t strong enough to stop another disaster like the destruction of Juukan Gorge.

More than a hundred people, many of whom traveled to Perth from the Kimberley and the Pilbara, protested on Thursday about “fundamental flaws” in the draft law, which they say still leaves control of Aboriginal heritage in the hands of mining companies.

Continue reading...

Swimming superstar Ellie Cole on diversity, accessibility and bringing people joy

Posted on by

The six-time gold medallist is campaigning for WeThe15 – a global human rights movement that will feature at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics

Ellie Cole is a bonafide Australian sporting champion. Yet as other women athletes, or sportspeople of colour, or other minorities can attest, success is no shield sometimes.

Related: Tokyo 2020 Paralympics briefing: two more weeks of glory and despair

Continue reading...

Australian bird of the year 2021: nominate your favourite for the shortlist

Posted on by

This year there will be a special focus on the species many of us are likely to see in lockdown

Bird of the year is back! The Guardian/BirdLife Australia poll for 2021 will begin on 27 September with a list of 50 shortlisted species.

In 2017 the magpie fought off strong support for the white ibis to win. In 2019 the highly endangered black-throated finch, which is under threat from the expansion of the Adani Carmichael coalmine, triumphed after backing from a highly organised online campaign.

Continue reading...

Senator Katy Gallagher’s daughter contracts Covid-19 at Canberra school – video

Posted on by

The 14-year-old daughter of Labor senator Katy Gallagher has contracted Covid-19 at school in Canberra. Gallagher says she's now concerned for her unvaccinated teenage son who's quarantining at home with the family. She says children have been let down by the vaccination rollout and she's worried about her daughter's health

Continue reading...

Covid Australia live news update: NSW confirms 633 cases and three deaths; ACT records 22 and Victoria 24; New Zealand cluster rises to seven

Posted on by

NSW confirms 633 cases and three deaths; Victoria records 24 new local cases as CHO says outbreak disproportionately affecting children; New Zealand cluster rises to seven cases. Follow all the day’s news

A second South Australian MP has been referred to an official investigator over allegations of bullying, AAP reports.

Treasurer Rob Lucas says he has referred allegations against Labor MP Tony Piccolo to the Commissioner for Public Sector Employment.

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, said just a moment ago that expanding access to the Pfizer vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds was something being worked through.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese is pushing for a plan.

Parents worried about the effect that lockdowns are having on their kids are now more concerned than ever that their children might catch Covid.

And right now, Mr Morrison doesn’t have a plan for our kids to access a vaccine when it’s safe to do so.

Continue reading...

Qantas mandates full Covid-19 vaccination for all its employees

Posted on by

Frontline staff must be inoculated by 15 November, with remainder of staff given until 31 March

Qantas will require all of its employees to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19, as debate about mandatory vaccination in Australian workplaces intensifies.

By 15 November, all frontline employees, including cabin crew, pilots and airport workers, will need to be fully vaccinated. All remaining employees will have until 31 March 2022 to get vaccinated.

Continue reading...

Batman & Robin: time to revisit Joel Schumacher’s maligned, silly and endlessly quotable film

Posted on by

The widely detested 1997 adaptation and its various bizarre spin-offs are worth a reappraisal in this era in which nothing makes sense

Serious comic book fans and discerning cinephiles consider director Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin from 1997 one of the worst films ever made – but they are wrong. It’s easily more entertaining than Christopher Nolan’s feted Batman trilogy (come at me Nolanites) – an endlessly quotable and absurd corporate climate change parable and the source of teenage mania among my early 2000s high school friends.

The intensely silly caper is more reminiscent of the 60s TV show, and Silver Age comics, than the brooding 80s publications that inspired Nolan and everyone since. Fans were understandably upset with the film’s reduction of Bane (one of Batman’s most intelligent foes) to a witless henchman; but in The Dark Knight Rises, Nolan and Tom Hardy turned Bane into a helium-fuelled, amateur Shakespearean actor, so, whatever.

Continue reading...

Coronavirus live news: weekly deaths up by a third in England and Wales; Singapore prepares to reopen for business

Posted on by

Covid mentioned in 527 deaths last week compared to 404 the week before; Singapore experts say there may be hundreds of deaths each year from endemic Covid-19

The king of Malaysia has ruled out a new general election in the country, after the resignation of the government amid mounting anger over its handling of the pandemic, because of concerns over the spread of Covid.

Former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s resignation yesterday after less than 18 months in office comes as Malaysia has one of the world’s highest infection and death rates per capita, with daily cases breaching 20,000 this month despite a seven-month state of emergency and a lockdown since June.

India has administered more than 8.8m doses of Covid-19 vaccines in the past 24 hours, government data showed, close to its all-time record and speeding up a campaign to inoculate all eligible adults by December.

India has undertaken one of the world’s largest Covid-19 vaccination drives and has so far administered 554m doses, giving at least one dose to about 46% of its estimated 944m adults. Only about 13% of the population have had the required two doses.

Continue reading...

BHP to shift oil and gas assets into Woodside Petroleum as part of major overhaul

Posted on by

Global miner declares a bumper profit due to high iron ore prices but slashes value of NSW coalmine to become a $200m liability

Global miner BHP is planning a major overhaul, simplifying its company structure and dumping its oil and gas assets into Woodside Petroleum, creating one of the biggest energy producers in the world.

BHP on Tuesday declared a bumper profit due to high iron ore prices, as it announced it will bring together its Australian and UK arms into one company and leave the London Stock Exchange, which could have ramifications for investors.

Continue reading...

Snake shocks Sydney shoppers by slithering along supermarket spice shelf

Posted on by

Shopper Helaina Alati, who happens to be a former snake catcher, was luckily on hand to return the three-metre python to nearby bushland

A three-metre-long python has surprised shoppers in a Sydney supermarket by slithering along a shelf in the spice section with a Woolworths spokesperson saying it was a “slippery and rare customer”.

“Only in Australia!” Hilary Leigh wrote in a Facebook post when sharing a video of the large snake at the Glenorie supermarket in Sydney’s north-west.

Continue reading...

New mathematical record: what’s the point of calculating pi?

Posted on by

The famous number has many practical uses, mathematicians say, but is it really worth the time and effort to work out its trillions of digits?

Swiss researchers have spent 108 days calculating pi to a new record accuracy of 62.8tn digits.

Using a computer, their approximation beat the previous world record of 50tn decimal places, and was calculated 3.5 times as quickly. It’s an impressive and time-consuming feat that begs the question: why?

Continue reading...

Australia Covid live news: NSW to give update; Victoria records 24 cases; nation on edge as more than 13 million under lockdown

Posted on by

Victoria records 24 local cases as state wakes to tougher restrictions; NSW warned cases could hit 1,000 a day; ACT and parts of NT under lockdown. Follow all the day’s news

We are now just waiting for NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian to step up for the daily Covid-19 press conference where we learn the state’s daily numbers.

We are expecting that in about 10 minutes, so stay tuned.

Sydney radio station 2GB is reporting a staff member from the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Syndey has tested positive to Covid-19 and may have been infectious while working.

A staff member at RPA Hospital in Sydney has tested positive to COVID-19. The worker was fully vaccinated but potentially infectious while working on August 10, 11, 12 + 13 in the nuclear medicine department. There has been no transmission to other staff or patients to date.

Continue reading...

NT and ACT Covid update: Canberra extends lockdown and Northern Territory goes into lockdown – video

Posted on by

Darwin, Palmerston and Katherine in Northern Territory enter lockdown on midday Monday until midday Thursday after a new case of Covid-19 was recorded overnight. ACT extends Covid-19 lockdown to 2 September as cases and exposure sites continue to grow 

► Subscribe to Guardian Australia on YouTube

Continue reading...

Coronavirus live news: Japan set to extend state of emergency as Sydney records deadliest pandemic day

Posted on by

Japan is reportedly set to extend it state of emergency in Tokyo and other regions while Sydney has reported seven deaths over the past 24 hours, its deadliest day of the pandemic so far

It’s Robyn Vinter here in the UK, taking over from Helen.

If you’re in lockdown and finding yourself increasingly grumpy and/or sluggish, Guardian Australia’s Alyx Gorman has investigated how you can best avoid “lockdown brain”:

Related: Forgetful, confused and a bit cranky? Here are some scientifically proven ways to lift your lockdown mood

That’s it from me, Helen Livingstone, I’m handing over to my UK colleague Robyn Vinter.

Here’s a brief rundown of what’s been happening so far:

Continue reading...

Afghanistan: western leaders react to Taliban takeover of Kabul – video

Posted on by

Leaders from the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada have reacted to the news that the Taliban has begun taking control of Kabul after a 20-year mission to Afghanistan led by western countries. UK prime minister Boris Johnsons said, ‘we don't want anybody bilaterally recognising the Taliban’, while New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern said conversations over how the new regime is treated will be for some time in the future. US secretary of state Antony Blinken blamed ‘the inability of Afghan security forces to defend their country’ for the quick takeover while Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau said he was ‘heartbroken’ at the news. Australian prime minister Scott Morrison said that fighting for freedom is ‘always worth it whatever the outcome.’ 

Continue reading...

Australia secures 1m Pfizer vaccine doses from Poland, with half earmarked for Sydney Covid hotspots

Posted on by

530,000 of the new doses to go to 20-to-39-year-olds living in the 12 hotspot LGAs as NSW struggles to contain outbreak

One million additional doses of the Pfizer vaccine are on the way to Australia, after the Polish government answered the Morrison government’s international pleas for help and as New South Wales authorities struggle to contain the state’s Covid outbreak.

A total of 530,000 of the new doses, due to arrive in Australia late on Sunday, have been quarantined for use in NSW for 20-to-39-year-olds living in the 12 hotspot Sydney local government areas.

Continue reading...

Australia secures Pfizer doses from Poland as Victoria chases mystery cases – as it happened

Posted on by

12 Sydney LGAs to get half of the one million extra Pfizer doses secured from Poland; rapid antigen testing to be trialled in some Sydney aged care homes. This blog is now closed

We’ll leave it there for now. Here are today’s main developments:

Police are cracking down on large gatherings in breach of Victoria’s lockdown restrictions, reports AAP.

In the inner city, dozens congregated for a takeaway drink pub crawl event on the streets of Richmond on Saturday, while in Northcote about 200 people gathered for a street party.

Continue reading...