Category Archives: Australia news

Police say Melbourne anti-lockdown protest ‘most violent in nearly 20 years’

Posted on by

Saturday’s rally was the first time police used non-lethal weapons during a lockdown protest, with at least nine officers ending up in hospital

An anti-lockdown protest held in Melbourne on Saturday was one of the most violent the city has seen in 20 years, Victoria’s top police officer says.

Chief commissioner Shane Patton said his officers had no choice but to use non-lethal weapons to defend themselves from an angry mob that came armed and appeared intent on attacking them.

Continue reading...

Coronavirus live: UK death toll rises by 104; fears of ‘super-spreader’ Trump rally

Posted on by

Latest updates: panic-buying in Vietnam amid record Covid infections; riot police use pepper spray to break up crowds in Melbourne

France’s interior ministry said around 175,500 people in total demonstrated on Saturday - down from roughly 215,000 last weekend although numbers could increase as people return from summer holidays.
They demonstrated across France for a sixth consecutive weekend on Saturday against a Covid-19 health pass required for daily activities, Reuters reports. “This health pass divides French people. I think that is clear. And unfortunately, I believe we should abolish it,” said civil servant Sophie Soulas at the Paris protest.

Here is more on the story that a high-ranking Roman Catholic cardinal and vaccine skeptic hospitalised after contracting Covid-19 was off a ventilator and being moved out of intensive care in the US.

Related: Vaccine-skeptic US cardinal off ventilator after contracting Covid-19

Continue reading...

Australia records highest number of new cases in a day – as it happened

Posted on by

Gladys Berejiklian reports record high case numbers and Victoria extends lockdown statewide. This blog is now closed

We’re going to close off this blog for today, thanks very much for your company.

Here’s a helpful summary from Graham Readfearn – who did most of the hard slog today – and myself:

“Freedom” appears not to be free.

That's more than $1.2 million in fines pic.twitter.com/lfQJmbIPrb

Continue reading...

Australia anti-lockdown rallies: protesters violently clash with police in Melbourne

Posted on by

Thousands march through streets of Melbourne and Brisbane, as police try to prevent Sydney rally

Anti-lockdown protesters clashed violently with police as thousands of unmasked people marched through the streets of Melbourne on Saturday.

Victoria police said they had made 218 arrests and that six officers were hospitalised during a series of altercations. Police said in a statement the majority of the estimated 4,000 demonstrators “came with violence in mind”.

Continue reading...

Hot summer nights: ‘I sat naked against the freezer, shoe in hand, prepared for the worst’

Posted on by

As the sun set, the air-con at my uncle’s place in Australia broke, turning it into a house of horrors. Never have I missed Manchester so much

In 2014, I returned to my place of birth in Melbourne, Australia, to visit family. The 32-hour slog to the other side of the globe was uncomfortable, but it was nothing compared with what awaited me on the ground.

One night, the uncle with whom I was staying went to Tasmania to visit friends. Suddenly, place transformed into a horror house. It was about 9pm, the sun was leaving the horizon and the lawn, which had been baked into straw, was getting a much-needed reprieve. Sweat had welded my polyester shirt so tightly to my back that it almost took my spine with it when I finally managed to peel it off.

Continue reading...

Victoria Covid update: Dan Andrews hints at more restrictions after 55 new Covid cases

Posted on by

Premier urges Melbourne residents to follow lockdown rules to the letter and warns Delta outbreak on the verge of ‘getting away from us’

Daniel Andrews has told Victorians he “cannot rule out” introducing more restrictions to curb the state’s coronavirus outbreak after a spike in positive cases that includes 12 in the regional city of Shepparton.

The premier warned that unless Melburnians follow the lockdown rules to the letter, next week’s case numbers “will be like Sydney”.

Continue reading...

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...