Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Thirteen Australians reportedly among women taken off flight at Doha and subjected to medical examination after newborn found abandoned in airport
The Australian government has registered “serious concerns” with Qatari authorities after women on a flight from Doha to Sydney were ordered to disembark the plane and subjected to a strip search and a medical examination.
Flight QR908 to Sydney was due to leave Hamad International airport at Doha at 8.30 on Friday 2 October, but was delayed for four hours, apparently after a newborn infant was found dead in the airport.
More than 100 inmates have tested positive for covid-19 at Indonesia’s Kerobokan prison, on the island of Bali.
The Jakarta Post reports today on a growing cluster inside the notorious prison, detected after complaints of symptoms by some inmates prompted mass testing earlier this week.
Here is our full report on the latest from Victoria, Australia, where the country’s largest outbreak and which sparked one of the world’s strictest lockdowns, is being brought under control. From Calla Wahlquist:
Daniel Andrews has delayed an announcement about easing coronavirus restrictions in Melbourne pending the outcome of tests connected to an outbreak in the northern suburbs, prompting criticism from the business community, the state opposition, the federal government and his own former health minister.
In a heated press conference, the Victorian premier said he had “hoped” to be able to announce significant steps about opening up the retail and hospitality industries from the middle of the week.
The US saw its highest ever number of new coronavirus cases in the past two days, keeping the pandemic a top election issue as Vice president Mike Pence travels the country to campaign despite close aides testing positive.
The US reported 79,852 new infections on Saturday, close to the previous day’s record of 84,244 new cases, as we reported earlier.
The Czech government will almost certainly have to tighten its anti-coronavirus measures again as current curbs have not halted a surge in infections, prime minister Andrej Babis said on Sunday.
Cases are up across Europe, but the Czech Republic has recorded the sharpest rises in infections on the continent in recent weeks, Reuters reports.
Regional Victoria has consistently outperformed its metropolitan counterpart in suppressing the Covid-19 virus and as such is subject to significantly fewer restrictions.
Currently, it is in the third step of the state’s roadmap out of lockdown allowing for a significant reopening of the retail and hospitality industries.
It could take up to a year for Australian biotech company CSL to develop the capability to make a Covid-19 vaccine if a non-protein-based version proves safe and effective, the country’s industry minister has said.
Karen Andrews said CSL would be able to immediately start making a protein-based vaccine, but “significant work” would be required if it was another type based on mRNA, or messenger ribonucleic acid.
Hope for further significant easing of coronavirus restrictions in Victoria on Sunday are in doubt as an outbreak in Melbourne’s northern suburbs grows.
Victoria recorded seven new cases on Saturday, six linked to known outbreaks, prompting the government to order all staff and students from two schools in north-east Melbourne to immediately get tested for Covid-19.
Historian Jenny Hocking and Australian Republican Movement say letter inappropriate
A newly revealed letter, reportedly from Prince Charles to former Australian governor general Sir John Kerr endorsing his decision to dismiss prime minister Gough Whitlam, has been condemned as “inappropriate”.
MV Sofrana Surville barred from docking after officials in New Zealand said crew members on departing cargo ship might have new strain
Queensland health officials are working to determine the strain of Covid-19 infecting the crew of a cargo ship anchored off the Australian state’s Sunshine Coast.
The MV Sofrana Surville was blocked from docking in Brisbane after New Zealand warned it could be carrying a new strain of the virus.
A federal government investigation into the scandal may cost more than the lavish gifts purchased in November 2018
Four Cartier watches given to Australia Post senior managers were worth nearly $20,000 in total, $8,000 more than the organisation’s chief executive told a parliamentary hearing this week.
Christine Holgate told Senate estimates on Thursday the watches, purchased in 2018 as a reward for the executives, were worth about $3,000 each.
In private letter Yang reveals he spent a decade spying in countries including Hong Kong and the US, according to friend
An Australian writer detained in China on charges of espionage spent a decade working as a Chinese spy, including in Hong Kong and the United States, a close friend claims.
Yang Hengjun was detained in January 2019 and held in various forms of secretive and punitive detention until he was formally charged this month for alleged espionage on behalf of another country. The early stages of trial are under way.
More than half a million people in the US could die from Covid-19 by the end of February next year, but around 130,000 of those lives could be saved if everybody were to wear masks, according to estimates from a modelling study.
The estimates, from a study by researchers at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, show that with few effective Covid-19 treatment options and no vaccines yet available, the U.S. faces “a continued COVID-19 public health challenge through the winter”.
Large, populous states such as California, Texas and Florida will likely face particularly high levels of illness, deaths and demands on hospital resources, the study found.
US president Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 221,000 Americans so far, has become the top election issue for him and Democratic candidate Joe Biden. Polls have shown that Americans trust Biden more than Trump to handle the crisis.
Filming in Venice of Mission Impossible 7 with Tom Cruise has been temporarily suspended due to a suspected case of Covid among the film crew.
Officially, a reason has not yet been given by the film’s production company, but, according to Italian media reports, the over 100 extras were told there was a suspected case of Covid-19 among the Americans and that, as a result, filming would be postponed to a later date.
Antiviral treatment is first to treat coronavirus approved by FDA; France extends curfew; Study finds between 130,000 and 210,000 US deaths could have been avoided. Follow the latest
Australia’s Victoria state - the epicentre of the country’s Covid-19 outbreak - on Friday reported that active coronavirus cases have fallen to a four-month low, paving the way for an acceleration in the easing of social distancing curbs, Reuters reports.
The nation’s second-most populous state, which recorded just one new infection in the past 24 hours, said there are now 100 active cases - the lowest since 19 June.
“This is a good number. This is a very clear sign that the strategy is working,” Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters in Melbourne.
The active infections are a relief to state authorities amid heightened fears of a fresh cluster after a case in a school in Melbourne’s northern suburbs prompted authorities to order 800 people to self-isolate.
However, with new case numbers in single digits for nine consecutive days, Andrews is expected to announce on Sunday an accelerated timetable for easing restrictions in a boost to Australia’s ailing economy.
Melbourne’s roughly 5 million residents were granted more freedom to move about on Monday after a months-long lockdown, but public gatherings remain tightly limited and retailers and restaurants must operate only on take-away or delivery orders.
Australia has recorded just over 27,400 Covid-19 infections, far fewer than many other developed countries. Victoria accounts for more than 90% of the 905 deaths nationally.
Mexico’s health ministry reported on Thursday 6,612 additional cases of the novel coronavirus and 479 more deaths in the country, bringing the official number of cases to 874,171 and the death toll to 87,894.
Health officials have said the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.
Today’s meeting between federal, state and territory leaders will focus on removing social and border restrictions to jumpstart the economy. Follow live
In just the year to June, Australia Post paid $1.95 million in bonuses to 35 of its executives earning over $520,000 a year. That’s 648 Cartier watches - or 162 times the total Cartier watch spend. (Or about 27,850 Casio watches...) https://t.co/S8mmcqJmhh
We will probably be in a bit of a news lull while national cabinet is meeting and the US presidential election debate is on in about 25 minutes.
The Indian state of West Bengal has reported its biggest daily tally of new Covid-19 infections as thousands of people thronged the streets for a major Hindu festival that began last week, Reuters reports.
India has seen a sharp drop in infections since a September peak, but experts have warned it could see a resurgence during Durga Puja this week, and Diwali, the festival of light, in mid-November.
Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia have all reported their highest one-day rise in cases, Reuters reports.
Croatia reported its biggest rise in daily new Covid-19 infections on Thursday with 1,563 new cases, nearly half of which were in Zagreb, where they more than doubled. The capital recorded a high of 705 new infections compared with the previous day’s 337 infections. So far, Croatia, a country of some 4 million people, has recorded 29,850 cases with 406 deaths. There are currently 7,380 active cases.
Officials are unable to say how much was spent on taxpayer-funded campaigns based on surveys by a longtime researcher for the Liberals
Officials from the Department of Finance have acknowledged that taxpayer-funded research undertaken by Jim Reed, a long-term researcher for the Liberal party pollster Crosby Textor, fed into two publicly funded advertising campaigns relating to economic measures launched in response to the pandemic.
But officials told the estimates committee they were unable to quantify or disclose the budgets for the two taxpayer-funded advertising spends.
Storms over coming week forecast to peak on Saturday with ‘very heavy rainfall, damaging winds and large hail’
Dangerous thunderstorms are set to cause large hail and flash flooding, destroy crops and drive deadly spiders into homes across large swathes of eastern Australia over the next week.
Triggered by a low pressure system forming over the southern centre of the country and a trough across eastern Australia, the hazardous weather will escalate when the two systems combine on Friday, with the added tropical moisture present as a result of La Niña contributing to the severity of the storms.
A school student in Melbourne’s north tested positive to coronavirus, putting the suburbs of Dallas, Roxburgh Park, Broadmeadows, Preston and West Heidelberg on high alert. Follow live
Australia Post is up in the communications estimates committee hearing - that starts at 9
NSW has reported just one locally acquired case - another six are in hotel quarantine.
Scott Morrison says focus must be on public health crisis, despite passing more than 90 other bills this year
Scott Morrison claims the sustained pressure of managing the coronavirus pandemic has prevented the government from landing its longstanding commitment to establish a national anti-corruption body.
With controversy over the Leppington triangle land purchase continuing to reverberate, and questions being raised over contact between the deputy prime minister Michael McCormack and the disgraced New South Wales MP Daryl Maguire, Labor on Wednesday confronted the government over its persistent failure to establish a federal anti-corruption body.
Four US states reported a record one-day increase in Covid-19 deaths on Wednesday including Wisconsin, a hotly contested state in the 3 November election, as infections keep rising across the Midwest and beyond.
Coronavirus deaths hit daily records in Iowa, Minnesota, Montana and Wisconsin, according to a Reuters analysis. Wisconsin also reported a record daily increase in new cases together with Illinois and Ohio, the analysis showed.
The US is likely to have enough safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines available to inoculate the most vulnerable Americans by the end of 2020, health and human services secretary Alex Azar said.
The US government is “cautiously optimistic” that one or two vaccines, likely from Pfizer or Moderna, will be available by the end of the year and can begin to be distributed to Americans, officials said during a news conference.
Hundreds of residents are set to protest amid claims wealthier landholders have received favourable planning decisions
A group of families left in “indefinite limbo” by planning decisions that favoured wealthy landowners near the Western Sydney airport have called for an end to secretive backroom dealing as they prepare to stage public protests against their treatment by government.
Two separate scandals have now raised serious questions about the way land near the massive airport development is being handled, and the degree to which landholders are lobbying state and federal governments for favourable treatment.