Labor one seat from claiming majority as Liberals launch review of election defeat – as it happened

New foreign minister tells Fiji ‘I hope I will be here often’; Jane Hume and Brian Loughnane to review Liberal party’s election campaign; Labor retains Tasmanian seat of Lyons; nation records 71 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed

The PM is asked what he thought of Tanya Plibersek saying Peter Dutton looks like Voldemort, and reiterates that he wants to “change the way politics operates”:

It was a mistake. It shouldn’t have been said. We all make mistakes from time to time.

What we need to do is to move on from them and it is how we respond to them. Tanya Plibersek responded appropriately. I want to change the way that politics operates.

Quite clearly, one of the issues that came up, we might have discussed it in previous weeks on this program, is we couldn’t tell from opposition where all the pots of money had been stored by this government.

They abused the process of the contingency reserve to create funds for use during the election campaign. We will go through those line by line because it is taxpayers’ money, not Liberal party or National party money that was being allocated in the billions, frankly, during this campaign.

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Partygate live: Boris Johnson says no plan to resign over Sue Gray report despite Tory MP calling for him to step down

Prime minister feels it is his ‘job to get on with my job’ despite report detailing major leadership failures at No 10

This is from Nikki da Costa, a former director of legislative affairs at No 10, speaking up on civil servants whose reputations, she fears, will be tainted by the Sue Gray report.

Tom Harwood from GB News is now also saying the report has arrived in Downing Street. It is 37 pages long, he says.

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Tory MPs suspect cover-up over ‘Abba party’ in Boris Johnson’s flat

Frontbencher says PM ‘getting away lightly’ after Sue Gray says she did not fully investigate alcohol-fuelled gathering

Conservative MPs fear a “cover-up” over potentially the most damaging event of the Partygate scandal after Sue Gray admitted she did not fully investigate an alcohol-fuelled gathering in the flat shared by the prime minister and his wife.

The six-month inquiry concluded with an acknowledgment from Gray that little was known about what took place in the flat above 11 Downing Street on 13 November 2020, with food, alcohol and loud Abba music reported.

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Nurse fined £10k over NHS pay protest in lockdown wins compensation

Greater Manchester police agree to withdraw penalty notices issued to two nurses for socially distanced protest in March 2021

Two NHS nurses have won compensation from Greater Manchester police (GMP) after being fined over a socially distant protest about NHS pay during lockdown.

Karen Reissmann, a 61-year-old mental health nurse who worked throughout the pandemic, received a £10,000 fixed penalty notice for organising the protest on 7 March 2021 over the government’s proposed 1% pay rise for NHS workers.

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Pfizer to offer all its drugs not-for-profit to 45 lower-income countries

Company launches ‘healthier world’ accord in Davos and speaks to other pharma firms about similar steps

Pfizer has announced it is to supply all its current and future patent-protected medicines and vaccines on a not-for-profit basis to 45 lower-income countries and is talking to other big drugmakers about similar steps.

Announcing an “accord for a healthier world” at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, the New York-based pharma firm pledged to provide all its products that are available in the US and Europe on a cost basis to 1.2 billion people in all 27 low-income countries such as Afghanistan and Ethiopia, plus 18 lower-middle-income countries including Ghana.

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Election 2022 live: Dai Le dismisses eligibility concerns; doctors welcome Covid booster expansion as 41 deaths recorded

Eligibility for fourth dose of Covid vaccine extended; ‘don’t think we’ve got a better choice’ for Liberal leader, Dave Sharma says of Peter Dutton; at least 41 coronavirus deaths recorded. Follow all the day’s developments

The SMH has some interesting lines from the Liberal candidate in Gilmore, Andrew Constance, who says his party were punished for being “too focused on themselves”.

While Gilmore remains on a knife-edge, the former state government minister said he was not surprised by the outcome of the election, warning the Liberal party that it needed to refocus on community concerns:

The party has been too introverted and too focused on itself.

It has to recognise its broad-based appeal is not sectional interest. The party exists for the community … there’s no such thing as a “heartland” in Australian politics.

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High-risk people eligible for second Covid booster vaccine under new Australian guidelines

From Monday about 1.5 million aged 16-64 qualify for fourth dose after updated advice that excludes people without serious risk factors

People with medical conditions or disabilities that increase the risk of severe Covid-19 will be eligible for a fourth vaccine dose after updated advice by Australian health authorities.

From 30 May about 1.5 million more people aged 16 to 64 will be eligible for the fourth dose, the interim health minister, Katy Gallagher, announced on Wednesday.

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Shapps refuses to deny Johnson suggested Sue Gray abandon publication of her report – UK politics live

Latest updates: Grant Shapps, transport secretary, does not deny Times report as row grows over further Partygate photos

At cabinet this morning Boris Johnson praised Thérèse Coffey, the work and pensions secretary, for helping people get back into work. Johnson believes work is the best route out of poverty and, with unemployment at its lowest level for almost 50 years, he is using this as part of his attempt to show there is a Tory response to the cost of living crisis.

According to PA Media, Johnson opened cabinet by saying:

I want to give a special shout out to Thérèse Coffey, the secretary of state for DWP, because under her plans, the Way To Work scheme, since we launched it this year it has got 380,000 people off welfare and into work. That’s the way forward.

I want to see people not on benefits, I want to see them in work - that’s the Conservative answer and that is the answer we are offering to the people of this country.

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Partygate: Boris Johnson under pressure to explain meeting with Sue Gray

Prime minister met Gray in run-up to long-awaited report into lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street

Boris Johnson is under increasing pressure to explain a meeting with Sue Gray before her report into lockdown breaches in Downing Street, after a cabinet minister declined to deny he had queried whether it should be published.

The report, which is expected to be handed to No 10 on Wednesday, is said by sources to be deeply critical of the prime minister and senior civil service leadership over the culture that developed in No 10 and eventually led the Metropolitan police to issue 126 fines.

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No 10 admits PM meeting with Sue Gray was instigated by Downing Street – UK politics live

Latest updates: PM’s spokesperson clears up that No 10 requested meeting after Simon Clarke suggests it was the other way round

The Downing Street lobby briefing has just finished, and the PM’s spokesperson told journalists that Boris Johnson has still not received the Sue Gray report into Partygate. The spokesperson did not say when it would be arriving, but it is not expected to be published today.

Boris Johnson has recorded a clip for broadcasters during a visit to a school in south-east London. PA Media has written up the key lines.

I’m not attracted, intrinsically, to new taxes. But as I have said throughout, we have got to do what we can - and we will - to look after people through the aftershocks of Covid, through the current pressures on energy prices that we are seeing post-Covid and with what’s going on in Russia and we are going to put our arms round people, just as we did during the pandemic.

Of course, but on the process you are just going to have to hold your horses a little bit longer. I don’t believe it will be too much longer and then I will be able to say a bit more.

It’s basically very rare disease, and so far the consequences don’t seem to be very serious but it’s important that we keep an eye on it and that’s exactly what the the new UK Health Security Agency is doing.

As things stand the judgment is that it’s rare. I think we’re looking very carefully at the circumstances of transmission.

It hasn’t yet proved, fatal in any case that we know of, certainly not in this country.

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Kim Jong-un buries mentor amid North Korea Covid crisis

State media photos show Kim carrying Hyon Chol-hae’s coffin and throwing earth into his grave as country battles ‘fever’ cases amid Covid outbreak

Kim Jong-un attended the funeral for a top North Korean official, state media reported on Monday, helping carry his coffin, as the country maintained the much-disputed claim that its coronavirus outbreak is subsiding.

The official Korean Central News Agency said Kim attended the funeral on Sunday of Hyon Chol-hae, a Korean People’s Army marshal who reportedly played a key role in grooming him as the country’s next leader before Kim’s father, Kim Jong-il, died in late 2011.

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Shanghai reopens some public transport after months-long Covid lockdown

Partial restart comes as curbs tightened in other areas, highlighting difficulties of resuming life under China’s strict zero-Covid policy

Shanghai has reopened a small part of the world’s longest subway system after some lines had been closed for almost two months, as the city paves the way for a more complete lifting of its Covid-19 lockdown next week.

With most residents not allowed to leave their homes and restrictions tightening in parts of China’s most populous city, commuters early on Sunday needed strong reasons to travel.

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US air force academy cadets denied commission over vaccine refusal

Trio will receive college degrees but will not be commissioned ‘as long as they remain unvaccinated’, spokesperson says

For refusing to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, three US air force academy cadets won’t be commissioned as military officers, though they will receive college degrees, a spokesperson for the school said Saturday.

Academy spokesperson Dean Miller said in a statement that the three cadets in question won’t be commissioned as air force officers “as long as they remain unvaccinated,” though they would get their bachelor’s of science degrees. The military branch had not decided yet whether to require the trio to reimburse the US for education costs in lieu of service, Miller said.

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Biden and South Korean president mull expanding joint military exercises

US president willing to meet Kim Jong-un, while Seoul says deployment of US ‘strategic assets’ was discussed

Joe Biden and his South Korean counterpart, Yoon Suk-yeol, have said they are considering expanding joint military exercises in response to the “threat” posed by North Korea, a move that is expected to enrage the regime as speculation builds that it could conduct a nuclear test.

Speaking in Seoul on the second day of his visit to South Korea, Biden said he was willing to meet North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, but only if he was “sincere and serious” about dismantling his nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

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‘Caught unawares’: Covid is preventing Australians in hospital from voting

Mobile polling in health facilities was stopped amid the pandemic and patients in hospital unexpectedly have no way to cast their ballot

Australians unexpectedly admitted to hospital before the election are struggling to cast their vote due to a decision to abort mobile polling in health facilities due to Covid.

The Australian Electoral Commission announced before the campaign that it would not be sending mobile teams into hospitals to take votes in the lead-up to polling day, in an attempt to balance voting access with the risk of spreading Covid in vulnerable settings.

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Boris Johnson among dozens warned they face criticism in Sue Gray’s report

PM notified before publication next week, as an ex-civil service chief says ‘real issue’ is the No 10 leadership

Boris Johnson is among dozens of No 10 officials warned by Sue Gray they are facing criticism in her Partygate report next week, as a former civil service chief said the “real issue” was the leadership of the prime minister and his cabinet secretary, Simon Case.

Johnson is one of 20 to 30 current and former staffers who have been notified by letter that accounts of their conduct will feature in her final report on the lockdown-busting parties. This is now likely to be published next week after Scotland Yard handed out 126 fixed-penalty notices to people from No 10, including one for Johnson but many for more junior staff.

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Two types of Omicron classified as Covid variants of concern in UK

Small number of BA.4 and BA.5 cases identified but data suggests ‘growth advantage’ over dominant BA.2

Two types of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 have been newly classified as variants of concern in the UK.

Only a small number of cases of Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 have been identified so far in the country, but analysis of the available data suggests they are likely to have a “growth advantage” over Omicron BA.2, currently the dominant variant, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).

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NSW government underspent on PPE and mental health, audit of $7.5bn Covid spending finds

Auditor general says state agencies forked out close to $200m on faulty imported masks and ventilators

The New South Wales government underspent on personal protective equipment and mental health services and forked out close to $200m on faulty imported masks and ventilators as part of the state’s $7.5bn pandemic expenditure, a review has found.

The auditor general released a detailed report on Friday after examining the state’s spending from the first case detected in January 2020 to the middle of 2021.

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North Korea’s Covid caseload passes 2 million amid global concern about regime’s pandemic plan

Experts believe North Korean authorities are underreporting deaths to prove that their response has been effective

Experts have questioned North Korea’s claim that it is achieving “good results” in its battle against a Covid-19 outbreak, as the number of people with symptoms of the virus surpassed 2 million.

The regime reported 263,370 new fever cases on Friday and two deaths, taking the total caseload to 2.24 million, including 65 deaths, according to state news agency KCNA.

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Respiratory syncytial virus kills 100,000 under-fives every year

The acute lower respiratory infection has surged after Covid restrictions eased, experts say

Respiratory syncytial virus is killing 100,000 children under the age of five every year worldwide, new figures reveal as experts say the global easing of coronavirus restrictions is causing a surge in cases.

RSV is the most common cause of acute lower respiratory infection in young children. It spreads easily via coughing and sneezing. There is no vaccine or specific treatment.

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