Temperatures predicted to hit 33C on Tuesday, with level 2 heat health alert issued for south-east England
Parents are being advised to keep children out of the sun as the UK braces for a heatwave.
With temperatures predicted to hit a high of 33C (91.4F) on Tuesday, Sheffield children’s hospital says children should wear sun cream, light-coloured clothing and stick to the shade to avoid overheating.
Continue reading...Move by president signals start of White House fightback after supreme court struck down Roe v Wade
Joe Biden is to sign an executive order offering protections to millions of American women denied the constitutional right to an abortion.
The move signals the start of a White House fightback after the supreme court last month struck down Roe v Wade, its landmark ruling that for half a century had legalised abortion nationwide.
Continue reading...Announcement follows Guardian Australia report on calls to end practice, victim’s $800 bill
Queensland Health has pledged not to charge sexual assault victims without access to Medicare for rape kits and will review its policies for other medical costs, after the findings of a comprehensive review.
The announcement comes after Guardian Australia reported on Thursday that one woman who was ineligible for Medicare was billed $800 for pathology testing this year after a sexual assault.
Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning
Continue reading...NHS England says Treasury must cover cost as health service faces first real-terms cut in funding ‘since possibly the mid-1950s’
The NHS will have to cut investment in cancer care if ministers award frontline staff a pay rise above 3% but refuse to provide extra money to cover it, health service bosses have warned.
The NHS England chief executive, Amanda Pritchard, and Julian Kelly, its chief financial officer, made clear their belief that soaring inflation means the service’s 1.3 million staff deserve a pay award of more than the 3% the government has already given the organisation funding to cover.
Continue reading...Cold and flu tablets and throat lozenges also in short supply as country battles rising influenza and Covid infections
Supermarkets and chemists are limiting purchases of facial tissues as stocks dwindle amid soaring influenza and Covid-19 infections.
Medications, including painkillers and cold and flu tablets, have also been stripped from shelves in some chemists along the east coast as Australia battles winter illness.
Continue reading...Jared Polis pledges that his state will not assist other states in criminal or civil investigations into abortions
The Democratic governor of Colorado has mandated that his state will not cooperate with any investigations into abortions led by other states.
Jared Polis signed an executive order on Wednesday pledging that the western US state will not assist other states in criminal or civil investigations used to prevent people from accessing abortions.
Continue reading...Atagi will brief the health minister, Mark Butler, on Thursday after agreeing to recommend the expansion of Australia’s Covid vaccine program
A fourth Covid vaccine will be made available to more Australians as health authorities attempt to starve off further spread of the infectious virus which continues to place the health system under enormous pressure.
The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (Atagi) met on Wednesday, and agreed to recommend the booster program be expanded. Nine newspapers reported a fourth vaccine will be made available to anyone aged over 30, with a special recommendation for those aged over 50 to take up the offer.
Continue reading...Country hails ‘monumental step’ towards expanding reproductive rights at a time when the US has overturned them
Ministers in Sierra Leone have taken a major step towards decriminalising abortion and overturning the country’s colonial-era law, in a move hailed by campaigners and women’s rights activists.
President Julius Maada Bio said his cabinet had unanimously backed a bill on risk-free motherhood, which would expand access to abortion in a country where terminations are only permitted when a mother’s life is at risk.
Continue reading...NSW has confirmed 11 cases and health authorities are urging people to be aware of symptoms
Monkeypox may be spreading in Australia after New South Wales found infections among the state’s 11 confirmed cases that could have been transmitted locally.
NSW Health says nine of the infections were probably acquired overseas but two may be local cases, which suggests community transmission could be occurring, especially among men who have sex with men.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed
Sussan Ley criticises Labor over flood response
Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley is upping the Coalition’s attacks on the Labor government over the floods, asking why they haven’t activated disaster recovery payments for affected residents.
We have already announced a wide range of support for people but I think it’s fair to assume that there will be more coming.
I can’t commit to anything specific like that but what I can tell you is that from the weekend, I began talking with our authorities about what we could do to make sure that any disaster support we approved got out the door quickly.
Continue reading...Some local officials are unsure of how to order Covid vaccines or when they will arrive, while others are aiming to ignore federal guidelines completely
Ashley Comegys, a parent of two young children in Florida, was ecstatic when the Covid vaccines were authorized for children above the age of six months in the US. “We’ve been waiting for this for so long,” she said. “We can finally start to spread our wings again.”
But then she learned that Florida had missed two deadlines to preorder vaccines and would not make them available through state and local health departments, delaying the rollout by several weeks and significantly limiting access.
Continue reading...The TGA’s ‘provisional determination’ for two vaccines comes as BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants drive new wave of Covid cases
Two vaccines that specifically target the Omicron variant have been granted “provisional determination” by Australia’s drugs regulator, the first step in a process for getting the vaccines approved for use.
It comes as the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of Omicron drive a new wave of cases, prompting premiers to warn of increasing hospitalisations and deaths, and renewed calls to the public to wear masks in crowded indoor spaces.
Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning
Continue reading...Brian Knowles admitted to denigrating colleagues but claimed to be victim of ‘witch-hunt’ in appeal to Industrial Relations Commission
A former senior New South Wales paramedic who helped a manager get into an Elton John concert without a ticket and used “disgusting” language while denigrating his colleagues has lost an appeal against his dismissal.
Brian Knowles, a former duty operations manager, appealed to the Industrial Relations Commission about the decision to sack him, saying he had been the victim of a “witch-hunt” by the Ambulance Service of NSW.
Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning
Continue reading...Advocacy groups and BNO passport holders say not enough is being done to help them after arriving in Britain
The UK is not doing enough to provide mental health support to thousands of Hongkongers who have fled China’s increasingly authoritarian grip, according to advocacy groups and those politically displaced.
Following China’s introduction of a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong and swift clampdown on dissent, tens of thousands of residents with British national (overseas) (BNO) passports and their dependants were granted the right to live and work in the UK in 2021.
Continue reading...Jacinda Ardern meets with Daniel Andrews; Dominic Perrottet warns heavy rain forecast in NSW; federal disaster payments available to 23 flood-affected areas; RBA interest rate decision due; Victoria records 16 Covid deaths, NSW records 14, Queensland records 11. Follow the day’s news live
The federal government is making disaster relief payments available to 23 flood-affected areas in NSW, with emergency management minister Murray Watt saying the assistance would be “uncapped”.
Watt announced early on Tuesday that the federal and NSW governments were making assistance available through the commonwealth-state disaster recovery funding arrangements.
These are uncapped payments, they are demand-driven and they will be available for anyone who qualifies.
Continue reading...Labor and Liberal members deny making any such agreement with Enid Lyons List, a group with stated aim of getting more ‘pro-life’ women into parliament
The anti-abortion group at the centre of a storm claims parliamentarians from both sides have promised to try to “turn this tide back” on South Australia’s new abortion laws.
Joanna Howe of Enid Lyons List said politicians have agreed to “take forward” a bill that her organisation is working on.
Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning
Continue reading...The latest variants are masters at evading immunity – meaning previous infection and vaccines are unlikely to provide much protection against catching it
Australia is heading for its third Omicron wave in the coming weeks, as BA.4 and BA.5 become the dominant Covid strains.
BA.4 and BA.5 are more infectious than previous Covid variants and subvariants, and are better able to evade immunity from vaccines and previous infections. So we’re likely to see a rise in case numbers.
Continue reading...Trial will take treatments from Portsmouth to St Mary’s hospital and health service plans similar drops elsewhere in England
The NHS plans to use drones to fly chemotherapy drugs to cancer patients in England to avoid the need for long journeys to collect them.
The devices will transport doses from Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight in a trial that, if successful, will lead to drones being used for similar drops elsewhere.
Continue reading...Man drowns after boat capsizes in Abbotsford; vaccination mandates to ease on international flights; PM says ADF available as thousands are urged to evacuate in Sydney flood crisis; 30 Covid deaths recorded nationwide. Follow all today’s news, live
Karvelas asks about that time Pocock was arrested for chaining himself to mining equipment to protest against a coalmine expansion in New South Wales and whether, given this history, whether he could support legislation that would allow the construction of new mines.
Pocock answers that the IPCC was “very clear” that keeping warming below 2C means “we can’t approve and open up new fossil fuel projects” but adds “we have to actually be getting targets in place and then having the policy to have an orderly transition to renewables”.
My sense is that the community does want something legislated. We actually have to be able to legislate something and move forward and so I’m committed to being constructive when it comes to action to make sure we legislate something, and look at other ways how to ramp that up over time but crucially to be looking after regional communities who have relied on fossil fuels for generations.
In terms of the 43%, I have been very open saying that I’d like to see a higher target, but my sense is that what Australians really want is a target to be legislated. We have to actually bank some of these gains and I want to see a target with integrity. There’s some real concerns about the way that we’re actually getting to whatever target we set and that will be my focus.
Continue reading...Unvaccinated two-year-old and six-year-old from northern NSW diagnosed with potentially deadly bacterial infection
A toddler is in intensive care and a second child has been hospitalised after contracting the first cases of diphtheria of the throat in New South Wales this century.
Diphtheria is a contagious and potentially deadly bacterial infection. It affects the throat and tonsils in its most severe form, resulting in a greyish-white membrane forming that can make it hard to swallow and breathe.
Continue reading...