Yahoo News Morning mail: Beirut mourns, Keating 'out of touch', Lizzy Hoo's 10 funniest things
Good morning, this is Richard Parkin bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Thursday 6 August.
Top stories
More than 135 people are feared dead and more than 5,000 injured from the explosion that ripped through Beirut on Tuesday, with the Lebanese government declaring a two-week state of emergency in the capital. The nation is in mourning after the gigantic explosion caused widespread devastation up to 4km away from the blast site, believed to be a port warehouse packed with 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, reportedly stored unsafely for six years. Thousands of families are travelling from hospital to hospital in search of loved ones, with more than 300,000 left homeless due to the damage. Pentagon officials have stressed that they have no evidence that the explosion was in any way intended, after President Donald Trump made off-the-cuff remarks about a “terrible attack” and described the explosion as being “a bomb of some kind”.
Australia has suffered its deadliest day so far from the coronavirus, with 15 deaths – including a man in his 30s – and 725 new cases recorded in Victoria. Queensland has announced a hard border with NSW and the ACT from 8 August, while NSW has warned that all residents returning from Victoria may have to go into two weeks of hotel quarantine at their own expense. Up to 83,000 jobs in Victoria have been put in jeopardy due to the stage four lockdown and casuals’ inability to access jobkeeper subsidies, an ABS analysis has reported. The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, has said there “is no alternative” to stage-four measures, but for all his daily briefings, writes Gay Alcorn, could his government have been more transparent?
Scott Morrison has committed more than $1.6bn to cybersecurity over the next decade, with the prime minister also flagging expanded police powers and additional funding to combat criminal activity on the dark web. The government’s chief taskforce has responded to 2,166 cybersecurity incidents over the past year, with the Covid-19 pandemic accelerating malicious online activity. “We will continue to ensure agencies have the powers and capabilities they need to identify and disrupt threats to the safety of Australians,” said the home affairs minister, Peter Dutton.
Australia
Under-investment in national parks in Queensland is hurting the tourism sector to the tune of $3.3bn, leaked documents from the Queensland Treasury Corporation have warned. The Palaszczuk government had promised to “establish a world-leading protected area system” before the 2017 election.
New standards to minimise the risk of deadly mine collapses need to be overseen by an independent body, a UNDP-commissioned paper has recommended, to prevent mine owners, including Australian companies such as BHP, from further international culpability in case of major catastrophes like the Córrego do Feijão disaster in Brazil.
The former prime minister Paul Keating has been blasted as “out of touch” by the assistant minister for superannuation, with the Coalition’s Jane Hume also ruling out a third early release of retirement savings to assist during the Covid-19 downturn.
The world
Secret footage and text messages from a Uighur man detained inside a Chinese prison has emerged, with the 31-year-old detailing the beating of teenage boys and use of “four-piece suits” and shackles to prevent free movement for detainees. China has strenuously denied claims of systematic abuses conducted against Muslim minorities within its territory.
Joe Biden will not travel to Milwaukee for the Democratic national convention this month due to coronavirus-related concerns, insiders have reported. Both Republicans and Democrats have dramatically scaled back their party conventions, with Donald Trump set to formally accept his nomination at the White House.
Two agents from France’s foreign intelligence agency are facing attempted murder charges for a plan to kill a 54-year-old woman that reportedly had nothing to do with their official duties. A third agent has already been charged in relation to the case.
The spread of diseases like Covid-19 from animals such as rats and bats is linked to human destruction of natural ecosystems, a landmark study has concluded. The analysis of more than 7,000 habitats around the world found the eradication of wild spaces creates conditions in which more adaptable animals could proliferate.
Recommended reads
Imagine a renewable energy source that prevents the release of a potent greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, generates water for irrigation and produces its own compost. Enter a Queensland farmer, Laurie Brosnan, and his advanced biogas system. At Betterfield Piggery, Brosnan is fine-tuning a technology that could help Australia meet almost 9% of its energy needs, simply by processing animal waste. It could even one day be adapted to processing landfill, Bianca Nogrady explains. And you can watch more from Guardian Australia’s Green Recovery series, including how Australia can clean up its act on energy.
One sector of the economy that isn’t suffering from Covid-related doom and gloom is the housing market and, while a fall in house prices could be on its way, compared with this time last year the demand for housing finance remains strong, writes Greg Jericho. “In June the value of housing finance commitments rose 6.2% – the biggest growth for more than a decade. Not since the global financial crisis stimulus packages have we seen such a jump in housing finance.”
From learning how to cook rice with Uncle Roger, to embracing the inner-bogan of Betman, the comedian Lizzy Hoo shares with us her top 10 funniest things on the internet.
Listen
Full Story looks at coronavirus six months on. More than 200 days on from its first detection the apocalyptic early scenarios may have abated, but for many people around the world the public health challenge remains severe. On this episode, the international correspondent Michael Safi surveys the landscape.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
Getting the 2020 netball season happening at all has been a Herculean task. But amid all the concessions and changes of Super Netball’s most chaotic pre-season yet lurk some long-term amendments that could have big ramifications for the game, writes Erin Delahunty.
He was the rising star of Jamaican cricket, once destined to be a great. But the decision to play in South Africa during apartheid would haunt Richard Austin, who went from West Indies allrounder to shoeless street beggar. Ashley Gray tells his story.
Novak Djokovic will decide in the “next few days” whether he’ll compete at this year’s US Open, as a raft of high-profile withdrawals – Rafael Nadal, Nick Kyrgios and Ashleigh Barty – raise concerns about post-tournament quarantine restrictions.
Media roundup
A landmark stolen wages case on behalf of 20,000 Indigenous Australians could result in a $400m payout, reports the West Australian. The Covid-19 wave in Victoria is not expected to subside until the last week of August, according to secret modelling obtained by the Australian, with the state expecting at least eight days of 1,000-plus new infections before the month is out. And, with a vaccine for the coronavirus still months or possibly years away, Australian scientists are experimenting with less traditional tracing systems including Covid detection dogs, pandemic drones and faecal analysis, writes the ABC.
Coming up
The Senate inquiry hearing into the Covid-19 response will hear evidence from the Department of Education, Skills and Employment.
And if you’ve read this far …
It’s been billed as being like Days of Our Lives – but for adorable baby animals. After a 24-hour livefeed was installed inside the nest of two eagle chicks in 2009, people from 195 countries around the world have tuned in, for around 5m cumulative views. And the interest in the daily movements of the white-bellied sea eagle chicks continues. “EagleCAM provides an opportunity to connect with nature without causing disruption,” say its founders. The good news is there are marine versions too.
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