Good morning. It’s been two years today since the first confirmed case of Covid-19 in Australia. Since then, there have been more than 2.2m infections and more than 3,000 deaths, with many of those taking place in the current Omicron outbreak. The surge has caused shortages of rapid tests, which are causing stress for vulnerable people and has come at a difficult time for the return to school. In the aged care sector, some facilities are telling essential visitors to find their own rapid tests or be denied entry. Meanwhile, our economics correspondent, Peter Hannam, looks at whether Australia debt-fuelled pandemic finance party is finally over.
A 1,700km rail route between Melbourne and Brisbane has been promised by the Coalition to deliver an economic boom for Australia’s regions and rural communities. But four years after the project (worth $14.5bn and counting) was announced, just 130km of track has been laid and we are still unsure of where it will exactly start and finish. A major Guardian investigation examines the mega project to find out whether communities along its route will benefit and whether their concerns are being bypassed.
Australians in Ukraine are being urged to leave the country immediately as a Russian invasion appears increasingly likely. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Monday night raised its advice to “Do Not Travel” and urged Australians to leave now by commercial means as flight availability could change or be suspended at short notice. Nato is reinforcing its eastern borders with land, sea and air forces, and the US is considering the deployment of thousands more troops to the region, as fears grow of a possible “lightning” attack by Russia to seize the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. Nato’s secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said the “deteriorating security situation” had driven the military alliance to bolster its “collective defence”. Dfat’s advice comes as family members of Australian diplomats prepare to depart Kyiv. It follows similar moves by the United States and the United Kingdom.
The Aboriginal flag now “belongs to everyone” after the federal government bought the emblem’s copyright in a $20m deal. The deal includes payment to designer Harold Thomas and terminates commercial licences, which had limited the reproduction of the symbol. “In reaching this agreement to resolve the copyright issues, all Australians can freely display and use the flag to celebrate Indigenous culture,” said Ken Wyatt, the federal minister for Indigenous Australians. “Now that the commonwealth holds the copyright, it belongs to everyone, and no one can take it away.”
Australia
Scott Morrison enters a federal election year with his approval languishing at levels not seen since March 2020, and the Coalition’s handling of the Omicron wave may have swayed some voters away, according to the the first Guardian Essential poll of the year.
Anthony Albanese will open the election year with a new $440m pitch to help schools manage the challenges of the pandemic, promising new grant funding for better ventilation, building upgrades and mental health services.
Nearly half of all people who sought help with homelessness last year in NSW did not get it, a new report has shown. Unmet demand for homelessness services is up 10 percentage points from five years ago in NSW and Queensland but has dropped in Victoria, according to a Productivity Commission report.
The world
The UK prime minister is facing new allegations of another party at No 10 during lockdown, this time for Boris Johnson’s birthday party. Carrie Johnson threw the surprise birthday party during the first lockdown, despite the rules forbidding social gatherings indoors, according to broadcaster ITV. Downing Street has admitted the prime minister attended the gathering in the cabinet room at No 10 with up to 30 people at 2pm on 19 June 2020, but denied reports he held a birthday party later in the Downing Street residence. Social gatherings indoors at the time were banned, with people permitted only to meet outside in groups of up to six people. The revelations about parties at No 10 during lockdown have sparked widespread anger and now threaten the PM’s leadership as a number of Tory MPs plot against him.
The former pope Benedict XVI has admitted providing false information to a German inquiry into clerical sexual abuse. The former pontiff blames an editorial “oversight” for a previous statement that he was absent from a 1980 meeting over a suspected paedophile priest.
One person was shot dead and three others were injured after a man opened fire in a lecture hall in the German university town of Heidelberg. The gunman, a student carrying several firearms, also died during the attack.
Julian Assange will be able to go to the supreme court in the UK to challenge a decision allowing him to be extradited to the US to face espionage charges. But the supreme court will have to decide whether or not it should hear his challenge.
Recommended reads
There’s almost always a profound reason someone chooses to take up a combat sport as an adult, Jenny Valentish learns at a women’s Muay Thai retreat in Victoria. “Many of the women here were drawn to Muay Thai for the feeling of confidence that a combat sport can provide, particularly sparring, which Rangkla and La introduce unusually early on, believing that if well supervised it doesn’t have to be daunting.”
Paul Kelly barely remembers what he played on stage at his most memorable gig. What he does remember is the goosebumps and the crowd stunned into silence after Archie Roach sang Took the Children Away. “I was watching from the side – I had goosebumps and the hairs went up on the back of my neck as he sang it, to dead silence from the audience. He finished the song and there was still dead silence … I’d never seen it before – people were so stunned at the end of the song that it took them a while just to gather themselves to applaud.”
The Red Cross’s Lifeblood program is chalking up a record number of no-shows, with half of the nation’s blood donation appointments going unattended. “We need 140,000 new blood donors in 2022 to meet the needs of patients across Australia, an increase of 45%,” Lifeblood’s executive director of donor services, Cath Stone, said. “Our existing donors can’t do it alone.” It takes only 10 minutes to donate the standard 470ml of blood that can save up to three lives.
Listen
On 15 January, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai undersea volcano erupted, cutting Tonga off from the world. In today’s Full Story, journalist Marian Kupu speaks to Pacific editor Kate Lyons about what it was like on the ground.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
Alex Blackwell challenged an unjust view of the ideal women’s cricketer after only four team members were awarded marketing contracts. “The sense of injustice grated on me – not just for myself, but for my teammates who may never be in the running no matter how good they are because they do not fit the mould of what an ideal female athlete should look like and represent. I wasn’t prepared to stand by and let that happen.”
The Matildas have maintained their perfect start to the Women’s Asian Cup with a 4-0 win over the Philippines, securing safe passage to the quarter-finals in the process.
Media roundup
Two-thirds of South Australia’s government teachers have voted to strike on the first full face-to-face return to school next Wednesday to protest a lack of Covid planning, reports the Advertiser. The Courier Mail says a report kept secret by police has revealed allegations that suspects in the deadly Whiskey Au Go Go blaze were “protected from prosecution”.
Coming up
The Australian of the Year will be announced later today. The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, will address the National Press Club in Canberra.
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