Morning mail: fears for Australia's world heritage sites, UK vaccine rollout, festive food gifts
Good morning, this is Richard Parkin bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Thursday 3 December.
Top stories
Five of Australia’s major world heritage sites have significantly deteriorated, according to Unesco’s advisory body, with the prognosis for the Great Barrier Reef worsening from “significant concern” to “critical” in the past three years. The Gondwana rainforests have been upgraded to “significant concern” since the 2019-20 bushfire disaster, as has the Blue Mountains region. Climate change represents a “very high” or “high” threat to 11 out of Australia’s 16 significant sites, with bushfires, droughts or coral bleaching major threats. The Great Barrier Reef has experienced three significant bleaching events in five years.
The UK has paved the way for a mass immunisation against Covid-19 as early as next week, with the health secretary, Matt Hancock, announcing that 800,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine will be available for those most at risk. The vaccine is said to have demonstrated 95% efficacy during its final trials, prompting the UK to order 40m doses, which will arrive as production expands. Rollout remains “challenging” though, according to Hancock, as the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine requires being kept at -70C. The UK is the first western country to license a mass immunisation vaccine against the coronavirus.
A former Canadian defence minister has detailed how he disbanded an elite military force after it was involved in war crimes, saying the “drastic” response was necessary due to “a systemic problem with the institution from which the individuals came”. The unit has not been reestablished in the 25 years since its mothballing after the so-called “Somalia affair”, a scandal that bears parallels with the allegations of war crimes against Australian troops in Afghanistan. David Collenette did not directly urge Australia to follow suit but merely stated that “a fresh start” as well as a major organisational reform proved “very successful” in Canada’s case.
Australia
The former federal environment minister Josh Frydenberg proposed delisting wetlands backed by international protections after lobbying from developers, a freedom of information request has detailed.
Key indicators of Indigenous disadvantage have risen in the past four years, a major report has shown. The number of Aboriginal children placed in out-of-home care has tripled, and rates of Indigenous imprisonment, suicide and self-harm have climbed.
Three in five Australians would like to see greater regulation of Facebook and Google, according to Guardian Essential polling, with 57% of respondents also saying they want the tech companies to pay media outlets for their news content.
The world
Covid-19 could result in hundreds of thousands of deaths from malaria across the Pacific, with health experts warning that the pandemic response could derail previously planned efforts to control the mosquito-borne disease.
The party of Hungary’s rightwing prime minister, Viktor Orbán, is facing heavy political fallout after one of its MEPs, József Szájer, resigned, admitting to taking part in a “gay orgy” in Brussels.
France has announced a plan to target ski resorts with random border checks after alpine resorts were found to have played a major role in the forming of coronavirus clusters during the first wave of the pandemic.
South Africa’s national lottery is facing allegations of fraud after 20 people won a share of the jackpot with the winning numbers 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and a “powerball” of 10. The winners took home 5.7m rand (about A$500,000) each.
Recommended reads
Keen to shower your loved ones with edible goodies this Christmas? Adam Liaw has a handy guide to homemade gifts that are both economical and tasty. “I’ve given and received homemade biscuits, soy sauce, chilli sauce, home-brewed beer, rice wine and bottarga. Fruit cordials and shrubs are great, too.” The key to great food gifts though? Make sure you actually eat them, and don’t be afraid to crack them open on the spot.
The Australian economy bounced back impressively for the September quarter and, while the federal treasurer has been bullish in his economic prognosis, the short-term bounce shouldn’t paper over the fact that the economy has still taken a massive whack, as Greg Jericho explains. “All the nice one-quarter growth and talk of technicalities cannot hide the fact that when you have fallen back three years, your economy remains in a very deep recession.”
Comedian Laura Davis is our guest compiler for this week’s 10 funniest things on the internet. And the Australian-via-London-stuck-in-NZ comic has put together a knock-out lineup for fans of choice standup. Or for those who like to imagine alternative Captain Cook-laden realities.
Listen
Gladys Berejiklian under fire. Caught up in a spate of scandals, the NSW premier continues to face questions over how $140m of public funds was used to bolster Coalition-held seats. On this episode of Full Story, Guardian Australia’s investigative reporter Anne Davies examines whether Berejiklian is still fit to lead the state.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
With Matildas players fielding lucrative offers in Europe, has the W-League lost its lustre? Well, not entirely, argues Samantha Lewis, with a strong focus on off-field professionalism, Australia’s women’s league could still lead the world.
Australia have missed their chance at a first series whitewash against India in 20 years, as a late batting collapse saw the hosts fall short by 13 runs in the third and final ODI clash, in Canberra.
Media roundup
Joe Biden’s designated national security adviser has said the US will stand “shoulder to shoulder with our ally Australia”, reports the Australian, amid the worsening diplomatic stoush with China. The UK’s move to roll out a Covid-19 mass immunisation plan starting next week has not changed Australia’s timelines, the ABC writes, with the health minister, Greg Hunt, nominating March 2021 for the first vaccine delivery. And, WA’s cabinet is facing criticism for failing to attend a community safety forum in Broome, claims the West Australian, which describes the town as “crime-plagued” after a spate of robberies and violence.
Coming up
Climate experts from the Bureau of Meteorology will provide an in-depth look at the outlook for summer as well as upcoming rainfall and temperatures.
Federal parliament returns to sit in Canberra, with sweeping new state of emergency laws set for ongoing discussion.
And if you’ve read this far …
It predates world war two and hails from a time there were 5 billion fewer humans on Earth. But a snapper caught off the coast of Western Australia in 2016 is officially the world’s oldest tropical reef fish. At 81 years old, the midnight snapper (or Macolor macularis) broke the record by two decades, prompting the study’s lead author to confess to some “colourful language”.
