Morning mail: grim UK milestone, Biden tackles race, cautious optimism for AFLW |

Good morning, this is Tamara Howie bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Wednesday 27 January. It’s back to work after a busy day on the streets with Invasion Day rallies across the country and lots on the agenda in US politics as Biden settles into the Oval Office.

Top stories

The UK has reached a grim milestone with the Covid-19 death toll passing 100,000. PM Boris Johnson says he is “sorry for every life lost” and takes “full responsibility.” It comes as the EU grapples with vaccine supply issues, stopping short of introducing a vaccine export ban. Instead, it plans to finalise a proposal by the end of the week to require pharmaceutical firms to register their vaccine exports. The president of the European commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said the EU had invested billions and “companies must now deliver” to the 27 member states after AstraZeneca warned of a 60% shortfall. Meanwhile the Netherlands has been rocked by the third night of riots against the Covid curfew.

Joe Biden is set to sign more executive orders today, including establishing a commission on policing to tackle race inequality in the country. The US Senate confirmed Antony Blinken as secretary of state. Blinken was tapped by Biden to rebuild the country’s relationship with allies, which were frayed after a tumultuous four years under Trump. Biden also said the 100-day goal for vaccine delivery may rise to 150 million, from 100 million.

Australians turned out in droves for Invasion Day rallies around the country on Tuesday, despite Covid restrictions. The rallies were for the most part peaceful and socially distanced, despite five arrests in Sydney. In previous years attendees shouted “Change the date”, but yesterday the message shifted. Many activists advocated instead for the abolition of Australia Day and substantive policies including a treaty. Sydney’s rally organisers negotiated with police to host the event without marching after being denied an exemption from the Covid gathering restrictions. There were photographers on the ground across the country to capture the rallies – see our gallery here.

Australia

Coalition MPs Warren Entsch and Llew O’Brien are calling for further bailouts for the Australian tourism industry because domestic holidaymakers can’t fill the void left by lost international revenue. The Morrison government has sent mixed signals about whether it will help the tourism industry when jobkeeper wage subsidies expire in March.

The ABC has told a Senate inquiry into media diversity that it cannot fill the void created by the closure of more than 100 suburban and regional newspapers. The media diversity inquiry was established by Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young following the popularity of former PM Kevin Rudd’s petition for a royal commission into Murdoch media.

After Covid outbreaks in Sydney threatened to spoil the state’s summer, health authorities once again seem to have contained a flare-up without resorting to a city-wide lockdown. Instead, the NSW approach was to focus lockdowns on the most affected suburbs and to reintroduce limits on indoor and outdoor gatherings without banning them altogether.

Climate change legislation proposed by the independent MP Zali Steggall has been backed by the Business Council of Australia. The business council said it supported “strong action” on climate change, which required “setting a national target of net-zero emissions by 2050 and, critically, outlining a pathway to achieve this goal”.

The world

Farmers protesting against new agriculture laws in India broke through police barricades around the capital and entered the grounds of Delhi’s historic Red Fort. One protestor died and dozens of police and protesters were injured as police hit protesters with batons and fired teargas to try to disperse the crowds.

Dating app Grindr has been fined roughly $15m in Norway for sharing personal information of its users, including location, sexual orientation and mental health details.

EU citizens are being offered financial incentives to leave the UK months before the deadline to apply for settled status. Payments can include flights and up to £2,000 ($3544) resettlement money and some advocates for vulnerable migrants say the financial incentives contradict the government’s claim that it was doing everything it could to encourage people to register for settled status.

Recommended reads

A white sharpshooter and an Indigenous survivor of a massacre reunite after 12 years in the gracefully directed but rather Anglo-centric western, High Ground, writes Luke Buckmaster. “It feels weird for a white man to convey the key philosophy of a film that explores the brutal impact of settlement, though High Ground avoids the “white saviour” trope despite coming a little too close for comfort, with several moments of heroism and sacrifice establishing Travis (Simon Baker) as the moral centre of the picture.”

Though Roger Cull never contemplated taking up a sport in retirement, a chance invitation to a “little Sunday cycling group” quickly led to more. “Within months, I started competing. In my first race, I placed second. I rang home excited and said to my son, who was about 16 at the time, “Eddie, it’s Dad. I’m up the Blue Mountains. I’ve just been in this race and I’ve come second!” And he replied: “Dad, no one remembers second.” So I think that scarred me. I decided then that I wasn’t going to have too many seconds.”

Australia’s health system makes some, particularly minorities, feel forced to do as they’re told, says Ranjana Srivastava. For many it’s difficult to speak up and many minority patients struggle to be heard. “Many patients have told me that they’re having major surgery because they have no choice. Sometimes they mean they’ve considered the alternative and abandoned it. But far too often, they mean it literally – they were not given a choice.”

Autistic people are used to being underestimated and infantilised – but for Clem Bastow it was still a shock to see it on the big screen. “It may relieve some, then, to hear that like much like Rain Man, Music isn’t really a film “about Autism”. Instead, it’s a self-improvement narrative punctuated by song-and-dance dream sequences – but rather than those fantastical moments giving flight to something uplifting or illuminating, the film is predictable and suffocating.”

Listen

When the banking royal commission wrapped up in early 2019, the government said it was committed to enacting change. In today’s Full Story, senior business reporter Ben Butler explains how two years on, most recommendations have either been delayed or abandoned. Before diving into the podcast, you can see the full list of recommendations made by the banking royal commission and which ones have been implemented, stalled or scrapped and read Ben Butler’s analysis of treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s response here.

Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.