Morning mail: Sydney Covid crackdown, Barty reaches Wimbledon final, Haiti reels

Friday: western Sydney residents feel ‘scapegoated’ amid police crackdown. Plus: Tokyo Olympics bans spectators

Good morning. Western Sydney residents say they are being “scapegoated” as New South Wales police announced a major compliance crackdown, including 100 extra officers and mounted police. Cumberland City councillor Kun Huang argued the police operation was harsher on the western suburbs than it had been in more affluent parts of Sydney. NSW recorded 38 new local Covid cases on Thursday – the highest daily number since the Sydney outbreak began. Of those 20 people were in the community for part or all of their infectious period. Gladys Berejiklian, said the daily case numbers were “too high” but that it was still “achievable” for the lockdown to end next Friday, “assuming everybody does the right thing”. Meanwhile, the Therapeutic Goods Administration said the death of a woman from a very rare blood clotting condition was “likely” linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine – Australia’s third death related to the shot.

Ash Barty has produced one of the highest quality big-match performances of her career, outplaying the former champion Angelique Kerber 6-3, 7-6 (3) to reach her first Wimbledon final. Barty loves grass. She won the girls’ title here as a 15-year-old a decade ago, has a game that is perfectly suited to the fast, low bounce and has frequently said she spends much of the season counting down the days until the grass arrives again. While Barty tends to be wary of revealing too many of her ambitions, before this tournament she made it clear that winning the title was an ultimate goal.

The Coalition’s proposed federal anti-corruption body would have no power to investigate dozens of integrity, expense and pork-barrelling controversies that have come to light in recent years, the Guardian has found. An analysis of 40 political controversies shows that all but two fall well short of the threshold the proposed body requires to begin an investigation. The Commonwealth Integrity Commission – described by the government as a “centralised, specialist centre investigating corruption in the public sector” – would be unable to investigate the recent car park rorts or sports rorts affairs, and many other controversies, as it needs to have a “reasonable suspicion” that a listed criminal offence has been committed before it can even begin investigating.

Haiti is reeling from the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. Six people, including one US citizen, have been arrested and seven reportedly killed as Haitian security forces pursued the gunmen responsible. The government has declared a two-week state of emergency to help it hunt the assassins. Moïse was shot at least a dozen times and died at the scene, according to Carl Henry Destin, a judicial official. Since taking over in 2017 he had faced calls to leave office and mass protests, first over corruption allegations and his management of the economy, and then over his increasing grip on power.

Australia

More than four in 10 Australians are worried China may attack Australia, according to new polling, expressing a level of fear that is nearly as high as among Taiwan’s population. Analysts say the fear is due to some government figures in Canberra “beating the drums of war”.

An Afghan interpreter who worked with Australian forces and fears Taliban retribution has had his flight to Australia with his family cancelled, after caps on international arrivals were halved.

Pregnant Australian women are demanding to be considered a priority group for Covid vaccinations, despite currently being ineligible for the Pfizer shot. A change in the official health advice recommends that they be offered the jab at any stage of pregnancy because their risk of suffering severe outcomes from Covid is higher.

A major supplier of laboratory animals to Australian researchers will close due to financial difficulties, renewing debate about the use of animals in medical and scientific research.

The world

As Boris Johnson announced the end of Britain’s military mission in Afghanistan, Taliban fighters pressed in on the capital of Helmand province, once the centre of the UK’s presence there.

More than 1 billion marine animals are likely to have died along Canada’s Pacific coast from last week’s record heatwave, experts warn.

Rescue efforts at the site of the Miami condo collapse have officially ended as officials have said there is no chance of life in the rubble. The death toll stands at 60 and the number of unaccounted is 80.

Donald Trump charged the Secret Service nearly $10,200 for its use of guest rooms at his New Jersey golf club in May, newly released records indicate. The May charges at the Trump National golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey totalled $10,199.52 for an 18-day stay – about $566 per night at the resort.

Recommended reads

Purple cauliflower, carrots and broccoli have progressed from farmers’ markets and now join eggplant, beetroot and cabbage on Australia’s supermarket shelves. Purple’s reign is only just beginning, says plant physiologist and associate professor Tim O’Hare, with sweetcorn potentially next in line. O’Hare is currently working on a project in conjunction with one of Australia’s major sweetcorn companies, developing purple sweetcorn as a product for commercialisation. But how do they get to be that colour, and are they any better for us?

When this whole pandemic and lockdowns are all over, Brigid Delaney won’t remember the tedium of being stuck inside – but will recall the walks, the conversations, the light and landscapes. “After the first lockdown I formed a walking group of non-walkers that tried to meet each week to do a long, usually half-day, walk, followed by a swim and late lunch. Once we ended up walking through a rifle range. Another walk, the Spit to Manly, we were so disorganised that no one could find anyone else on the path and we ended up doing the walk in three groups of two because we all got confused about where the start was.”

Being wholly goal-driven sets us up for constant comedowns, writes Jenny Valentish, but some high achievers have found a solution. So how do we avoid the inevitable comedown? Kieran Setiya, a professor of philosophy at MIT, has taken a lead from Aristotle to put forward the idea that we need both telic (taken from the Greek word telos, meaning “goal”) activities and atelic activities in our lives. Atelic activities are things we do without fanfare, purely for enjoyment’s sake, that have no endpoint.

Listen

The Morrison government has once again been accused of pork barrelling, this time with a scheme that promised $660m worth of new car parks. But despite a scathing report and no evidence of merit-based decision making, it seems there will be no consequences. Editor Lenore Taylor and head of news Mike Ticher discuss why no one seems to be held to account.

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

Sport

The Tokyo Olympics will go ahead without spectators under a Covid state of emergency, Japan’s Olympics minister Tamayo Marukawa has said. But Marukawa left open the possibility that some venues outside Tokyo could still have fans.

Uefa has charged England after a laser pointer was shone in the face of the Denmark goalkeeper, Kasper Schmeichel. England have also been charged with the booing of the Danish anthem and the lighting of fireworks inside the stadium.

Media roundup

NSW’s senior ministers are “cautiously canvassing” abandoning a zero local transmission strategy and accepting the Delta strain of Covid will circulate in the community, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. Meanwhile a pub owner in Melbourne has been reprimanded by the Therapeutic Goods Administration for offering a free pint to Covid vaccinated customers, because businesses cannot offer alcohol, tobacco or medicines as incentives to get vaccinated, says the Age.

Coming up

The national cabinet will meet, with the possibility of home quarantine on the agenda.

A hearing will take place over the proposed destruction of parts of Porter-ABC court file that were tendered in the ABC’s defence of his defamation action.

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