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A chemist works at AstraZeneca’s headquarters in Sydney in August. Australia will buy 84.8m vaccine doses at a cost of $1.7bn if two promising Covid-19 vaccine candidates prove successful. Photograph: Reuters

Morning mail: vaccine deals finalised, Djokovic disqualified, Jacob Blake speaks

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A chemist works at AstraZeneca’s headquarters in Sydney in August. Australia will buy 84.8m vaccine doses at a cost of $1.7bn if two promising Covid-19 vaccine candidates prove successful. Photograph: Reuters

Monday: Australia will buy 84.8m vaccine doses at a cost of $1.7bn. Plus: boarding school system is failing Indigenous students

by Lauren Waldhuter

Good morning, this is Lauren Waldhuter bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Monday 7 September.

Top stories

The Australian government has finalised deals to buy 84.8 million doses of two promising Covid-19 vaccines, if they prove successful. The $1.7bn agreement will see two vaccines, being developed by the University of Oxford and the University of Queensland, manufactured in Australia and provided free to all Australians. The first doses could be available by January 2021 if trials go well, but a global health research charity has warned that political leaders are raising “false hopes”. Health experts have backed the extension of Melbourne’s stage four lockdown, while the Chamber of Commerce groups say it’s a “kick in the guts” that spells the end for many businesses. Here’s Victoria’s roadmap out of lockdown. A woman whose parents both died after contracting Covid-19 in a Melbourne aged care home wants a coronial inquest into their deaths. Liz Beardon says Menarock Rosehill aged care facility didn’t initially tell her and her brother when their parents tested positive. Now she wants answers to stop a similar tragedy happening again.

In the UK, new Covid-19 infections surged by nearly 3,000 cases in just 24 hours – the highest daily number since May. The tally has been partly put down to increased testing but the government says the rise – predominately among young people – is “concerning”. Deaths in the UK remain low, with just three reported on Sunday. Some UK virus hotspots are now facing tougher restrictions but London seems to be avoiding a spike for now. Here’s why. New rules in Glasgow have confused locals, where people can meet up in the pubs or a gym but can’t go round to someone’s home. Meanwhile a poll in Greece has found around half of people would skip a coronavirus vaccine if it was approved.

Title favourite Novak Djokovic has been disqualified from the US Open after hitting a line judge with a ball. The top seed and 17-time grand slam tennis champion had just dropped serve to trail Spanish opponent Pablo Carreño Busta 6-5 in the opening set of their fourth-round match on Arthur Ashe Stadium. He hit a ball behind him in annoyance that hit a female line judge. A lengthy discussion followed between tournament officials and Djokovic as the Serbian argued his case to no avail. There was no question Djokovic did not intend to hit the line judge, and the ball was not hit particularly hard, but it was clear immediately that the woman was hurt.

Australian conservation groups want Unesco to oppose the Morrison government’s “alarming” changes to environmental laws. Thirteen groups have written to the UN’s peak environmental heritage body warning that Australia’s world heritage sites are “under more pressure than ever before” and saying the government must not “walk away from its responsibilities to conserve world heritage”. Legislation to streamline environmental approvals was rushed through the lower house on Thursday after debate was gagged, sparking outrage from Labor and the Greens. The bill would help transfer development approval powers to state and territory governments.

Australia

Smoke billows from a bushfire south of Huonville in southern Tasmania in January 2019. Photograph: Rob Blakers/AAP

A prominent scientist has denounced the Institute of Foresters Australia for dismissing logging links to bushfire risk. In a letter seen by the Guardian, John Dargavel says the professional body, of which he is a member, has “damaged and demeaned” all foresters.

Bringing forward the next phase of income tax cuts will only benefit top earners, the Australia Institute says. The thinktank believes the government should instead boost jobseeker to support those doing it tough.

The boarding school system is failing Indigenous students from remote communities, according to a new study. Australian National University researchers tracked students and found many were dropping out in their first year with little support.

National newswire Australian Associated Press 2.0 has launched a crowdfunding campaign to stay afloat. Its chief executive admits “it’s been a lot tougher than we thought” a month after the wire was saved by impact investors and philanthropists.

World

Jacob Blake in his hospital bed in Milwaukee. Photograph: @AttorneyCrump Twitter account/AFP/Getty Images

Jacob Blake has spoken publicly for the first time since a police officer shot him seven times in the back in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He says he is in constant pain from his injuries.

UK police have released CCTV footage of a man they are seeking after multiple stabbings in Birmingham. One man was killed and seven people injured during a two-hour attack.

On what was meant to be Hong Kong’s election day, almost 300 people were arrested at pro-democracy protests in the city. The government postponed the vote for one year, citing coronavirus concerns, but critics claim it’s because they feared losing.

Huge anti-government demonstrations in Belarus show no sign of ending, with crowds marching in the capital for a fourth weekend. Embattled president Alexander Lukashenko is defying calls to step down after an election widely seen as rigged.

Artist and National Art School student Lesley Wengembo painted campus assistant Mal Nabogi for his Archibald prize entry. Photograph: Lesley Wengembo

The self-described “granddaddy” of Sydney’s National Art School campus has now found himself the subject. As he walks among the grand sandstone buildings of the school, students regularly stop and chat to Malachi Nagobi. Now Lesley Wengembo – something of a child prodigy at his home in Port Moresby – is painting Nagobi for the prestigious Archibald prize. Twenty-three-year-old Wengembo arrived at Sydney’s National Art School anxious to learn, but shy about what he feared was an under-developed ability. It was only through his Instagram account that his talent was discovered by his classmates. Nagobi and Wengembo share an easy connection. They speak only a little – much of their communication is little more than knowing looks and raised eyebrows – but they laugh easily and often together.

For many refugees in Australian detention centres, music represents liberation, life and defiance. After spending years detained on Manus Island. Behrouz Boochani knows how playing music can be the most radical act against the violence of imprisonment. He tells the stories of those – like Farhad Bandesh – who have had instruments ripped from them. “They are not merely playing their guitars, their music is essentially a political act. For them, music is the language with which they can fight for their human rights – human rights that have been violated.”

Learning in lockdown might be the largest social experiment we’ve ever done. The shift to home schooling has taken a toll on both children and parents during the pandemic. In Victoria children have now been enduring it for half of the 2020 school year. But Sophie Black looks at whether hitting the pause button on education means there might be space to observe other ways of learning, and to reconsider what we value about schools.

Listen

The wounded, the mourning and the defiant: inside the Christchurch sentencing. Over four days in court, survivors of the 2019 mosque shootings and the families of victims stood up and faced the Australian gunman. Hear their compelling statements as Charlotte Graham-Mclay takes us inside the proceedings.

Full Story

The wounded, the mourning and the defiant: inside the Christchurch sentencing.

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

Sport

Adam Yates (right) crosses the finish line for stage eight in Loudenvielle with Egan Bernal (in white). Photograph: Marco Bertorello/AFP/Getty Images

British cyclist Adam Yates clung on doggedly to the overall lead in the Tour de France in the first Pyrenean stage. A day of drama saw Yates fend off a flurry of attacks from a leading group of pre-race favourites.

England have upset Australia by six wickets in the second men’s Twenty20 . Batsman Jos Buttler led England to a comfortable victory by hitting an unbeaten 77 to clinch the series.

Media roundup

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that health authorities are getting closer to identifying the source of the Sydney’s swelling CBD cluster of coronavirus infections. The Australian Financial Review reports on a new share-trading platform trying to capitalise on young investors rushing into the stock market. Analysis in the Age says Daniel Andrew’s decision to extend Victoria’s lockdown is simply a “best guess” by government.

Coming up

Queensland’s treasurer will delivers an update on how the state’s economy has fared during Covid-19.

Deloitte’s annual Media Consumer Survey will shed light on what people have been watching on TV and online during the pandemic.

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