Welcome to your serving of the day’s breaking news from South Australia, the nation and abroad. Follow this post for live updates through the day.
Virus-clear run prompts SA restrictions review
South Australia’s COVID-19 border restrictions will come under review this morning as the state’s run of days without new cases approaches two weeks.
The state’s transition committee is also expected to review other COVID-19 measures including caps on large gatherings such as weddings and funerals, AFL football crowds and restrictions on some business including pubs and restaurants.
SA still has a hard border closure with Victoria because of the second wave of cases there.
But it also has quarantine restrictions in place for people coming from NSW and the ACT.
A travel bubble with the ACT has been muted in recent days and Premier Steven Marshall says the issue will be looked at during the meeting of the state’s transition committee on Friday.
“The ACT has done extraordinarily well, but the big decision is whether we can separate out the ACT from NSW,” he said yesterday.
“They are things the transition committee considered on Tuesday, they’ll consider again on Friday.
“I don’t know when a decision on that will be made.
“What I can say though, is we will not keep the borders in place one day longer than we need to.”
Marshall said local health officials were in constant contact with their NSW counterparts but did not want to take any action that would result in a second wave of cases in SA.
As well as reporting no new infections for the past 11 days, South Australia has no active virus cases with the last known infection cleared on Wednesday..
The premier said while South Australia was in a good position, there were still areas of the economy that would like to see a further easing of the rules.
SkyCity posts $217 profit
The New Zealand-based owners of Adelaide’s casino have posted a $217 million profit despite significant revenue slumps and almost three months of closures.
SkyCity Entertainment’s shares increased eight per cent on the Australian Securities Exchange following yesterday’s announced that it had increased its full-year net profit increased 62.8 per cent.
The group, which runs casinos in Adelaide, Auckland, Hamilton and Queenstown, reported statutory net profit after tax of $NZ235.4 million ($A217.3 million).
However, management suggested normalised net profit, which fell 59.7 per cent to $NZ66.3 million, may be a more accurate representation.
This figure does not include the one-off gain of $NZ337 million SkyCity received from insurers after fire tore through the New Zealand International Convention Centre in October.
The fire forced the casino to close for three days.
The blaze was one of two major blights on SkyCity during the 12 months to June 30, along with the coronavirus pandemic.
Management said the casinos in both countries were trading well prior to COVID-19 restrictions.
The Adelaide and Auckland venues posted the biggest slumps in full-year revenue, about 18 per cent.
In an update on the current financial year, management said its domestic operations had recovered more quickly than expected.
Gaming activity at Adelaide and Auckland was just about at pre-virus levels, while gaming activity at Hamilton had exceeded those levels.
The opening of an expanded Adelaide venue is due later this year and will include a hotel and more restaurants and bars.
The expansion was originally planned to open in time for cricket’s Twenty20 World Cup, which was due to be held in Australia in October.
SkyCity’s shares rose more than eight per cent during the day’s trading before they eased to finish up 7.36 per cent at $2.48.
$8.2m for housing trust Tesla battery scheme
Australia’s Renewable Energy Agency has announced $8.2 million in funding to Tesla Motors Australia to install residential battery and rooftop solar systems at 3000 properties owned by Housing SA across Adelaide.
The housing trust tenants will then join in Australia’s largest virtual power plant, which aims to deliver lower energy bills and a more resilient electricity grid.
Tesla will install 5 kW of rooftop solar and a 13.5 kWh Powerwall battery system at each property, at no cost to the tenant. The system will provide approximately 80 per cent of average household energy use.
Together with 1100 systems already installed in a previous phase, the combined 20 MW / 54 MWh of residential energy storage will be used by Tesla in a centrally controlled VPP trial.
Housing SA tenants involved in the trial, like other renters, are usually locked out of being able to benefit from renewable energy. The tenants will benefit from cheaper household electricity bills, with the project offering electricity rates 22 per cent lower than the default market offer.
A VPP is a centrally-managed network of battery systems installed behind-the-meter that can be collectively controlled to deliver benefits to households, energy retailers and the local network.
National cabinet to plot path out of COVID shadow
Extreme weather risks, coronavirus-sparked border closures and infection hotspot definitions will be top of mind for Australia’s leaders when national cabinet meets this morning.
National cabinet – chaired by Prime Minister Scott Morrison with premiers and chief ministers – is set to meet virtually for its latest pandemic decision-making session.
There will be further discussion on a definition for hotspots, which Mr Morrison wants clarity on so there’s an understanding on when states can close their borders.
Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham wants states to rethink their current approach, saying border closures could cost tourism operators $55 billion this year.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian described Queensland’s benchmark of 28 days of no community transmission in NSW before removing its border controls as “a pretty tall order”.
“We’ve demonstrated for two months nearly that you can actually maintain a good control of the virus and keep your economy going,” she said.
“I hope other states have the confidence to take their borders down and do the same.”
But Queensland says it’s important for states to have control of their own outbreaks.
Victoria will on Sunday unveil its roadmap out of its current strict restrictions, which Premier Dan Andrews says is based on state health advice.
States have also been urged to back a national agricultural code to ensure Australia’s food production isn’t hurt by border closures.
The code’s chances of being agreed to are in serious doubt after the expert medical panel of state and federal health officers rejected it earlier in the week.
The cabinet meeting will also receive an economic update, after Australia’s first recession in 30 years was confirmed this week.
The economy has shrunk two quarters in a row, amounting to a technical recession.
The June quarter contraction of seven per cent is the worst figure since records began.
National cabinet will get the latest figures on international arrivals as well as the limit on Australians able to return home each week.
The figure is not expected to change, with states saying the limits ensure their mandatory hotel quarantine systems are sustainable.
There are now more than 23,000 Australians abroad who want to return, a third of whom are in India.
Australia’s death toll rose to 678 on Thursday after 15 more deaths in Victoria.
There were also 113 new cases in Victoria, the first time since Sunday that the state’s daily tally has been above 100.
Cabinet members will also be briefed by the Bureau of Meteorology on the forthcoming high-risk weather season, namely bushfires and cyclones.
Victorian virus ‘roadmap’ revelation nears
Victoria is inching closer to a much-anticipated “roadmap” out of lockdown despite an uptick in new COVID-19 cases creating a potential speedbump.
Premier Daniel Andrews will announce separate pathways for how and when Melbourne and regional Victoria will come out of respective stage four and three lockdowns on Sunday.
There is no confirmation yet that any restrictions will be eased on September 13, and Andrews isn’t deviating from his pre-set timeline for unveiling the state government’s strategy.
Potentially complicating matters is new cases rising to 113 on Thursday – the first time since Sunday that the daily tally has been above 100.
But testing numbers surged back over 17,000 on Thursday for the first time since last Saturday in a pleasing statistic for authorities.
Andrews reiterated the “roadmap” could not yet be released as it wasn’t finished and needed contemporary data from the next few days.
“There is an enormous amount of modelling going on at the moment,” he said.
“Literally thousands of scenarios are run through various computers and processes, and that does take some time.”
The premier also dismissed a leaked document, indicating a Melbourne’s 8pm-5am curfew could be extended by a further fortnight, as out of date.
Victoria recorded 15 more deaths, but nine of them occurred in aged care prior to the past 24 hours.
The latest deaths took the state toll to 591 and the national figure to 678.
Aussies into US Open third round
Australia’s top-ranked men’s tennis player Alex de Minaur has battled through to the third round of the US Open after outlasting French veteran Richard Gasquet.
The Sydney-sider joins Aussie Jordan Thompson in the third round following the 6-4 6-3 6-7 (8-6) 7-5 win.
Big-serving John Millman is also well placed to join de Minaur and Thompson in the third round, winning the second and third sets against American Frances Tiafoe after losing the first in a tie-break
De Minuar looked to be cruising to victory when he raced into a two-set lead and held three match points in the third, only for Gasquet to drag himself off the canvas to win the last five points of the tiebreak.
The sweet-swinging 2013 semi-finalist then raced into a 3-0 lead in the fourth set following an early break of the 21st-seeded de Minaur.
But de Minaur showed all his renowned fighting qualities to level the set in sweltering conditions in New York and then broke the former world No.7 at 6-5 to win a tense three-hour encounter.
The 34-year-old Gasquet was visibly wilting in the latter stages of the match as the on-court temperatures nudged 35 degrees and de Minaur said he knew he had the stamina to see him off.
“It was a tough battle out there, Richard played a great game but I back my fitness against anyone and that really helped me out today,” de Minaur said.
De Minaur, who reached the fourth round at Flushing Meadows last year, will now face giant Russian 11th-seed Karen Khachanov for a place in the fourth round.
Thompson takes on Mikhail Kukushkin from Kazakhstan in the third round tonight while unheralded Aussie Chris O’Connell will face world No. 5 Daniil Medvedev for his place in the third round later this morning.
Trump urges mail voters to vote again at polling places
Photo: AP/ Evan Vucci
US President Donald Trump is adopting a version of the tongue-in-cheek phrase ‘vote early vote often’, urging people who vote early by mail to show up at polling places and vote again if their ballots haven’t been counted.
Voting by mail is meant to replace voting in-person during the pandemic but Trump doesn’t trust the mail-in system.
But Trump has said he is concerned that the November 3 election will be awash in fraud because so many voters will mail in their ballots to avoid being exposed to the coronavirus at polling sites.
The president said people could mail in their ballots as early as possible and then follow up with a trip to the polls to see whether their mail-in vote was tabulated.
A top election official in North Carolina, where Trump initially broached the topic on Wednesday, discouraged voters from following Trump’s advice.
Trump tweeted on Thursday, referring to whether a person’s vote had been counted, that “If it has you will not be able to Vote & the Mail In System worked properly”.
“If it has not been Counted, VOTE (which is a citizen’s right to do).”
If the mail-in ballot gets to election officials after a person votes at the polls, the in-person vote will be ignored, he said.
“YOU ARE NOW ASSURED THAT YOUR PRECIOUS VOTE HAS BEEN COUNTED, it hasn’t been “lost, thrown out, or in any way destroyed.”
Meanwhile, US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has begun a visit to the key state of Wisconsin by meeting with the family of Jacob Blake, the black man whose shooting by a white police officer sparked days of protests.
Biden spent more than an hour in private with Blake’s father, Jacob Blake Sr, his siblings, and one of his lawyers. Blake’s mother Julia Jackson and another lawyer, Ben Crump, joined by phone.
Blake remains hospitalised after being shot seven times in the back as authorities tried to arrest him.
The trip, Biden’s first to Wisconsin of the general election campaign, is intended to draw sharp contrasts with US President Donald Trump.
Biden is seeking to portray himself as a unifying figure, able to lead the country through a reckoning with systemic racism along with the coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout.
Trump didn’t meet with the Blake family when he visited Kenosha earlier this week.
Beijing flights resume as Indian infections soar
Beijing’s main airport has begun receiving international flights again from a limited number of countries while the number of coronavirus infections continues to rise in India and the global tally of cases topped 26 million people.
Passengers flying into the Chinese capital from Cambodia, Greece, Denmark, Thailand, Pakistan, Austria, Canada and Sweden must have first shown a negative coronavirus test before boarding, city government spokesperson Xu Hejian told reporters.
Arrivals will be limited to roughly 500 per day during a trial period and all will need to undergo additional testing for the virus on arrival followed by two weeks of quarantine.
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The first flight under the arrangement, Air China Flight 746, arrived from Phnom Penh, Cambodia, just before 7am on Thursday.
Beginning in March, all international flights to Beijing had been redirected to a dozen other cities where passengers were tested and processed before being allowed to travel on to the Chinese capital.
China has gone weeks without new cases of local infection and the 11 new cases recorded on Thursday were all imported.
Meanwhile, India registered a record single-day spike of 83,883 new cases, driving the country’s overall tally to 3.85 million.
The health ministry on Thursday also reported 1043 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking total fatalities up to 67,376.
India has been reporting the highest daily increases for more than three weeks.
The ministry said the country’s fatality rate had declined to 1.76 per cent and its deaths per million population was “one of the lowest in the world”.
Experts say deaths could be substantially undercounted in several states.
Globally, more than 26.13 million people have been reported to be infected by the coronavirus and 863,557 have died.
– with AAP and Reuters
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