Good morning, this is Emilie Gramenz bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Monday 24 August.

Top stories

Treasury predicts Australia’s effective unemployment rate will top 13% before the end of the year. The Covid outbreak in Victoria is hampering the recovery which saw real unemployment fall to 9.8% in July, down from a peak of 14.4% in April. Jobkeeper will be extended until March next year, as part of legislation introduced to the parliament this sitting, but Labor is already pushing for further clarity on what will happen beyond the new end date, when the impact of the global recession begins to bite. More than 500 Australians have died from Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, with Victoria announcing on Sunday morning that 17 more people with coronavirus had died.

India has passed three million coronavirus cases. The country leads the world in new infections as the disease marches through impoverished rural areas in the north and the wealthier but older populations of the south. Mexico passed 60,000 deaths and South Korea reported its highest daily Covid-19 tally since early March. Covid-19 infections and outbreaks were “uncommon” in English schools after they reopened in June, according to a Public Health England report. The Italian government is not considering a new coronavirus lockdown despite a steady rise in cases over the past month. And German lawmakers have suggested a temporary ban on private parties after the number of coronavirus infections reached a four-month high.

When federal public servant Josh Krook wrote a blog post about how Covid-19 benefitted big tech, he didn’t imagine it would cost him his job. The post talked only in generalities. It made no reference to any individual company and did not mention, let alone criticise, the Australian government or government policy. Three months after the post, Krook was invited to a meeting with his superior. Krook said he was given a choice: remove the blog post or face termination. Initially he took it down, but the more he reflected, the less he could stomach what he had been asked to do.

Australia

A study has found unborn babies whose mothers breathed in smoke from a major coalmine fire in Victoria in 2014 were more likely to suffer respiratory infections. Researchers tracked 79 children between two and four years after the fire that choked the town of Morwell in February and March 2014.

A thinktank has found energy giant Santos’ claim that its proposed coal seam gas development at Narrabri would lower gas prices misrepresents government evidence. A submission by Santos to the state independent planning commission said gas from the $3.6bn development in north-west New South Wales would be cheaper than had been estimated.

A Melbourne family remembers their mother, lost to coronavirus. The death of Malama Valkanidis on 7 August was added to the statistics now routinely read out by Victorian premier Dan Andrews, but her son Peter says his mother’s life was so much more than a number.

The outgoing finance minister Mathias Cormann has defended aged care minister Richard Colbeck, saying he believed Colbeck was a “very effective minister” who should be judged on his overall performance.

The world

Defiant protesters have again flooded central Minsk, in a sign that even a threat to use the army was not enough to quell the uprising against Belarus’s authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko. Protests have been ongoing for two weeks, since Lukashenko declared victory in an election widely believed to have been rigged.

Firefighters made progress against three massive and destructive wildfires in California during a calm overnight, but they were preparing on Sunday for high winds and thunderstorms that could spark new blazes and further spread the existing fires.

Donald Trump does not know what QAnon is, chief of staff Mark Meadows told Fox News on Sunday – despite the president having tacitly endorsed the conspiracy theory in the White House briefing room this week.

At least 13 people were crushed to death or asphyxiated as partygoers fled a Lima nightclub after a raid by police over alleged violations of restrictions imposed to fight the coronavirus pandemic, officials have said.

Recommended reads

It’s no surprise that activewear has been the lycra-covered cash cow of Covid-19, Nadine von Cohen writes. “I haven’t worn anything non-elasticised since February. In a moment of sheer madness, I even considered buying jeggings.” An emerging trend towards tailored activewear has captured her attention, and prompted her to revisit a joke from the charming sitcom New Girl – the invention of the “Swuit”.

Matilda Boseley clung to one thought during the early months of lockdown: “At least this corona thing will all be over by the time Hamilton comes to Sydney next year.” Last week the waitlist for Hamilton tickets opened, with the very worrying caveat that if social distancing was required in the theatre then the show wouldn’t be profitable and wouldn’t go ahead. That rap musical-shaped finish line is looking further and further away.

Late 2000s sitcom Party Down is often overlooked in favour of its contemporaries, but it’s up there with the best of them – bringing together an impressive ensemble cast to deliver a drily hilarious workplace satire. The complexities of the characters’ lives and relationships are teased out within the confines of their job, blurring the boundaries between personal and professional to create an almost claustrophobic intimacy.

Listen

How Britain’s deepest recession is becoming a jobs crisis. On Full Story, Economics writer Aditya Chakrabortty describes how the coronavirus crisis has sent Britain plunging into a record recession and what it means for the millions of people fearing for their jobs.

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

Sport

The Melbourne-based St Kilda AFL club has issued an unreserved apology to former Aboriginal player Robert Muir, after he revealed the racial abuse he experienced – including being urinated on by a fellow player in the changing rooms – during his years at the club in the 1970s and 1980s. The apology comes as AFL clubs celebrate Indigenous players this weekend with its Sir Doug Nicholls round.

This week will see spectators permitted to return to a rugby union ground in the UK. A few hundred souls will be allowed into Murrayfield to watch Edinburgh play Glasgow Warriors. Robert Kitson writes that “live professional rugby without fans is like a full English consisting solely of toast”.

Media roundup

The Age reports on allegations of branch-stacking in the Victorian Liberal party. The Morrison government has softened its plans to extend industrial relations exemptions to firms that no longer qualify for jobkeeper, reports the Australian Financial Review. The Saturday Paper reports that the federal government has been warned excessive and possibly illegal force is being used to resolve conflict inside Australia’s immigration detention centres. Concerned Brisbane residents say they feel Covid-19 is now knocking at their door, with an outbreak linked to the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre, according to the Courier Mail.

Coming up

Parliament sits for the first time in 10 weeks, with some members participating remotely via video link.

Brenton Tarrant will be sentenced over the New Zealand mosque attacks.

And if you’ve read this far …

Witnesses have described the moment beachgoers formed a human chain to rescue a man in danger in the sea by the Durdle Door on the UK’s Jurassic coast. The incident happened on Thursday, as large waves crashed in around the popular tourist attraction.