Morning mail: overwhelmed NSW hospitals, Bolsonaro rallies, correcting photographic history

Tuesday: NSW prepares for 2,000 Covid cases a day and a surge in patients who will require intensive care. Plus: Indigenous photographers update historical photographs of First Nations people

Good morning. New South Wales hospitals could be overwhelmed with Covid patients within weeks, while hardline border closures continue to cause headaches for those trying to travel between states for medical treatment.

New Covid modelling suggests NSW could be faced with 2,000 cases a day and a surge in hospitalisations. Sydney’s intensive care units are expected to become overwhelmed by November, with the government drawing up plans to place overflow ICU beds in operating theatres and abandon existing nurse to patient ratios by that time. So how will the hospitals cope? Guardian Australia has examined theBurnet Institute projections for how the state’s healthcare system would respond to pressure in coming weeks and to answer some pressing questions. Faced with soaring Covid case numbers, NSW Health has urged single people to stay in, watch Netflix and chill ... alone. Authorities tweeted a graphic featuring the peach emoji to remind those on dating apps that leaving the house for a one-night stand was not counted under “compassionate grounds”.

A Queensland man who has been stranded in NSW for three months is facing a bureaucratic nightmare attempting to return to the sunshine state for surgery for life-threatening cancer. Health officials insist Michael O’Keeffe, who went to NSW Central Coast to be with his dying mother, does not drive across the border to enter hotel quarantine, citing the risk of him taking toilet breaks along the way. “I told them, ‘I’m happy to piss on the side of the road if it will get me to see my cancer surgeon,’” O’Keeffe says. Despite the success and popularity of Queensland’s strict border closures, frustration is growing at the hardline way it is being managed.

The Taliban have fought their way to the capital of Panjshir, the last Afghan province holding out against their rule, and seem on the brink of total victory. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid issued a statement, saying Panjshir was under the control of Taliban fighters. “With this victory, our country is completely taken out of the quagmire of war,” he said. The chief of the Australian defence force, General Angus Campbell, said he was surprised by the speed of Afghanistan’s collapse to the Taliban – but it was accelerated by “some interesting force deployment choices”. Campbell did not elaborate on that observation, but a spokesperson said that the comments were related to the Afghanistan National Defence and Security Forces and were “not related to the deployment of Australian, US or other allied forces”.

Australia

The NSW government has set a target of zero extinctions of native wildlife in the state’s national parks in response to the decline of threatened plants and animals. Environmental advocates welcomed the announcement and called on other states and the federal government to adopt their own zero extinctions targets.

Aboriginal people need their own plans to reduce violence against women because national initiatives are not working and “lives are at stake”, says Indigenous leader Prof Marcia Langton.

Scott Morrison was granted a lockdown exemption to visit Sydney for the Father’s Day weekend, and was not required to undergo the two-week quarantine period after receiving approval from ACT chief health officer.

The world

Thousands of diehard followers of Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro have gathered for rallies hoping to stage a show of support for their beleaguered president. Others fear Bolsonaro may seek to seize dictatorial powers by staging a self-coup, with an open letter by former world leaders claiming the nationwide rallies represent a danger to democracy and are modelled on the US Capitol insurrection.

Russian political candidates have changed their names and appearances to confuse voters at the polls. When a district voting poster was revealed on Sunday it showed three nearly indistinguishable Boris Vishnevskys.

The US federal government will take action to protect those in Texas trying to obtain an abortion in the wake of the strictest anti-abortion law in the country taking effect last week. Federal officials are exploring all options to challenge the ban on almost all terminations.

Plans for post-Brexit checks on some goods entering Northern Ireland have been suspended indefinitely by the UK after negotiations with the EU reached a stalemate.

Recommended reads

A new exhibition is correcting the record in Queensland, contrasting staged historical photographs of First Nations people with the vibrant present. Kaantju woman Naomi Hobson is one of three Aboriginal artists (with Michael Aird and Jo-Anne Driessens) whose photographs are contrasted with historical images of First Nations people in a State Library of Queensland exhibition called Viewpoints. “I feel a responsibility to say with my own photos ‘This is who we really are’ … from the perspective of a black person speaking with black people because Indigenous stories are best told by Indigenous people,” she says.

Since the last rate rise, Australian house prices have risen so much that levels seen in the past would wreck the economy, writes Greg Jericho. “When the pandemic hit, the RBA knew it needed to do something extraordinary. And so, aside from cutting the cash rate to 0.25% and then 0.1%, it also began a massive amount of government bond purchases. This essentially puts more money into the economy and spurs growth. But in July things looked to be going well and so the Reserve Bank announced it was planning to wind back or “taper” its bond purchases from $5bn a week to $4bn some time in “early September”. It was not the greatest time to think that things were going well.”

Yellow stains are the pits and can be difficult to get rid of. According to Georgia McCorkill, a fashion lecturer at RMIT University, sweat marks are left by “a combination of salts in the sweat and deodorant people are using”. She says, “sweat itself is a sterile thing but when it mixes with the bacteria on the skin, the odours we associate with sweat occur”. When not handled correctly, sweat marks and odours can be stubborn. Here’s some advice on how to avoid them.

Listen

Australia is transitioning from having an elimination policy when it comes to coronavirus to learning to “live with Covid”. But what could that look like, and what can we expect as the disease evolves? In today’s Full Story, Melissa Davey brings us up to date with the latest science on coronavirus variants, vaccines and treatments.

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

Sport

Brazilian federal police have opened an inquiry to investigate “possible crime of supplying false information” after four Argentinean players’ presence at Sunday’s World Cup qualifier in Brazil caused the match to be abandoned.

Media roundup

The Daily Telegraph says NSW police have “zeroed in on a new person of interest” who may be responsible for the death and disappearance of three-year-old William Tyrell, who was last seen in 2014. Northern Territory Police, Fire and Emergency Services staff who refuse to get a Covid vaccination may be required to wear a mask while on the job, according to a leaked email from NT police commissioner in the NT News. And if you’re looking for some questionable artwork to spice up your walls, Jacqui Lambie is selling a painting of her depicted as a bikini-clad Princess Leia wrangling a Clive Palmer-headed Jabba the Huttfor a cool $2.5m, says the Australian.

Coming up

It’s day two of the National Summit on Women’s safety, after Scott Morrison’s keynote address yesterday left some underwhelmed.

Defence minister Peter Dutton is scheduled to deliver a speech on the “intersection of business opportunities and national security priorities”.

And if you’ve read this far …

When the Lord of the Rings books and films no longer satisfied Nicolas Gentile’s passion, he brought the fantasy to reality. The Italian pastry chef built his own version of Middle Earth and ventured with a motley crew of friends dressed as an elf, a dwarf, a hobbit and a sorcerer to throw the “One Ring” into the volcano crater of Mount Vesuvius.

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