Morning mail: Vaccine booking site delay, Nats leave women's chair empty, historic Oscars nominations

Tuesday: Days before GPs expected to begin Covid-19 vaccinations, online booking system still not launched. Plus: Will women’s marches deliver justice?

Good morning. It’s Tuesday 16 March and more countries have suspended the AstraZeneca vaccine over unsubstantiated blood-clot fears. Julie Bishop has spoken up about government tensions with China and Scott Morrison is coping flack for his tone-deaf comments and absence from the March 4 Justice rallies.

Top stories

Australian medical leaders say it is a “mystery” why an online Covid-19 vaccination booking system hasn’t been launched yet, as doctors are forced to reject older Australians trying to make appointments just days before GPs are due to begin offering the jab. Meanwhile, Germany, France, Spain and Italy are the latest nations to suspend the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine over blood clot fears, asEurope’s medicines regulator has moved to stifle spiralling concern saying the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks. The decisions to suspend the jab come just hours after the World Health Organization said it had seen no evidence the shot had caused blood clots.

Former foreign minister Julie Bishop has called on the Australian government not to get involved in unnecessary tit-for-tat exchanges with the Chinese government, saying it would be unwise to “unnecessarily offend our largest customer”, in a reference to the economic importance of China to Australia. “The infamous Chinese freezer can last for years,” Bishop said. “The way for the Australian government forward is to continue to protect our national interest, of course, but avoid the unnecessary media tit-for-tat with Chinese officials.”

Scott Morrison has declared it a “triumph of democracy” that campaigners for women’s justice were able to rally without being “met with bullets”. His comments, made at the outset of question time, attracted heckles from across the chamber. Morrison said women and men were “gathering together in rallies both large and small to call for change and to act against violence directed towards women”. “Not far from here, such marches, even now, are being met with bullets – but not here in this country. This is a triumph of democracy when we see these things take place.” Morrison declined to front Monday’s 4,000-strong protest on the forecourt of Parliament House, and “then sounded miffed when they declined to meet him privately in his office,” says political editor Katharine Murphy. Outside, Brittany Higgins spoke of her experience to demand change.

Australia

Young women with a disability are twice as likely to experience sexual violence than those without a disability, the royal commission has found. It found 64% of people with a disability reported experiencing abuse, compared with 45% of people without a disability.

The National party has failed for almost six months to fill a key leadership position designed to boost female representation in politics, despite internal pressure to do so. The previous chair of the NSW party’s women’s council, Jess Price-Purnell, says the failure is a “really, really poor message to send”.

Australian authorities deported a 15-year-old to New Zealand as part of a program home affairs minister Peter Dutton has described as “taking the trash out”. New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern, who says she “never agreed with the policy”, is seeking more information about the minor.

The world

The Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been moved to a “concentration camp” known for strict control, a message posted on the opposition politician’s Instagram account confirmed on Monday.

The FBI have arrested two men for a “bear spray” assault on a US Capitol officer who later died. The pair were charged with assaulting Brian Sicknick with a “toxic spray”, though it is not yet known if it caused Sicknick’s death.

Elon Musk has changed his Tesla job title to Technoking and the company’s financial chief has been rebranded the “master of coin” following £1bn bitcoin investment.

The series of severe droughts and heatwaves in Europe since 2014 is the most extreme for more than 2,000 years, research suggests.

Recommended reads

Their shed may not be state-of-the art, but a community-oriented approach to fitness is working out for septuagenarian gym owners Barbara and Peter Hill. Peter, 76, is a personal trainer and fitness instructor, and Barbara, 79, is a line-dancing teacher and they share a large shed where the work out with other senior citizens. “It’s about quality of life, even just feeling more comfortable standing up and walking down the street,” Peter says. Barbara’s oldest dancers are in their 80s. “The dances are really good for keeping people’s memory active,” she says. “We had a lady who wound up getting Alzheimer’s. I would visit her in hospital and she’d forgotten everything else, but she’d look at me and say, ‘Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, dancing.’”

The discount airline tickets were a good photo opportunity for Morrison, but are a bad policy, writes Greg Jericho. “The problem with the policy is that not only are the regional locations not really the main destinations of international travellers, but that the regions are actually holding up better than are capital cities when it comes to visitors spending money. As economist Scott Steel noted on Twitter, regional Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland all took in more money from domestic visitors in December 2020 than they did in December 2019. But the areas that have suffered the biggest drop in visitor spending are the capital cities.

Two female directors and nine actors of colour have been nominated in a historic year for the Oscars. Chloé Zhao and Emerald Fennell are in the running for the best director prize at this year’s Oscars; the first time more than one woman has been in contention for the award. Nine of the acting nominees are people of colour, compared with one in 2020. This is also the first year two actors of Asian heritage have featured in the leading man category. Chadwick Boseman, who died from cancer aged 43 last August, is one of only seven actors ever nominated after their deaths, for his role in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

Listen

Yesterday, thousands of people took to the streets in more than 40 rallies around Australia to March 4 Justice. In today’s episode of Full Story we visit two of these rallies and hear from people about their hopes for change.

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

Sport

The AFL is on the verge of returning to something like normality after the coronavirus-ravaged season of 2020. The new season will bring with it many familiar sounds, but there are some things that simply will not be heard.

Andrew Redmayne’s blunder against Newcastle highlights the complex psyche of goalkeepers in the A-League and beyond, whose special and solitary existence has led to psychologists becoming a fixture at football clubs

Media roundup

Christian Porter says he is prepared to take the witness stand to deny rape allegations ($) in a defamation showdown with the ABC, according to the Australian, after launching a lawsuit against the national broadcaster in a move the Sydney Morning Herald has called a “major gamble”. The Brisbane Times say Queensland health officials should know by noon today if there was any community spread of Covid from an unvaccinated infected doctor, while the Courier Mail reports on the pandemic-induced tourism struggles ($) of the region.

Coming up

Federal parliament sits.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese outlines policy vision for the next election in a foreword to the party’s new draft platform.

Following months of speculation about his performance, Michael O’Brien is expected to face a challenge for the Victorian Liberals’ leadership as state parliament returns.

And if you’ve read this far …

Sometimes you should just keep your mouth shut, and your mask on. Texas police issued an arrest warrant for a maskless woman who asked: ‘What are you going to do, arrest me?’