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https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57937342 New Covid daily contact testing sites for workers at supermarket depots and food manufacturers won't begin operating until next week. Supermarket depot workers and food manufacturers in England will be exempt from quarantine rules as the government tries to prevent food supply problems. The government had initially promised to begin testing at 15 "crucial" supermarket depots on Friday. But the BBC has learned that testing will be delayed until Monday 26 July. Up to 10,000 staff are expected to qualify for the scheme, but supermarket workers are not included. Earlier on Friday, the Environment Secretary George Eustice told BBC Breakfast: "We've identified 15 depots covering around five supermarkets where they have the most acute problem with staff absences at the moment and we intend to roll that out today. They already have the infrastructure in place to do the testing at those sites." However, on Friday afternoon a Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) spokesman confirmed to the BBC that testing has not yet started. "No sites are running yet, but we expect to be able to offer daily contact testing to some priority organisations by the end of the day on Monday 26 July and we will support them to mobilise as quickly as possible," he said. He added that so far, Defra had contacted 10 supermarkets and that Test & Trace would continue to contact all the organisations identified for this scheme over the weekend and early next week. The move comes after the high number of retail staff self-isolating affected the availability of some products. Iceland welcomed the change, but said it wouldn't solve the issue of staff shortages in supermarkets themselves. "The food supply chain only works if teams are in place to support at each stage - there's no point in fixing the manufacturing and logistics issues if there is no one to put products on the shelves, serve customers at the till and deliver to their homes," said Iceland boss Richard Walker. Initially, 15 supermarket depots will be involved, followed by 150 depots later on next week. Up to 500 sites will take part in total, but the new rules will not apply to supermarket store staff. It will mean workers who are alerted by the app or contacted by NHS Test and Trace will be able to continue working if they test negative, whether or not they are vaccinated.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57933364 The Afghan government imposed a curfew across almost all of the country on Saturday in an attempt to stop the Taliban from invading cities. Aside from the capital Kabul and two other provinces, no movement will be allowed between 22:00 and 04:00. Fighting between the Taliban and Afghan government forces has escalated over the past two months as international troops withdraw from the country. The militant group is estimated to have captured up to half of all territory. It has moved swiftly in the wake of the US withdrawal, retaking border crossings and other territory in rural areas. The Taliban - a fundamentalist Islamist militia who were pushed out of power by the US invasion nearly 20 years ago - has also seized key roads as it seeks to cut off supply routes. Its fighters have been closing in on a number of major cities, but have not yet been able to capture one. "To curb violence and limit the Taliban movements a night curfew has been imposed in 31 provinces," the interior ministry said in a statement, adding that Kabul, Panjshir and Nangarhar were exempt. As the Taliban continues to advance, fierce clashes have taken place this week on the outskirts of the city of Kandahar. In response, the US launched airstrikes against militant positions in the area on Thursday. But with US operations in Afghanistan officially due to end on 31 August, there are concerns about the months ahead. US-led forces ousted the Taliban from power in Afghanistan in October 2001. The group had been harbouring Osama Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda figures linked to the 11 September attacks on the US. President Biden has said the American pull-out is justified as US forces have made sure Afghanistan cannot again become a base for foreign jihadists to plot against the West. Earlier this month, American troops quietly departed from Bagram airfield, a sprawling base that was the centre of US operations in Afghanistan and once held tens of thousands of troops. Some US intelligence analysts fear the Taliban could seize control of the country within six months, according to an assessment distributed to officials in June.

Designing radical Audi cars is nothing new for Marc Lichte. He has been doing it for most of his life. “I used to sketch designs when I was a young boy,” he says. “I was always dreaming of becoming a car designer – and, really, an Audi designer.” That said, the transition from doodling while growing up in the West German town of Arnsberg to actually designing Audis took a little longer than Lichte had envisaged. He recalls: “When I was studying design [at the Pforzheim University of Applied Sciences], I received sponsorship from Audi. Hartmut Warkuß got me a contract, but by the time I had finished my studies, he had moved with Mr [Ferdinand] Piëch to Wolfsburg to become head of Volkswagen design. “I said: ‘Mr Warkuß, I want to start in Ingolstadt.’ But he told me that for two or three years I had to follow him in Wolfsburg and then I could go to Ingolstadt. It took me 17 years in Wolfsburg, but luckily it happened in 2014. I love it. I love what I’m doing here. I love the brand, and I want to bring Audi to the next level.” To be clear, Lichte didn’t spend 17 unhappy years trying to escape Volkswagen: he had a very successful career there, eventually rising to exterior design chief. In that role, he shaped three generations of Golf (five, six and seven), the Touareg and the Arteon. And his circuitous route to Ingolstadt also meant that his arrival seven years ago came at a pivotal time for both Audi and the wider car industry. Lichte’s first Audi project was the Prologue concept, which previewed the fourth-generation A8 that would arrive in 2017. And since then, he has led the firm into the electric age with the E-tron SUV and the E-tron GT. Lichte is particularly proud of the low-slung fastback that was launched earlier this year, describing it as “definitely the most attractive car I’ve designed with my team in my career”. It will set the tone for the cars that will transition Audi into an electric-only brand, following the confirmation that it will launch its last combustion-engined car in 2026. “I’ve been at Audi for seven years now, and every three years we make a design step,” says Lichte. We did this when I first arrived with the A8 and now we’ve done it with the E-tron GT and the Q4 E-tron.” While the industry and car buying public is still adjusting to an EV-only mindset, Lichte says: “Today and in the past, we had the challenge to handle both ICEs and EVs. We aren’t like Lucid, who are creating an EV brand on a white sheet of paper. But now that we will put our last ICE into production in 2026, this transformation for me is already done. In the exterior studio of our design centre, there are around 40 projects being worked on, and 80% of them are EVs.” As Lichte puts it: “EVs are the new normal for me right now.” He’s already working on what comes next – in about three years, when Audi will make another design step. And that design step will be driven by the possibilities created through advanced driver assistance systems. “The world is changing, and especially the automobile,” says Lichte. “We’re talking about level-four autonomous technology [in which cars can drive unsupervised in certain conditions, particularly on highways that have the required infrastructure]. This is a complete game-changer. The transformation is a lot bigger than from ICE to EV.”

https://www.economist.com/united-states/2021/07/24/texass-new-proposal-shows-why-abortion-law-is-a-mess-in-america In the half-century since the Supreme Court ruled on Roe v Wade, lawmakers in conservative states have passed hundreds of laws designed to make it harder for women to have abortions. None has been as punitive as the one recently passed in Texas. From September, unless it is blocked, the law will authorise private citizens to sue anyone who “aids or abets” the abortion of a fetus with a heartbeat, that is, from some six weeks’ gestation. For every case that is successful, it authorises “damages”—in effect a bounty—of $10,000. The law could ensnare innumerable people, from employees of insurance companies to pregnancy counsellors and friends and relatives. A lawsuit that seeks to block the law, filed in a federal district court in Austin on July 13th by clinic operators and groups that help poor women pay for terminations, also includes pastors who worry that counselling a pregnant woman who then goes on to have an abortion could put them in legal jeopardy. Early-abortion bans are straightforwardly unlawful. Roe and subsequent Supreme Court rulings say abortion on demand (that is, for any reason) should be accessible until a baby is viable (from around 24 weeks). Over the past couple of years, as around a dozen states have introduced “heartbeat” bills, courts have blocked them, sometimes within days. But Texas’s new law has been designed to sidestep this process. Usually, opponents of laws that restrict abortion access sue state officials who would enforce them. Because Texas’s heartbeat law would be enforced by private civil action alone, there is no obvious party to sue. Instead, its challengers are suing a broad range of defendants who could be involved in enforcement, including trial judges, county clerks and health officials. It is not clear how this legal strategy will work. Julie Murray, a lawyer with Planned Parenthood, the biggest provider of abortions in America, says it is hard to imagine federal judges allowing an unconstitutional law to take effect. Some clinic operators say they worry that, for a court to block it, they will have to wait until the law comes into force and someone sues. In the meantime, they say, the law is causing great distress. Amy Hagstrom Miller, the founder and chief executive of Whole Women’s Health, which runs four abortion clinics in Texas, says staff are having to reassure patients that abortion is still legal in the state. The workers themselves are terrified, she adds, that from September they could be sued for doing their jobs. People who work in clinics do not find it difficult to imagine protesters who yell at women as they arrive for abortions turning into furious litigators. Most Texans, like most Americans, do not want to ban abortions early in pregnancy. Few, presumably, would want to see this right shot down via private lawsuit. That a law encouraging such a thing should have been passed reflects in part the rightward lurch taken by Texas’s legislature. It also suggests that as the state becomes younger and more liberal there remain pockets of strong support for extreme anti-abortion measures. In May voters in Lubbock, a city in a solidly Republican county, approved a “sanctuary city for the unborn” ordinance giving individuals the ability to sue to enforce an abortion ban. In June, after Planned Parenthood, which has a clinic in Lubbock, sued, a federal judge dismissed the case. Planned Parenthood has since stopped performing abortions in the city. It continues to litigate the case. Texas’s new law is also part of a mounting push to impose stringent abortion restrictions across America. Emboldened by the Supreme Court’s conservative super-majority, which seems more likely to uphold restrictive abortion regulations, pro-life lawmakers have passed a record number so far this year. The Guttmacher Institute, an abortion-rights group that tracks state-level regulations, says 90 abortion restrictions have come into force in the first six months of 2021, compared with the previous record of 89 in the whole of 2011.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is launching an investigation into suspected breaches of competition law in the EV charging sector. The CMA is concerned that the Electric Highway network, acquired from Ecotricity two months ago by nascent energy firm Gridserve, has a dominant presence at service stations run by Moto Hospitality, Roadchef and Extra MSA. According to the CMA, the Electric Highway operates 80% of all motorway chargers in Britain (excluding Tesla-specific Supercharger devices) and has long-term exclusivity agreements – of 10-15 years – in place at two thirds of the network's motorway service stations. The investigation will determine whether the long-term exclusive arrangements entered into by the Electric Highway, Ecotricity and its host locations are in breach of the Competition Act 1998. Other operators, the CMA notes, could hinder the installation of devices from rival charging firms, meaning drivers lose out on the "benefits of competition": greater provision, more choice, competitive prices and reliable, high-quality charge points. The CMA notes that it has "not reached a view as to whether there is sufficient evidence of an infringement of competition law" and as such hasn't issued a statement of objections to the named parties. In a statement, Gridserve said: "Our focus is on finding a path forward that addresses the concerns raised by the CMA, enabling us to retain momentum and continue to swiftly deliver the net-zero charging infrastructure plans and investment we have worked so hard to put in place, that support the successful uptake and transition to electric vehicles, in-line with the government’s clearly stated objectives". The CMA has also published a series of measures aimed at addressing shortfalls in the EV charging network in the run-up to the 2030 ban on the sale of new combustion-engined cars. "Access to charge points can be a 'postcode lottery'", it says, highlighting that Yorkshire and the Humber has 75% less chargers per head than London. It also expressed concern about the limited choice and availability of chargers at motorway service stations, as highlighted by its investigation into the Electric Highway. Charging should be "as simple as filling up with petrol or diesel", said the CMA, meaning working chargers must be easy to find, quick to pay for, have a clear pricing structure and be accessible by owners of all EVs. Gridserve said it agrees with these core principles, highlighting that it has recently launched a new interactive map "to make journey planning as seamless as possible", offers contactless payment on every new charging device, has a "transparent" pricing structure of 30p per kWh at service stations and can accommodate all EVs at its charging stations. The CMA said, in order to support the government's planned electric car roll-out, the UK's charging network must expand from 25,000 to more than 250,000 devices by 2030. It recommended that the government sets out a 'national strategy' for this expansion, support local authorities in installing more on-street chargers, open up competition at motorway service stations and task a public body with monitoring the sector.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-57938858 The Great Barrier Reef has not been added to the Unesco list of World Heritage Sites that are "in danger", following strong lobbying from Australia. A report from Unesco, the UN's scientific and cultural body, had said that not enough was being done to protect the reef from climate change or to meet water quality targets. But Unesco's World Heritage Committee has decided to give Australia more time. Australia says it has committed more than A$3bn (£1.bn; $2.2bn) to improving the reef's health. The reef - one of the world's natural wonders - is among Australia's most beloved tourist landmarks. But recent mass bleachings of coral and other problems have accelerated its deterioration. The Great Barrier Reef has been World Heritage-listed for 40 years due to its "enormous scientific and intrinsic importance". Stretching over 2,300km (1,400 miles) off Australia's north-east coast, it is actually made up of about 3,000 individual reefs. It is one of the most biodiverse ecosystems in the world - marine and plant life teems within the coral structures. For decades, scientists have been struck by the reef's rich variety and beauty. It's home to over 400 types of coral, about 1,500 species of fish, and endangered creatures like the large green turtle. As an ocean structure, it also offers coastal protection against big waves and storms. Global warming has already led to the reef losing half its coral since 1995. Larger, branching coral types - habitats for a range of sea life - were especially harmed. Coral polyps - which form the backbone of the reef - are highly sensitive to sea temperatures. They can die if waters get too warm. And in the past five years alone, the reef has suffered three mass bleaching events. This is when under-stress corals expel the algae living within them that gives them colour and life. The corals then turn white - a process known as bleaching. If cooler waters return, it is possible for reefs to make a comeback. Recovery takes at least 10-15 years. But scientists warn the Great Barrier Reef is on the brink of breaking down. A study found that following bleaching events in 2016 and 2017, there weren't enough adult corals left to regenerate the worst-hit areas properly. In 2019, Australia downgraded the reef's long-term outlook to "very poor". The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has said climate change remains the greatest threat. Human activities such as coastal development and agricultural pollutants have also challenged the reef's health for many years. Sediment, nitrogen and pesticide from nearby farms have flown into the reef, reducing water quality and encouraging algae growth.

Mercedes-Benz has detailed the next stages of its transition to full electrification, and confirmed its landmark Vision EQXX concept car will arrive in 2022. Described as "a symbol of our ambition to create the most efficient car", the EQXX has been previewed as a futuristic and heavily streamlined design study that could offer heavy clues as to what to expect from future Mercedes EVs. Aside from revealing the latest preview image, Mercedes has confirmed that it is targeting a real-world range of more than 620 miles, and a consumption rating of more than six miles per kWh. Previously, it suggested the EQXX would have the "longest electric range" and "highest efficiency" of any EV yet produced. The headline claim made of the prototype at a strategy conference last year was that it will be capable of travelling from Beijing to Shanghai - a distance of 750 miles - on a single charge. Mercedes is keen to emphasise that the range has not been achieved simply by using a larger battery pack, and that the unit used in the EQXX will appear in a "future compact model". The EQXX development team includes "experts from Mercedes-Benz’s F1 High Performance Powertrain division (HPP)", hinting at the concept's top-rung performance potential. As well as details of the EQXX, Mercedes made a number of headline announcements regarding its accelerated transition to electrification. From 2022, it will offer a fully electric model in every segment, and from 2025 every model sold will be offered with a pure-electric model. Also in 2025, Mercedes will launch three bespoke new EV architectures for use across its entire product portfolio: MB.EA for mid-sized and large passenger cars, AMG.EA for performance models and Van.EA for commercial vehicles. Among the headline announcements was a commitment to building eight new battery factories worldwide – of which four will be in Europe – and that investment in combustion engines will fall by 80% by 2026, compared to 2019 levels.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-57927390 Businessman Lex Greensill had a sometimes "extraordinarily privileged" relationship with government, a Cabinet Office report has found. The report says the Australian financier's government role gave him "a marketing platform" for his business. Civil servants "should have considered" the conflicts of interest, it adds. Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner said the report had been set up as "a classic Boris Johnson cover-up and whitewash to protect the government". The report was also attacked by the widow of Jeremy Heywood, a former top civil servant who is criticised in the report. Lady Suzanne Heywood describe the report as a "travesty" that "scapegoated" her late husband. The inquiry also criticises ex-Prime Minister David Cameron for his lobbying efforts on behalf of Greensill's company, which collapsed in March. Report author Nigel Boardman said Mr Cameron had "on occasion understated the nature of his relationship with Greensill Capital" when seeking to influence the Treasury's decisions. However, he concluded that Mr Cameron "did not breach the current lobbying rules and his actions were not unlawful". The government ordered an inquiry when it emerged the former prime minister had lobbied ministers via text messages on behalf of the finance firm. At the time, Mr Cameron - who had taken a role with Greensill in 2018 - was accused of trying to exploit private contacts with former government colleagues, for his own benefit. Greensill Capital specialised in supply chain financing - a technique aimed at making it easier for businesses to receive payments. During Mr Cameron's time in Downing Street, Mr Greensill worked informally for the government before being made an unpaid adviser on supply chain finance. Mr Boardman says "this area of public appointments is opaque and ill-defined" but adds that this appointment appears to have been "properly made". 'Revolving door' Mr Greensill was later appointed to the Economic and Development Secretariat - something Mr Boardman says raises "significantly more questions" than the previous role. He says it came as Mr Greensill was trying to set up his supply chain financing company in the UK and adds that the banker was able to use his position in government to "leverage his position" with major companies. The job, Mr Boardman says, enabled Mr Greensill to "promote a product which did not, in fact, provide material benefits to government, although it could have been of benefit to his incipient business and was of immediate benefit to his former employer, Citibank". He specifically criticises former top civil servant Lord Heywood saying it "should have been apparent... that Mr Greensill was building a supply chain business in the UK and should have considered the issue of conflicts of interest," the report says. "It is unclear why Mr Greensill was permitted to remain an adviser to government on supply chain finance under these circumstances," he adds. Mr Boardman also said Lord Heywood was "primarily responsible" for Mr Greensill securing a role in government. Lord Heywood died in November 2018 and Mr Boardman says readers of the report should "bear in mind" that it could not include his personal explanation of the appointment. Lady Heywood accused Mr Boardman of running "a deeply flawed process from beginning to end, gagging representation for my late husband to facilitate his scapegoating, and glossing over the ministerial approval the then coalition government gave for Mr Greensill's appointment". She described the review as "nothing less than a travesty", adding: "His absence is being exploited to distort the facts of a decade ago and divert attention from the current government's embarrassment at the collapse of Greensill Capital long after Jeremy's death."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-57926368 China has rejected the next stage of a World Health Organization (WHO) plan to investigate the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. The WHO wants to audit laboratories in the area the virus was first identified. But Zeng Yixin, deputy health minister, said this showed "disrespect for common sense and arrogance toward science". WHO experts said it was very unlikely the virus escaped from a Chinese lab, but the theory has endured. Investigators were able to visit Wuhan - the city where the virus was first detected in December 2019 - in January this year. But earlier this month WHO head Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus outlined the terms of the inquiry's next phase. This included looking at certain science research institutions. He has now called on China to be more co-operative about the early stages of the outbreak. He urged Beijing to "be transparent, to be open and co-operate" with investigators and provide raw patient data that had not been shared during the first probe. Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Mr Zeng said he was extremely surprised by the WHO proposal because it focused on alleged violations of China's laboratory protocols. He said it was "impossible" for China to accept the terms, adding that the country had submitted its own origins-tracing recommendations. "We hope the WHO would seriously review the considerations and suggestions made by Chinese experts and truly treat the origin tracing of the Covid-19 virus as a scientific matter, and get rid of political interference," Reuters quoted Mr Zeng as saying. Yuan Zhiming, director of the National Biosafety Laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, also appeared at the press conference. He said the virus was of natural origin and maintained no virus leak or staff infections had occurred at the facility since it opened in 2018. More than four million people have died worldwide since the start of the pandemic and the WHO has faced growing international pressure to further investigate the origins of the virus.

Editor’s note (July 21st): In recent hours the relevant UNESCO committee voted to remove Liverpool from its register of sites of outstanding beauty or importance. “There’s no accountability in unesco,” says Derek Hatton over lunch on the Toxteth Riviera, as locals call what was once Liverpool’s red-light district and is now its swankiest neighbourhood. “This guy arrives, who finds the city with a satnav, and decides whether we can have it five storeys, six storeys, 12 storeys. It’s not their [CENSORED] job! We elect the mayor.” Liverpool was once the British empire’s second city, fattened on the trade in slaves, wool and machines. By the 1980s the docks and manufacturing had collapsed, and the resulting unemployment fuelled riots. The prime minister of the day, Margaret Thatcher, was urged by her chancellor to put the city into “managed decline”. Mr Hatton, whose Trotskyite faction, Militant, ran the council, defied her budget cuts and pushed it close to bankruptcy. These days, “it is a sea of cranes,” says Michael Heseltine, a former minister who persuaded Mrs Thatcher the city could be saved. Militant was ousted from the Labour Party, and under a more moderate council, money poured in. Shopping centres, flats and museums sprouted. The monumental “palaces of trade” of the port’s apogee were fixed up. In 2008 the city hosted the European Capital of Culture. The po[CENSORED]tion, which had fallen by nearly half since the 1930s, started growing again. Mr Hatton now dabbles in property, and has a new foe: the un’s cultural agency. At a meeting later this month, its world-heritage committee will vote on whether to strike the Mersey waterfront from its register of 1,121 sites of outstanding beauty or importance. Its listing in 2004 cited “the supreme example of a commercial port”, its role in emigration to America—and, naturally, the Beatles. But the city’s ambitions soon displeased those seeking to preserve former glories. In 2012, alarmed by plans for flats and offices that it said would destroy the skyline, unesco put Liverpool on its register of sites “in danger”. Those plans were scaled back, but still unesco wants a moratorium on new buildings in the area. Trickiest of all is a planned dockside stadium for Everton Football Club, which unesco calls part of the “serious deterioration” of the city’s qualities. Diggers will trundle in this month. City leaders have suggested that unesco officials should visit before the vote (their most recent mission was in 2015), but a reprieve seems unlikely. Liverpool is unmoved. “The bureaucrats of unesco have a very puritanical view of the world,” says Tony Reeves, the council’s chief executive. Frank McKenna of Downtown in Business, a lobby group, says the listing attracted no tourists (the Beatles and football take care of that) and actually deters investors. Gary Bond, a pr man to the property sector, complains that Liverpool “looks nothing like Shanghai”, its twin. Merseyside’s Civic Society, the sort of body that in any other city might resist almost any building proposal, supports the stadium. Memories of unemployment in the 1980s explain the appetite for growth, says Joanne Anderson, the mayor, who hopes to nurture a life-sciences sector. Liverpool Walton, near the docks, is England’s most deprived parliamentary constituency, according to government figures. Although more Scousers gain degree-level qualifications than used to, and fewer leave school with nothing, the region is still below the British average on both measures. High-grade office space is still in short supply. But the boom was not always well-governed. Joe Anderson, the mayor from 2012 to 2020 (no relation to the incumbent, Joanne), was slow to respond to unesco’s warnings. And though many developers drawn to the boom were sound, others were disreputable. In March Max Caller, a government inspector, found that the council’s regeneration department was in disarray. Some buildings went up without the required permissions, and the council had sold off land without proper valuation. Ticket to ride high “It was Las Vegas-like,” says Richard Kemp, the opposition leader on the city council, who says Mr Anderson “was looking for quantity, not quality”. Police investigating the local construction trade arrested Mr Anderson and Mr Hatton, and others, last December. Both deny wrongdoing, and no charges have been brought. Robert Jenrick, the local-government minister, declared the city’s politics “rotten”, and sent in four commissioners to oversee reforms, which Ms Anderson has promised to deliver. Mr Reeves says these moves are rebuilding trust among investors. Some city grandees fear that the twin blows of unesco’s decision and Mr Caller’s report will revive the impression created during the 1980s, of a philistine city unable to run itself. That would be unfair. Liverpool’s troubles are reminiscent less of Mr Hatton’s era, and more of its earlier rise. It was in reaction to post-war concrete that Britain’s urban-preservation movement took off in the 1970s; Liverpool’s taste for height, growth and municipal swagger, by contrast, is distinctly Victorian. “The leaders who were around in those times would be laughing at us for listening to any concerns,” insists Mr Anderson. Far from forgetting their history, says Gavin Davenport, the civic-society chairman, Liverpudlians “wear that heritage on their sleeves”.

The Smart EQ Fortwo Racing Green Edition is now on sale, with Brabus-inspired features inside and out inflating the car’s price to £25,495, a figure that includes the government’s plug-in car discount of £2500. The special-edition EQ Fortwo rides on 16in Brabus Monoblock XI alloy wheels with a silver undercut. LED headlights, a panoramic glass roof and Racing Green metallic paint complete the exclusive exterior look. Inside, the hand-stitched seats are finished in Cognac nappa leather, as are the dashboard, door panels and three-spoke multifunction steering wheel. Diamond and Racing Green stitching is used throughout. Other Brabus touches include the sports pedals, handbrake lever, gear stick and aluminium door sills, while the dashboard features a carbonfibre-esque trim. As with the entry-level, £19,200 version of the EQ Fortwo, the Racing Green Edition uses an 8.0in touchscreen running a Connect media system, which is compatible with both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. Smart says the Racing Green Edition will be on sale for “a limited time only” but hasn’t said how long interested buyers will have to place their orders. Underneath, the powertrain is untouched: an 81bhp electric motor drives the rear wheels, with 0-62mph taking 11.6sec en route to a top speed of 81mph. The 17.6kWh battery gives an official range of 80 miles, although drivers will see something closer to 70 in real-world conditions. Smart says a rapid charger will top up the battery from 10% to 80% in less than 40 minutes and a typical home wallbox unit will deliver a full charge in under six hours. The EQ Fortwo and EQ Forfour have been the brand’s only models for some time. However, last week, Smart released preview images of a new electric SUV that’s due to be unveiled at the Munich motor show in September.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-57911032 Anger is growing in Australia as 13 million people - about half the po[CENSORED]tion - endure fresh lockdowns to quash Covid outbreaks. A third state went into lockdown on Tuesday. Stay-at-home orders are now in place in South Australia, Victoria and parts of New South Wales. Many people have expressed frustration at being back in highly policed lockdowns 18 months into the pandemic. And re-openings in the UK and the US have put pressure on the government. Fewer than 14% of people are vaccinated - the worst rating among OECD nations. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been heavily criticised over the slow vaccination rate, but has resisted calls to apologise. "No country has got their pandemic response 100%," he told reporters on Wednesday. He again mentioned Australia's success in keeping overall infections low compared to those in many nations. 915 people have died of Covid in Australia. Mr Morrison noted that the UK had recorded more than 90 deaths in a single day on Tuesday. Until recently, Australia's strategy of border closures, quarantine programmes and snap lockdowns helped keep cases low. But the highly contagious Delta variant has challenged these defences in the past month. The outbreak in Sydney - Australia's largest city - has infected more than 1,500 people and officials reported more than 110 new cases on Wednesday, despite the city being in lockdown for a fourth week. There are fears Sydney's lockdown could extend into September. Australian authorities have said they intend to eliminate local cases completely until a majority of people are vaccinated, but in Sydney eliminating cases could take months. Victoria - which saw 22 new infections on Wednesday - will keep its lockdown until at least Tuesday. And in south Australia a seven-day lockdown has been called after five cases of the Delta variant were found. Last month, a total of seven cities were in lockdown for a brief period. Critics say flawed reports about the AstraZeneca vaccine's rare clotting risk have made many Australians reluctant to take it. Australia only has limited supplies of its other authorised vaccine, from Pfizer.