Celebrities have been sued for it, and tattoo artists get shunned for doing it. So how do people wind up with identical tattoos? Lifestyle editor, Alyx Gorman, recommends this piece by James Shackell about a predictable mishap that left a not-so-unique mark on his arm

You can read the original article here: Pinched ink: is it wrong to steal a tattoo?

Katharine Murphy speaks to Guardian Australia’s economics writer Greg Jericho and the senior economics correspondent for the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, Shane Wright, about Australia’s economic recovery after Covid and the possibility of a post-pandemic federal election

Read more on this issue:

Laura Murphy-Oates introduces a bonus episode of our new podcast Guardian Australia Reads. Guardian Australia’s culture editor, Steph Harmon, recommends a piece by Clem Bastow about an unfair double standard on autism

You can read the original article here: If I wasn’t autistic, would my encyclopedic knowledge of dinosaurs be a problem?

The effects of ‘weird weather’ were already being felt in the 1960s, but scientists linking fossil fuels with climate change were dismissed as prophets of doom. By Alice Bell

This week, Joe Biden spoke to the UN General Assembly for the first time as president. After watching him oversee a disastrous exit from Afghanistan and sign up to a controversial nuclear submarine deal with the UK and Australia, Jonathan Freedland and Dr Leslie Vinjamuri discuss how the world views Biden

Archive: BBC, and Sky News

The Labour party meets this weekend in Brighton for its first in-person annual conference since Keir Starmer won the leadership. Jessica Elgot explains why it could define his future prospects

The Labour party is heading to Brighton this weekend for its first in-person annual conference since Keir Starmer took over as leader in the early days of the Covid-19 lockdown. It is a week that many analysts are already calling crucial to the future of his leadership.

The Guardian’s deputy political editor, Jessica Elgot, tells Nosheen Iqbal that with the Conservatives already gearing up for a general election that could be announced within 18 months, Starmer is running out of time to make his case to the country. His speech on Wednesday will be key to uniting his party behind him and presenting himself afresh to voters.

Celebrating a birthday, within Covid guidelines, was enough to put three 18-year-olds in quarantine. Then one ended up in hospital unable to breathe or walk. Gabrielle Jackson, Guardian Australia associate editor of visual and audio, recommends this piece by Rafqa Touma about teenagers suffering from Covid

You can read the original article here: ‘I wasn’t certain I was going to leave hospital’: Sydney teenagers tell of terrifying Covid experience

Last week, Australia entered into a new defence pact with the United States and the United Kingdom. The pact, dubbed Aukus, will see Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines from the US and the UK, effectively ending a $90bn contract Australia had previously signed with France. Lenore Taylor and Mike Ticher speak to Gabrielle Jackson about the immediate fallout from Australia’s new partnership and the ramifications of the Aukus alliance

Read more:

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Natasha Henry, Gregg Bakowski and Kieran Maguire from the Price of Football podcast

Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.

What is happening at Derby County? The Rams are bottom of the Championship after going into administration. Kieran Maguire from the Price of Football podcast illuminates us. Will they survive, and how many clubs are in a similarly dicey situation?

Since the start of the pandemic, face coverings and their ability to prevent the transmission of Covid-19 have been under constant scrutiny by scientists, politicians and the public. More than a year and a half in, what do – and don’t – we know? Madeleine Finlay speaks to Prof Cath Noakes about how effective different face coverings are, how best to use them, and when we should be masking-up

A cold winter, a windless summer, and boom in business have combined to create an energy crisis that is hitting particularly hard in the UK. The Guardian’s energy correspondent Jillian Ambrose explains how it happened – and what it will mean for people

The gas crisis that has plunged the UK’s energy system into chaos took everybody by surprise – but in retrospect, the chain of events that led us here started almost a year ago. First, a particularly cold winter meant many people turned the heating up. Then factories and businesses started to turn up production as the economy emerged from the pandemic. Russia reduced its supplies to Europe. A windless summer reduced renewable input to the grid. And on top of all that, a fire in Kent shut down a vital power cable connecting Britain to mainland Europe.

The resulting crisis is likely to increase bills for months to come and put the wider economy under serious pressure – but most of us understand little about the system that gets power to our homes, or how changes in supply find their way to our bills. In this episode, Guardian energy correspondent Jillian Ambrose explains the origins of the crisis to Michael Safi and explores what it has revealed about the weaknesses in the UK’s power system, how they can be fixed – and how serious the impact will be on ordinary people.

After the Victorian government announced restrictions on the construction industry to curb the spread of Covid-19, a series of protests have taken place in Melbourne resulting in violent clashes and dozens of arrests. However, some politicians and union leaders claim that many protesters are not construction workers, but rather far-right extremists.

Guardian reporter Josh Taylor speaks to Laura Murphy-Oates about the role that anti-lockdown and anti-vaccination groups on social media have played and whether the far right has infiltrated these protests

You can also read:

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Wilson, Suzy Wrack and Nick Ames to review each of Tuesday’s Carabou Cup ties in real time

Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.

It was the third round of the Carabao Cup and there were lots of penalties, with QPR and Stoke springing the surprises.

We are raiding the Audio Long Read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors.

This week, from 2018: Every baffled new parent goes searching for answers in baby manuals. But what they really offer is the reassuring fantasy that life’s most difficult questions have one right answer. By Oliver Burkeman

German voters will elect a new chancellor for the first time in 16 years on Sunday, as the Angela Merkel era ends

Germans will go to the polls on Sunday in what many analysts are calling the most important and unpredictable election in the country in a generation. The Guardian’s Berlin correspondent, Kate Connolly, talks to Nosheen Iqbal about how, for the first time in 16 years, Angela Merkel will not be standing for election, meaning Germany will have a new leader.

It comes after a turbulent period in which a eurozone debt crisis changed the shape of European politics. That was followed by a migration crisis, in which Merkel gained plaudits and harsh criticism when she threw open Germany’s borders and famously said: ‘We can do this.’ There was Brexit, of course, and then the crisis that Germany and the wider world is still dealing with: the Covid-19 pandemic.

Australian wheelchair racer Madison de Rozario’s Paralympic career started when she competed at the Beijing Paralympics at the age of 14. Now, the 27-year-old has cemented her place in the history books – breaking multiple records and winning three medals, including two gold, at the Tokyo Paralympics. De Rozario speaks to reporter Kieran Pender about her sometimes bumpy rise to wheelchair-racing fame and the power of the Paralympics as a vehicle for change

You can also read:

Some models of autism frame special interest as something unsettling and obsessive. Guardian Australia’s culture editor, Steph Harmon, recommends a piece by Clem Bastow about this unfair double standard

You can read the original article here: If I wasn’t autistic, would my encyclopedic knowledge of dinosaurs be a problem?

Earlier this month the government announced it will extend the storage limit for those freezing their egg cells from 10 to 55 years. Over the past decade there has been a rapid growth in egg freezing, reaching 2,400 cycles in 2019, and the new rules will allow more freedom in choosing when to freeze – and unfreeze. But, as an expensive, invasive and often unsuccessful procedure, it certainly isn’t the fertility-preserving guarantee that most wish for. Shivani Dave asks if the process is really worth it for those wanting to conceive at a later date

It came out of the blue – but the new military pact between Australia, the UK and the US could transform international relations for a generation. The Guardian’s defence and security editor, Dan Sabbagh, explains the Aukus deal that has enraged Beijing

When Boris Johnson, Joe Biden and Scott Morrison announced a new deal that would provide Australia with the technology to run silent nuclear submarines as part of its navy, one phrase kept coming up: “stability in the Indo-Pacific”. The word the leaders of the UK, the US and Australia did not use may be more important: China. By striking the Aukus deal, an unprecedented agreement on defence cooperation between the three countries, the governments have moved to counter what they view as Beijing’s aggression – and prompted questions about whether the move is an ominous sign of a new ‘cold war’ mentality.

The unexpected announcement of the nuclear submarines – which are nuclear-powered, not nuclear-armed – has also prompted consternation in Paris, where the French government has expressed its fury at the resulting cancellation of a £65bn deal it had with Sydney to provide diesel-powered subs in the coming years.

Australian industry minister Christian Porter has resigned from cabinet after he declared that anonymous donors helped pay his legal fees in his defamation case against the ABC. Prime minister Scott Morrison says the matter is now resolved, but questions are still being asked about the extent of Porter’s knowledge of these donations, and whether he has broken any rules.

Laura Murphy-Oates speaks to political reporter Paul Karp about how the donations scandal unfolded and what the future holds for Christian Porter

You can also read: