Good morning. Vladimir Putin has ordered his forces to enter eastern Ukraine to perform “peacekeeping duties” and confirmed that Russia has recognised the expanded borders of the two Russian-controlled territories there, dramatically increasing the likelihood of a larger war in the near future. Britain and the US say Putin’s order amounts to the “beginning of an invasion”. The UK and EU will impose sanctions against Russians and entities and Germany has halted the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline approval in reaction to Russia’s “grave breach” of international law. The situation is moving fast – here’s what could happen next.
AGL Energy says a premium of at least 30% on its share price will be needed for an extraordinary takeover bid by the tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes and the Canadian investment firm Brookfield to succeed. Markus Brokhof, AGL’s chief operating officer, dismissed Cannon-Brookes’ proposal to shut the company’s coal-fired power plants by 2030 as unrealistic. Responding to the consortium’s offer of a 4.7% premium on the Friday share price, Brokhof said any investment banker would advise a full company takeover required the suitors “to offer a premium of 30-40%”.
NSW police are investigating a complaint after the Liberal MP Fiona Martin was allegedly confronted by a pro-Russia anti-vaccine mandate activist. Martin was labelled a “coward” and a “rat from a sinking ship” by self-styled “independent journalist” Simeon Boikov, who arrived with a camera in tow at the MP’s pop-up campaign stall at Cabarita Park on Monday. Martin claims that on Monday Boikov and his associates twice blocked her car as she attempted to leave Cabarita Park.
The federal immigration minister Alex Hawke, failed to appear or send legal representation, to a NSW supreme court despite being named as the first defendant in a case that will determine whether the NSW Liberal party branch can continue to operate beyond 28 February. “It’s an extraordinary state of affairs that a federal minister would not appear in court,” one senior party member said.
Australia
The United Australia party’s warning it will outspend its 2019 campaign in the looming election has prompted calls for urgent reforms to limit party expenditure.
More Australian voters say the government should prioritise the population’s wellbeing over law and order, according to research, which also found nine in 10 respondents think governments should deliver services directly instead of outsourcing them to third parties.
The government’s proposed bill to protect migrant workers from exploitation by establishing new criminal offences for “coercing … migrant workers to accept exploitative work arrangements” has been criticised for its lack of whistleblower protections for workers who expose their own exploitation.
Sea ice around Antarctica has dropped to its lowest level in more than 40 years, according to preliminary data from satellites, but scientists say it too soon to link the the record drop to global heating.
The Anaiwan people in NSW have crowdfunded $330,000 in a bid to buy a 240-hectare block of land to reclaim their country. They say they hope to use the land to reconnect with their culture and language and bring that culture to the wider New England community.
The world
The supreme court has formally rejected Donald Trump’s request to block the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack from accessing his White House records related to the events of 6 January 2021.
All three of the largest groups in the European parliament are demanding that the EU assess whether Switzerland should be categorised as a high-risk country for money laundering and financial crime, as reaction to the Credit Suisse leak continues to reverberate about the world.
The three men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery have been found guilty of federal US hate crimes and attempted kidnapping for violating Arbery’s civil rights and targeting him because he was Black.
The Queen cancelled planned virtual engagements as she continues to experience Covid symptoms.
Recommended reads
“My life has just been a little bit crazy lately,” Maggie Beer says. That feels like something of an understatement. As well as her year-round duties helming a range of gourmet foods plus a shop and restaurant in the Barossa Valley, Australia’s most endearing celebrity cook is in a particularly busy period. She is back in the judging seat for The Great Australian Bake Off and is also gearing up for this year’s Tasting Australia festival. But she took some time out to share with us the stories of three important belongings.
“Watching the steadfast mother-daughter relationships of my patients through health and sickness gives me hope for mine,” Ranjana Srivastava writes. “I talk to my mother every day and assume she knows I cherish her. But lately, I realise that of all my daughter’s gestures, the one that makes my heart brim is when, without expectation or invitation, she tells me that I am a good mother. This reward transcends all achievements and all incentives.”
Penelope Spheeris’s trilogy about LA’s punk and hair metal scenes, The Decline of Western Civilization, is both hopeful and bleak, with revealing interviews with future icons, Nathan Jolly writes. “Featuring rough-ready footage shot at gigs and candid interviews with future punk icons, this film is a slim time capsule of a nascent music scene not yet exploited through commerce or destroyed by day jobs. Spheeris enters a world filled with runaways, drug addicts and squatters, where audience members spit on bands to signal some form of vile, violent appreciation.”
Listen
As debate over the religious discrimination bill – and the right for religious schools to expel transgender kids – reached fever pitch this month, the Rev Josephine Inkpin carried on with the business of providing solace to those in need. In today’s Full Story, Laura Murphy-Oates speaks to the first transgender minister appointed in a mainstream church about breaking ground, hope and why the battle for inclusion isn’t over.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
We are only one round into Super Rugby Pacific and already it appears that a wildcard and a dark horse may threaten to upset the status quo in the Australian section of the competition. For the past few years the race for supremacy has played out almost solely between the Brumbies and the Queensland Reds but it appears the Waratahs have shaken up things up with their 40-10 win against the Fijian Drua in Parramatta last Friday.
Media roundup
Wild weather hit Sydney with flooding reported in homes and shops, says the Sydney Morning Herald, and Queensland received 250mm of rain on Tuesday, with the Courier-Mail reporting that more intense rainfall is expected in the state’s south-east in the coming days. Victoria’s premier, Daniel Andrews, is set to face questions in an anti-corruption investigation into Labor’s dealings with fire union, according to the Herald Sun.
Coming up
Disability royal commission hearings continue and Rio Tinto will share its full-year results at an investor briefing.
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