Good morning. In a speech to the UN general assembly, Joe Biden has condemned Vladimir Putin’s threat to use nuclear weapons. The new federal water minister has been forced into a tricky situation after a declaration from the New South Wales government set the stage for a water-saving showdown with other states. And Barnaby Joyce and Michael McCormack have said they are unsure if meetings they attended were of Scott Morrison’s secretive cabinet committee or not.
Joe Biden and allied leaders have reacted angrily to Vladimir Putin’s threats to use nuclear weapons, with the US pledging to maintain support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s partial mobilisation. Appearing before the UN general assembly on Wednesday, Biden sought to unite the international community in the face of what he called “reckless” threats and “an extremely significant violation” of the UN charter. The US president was speaking hours after Putin announced Russia’s first mobilisation since the second world war and warned that his country had “lots of weapons to reply” to what he claimed were western threats on its territory.
NSW will seek an exemption from its obligations to deliver the final stage of the Murray-Darling Basin plan, a move that could leave the environment short-changed millions of litres of water. NSW will not meet a June 2024 deadline to deliver the last 25% of water savings of the plan, to be achieved through water-saving projects. The declaration sets the stage for a showdown with the other basin states and poses a test for the new federal water minister, Tanya Plibersek. She must decide whether to give NSW the concessions it is seeking at the expense of the environment, or use the tough penalties that are built into the plan.
Former deputy prime ministers Barnaby Joyce and Michael McCormack did not always know if the “deep dive” policy meetings they attended were actually meetings of Scott Morrison’s secretive cabinet subcommittee. McCormack said he was “definitely” a member of the cabinet office policy committee, but he was “not sure” if meetings attended by external stakeholders were cabinet office policy committee meetings. Joyce said there was “nothing distinctly different” about the meetings he attended compared with the processes of former Liberal prime ministers, but he knew them only as “deep dives”, not as policy committee meetings.
Australia
Rescuers and marine conservationists have rushed to Tasmania’s west coast, as efforts continue to save pilot whales after a mass stranding near the remote town of Strahan.
Apple has agreed to come to the bargaining table with Australian staff for a new workplace agreement, after unions brought the company to the Fair Work Commission over employee demands for better pay and a guaranteed weekend.
Queensland authorities will retest thousands of DNA samples connected to serious crimes such as rapes and murders, after a “concerning” report into the state’s forensic crime lab. Here’s everything you need to know.
Most of the 27 students onboard a bus that was hit by a truck west of Melbourne were wearing seatbelts, authorities have confirmed, saying the safety measure may have saved their lives.
A beloved presenter of the ABC children’s program Play School, “Naughty John” Hamblin, died on Wednesday aged 87.
The world
Iran has sent police to the streets in a scramble to end protests that have spread to at least 15 cities, as rights groups and local media reported up to seven people had been killed in crackdowns. Protests have engulfed parts of the country over the past five days after the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by the morality police for not wearing the hijab appropriately.
The attorney general of New York state has filed a civil fraud lawsuit against Donald Trump and three of his children involved in the family real-estate business, for falsely inflating his net worth by billions in order to enrich himself and secure favourable loans.
The family of Shireen Abu Akleh has formally submitted a complaint to the international criminal court (ICC) including evidence from a new report that found the veteran Palestinian-American journalist was deliberately killed by Israeli forces.
A Briton who was threatened with execution after being captured by Russian forces during the siege of Mariupol has been released with nine other foreign fighters following the intervention of Saudi Arabia.
A man has set himself alight near the Japanese prime minister’s office, apparently in protest against next week’s state funeral for the country’s former prime minister, Shinzo Abe.
Recommended reads
Georgie Stone has made headlines ever since she was 10, first in the courts and then becoming Neighbours’ first trans actor. In an interview with Michael Sun, she talks about her life ahead of a new Netflix documentary.
Director Goran Stolevski’s debut You Won’t Be Alone casts a different light on witch stories, with a film that follows a shapeshifter in a 19th-century village. Luke Buckmaster awards the “spellbinding horror movie from a great new talent” five stars.
Tom Hardy won a jiu-jitsu championship in a Milton Keynes school hall, while Brad Pitt launched his career as a sculptor at a subdued gallery show in Finland. Stuart Heritage talks us through the “quiet art of the successful celebrity side career”.
Sport
Hawthorn chief executive Justin Reeves says the “heartbreaking” findings of a review alleging serious mistreatment of First Nations former players came as “a surprise to everyone” who worked for the Hawks at the time.
Media roundup
A former Australian special forces soldier who allegedly confessed to executing an Afghan prisoner in October 2012 is now the target of a major war crimes inquiry, The Sydney Morning Herald reports. And news.com has the “terrifying” story of a mum and her sons who went for a scuba dive in Fiji only to surface and find their boat had vanished leaving them in the middle of the sea.
Coming up
The late Queen will be remembered in a service at Parliament House in Canberra to be broadcast live across the nation from 11am AEST, beginning with a minute’s silence.
Flooding is expected to cut off NSW towns with a low pressure system forecast to deliver widespread showers across most of the state.
And if you’ve read this far …
“I love you but I don’t want to see you for the next six weeks”: the case for a “marriage sabbatical”.
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