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.
