Good morning. Russia’s security forces have detained more than 1,300 people at protests after the president, Vladimir Putin, ordered the nation’s partial mobilisation, while traffic at border crossings with neighbouring Finland and Georgia has surged as Russians flee amid fears they will be called to the frontline against Ukraine. New South Wales faces a “very long” flood season as the third consecutive La Niña strikes, with predictions a rain band will inundate some areas. And Optus has suffered a massive data breach, with the personal information of potentially millions of customers at risk.
The UN secretary general has issued a strongly worded rebuke to Russia for “totally unacceptable” nuclear threats and denounced its plans to annex parts of Ukraine as a “violation of the UN charter and of international law”. António Guterres was speaking at the start of a UN security council meeting the day after Putin raised the stakes in his invasion of Ukraine, announcing a partial mobilisation and threatening the use of nuclear weapons. It comes as security forces detained more than 1,300 people in Russia at protests denouncing the mobilisation, a rights group said, and an “exceptional” number of people attempt to flee the country.
