Good morning. Talks between Russia and Ukraine have resumed. Russian forces are reported to have taken patients and medical staff of a hospital in Mariupol as hostages, as the conflict enters day 21 and more than three million people have fled the country.
State Emergency Service units in some of the hardest-hit flood areas in northern New South Wales had warned in 2020 that the closure of regional offices would reduce their ability to respond to natural disasters. A dozen SES units wrote to the commissioner warning that a restructure “threaten[ed] the continued existence of units … and the future of the service”. Unions warned at the time the measure would cost jobs and hurt services, but the government justified it on the basis it would “reduce back-office costs and focus expenditure where it is needed most”. In the complaint, the SES units said the removal of regional offices had “pushed significant new administrative burdens on to volunteers, frustrating and demoralising dedicated members”.
Almost half of all massacres of Aboriginal people were carried out by police and other government forces, according to final findings of the Colonial Frontier Massacres Digital Map Project. The report showed that conflict was widespread and most massacres were planned in a deliberate attempt to eradicate Aboriginal people. The final update of the project added a further 113 massacre sites, but many more attempts did not make the map because fewer than six people died. Historians say attempts at the mass killing of Aboriginal people were still being made as recently as 1981, when a mass poisoning killed two and left many in hospital in Alice Springs.
Kyiv is facing “a difficult and dangerous moment” amid signs Russia was tightening its grip on the Ukrainian capital after airstrikes on civilian buildings killed at least five people and prompted a 35-hour curfew. The Polish, Czech and Slovenian prime ministers were due to arrive in the embattled city on Tuesday in a symbolic show of European solidarity. Talks between Russia and Ukraine have resumed, Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak said, after negotiations had taken a “technical pause” on Monday.
There are reports that Russian soldiers have taken medical and patients from a hospital in Mariupol as hostages. And a woman who protested the war during a live news programme on Russian state TV has been fined 30,000 roubles (AU$390) by a Russian court after she was found guilty of flouting protest legislation.
Environment groups say the Morrison government plan to remove the need for federal environmental approval for developments in some regions is a “step towards an industry free-for-all” rather than an effort to protect nature. The government announced it would use a little-known law to create regional plans, which could exempt some developments – such as mining or agriculture – from needing federal environmental approval.
Australia
Can social media savvy Peter Malinauskas lead Labor back to power in the upcoming South Australian election? Commentators are near-united that Malinauskas is peaking at just the right time – poised to do what was almost unthinkable six months ago – ending Steven Marshall’s Liberal government after just one term.
Three surfers who pulled a shark attack victim on to a longboard and paddled to safety are among 15 Australians to be awarded the country’s top bravery award.
Voters in the US are not convinced the Indo-Pacific should be a priority region for the Biden administration, and the rising US isolationism means Australia must become more resilient and autonomous, warns an analysis from the United States Studies Centre.
Wait times blew out for ambulances in NSW for patients with life-threatening conditions during the Covid pandemic, in what the paramedics union says is part of a “consistent downward trend”, while calling for more investment.
Women with genes for endometriosis have a 2.6 times higher chance of developing certain ovarian cancers, new research suggests.
Australia’s temporary migration system is delivering the “worst of both worlds” and should abandon skills shortage lists and labour market testing in favour of granting temporary visas for all jobs earning more than $70,000, the Grattan Institute has argued.
The world
Photograph: Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe/PA
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian national held in Iran, has had her British passport returned, amid unconfirmed reports that the UK government had paid a decades-old £400m debt to Iran.
The accused 9/11 plotters are reportedly in talks with US prosecutors over a potential plea deal that would see them plead guilty in exchange for avoiding the death penalty.
A video posted on social media showing armed men burning a man to death in western Ethiopia has drawn condemnation and renewed fear over increasing horrific incidents of ethnic violence.
Recommended reads
Is battling back-to-back disasters distracting us from fighting the climate crisis? Asks Jeff Sparrow. “If we once hoped that real-world manifestations of the climate emergency would, in and of themselves, force world leaders to change, we should quit kidding ourselves. It’s now clear the reverse holds true: that each fresh environmental calamity sends the wealthy and the powerful, like dogs returning to their vomit, to the cheap profits of the carbon economy.”
On Monday The Cook Up with Adam Liaw will return to SBS Food for a second season. While The Cook Up is filmed in Sydney, Liaw’s pre-pandemic adventures took him around the globe. On one trip, Liaw happened upon an antique tea shop and found a silver tea tray that he instantly fell for – but didn’t manage bring home. Liaw tells us about the tea tray that got away, as well as the story of two other handy personal belongings.
We’ve all seen the setup in the movies. The gates open slowly, a recently released prisoner walks out, looking dazed. But what happens after that? For prisoners without a home or family to go back to life outside can be a lot more precarious and unstable than life on the inside. One new solution to the lack of suitable accommodation is to place them for a few months in a house with a private citizen. That’s the setup in the new SBS three-part documentary Life on the Outside, an Australia-first experiment inspired by a US initiative.
Listen
As climate change, natural disasters and other environmental concerns loom large over the next federal election, the Greens are hoping to move further from its status as a party of protest to become a third major political party. In today’s Full Story, Guardian Australia’s Jane Lee speaks to political reporter Josh Butler about how they plan to gain seats, and what would they do with the balance of power.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
The Melbourne Demons buried their AFL curse after winning the 2021 premiership and have all the pieces and motivation to pick up where they left off in Perth, but now comes the hard part, writes Jonathan Horn
Media roundup
The Northern Territory’s anti-corruption commissioner is considering opening an inquiry into the arrest of constable Zachary Rolfe over the fatal shooting of Kumanjayi Walker, after claims of political interference in his prosecution, reports the ABC. The Australian says Josh Frydenberg has shelved plans to bring forward $17bn worth of tax cuts for middle and higher-income earners, in favour of targeted assistance to ease cost-of-living pressures.
Coming up
The program for Vivid Sydney will be unveiled today.
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