Morning everyone. The Liberal party’s time with a female leader positioned in the centre ground looks like ending after just nine months with most informed observers expecting Angus Taylor to prevail in this morning’s leadership spill. We have news and analysis on the day’s biggest story.
We’re also reporting on the ongoing impact of the apology to the Stolen Generations, there are reports of Succession, North Korea-style, and Cooper Woods wins Australia’s first gold – and first medal – of the Winter Olympics.
Australia
Mogul medal | Australia won its first medal of the Winter Olympics in some style with Cooper Woods taking gold in the men’s moguls with a superb run at Livigno.
Spilling zone | Angus Taylor’s backers are confident that he has the numbers to defeat Sussan Ley in this morning’s leadership spill after the Liberal leader was hit by a stream of frontbench resignations. We also look at who is in the frame to be Taylor’s deputy with frontrunners including Jane Hume, Tim Wilson and Ted O’Brien, while Josh Butler notes that Taylor might win simply because he isn’t Sussan Ley.
Mystery clues | The discovery of human bones, teeth and a car key in dense forest in Tasmania have provided more clues in the two-year search for Celine Cremer, the Belgian tourist who went missing near Cradle Mountain in 2023.
‘So much hurt’ | Stolen Generations survivors gathered in Canberra this week to mark the 18th anniversary of Kevin Rudd’s apology in 2008. Sarah Collard talks to some about how it affected them. “It just brings back so much hurt and memory,” Valerie Wenberg says.
War graves | The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has raised the issue of Australian war graves bulldozed by the Israeli military in Gaza directly with the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog.
World
Succession plan | South Korea’s spy agency has told lawmakers that it believes the teenage daughter of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, is close to being designated as the country’s future leader as Kim moves to extend the family dynasty to a fourth generation.
Minnesota draw down | Donald Trump’s border tsar, Tom Homan, says the administration is ending its immigration crackdown in Minnesota. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has revoked the bedrock scientific determination which gives the government the ability to regulate climate-heating pollution. The move was described as a gift to “billionaire polluters”. The president said it was “the single largest deregulatory action in American history”.
Race to the bottom | Elon Musk’s interest in a white racial majority is intensifying after he posted about how the white race was under threat, made allusions to race science or promoted anti-immigrant conspiracy content on 26 out of 31 days in January.
Ratcliffe apology | Jim Ratcliffe, the UK billionaire Monaco-based Manchester United co-owner, has apologised for his “choice of language after a mounting backlash against his comments that the UK was being “colonised” by immigrants.
‘He is beloved’ | Katie Holmes has shared a handwritten letter to her late Dawson’s Creek co-star James Van Der Beek, saying: “I formed some words with a heavy heart. I am so grateful to have shared in a piece of James’ journey.”
Full Story
The Greens’ Nick McKim says Herzog invite was ‘deliberately inflammatory’
The Greens senator tells our political editor, Tom McIlroy, that the confronting scenes of police aggression towards protesters in Sydney were “massive overreach”.
In-depth
One of the world’s most renowned media orgainisations, the Washington Post, is in turmoil amid falling readership, a huge round of redundancies, and now the abrupt departure of publisher Will Lewis after only two years. Jeremy Barr looks at his tumultuous reign featuring spats with staff, and the final straw of a Super Bowl jaunt.
Not the news
Simplicity and McCall, Australia’s largest garment pattern supplier, is winding up operations and closing its Sydney warehouse as part of a global restructure. Lucianne Tonti explores the loss of a business that failed to keep up with the times.
Sport
AFL | As the AFL reboots the Origin concept for the first time since 1992, Brendan Foster recalls an epic victory by WA over Victoria in 1986.
Winter Olympics | The Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych has been kicked out of the Games after he refused to back down from wearing a “helmet of memory” in honour of his country’s war dead. Finland’s ski jump coach has been sent home for drinking alcohol. Follow the action live.
Football | As Tottenham search for a new manager, Ange Postecoglou says his former employers are “not a big club” because of their refusal to pay the major wages for top-level signings.
Media roundup
In a commentary, the Australian says Angus Taylor must “hit the ground running” to avoid extinction of the Liberal party. A woman has been rescued after being trapped in a flooded river in the Northern Territory for 11 hours, the NT News reports. The Herald Sun has six questions it says Jacinta Allan must answer about the CFMEU big build scandal.
What’s happening today
Canberra | Breakfast event to mark the 18th anniversary of apology to Indigenous Australians at the Great Hall of Parliament House.
Perth | Case management conference in Virginia Giuffre probate challenge at supreme court of WA.
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Brain teaser
And finally, here are the Guardian’s crosswords to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow.
