The Loop: 'Catastrophic' pressure on Ukraine city, strong winds for flood-hit NSW and first US Capitol rioter found guilty

Good morning, it's Wednesday, March 9. Here's what you need to get going today.

One thing to know right now: Humanitarian situation in Ukraine's Mariupol 'catastrophic'

Here's what happened overnight in the Ukraine war:

• Authorities again could not evacuate civilians from the southern city of Mariupol. Ukraine's government accused Russia of shelling a humanitarian corridor it had promised to open to let residents flee
• Ukraine's Deputy PM Iryna Vereshchuk said the situation in the besieged city was "catastrophic"
• She said humanitarian corridors Russia offered that led out of the city and into Russian or Belarusian territory were unacceptable

Some refugees had earlier escaped Mariupol and headed east to Veselo-Voznesenka in Russia. (AP)

• Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave an impassioned speech to the UK's House of Commons (and got a standing ovation), saying "we will fight to the end". But he said Western countries had to go further — and asked them to recognise Russia as a "terrorist state"

The moment Ukrainian president Zelenskyy receives standing ovation from British parliament

• In an echo of Winston Churchill's famous WWII speech he said:

• Poland is ready to deploy all its MIG-29 jets to a German air base and put them at the disposal of the United States. US politicians have pushed President Joe Biden to facilitate the transfer of fighter aircraft to Ukraine from Poland and Eastern European countries
• US President Joe Biden has banned Russian oil, coal and gas from US markets
• Chinese President Xi Jinping says the conflict in Ukraine is "worrying" and has called for "maximum restraint" in his strongest comments to date
• McDonald's says it will temporarily close all Russian stores. The fast-food chain said it would continue to pay salaries to its 62,000 employees in Russia

One thing you’ll be hearing about today: Prosecutors won a trial over the US Capitol riots

• A Texas man who joined the January 6 assault by supporters of former president Donald Trump has been found guilty on all five of the felony charges he faced, including bringing a gun onto the Capitol grounds
• It was a milestone victory for prosecutors and was the first of such cases to go before a jury
• Guy Reffitt's trial is seen as an important test case as the US Justice Department attempts to secure convictions against the hundreds of defendants who have not taken plea deals

Guy Wesley Reffitt and his lawyer in court. (Dana Verkouteren via AP)

• And Enrique Tarrio, former chairman of right-wing group Proud Boys, has also been arrested in the past few hours on a conspiracy charge for his alleged role in plotting the Capitol riots

News while you snoozed

Let's get you up to speed.

• There were more flood evacuations in NSW overnight — residents were evacuated in the Hawkesbury and Hunter regions (keep up to date here), but an evacuation order issued for Scone in the Hunter this morning was cancelled. River levels are yet to peak in the Hawkesbury-Nepean area of New South Wales where there is a major flood warning
• And authorities are warning damaging winds with peak gusts exceeding 90 kilometres an hour could bring down trees in sodden areas along the Hunter, Sydney, Illawarra and South Coast areas today

• The Australian men's cricket team will continue its tour of Pakistan, despite a second bomb blast occurring since it arrived in the country last week. Australia's first Test in Pakistan in 24 years ended in a draw after the home side batted out day five on a lifeless pitch in Rawalpindi

The news Australia is searching for

• Apple: It's announced a low-cost iPhone SE with 5G and a faster chip for a new Mac Studio computer at its first event in 2022
• Spotify: That *might* be because the music streaming service went down for some users this morning … 

One more thing: Ed Sheeran's been singing … in court

Singing for Ed Sheeran? Not unusual

But the chart-topper had to belt out a few key melodies in a UK court as part of a copyright trial on his hit song Shape of You.

He's in a legal battle with grime artist Sami Chokri, who performs as Sami Switch, and music producer Ross O'Donoghue, who argue Shape of You uses "particular lines and phrases" from their 2015 song Oh Why.

On his second day of questioning by Chokri and O'Donoghue's lawyer Andrew Sutcliffe, Sheeran sang the Oh I hook and lines from songs including Nina Simone's Feeling Good in the same key to show how melodies could sound alike.

Asked about the similarities between the Oh Why and Oh I hooks, Sheeran repeatedly told the High Court in London: "They're both pentatonic scales and they both use vowels."

That's it for now

We'll be back later on with more.

ABC/wires