Good morning, it's Thursday, April 21. Here's what you need to get going today.
One thing to know right now: Ukraine says it'll negotiate 'without conditions' on Mariupol
Here's the lowdown:
- Ukraine has signalled this morning that it's ready to hold a "special round of negotiations" with Russia — without any conditions — in the besieged port city of Mariupol. It's just hours after desperate new efforts to open an evacuation corridor for civilians trapped in the ruined city failed
- Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted that the talks could be "One on one. Two on two … to save our guys [the far-right] Azov [battalion], military, civilians, children, the living and the wounded".
- In a video posted online hours earlier, commander of Ukraine's 36th marine brigade Serhiy Volyna — whose marines are still fighting in Mariupol — urged the international community to help evacuate wounded Ukrainian fighters and their families, saying:
- Reuters could not independently verify the video and Russia denies intentionally targeting civilians.
- Meanwhile, Russia's military said it has successfully performed the first test of a new intercontinental ballistic missile
- President Vladimir Putin said the Sarmat missile would make the West “think twice” before harbouring any aggressive intentions against Russia, saying:
- Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said that Russia had given the US an advance notice about the launch in line with the New START nuclear arms control treaty between Moscow and Washington and such testing was routine and not a surprise:
One thing you’ll be hearing about today: The first leaders' debate
Let's catch up on how the Morrison v Albanese showdown went:
- Overall, Anthony Albanese won the night, with the audience of 100 undecided voters in the Sky News debate favouring him — 40 per cent to 35 per cent — over Scott Morrison. But do the maths and that leaves 25 per cent of those still in the undecided camp
- The first big clash was over boat arrivals. Mr Albanese said Labor effectively adopted the Coalition's approach when he was deputy prime minister back in 2013 — but the PM said Labor didn't back boat turnbacks until many years later. Here's how it went down:
Morrison: So when you were deputy prime minister, why didn't you support boat turnbacks them?
Albanese: You weren't proposing that then...
Morrison: We were, I'm sorry it was our policy, turnbacks were our policy before the 2013 election, I was the shadow immigration minister, I designed the policy. You were on the National Security Committee, so why did you not support turnbacks?
Albanese: I was on the NSC. We had established offshore processing … in 2013, when I became deputy PM, that was the first step.
Morrison: So you were going to do turnbacks.
Albanese: No … no, that's right. But why is it Scott that you're always looking for division?
Morrison: No, I'm looking for accuracy and the truth.
Albanese: The truth is we support boat turnbacks.
- Things got heated towards the end when Mr Albanese accused Mr Morrison of an "outrageous slur" when the PM said the Labor leader took "China's side" over the China-Solomon Islands security pact issue. Here's what the opposition leader said:
- Keen for more? You can catch up with a Fact Check here, David Speers's analysis here and watch a bit of last night's action at:
News while you snoozed
Let's get you up to speed.
- US authorities have fined the producers of the film Rust for failing to follow firearm safety guidelines, after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot on set by Alec Baldwin. The department also accused the company of acting "indifferently" towards employee safety
- A British judge has formally approved the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States to face spying charges. Britain's Home Secretary Priti Patel will now decide whether to grant the extradition of the WikiLeaks founder
- Wimbledon has banned all Russian and Belarusian players from competing at the 2022 Championships due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, that has been supported by Belarus. Among the prominent men's players affected by the ban are reigning US Open champion Daniil Medvedev and men's number eight Andrey Rublev.
The news Australia is searching for
- Josh Frydenberg and Guide Dogs Victoria: Long but definitely something that's trending, this is the story about how Guide Dogs Victoria's chief executive, Karen Hayes, publicly endorsed the Treasurer's re-election bid — and how the move may be in breach of regulations for charities set out by a national regulator. The charity has said it had no prior knowledge and has started an investigation.
One more thing: The baby supernova that has astronomers excited
There's been a new discovery in the cosmic explosion field: You know about supernovas, now introducing the "micronova".
Astronomers have found that the same process that causes stellar explosions such as some types of supernova can also happen on a much-smaller scale.
They've discovered bright flashes from the poles of three white dwarf stars — and say it challenges what we know about how thermonuclear explosions happened in some stars.
Simone Scaringi, an astronomer at Durham University in the UK, said:
That's it for now
We'll be back later on with more.
ABC/wires
