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Prime minister is isolating at Sydney home and says he will continue working while he recoversScott Morrison says he has tested positive to Covid-19 but will continue to discharge all his responsibilities as prime minister.“I am experiencing flu-like symptoms and will be recovering over the next week,” Morrison said in a statement announcing that he had tested positive on Tuesday night. Continue reading...

For decades, academic appreciation of the fab four was an overwhelmingly male pursuit. Meet the female scholars, musicians and podcasters redressing the balanceFor teenager Janice Mitchell, hearing the Beatles’ I Want to Hold Your Hand on US radio in December 1963 affected her in ways she still can’t quite articulate. “How do you explain why [you were] electrified when you were struck by lightning?” she says, laughing.I Want to Hold Your Hand didn’t just sound more interesting than the other songs in rotation on her home town station, the single represented an escape from a difficult childhood. Mitchell, of Cleveland, Ohio, grew up with neglectful parents who eventually abandoned her and two younger siblings. And 1963 had been another hard year. Mitchell was reeling from the death of a beloved great uncle, one of the few adults who had shown her kindness. Continue reading...

Move leaves classical star isolated after he was dropped by his management over his refusal to end support for ‘criminal regime’• Russia-Ukraine crisis: live newsThe Munich Philharmonic Orchestra has sacked the star Russian conductor Valery Gergiev after he failed to speak out against the invasion of Ukraine or distance himself from his close friend and supporter, Vladimir Putin.The mayor of Munich, Dieter Reiter, said on Tuesday morning that Gergiev’s contract had been terminated with immediate effect. It came a day after the conductor’s management dropped him for refusing to end what it said was his “long-expressed support” for a “criminal regime”. Continue reading...

Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, called Russia's alleged shelling of Kharkiv's central square 'undisguised terror'

Dozens of Ukrainian soldiers die in attack on military base in Okhtyrka as rocket attacks rain down on Kharkiv

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Officials in Ukraine's second largest city have released a video showing a regional administration building being hit by a missile that then exploded Continue reading...

More that 15,00 homes destroyed in Port Harcourt in government plan to ‘sanitise the waterfronts by removing shanties’The bulldozers rolled into Urualla, Port Harcourt, early on 30 January. By the end of the day, hundreds of people were homeless, their belongings scattered and lost, as government clearances of waterfront slums in the southern Nigerian city got under way.Over six days, the homes of more than 15,000 families in eight slum communities in the Diobu area of the city were destroyed. Another three neighbourhoods are earmarked to be cleared. Continue reading...

Much of the state is without internet, but Telstra says some voice calls and emergency calls are working

Darknet survey finds 42% sought contact after watching sexual abuse online, with escalating porn habits driving users to illegal materialThe largest ever survey on the thoughts and behaviours of people who watch child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online has found significant evidence that those who watch illegal material are at high risk of going on to contact or abuse a child directly.Nearly half (42%) of respondents to the survey, the first of its kind, said they had sought direct contact with children through online platforms after viewing CSAM, and 58% reported feeling afraid that viewing CSAM might lead to them committing abuse in person. Continue reading...

Despite the deluge, spirits were high on the M1 as drivers shared resources while camped on ‘road islands’

Disney and Sony call off all upcoming theatrical releases, including Pixar film Turning Red and Morbius, with Warner Bros also pulling The BatmanDisney is pausing all theatrical releases in Russia, including the upcoming Pixar film Turning Red, citing the “unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and the tragic humanitarian crisis”.“We will make future business decisions based on the evolving situation,” Disney said on Monday. “In the meantime, given the scale of the emerging refugee crisis, we are working with our NGO partners to provide urgent aid and other humanitarian assistance.” Continue reading...

Prosecutor seeks court’s approval on day dozens were killed by rockets in Kharkiv

Home secretary cites concerns over extremists and Russian agents entering UK amid growing unrest among Tory MPs

Sergei Roldugin, 71, godfather to the president’s daughter, is one of 26 new additions to 680-strong list

From inside a makeshift bunker in the basement of their block of flats in Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, Olia and her neighbours give an insight into their lives as they reach day five of heavy shelling from Russian forces. Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second biggest city, was the focus of dozens of Grad missiles targeting civilian areas in an apparent change of tack by Moscow. Olia, a young artist, reflects on the conflict so far and explains how she is keeping her spirits up Continue reading...

Karim Khan says that although Ukraine isn’t a member of the ICC, it has awarded jurisdiction to the court

‘Dozens’ of civilians killed in Ukraine’s second city amid widespread use of indiscriminate weapons

Tuesday: Rocket attacks killed ‘dozens’ of people in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. Plus: UN issues ‘bleakest warning yet’ on global heatingGood morning. Today marks the fifth day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as countries and companies around the world boycott Russia. In Australia, more rain is set to prolong devastating floods in south-east Queensland, and the UN releases its latest and “bleakest warning yet” on climate impacts.Russian rocket attacks killed “dozens” of people in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv as officials from both countries met for ceasefire talks, with Moscow facing unprecedented western sanctions that it said had created “a new economic reality”. The Élysée Palace said after a call between Emmanuel Macron and Vladmir Putin the Russian president was “willing to commit” to ending attacks on civilians and civil infrastructure during the talks. Russia could receive backup from Belarus, who may be preparing to send its soldiers into Ukraine in support of the Russian invasion, according to a US defence official. Meanwhile, the Nigerian government has condemned the treatment of thousands of its students and citizens fleeing the war amid concerns that African students are facing discrimination by security officials and being denied entry into Poland. Companies have also condemned Russia, with Shell announcing it will exit its joint ventures with Russian state energy firm Gazprom a day after BP said it would offload its 20% stake in Kremlin-owned oil firm Rosneft, amid mounting criticism that the oil industry has helped empower Putin. Fifa and Uefa have also acted in unison to suspend Russian teams from international football competition. Continue reading...

Analysis: against the backdrop of the invasion of Ukraine, Kwasi Kwarteng announces clean-up measures

Analysis: previously there has been a reluctance to supply arms to the under-siege state, but that appears to be changing

British oil major to exit joint ventures with Gazprom after BP pledged to sell its 20% Rosneft stake

An appeal in Leeds for donations to help desperate Ukrainians has created a multinational army of volunteers• Russia-Ukraine crisis: live newsMagdalena Timmins could not sleep on the second night of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. At home in Bradford, the 31-year-old received horrified texts from relatives in Poland. Her birthplace, the small border city of Przemyśl, had become the frontline of a growing humanitarian disaster as hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fled Vladimir Putin’s bombs.In a message to the Facebook group “Polish mums of Leeds”, Timmins appealed for donations to send to those in need 1,300 miles away. Within hours, her plea had spread across Yorkshire. By Monday, she had raised a multinational army of volunteers and received enough clothes, bedding and medical equipment to fill three 26-tonne lorries. Continue reading...

Jury told James Watson spoke to police in 1994 but did not mention he had picked up Rikki until interviewed again in 2015A police officer’s son accused of the 1994 murder of six-year-old Rikki Neave has denied he belatedly revealed he had picked up the schoolboy on the day of his disappearance in an attempt to tailor his account to fit the discovery of his DNA.James Watson was 13 at the time it is alleged he killed Rikki in Peterborough on 28 November 1994, jurors have been told. Continue reading...

Government says citizens are being denied entry into Poland amid growing reports of discrimination

Analysis: politicians who believed Putin could be ‘tamed by empathy and accommodation’ are having to hurriedly rethink their positions

More than 360,000 people have already fled their homes in Ukraine since the beginning of Vladimir Putin's bloody invasion, according to the UN refugee agency, and more than 4.5 million more could follow if the fighting spreads. But among the bloodshed, moments of hope and defiance from the nation stood out and captured the hearts and minds of the world, encapsulating the Ukrainian people's resilience and determination to stand up to the aggressor

Filmmaker James Jones had no idea when he started it two years ago that a terrible synchronicity would make his blistering documentary about the nuclear accident in northern Ukraine a must-watchHad it been released at any point in the past few years, Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes would have been an important documentary; a feature-length blend of audio interviews and largely unseen archive footage that puts the 1986 disaster into horrifying new perspective. That it comes out now – just days after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, including an attack on the Chernobyl site itself – makes it as unmissable as it is harrowing.Obviously, this timeliness was never the intention. Indeed, the film-maker James Jones had a different historical event in mind when he started work on it two years ago. “I initially thought the relevance was Covid,” he says. Like Chernobyl, the early days of the pandemic were marked with mysterious illnesses that the local government attempted to keep a lid on. “I was interested in the idea that this invisible enemy was threatening us,” he says. “An authoritarian regime was lying about it, and Chinese citizens were starting to voice their disquiet publicly.” Continue reading...

Move could happen this week as official says Minsk is ‘now an extension of the Kremlin’

Despite vowing change, plans set to be released by the NPCC will oppose an admission of institutional racismPolice leaders in England and Wales will decide not to accept that their forces are still institutionally racist, as they try to battle their way out of a race crisis.Chief constables began considering a public admission in December and have held a series of private meetings among forces to try to find agreement. Continue reading...

In evidence to inquiry, Anthony Burd denies there was a cover-up of the results of taxpayer-funded testsA senior official has admitted the government knew 15 years before the Grenfell Tower disaster that plastic-filled cladding panels – which fuelled the fatal fire – burned “fast and fierce” and he believed they should not be used on tall buildings.But the results of tests were not published, and on Monday Anthony Burd, the principal fire safety professional and later head of technical policy in the government’s building regulations division from 2000 to 2013, denied there was a cover-up. Continue reading...

Civilian volunteers have come forward in large numbers to help the war effort against the Russian invasion

Staff complain of low pay amid pressure to deliver institution’s famous one-on-one tutorialsCambridge University lecturers are accusing the institution of pressuring them into taking on “explosive workloads” to deliver its famous one-on-one tutorials.A survey of university teaching officers (UTOs) by the University and College Union branch found that a third (35%) felt they could not refuse requests from peers and superiors to take on extra weekly tutorials, or “supervisions” as they are known, even though nearly half of those surveyed said they would like to deliver fewer of them. Continue reading...

Dozens kills and hundreds wounded in Russian rocket strikes on Kharkiv, as rouble crashes in wake of global sanctions

Breathtakingly shot documentary records long push to cross a series of Alaskan mountains, and the geographer who first charted themFifteen miles to the south-east of Denali, the highest peak in North America, lies a colossal mountain range that rears from the ground like a vertiginous jaw. Fittingly, the various summits of this natural wonder are called Moose’s Tooth, Eye Tooth, Sugar Tooth and Broken Tooth. While many explorers have conquered each of these peaks, none have attempted a lateral climb from summit to summit,akin to walking atop the skyline. But a black-and-white aerial photograph of the forbidding path, all snow-capped and wrapped in billowy clouds, beckons the adventurous spirit of mountaineers Renan Ozturk, Freddie Wilkinson and Zach Smith.Directed by Ozturk and Wilkinson, this awe-inspiring documentary is as much about their years-long attempts to scale the Tooth traverse as it is about Brad Washburn, the man behind the image that ignited their curiosity. A daring figure with an inexhaustible passion for exploration, Washburn pioneered the use of aerial photography in cartography, crafting superbly detailed maps of regions previously neglected by geographers. The extraordinary milestones of Washburn’s career – including his tenure as the director of the Boston Museum of Science – are interwoven with the highs and lows in the three climbers’ private lives. Despite the deaths of fellow mountaineers, neck-breaking accidents and financial struggles, their determination to scale the traverse is staggering in its unshakeable resilience. And amid perilous risks of avalanche and falling rocks, their enthusiasm has a childlike wonder that feels especially moving. Continue reading...

Emmy was on en route to Athens to try artificial insemination when she started chatting to Andy. Now they have a child togetherAfter turning 30 in 2018, Emmy made the life-changing decision to have a baby alone. “I had always really wanted children,” she says. “But when I did a fertility MOT, I discovered I had low egg reserves.” Single, and reluctant to wait for a suitable partner to come along, she began the process of IVF. “I naively thought it would work, but I had a couple of miscarriages in the early stages.”In February 2020, she travelled to Athens to try artificial insemination by a donor. “I’ve lived and worked in Greece and loved it. It was cheaper and I had friends to stay with,” she says. Before she landed, she matched on a dating app with a man from Liverpool called Andy, and they began to chat. “I’d been single for about four years and was quite happy in my own world,” he says. “But I was open to meeting someone and I found Emmy really engaging.” Continue reading...

NSW premier says ‘unprecedented’ floods expected to get worse; Lismore residents call for help on social media as flood level hits record high; cars stranded on M1 as flood waters rise; Frydenberg discusses financial support for Ukraine ahead of Scott Morrison’s call with president; at least 12 Covid-related deaths recorded. Follow the latest updates live

Det Sr Sgt Andrew Barram, who conducted reviews of the shooting, told court Rolfe acted inconsistent with NT police protocol

Bob and Ann Paton thought they were just moving to their dream country home – until they had the idea to turn its six acres into a small farm“We didn’t intend to be farmers,” Bob Paton says. In their 50s, he and his wife, Ann, envisaged “one more move”. They lived in Newcastle upon Tyne and had a checklist for their dream house: “Northumberland, stone-built, a bit of character and a reasonable garden,” Bob says.The place they found ticked every box but one. Instead of a reasonable garden, it had six acres. As they walked the grounds, Bob turned to Ann and said: “We could turn this into a small farm.”Tell us: has your life taken a new direction after the age of 60? Continue reading...

Change comes as NZ, virus-free for much of pandemic, records some of world’s highest transmission rates amid Omicron surgeNew Zealand has ended its self-isolation requirements for vaccinated travellers arriving from Australia, as the country’s Covid transmission rates soar to among the highest in the world.From Wednesday, vaccinated travellers will no longer need to self-isolate but will still be required to undergo a Covid-19 test on arrival and on day five or six, prime minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Monday. Continue reading...

Vladimir Putin said nuclear move came after aggressive statements by Nato countries; satellite images show ground forces heading to capital; Ukrainian president says two sides to meet on Belarus border

Josh Frydenberg says fighting in a conflict zone is against Australian law as government confirms $4m in funding for military assistance

Rapidly rising flood waters inundate regional city, leaving people stranded on roofs, including local MP who had to be rescued by her electorate officer in a canoe

Economic crime bill will force transparency on property ownership and expand use of unexplained wealth ordersBoris Johnson has said that Russian oligarchs will no longer have a hiding place for their “ill-gotten gains” in the UK under legislation being introduced in parliament this week.A new register of overseas entities is intended to stop the foreign owners of property in Britain from hiding their identity, and separate measures are expected to give some teeth to the unexplained wealth order mechanism, which until now has proved relatively ineffective. Continue reading...

Letter to PM demands compassionate 11th-hour amendments to nationality and borders billRepresentatives from the six major religions are among more than 1,000 faith leaders to have signed a letter to the prime minister urging him to reconsider the controversial nationality and borders bill, which goes through the report stage in the House of Lords on Monday.The leaders, representing the UK’s major faith groups, say they are “horrified and appalled about the potential repercussions” of the bill and called on Boris Johnson to make urgent changes “even at this late stage”. Continue reading...

Oleg Deripaska and Ukrainian-born Mikhail Fridman call for peace, as activities come under threat from sanctions

Many close relatives in Ukraine of British nationals do not meet criteria for entry despite No 10 promises

Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams announce moves as Covid infections continue to fall dramaticallyThe mayor of New York City, Eric Adams announced on Sunday that a dramatic drop in coronavirus infections could lead to the lifting of vaccine mandates on restaurants, bars and theaters as soon as 7 March.His announcement came shortly after the governor of New York state, Kathy Hochul, announced plans to lift the mask mandate on schools, effective Wednesday. Continue reading...