Good morning. Sydney residents can expect more train troubles today, with limited services to resume after Monday’s shutdown as the dispute between the rail union and the NSW government continues.
More strikes are “inevitable” this year if the NSW government refuses to scrap its 2.5% wages cap, say unions after rail chaos hit Sydney. A long-running industrial dispute between the Rail, Tram and Bus Union and NSW government saw staff across the state’s transport network “locked out” and train services ground to a halt on Monday. The transport union has accused the NSW government of playing politics with commuters, and the state government has ramped up its anti-union rhetoric, with the NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, describing the action as a “coordinated attack by the Labor party and the union movement”. The NSW transport minister, David Elliott, liked it to “terrorist-like activity”, then accused RTBU of acting like “cowards”, spreading “bullshit” and “hijacking the city”.
A majority of Australian voters see China and the bilateral relationship as a complex issue to be managed (61%) rather than a threat to be confronted (26%), and more voters trust Labor than the Coalition to manage that complexity, the latest Guardian Essential poll suggests. Despite Scott Morrison last week repeatedly saying Labor is “weak” on security threats and declaring that only the Coalition would not “appease” Beijing, the opposition currently maintains a nine-point lead over the Coalition when people are asked which party they trust to manage the Australia-China relationship.
Vladimir Putin will recognise the Russia-controlled territories in south-east Ukraine as independent states in a pivotal decision, scuttling an existing peace agreement and possibly triggering tough new sanctions from the west. According to the Kremlin, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron “expressed their disappointment with this development of the situation” but “indicated their readiness to continue contacts”. The German leader earlier warned that “such a step would be a gross contradiction of the Minsk agreement for a peaceful settlement of the conflict in east Ukraine and a unilateral breach of these deals from the Russian side.” France and Germany are both signatories of the Minsk agreement, a peace deal that will likely be abandoned as a result of the Russian decision.
Australia
The Coalition government has pledged $804m for strategic and scientific programs in Antarctica and to ensure the increasingly contested region is “free from conflict”.
Why is a tech billionaire trying to buy Australia’s dirtiest energy company AGL? Mike Cannon-Brookes believes backing renewable energy over old coal power plants will keep electricity prices down, create jobs and slash emissions – is he right? We answer the big questions here.
John Yalu has been identified as the man charged with murder after allegedly cutting off an older man’s leg with a circular saw, as part of what police claim was an “arrangement” between them.
The NSW government has begun issuing flood plain harvesting licences in NSW despite objections from the upper house – a move that has been labelled “an act of bastardry” and “bad faith” by key crossbenchers.
The world
Boris Johnson has announced the end of all domestic Covid restrictions in England in a process starting later this week. Free Covid testing will end for the general public from 1 April and people with positive cases will no longer legally have to isolate.
Germany will offer a new protein-based Covid-19 vaccine in the hope of swaying a sizeable minority that remains sceptical of the novel mRNA technology. About 1.4m doses of Nuvaxovid developed by the US biotech company Novavax are to arrive in Germany this week, after EU approval in December.
The final piece of a 17th-century tapestry that was stolen 42 years ago by a notorious art thief has been recovered. The Flemish work taken by notorious art thief “Erik the Belgian” was tracked down by an officer doing academic research on art thefts.
Myanmar’s military junta has appeared in place of the detained Aung San Suu Kyi at the UN’s top court, where it sought to throw out a case alleging that it committed genocide against the country’s Rohingya minority.
Recommended reads
When Chris O’Connor formed rock band Painters and Dockers to pay off a friend’s parking fines, he didn’t count on union thugs, a knife-wielding maniac and six police vans turning up to the group’s first gig in Melbourne. “A man who lived nearby got the shits with the noise so came in with a machete and started chopping up the mixing desk because he wanted us to stop playing. Six divvy vans turned up, cut the whole street off, and the whole pub evacuated in two minutes. We were running down the street with our amplifiers trying to get out of there. It was insane.”
People’s experience of amputation differs. Jane Nicholls shares the story of having her leg “chopped off above the knee” after an unexplained blood clot in an artery in her lower leg. “I have a conical vestige of a leg. People call that my ‘stump’. Ugly word. I call it ‘my leg’. It is my leg,” she writes. “You dread an above-knee amputation. It changes your life. The knee has a crucial role in maintaining balance. If your leg is amputated below the knee, you can still do most of the things you used to do. I can’t run. Climbing steps can be terrifying. I can’t ride a bike. My life is about maintaining my balance. Not falling over.”
There’s no denying that polyester clothing is an environmental hazard – it doesn’t biodegrade in landfill, virgin polyester is derived from fossil fuels, and it sheds plastic microfibres when it is washed and worn. But, because it’s cheap, it’s in more than half our clothes. Since it’s very likely we all have something made from polyester in our wardrobes, here is some expert advice on how to minimise its impact.
Listen
The Morrison government has been accused of weaponising national security in an attempt to sway the polls ahead of the election. The head of Australia’s spy agency Asio has also warned against stoking “community division”, saying it could have serious implications for Australia’s democracy. In today’s Full Story, Laura Murphy-Oates speaks to Guardian Australia’s foreign affairs and defence correspondent, Daniel Hurst, about this strategy and how it will impact Labor, the Coalition and Australia’s democracy.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
Australian basketballer Josh Giddey has won many plaudits of late, including from LeBron James. But a true measure of Giddey’s character can be found not in this rush of recent success, but from a time of disappointment, writes Kieran Pender.
Reporting conditions for journalists covering the Beijing Winter Olympics fell short of international standards, according to the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China, which says reporters were tailed and manhandled by security despite assurances from Games officials.
Media roundup
A national campaign to ban the use of spit hoods has been launched after Northern Territory police revealed their increased use on children as young as 12 years old in the last two years, reports the NT News. A third of Australian men who kill their female partners are high functioning elsewhere in their lives and had not previously come to police attention, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
Coming up
We can expect updates from the dispute between the transport union and the NSW government. And Clive Palmer will address the National Press Club.
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