Good morning. There is mounting evidence of indiscriminate killings in Ukraine as investigators find hundreds of bodies in towns near Kyiv. And vulnerable groups will be able to start receiving a fourth Covid vaccine booster from today, as Covid cases across the country rise.
Russia stands accused of terrible war crimes as western leaders condemn the killings of unarmed civilians in Bucha and the surrounding areas of Kyiv in alleged atrocities that prompted fresh demands for tougher action against Moscow. Women across Ukraine are also grappling with the threat of rape as a weapon of war as growing evidence of sexual violence emerges from areas retaken from retreating Russian forces. The world was horrified on Sunday by a picture taken by the photographer Mikhail Palinchak on a highway 20km outside the capital, Kyiv, in which the body of one man and three women were piled under a blanket.
The Iranian refugee Hossein Latifi has been released from Melbourne’s Park hotel, along with nine other people, after nine years in immigration detention. Latifi was released on Friday – his 33rd birthday. It was the first time in almost a decade he had been able to celebrate outside the walls of a detention centre. Advocates estimate about 20 people were released on Friday from detention centres in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane but it has been difficult to get accurate data on the number of people still detained under the medevac laws. Latifi says recent releases are “absolutely due to the upcoming federal election”.
The Victorian government plans to restore an area five times the size of Melbourne as part of a new scheme to increase conservation on private land. The state’s energy, environment and climate change minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, has announced the government will spend $31m to revegetate parcels of private land to create habitat for endangered wildlife and capture carbon. The scheme, known as BushBank, will fund organisations such as Greening Australia, Bush Heritage, Trust for Nature, and traditional owner groups to work with private landowners to restore habitat and increase carbon storage.
Australia
Melbourne airport must adopt new health-based metrics based on World Health Organization research for its proposed third runway to ensure people aren’t exposed to harmful noise levels, a group of transport experts say.
Aged care industry bodies and unions have criticised the Morrison government for failing to commit to fully fund any pay increases ordered as a result of the sector’s work value case.
There are 394 domestic violence victims still waiting for a decision on applications made two years ago to Victim Assistance Queensland, according to state government figures tabled last week.
People who grew up around Cooma, NSW, hope the hidden incarceration of gay men exposed in The Greatest Menace podcast will be more widely acknowledged.
The world
Covid-19 cases in China’s largest city of Shanghai have risen again as millions remain isolated at home under a sweeping lockdown. Health officials on Sunday reported 438 confirmed cases detected over the previous 24 hours, along with 7,788 asymptomatic cases. Both figures were up slightly from the day before.
As Joe Biden moved to open US strategic oil reserves, his two biggest oil-producing allies have kept their tanks firmly shut. The UAE and Saudi Arabia continue to rebuff the US president as he attempts to counter soaring oil prices prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. And both countries have been unusually frank about their refusal to step in.
The influential sister of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, has called South Korea’s defence minister a “scum-like guy” for talking about preemptive strikes on the North, warning that the South may face “a serious threat”.
A 60-year-old man allegedly had himself vaccinated against Covid-19 dozens of times in Germany in order to sell vaccination cards to people who did not want to get the jab themselves.
Recommended reads
Dutch extreme athlete, motivational speaker and wellbeing influencer Wim Hof is known as the Iceman. He earned his nickname after setting 26 Guinness world records which include swimming under ice, running a half marathon above the Arctic Circle barefoot, submerging himself in ice for 1hr 52mins and climbing Kilimanjaro in just shorts and sandals. “Don’t tell anybody,” he tells the Guardian. “But I hate the cold!”
Our favourite memories and important documents used to be kept as physical objects: photo albums, scrapbooks and postcards. That meant, when we died, these things would be relatively accessible to the loved ones we left behind. In the internet era, a lot of that information is stored in the cloud – and isn’t easily accessible without legacy planning. But some tech platforms now offer options for handling users’ data after death.
“I love my children and husband, but I often wish I wasn’t a mother,” writes an anonymous Guardian reader. “I have a good life now, but I feel tormented. I worry about being able to provide for my children, and what kind of world I have brought them into.”
Listen
Prof Andrew Macintosh spent years working on the integrity of the Australian government’s carbon credit system which gives credits for projects such as regrowing native forests after clearing. Now, he’s turned whistleblower, claiming this system is “a fraud” on the environment, taxpayers and consumers – a claim that the energy and emissions reduction minister, Angus Taylor, has described as “completely unfounded”.
Environment editor Adam Morton explains how Australia’s carbon credits system works and speaks to Macintosh about why he thinks this system is broken.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
If you have watched more than a fleeting moment of the Women’s Cricket World Cup over the past month, you will be intimately acquainted with Gin Wigmore’s Girl Gang – the song which accompanies the entry of the teams on to the field each match and plays on a seemingly continuous loop the rest of the time. On the surface it is an upbeat, peppy tune. In the context of the Australian team, though, its lyrics take on a more ominous tone. Suddenly the lines “I got the strength to tear it apart” and “we’re taking over the world” do not come across as metaphorical and the idea of some kind of Meg Lanning-controlled dictatorship seems entirely within the realms of possibility.
Media roundup
An environmental group has disputed claims by ASX-listed energy company Santos that the leakage of up to 25,000 litres of oil from a facility on an island off WA’s Pilbara coast was a “minor spill”, the WAToday reports. At each of the past five federal elections, one Northern Territory polling booth has switched between favouring our two major parties, making it one of the powerful tools in determining the next prime minister, according to NTNews. The damage bill from the swamping of Sydney’s coastline is expected to run into the millions and it could take beaches up to a year to recover, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
Coming up
Activists from group Scientist Rebellion say they plan to occupy universities this week, calling for climate revolution.
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