Good morning, it's Monday, February 14. Here's what you need to get going today.
One thing to know right now: US says Russia plans to attack Ukraine this week
And US intelligence says it could be as early as Wednesday. Here's the lowdown:
- This morning, President Joe Biden spoke to Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, assuring him of a swift and decisive response to "any further Russian aggression" against Ukraine.
- There are now about 130,000 Russian troops on the border, the US estimates, up from 100,000.
- The US picked up intelligence that Russia is looking at Wednesday as a target date, a US official familiar with the findings told AP, but Mr Zelenskyy has made repeated statements playing down the warnings.
- Australia's embassy was being evacuated yesterday and the government has advised citizens to leave.
One thing you’ll be hearing about today: Jenny Morrison's made some comments on Grace Tame
- The PM's wife has taken a swipe at former Australian of the Year Grace Tame's decision not to smile during an event at the Lodge:
- Jenny Morrison, alongside husband Scott Morrison, welcomed Ms Tame to an Australia Day event in Canberra last month. Ms Morrison told Channel Nine she wanted her own daughters to become fierce and independent but also to have manners.
- Ms Tame said she didn't smile because the "survival of abuse culture is dependent on submissive smiles".
Here's a bit of what Ms Morrison told Channel Nine's 60 Minutes last night:
News while you snoozed
Let's get you up to speed.
- An emergency declaration will lift for Victorian hospitals at midday, allowing more elective surgeries to resume. The "code brown" was declared last month as the Omicron wave surged.
- And overseas, anti-vaccine mandate protesters were cleared from the main border crossing between the US and Canada after six days of demonstrations. One man was arrested as police moved the mainly peaceful crowd on.
- The IOC has taken no action against a Ukrainian skeleton racer who held up a sign at the Winter Olympics calling for peace (protests are banned at venues). Vladyslav Heraskevych says he is "really nervous" about the possibility of Russia invading Ukraine.
The news Australia is searching for
- Super Bowl: The American football showpiece is on this morning (that's 10:30am AEDT), with the Los Angeles Rams to take on the Cincinnati Bengals. Eminem and Snoop Dogg are about to perform at half-time, and we'll be blogging it all live about an hour before kick-off.
- Steve Smith: The Aussie cricketer has a concussion after taking a crazy catch at the boundary in yesterday's T20 match. He's subject to "low-level protocols" and will miss the remainder of the international series against Sri Lanka (but a replacement hasn't been planned yet).
One more thing: Your car could soon power your home
And we might one day think of electric cars primarily as batteries.
But first, here's how it works: Unlike standard one-way EV chargers, bidirectional chargers can also discharge energy from an EV, which means they can be used to power a home (known as vehicle-to-home or V2H) and its appliances, or to export energy to the grid (vehicle-to-grid or V2G).
A standard Nissan Leaf has about three times the energy storage of a Tesla Powerwall home battery.
Melbourne-based EV charging company JET Charge is expecting a delivery this month, and a second in April — and here's JET's CEO Tim Washington:
A mix of regulatory and engineering hurdles have repeatedly pushed back the technology's rollout date.
That's it for now
We'll be back later on with more of the good stuff.
ABC/wires
