© Provided by The GuardianPhotograph: Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images
Good morning. Strap yourselves in for a busy day of US politics as Trump's impeachment trial gets underway. There's a lot of Covid concerns cropping up today - could Toowoomba's local health facilities handle a mass outbreak if a quarantine facility was built there? And what now if the AstraZeneca vaccine doesn't work against the South African variant? If that's too much politics and Covid for you, scroll down for the sex, drugs and witch of Kings Cross.
© Photograph: Sarah Silbiger/Getty ImagesMembers of the National Guard enter a gate of barbed wire fencing on US Capitol grounds at sunrise ahead of the second impeachment trial of former US President Donald Trump.
Top stories
It's expected to be a dramatic day as Trump's impeachment hearing begins. The nine Democrats who will present the case against Trump have dismissed the brief filed by the ex-president's legal team arguing the impeachment was unconstitutional, and said Trump's incitement of the insurrection at the US Capitol, which left five people dead, is "the most grievous constitutional crime ever committed by a president". It will be a busy day so be sure to follow the US politics blog here and brush up everything you need to know about the impeachment here.
A proposed for-profit quarantine facility in Toowoomba has concerned health officials who fear the region is not equipped to deal with a Covid outbreak. The Wagner Corporation is in the early stages of a proposal that could house 1,300 people five minutes from the Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport. But the Australian Medical Association has raised concerns the local health system will struggle to deal with a major outbreak. "If you have a mass outbreak, it's going to very quickly stretch that health system ... There's a lot of anxiety in the local health community in Toowoomba following the announcement," says AMA Queensland deputy president Dr Bav Manoharan.
South Africa is scrambling to find a new Covid vaccine strategy after a new study suggests the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine offers as little as 10% protection from the South African variant. Scientists who conducted a small-scale trial of the vaccine's efficacy said it showed very little protection against mild to moderate infection, prompting South Africa to suspend vaccinations using the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab just one week receiving its first 1m doses. But the disappointing results came as lab tests on the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine found it may still provide substantial protection against the variant. And there are other options too, as existing vaccines may just need a tweak to tackle the variants.
Australia
© Provided by The GuardianAn open letter is calling for Eddie McGuire's resignation. Photograph: Luis Ascui/EPA
Federal politicians, writers, academics and former sporting greats have called on the Collingwood president, Eddie McGuire, to resign immediately, stating in an open letter their belief that he is "incapable" of stamping out systemic racism at the club.
Australia should plan with allies how to jointly push back if Beijing intensifies pressure on Taiwan, amid fears Xi Jinping could deploy "all means short of war" to seek unification, a leading analyst has argued.
Furniture retailer Nick Scali will return $3.6m it received in jobkeeper wage subsidies after the company last week revealed a $40.6m profit for the second half of 2020.
Coalition's industrial relations changes would lead to pay cuts, academics warn. A group of independent labour law academics has contradicted the government's claim that the omnibus bill does not facilitate pay cuts in a submission to the Senate inquiry.
The demand for postgraduate courses has almost doubled in some universities, but the domestic increase won't make up for loss the $3.8bn in lost revenue from international students.
The world
© Provided by The GuardianLaws vetted by Queen Elizabeth or Price Charles included draft laws that affected the Queen's personal property such as her private estates in Balmoral and Sandringham. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA
More than 1,000 laws have been vetted by the Queen or Prince Charles through a secretive procedure before they were approved by the UK's elected members of parliament, the Guardian has established.
US Congressman Ron Wright has died after testing positive for coronavirus, making him the first sitting member of Congress to die after contracting the virus. Wright had previously battled lung cancer.
Myanmar's junta has imposed a curfew and banned crowds of more than five people in the country's two biggest cities after days of the largest-scale protests against the military coup.
Chechnya has opened a terrorism investigation into two gay men who fled the region last year but were arrested near Moscow last week and forcibly returned.
Recommended reads
It wasn't easy being a witch in the 40s and 50s in Australia. Not quite as bad as the Salem days, but artist and self-professed witch Rosaleen Norton had her artwork burned, was repeatedly arrested and was shunned and mocked by society. 'The Witch of Kings Cross' has had her life immortalised in a new documentary by Sonia Bible. Despite the tough times in the 50s, Norton's life wasn't all that bad. "People felt sorry for her, this old woman living in the Cross with her cats. But in her 60s she was dropping acid and still making art. She was very happy," Bible says.
Refurbished smartphones are widely available - so should you buy one? Do they last as long? Is it better for the environment? Aleksandra Bliszczyk answers all the common questions. "They're not quite as good as new but the phones are cheaper, more sustainable and now available at the supermarket in Australia."
"Retail trade has been truly bizarre since the pandemic hit," says Greg Jericho. " In a normal recession, people have less to spend and thus retail spending takes a hit. And yet last year total retail spending went up more strongly than it has for well over a decade. The final retail trade figures for 2020 show that despite some big monthly surges in spending, 2020 was a horror year."
Listen
In Los Angeles, one person is contracting Covid every six seconds, a person is dying every eight minutes and one in 17 residents may now be infectious. Hospitals are so overrun that officials have directed ambulances not to transport patients who have little chance of survival, and some crews are waiting eight hours to offload patients.
Sam Levin, a correspondent for Guardian US, talks to Rachel Humphreys about the crisis engulfing Los Angeles county, telling her about his visit to Martin Luther King Jr community hospital in south Los Angeles.
Full Story is Guardian Australia's daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
There's plenty of action and drama from the Australian Open. Nick Kyrgios has called Novak Djokovic a "strange cat" as their feud continues. Despite the drama both tennis stars won their first rounds, as Djokovic beat Jeremy Chardy in straight sets and Kyrgios got the better of Frederico Ferreira Silva. Make sure to follow all the action at Guardian Australia's live blog.
England has set India a target of 420 to win the first test.
Media roundup
New South Wales' controversial lockdown laws will be scrapped next month, reports the Daily Telegraph, with the last few restrictions to be removed in Kings Cross from 8 March. ANZ has refused to fund the world largest coal export port in Newcastle under its new climate change policy, in what the resources industry views as a test case of the new anti-coal policies of the big four banks, according to the Australian. And the Age has news that a mutant Covid variant could be fuelling more frequent hotel quarantine leaks.
Coming up
The final report of the Bergin inquiry into Crown Resorts' suitability to operate a casino in NSW will be publicly released this afternoon after being tabled in state parliament.
National Australia Bank will release its monthly business survey today, which is expected to show an improvement in confidence on easing Covid restrictions.
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