Australians who seek surrogates in Ukraine have struggled to conceive for years. Now they face another nightmare as the country faces a Russian invasion.

Western leaders, including Morrison, announced a first tranche of sanctions against Russia in the hopes of deterring Putin from going further.

Australia joins in imposing sanctions on Russia. US and EU sanctions were earlier slapped on Russian banks, businesses, projects and “elites”.

The best photos from the international wire agencies as chosen by our picture editors

Everything the Russian President presents to the world is about image – and his messages aren’t subtle. Sometimes it’s in the little details, sometimes it’s his massive table: every image tells us a little more about his grip on power.

Omicron arrived in Cuba in December but fell far short of the pronounced spike in cases of other countries. COVID infections have since dropped by more than 80 per cent.

Western nations are responding amid rising tensions over Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s incursions into Ukraine. Follow our live coverage.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says the decision to impose measures, including travel bans, will mean Australia is in “lock step” with the United States and the United Kingdom.

“Everyone understands that a war has already been declared,” said Voloymyr Chistilin, in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. “And this is a critical, decisive moment.”

A quick guide to the latest twists in the Ukraine crisis.

The world is watching as Russian President Vladimir Putin crosses the border into disputed Ukrainian territory.

The Queen was not feeling up to the planned video calls, which require in-depth knowledge of global affairs across countless sectors.

How do you negotiate with an aggrieved strongman who isn’t acting rationally?

The three white men convicted of chasing down and murdering a young black man, Ahmaud Arbery, as he was out jogging in the US, were found guilty of committing hate crimes.

The city will test its entire population of 7.5 million people for COVID-19 in March as it grapples with its worst outbreak driven by the Omicron variant.

Australians directed to leave Ukraine immediately as Russian tanks roll into the breakaway territories.

The country is stuck in a never-ending cycle of corruption and his brother, former PM Saad Hariri, has announced he is bowing out of politics.

Western governments, including Australia’s, are huffing and puffing and imposing sanctions on Russia. But no one is stopping it.

The decision, in 1998, to expand NATO into central and eastern Europe was designed to kick Russia when it was weak. Instead, it fuelled Putin’s nationalistic fires.

As a misreading of history, the claim that Ukraine was invented by Lenin was extreme even by the standards of Putin.

At an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in New York, Russia said it would not accept “a new bloodbath” in the Donbas.

Human rights activists say the women were forced to make the declarations.

The best photos from the international wire agencies as chosen by our picture editors

A fourth dose of a COVID vaccine may be unnecessary for most people, say a flurry of new studies.

An official study found a modified scooter crossing the French capital at night can wake as many as 10,000 people.

When Ukraine’s Moscow-friendly president was driven from office in February 2014, Russia responded by annexing Crimea, then threw its weight behind an insurgency in eastern Ukraine.   

It will become the first jurisdiction to allow people with COVID infections to continue working and socialising without facing penalty.

America won’t defend Ukraine against a Russian invasion because it is seized with the all-consuming urgency of defending itself, against China.

President Vladimir Putin said Russia would decide later in the day whether or not to recognise two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent.

I grew up in Sydney hearing stories about how my Ukrainian grandparents had to flee their homeland. When I return to the country tomorrow, I’ll be thinking of them.

The US says Russian front-line commanders have been ordered to begin final preparations for an attack.

In a letter to the UN, the US says targets would include exiled dissidents, journalists and “religious and ethnic minorities and LGBTQI+ persons”.

Perhaps Buckingham Palace would be wise to focus on quality over quantity when it comes to the monarch’s forthcoming engagements.

The best photos from the international wire agencies as chosen by our picture editors

The Prime Minister told protesters outside the Parliament that measures would not be lifting because of their actions, but because the need for them was passing.

An archaeological report has raised concerns about the Australian National Maritime Museum’s declaration that the final resting place of Captain Cook’s Endeavour has been found.

The launch would restore Trump’s presence on social media more than a year after he was banned from Twitter, Facebook and Youtube.

Julie and Rupert Wills, visiting Windsor to the west of London, said they loved the Queen “to bits”, with Rupert respecting her ability to just “quietly get on with” things.

Challenges remain for holidaymakers hoping to visit the popular Indonesian island, prompting some adventure-seeking families to hatch alternative plans.

They started with a diplomatic boycott, half a dozen cities in lockdown and a spectacle loaded with geopolitics, but by Sunday, China had made the most of its moment in the spotlight.

The Queen, 95, has tested positive for COVID-19 and is experiencing mild symptoms, but expects to continue light duties, Buckingham Palace has announced.

Researchers have investigated the rumours circulating online and in Russian news media that could be the groundwork for an invasion of Ukraine.

The best photos from the international wire agencies as chosen by our picture editors

The claim was that in recent days tens of thousands of women, children and elderly residents in breakaway regions had fled an impending Ukraine “genocide”. The reality appears altogether different.

Exhausted, confused, isolated and depressed Americans are not buying the Democratic line that things are better than they look.

Like so many autocrats, over time the Russian leader has surrounded himself with cronies, yes-men and like-minded mini-mes.

Boris Johnson’s plan would make England the first major European country to allow people who know they are infected with COVID-19 to freely use shops, public transport and go to work.

In new signs that a war could start within days, Germany and Austria have told their citizens to leave Ukraine, while the US warns Russia is “poised to strike”.

One of Epstein’s main accusers, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, said the death of well-known model scout Jean-Luc Brunel was “devastating”.

The Beijing Winter Games have survived a lack of snow, a pandemic, and very strict rules, to arrive at substantial wins for the Chinese Communist Party.