Scott Morrison says athletes will compete in next year’s Games because sport and politics should not mix

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Scott Morrison has confirmed that Australian officials will not attend the Beijing Winter Olympics, joining the United States in a diplomatic boycott of next year’s Games.

Morrison told reporters in Sydney it was “not surprising”, given the deterioration in the diplomatic relationship between Australia and China, that officials would not attend next year’s winter Games.

Variant lacks feature that allows probable cases to be distinguished among positive PCR tests

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Scientists say they have identified a “stealth” version of Omicron that cannot be distinguished from other variants using the PCR tests that public health officials deploy to gain a quick picture of its spread around the world.

The finding came as the number of cases of the original Omicron variant detected in the UK rose by 101 to 437 in a single day and Scotland announced a return to working from home.

• Updates from the series opener at the Gabba in Brisbane
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Here comes Patrick Cummins in his green blazer, and the crowd breaks out into applause as he walks to the middle for the first time.

I’ll tell you what, I didn’t see Broad warm up with the others, he was hanging out with Bairstow, who isn’t playing.

Nato not sending a clear signal would mean ‘glue that keeps us together’ has failed, says foreign minister

A swift reprisal package against Russia – including US troops and Patriot missiles stationed in the Baltics, the cutting off of Russia from the Swift banking payments system and reinstated sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline – must be prepared now in case it invades Ukraine, the Latvian foreign minister has said.

The warning from Edgars Rinkēvičs comes as Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin prepare to hold talks about the growing tensions.

‘Carolyn’ testifies that Maxwell coordinated sexualized massages with Jeffrey Epstein, starting when she was 14

• This article contains depictions of sexual abuse

Prosecutors in Ghislaine Maxwell’s child sex-trafficking trial in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday introduced a witness who was once the kind of minor teen on whom the Briton is alleged to have preyed.

At 14, Carolyn was vulnerable. She had an alcoholic mother and a 17-year-old boyfriend and had been raped and molested by her grandfather from the age of four. She needed money.

More fatalities expected as search for survivors continues following eruption at Mount Semeru on Saturday

Indonesia’s president has visited areas devastated by a powerful volcanic eruption that killed at least 34 people and left thousands homeless, and vowed that communities would be quickly rebuilt.

Clouds of hot ash shot high into the sky and an avalanche of lava and searing gas swept as far as 11 kilometers (7 miles) down Mount Semeru’s slopes in a sudden eruption Saturday triggered by heavy rain. Villages and towns were blanketed by tons of volcanic debris.