First Thing: Court considers Assange’s last-ditch bid to fight US extradition

If extradited, a US conviction could mean life in prison for the Wikileaks founder. Plus, the groundbreaking stories of Black astronauts

Good morning.

Lawyers for the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, will on Tuesday begin a final attempt to prevent his extradition to the US, where, if convicted, he may be sentenced to life imprisonment.

A two-day hearing in the high court will consider whether Assange can be granted leave to appeal against an extradition decision made in 2022 by the UK’s home secretary at the time.

In the US, Assange faces 17 charges of espionage and one charge of computer misuse for his alleged part in obtaining and disclosing classified material. Disclosures by WikiLeaks revealed information about US activities in Iraq and Afghanistan.

• Where is Assange now? He has been in Belmarsh prison, south-east London, for almost five years.

• What will his lawyers argue? That his extradition would be punishment for political opinions, and a breach of the European convention on human rights.

• What could his US sentence be? His lawyers say that, if convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 175 years in prison.

Russian pilot found dead in Spain after defecting to Ukraine was ‘moral corpse’, says Moscow

Russia’s spy chief has said that a Russian pilot who defected to Ukraine last year and was last week found shot dead in an underground car park in Spain was a “moral corpse” from the moment he planned his desertion.

Spain’s state news agency, EFE, reported that the body of Maksim Kuzminov, who had landed in Ukraine last August, was found on 13 February in the town of Villajoyosa, near Alicante.

Asked about Kuzminov, Sergei Naryshkin, the director of Russia’s foreign intelligence service (SVR), said: “This traitor and criminal became a moral corpse at the very moment when he planned his dirty and terrible crime.”

The statement came as Russian security services also said that a US-Russian woman has been arrested in Russia on suspicion of treason for raising funds for Ukraine.

US urges Israel to ditch plans for Rafah ground offensive as Unicef warns of ‘unbearable’ level of child deaths

The US has proposed a UN security council resolution calling for a temporary ceasefire – the first time it has explicitly done so – and for Israel to abandon its plans for a ground invasion of the city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians have sought refuge.

It is being offered as an alternative to a draft resolution from Algeria, which will be debated on Tuesday and calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. The US text says that the ceasefire should start “as soon as practicable”, giving Israel more leeway.

The humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to worsen. Unicef has warned Gaza faces an increase in “the already unbearable level of child deaths” due to malnutrition. More than 90% of children under five in Gaza are in severe food poverty.

• What will the US draft mean? That’s still unclear – we don’t yet know if it’ll be passed or even submitted to a vote. But it could form the basis for talks with other council members, and signals that the US is ready to use the UN to put pressure on Israel.

In other news …

• The prime minister of Papua New Guinea, James Marape, is facing calls to declare a state of emergency as authorities fear an escalation of violence after a tribal massacre on Sunday.At least 54 people were killed in an ambush between tribes in Enga province.

• Vladimir Putin has given the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, a car “for his personal use”, official media has reported. The gift could be a breach of a UN ban that Moscow had agreed to adopt against Pyongyang, and comes against a backdrop of the two countries becoming closer since their leaders met in September.

• A growing number of the UK’s middle earners are struggling to maintain decent living standards due to an unstable jobs market and high housing costs, according to a report. Precarious work meant there was a one-in-three chance that a person on a middle income today may not be on it next year.

• A Haitian judge investigating the 2021 assassination of the country’s last president, Jovenel Moïse, has charged 50 people including his widow and a former prime minister, a leaked document shows. Moïse was shot dead when armed men broke into his Port-au-Prince bedroom on the night of 7 July 2021.

Stat of the day: scientists discover an ‘object’ 500tn times brighter than our sun

Scientists have discovered a quasar 500tn times brighter than our sun “hiding in plain sight”. The quasar – the brightest known object in our universe – consumes the equivalent of a sun a day and is powered by the fastest expanding black hole ever discovered.

Don’t miss this: the groundbreaking stories of Black astronauts

A new documentary tells the story of America’s Black astronauts, exploring the way the space race and civil rights movement ran alongside each other. The National Geographic documentary “chronicles the first Black pilots, engineers and scientists who served their country in space, even as it fell short of equality for them back on Earth”.

Last Thing: ‘Tease it to Jesus!’ – the return of big hair

Dig out your Velcro rollers and hairspray, because the bouffant is back in a big way. From Miley Cyrus to Kendall Jenner, we’re entering a mid-century revival that legendary hair stylist Guido Palau has termed “subversive” following the reign of the messy bun. Or, as some say in the south: “The higher the hair, the closer to heaven – so ‘tease it to Jesus’.”

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