Good morning, this is Helen Sullivan bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Tuesday 5 March.

Top stories

A charity run by Prince Charles received donations from an offshore company that was used to funnel vast amounts of cash from Russia in a scheme that is under investigation by prosecutors, the Guardian can reveal. Money flowing through the network, dubbed the Troika Laundromat, included cash that can be linked to some of the most notorious frauds committed during Vladimir Putin’s presidency. In all, it is estimated that $4.6bn (A$6.5bn) was sent to Europe and the US from a Russian-operated network of 70 offshore companies with accounts in Lithuania. The details have emerged from 1.3m banking transactions obtained by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and the Lithuanian website 15min.lt. Shared with media partners including the Guardian, the data represents one of the largest banking leaks in history. “This is the pipe through which the proceeds of kleptocracy flow from Russia to the west,” said the anti-corruption campaigner Bill Browder. There is no suggestion that end recipients of funds were aware of the original source of the money, which arrived via a disguised route.

Australian colonial government forces were involved in almost half the frontier massacres of Aboriginal people – many more than previously thought. For its Killing Times special report, Guardian Australia has updated and analysed the most comprehensive record of frontier conflicts and massacres available, revealing that 45%​​ of the massacres and conflicts recorded involved the forces of colonial governments – police, native police, military or other government representatives. Liza Dale-Hallett has thought deeply about this history. That’s not because of her profession – she’s a historian – but because her great-uncle Constable George Murray was a killer. Murray led the Coniston massacre of 1928, when more than 50 men, women and children - and perhaps as many as 170 - were hunted down and shot.

A doctor has told a coronial inquiry into the death of David Dungay Jr he had never previously performed CPR on a person. Trevor Ma, whose attempts at resuscitating Dungay in a cell in 2015 were described as lacking “fundamental basic life support”, was on duty when Dungay died in custody, after being restrained by guards. Ma said he had taken over chest compressions when guards and nursing staff were attending to an unresponsive Dungay. “In hindsight I clearly didn’t do that efficiently,” he told the inquest.

World

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó at a rally held by his supporters in Caracas. Photograph: Carlos García Rawlins/Reuters

Venezuela’s opposition figurehead, Juan Guaidó, has made a dramatic return to his homeland, flying into Caracas in the hope of injecting new life into his campaign to unseat Nicolás Maduro. On the eve of Guaidó’s arrival, Washington warned Maduro he would face a “strong and significant response” if Guaidó were detained or threatened as he tried to re-enter Venezuela to join a day of fresh protests.

The actor Luke Perry, best known for his roles on TV shows Beverly Hills, 90210 and Riverdale, died on Monday at the age of 52 after a massive stroke. The star was taken to hospital in Burbank, California, on Wednesday last week after suffering a stroke at home in Sherman Oaks, on the outskirts of Los Angeles.

The number of heatwaves affecting the planet’s oceans has increased sharply, scientists have revealed, killing swaths of sea life like “wildfires that take out huge areas of forest”. Australia’s marine heatwaves are a perfect example of the new ecological order.

Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News channel knew about Donald Trump’s illegal hush money payment to a pornographic film actor before the 2016 election but reportedly killed the story because the media mogul wanted him to win.

‘It is as if I am flying.’ The award-winning Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid has been released from prison after spending nearly six years behind bars following his arrest while covering a bloody crackdown on protests.

Opinion and analysis

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The bronze statue of 19th century Aboriginal warrior Yagan after it was discovered the head had been severed and stolen. Photograph: Greg Wood/EPA

For some Aboriginal people the reminders of massacres are a daily occurrence as they travel across their country, writes Jack Latimore. A painful past embodied in a sheer cliff face, a peninsula, a riverbank or an open plain where countrymen, women and children were slain. First Nations people are and have always been acutely aware of these atrocities. In the past two decades some community-driven memorials to Aboriginal resistance leaders have appeared. But they are the exception.

Ruth Park’s writing never shied away from poverty, violence, cruelty and prejudice, writes Tegan Bennett Daylight, but Fishing in the Styx, published when its author was in her late 70s, turns its attention to the two great relationships of her life: with her fellow writer D’Arcy Niland, for whom she moved to Sydney to marry in 1942, and with her writing. Niland was, in many senses, a wonderful man – a loving partner and father, a loyal son and brother, committed to ideals of hard work and honesty in all things. He was kind and generous and good-tempered. He was also, Park wrote, “self-absorbed to a degree that frequently made me think he was wrong in the head”.

Sport

Roger Federer did more than win his 100th Tour-level tournament when he handed Stefanos Tsitsipas a tennis lesson in the 69-minute final of the Dubai tournament, writes Kevin Mitchell. He encouraged hope among his followers that, five months shy of his 38th birthday, he can still deliver the thrills they crave.

When the final whistle went on Saturday night’s clásico, Gerard Piqué led Barcelona’s players to the north end of the Santiago Bernabéu, a place they’ve come to know well. Piqué embraced Lionel Messi, teammates since they were 13. Barça is revelling in Messi’s clásico stranglehold over Real Madrid, writes Sid Lowe.

Thinking time: Firestarter

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Prodigy vocalist Keith Flint has died aged 49. Photograph: Andy Sheppard/Redferns

Keith Flint, singer with the Prodigy, has died at the age of 49. By gleefully escalating the moral panic surrounding British dance culture, the band’s frontman showed that rave could be the true successor to rock’n’roll, writes Alex Petridis. “It was de rigueur for rave acts who performed in nightclubs to have a few dancers on hand: something for the crowd to look at so they weren’t confronted with the sight of an anonymous man playing a synthesiser. The Prodigy had three – raving mates of producer Liam Howlett’s from back home in Essex, who added to the Prodigy’s blokey appeal. One of them, Keith Flint, was unexpectedly promoted to the role of frontman in 1996, adding vocals to a series of tracks on their third album, The Fat of the Land. Once long-haired, he accordingly changed his look to something more striking, lining his eyes with kohl and shaving the centre of his head, leaving two patches of hair either side which he dyed and spiked.

“What seemed like a remarkable leap of faith on Howlett’s part turned out to be inspired: whatever qualities Howlett lacked as a performer, Flint had in abundance. He became a manic presence on stage, projecting an image that lay somewhere between threatening and cartoonish. He memorably described his revised dancing style as ‘using my body to shout’. Their first single with Flint on vocals, Firestarter, went straight to No 1 in the UK.”

Media roundup

The Cabramatta Labor branch president, Peter Andrew Hansen, has spent the past five months in jail after being charged with producing child abuse material outside Australia and possessing child abuse material, the Daily Telegraph reveals. Hansen is due to make a bid for his release at the NSW supreme court on Thursday. The human rights lawyer Julian Burnside has confirmed to the Australian that he plans to run as a Green in the Melbourne seat of Kooyong against the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg. Xu Lin, who allegedly played a role in importing methamphetamine worth $106.5m into Australia, has fallen off the police radar – for a year – despite wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Coming up

The Senate inquiry into political interference into the ABC is holding a further hearing in Sydney today.



Former conjoined twins Nima and Dawa will make their first public appearance, at Government House in Melbourne, as they await their imminent return to Bhutan.

Sign up

If you would like to receive the Guardian Australia morning mail to your email inbox every weekday, sign up here.