1. "Historic" settlement for allegations against former high court justice Dyson Heydon
In 2019, former high court justice Dyson Heydon was found to have sexually harassed six complainants within the profession and was subject to an independent investigation. Some three years later, the commonwealth has reached a “historic” financial settlement with three women (former associates of Heydon) who have signed a non-disclosure agreement as part of the financial agreement. “Josh Bornstein from Maurice Blackburn, who was representing the women, said he believed the claim was the first time a settlement had been reached for sexual harassment claims under the Sex Discrimination Act arising from findings against a serving federal judge,” The Guardian reports.

2. US closes its embassy in Kyiv
Secretary of State Antony Blinken ordered the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, closed and directed embassy staff to relocate to the western part of the country, citing the “dramatic acceleration in the buildup of Russian forces” on Ukraine’s border. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested to President Vladimir Putin on Monday that Moscow take a diplomatic route to procure security guarantees from the West, Reuters reports.

3. Liberal MP pushes for higher inheritance taxes
Federal Liberal politician Jason Falinski has backed the case for higher taxes on inheritance and other “lazy” income, in return for slashing “punitive” taxes on the incomes of workers and entrepreneurs. “Speaking out amid a government campaign claiming Labor leader Anthony Albanese wants to revive a “death tax” he backed in 1991, Mr Falinski said successful workers and businesses were slugged too heavily on their incomes compared to overseas,” the AFR reports. “Increasingly, the people who aren’t paying tax are the people inheriting their money, such as through trust structures,” Mr Falinski said on Monday.

4. How does Bitcoin fare during geopolitical tensions?
Bitcoin maximalists say that the largest cryptocurrency by market cap is the undisputed best hedge against inflation; streaks ahead of commodities such as gold and oil. However, since the steady increase in global CPI numbers over the last few months, BTC has been trading more like equities and has yet to perform as the inflation hedge it is prophesied to be. As for its performance during macro geopolitical events, “Bitcoin is labeled by some as a stateless currency, and it has indeed performed well in the past when there were geopolitical tensions, so we could expect some demand as a safe haven asset,” said Yuya Hasegawa, crypto market analyst at Japanese bitcoin exchange Bitbank. However, “the change in the landscape made bitcoin fragile to the U.S. stock market volatility, so bitcoin investors may not be able to feel at ease until the situation at the Russia-Ukraine border starts to settle down,” he added.

5. ASX poised for downtrend
ASX futures were down 65 points or 0.9% to 7164 near 8am AEDT, with the AUD -0.1% to 71.37 US cents. On Wall St: Dow -0.2% S&P 500 flat Nasdaq +0.6%. 2-year yield: US +0.08% (1.58%), Australia -0.06% (1.11%). 10-year yield: US +0.05% (1.99%), Australia -0.08% (2.13%).