As it happened: Ash Barty announces shock retirement from tennis; Biden says Putin’s ‘back is against the wall’ in Ukraine; China Eastern Airlines crash investigation not ruling out ‘foul play’

That’s where we’ll leave this evening’s live blog.

If you’re just catching up, here’s a summary of this afternoon’s main stories.

• World No.1 tennis player Ashleigh Barty announced her shock retirement from tennis.

• A national study of almost 44,000 students revealed one in five university students have been sexually harassed and one in 20 have been sexually assaulted since beginning their degree.

• Hillsong church founder Brian Houston resigned from his role as pastor after an international investigation found he’d behaved inappropriately towards women.

• NSW Labor said it would support a motion to remove former state Liberal Gareth Ward from parliament after he was charged with rape.

• Australia recorded 26 deaths and 61,706 new cases of COVID-19.

Thanks for joining me. Good night.

Shane Warne fans have snapped up more than 44,000 free tickets to attend the cricket great’s MCG memorial service since they were released yesterday afternoon.

The tickets are for seats located in the stadium’s northern grandstand, which overlooks the section of the grounds that will be renamed after Warne.

No special arrangements will be made for members, with the reserve, Olympic and Ponsford stands opened to general admission for the event.

An MCG spokesman said no additional areas within the stadium had opened up to fans yet, but could be made available tomorrow if bookings continued to rise.

No crowd limits have been set for the service and the ’G can accommodate more than 100,000 people.
The service will be held at the stadium from 7pm next Wednesday, March 30, with gates opening at 5.30pm. The memorial is expected to go for about two hours.

General admission tickets are available for free via Ticketek and no handling fee is being charged.

The ASX 200 closed 0.5% higher, up 36.8 points to 7377.9 with the tech sector providing most of the gains via Afterpay’s Block Inc.

Materials were the only sector to close lower. Uniti soared before going into a trading halt amid speculation it has a rival suitor.

The country recorded 26 deaths and 61,706 new cases of COVIS-19 on Wednesday. There are now 2,104 people in hospital and 95 people in ICU.

• South Australia reported two deaths and 4,594 new cases.
• West Australia reported one death and 8,429 new cases.
• Queensland reported seven deaths and 10,476 new cases.
• The Australian Capital Territory reported zero deaths and 1,314 new cases.
• The Northern Territory recorded zero deaths and 328 new cases.
• Tasmania recorded zero deaths and 1,979 new cases.

As reported earlier,

• New South Wales reported five deaths and 24,115 new cases of COVID-19.
• Victoria recorded 11 deaths and 10,471 new cases.

The late Labor senator Kimberley Kitching will formally be remembered in Parliament on Monday when senators are recalled for a special sitting.

Parliament is due back on Tuesday, when the government will deliver its budget.

However, government Senate leader Simon Birmingham and his opposition counterpart Penny Wong have asked Senate President Slade Brockman to recall the upper house a day early.

“We advise that the recalling of the Senate is to allow a condolence motion to be moved for the late Senator Kitching,” they wrote in a joint letter seen by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

Speeches in her memory will be the only business of the day.

Senator Kitching’s funeral was held in Melbourne on Monday.

Deputy Opposition Leader Richard Marles is making an announcement in Perth alongside federal MP Anne Aly, WA Transport Minister Rita Saffioti, WA Lands Minister John Carey and two ALP candidates.