Your afternoon Briefing: No insurer will touch cracked towers

Your 2-minute digest of the day’s top stories.

Hello readers.

An emotional Vijay Vital, apartment owners in Mascot Towers, wipes away tears after delivering his opening statement to the Legislative Council Public Accountability Committee, Inquiry into Regulation of Building Standards, Building Quality and Building Disputes at New South Wales Parliament in Sydney, Monday, August 12, 2019. (AAP Image/Dean Lewins) NO ARCHIVING

No insurer will touch cracked towers

Owners forced to evacuate the Opal Tower apartment complex in Sydney’s west because of building cracks have been forced to look “offshore” for insurance and faced a “tenfold” rise in premiums because no Australian firm will provide coverage.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison holds a press conference with the heads of state following the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting at the Cairns Convention Centre in Cairns, North Queensland, Friday, August 9, 2019. (AAP Image/Marc McCormack) NO ARCHIVING

PM will be ‘measured and calm’ on China

Scott Morrison says his government will not make Australia’s relations with China “any more complex than they need to be” as members of a powerful parliamentary committee on security and intelligence defend their right to speak out on China.

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From left, American real estate developer Donald Trump and his girlfriend (and future wife), former model Melania Knauss, financier (and future convicted sex offender) Jeffrey Epstein, and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell pose together at the Mar-a-Lago club, Palm Beach, Florida, February 12, 2000. (Photo by Davidoff Studios/Getty Images)

Socialite ‘was Epstein’s madam’

Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of disgraced media tycoon Robert Maxwell, is accused in court papers of trafficking minors with Jeffrey Epstein.

Israel Folau's Twitter and Instagram social media accounts are no longer visisble on the eve of his unfair dismissal case going to court.

Folau’s Instagram missing

Former Australian rugby player Israel Folau’s social media pages are no longer visible, ahead of his $10 million unlawful sacking claim being due in court.

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A supplied image obtained on Monday, August 12, 2019, of a SUV that ran off the road and into a shopping complex on Hall St, Bondi Beach, Sydney.Picture: Luc Wiesman/D'Marge Magazine

So how’s your Monday going?

A rideshare driver has been left with a bruised ego and his rating is likely to plummet after mistaking a Bondi stairwell for a driveway.