Your morning Briefing: Brawl over ‘doping’ of elderly

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

Good morning readers. A brawl is looming over ‘doping’ of the elderly, and it’s attack of the titans at the Australian Open as a scorcher looms for Day 1.

Justice Richard Tracey, Federal Court (Melbourne).

Blame game

Tens of thousands of cases of abuse, neglect and substandard care will be revealed at the aged-care royal commission when it opens this Friday as a blame game erupts between doctors and ­nursing homes over the prescription of antipsychotics for chemical restraint.

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‘Tedious, tawdry’

An married Indian man’s tedious, tawdry and time-wasting appeal against reasonable departmental and ministerial decisions not to grant him asylum after he claimed he was gay and faced injury or death at home is sadly typical of the 54,000-odd refugee and other visa refusal cases that were waiting to be decided by the AAT at the end of last month, writes Nick Cater.

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Rooftop solar panels image from istock

Solar fail

The operator of Australia’s electricity grid has raised the prospect of household rooftop solar panels being retrofitted to ensure they meet compliance standards after some units failed to adequately respond to a major interconnector outage last year, which isolated two states from the power system.

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13/01/2019. Zara Kay, originally from Tanzania, immigrated to Australia leaving her family and denouncing Islam. Photographed in Parramatta in Sydney's Western suburbs. Britta Campion / The Australian

Losing their religion

Ex-Muslim Zara Kay was just eight years old when she put on the hijab, and 18 when she moved to Australia, and eagerly took it off. Caroline Overington looks at the high price women pay for renouncing Islam and seeking freedom.

“People asked me: have you been paid by the Jews? I’ve heard other people say: is this about your virginity? If you’ve lost it, we can pay to have that fixed and you can come back to Islam.”

Zara Kay

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Novak Djokovic of Serbia speaks to the media during a press conference ahead of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne, Sunday, January 13, 2019. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch) NO ARCHIVING, EDITORIAL USE ONLY

Tennis troubles

The world’s best players today begin their quest for an Australian Open crown with record prizemoney on offer, but beneath the glamorous facade of the tournament is a sport that remains at war with itself. The Australian Open is offering $60.5 million in prizemoney this year, an increase of $5.5m on 2018. The champions will pocket $4.1m. Even a qualifier vanquished in the first round last week earned $15,000. Keep up with the latest in our live Australian Open blog, as Maria Sharapova kicks off proceedings on Rod Laver Arena at 11am on a day where temperatures could reach 36 degrees in Melbourne.

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Kudelka’s view

Jon Kudelka Letters cartoon for 14-01-19Version: Letters Cartoon (1280x720 - Aspect ratio preserved, Canvas added)COPYRIGHT: The Australian's artists each have different copyright agreements in place regarding re-use of their work in other publications.Please seek advice from the artists themselves or the Managing Editor of The Australian regarding re-use.