Your noon Briefing: Climate change ‘biggest security threat’

Welcome to your noon digest of what’s been making news and what to watch for.

Hello readers. Here is your noon roundup of today’s top stories.

5/9/2018: NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne, on the main day of the Pacific Island Forum , Nauru. The Pacific Island Forum is in full swing with the Leaders retreat on the tiny island. Lyndon Mechielsen/The Australian

Climate change ‘biggest threat to region’

Australia will be expected to contribute to a new $US1.5 billion Pacific Resilience Facility to help island nations adapt to the impacts of rising sea levels and more frequent natural disasters, after acknowledging climate change as the region’s biggest security threat.

The final communique agreed by Pacific Islands Forum nations in Nauru last night called on all countries to implement their promised Paris agreement carbon emissions cuts.

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03/08/2018 POOL PICS Royal Commission into misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry Commissioner Kenneth Hayne makes his opening comments.Picture : David Geraghty / The Australian.

Borrowers more honest with banks

The royal commission has sparked a clean up of lending standards across the $1.7 trillion mortgage system, doing in just a few months what financial watchdogs have for years been attempting to achieve. Borrowers are now being more honest with their bank and lenders are taking longer to approve loans, according to a new survey of the mortgage market by investment bank UBS.

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., left, and Speaker of the House Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., right, listen as President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Republican lawmakers in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Trump calls treason

Donald Trump has labelled as “treason” an opinion piece written by an unnamed official in his administration who claims to be part of an internal “resistance” movement to thwart the president. The New York Times published the unprecedented piece today which it said was written by a senior administration official who couldn’t be named or else he would lose his job.

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FILE - JANUARY 08: Actress Gwyneth Paltrow and producer Brad Falchuk are engaged. The couple have been dating for three years. LOS ANGELES, CA - NOVEMBER 07: Actress Gwyneth Paltrow, wearing Gucci, attends LACMA 2015 Art+Film Gala Honoring James Turrell and Alejandro G Iñárritu, Presented by Gucci at LACMA on November 7, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images for LACMA)

Paltrow in pickle over eggs

The small jade eggs were introduced to customers of Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle company as a “strictly guarded” secret of antiquity, apparently used by Chinese queens and concubines to stay in shape for emperors. Inserted in the vagina, they would enable women to exercise their pelvic floor muscles at home, at work, or even while asleep. They were said to balance hormones.

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Novak Djokovic of Serbia celebrates victory over Joao Sousa of Portugal during their 4th round 2018 US Open Men's Singles match at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York on September 3, 2018. (Photo by Don EMMERT / AFP)

Clinical Djoker brings cool change

Millmania is ebbing as Novak Djokovic is handing the giant-killing Aussie journeyman a tennis lesson in the first set of their US Open men’s singles quarter-final. Keep up with all the action from Flushing Meadow in our live US Open blog.

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Comment of the day

“The best time of our lives was the 15 years we worked in Hong Kong. Very simple tax system. 17pc and deductions only for a spouse, children and parents who you supported. Family looked after family. There was a real sense of looking after yourself and family and the fruits of your effort were not confiscated.”

Christopher, in response to ‘Top earners paying the benefits bill’.