Your noon Briefing: Labor goes after Hockey

Your 2-minute digest of the day’s top stories and a long read for lunchtime.

Hello readers. Labor has gone after US Ambassador Joe Hockey in Senate estimates over his declarations of interest, and were Empire actor Jussie Smollett’s claims about being beaten up bogus?

Joe Hockey USA (@joehockeyusa) Instagram photos. Joe Hockey and US President Donald Trump

Hockey gets stick

Labor has asked DFAT to table Joe Hockey’s annual declarations of interest, as it pressures the US Ambassador. Keep up with all the latest from parliament in our live blog, PoliticsNow.

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Hamid Ranjbarian appearing as part of an insurance advertising campaign. Picture: Supplied

‘Model’ refugee charged

Iranian refugee ‘poster boy’ Hamid Ranjbarian has been charged over \allegedly conspiring to import up to 40kg of the drug ice.

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FILE - In this May 14, 2018 file photo, Jussie Smollett, a cast member in the TV series "Empire," attends the Fox Networks Group 2018 programming presentation afterparty in New York. A police official says "Empire" actor is now considered a suspect "for filing a false police report" and that detectives are presenting the case against him to a grand jury. Smollett told police he was attacked by two masked men while walking home from a Subway sandwich shop at around 2 a.m. on Jan. 29. He says they beat him, hurled racist and homophobic insults at him and looped a rope around his neck before fleeing. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

Beat up

US police suspect actor Jussie Smollett lied about being targeted by Donald Trump supporters in a racist, homophobic attack.

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HMAS Collins transits through Cockburn Sound at sunrise. Collins Class Submarines, HMAS Rankin, HMAS Waller and HMAS Collins transitting in formation through Gage Roads, Cockburn Sound. Deep Pacific Reach is a triennial Asia-Pacific submarine rescue exercise designed to promote regional cooperation on submarine rescue. The exercise this year is the fourth in the series and is being hosted by Australia between 26 Nov and 07 Dec 2007. Pacific Reach is a truly international exercise, with units and equipment from the following countries participating: Canada, China, Republic of Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, the United States and the United Kingdom. In addition, military observers from Chile, India, Indonesia, NATO, Pakistan, Peru, Russia and South Africa will also attend.

Collins-class effort

Indonesia will enjoy a big strategic advantage while we keep spending billions on questionable hardware that takes forever to arrive, writes Robert Gottliebsen.

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Picture taken on February 14, 2014 shows German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld as he visits an exhibition at the Museum Folkwang in Essen, western Germany. - German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld has died at the age of 85, it was announced on February 19, 2019. (Photo by Caroline Seidel / DPA / AFP) / Germany OUT

The long read: Frills and spills

Karl ­Lagerfeld was known as much for his eccentricity as for his designs.

“I am like a caricature of myself, and I like that. It is like a mask. And for me the Carnival of Venice lasts all year long ... as a child I ­wanted Austrian lederhosen. I always wanted to be different from other people. I hated children ... When I was a child my parents gave me six bicycles. But I wouldn’t share. No, no, no.”

Karl Lagerfeld

FILE -- In this Nov. 29, 1973 photo German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, left, poses with models in Krefeld, Germany. Chanel's iconic couturier, Karl Lagerfeld, whose accomplished designs as well as trademark white ponytail, high starched collars and dark enigmatic glasses dominated high fashion for the last 50 years, has died. He was around 85 years old. (Willi Bertram/dpa via AP, file)

Comment of the day

“I put solar panels on my roof to counter high electricity prices and to generate my own power for the times that government policy on renewables causes blackouts. Unfortunately, for some reason, the panels don’t generate power when the sun goes down.”

Geoff, in response to ‘Carbon cut apocalypse: cost of ALP energy plan’.