Your noon Briefing: ‘Mechanical issue’ behind mayday call

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

Hello readers. Here is your noon digest of today’s top stories and a long read for lunchtime.

United Airlines plane

‘Mechanical issue’

Sydney’s international airport was locked down early this morning after a mayday call from a United Airlines flight activated a full emergency response. It had earlier been understood the pilot of the Boeing 787-9 was concerned about fuel levels after being placed in a holding pattern by air traffic control because of heavy rain in Sydney. However, a statement provided by United Airlines did not address the issue of fuel, instead suggesting a “mechanical issue” was the reason for the mayday.

-

Gender gap idea and sex inequality or equality concept as a male and female symbol shaped into a mountain cliff as a metaphor for pay or wages inequity or divorce in a 3D illustration style.

Hoax gender study

“Performative rape culture” among dogs and a rewritten chapter of Mein Kampf were among hoax studies that sailed into peer-reviewed journals. The hoaxers said they were highlighting a serious academic malaise affecting a branch of the humanities that they termed “grievance studies”.

-

(FILES) This file photo taken on May 26, 2017 shows Chinese actress and member of the Feature Film jury Fan Bingbing waving as she arrives for the screening of the film 'L'Amant Double' (Amant Double) at the 70th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes. - Chinese superstar Fan Bingbing took to social media for the first time in months on October 3, 2018 to apologise to fans and the Communist Party for tax evasion, shortly after news broke that authorities had ordered her to pay nearly 130 million USD in back taxes and fines. (Photo by LOIC VENANCE / AFP)

Missing actress reappears

China’s highest-earning actress, who disappeared three months ago, has resurfaced after agreeing to pay the equivalent of $A182 million in unpaid taxes and fines and making a grovelling public apology to the government. Fan Bingbing, who appeared in the X-Men film Days of Future Past, is presumed to have been secretly detained by the authorities.

-

global warming. dramatic sky over cracked earth

The long read: Degrees of division

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is about to release the most politically charged report in its history, writes Graham Lloyd.

-

Comment of the day

“These railcars will be trundling across the Pilbara where the blue asbestos was mined and tailings used to top roads. Not saying that there is no risk from the product but rational risk assessment should always prevail over emotional risk assessment.”

Konrad, in response to ‘Asbestos found in 3500 rail cars imported from China’.