Your noon Briefing: Palmer in bizarre on-air rant

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

Hello readers. Clive Palmer rants about his wealth, and Bret Easton Ellis takes aim at millennials’ Generation Wuss.

Clive Palmer, before the Pro-Adani protest, in Jubilee Park, Mackay on Saturday April 27th, 2019 (Image AAP/Steve Pohlner)

Bizarre rant

Clive Palmer claims on morning TV that he’s worth “$4000 million” and is polling much higher than Newspoll says today. Keep up with the latest from the campaign trail in our live blog, PoliticsNow.

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11/03/2019Louise Stewart at Peppermint Grove foreshore, Peppermint GrovePic Colin Murty The Australian

Candidate accused

Independent candidate Louise Stewart allegedly distributed a fake poll showing a 20pc swing to her.

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24/10/2018: Co-hosts Michael Rowland and Virginia Trioli are celebrating ten years of ABC News Breakfast, pictured in the Melbourne studio. Stuart McEvoy/The Australian.

Rapid decline

ABC’s lacklustre performance contrasts with its agenda-setting relevance just four elections ago, writes Nick Cater.

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VICTORVILLE, CA - MARCH 27: Workers stand beneath Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 MAX aircraft parked at Southern California Logistics Airport on March 27, 2019 in Victorville, California. Southwest Airlines is waiting out a global grounding of MAX 8 and MAX 9 aircraft at the airport. Mario Tama/Getty Images/AFP == FOR NEWSPAPERS, INTERNET, TELCOS & TELEVISION USE ONLY ==

Alert disabled

For the 737 MAX, Boeing deactivated what had been a standard safety feature, but didn’t tell anyone.

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TWAM-20190427 EMBARGO FOR TWAM 27 APRIL 2019NO REUSE WITHOUT PERMISSION FEE APPLIESPARIS - MARCH 06: (FILE PHOTO) Brett Easton Ellis poses during a promotional visit to Paris,France on the 6th of March 1992.(Photo by Ulf Andersen/Getty Images)

The long read: Generation Wuss

Millennials, having been mollycoddled by their overprotective Baby Boomer parents, have become far too sensitive, writes Bret Easton Ellis.

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Comment of the day

“Children grow used to balanced criticism and discipline when properly administered. Unfortunately parents have been entreated by teachers and other psychologists to provide total encouragement only which leads to the problems throughout life for the resultant product — a wuss.”

Nancy, in response to ‘Life with the sensitive Generation Wuss’.