Your noon Briefing: Victoria Libs to fight inner Melbourne

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.

Josh Frydenberg and Michael Kroger arrive at the Liberal Party election launch at the Ivanhoe Centre. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

‘Not a preference machine’

Victorian Liberal President Michael Kroger has confirmed the party will field candidates in Brunswick, Melbourne and Northcote but not in Richmond, where Planning Minister Richard Wynne will face off directly against the Greens. The eleventh hour decision comes as the Victorian Election Commission prepares to close for nominations from political parties at midday.

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Officials inspect an engine recovered the crashed Lion Air jet in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018. The brand new Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet plunged into the Java Sea just minutes after takeoff from Jakarta early on Oct. 29, killing all of its passengers on board. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)

Boeing alert

All operators of Boeing 737-8 and 737-9 aircraft have been instructed to revise procedures for problems with a sensor that transmits information on the angle of the plane. The Civil Aviation Safety Authority has passed on the “urgent airworthiness directive” made by the Federal Aviation Administration in the US, following the Lion Air crash.

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Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrision (centre) speaks during a Drought Response Roundtable at Parliament House in Canberra, Wednesday, September 19, 2018. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch) NO ARCHIVING

ScoMo ‘no’ to Q&A

Scott Morrison says he will not be tuning into the ABC’s Q&A program tonight to watch his predecessor Malcolm Turnbull’s first media appearance since he was ousted by Liberal MPs. The former prime minister will field questions from ABC journalist Tony Jones and members of the public tonight about his time as Prime Minister. But Mr Morrison told reporters today that he will be in the skies when the program starts at 8pm eastern time.

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TOPSHOT - US President Donald Trump arrives for a "Make America Great Again" rally at Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport, November 3, 2018 in Belgrade, Montana. - With rallies in Montana and Florida, a state he had already visited on Wednesday, Trump on Saturday is keeping up his relentless campaign schedule before Tuesday's ballot, which has become a referendum on his unconventional presidency. (Photo by Nicholas Kamm / AFP)

The long read: Trump populism here to stay

The most significant outcome of yesterday’s mid-term elections is that a giant Democrat blue wave failed to wash over America, writes Cameron Stewart. Even though the Democrats comfortably won control of the House of Representatives, the ­result was not the stinging rejection of Donald Trump’s unorthodox presidency that they had hoped for. In the Senate the ­Republicans actually increased their majority. The result shows many Democrats are misguided in thinking that Trump’s 2016 election win was an aberration and that he will be ­firmly rejected two years from now.