Your noon Briefing: Victorians to choose gender

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

Hello readers. Victorians will now be able to choose their gender, and power to the Hong Kong people ... for now.

Dan Andrews - 100 days since the re election. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Gender choice

Victorians will now be able to choose the gender on their birth certificate without having to have surgery.

-

A 3-D image of the knife while implaed the skull of 15-year-old

‘Pretty grim’

Doctors say this 15-year-old is lucky to be alive after his skull was impaled by a 25-cm knife while he was playing, narrowly missing his carotid artery.

-

Royal Australian Air Force and United States Air Force F-35A aircraft taxi toward the runway prior to a training mission at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, USA. *** Local Caption *** After Royal Australian Air Force F-35A pilots conduct independent operations at Luke Air Force Base with the aircraft they will bring home in December 2018. Royal Australian Air Force pilots are also embedded within the United States Air Force 61st Fighter Squadron to train the next generation of Royal Australian Air Force and United States Air Force F-35A pilots. The Royal Australian Air Force also partners with Lockheed Martin as they prepare to introduce Australia’s first fifth-generation air combat capability. The F-35A Joint Strike Fighter is the most advanced, affordable, fifth-generation multi-role stealth fighter to meet Australia’s need to defeat emerging threats well into the future. The F-35A is truly next-generation due to its stealth capability, advanced sensors, data fusion and its ability to share information with other aircraft, Army units and Navy ships. The Australian Government has approved the purchase of 72 F-35A aircraft to replace F/A-18A/B Hornets.

F-35s ‘will be ready’

Defence has dismissed new reports of serious flaws in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

-

TOPSHOT - Protesters hold up a yellow raincoat in memory of a fellow protester who fell to his death the night before as they march at new rally against a controversial extradition law proposal in Hong Kong on June 16, 2019. - Tens of thousands of people rallied in central Hong Kong on June 16 as public anger seethed following unprecedented clashes between protesters and police over an extradition law, despite a climbdown by the city's embattled leader. (Photo by Anthony WALLACE / AFP)

The long read: The drum of marching feet

Rarely does Beijing back off from a fight against its own. Yet, for now, as Hong Kong life returns to normal, the people have won. Robert Gottliebsen writes that when Beijing finally enforces control, many residents of Hong Kong will want to come to Australia.