Your noon Briefing

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

Hello readers. Here is your noon digest of what’s making news and a long read for lunchtime.

"I'll go out the front and make a statement" - @Barnaby_Joyce speaking to 7 News. Coverage on @Channel7's @sunriseon7. https://t.co/jKxA4LcbjG #auspol #7News pic.twitter.com/ArOS3pEsaU

— 7 News Sydney (@7NewsSydney) February 12, 2018

‘Under pressure’

Barnaby Joyce said today his marriage had been under pressure “for some time” as he asked the media to show regard to his girlfriend Vikki Campion who had been the subject of “unwanted and deeply hurtful commentary”. In a written statement detailing the regret of the ending of his 24-year marriage, the Deputy Prime Minister publicly apologised to his wife Natalie and their four daughters, for the second time today. Keep up with all the latest from parliament in our live rolling blog, PoliticsNow.

“I deeply regret the failure of my 24-year marriage, the tremendous hurt caused to Natalie and our four daughters and the unwanted public intrusion into what is an intensely private matter for all of us.”

Barnaby Joyce

A massive building fire is pictured at Sydney's Circular Quay. Picture: Twitter / Seven News

Fire chaos

An enormous blaze on the construction site of a luxury apartment building in central Sydney caused commuter chaos this morning and led paramedics to treat 13 people for smoke inhalation. At least a dozen fire crews were called to the corner of Pitt Street and Alfred Street around 8.45 this morning after reports of a huge fire. Images on social media showed the material covering scaffolding at what is believed to be the site of the former Gold Fields House in Circular Quay, where a major hotel and apartment block are planned, in flames several metres high.

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TOPSHOT - This photo from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) taken on December 23, 2017 and released on December 24, 2017 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un during the 5th Conference of the Workers' Party of Korea Cell Chairpersons. / AFP PHOTO / KCNA via KNS / - / South Korea OUT / REPUBLIC OF KOREA OUT ---EDITORS NOTE--- RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO/KCNA VIA KNS" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS THIS PICTURE WAS MADE AVAILABLE BY A THIRD PARTY. AFP CAN NOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY, LOCATION, DATE AND CONTENT OF THIS IMAGE. THIS PHOTO IS DISTRIBUTED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY AFP. /

Friendly Games

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un says it is important to continue a reconciliatory mood between the Koreas. Kim was impressed with Seoul’s welcome of a high-level delegation that returned to Pyongyang yesterday after a three-day visit to the South during the Winter Olympics, the state-owned Korean Central News agency said this morning. North Korea sent its nominal head of state and Kim’s sister Kim Yo-jong, who extended an invitation to South Korean President Moon Jae-in to visit Pyongyang soon. President Moon didn’t immediately accept the North Korean offer but said the Koreas should create an environment so that a meeting of the two leaders could take place, and he called for a quick resumption of talks between North Korea and the US.

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American journalist and author Cathie Couric arrives for the traditionnal Clive Davis party on the eve of the 60th Annual Grammy Awards on January 28, 2018, in New York. / AFP PHOTO / Jewel SAMAD

Cool runnings

NBC’s Katie Couric had some Dutch in stitches when she said during the opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Olympics that the Netherlands was so good at speed skating because it “is an important mode of transportation”. The Dutch Olympic Committee’s chief commercial officer Thomas van Schaik tweeted: “Sure ... Just like most Latvians use a bobsleigh to get to work & Austrian kids ski jump to school.” Keep up with all the latest from the Winter Olympics in our live blog.

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ACTU secretary Sally McManus is seen at the offices of the Victorian brach of the AWU in west Melbourne, Tuesday, October 24, 2017. Australian Federal Police officers raided the AWU headquarters in Sydney and Melbourne simultaneously on Tuesday evening. (AAP Image/Julian Smith) NO ARCHIVING

Strike out

Whatever ACTU secretary Sally McManus learnt at university, it certainly had very little to do with the history of industrial relations regulation in this country, writes Judith Sloan. She might try to claim that the right to strike is an Australian entitlement, indeed a human right. But she clearly has a very poor grip of the actual history of the right to strike in Australia and the context in which this right was introduced.

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TOPSHOT - A Syrians youth runs following an air strike in the rebel-held enclave of Arbin in the Eastern Ghouta near Damascus on February 8, 2018. The death toll from Syrian regime air strike on the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta near Damascus rose to 36, a monitor said. Ten children and seven women were among today's victims, bringing to 185 the number of civilians killed over the past four days, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Observatory / AFP PHOTO / Amer ALMOHIBANY

The long read: Back to the Syrian (un)civil war

With Islamic State nearly defeated in Syria, attention has started to shift back to the civil war that has raged on even as the terrorist group was pushed out of the territory it held in the east of the country, writes Rodger Shanahan. And the Syrian civil war, even after the defeat of Islamic State, is at least as complex as it was before the rise of the jihadist group. In the past week alone we have been offered a glimpse of just how difficult the Syria problem remains. Fighting involving US, Turkish, Israeli, Syrian and Iranian militaries and their proxies in the south, east and north of the country has grabbed headlines.

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Comment of the day

“The great irony is that Ms Campion is a media advisor ... has anything been handled this badly before?”

John, in response to ‘Barnaby Joyce told to ‘fix your mess’ by John Anderson’.