Your noon Briefing

Hello readers. Here’s the latest on how the day is playing out plus a long read for lunchtime.

Hello readers. In your noon digest, MP Tim Wilson proposes to his partner on the floor of parliament as the same-sex marriage bill debate begins in earnest, plus Cameron Stewart has a long read for you on loose cannon Mike Flynn.

Liberal MP Tim Wilson reacts after proposing to his partner Ryan Bolger (not pictured) during debate of the Marriage Amendment bill in the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra, Monday, December 4, 2017. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch) NO ARCHIVING

Same-sex bill ‘pride and joy’

Victorian Liberal MP Tim Wilson has proposed to his partner Ryan Bolger on the floor of the parliament. The moment occurred during Mr Wilson’s speech on the same-sex marriage bill.

In what could be the last sitting week of the year, the House of Representatives will debate the Dean Smith bill to legalise same-sex marriage which was passed through the Senate unamended last week. Malcolm Turnbull will propose minor amendments to the bill — such as allowing civil celebrants to conscientiously object to solemnising a gay marriage — while Coalition conservatives will be pushing for wider religious protections. Veteran same-sex marriage campaigner, MP Warren Entsch, kicked off the debate, while Bill Shorten criticised the postal survey process while paying tribute to Penny Wong’s “lonely road and hard road”. Stay abreast of all the latest developments in our live blog, PoliticsNow.

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Defense Secretary James Mattis attends a meeting with President Donald Trump in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2017, with Republican congressional leaders. Mattis says North Korea is continuing to build missiles that can "threaten everywhere in the world." Mattis says a missile that North Korea launched early Wednesday local time flew higher than its previous projectiles. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

N Korea war may be inevitable

For decades US military planners have considered war against North Korea to be unthinkable. But last week’s test launch by Pyongyang of an intercontinental ballistic missile that might be able to reach anywhere in the US has changed the equation.They have reluctantly concluded that a pre-emptive US military strike and regime change might be the least worst of a menu of bad options.

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30/06/2016: Channel 9 television presenter, Tracy Grimshaw at the launch of a new Nine Network/Southern Cross Austereo affiliate deal in Sydney on Thursday. Hollie Adams/The Australian

Grimshaw’s Burke ‘masterclass’

The confirmation call came through at 10.30am and by 1.15pm Tracy Grimshaw was sitting opposite Don Burke at his home in Sydney’s semi-rural outskirts for an interview that enhanced her reputation while crushing his. Media Diarist Stephen Brook has the inside story on how Grimshaw buried Burke. Deborah Hutton, meantime, has become the first former Nine Network presenter to detail an incident involving Don Burke.

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NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 08: Internet Entrepreneurs Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss attends the amfAR New York Gala 2017 sponsored by FIJI Water at Cipriani Wall Street on February 8, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Craig Barritt/Getty Images for FIJI Water)

‘Winkelvi’ bitcoining it

The American twins who reached a mooted $US65 million settlement with Facebook after claiming Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea are said to have become bitcoin billionaires. The digital currency has surged almost 10,000 per cent since Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, 36, first bought into it four years ago. They later argued it was “better than gold”.

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CORRECTS MICHAEL FLYNN WAS FIRED AND NOT DONALD TRUMP - FILE - In this Feb. 1, 2017 file photo, National Security Adviser Michael Flynn speaks during the daily news briefing at the White House, in Washington. Court documents released Friday revealed that Flynn planned to plead guilty to a single count of “knowingly and willingly” making false statements to the FBI during his short stint as Trump’s national security adviser. Flynn was fired last February after he misled Vice President Mike Pence and other senior officials about his contacts with Russian intermediaries. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The long read: Loose cannon Flynn

Michael Flynn had been national security adviser to Donald Trump for just four days when, on January 24 this year, he made a mistake that ended his career and now threatens to engulf the Trump White House, writes Washington Correspondent Cameron Stewart.

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England's captain Joe Root (L) speaks to his fast bowler Stuart Broad on the second day of the second Ashes cricket Test match against Australia in Adelaide in December 3, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / William WEST / -- IMAGE RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - STRICTLY NO COMMERCIAL USE --

Poms off the pace

They came to the city of churches full of hope, writes Mike Atherton. Sandwiched between the Gabba, where Australia’s record is impregnable, and the WACA, where England’s is atrocious, this was their chance. It would be difficult to underestimate, then, the scale of the disappointment by the close last night, hope not extinguished for sure but flickering and fainter than before.

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Comment of the day

“So the rotting carcass has had a puff of wind go over it and shift off some of the blowflies.

It still stinks though.”

David, in response to David Crowe’s front page splash on Malcolm Turnbull’s polling boost.