Your noon Briefing
Welcome to your noon roundup of what’s making news and how the day has played out so far.
Hello readers. Here is your noon digest of what’s making news today plus a long read for lunchtime.
Looking forward to tomorrow’s State of the Uniom. pic.twitter.com/xdBUU3Pvo5
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) January 29, 2018
‘A new American moment’
While US President Donald Trump was busy telling network news anchors during a pre-State of the Union lunch that he had governed with instinct, heart and soul and would urge the nation to come together as a single “family”, lawmakers were busy having a laugh about an embarrassing typo on the event’s invitation tickets. Tickets to the event had to be reissued after a misprint. The tickets read, “Address to the Congress on the State of the Uniom.” An official said a correction was immediately made and all but about a dozen tickets have been exchanged.
President Trump will deliver his first State of the Union address, to a joint session of the US Congress, at 9pm in Washington (1pm AEDT). Follow the speech live here at The Australian and read the full analysis by our Washington correspondent Cameron Stewart and The Wall Street Journal. Robert Gottliebsen, meantime, writes that as Trump gets set to trumpet his economic success today, we could learn from what he shares with another world leader.
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‘A cynical stunt’
The University of Sydney’s online sexual consent tutorial has been slammed as a cynical PR stunt by a collective of women student representatives. Consent Matters: Boundaries, Respect and Positive Intervention outlines the basics of sexual consent and factors that can impair an individual from being able to give consent, including drug and alcohol using stick figures. The National Union of Student’s Women’s department, The University of Sydney’s Student’s Representative Council and the University of Sydney’s Women’s Collective says the online module will not do anything to improve understanding of consent.
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Bill of health
Bill Shorten has been forced to clarify that Labor will not abolish the private health insurance rebate, after twice failing to rule the move out in a landmark speech yesterday. The Opposition Leader responded that, “business as usual is not cutting it” when asked whether he would withdraw the government subsidy following his speech to the National Press Club yesterday. Asked directly yet again this morning whether he would abolish the health insurance rebate, Mr Shorten answered, “no”, and denied that he had yesterday indicated he may abolish it. Peter Van Onselen, meantime, reminds the major parties of the debt they owe the Greens for several recent key policy ideas.
“We are very clear that we think there is a role for private health insurance but it’s got to work for people.”
Bill Shorten
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‘No damage’ pre-crash
A seaplane that crashed on New Year’s Eve, killing six people, showed no sign of damage before it hit a river north of Sydney, an initial inquiry has found. The Sydney Seaplanes operated DHC-2 Beaver, piloted by Canadian Gareth Morgan, crashed into Jerusalem Bay on the Hawkesbury River on December 31 with high profile UK businessman Richard Cousins and his family on board. A preliminary report on the crash by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau found “no evidence of a bird strike or collision with an object prior to take-off or in-flight”. There was also no evidence of control issues, an in-flight break-up or pre-impact structural damage. And the resultant damage to the plane’s wings when it crashed was consistent with witness statements that it hit the water while banking right, the ATSB said.
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‘No free lunch’
The Chinese ambassador to Vanuatu has allegedly made clear the nation’s intentions in the South Pacific and that in return for billions in aid to the region it expected political support, telling local media there was “no free lunch”. Dan McGarry, a Canadian-born journalist and media director of the Vanuatu Daily Post, said China’s ambassador to Vanuatu, Liu Quan, had made it clear to him during a recent interview that China required support at the UN in return for its assistance. “He (Mr Liu) was perfectly upfront about it,” Mr McGarry said.
“The ambassador told me straight up, ‘There is no free lunch’. I can say that because we were on the record at the time.”
Dan McGarry
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The long read: The day the Vietnam War was lost
Hugh Lunn recalls how 50 years ago today — also a Wednesday — he set off early for his first reporting assignment of the day when his boss, perhaps feeling belatedly guilty, called out from his desk: “And Hugh, watch out for the sniper across the road.” I had been in Vietnam for the past 12 months, writes Lunn, going out in “the field” — Dak To, Con Thien, Loc Ninh, Gio Linh, Dong Ha, Hill 875, the Hiep Duc Valley and all those places that were dangerous back then — looking for war stories for London’s Reuters newsagency. But sometimes the war comes to you.
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Comment of the day
“Corbyn, Shorten — both huge socialists who ... refuse to acknowledge that a healthy economy provides wealth and jobs to many. The stirring up of envy politics will lead to a further decline in the already shrinking middle class and impoverish more and more people.”
Christine, in response to ‘Bill Shorten in Corbyn-like populist class pitch’.
China’s great wall of silence
China deliberately concealed information about the coronavirus, and now it is fighting an inquiry. So what is Beijing hiding?
Your noon Briefing
Your 2-minute digest of the day’s top stories.