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, the Ashes has been rocked by spot fixing claims as the Third Test is about to get under way in Perth, and Ben Butler has the low-down on Jho Low and the 1MDB scandal.

Ball hitting cricket stumps on, bails flying, close up

Third Test starts under ‘spot fix’ cloud

Cricket Australia says claims that spot fixers have targeted the third Test which begins in Perth today are a “serious concern”. The Sun newspaper has handed to authorities details of two Indian men who claim to have been able to “spot fix” periods of the game through an Australian based fixer known as “the Silent Man”. The pair boasted connections to current and former international players and a track record of corrupting Twenty20 matches in the India Premier League and offered to arrange spot fixes in the Big Bash League. The men said they work with former and current internationals, including a World Cup-winning all-rounder. The Sun claimed no English players were named by the pair. Follow all the action from the WACA as it happens in our live rolling blog.

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Liberal Senator Zed Seselja speaks during debate on Same Sex Marriage in the Senate chamber at Parliament House in Canberra, Monday, November 27, 2017. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch) NO ARCHIVING

Keneally smear site kosher: Zed

Liberal frontbencher Zed Seselja says there is nothing unreasonable about a Liberal Party website, kristinakeneally.com, aimed at smearing Labor’s candidate in the Bennelong by-election over her record as NSW premier. Ms Keneally yesterday dubbed Malcolm Turnbull a “fool” over the website. Senator Seselja said there was nothing wrong with holding Ms Keneally to account.

“... What is more reasonable than saying someone’s public life, they’re putting themselves up to be a member of parliament, and you look at their public record.”

Zed Seselja

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LONDON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 23: Salma Hayek attends the British Fashion Awards 2015 at London Coliseum on November 23, 2015 in London, England. (Photo by Anthony Harvey/Getty Images)

Weinstein ‘was my monster’

In one of the most vivid accounts yet of Harvey Weinstein’s alleged abuse and harassment, Hollywood star Salma Hayek has claimed the disgraced movie mogul pursued her relentlessly and threatened to kill her when she turned down his advances. “For years, he was my monster,” Hayek wrote in an op-ed for The New York Times. “I don’t think he hated anything more than the word ‘no’.”

“It was not because I would be naked with another woman. It was because I would be naked with her for Harvey Weinstein.”

Salma Hayek

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The superyacht Equanimity. Insets, Jho Low and Miranda Kerr. Pictures: AFP, Getty Images

The long read: Inside the Jho Low show

Off the coast of West Papua, a gigantic luxury superyacht traverses the sea, writes Ben Butler. This is Equanimity, a floating palace belonging to businessman Jho Low, a key target of an international investigation into the multibillion-dollar looting of Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, 1MDB. While the bulk of the heavy lifting in the international inquiry has been done in Singapore, where Low banked, Switzerland and the US, where more than $US1 billion in assets including modern art, mansions, aircraft and the proceeds of Leonardo DiCaprio’s film The Wolf of Wall Street have been frozen, Australian investigators are also doing their bit.

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Comment of the day

“The principal is obliged to ask the campaigners to remain clear of school property ... if a principal is more interested in playing politics than protecting her school maybe she should go work for the Labor party.”

Phil, in response to ‘Bennelong: kids caught in campaign crossfire as Keneally loses cool’.