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 how things have played out so far today.

Federal Member for Melbourne Adam Bandt speaks at a rally organised by the National Student Union at the State Library in Melbourne, Wednesday, May 17, 2017. The protest is part of a National Day of Action against the federal budget plan to cut almost $4 billion from higher education. (AAP Image/Joe Castro) NO ARCHIVING

Molan ‘a coward’: Bandt

Greens MP Adam Bandt has labelled new Liberal senator Jim Molan a “coward” and suggested he would be prosecuted as a war criminal if there was an independent inquiry into his conduct in Iraq. Mr Bandt echoed the comments of Greens leader Richard Di Natale in criticising Senator Molan for sharing videos from racist group British First – but he made the accusations on Sky News rather than in the parliament which would have protected him from potential defamation. Stay abreast of all the developments from parliament in our live rolling blog, PoliticsNow.

“When you share white supremacist videos and then you justify it by saying, ‘I am doing it to stimulate debate’ ... you are a coward, you are a complete coward.”

Adam Bandt

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Trader Frederick Reimer works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2018. The Dow Jones industrial average fell as much as 500 points in early trading, bringing the index down 10 percent from the record high it reached on Jan. 26. The DJIA quickly recovered much of that loss. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Market bounce

Australian stocks soared 1.7pc at the open in a bounce from yesterday’s $60bn losses, after Wall Street’s comeback rally overnight. At 10.15am (AEDT), the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 100.8 points, or 1.73 per cent, at 5,934.1, while the broader All Ordinaries index was up 105.9 points, or 1.79 per cent, at 6,036.1 points. The rebound on Australian markets comes after the local share market shed $60 billion in value yesterday, and after Wall Street’s stunning turnaround overnight (AEDT) appeared to put an end to days of global losses. CMC Markets chief market strategist Michael McCarthy said the share market has made a clear bounce back but investors should remain vigilant. Keep up with the latest in our live blog, Trading Day.

“The volatility we’re seeing shows that markets are not out of the woods yet, so while we might be seeing sunshine today, the potential for rain is there.”

Michael McCarthy, strategist

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Barnaby Joyce and wife partner

Joyce’s wife ‘devastated’

The deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce’s wife Natalie Joyce has shared her “devastation” at learning that her estranged husband is now expecting a child with a young woman who once worked in his office. In a scorching rebuke to the man by who she has stood for more than two decades, Mrs Joyce said: “I am deeply saddened by the news that my husband has been having an affair and is now having a child with a former staff member. I understand that this affair has been going on for many months and started when she was a paid employee,” said Mrs Joyce. Caroline Overington asks “Why so long to report this”.

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A Falcon 9 SpaceX heavy rocket lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2018. The Falcon Heavy, has three first-stage boosters, strapped together with 27 engines in all. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)

Falcon flies

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. successfully launched the Falcon Heavy rocket today (AEDT) on its initial test flight, marking another coup for founder Elon Musk. The blast-off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center attracted throngs of spectators and was closely followed by the global aerospace industry. It capped multiple design changes, years of delays and a roughly $1 billion investment by SpaceX, as the company is commonly called.

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Stracciatella cheese, steamed mussels and clams, marigold, olive oil at Blackwattle in Singapore. Supplied

The long read: Singapore sling

In Singapore, locals into the restaurant scene — and eating out in Singapore is a pursuit second only to shopping — talk about the new “thing”. Australian contemporary. It’s a culinary category, like modern Japanese or new Nordic, writes John Lethlean. And it’s so hot right now.

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Comment of the day

“Do the industry super funds invest in coal projects or do they make a killing from taxpayers by investing in subsidised renewable projects? The ALP no longer represent workers in the mining sector, they are entangled green ideology (anti fossil fuel) because Labor see their funding model future tied to industry super fund cash.”

John, in response to ‘Labor warnings for Bill Shorten on opposing Adani’.