Your morning Briefing

Welcome to your morning roundup of what’s making news and the must-reads for today.

Good morning readers. Here is your two-minute digest of today’s top stories and analysis.

PM follows Labor as citizenship fiasco rolls on

What, me worry? The PM is dancing to Bill Shorten’s tune in the citizenship fiasco. Picture: AAP

Malcolm Turnbull has been forced to follow Bill Shorten’s lead, seeking his support to take control of the widening citizenship fiasco, as the crisis last night threatened to claim the scalp of Liberal backbencher John Alexander, endangering the government’s slim majority. Paul Kelly suggests the PM is entering the next potentially deadly stage of the dual-citizenship crisis. while Gregory Pemberton delves into the complexities of the Constitution and when Britain became “foreign”.

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Not singing the ‘ol Home Button Blues’

With iPhone X, Apple has produced a smartphone that’s not only futuristic, it’s a pleasure to use. It deserves to be the 10th year commemorative handset of the iconic first iPhone that Steve Jobs introduced the world to in January 2007. That’s the considered opinion of tech guru Chris Griffith, who has just spent a week putting the new object of gadget envy through its paces.

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Flowers are placed at a police barricade near the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs where gunman Devin Patrick Kelly killed 26 people and wounded 20 others. Picture: Getty Images

Texas massacre gunman’s beef with mother-in-law

The gunman who murdered 26 people in a Texas church had argued on the day of the massacre with his mother-in-law who sometimes attended the church. Authorities said Devin Kelley, 26, had sent threatening text messages to his mother in-law, including one on the morning of the mass shooting, the worst in Texas history. “This was not racially motivated, it wasn’t over religious beliefs,” Freeman Martin of the Texas Department of Public Safety said. “There was a domestic situation going on within the family and the in-laws.”

Fox News chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch and wife Jerry Hall. Picture: AP

Sale of the century? Perhaps not.

Walt Disney has recently held talks to buy 21st Century Fox’s cable-television networks, international distribution operations and movie and television studio, according to people close to the discussions, a tie-up that would bolster Disney’s dominance in Hollywood and allow Fox to focus on sports, news and broadcast television. The talks were no longer active by Monday afternoon when CNBC first reported them, according to one of these people. They were very preliminary and broke down over price and other key deal terms, according to another person.

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Marmelo, Johannes Vermeer and 2016 Melbourne Cup winner Almandin.

Melbourne Cup’s triple threat

Can defending champ Almandin and his fellow local stayers fend off the challenge of the overseas raiders in today’s Melbourne Cup? Our experts have narrowed it down to three picks. Find out how and follow all the action live with digital editor and racing identity Dan Sankey’s Melbourne Cup Day live blog.

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Rod Clement’s view

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Analysis: Palaszczuk’s green lean means no beans

The directive never to stand between a premier and a bucket of commonwealth money at last has been overturned by Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, writes Nick Cater. With the election bearing down and in danger of being Campbelled, it seems the Premier and her Treasurer, Curtis Pitt, have gone for Greens endorsement with her veto of Matt Canavan’s proffered Adani loan.

“It seemed an incongruous response from a Treasurer whose surname suggests greater affinity to mining and who serves in a government that, on the surface at least, seemed to be pro-coal.”

Attribution

Reef knot: Illustration: Eric Lobbecke