WINDSOR IS COMING

A swag of MPs head to the High Court today, fighting to keep their places in Parliament. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said yesterday he was “very confident” Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce would survive the visit. Constitutional law expert Anne Twomey agrees, more or less, and thinks it’s Matt Canavan and Malcolm Roberts who might have some troubles, along with the two ex-Greens senators.

It’s a perilous time for the Coalition, as old enemies emerge from the cold. Tony Windsor is trying to sign on to the case against Joyce, Fairfax reports today, while the party’s old foe Gillian Triggs has also turned up in national papers, accusing the party of pushing “alternative facts”.

There’s bad news for Labor, too, with lawyers for the government suggesting it might ask for the party to guarantee costs in its case against Nationals MP David Gillespie. No doubt keen to talk about something else, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has launched a broadside on Bill Shorten, accusing him of ignoring the “historical failure of socialism”.

Shorten may be leading the new Eastern Bloc, but Cormann might be well advised to keep his eyes on the west. The WA Liberal Party is considering internal reforms similar to those adopted in NSW, giving more power to members. The move could weaken Cormann’s influence and empower moderates, The Australian reports.

RICHARDSON REMEMBERED

Victorian politics is in a state of mourning after the death of Fiona Richardson, a long-serving state member and the first ever minister for the prevention of family violence.

Richardson was just 50 years old and had confirmed on Tuesday she would extend her leave of absence after first taking time off to battle cancer in 2013.

Premier Daniel Andrews said Richardson had “busted the party’s sexist back rooms and committees wide open” while Opposition Leader Bill Shorten praised her as “remarkable, brave and inspirational”. Domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty tweeted Richardson had been a “huge support to me during my journey & for all victims.”

Richardson is survived by two children and her husband.

THEY REALLY SAID THAT

“His rhetoric is the divisive language of haves and have-nots. It is socialist revisionism at its worst.” — Matthias Cormann on Bill Shorten.

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Malcolm Turnbull digs in for long commitment to Afghanistan after Trump speech

‘Cheeky’ Bob Katter willing to back an Abbott government

Fists of fury: ASIS spy chief’s Duterte alliance

Secret Melbourne cell of anti-vaxxer doctors under investigation

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Brisbane: A High Court sitting will determine whether MPs facing disqualification for dual citizenship have their cases heard together.

Albury: Malcolm Turnbull makes another regional tour.

 Sydney: Infrastructure Minister Paul Fletcher to make an announcement about the western Sydney Airport.

Melbourne: A senate inquiry into penalty rates will hear from KFC, as well the controversial SDA union.

THE COMMENTARIAT

PM in waiting Bill Shorten has all the answers, but few ring true — Niki Savva (The Australian $): “Shorten-omics apparently means tax increases act as stimulus packages.”

Donald Trump’s new and confused Afghanistan strategy — Peter Jennings (Australian Financial Review $): “If Trump’s implication is that Islamabad can simply choose to close its border with Afghanistan and to stifle extremist sentiment within parts of its population, he is profoundly misinformed. There is no alternative for the US but to continue to work with Pakistan for all that country’s many challenges.”

Blanking history a sign of true totalitarian — Andrew Bolt (The Daily Telegraph $): “Blanking out history is a true sign of the totalitarian. Stalin did it by having photographic records doctored to remove images of his enemies. The French revolutionaries behind the great Terror did it by destroying monasteries and restarting the calendar as if history started with them.”

TODAY IN TRUMP

Donald Trump has returned to some of his favourite themes at a rally in Arizona, leading chants of “CNN sucks”, attacking the news media, and railing against Republican enemies including senators Jeff Flake and John McCain. Trump also praised clean coal. “They are taking out coal; they are going to clean it,” he said, apparently misunderstanding what the term means.

Elsewhere in Trumpland, Hillary Clinton has described the moment the now-president crept up behind her in a debate, writing in her forthcoming book: “My skin crawled.”

THE WORLD

The US had delayed around $300 million of aid to Egypt because if its failure to make human rights advances. Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner visited the country this week and met with president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. — Reuters

Up to 60 people have been killed by a Saudi airstrike in Yemen that hit a hotel. The Saudi government is fighting a war against Houthi rebels, which it sees as a proxy for regional rival Iran. It’s unclear if the people killed were civilians or fighters. — The Guardian

WHAT WE’RE READING

Who owns the internet? (New Yorker): “Thirty years ago, almost no one used the Internet for anything. Today, just about everybody uses it for everything. Even as the Web has grown, however, it has narrowed. Google now controls nearly ninety per cent of search advertising, Facebook almost eighty per cent of mobile social traffic, and Amazon about seventy-five per cent of e-book sales.”

It’s a slow death: the world’s worst humanitarian crisis (New York Times): “Damage from the war has turned Yemen into a fertile environment for cholera, a bacterial infection spread by water contaminated with feces. As garbage has piled up and sewage systems have failed, more Yemenis are relying on easily polluted wells for drinking water.”

Fake polls are a real problem (Five Thirty Eight): “If you’re a political observer interested in polls or a journalist who writes about them, you need to be more careful than ever.”

The toll (Reuters): “As thousands of police forces across America have embraced Tasers, the outlines of the Schrock case have grown familiar: a Taser shot, an unintended death, a damage claim. But the episode’s nuances – a mentally ill victim, a complex death investigation, a debate over the weapon’s use – tell a deeper story.”

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