From the Crikey grapevine, the latest tips and rumours …

Adani’s spin game. No one from Indian mining company Adani appeared on last night’s episode of Four Corners, which delved into its business dealings both in India at home, with the company choosing instead to give a written statement. Four Corners host Sarah Ferguson says the program made requests over a number of weeks to the company. Instead of fronting up to a journo, the company has made an interesting public relations move — sponsoring tweets showing up in Australians’ feeds during the time the program aired, as well as an advertisement played during the NRL grand final (a lot of North Queensland viewers would be tuning in to see the Cowboys). Seen any other interesting Adani ploys to get in our good books? Drop us a line.

Another day, another piece of garbage. A Crikey reader has sent in some well-written, well-argued junk mail that claims, among other nonsense, that doctors will be able to perform gender reassignment surgery on children without parents’ consent if same-sex marriage is legalised. Currently in Australia, surgeons performing such an act require: two independent psychiatric evaluations, a letter from a doctor or endocrinologist, and results of HIV and Hep B tests. In the case of minors, parental consent is needed, as well as usually Family Court consent.

Only in America. The rapid tap, tap, tap of automatic gunfire was the haunting signature of America’s worst ever massacre overnight Monday, with at least 58 people murdered and more than 500 wounded by a lone gunman in Las Vegas. But if some US right-wing politicians have their way, those eerie, threatening sounds will become something of memory as the Republican-dominated House is slated to try again to win a vote approving significant changes to the regulations governing the sale of silencers for guns.

In fact, the New York Daily News says the House of Representatives will vote this week on the proposal from right-wing Republican gun supporters. Under the bill — laughingly called The Sportsmen Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act, or SHARE Act — restrictions would be reduced on purchasing gun silencers, which can muffle the blasts of even many high-powered weapons. Under current law, customers must wait months to purchase silencers and must submit their fingerprints and a photograph of themselves as part of the process. They also have to pay a US$200 transfer tax. Federal law enforcement keeps a record of people who make these purchases. The bill would eliminate these rules and refund the US$200 to those people who had bought silencers (some call them suppressors) since late 2015. Justifying the new law, South Carolinian Republican Jeff Duncan said silencers were important for hunters and target shooters to prevent hearing loss. Interestingly, this is not the first attempt at pushing this bill through the House. An attempt was made in June, and it looked like being passed (it has to go through the Republican-dominated Senate), but was postponed when Steve Scalise, House of Representatives Republican Majority Whip, and three others were shot and wounded near Washington. He only returned to work last week.

AFL app balls up? What is going on with the WatchAFL app? The app is Fox Sports’ service providing AFL fans outside Australia with live coverage of games. However, a Crikey tipster living in Europe says there have been frequent problems with the app (and the website) crashing during live games — especially during the finals period when demand is higher (and the stress of watching greater as well).

Our tipster submitted a complaint about the coverage of the second preliminary final between Richmond and GWS. The response from Foxtel said “our network supplier experienced technical difficulties during the Tigers vs Giants match and we are currently working with them to remedy”. Foxtel was criticised earlier this year for similar issues when fans of Game of Thrones couldn’t load the first episode of the season on the Foxtel Now app. We asked Foxtel just how widespread these issues had been, and whether they affected coverage of Saturday’s grand final, but we didn’t hear back before deadline.

Are you a footy fan living overseas? Encountered issues with Watch AFL? Let us know.

*Heard anything that might interest Crikey? Send your tips to boss@crikey.com.au, use our guaranteed anonymous form or other ways to leak to us securely