Liberal MPs have endorsed Gladys Berejiklian as the 45th premier of NSW, the state’s seventh premier in 12 years.

NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner will be shuffled out of Premier Mike Baird’s cabinet: he knows it and she knows it. The only questions are: when, how and who will succeed her?

Australia is now mired in an open-ended $300 million a year debacle in Iraq, with no coherent exit strategy except, apparently, to maximise the risk to Australians that the government's campaign against Islamic State is creating, writes Bernard Keane.

In the course of the government's announcement on last week of its proposal for a mass surveillance data retention scheme, a number of falsehoods were uttered.

Did you hear the one about the billionaire mogul who thought the way to fix inequality was to cut corporate taxation? But wait, here's the kicker – he's one of the world's biggest tax dodgers, but he wants a crackdown on the tax dodging of his competitors.

Palmer's Abbott-like inconsistency produced extraordinary, shambolic scenes as the government tried desperately to keep up with him. But for the moment, they'll deprive the government of its long-awaited moment.

Outside the hotel window, operatic revolutionary anthems can be heard, rallying residents to wake up, clean their apartments and prepare for another day. So begins the day in Pyongyang, North Korea.