It has wiped $630 million from Packer's personal fortune. [Financial Review] Melco Crown Entertainment co-chairman and chief executive officer Lawrence Ho, left, speaks as James Packer listens. Credit:AP This all adds up to one hard lesson for Packer about doing business in China, writes Tony Boyd, in a cracking Chanticleer column. [Financial Review] 2. Australian politics Amnesty International has issued a new report calling for the Australian government to be held accountable under international law for the "deliberate and systematic torture of refugees" on Nauru. [Michael Koziol/Fairfax]

Conservative Liberal MP Andrew Hastie says journalists at Fairfax, The Guardian and the ABC should defend News Corp cartoonist Bill Leak against the Human Rights Commission's investigation into a cartoon on youth indigenous issues. [Andrew Burrell/The Australian] Turnbull must complete the task Tony Abbott failed to do and repeal Section 18c of the Racial Discrimination Act, The Australian says in a strong editorial on the issue. [Read] Labor has an issue with Cabinet ministers using WhatsApp to text each other about non-classified material but the Australian Signals Directorate (one of the spy organisations) says no worries. [Primrose Riordan/Financial Review] 3. Media wades back into custodial dispute Sally Faulkner remembers the moment her ex-husband, Ali Elamine, broke his promise to return their children after a holiday in Lebanon. Credit:Australian Story

Ali Elamine did a victory lap of the Australian media immediately after his custodial win over ex-wife Sally Faulkner after her attempt in April to retrieve their two children from Lebanon went sour, but has kept quiet ever since. Today, he told our contributor on the ground in Beirut, reporter Suzan Haidamous, that there is nothing more that can be aired in the public domain that is in the well being of the two children. [Fairfax] When I wrote a piece at the end of my week in Beirut covering the case arguing that Elamine may come out of this the biggest loser of all, it provoked a fervent response from my readers. In fact I received more responses to it than any other piece I've ever written - opinion was evenly split but equally passionate. [Catch up] Listening to the distressing, tearful phone calls Faulkner recorded and aired on Monday night's Australian Story, of her children crying how they wanted to come home, I realised my piece was wrong. It is probably more likely that Lahela and Noah will grow up, venture into Google, read about the bitter fight between their mother and father, listen back to their harrowing phone calls they won't remember making at the time and feel mightily ripped off by both their parents, and who can blame them if they feel the same about the Australian media? 4. UKIP's Steve Woolfe quits 'ungovernable' party Tony Abbott with Steven Woolfe MEP in London. Credit:Stephen Woolfe Twitter

Just a few weeks ago Steven Woolfe was considered the frontrunner to replace Diane James as leader. Then he was punched by his fellow MEP Mike Hookem and has now quit citing "infighting." Literally, I guess! He resigned from the party in an opinion-piece for London's Telegraph. [Read] "UKIP without Nigel Farage leading it and the Brexit cause to unify it has resorted to damaging infighting," Woolfe writes, answering the question that everyone is now asking - without Brexit, why is UKIP? 5. Russia announces ceasefire in Aleppo Russia will pause bombings in Aleppo on Thursday for eight hours to allow humanitarian aid into the Syrian city. [BBC]

6. Russia Today refused banking services in UK RT says NatWest withdrew all banking services to the state-funded Russian broadcaster which have been previously provided for the last decade. [Fairfax] The Russian government is accusing Britain of abandoning its commitment to freedom of speech. "Long live freedom of speech!" Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan tweeted. [Russia Today] And that's it from me today, you can follow me on Facebook for more.

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