Peter Reith’s barbed advice to Tony Abbott and other news and views for 18 January

From this morning’s Australian papers.

• Liberal Party rank and file best judge of candidates for presidency – In his first Herald column, Peter Reith looks at the divisions over the Liberal Party presidency – “News of a conflict between Julie Bishop and Tony Abbott over the Liberal presidency is no surprise. Abbott does not seem to realise that sometimes it’s best not to meddle in Liberal Party organisational matters. In fact, it’s healthy that the party makes its own decisions without the decision on the federal presidency always being decided by the parliamentary leader.” – Sydney Morning Herald
• Angry Indonesia demands federal government suspends turn back boats policy – Daily Telegraph
• Bill Glasson battles LNP protest vote in the Griffith by-election - Courier Mail

Some links to other things I’ve found interesting today.

• Global Warming Denial Hits a 6-Year High - “The new study, from the Yale and George Mason University research teams on climate change communication, shows a 7-percentage-point increase in the proportion of Americans who say they do not believe that global warming is happening. And that’s just since the spring of 2013. The number is now 23 percent; back at the start of last year, it was 16 percent.”
• How Syria sank into all-out civil war

It’s Happening: GOP Is Rallying Around Embattled N.J. Governor – “Subpoenas are hitting his closest aides and allies. His approval rating in New Jersey has taken a modest hit. And suddenly, politicians long afraid of him are speaking out about his revenge-style of governing.But headed into a three-day weekend, there’s some good news for Christie. The conservative base of the Republican Party, long skeptical of the New Jersey governor because of his bro-hug with President Obama after Sandy, is beginning to rally to his side.

• Caffeine in Food and Dietary Supplements: Examining Safety - Workshop Summary (2014)
• Researchers Are Totes Studying How Ppl Shorten Words On Twitter – “You might assume that people clip words to keep their messages under Twitter’s 140-character limit. So did Reddy. What surprised her, she says, was that people weren’t just shortening their words so they could fit their message within the limit. The average length of the tweets containing clipped words ranged from 80 to 90 characters, meaning that people were specifically choosing to use these shortenings.”
• Maureen Dowd Manages To Make New York Mayor’s Pizza Snafu About Bill Clinton’s Blowjob
• How to Reduce Poverty & Inequality at No Cost
• HSBC, Citi suspend traders as FX probe deepens

Australian newspaper front pages for Saturday 18 January

Indonesian President expresses disappointment in Tony Abbott

Asian and European newspaper front pages Saturday 18 January