Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Thursday 9 November. Top stories The owner of one of Australia's dirtiest coal-fired power plants quietly moved $1bn offshore within days of pocketing $117m from taxpayers in compensation for Labor's now-defunct carbon tax, the Paradise Papers show. In 2012 the Gillard government created a $5.5bn compensation scheme to accompany its carbon tax. One of the big winners was the owner of Loy Yang B, the British-listed company International Power, which in turn was owned by the French multinational GDF Suez – now known as Engie. The $5.5bn energy security fund was dubbed by the then shadow environment minister, Greg Hunt, as "the biggest cash handouts in Australian history" made to the companies thought to be the country's "biggest polluters". Within days the compensation, Loy Yang B's owner upstreamed $1bn in dividends out of its Australian operations as part of its aptly named "Project Salmon". Engie said in a statement that the dividends did not involve the distribution of any cash outside of Australia. It also flatly denied sending any of the carbon tax compensation back to its offshore owners. Engie is now in the final stages of selling Loy Yang B. Donald Trump has thumbed his nose at China's draconian censorship regime as he touched down in Beijing on his 12-day East Asian tour. China was last year labelled the world's worst abuser of internet freedom with Trump's favourite means of communication, Twitter, blocked across the mainland. But a senior White House official has told reporters Trump will not concede to the ban and overnight the president has fired off a stream of tweets from within the country. "The president will tweet whatever he wants. That's his way of communicating directly with the American people. Why not?" the official was quoted as saying by a pooled report. "I'm sure we've got the gear aboard this airplane to make it happen." Australia's corporate regulator has committed a serious privacy breach by allowing users of its website to access the search history of other users. The loophole could lead to possible insider trading if users could view which companies were being researched by, for example, a private equity buyout firm, or damage a journalist's ability to investigate wrongdoing. Asic has reportedly known about the problem for 12 days. Queensland's privacy commissioners called the apparent breach a "cause for concern". The Labor senator Sam Dastyari has been abused in a Melbourne bar by a far-right group, with one man declaring during the tirade: "You terrorist, you little monkey." The ugly scene in the Victoria University student bar on Wednesday evening was captured on video and posted on Facebook. The group approached Dastyari, who is of Iranian heritage, and began abusing the high-profile senator, first referencing his controversial political fundraising with Chinese donors. The verbal attack spiralled, with one man saying: "Why don't you go back to Iran, you terrorist?" Italian chef Antonio Carluccio, often considered the godfather of Italian gastronomy in the UK, has died. Carluccio's restaurants were favourites of celebrities such as Elton John and he mentored a young Jamie Oliver, who remembered him as the "don of all things Italian". The chef and TV star wrote 22 books and his motto was "mof mof" – minimum of fuss, maximum of flavour. "I've received a lot of letters from old men recently, widowers, wanting to know if they can improve the quality of their life through cooking," Carluccio, a wild mushroom fanatic, said a few years ago. "And they can! No matter the budget! Even, say, baked beans, fried in a little oil, with some salt, garlic and chilli, can transform an ordinary meal into something special and can provide you with a sense of purpose, achievement." Sport On day one of four England has run 278 for 8 against Cricket Australia XI in Adelaide, with England's opening batsman Mark Stoneman saying "there are lessons to be learned" from the match, with England needing to tighten up their game, writes Will Macpherson. Tom Rogic's success with Celtic provides a blueprint for how the Socceroos can unleash their most technically-gifted footballer in the crucial World Cup qualifier against Honduras.
History will be made when the first day-night Ashes Test, men's or women's, gets under way at North Sydney Oval today. Australia's women can ensure the Ashes trophy remains on home soil with victory over England in the four-day match, while England know a win for them will keep their hopes in the series very much alive. Join Geoff Lemon from 2pm for a 2:30 start (AEDT) for updates.
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Loy Yang power station in the Latrobe Valley, Victoria, is also one of Australia's largest emitters of greenhouse gases. Photograph: David Crosling/AAP 
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