Friday newspaper round-up: Australian PM, Ryanair, National Lottery, accounting firms
Australia will have a new prime minister in Scott Morrison – the socially conservative architect of Australia’s hardline anti-asylum seeker policies – after he mounted a late challenge during a drawn-out struggle for power in the governing Liberal party. On Friday, incumbent Malcolm Turnbull failed in his attempt to stare down a challenge from hard right MP Peter Dutton, with insurgents in his party gathering enough signatures to call for a “spill” of the leadership. It led to a three-way challenge that included Morrison, Turnbull’s treasurer, and Julie Bishop, the foreign minister. Turnbull himself stood aside from the contest. - Guardian
Ryanair will no longer let passengers take a small suitcase on its planes for free, with charges for a 10kg case to be introduced in November. The airline overhauled its baggage policy as recently as January but said the current scheme, which allows people to hand in their smaller cases for loading in the hold for free at the boarding gate, was still causing delays. – Guardian
New York-listed ecommerce giant Alibaba, widely viewed as China's answer to Amazon, reported soaring revenues of more than $12bn (£9.3bn) in its latest quarterly results, although profits fell short of analyst expectations. Alibaba boosted its core online marketplace business and internet services division, but investments in subsidiaries and battles against regional rivals hit its bottom line. – Telegraph
National Lottery operator Camelot has been fined £1.2m by the gambling regulator for a series of failings that included incorrectly issuing “non-winning” messages to players. The Post Office was also implicated in one of five sanctions handed out by the Gambling Commission on Thursday. Governance between Camelot and the Post Office was lacking over an eight-year period to April 2016. – Telegraph
Philip Hammond launched a new attack on Tory colleagues last night by warning that a no-deal Brexit would significantly damage the economy, hours after Dominic Raab said that any risks were short-term. The chancellor again dismissed claims of a Brexit dividend, speaking after Mr Raab, the Brexit secretary, had insisted that leaving without an agreement would deliver positive “opportunities”. – The Times
Executives at Britain’s largest accounting firms are holding last-minute talks to try to agree proposals to reform the industry and halt a review by the competition regulator. The Competition and Markets Authority is under pressure from politicians to review the dominance of the Big Four — Deloitte, PWC, KPMG and EY. A string of corporate scandals and failures has renewed concerns about the quality of audit work and lack of choice for businesses. – The Times