The Briefing

Ways to celebrate Christmas in a Covid safe way amid a surge in cases  A new finger prick test to tell when we're due for a booster shot The number of people claiming unemployment benefits drops to early 2020 levels Follow The Briefing AND DON'T FORGET TO SIGN UP FOR THE BRIEFING NEWSLETTER. LINK IS IN OUR BIO ON INSTAGRAM Instagram:  @thebriefingpodcast  Facebook:  TheBriefing...

Interstate Covid testing requirements under review Another vaccine to become available in Australia within weeks The first of six children killed in the Tasmanian jumping castle tragedy being laid to rest Follow The Briefing AND DON'T FORGET TO SIGN UP FOR THE BRIEFING NEWSLETTER. LINK IS IN OUR BIO ON INSTAGRAM Instagram:  @thebriefingpodcast  Facebook:  TheBriefingNewsAU Twitter:&...

Todays Headlines New modelling predicts hundreds of thousands of daily Covid cases unless authorities act now Quarantine-free travel to New Zealand delayed again Locals council's deemed the weak link in Australia's national security Covid hits the AFL Follow The Briefing AND DON'T FORGET TO SIGN UP FOR THE BRIEFING NEWSLETTER. LINK IS IN OUR BIO ON INSTAGRAM Instagram:  @thebriefingpodcast&nb...

Todays Headlines Emergency National Cabinet meeting called as Australia battles Omicron Covid variant Tennis legend Rafael Nadal tests Covid positive  Good news for those planning an Aussie getaway with flights cheaper than they have been in years And, Australia claims a stunning two-nil lead in the Ashes Follow The Briefing AND DON'T FORGET TO SIGN UP FOR THE BRIEFING NEWSLETTER. LINK IS IN...

Todays Headlines How Christmas could be a super-spreader event Specialist NSW police to investigate Tasmanian jumping castle tragedy New rules forcing power companies to dumb down power bills  Australia is poised to take a two-nil lead in the Ashes Follow The Briefing AND DON'T FORGET TO SIGN UP FOR THE BRIEFING NEWSLETTER. LINK IS IN OUR BIO ON INSTAGRAM Instagram:  @thebriefingpodcast&...

Dinesh Palipana works as a doctor in one of Australia’s busiest hospital emergency rooms. If this wasn’t impressive enough, Dinesh also had to learn how to do the immensely physical work of medicine with a spinal cord injury.  In this chat with Jamila Rizvi, Dinesh recounts the harrowing accident that left him quadriplegic in 2010, how he’s learnt to meet the demands of his...

Australians will go to the polls in 2022 to elect a federal government.  There are so many critical issues dominating the news: Covid-19 and its many variants; inflation; house prices; unemployment; education; health; and climate change.   Dan Ilic, an Australian comedian, started a crowdfunding campaign to fund Times Square billboards to embarrass Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the C...

2021 has certainly thrown us some curveballs. Covid’s Delta outbreak (and then Omicron), lockdowns, protests and vaccine mandates, the Royal family and their many sagas, and who could forget the Tokyo Olympics.   In this episode of The Briefing Tom Tilley and Katrina Blowers look back on the big issues of 2021, how they impacted us, and what they viewed as the critical issues we should...

Booster jabs will be offered to everyone over 18 in England from this week.  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson addressed the nation and said:       "No one should be in any doubt, there is a tidal wave of Omicron coming."   Johnson said the target to offer a booster to all adults by the end of January will be brought forward by a month.  The British government is h...

New Zealand has introduced a very radical plan to ban smoking for the next generation. Legislation, which comes into effect next year, means those who are aged 14 and under today will never be legally able to buy tobacco. The legal smoking age will increase every year, with the plan to create a smoke-free generation of Kiwis.   Chris Bullen is Professor of Public Health at the University of A...

Teachers are walking out of classrooms across the country.  They’re protesting in the streets.  The pandemic meant they had to completely re-think the way they interacted with their students.  And they’ve had enough.   Louise Phillips, Associate Professor from the Faculty of Education, Southern Cross University, and other researchers from around the world, have cond...

Luke McGregor is refreshingly honest, totally uncomfortable and hilariously funny. You might known him as one half of the writing and acting team behind the ABC’s hit TV series Rosehaven, or from his awkward candidness as the presenter in Luke Warm Sex. In this chat Luke tells Jamila Rizvi what it was like getting bullied at school, why he keeps doing comedy despite suffering crippling panic...

Mitchell Rice was dismissed by his employer Queensland Rail on the basis of having used a legally prescribed cannabis product to treat his medical conditions of anxiety and insomnia.     He’s suing.  Mitchell says he developed the conditions from a combination of extensive shift work for Queensland Rail, as well as caring for his terminally ill mother....

In today’s Briefing, we go back to a story we did two weeks ago about the inventor of bitcoin.   A Florida court has ruled that Craig Wright, the Aussie who says he invented the blockchain currency, won’t have to pay half of his coins to his late business partner... David Kleiman. Klieman’s family were suing Wright for half of the 70B$ of bitcoin controlled by bitcoin i...

Do you find yourself infinitely browsing? Never able to make a commitment?  To a movie?  A partner?  A job?   Pete Davis is a writer and civic advocate from Falls Church, Virginia.   His Harvard Law School graduation speech, “A Counterculture of Commitment,” has been viewed more than 30 million times.   His new book is “Dedicated: the Case for C...

Northern Territory Chief Minister Michael Gunner broke down last month talking about death threats he and his family had received from online trolls protesting about the territory’s Covid vaccine mandates.   The debate has included people like Tucker Carlson and Russell Brand.      So how did global Covid trolls arrive in the top end?     Nicholas...

Everyone knows someone who’s been swayed by internet conspiracies…misinformation about the Covid vaccine, covid conspiracies? 5G, fluoride. Was it QAnon? Far right groups? Parts of YouTube, Reddit or the more subversive forums like 4chan or 8chan or 8kun    In this Briefing... we learn more about what ties these internet conspiracy groups together... how dangerous it’s...

Carly Findlay is an author and appearance activist who lives with a rare skin condition called ichthyosis, which makes her skin scaly and red.  What this means is that Carly has to put up with a lot of silly, inappropriate and downright rude questions from strangers.  In this chat with Jamila Rizvi, Carly explains what it’s like to be trolled for how you look, how she’s coped...

There are landmark court trials littered through US history….Michael Jackson’s two trials and OJ Simpson.  The Ghislaine Maxwell trial is poised to join them as a watershed hearing in front of the world’s media.   We cross to Seven’s US Bureau Chief Ashlee Mullany who is attending the court case in New York.  We’ve already heard explosive claims and we...

The world is trying to come to grips with the Omicron variant of Covid-19.  It’s spreading like wildfire across the globe. Governments are scrambling to close borders and scientists are rushing to determine just how potent the new strain is.   But could it be a blessing in disguise.  Could Omicron end the pandemic?  Dr Deborah Cromer leads the Infection Epidemiology and P...

In 2013 on a night out in Kings Cross a devastating encounter in a laneway changed the course of Saxon Mullins’ life.      It led to a rape case that went for five years... there were two trials, two appeals and ultimately it was determined that the accused was acquitted after arguing he had reasonable grounds to believe she was consenting.      Now ei...

The world has a new variant of the Covid-19 virus to contend with.  Omicron was first detected in Botswana and has already been detected in the UK, Hong Kong, the Czech Republic and Australia. States and countries are locking borders to try to contain the spread.      Dr Norman Swan is host of the ABC’s Health Report and the&nb...

Western Australia will stay closed for Christmas with its border not reopening until at least late January. WA premier Mark McGowan says waiting to lift restrictions until the state achieves 90% vaccination coverage of people aged 12 and above will save lives.   We asked our listeners what they thought, and we received a mixed response.  Many believe McGowan is a hero keeping West Austra...

You might know Matt Okine as the funny guy who makes up one half of Matt and Alex’s All Day Breakfast. He is also an author, actor and former Triple J presenter. In this chat with Jamila Rizvi, Matt shows more of his thoughtful and sensitive side, speaking about everything from his experience of racism, growing up without his mum and challenges of becoming a parent. Plus he tells Jamila an a...

31 people drowned when a boatload of asylum seekers capsized in the English Channel this week.  The international community all of a sudden became aware of a crisis on the beaches near Calais in France.  People smugglers are loading migrants, looking for a better life, onto inflatable dinghies and sending them to Britain.   Steve Cannane is the ABC’s European correspondent.&nb...