The Briefing

This week, the Country Music Award (CMA) nominations were announced and Beyoncé was left off the list - despite her single Texas Hold 'Em spending 10 weeks at the top of the country music Billboard charts. The mega star’s rocky relationship with the CMA’s is nothing new, and dates back to 2016 when her performance with The Chicks was met with backlash and racism. So are there racist undertones to...

Concerns and conspiracy theories about seed oils have been circulating on social media over the last few months – and the political-right have taken a surprising liking to them. The most vocal of voices recently has been JFK’s nephew and former independent presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who says they are “the worst things you can eat,” linking them to chronic inflation, diabetes and...

Violence has erupted in Melbourne’s CBD. Over 1,500 anti-war protestors yesterday descended on the Land Forces expo, the largest event of its kind in the country where businesses and start-ups spruik their products to defence forces and contractors. Those rallying were there to protest not only the war in Gaza, but also the wider implications of war – from human rights violations to its impact on...

House prices are surging across the country. It’s been particularly extreme in Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane, where prices have risen by closer to 60 per cent over the same period. It’s making it nearly impossible for many young people to get into the property market and part of the reason comes down to how many homes we’re building in Australia compared to the number of people who need to live in...

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have faced off in what could be the final debate before the election in November. The polls are neck and neck, both at the national level and in key swing states – and almost everyone likely to cast a vote in the US already has a strong opinion about Donald Trump. But plenty of people were still making up their mind on Kamala Harris, so the pressure was on her to def...

A two-week blockbuster trial with Rupert Murdoch is getting underway in Nevada today. It’s set to decide the fate of some of the world’s most famous news brands, and who gets to control them.  The 93-year-old media mogul, wants to give his voting power in News Corporation and Fox Corp to his oldest son Lachlan, stripping that power from his three other children.  In scenes reminiscent of the hit t...

Artificial intelligence is increasingly becoming intertwined within our day-to-day lives. But it’s not just simply helping us set our nightly alarms or adjust the tone of our emails anymore. For some, it’s offering intimacy and companionship in a way that’s challenging the conventional ways we understand love, relationship and sex. In the (not too distant) future will we be cheating on partners wi...

Pianist Jayson Gillham made international headlines last month after dedicating a performance with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) to journalists who have been killed in Gaza. The backlash from MSO was swift, resulting in Jayson’s performance being pulled. The MSO later admitted it "made an error”, but maintains the concert was not an appropriate place to express personal views, and an exte...

After receiving thousands of submissions and holding hearings across the country over three years, the Royal Commission into Veteran Suicide is releasing its final report today.  It’s expected to outline shameful failures within Australia’s Defence Forces to support veterans’ mental and physical health, especially as they transition into civilian life after serving.  Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambi...

In 2020 and amid a global pandemic, over 4 million students across Australia were forced to transition to online learning. Almost every school became a “virtual school” and it came with unintended consequences, including school refusal - which became the subject of a Federal Senate Inquiry last year. School refusal is an emotional-based avoidance of the traditional classroom. Among the solutions t...

Stand up comedian Monty Franklin tries to make the content audiences need- instead of what they think they want. Whether that’s explaining Aussie culture and slang to American audiences- or working on a film about the Great Emu War of 1932 with John Cleese, Jim Jefferies and Rob Schneider. In this chat with Antoinette Lattouf, Monty talks about why the best comedy is authentic- and why he’s not wo...

Technology enables many athletes to compete in the Paralympics – whether it’s modified wheelchairs or carbon fibre running blades. But is some of this tech giving competitors an unfair advantage over their rivals? If one athlete can spend the cash for the latest running blades, putting them a few seconds ahead of their competition, is fairness lost? Professor John Cairney is the Head of School of...

This week the Parliamentary Budget Office released costings for a Greens plan to add dental to Medicare. On the face of it, the fact that a major branch of healthcare is just not a part of the public health system might be surprising to many. But adding it now, according to the costings, would mean billions of dollars in new government spending – and the Australian Dental Association says we just...

Australian supermodel Elle Macpherson has this week credited natural therapies with curing her cancer. Every day, 58 people in Australia are diagnosed with breast cancer – one in seven Australian women will experience it in their lifetime. Diagnoses have increased by almost a quarter in the last 10 years – but the relative five-year survival rate is 92%. Despite most patients getting a positive pr...

Yesterday Australia’s economy got its quarterly checkup, and the results are in. Gross Domestic Product performance, or GDP, grew by 1.5% over a year. But what does that actually mean, and how does GDP growth affect our lives? Is this an economy at panic stations, or is there no real cause for concern? Motley Fool’s chief investment officer Scott Phillips joins Bension Siebert on this episode of T...

Good news! Your mobile phone isn’t giving you brain cancer! Decades of worry about radio waves travelling out of our phones and into our skulls have apparently been put to rest with a massive World Health Organisation review published today, finding zero link between mobile phone use and brain, head or neck cancer. However, different groups of scientists conducting different kinds of studies on mo...

The situation for women in Afghanistan right now is bleak. After retaking control of the country in August of 2021, the Taliban has wasted no time reinstating a raft of rules stripping away the rights of females. A week ago, a decree made it illegal for women to speak outside their homes. Alongside having to completely cover their bodies head-to-toe in thick fabric, they’re also banned from workin...

Have you ever found yourself endlessly scrolling through TikTok being bombarded with food reviews? Sometimes they appear organic, with creators hopping on a trend or trying a viral product for their followers. Other times, these creators are being paid by restaurants and cafes to plug their businesses or products. There are legal and ethical guidelines in place to stop this content from appearing...

Much of Israel’s economy ground to a halt overnight, during the country’s first major workers’ strike since the start of the war. The strike shut down Israel’s international airport and disrupted banks, manufacturing facilities, healthcare facilities and businesses, as Israelis expressed their anger over six Israeli captives of Hamas found dead in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s...

Renting in Australia can really suck. With winter over and the end of 2024 approaching, we’re heading towards peak moving season. Moving house can be one of life’s most stressful events – made even more stressful by the process of trying to get your bond back. In this two-part feature, The Briefing investigates the messy world of rental bonds. In Part Two, Bension Siebert speaks to Leanne Pilkingt...

Renting in Australia can really suck. With winter over and the end of 2024 approaching, we’re heading towards peak moving season. Moving house can be one of life’s most stressful events – made even more stressful by the process of trying to get your bond back.  In this two-part feature, The Briefing looks into the messy world of rental bonds. In Part One, Bension Siebert speaks to CEO of the New S...

Senator Fatima Payman first won office in 2022 and dominated headlines this year when she crossed the floor over Labor’s refusal to recognise a Palestinian state. Her life since then has been a self-described “whirlwind.” Fatima now sits as an independent, and in this chat with Antoinette Lattouf, she reveals the inner workings of the Albanese government that led to her resignation and whether she...

It's been a big week of debate over the 2026 census and a handful of questions that might – or might not – be added to it. This episode, we speak to one of the Labor MPs who rebelled against the Government’s decision to exclude questions about LGBTIQA+ Australians from the Census – and get his take on a partial backflip from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese this morning.   Labor's Federal Member fo...

The AFLW 2024 season kicks off today – but not everyone’s happy with the fixtures.  As the AFL works to manage the men’s finals being played alongside the start of the women’s game, fans and key stakeholders are asking why logistical confusion remains as the competition heads into its ninth season. Georgia Rajic is a sports commentator and reporter – on this bonus episode of The Briefing, she join...

Spring brings with it some pretty wonderful things; blooming flowers, warmer weather and longer days. But it also means another thing that can strike fear into the heart of nearly every Australian – magpie swooping season.  From August to October, the black and white birds are nesting, which means they’re feeling extra protective and have been known to fly at humans as they pass by their babies. ...