The Briefing

Julian Assange is a free man after pleading guilty to one charge of espionage in a federal United States court as part of a plea deal with prosecutors, bringing to end an international saga surrounding war, access to information, freedom of speech and the role of journalism in the digital age.   Facing a judge in a US federal court in the remote Northern Mariana Islands, Assange told the court tha...

You might not have heard of MrBeast, but chances are the Gen Z’er you share a house, office or gym with has. The 26-year-old content creator from Wichita, Kansas has amassed hundreds of millions of followers and is the most- subscribed-to page on YouTube. He’s best known for putting on his own version of Squid Game – before Netflix did – and sharing hundreds of thousands of dollars in random givea...

Pills, powders and liquids that might be harbouring deadly substances will be able to be legally tested across Victoria, following a major policy change announced by Premier Jacinta Allan this week. Pill testing will become permanent after an 18-month trial starting this summer, with a mobile service to attend up to 10 music festivals. In Victoria, paramedics responded to more drug overdoses at fe...

The Albanese government has announced sweeping new changes to Australia’s vaping laws, which will see the products continue to be sold – but only in pharmacies. To secure the support of the Greens in the Senate, Labor has agreed to backtrack on its prescription-only model. It means vapes will be made available at pharmacies across the country – but they will be regulated and subject to plain packa...

Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, has agreed to plead guilty to a single felony count in relation to charges over disseminating national security material.  The plea deal was in exchange for his release from a British prison, clearing the way for him to return to Australia, and avoiding the need to face charges in the United States.  It brings to an end the 14-year ordeal that saw him spen...

Bird flu – or Avian flu – has been detected at a number of chicken farms in Victoria and NSW. The discovery comes in the wake of an outbreak in the US and tests that found humans had symptoms associated with bird flu. How safe is Australia’s poultry industry, and how safe are our chickens and eggs to eat? In this episode of The Briefing, we’re joined by Enzo Palombo, Professor of Microbiology at S...

Weaponised incompetence is a term that's gaining some traction at the moment. It's a passive-aggressive pattern of behaviour where someone in a relationship, whether it be professional or intimate, either deliberately performs a task poorly or pretends not to know how to do a task in order to avoid responsibility. Imagine the dynamic of person A is able to iron shirts/stack dishwashers/ do spreads...

Tax time is right around the corner and this year the ATO are cracking down on working from home expenses. Last year more than 8 million Australians claimed work- related deductions in their tax return, with working from home expenses making up more than half of those claims. In this episode of the Briefing Ashley Debenham from Etax Accountants joins Katrina Blowers to unpack everything you need t...

What’s the difference between style and Fashion? Well Victoria Latu can answer that. She was born in a region now considered Ukraine, interviewed all the stars on the red carpet in LA and along the way became a fashion expert. In this chat with Antoinette Lattouf, Victoria unpacks her Kylie Minogue like accent and how she navigated the Australian media landscape a women of colour. WEEKEND LIST TO...

Women’s basketball would be lucky to rate a mention in America, let alone Australia. Yet that has all changed since Caitlin Clark came along. The 22-year-old is one of the most promising female basketball players in the US, making the transition from college ball to being signed as the number one draft pick for the Indiana Fever this year. However, her popularity hasn’t been without controversy, f...

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s first visit to North Korea in 24 years has resulted in the signing of a partnership agreement for mutual aid if either nation is attacked. Apparently encompassing a whole range of areas, including medical education and scientific pursuits, particular emphasis has been placed on military cooperation with speculation that Russia is in dire need of munitions to cont...

This week saw a Labor MP’s office vandalized in Victoria in protest of the party’s inaction surrounding the war in Gaza. The protest has sparked outrage from current and former members of government, who say aggressive protest action is taking things too far. Should protest action be more peaceful, to be more effective? Or is loud and aggressive protest the only way to get wider Australian society...

Peter Dutton has provided Australians with more detail than ever before with how he plans to make the country enter a nuclear power boom. On Wednesday, the leader of the Opposition announced his plans to build seven nuclear power stations, flagging a major election promise which he hopes will be a “referendum on nuclear energy”. In this episode of The Briefing, Emeritus Professor Ian Lowe from Gri...

Planning on heading to the slopes this winter? A new study has found climate change could forever change Australia’s ski season, with less snow for fewer days. The traditional season, starting from the June long weekend through to the October long weekend, is 120 days or four months. New research has found due to ongoing changes in our climate the season will be reduced to just 55 days by 2050. In...

Yesterday the Reserve Bank of Australia announced that they were holding the cash rate at 4.35% - the same position since November, 2023.  While this decision came as no shock to the majority of economists, it was anticipated that cash rates would be falling by the end of 2024. Is this still the case?  To help unpack the details of our current economic situation, Scott Phillips from the Motley Foo...

Have you ever thought about the physical places where our most sensitive and private digital information is stored?  Around Australia lie ultra-secure databases that host everything from your medical records and internet passwords to our governments' records and national secrets. Unsurprisingly, given the sensitive nature of this digital information, most of us will never even know where these dat...

China’s long history of panda diplomacy is back in the headlines. Governments trading native animals is nothing new and can form a key part of diplomatic relations, but how did trading pandas become an integral part of China’s foreign policy? In this episode of the Briefing Senior Fellow in the Initiative for U.S-China Dialogue on Global Issues Dennis Wilder joins Sacha Barbour Gatt to explain the...

New research released today from Women’s Health Victoria is showing a sad state of affairs for how people see their genitalia in 2024. The research, which includes a nationally representative YouGov survey of more than 1000 Australians with a labia, found that porn and the 'online world' are having a significant impact on young people's anxiety and shame around their vulva and labia. In this episo...

New research has found 69 per cent of Australians access TV via the internet and millions will miss out on watching sport if proposed anti-siphoning laws are not applied to streaming services. A new study has found 29 per cent of Australians watch TV exclusively through an aerial and 18 per cent of those are considering switching to digital soon. If anti-siphoning laws are not extended to digital...

Sally McMullen and Alexandra Hourigan describe themselves as just two chicks trying to navigate their 20s and their love of online shopping. The duo turned their friendship and passion of scoring a bargain into Two Broke Chicks - dishing out everything from saving hacks to how to make friends as an adult in their podcast, new book and through socials. In this chat with Antoinette Lattouf, Sal and...

Animals communicate with one another all the time, but few species have the ability to call each other by individual names. Dolphins are known to invent their own signature whistle as names, while parrots have also been known to use names with each other – and now new research has found that African elephants have found their own way to call each other by name too. In this episode of the Briefing,...

There's been a surprising spike this year in the number of Monkeypox cases internationally and in Australia. In a post-pandemic world, fears of a virus that could spread amongst large groups of people are unsurprising - but are concerns about this latest spike warranted? And what's causing the spike of Mpox to occur? In this episode, The Briefing's Simon Beaton speaks with expert in infectious dis...

14 high-profile Australian women have joined forces to recreate the famous Calendar Girls campaign to raise awareness of domestic violence. Inspired by the Calendar Girls 25 years ago who stripped for a nude calendar to raise awareness of cancer, Let’s Get Explicit is trying to keep the conversation going and to raise awareness of domestic violence in Australia. Politicians like Victorian MP Georg...

The European Parliament held its elections over the weekend, with provisional results showing significant victory for radical-right political parties across the continent. As preliminary election results rolled in, French President Emmanuel Macron called a snap parliamentary election in the country later this month, following strong results for his right-wing rival party Marine Le Pen. In this epi...

Run clubs are trending. They've been called the new dating app, the millennial quarter life crisis, and the cozzie livs gym membership. So if you’ve found yourself lacing up or have signed up for the next fun run in your city - what’s the best way to start running and do it safely? And is this a 2024 fad, or here for the long haul? In this episode of the Briefing Former Australian Athlete of the Y...