Background Briefing

He is shut off from the outside world. Locked inside a makeshift jail in north Syria for the past five years, Hamza doesn’t even know who the Prime Minister is. This Australian citizen is one of thousands of suspected ISIS members imprisoned with no charges. 

Sometimes they’re armed with a chainsaw, sometimes a bottle of poison, and often they’re operating in broad daylight. So why is it so hard to catch Sydney’s tree killers?

Daniel Duggan’s career was spent pushing warplanes to their limits. Now the United States wants him extradited from Australia and prosecuted for conspiracy. The Australian pilot says he innocent, and believes he’s a pawn in the geopolitical contest between the US and China.

Olivia went on Australia’s biggest show to find love. She came out as Australia's "most hated" reality TV star and lost almost everything.

Reporter Annika Blau investigates the making of a TV villain.

It was the infamous Royal prank call that shattered lives. One woman took her own life; another is haunted to this day. Reporter Rachael Cusick investigates - how did a joke go so wrong?

On the outskirts of Dubai there is a secret scam factory, where hundreds of employees smoke, eat, and pretend to be glamorous women — but one has a secret plan to shut it all down.

There's a saying that every good story needs a bad guy. 

How the Commonwealth Bank tried to stop a royal commission by using dirt files, intimidation, threats and surveillance against whistleblowers and journalists. Reporter Adele Ferguson investigates.

Three dead dolphins turn up in an oil spill.

"Simone" arrived on a remote island to help asylum seekers. But she witnessed something there that convinced her to leak over 2000 documents. Reporters Paul Farrell and Maddison Conaughton investigate what happened.