The Briefing

Headlines: The Chaos in France, new poll shows Peter Dutton on track for major election win, former defence secretary to lead urgent AUKUS review, Melbourne billionaire Adrian Portelli charged over unlawful lottery and you tell us your favourite Christmas movies!

Deep dive: Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour has become a record-breaking phenomenon – taking on 54 cities across 21 countries over a gruelling 21 months.

Swift, considered one of the greatest artists of all time, has been on tour since March 2023, breaking multiple records including the highest-grossing tour ever and the first musician to surpass a billion US dollars in revenue.

As the Eras tour wraps up for good in Vancouver this weekend, The Briefing has teamed up with Angel Zhong at RMIT to exclusively unpack every stat and figure from what will inevitably go down in history as one of the biggest music events of our generation.

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Who should decide what’s acceptable to wear to the office?

In the last couple of years, we’ve seen a huge shift in office workwear with experts saying it’s partly because of the pandemic, working from home, social media trends and because of younger generations entering the workplace.

In this episode of The Briefing Helen Smith is joined by Lauren Sams, fashion editor at the Australian Finical Review, and Employment Lawyer Roxanne Hart to find out who makes the rules around what’s corporate chic and what’s going to send you straight to HR.

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Headlines: Charges laid over Easey Street murders, Aussie primary school students score best ever result in global test, NSW Premier to be referred to corruption watchdog, South Korean lawmakers move to impeach President and the Matildas win 3-1 against Taiwan.

Deep Dive: You might have heard the phrase “deep state” in the news about US President-elect Donald Trump recently.  

He’s promised to dismantle it. But what is the “deep state” and do we have one in Australia? 

The Briefing’s Bension Siebert speaks with ANU national security expert David Andrews about the shadowy world of the deep state conspiracy theory and what stops Australia’s government from being undermined from the inside. 

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A man charged over one of Victoria’s longest cold cases, the 1977 Easey Street murders, touched down in Melbourne overnight, after a marathon extradition from Rome.

He was arrested in Italy back in September in connection to the alleged murder of 28-year-old Suzzane Armstrong and 27-year-old Susan Bartlett in their Collingwood share house almost 50 years ago.

In this episode of The Briefing, Chris Spyrou is joined by host of the Life and Crimes podcast and author of Rule on Crime, Andrew Rule. Andrew's been closely following the case since the 70s.

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Headlines: Easey Street murder suspect lands in Melbourne after extradition, South Korean Parliament rejects president’s martial law declaration, concerns over ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, Commonwealth Bank urged to rethink $3 cash withdrawal fee, and the most visited Wikipedia pages for 2024 have been revealed.

Deep dive: A five-year legal battle is playing out between the NT government and residents of Laramba, an Aboriginal community 205km north-west of Alice Springs, over clean drinking water.

The community's drinking water was found to have contained uranium at levels three times the maximum safe level set out in the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines.

In this episode of The Briefing, Bension Siebert is joined by Daniel Kelly, a solicitor at Australian Lawyers for Remote Aboriginal Rights, to unpack the latest developments.

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When you think of hard jobs, does influencing or content creation top the list?

After a video from the 2024 TikTok Awards went viral, that’s exactly the conversation happening online right now. Content creators were asked if their work is “hard,” with some answers sparking debate and backlash.

One of those influencers seemingly in hot water is Veronica B. The TikTokker, who has  over half a million followers on the app, joins Chris Spyrou in this episode of The Briefing to unpack whether she believes being an influencer is tough, what goes on behind the scenes, and how she’s handling the wave of hate. 

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Headlines: The fallout from Hunter Biden’s pardon, biggest cocaine bust in Australian history sees 13 charged and Australia just sweltered through its hottest spring ever.

Deep dive: 2024 has become the deadliest year for aid workers with harrowing risks of humanitarian work laid bare over the weekend. Aid workers from Save the Children and World Central Kitchen were killed in an Israeli Defence Forces airstrike in Gaza, prompting World Central Kitchen to halt operations after it destroyed one of its vehicles and killed three staff members.

With Israel’s new legislation banning the operation of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency in Israel and occupied territories by January 28, what happens to arguably the most oppressed and starving people in the world if aid workers can no longer help?

Australia-born Roger Hearn is the UNRWA's Director of Relief and Social Services, and he joins Antoinette Lattouf in this episode of The Briefing.

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It’s been eight years since Pokémon Go took the world by storm. But was the global phenomenon just a big data mining scam?

By the end of its launch year in 2016, over 200 million people had downloaded the game and today 90 million users are still trying to catch em’ all. But it's come to light that the game’s developers, Niantic, have been using its player’s data to train “the next frontier of AI”.

In this episode of The Briefing, Chris Spyrou chats with freelance games journalist Harry Kalogirou to find out how this happened, whether users are justified in feeling scammed and what this means for the future of AI.

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Headlines: What’s going on Syria right now, Trump threatens 100% tariffs on China and Russia, house prices in Sydney and Melbourne tumble and a Melbourne woman has had a deadly tiger snake slither up her leg while driving.

Deep dive: Young Australians pay more tax than older Australians on the same income.

On this episode of The Briefing, we explain how the tax burden came to fall so heavily on younger people and why, for the first time, we might be in a position to do something about it.

Bension Siebert speaks to Independent Wentworth MP Allegra Spender who has spent more than a year creating a green paper, working with experts, business groups, academics, and trade unions to explain the problem and what we could do to solve it.

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Georgia Grace AKA Gspot knows a lot about sex.

She’s a pleasure activist, the co-founder of sexual wellness company Normal and an expert in somatic sexology, embodied counselling and trauma informed approaches.

The Modern Guide to Sex is Georgia’s latest book where she breaks down taboos, myths and the sexual shame society holds.

In this chat with Antoinette Lattouf, Georgia explains the importance of pleasure and gives her take on Bonnie Blue.

Weekend List

• TO EAT: Avo on toast roast with labneh and za'atar
• TO READ: I Am Pilgrim by former journalist and screenwriter Terry Hayes
• TO TRY: We listen and we don't judge trend on TikTok
• TO WATCH: Fisk season 3 on ABC iView

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