The Briefing

The internet has become obsessed with two animals in recent weeks; Moo Deng, the pygmy hippo from Thailand, and Pesto the giant emperor penguin chick from Melbourne’s Sea Life Aquarium.

The interest has sparked hordes of visitors, thousands of memes, celebrity endorsements and even moves for a patent. What makes an animal go viral? And what are some of the unintended repercussions for the cute specimen in question?

On today’s episode of The Briefing, Sacha Barbour Gatt is joined by Dr Kyle Moore from Swinburne University to find out.

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Headlines: More strikes on Lebanon, the UN General Assembly meets, Australia's  Reserve Bank has held our cash rate steady for the seventh time in a row and the Federal Government has been slammed for approving coal mine expansions. Plus, the AFL Event office has been hacked just days out from the sold out Grand Final.

 

Deep Dive: The state of Australia’s housing is in crisis.  

From building them to buying them, there’s delay, disappointment, and division.  

The major parties have very different perspectives in mind for what policies will fix this problem – but it’s hard to cut through political point scoring to get a real sense of exactly what they have in mind, and how it will work for you.  

In this housing special series, The Briefing team brings you a housing spokesperson from each major party in Australia – Labor, the Coalition, The Greens – to give you the no-bullshit breakdown on what they see as their vision for our country’s housing future.  

In this episode, Sacha Barbour Gatt sits down with Labor’s Minister for Housing and Homelessness, Clare O'Neil, to unpack what Labor wants you to know about how they plan to tackle the problem.  

 

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Repression and media censorship in Venezuela are at an all-time high.

Reports of arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances, and torture of political dissidents have skyrocketed following claims that the country’s current president, Nicolas Maduro, stole the July 28 election.

But now, Venezuelan journalists are fighting back – reporting on events through two AI-generated avatars to avoid persecution. Both those avatars, as well as senior LiSTNR Investigative journalist Claudianna Blanco, join Chris Spyrou on this episode of The Briefing to unpack why this tech is necessary and the political state of Venezuela at the moment.

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Headlines: Fresh Israeli strikes on Lebanon have killed at least 356 people, Albo blames supermarkets for adding to inflation, Reserve Bank tipped to leave interest rates on hold today and Patrick Cripps claims the Brownlow while the AFL settles with Katy Perry. 

 

Deep Dive: The state of Australia’s housing is in crisis. From building them to buying them, there’s delay, disappointment, and division.

The major parties have very different perspectives in mind for what policies will fix this problem – but it’s hard to cut through political point scoring to get real on exactly what they have in mind, and how it will work for you.  

In this housing special series, The Briefing team brings you a housing spokesperson from each major party in Australia – Labor, the Liberals, and The Greens – and asks them to give you the no-bullshit breakdown on what they see as their vision for our country’s housing future.  

In this episode, Sacha Barbour Gatt sits down with the Coalition's Michael Sukkar, Federal Member for Deakin and Shadow Minister for Housing and Homelessness, to unpack what he wants you to know about how they plan to tackle the problem.

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As the war in Ukraine approaches its third year, global attention has largely moved on - but the conflict remains, and continues to shape the future of Eastern Europe.

President of Russia Vladimir Putin has made a third order to boost Russia's military presence since 2022 while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is seemingly relying on ageing conscripts. Overall, it appears manpower on both sides is flailing.

In this episode of The Briefing, Chris Spyrou is joined by Misha Zelinsky, a national security expert, journalist and author of ‘The Sun Will Rise,’ who has spent time on the ground in Ukraine to find out who, if anyone will be left to fight the war, and whether an end to the conflict is in sight.

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Headlines: Australia living in its longest period of ‘economic misery’ in a decade, Israel – Lebanon update, Donald Trump says he won’t run in 2028 if he loses this election and Friends turns 30.

Deep Dive: Reports of online child exploitation have increased 45 per cent in the last financial year – which is an average of 160 a day.

Authorities say every one of these reports contains images and videos of real children being sexually abused or exploited. But how do you catch those responsible? And are social media platforms, where these images and videos can often be found, doing enough to fight it?

Jon Rouse is a retired Queensland Police Detective Inspector, who worked in Task Force Argos where he implemented Australia's first operation proactively targeting internet child sex offenders. He joins Sacha Barbour Gatt on this episode of The Briefing to explore where he thinks the increase is coming from.

Lifeline 13 11 14

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Shaun Micallef is one of Australia’s most recognisable faces. He’s an actor, writer, television host and comedian.

Now he’s back with another show on the cards, Shaun Micallef’s Origin Odyssey on SBS - where he takes six comics ‘back to where they came from’ for want of a better expression.

In this chat with Antoinette Lattouf, Shaun explains how he keeps getting the top gigs in television and what he actually thinks of his reviews.

Weekend List

• TO WATCH: The Perfect Couple on Netflix
• TO READ: A Periodic Tale by Dr Karl
• TO LISTEN: Rex Orange County album The Alexander Technique
• TO WATCH: Friends from College on Netflix

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Big Brother Australia is returning to Australian TVs in 2025 for the 3rd time. Will it be the show's final, ever?

After traversing three networks, being revived and killed twice, and now needing to compete with the dominance of ad-free streaming and reality TV juggernauts like Love Island, is there a place for a show like Big Brother anymore?

Returning to its original home – Channel 10 – it plans to bring back some of its iconic live segments like Big Brother Uncut and Friday Night Live to lure audiences back to mainstream television – but with rates of free-to-air TV viewership dwindling, it might be too little, too late. Entertainment and gossip correspondent and reality TV show veteran Richard Reid joins Chris Spyrou on this episode of The Briefing to unpack the Big Brother launch plan and if he thinks it will sink or swim. 

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Dozens of people were killed this week in Lebanon in two separate attacks that were unlike anything the world has seen so far in warfare.

Pagers and walkie talkies belonging to militant group Hezbollah were set to detonate at the exact same time, injuring thousands of people.

It is yet to be explained who and how this attack came to be, but is it a sign of what wars will look like in the future? And what else can we expect from emerging technologies and strategies? On today’s episode of The Briefing, Chris Spyrou speaks with Dr Keith Suter, Managing Director of Global Directions and an expert on global political risk to find out.

Headlines:

Hezbollah – Israel update 

Greens defend housing position 

Australia’s population has officially hit 27 million 

Kylie announces massive world tour, with Australia the first stop

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This week Sean “Diddy” Combs, also known as P. Diddy and Puff Daddy, was arrested in Manhattan by federal agents and charged with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution in the United States.

The rapper has pleaded not guilty to all the charges. It’s not the first time the artist has had his reputation come under fire in public - since 2023 various allegations against him have been made, including physical and sexual abuse.

What do these latest charges mean for his future, and what does the reaction from both the hip-hop and wider music industry say about the influence and power an artist can hold? Helen Smith is joined by hip-hop journalist and author Simone Amelia Jordan, who has sat down with Diddy himself in the past, to explore her perspective on this latest development.

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