The Briefing

Wednesday Headlines: 

• Labor unveils new laws to govern social media giants
• Missing Australian found alive in Nepal
• Penny Wong prepares new sanctions against Israeli settlements
• One Nation Victorian leader says he's no angel, admits to previous drug use 
• Aussie kids record their worst reading and maths results

Further listening from headlines:
How Australia funds Israeli settlements

Deep Dive: Does Australia need a Minister for AI?  

That's the call from Greens Senator David Shoebridge, who this week was appointed the party's first-ever spokesperson for Digital Rights and AI.  

It comes as the government insists it's doing whatever it can to put big tech on a leash and keep people first - while at the same time selling Australia as the perfect home for the very infrastructure driving AI's expansion: data centres.  

In this episode of The Briefing, Chris Spyrou is joined by Senator Shoebridge to discuss his new portfolio, whether Australia can pull itself back from being AI's wild west, and what it'll actually take to put people ahead of profit. 

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Tuesday Headlines: 

• One Nation has been forced into a quick defence of its plan for superannuation
• Australian bureaucrats want to ban videos from parliamentary hearings being shared on social media 
• Trial of alleged killers of Australian brothers in Mexico gets underway
• Food prices could be pushed higher by record strength El Niño
• King Charles issues clarification on Harry and Meghan

Deep Dive: For years, a secret formula has dictated everything we see on social media, hooking our attention spans at the expense of our mental health. 

Now, the federal government is unveiling a plan to let users opt out of the algorithm entirely and return to a chronological stream of accounts they actually follow. But with increasing pressure to protect young men from the insidious manosphere, how much will an opt-out actually change? 

In this episode of The Briefing, reporter Amber Schultz joins Sacha Barbour Gatt to detail her experiment posing as a 17-year-old boy online, where it took just 13 minutes to land on manosphere content, and what these proposed changes will mean for our feeds. 

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Monday Headlines: 

• Gov to strengthen teen social media ban as it looks to create an opt-out approach to social media
• One Nation reveals superannuation policy
• Coalition wants to ban flag burning
• Manhunt underway for Victorian man who allegedly attacked his family with an axe
• US envoys hold peace talks with Russia and Ukraine
• Lindsay Clancy trial ends in a mistrial

Deep Dive: In Sydney, a staggering six cases of mistaken identity in the city’s bloody gangland war has left innocent people dead, exposing a horrifying shift toward young, inexperienced gunmen carrying out underworld hits. 

The body count stems from a bitter turf war which ramped up six years ago with the murder of Fares Abounader, which ignited a battle between rival crime families for Sydney’s billion-dollar illicit trades. 

In this episode of The Briefing, we trace with criminologist Dr Vincent Hurley how this bloody conflict has spiralled into 24 deaths, why the criminal underworld changed, and how cheap, reckless hitmen are firing at the wrong targets. 

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One in 3 Australians will need blood in their lifetime, but 1 in 30 donate across the country.  

Lifeblood says recent appeals have prevented supplies falling to critical levels but have not been enough to replenish low supplies of O-positive and O-negative blood types, which are the types used in emergencies. A-positive blood stocks have also dropped in recent weeks. 

In this episode of The Briefing, we talk about why our listeners should consider donating blood and we learn the extraordinary story of Krishan Lal who is the perfect example of how donating blood can change not just the recipient’s life, but the lives of those around them.  

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Despite suffering through a week of technical failures, we're back for this weekend's instalment of Our Take - our looser, goosier look back at the week that was, and what you and we made of it all. 
 
We kick off by debriefing the Raygun doco on Netflix. Chris has watched it, Sach hasn't - and no spoilers, but prepare for your jaw to hit the floor. 
 
Then we dig through the Inbox, which was surprisingly dominated by your reactions to the KPMG scandal, and less surprisingly, your take on Pauline Hanson's claim that the PM was inciting political violence against her. 
 
We're also joined in studio by Angie from the tech team, who takes on the Weekend Quiz. To our shock, she walks away not holding the record for the lowest score! 

As always, we want to hear from you! Reach out to us on Instagram @thebriefingpodcast and feel free to leave a comment if you’re listening on Spotify.  

The Weekend Quiz:  

1. One Nation notched a major win this week. What was it? 
2. Anthony Albanese committed $600 million at the Pacific Islands Forum to help fight what?
3. The Coalition has promised to legalise what if it's elected in 2028?
4. Lionel Messi made a huge announcement this week, what was it? 
5. It was revealed Apple's new CEO will earn a whopping $81 AUD million a year. Who is he replacing? 

The Weekend List:  

To Watch: Gabriel Redback on TikTok 

Episodes mentioned:  

• The KPMG deep dive 
• The Jen Robinson chat 

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Friday Headlines: 

• Teachers union hit back at Matt Canavan's claims Australia's education system is 'anti-boy' 
• World told to brace for strongest El Nino on record
• Lindsay Clancy jury remains deadlocked
• France targets Temu and Shein with world-first fast fashion crackdown
• It’s 20 years today since Steve Irwin died

Further listening from the headlines: 

• The real victims of the manosphere with the CEO of The Man Cave, Ben Vasiliou about the lessons we need to learn about the manosphere and ‘toxic masculinity’. 
• Why the Lindsay Clance case matters

Deep Dive: Dave Hughes has gone from making Australia laugh to telling Australia how to vote.  

Since the May Budget, the comedian-turned-self-described "political agitator" has waged an increasingly loud campaign against the government, despite admitting he's only recently started paying more attention to politics.  

So is Hughesy a genuine voice for the fed-up - or just the loudest bloke in a system that rewards shouting? And is this what real political engagement looks like now - or just anger dressed up as insight?  

In this episode of The Briefing, Chris Spyrou is joined by broadcaster and three-time independent candidate Alex Dyson, who took Hughesy on in a "spicy chat," to dig into this new era of political anger and whether we will ever see a system that prioritises people over power.

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Thursday Headlines: 

• Police identify four Swans players in sexual assault investigation
• Coalition to legalise vapes, lower cigarette prices if elected 
• NSW police probe potential second mistaken identity fatality in Sydney
• Australia accused of 'environmental vandalism' at Pacific meeting
• Apple’s new CEO scores massive payday

Deep Dive: Just over a week ago, a glacier collapsed high in the Himalayas and sent a wall of water, mud and rock tearing down the Nepal–Tibet border, killing more than a thousand people and leaving thousands more missing. 

Australians have seen the footage: the torrent flattening the border crossing as people ran for their lives. But cross to the Chinese side, and that same video has been scrubbed from the internet. 

Why? 

In this episode of The Briefing, Chris Spyrou is joined by ABC China Correspondent Allyson Horn to unpack what China is keeping from public view, and why, in one of the country's most tightly controlled regions, even a flood becomes something to censor. 

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Wednesday Headlines: 

• Second missing Australian found after Nepal flood
• US launches fresh strikes on Iran 
• Australia pledges $600 million to tackle drug smuggling in the Pacific
• Hanson demands apology as political violence war of words escalates
• NSW to make drug testing at music festivals permanent

Deep Dive: Nearly a decade after #MeToo exposed systemic sexual misconduct and sparked global reform, a powerful legal backlash is threatening survivors who dare to speak out.  

Behind closed doors, the legal system is increasingly being used to muzzle victims, leaving the true extent of this intimidation hidden from the public.  

In this episode of The Briefing, Sacha Barbour Gatt is joined by international human rights lawyer and advocate Jennifer Robinson to discuss her new documentary, Silenced, and how defamation laws are being weaponised against victims.  

Find out where to watch Silenced: https://www.silenced-film.com/where-to-watch   

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Tuesday Headlines: 

• Gov backs algorithm 'opt-out,' rules out banning smart glasses as part of privacy overhaul
• Grave fears for 33 Australians thought to be in one of the worst-hit part of Nepal floods
• Hanson thanks Liberals as One Nation unveils first major Victorian election pitch
• Property prices fall for a fifth straight month
• Lionel Messi announces his retirement from Argentina

Further listening from headlines: Higgins responds to Lehrmann appeal + The fight to ditch the algorithm

Deep Dive: Macquarie Bank has recently walked away from a muti-million-dollar deal with KPMG, over concerns over its auditing practices.  

It's the latest blow to one of the "big four" consulting firms - now accused of taking confidential information from the very clients it was hired to audit, and using it to chase more lucrative work elsewhere. 

In this episode of The Briefing, Chris Spyrou is joined by ABC business reporter Daniel Ziffer to explain what happened, the Australian companies caught up in it and why a story about auditors affects everyone. 

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Monday Headlines: 

• One Nation claims top spot in Newspoll after winning WA by-election
• Mourners gather for vigils across Australia for victims of Nepal and Tibet flash floods
• New privacy laws to be unveiled today
• Calls grow for Australia to follow the UK in banning strangulation in porn
• Record crowd turns out for Sydney Marathon

Deep Dive: A group of scientists are warning the world is walking headfirst into a male fertility crisis, with crashing testosterone and sperm count levels witnessed in two major studies.  

While their research has been widely quoted, some in the scientific community feel warnings of a so-called ‘Spermageddon’ are overstated.  

In this episode of The Briefing, Dr Giselle Crawford from IVF Australia joins Sacha Barbour Gatt to discuss the research, whether male infertility is on the rise, and what can be done about it. 

Follow The Briefing: 
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YouTube: @TheBriefingPodcast 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.