Most Australians agree that consent is key to healthy sexual experiences. But what does consent mean? What does it look like in action? Before we can talk to our kids about consent, we need to talk to each other. In this special series, made in partnership with the Australian federal government as part of its Consent Can’t Wait campaign, The Briefing invites iconic Australians to unpack how they feel about consent, what their understanding of it is, how they're having conversations about it with...
Oct 25, 2024•16 min•Season 5Ep. 487
Headlines: Australia in spat with China over racism and climate change, BRICS leaders call for ceasefire, Revelations about Rudd and Gillard deal in new political memoir, and what are the top Halloween costumes for 2024 according to Google? Deep Dive: Israel claims the number of people killed in Gaza – the steadily rising and horrific number we hear on the news just about every day – is inflated. Others say true number of people killed is far more than what’s being reported. On this episode of t...
Oct 24, 2024•25 min•Season 5Ep. 486
Senator Lidia Thorpe made international headlines when she shouted at King Charles, rejecting the monarch’s sovereignty and accusing him of genocide, in Parliament House this week. The Gurnai Gunditjmara and Djab-Wurrung woman has since claimed she did not really swear allegiance to the late Queen Elizabeth’s heirs, as in King Charles, but to the Queens’ “hairs”. Senator Thorpe has rejected calls for her to resign after she disavowed – however absurdly – her oath of office. But several real ques...
Oct 24, 2024•14 min•Season 5Ep. 485
Headlines: Lidia Thorpe says she didn’t swear allegiance to the King, terrorist attack in Turkey leaves four dead, Xi and Modi hold first formal talks in five years, Coles and Woolies deny tricking customers with dodgy sales, and the sun has hit peak solar energy! Deep dive: International intelligence last week revealed North Korea had sent between 10,000 and 30,000 of its own troops to Russia, to bolster its invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine’s president says this signals the start of a world war, bu...
Oct 23, 2024•22 min•Season 5Ep. 484
Sometimes, what happens in one part of Australia says lot about the direction of the country as a whole. Right now, that’s exactly what seems to be happening in Queensland, as the state’s voters head to the polls this weekend. Will the state be the latest in a swing towards more conservative politics in Australia? Archie Milligan is a LiSTNR journalist based in Queensland. He joins Bension Siebert on this episode of The Briefing, as Labor vies for a fourth term in government, and we ask how the ...
Oct 23, 2024•14 min•Season 5Ep. 483
Headlines: Royals wrap up Australian tour, over 20 world leaders meet with Putin at BRICS summit, former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO arrested on sex trafficking charges, the Murray River named in a global top travel list, and a Cockatoo has been rescued from a Sydney Coles after a month trapped inside. Deep dive: Few crimes in Australia in recent years have been as shocking as the murder of Bruce Saunders, who was fed into a woodchipper on a property north of Brisbane in 2017. A new LiSTNR exclu...
Oct 22, 2024•25 min•Season 5Ep. 482
America is heading to the polls on Wednesday, November 6, to decide between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris for the presidency. With polls showing a razor-thin race, it raises a critical question: can we trust them? In 2016, polling failed to predict Trump’s stunning victory. Have things changed? Are polls more accurate now, or should we be sceptical? In this episode of The Briefing, Bension Siebert breaks down the state of election polling with US political journalist, polling expert and host an...
Oct 22, 2024•15 min•Season 5Ep. 481
Headlines: Lydia Thorpe and the royals, Meta and Google could face ‘big tech tax’ under Labor plan, Moldova narrowly votes in favour of joining the EU and an Italian surfer has been killed by a swordfish in a freak accident. Deep dive: Another week, another story of misogynistic behaviour in sport. Last week 13 Greater Western Sydney (GWS) players were slapped with sanctions, following their decision to dress as “controversial couples” for the club’s end-of-season function. Players dressed in co...
Oct 21, 2024•23 min•Season 5Ep. 480
How long you might have to wait for a bathroom in public spaces looks set to change in Australia. The Australian Building Code Board wants businesses to provide 1.8 times the toilets for women than they provide for men to help shorten the queue. But why is the line for women’s bathroom almost always longer than the line for men’s? And what is some of the thinking behind changing how many are available to access? On this episode of the Briefing, public toilet expert Katherine Webber joins Bension...
Oct 21, 2024•9 min•Season 5Ep. 479
Headlines: King Charles and Queen Camilla kick off royal tour, As many as 87 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on northern Gaza, ACT election, Elon Musk giving away $1 million US to Trump supporter everyday until the election and an airport in New Zealand has introduced a time limit on hugs. Deep Dive: How much should you be paying for a bottle of milk? More than a decade on, there are fears a second round of milk wars might be coming our way. In 2011 the Australian dairy industry we...
Oct 20, 2024•19 min•Season 5Ep. 478
Sharon Johal is playing the first turban wearing Sikh character in Binge’s award-winning TV drama The Twelve. As an Indian-Australian woman in entertainment she’s constantly paved paths that had previously been closed off - and her journey hasn’t always been easy. On this episode of The Weekend Briefing, she joins Antoinette Lattouf to talk about her latest project, the impact on her career since calling out the racism she endured when she was on the set of Neighbours, and her experience on real...
Oct 18, 2024•38 min•Season 5Ep. 477
Most Australians agree that consent is key to healthy sexual experiences. But what does consent mean? What does it look like in action? Before we can talk to our kids about consent, we need to talk to each other. In this special series, made in partnership with the Australian federal government as part of its Consent Can’t Wait campaign, The Briefing invites iconic Australians to unpack how they feel about consent, what their understanding of it is, how they're having conversations about it with...
Oct 18, 2024•15 min•Season 5Ep. 476
Former One Direction star Liam Payne was yesterday found dead following a fall from a hotel’s third floor in Argentina's capital Buenos Aires. The 31-year-old's death was sudden and shocking to many fans, with an instant outpouring of grief over the news leading to vigils around the world. The circumstances surrounding his death, and public behaviour leading up to yesterday’s events have also sparked questions, commentary and debate, including anger at popular celebrity gossip site TMZ posting a...
Oct 18, 2024•19 min•Season 5Ep. 475
Headlines: Liam Payne’s cause of death revealed, Hamas leader killed say Israeli authorities, AFL bans 13 GWS players over end-of-season party, and the Royals are coming! Deep dive: King Charles and Queen Camilla are landing in Australia tonight for a five-day visit. It’s the first time since 2018 Australia has played host to a royal visit, and the first time since 2011 a sitting monarch has toured down under. Inevitably when a royal comes to town, the debate about whether we should become a Rep...
Oct 17, 2024•27 min•Season 5Ep. 474
Abortion is back in the headlines in Australia. In South Australia overnight parliament narrowly rejected a bill that would have forced women seeking a late term abortion to instead be induced into labour. And in Queensland, Opposition Leader David Crisafulli has refused to say whether his MPs would get a conscience vote on abortion laws, if he wins next week’s election. This renewed debate in Australia is a quiet echo of the loud roar over in the United States, where abortion will be a deciding...
Oct 17, 2024•16 min•Season 5Ep. 473
Headlines: Australia’s fertility rate hits record low, 50 aid trucks have entered the north of Gaza, ACT Opposition Leader apologises for flipping the bird at journalist and Jerry Seinfeld walks back comments about the left ruining comedy. Deep Dive: With the speed at which technology and medicine is developing – electric cars, rockets to Mars, new and improved vaccines – you might have started imagining a world where humans might find a way to live forever, or at least for a very, very long tim...
Oct 16, 2024•24 min•Season 5Ep. 472
The Victoria's Secret fashion show, in all its glitz and glamour, is officially back after a nearly six-year hiatus. Featuring a live performance from Cher, and supermodels from the decades including Kate Moss, Tyra Banks, Adriana Lima all hitting the runway, it was the once iconic, now controversial, runway show’s big return. The last Victoria's Secret show in 2018 and was surrounded by controversy. An interview with the show’s former chief marketing officer, Ed Razek, who dismissed ideas of in...
Oct 16, 2024•17 min•Season 5Ep. 471
Headlines: Dynamic pricing to be banned, at least 40 killed as Israeli air strikes pound the Gaza Strip, US politics wrap, Socceroos draw with Japan. Deep Dive: The war in the Middle East has escalated significantly in recent days. Israel is now fighting on several fronts. Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Gaza – and now it’s preparing what could be a major assault on Iran. The United States has sent around 100 troops into Israel to operate a missile defense system. The Australian Government has updated it...
Oct 15, 2024•27 min•Season 5Ep. 470
Novichok is in the news again. An inquiry currently underway in the UK is looking into the 2018 death of 44-year-old woman Dawn Sturgess who sprayed herself with a bottle of perfume that turned out to be laced with the deadly nerve agent. Novichok is an incredibly powerful poison implicated in a series of murders over decades spritzed onto common items like umbrellas, phones and door handles. Where did this incredibly powerful poison come from – and how exactly does it kill you and who has been ...
Oct 15, 2024•11 min•Season 5Ep. 469
Headlines: Labor's preparing to ban debit card fees, Federal Government to change visa pathways for Palestinians, a class action could be coming for Ticketmaster and Live Nation over dynamic ticketing and Donald Trump slams biopic ‘The Apprentice’. Deep dive: A strong Chinese economy has long been essential to Australia’s economic health and for decades its growth has been nothing short of remarkable. But has years of over-spending, excessive consumption, and poor investment decisions caught up ...
Oct 14, 2024•22 min•Season 5Ep. 468
Elon Musk has introduced Optimus, Tesla’s new humanoid robots, to the world and has made some ambitious claims about their uses in the not-too-distant future. Viral videos of Optimus robots making drinks, dancing and chatting to attendees at the launch event have sparked questions around the humanoid's autonomy. But this past week has been a massive one for Elon Musk, with SpaceX's successful docking of Starship rocket booster marking an engineering milestone, which many thought was impossible. ...
Oct 14, 2024•16 min•Season 5Ep. 467
Headlines: Coalition leading in Newspoll, King Charles comments on Australia becoming a Republic ahead of visit, QLD nuclear plebiscite, Christopher Columbus was likely Spanish and Jewish. Deep Dive: Kelly McMasters has written her own obituary every year since she was 12 years old. An obituary is usually written by a dedicated obit journalist or writer and includes key facts about a person’s life – it's essentially how they will be remembered. In this episode of The Briefing, Kelly reveals what...
Oct 13, 2024•22 min•Season 5Ep. 466
Meet the American law professor who’s visa was in question earlier this week after speaking at a Mosque in Sydney. Khaled Beydoun, who is of Lebanese, Egyptian and Palestinian heritage, has a staggering 2.5 million Instagram followers and has become a major source of trusted news on war on Gaza and the broader regional conflict. In this exclusive interview, Khaled sits down to share his insights on the past year of violence, the powerful voices of Palestinian journalists on the ground, and the r...
Oct 11, 2024•36 min•Season 5Ep. 465
Scammers are calling Australians ‘easy prey’ because they are considered wealthy and trusting. An ABC investigation found that perpetrators of these highly organised and sophisticated operations believed that unlike American law enforcement, the Australian Federal Police just won’t go after them – so is that true, and if so, why? In this episode of the Briefing, Sacha Barbour Gatt is joined by cyber security expert and former AFP detective, Nigel Phair to explain what makes Australians the perfe...
Oct 11, 2024•14 min•Season 5Ep. 464
Headlines: Hurricane Milton death toll rises, China to lift Australian lobster restrictions, latest statistics on how we’re dying in Australia revealed, Princess Kate's first official engagement since finishing chemo and the Socceroos beat China in their World Cup qualifier clash last night. Deep Dive: Kamala Harris has done very few media interviews since replacing Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee for president – but she launched a “media blitz” this week. It comes at a time when the polls s...
Oct 10, 2024•26 min•Season 5Ep. 463
Football is Australia’s most played team sport – with 1.7 million participants across all genders and ages. But professionally, it feels like we’re not making a splash. The Matildas exited the Paris Olympics much earlier than expected and the Socceroos have had a shocking start to their world cup qualifiers that continue tonight against China in Adelaide. In the last few months – both national teams have been found new coaches and with structural issues in the A-Leagues creating what some have b...
Oct 10, 2024•18 min•Season 5Ep. 462
Headlines: Fugitive dad and three kids spotted for the first time in three years in New Zealand, amendments to Labor's international student cap, Fox proposes new Presidential debate date and a Nepalese teen breaks record by summitting world’s 14 tallest peaks. Deep dive: Finding out your genetic history can be as easy as spitting into a test tube. Since the mid-2000s take take-home DNA kits have become more accessible here in Australia – with participants getting results back within weeks. But ...
Oct 09, 2024•22 min•Season 5Ep. 461
Brat summer is officially coming to Australia. Superstar singer Charlie XCX will headline Laneway in 2025. The excitement is palpable – but the story of the last few years of music festivals in this country has not been a good one, with countless examples of big-ticket headlining artists dropping out at the last minute. The cost of living is hitting organizers and punters alike, and there has been a clear, industry wide slump in ticket sales. So, with today’s big announcement, there is an import...
Oct 09, 2024•14 min•Season 5Ep. 460
Headlines: Anthony Albanese issues second apology over Tourette's comment, Florida is bracing for the impact of Hurricane Milton, the supermarket milk wars could be back and the first trailer drops for 'How to Make Gravy'. Deep dive: How much is a ticket actually worth? Yesterday, Oasis announced Australian dates for their massive 2025 reunion tour – and in news that will likely make fans very happy, the band announced there would be no dynamic pricing for the Australian leg, following backlash ...
Oct 08, 2024•24 min•Season 5Ep. 459
73% of young people are turning to TikTok, YouTube and Instagram for mental health support, according to a new report by ReachOut who surveyed over 2000 people between the ages of 16 and 25 about how they use social media to find mental health advice and information. But how safe is this practice - especially when young people are turning increasingly to socials as a replacement for professional help? And what can be done to improve transparency when as little as 2% of medical information on Tik...
Oct 08, 2024•12 min•Season 5Ep. 458
