The Briefing

Oh, we are SO back - with our looser, lights off Our Take!
This weekend, Chris and Sach debrief the Sydney Sweeney drama, as the actress's latest ad - for a sports-prediction market she happens to have an equity stake in - kicks off online.
Then we crack open the inbox for your takes on Macklemore being dropped from Ed Sheeran's tour plus the Aussie HYROXer who shat herself in Beijing.
Taking on the Weekend Quiz this week is Isobel from marketing, who (to our surprise) smashed it out of the park.

Also, our insta got HACKED and Chris finally addresses how he’s been targeted by the manosphere.
It’s a lot.
Enjoy.
The Weekend Quiz:
The week got off to a rough start when an Australian athlete did what?
Pauline Hanson apologised for two things this week. What were they?
AI company Anthropic signed a $32 billion deal to build its first data centre in Australia. Which state?
Two STIs have climbed more than 50% in Australia over the past decade - name one.
An icon returned to the stage in Paris this week. Who?
The Weekend List:
Listener Julie: go on an adventurous picnic!
Sach: Watch season 3 of The Traitors AU on Paramount+
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Friday Headlines:
Labor faces criticism over new migration laws
Australian accused of murdering Thai teen faces court
Federal Government considers AI glasses ban
Gov scraps planned veteran allied health cap
Australian HYROX athlete apologises for poo incident
Deep Dive: Ed Sheeran’s US Loop Tour is making headlines after rapper Macklemore was dropped as a support act for saying ‘Free Palestine’ on stage.
It’s had a flow on effect, with all four of Ed’s other openers withdrawing in solidarity with the rapper.
In this episode of the Briefing, Sacha Barbour Gatt is joined by Catherine Strong, Associate Professor in the Music Industry program at RMIT to unpack the relationship between musicians and politics, and what that means for the rest of Ed Sheeran’s tour.
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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Thursday Headlines:
Labor to unveil migration plan today
More details emerge about Bali double murder suicide
More than 100,000 displaced as Yemen conflict intensifies
Anthropic signs agreement for the country’s biggest data centre
Kim Kardashian awarded €1 in damages for Paris robbery
Deep Dive: A far-right party just came closer to running a German state than any has since the Nazi era.
It's not a one-off. The same movement now sits in or beside government across Europe and it’s reaching Australia too, with a known neo-Nazi group fighting the government in the High Court for its right to exist.
In this episode of The Briefing, Chris Spyrou is joined by far-right researcher Kaz Ross to unpack how much ground the far-right is gaining worldwide, what's driving the surge, and what it all means for us here in Australia.
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Wednesday Headlines:
Pauline Hanson apologises for comments about Indigenous Australians, PM's mum
Gov accused of wanting to protect AI companies over Australians
Ed Sheeran responds to Macklemore backlash
One of Sydney’s biggest councils bans smart glasses at local swimming pools
Karl Stefanovic and podcast partner in Supreme Court
Deep Dive: There have been renewed and urgent warnings this week from not only former staff, but also the big tech bosses themselves about the existential threat AI poses to humanity.
We've been warned by the CEOs of OpenAI, Anthropic and Grok that an urgent slowdown is needed in the advancement of this tech, with fears it could result in the extinction of the human race, possibly as soon as 2030.
While most have taken them at their word, some experts are a little more skeptical, and others think it's downright fantasy.
In this episode of The Briefing, Sacha Barbour Gatt is joined by Professor Emily M. Bender, the Director of the Computational Linguistics Laboratory at the University of Washington to offer an alternative view to the narrative that AI is going to kill us all.
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Tuesday Headlines:
One Nation's migration fight
Pauline Hanson slammed for racist comments
Indonesian police investigating death of Australian man and children in Bali as suspected murder-suicide
Donald Trump claims there’s a 'sick conspiracy' against AI, that’s helping China
Rates of Gonorrhea and syphilis up by more than 50% in Australia
HYROX issues apology over Australian woman pooing during comp
Deep Dive: Rising sea levels are no longer a looming threat in the distant future, they're here right now and Australia is especially at risk.
We know the physical impacts of this; accelerated coastal erosion, property damage and loss as well as the destruction of natural barriers like mangroves and wetlands. But there's also a dollar amount we can expect to fork out too.
In an Australian first, the Climate Council has crunched the numbers, with a conservative estimate that we'll need to find an extra $855 billion by 2100 to cover the costs of rising sea levels.
In this episode of The Briefing, Adjunct Professor Andrew Watkins from Monash University and the Climate Council joins Sacha Barbour Gatt to talk about the threat, who pays the bill and whether Australia is pulling its weight when it comes to climate change.
Follow The Briefing:
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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.