The Briefing

Monday Headlines:
Australia launches UN seat campaign while Albanese in the US
Child and three women dead after horror weekend of domestic violence in NSW
Coalition unveils cheaper fuel plan
Vic police working to ban AFL fans who threw bottles at umpires
Ed Sheeran takes to the stage alone in first show since Macklemore axing
Deep Dive: Australia is one of the world's biggest consumers of illicit drugs, and the numbers are still climbing. The country's top cop, AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett, says the way forward is to talk about it louder - to convince Aussies that their weekend habit is bankrolling the gangs behind a wave of violence. But one of the nation's leading drug policy researchers doubts that will help.
If decades of cracking down on supply hasn't dented demand, what actually works and why does so little funding go towards it?
In this episode of The Briefing, Chris Spyrou is joined by Professor Alison Ritter, director of the Drug Policy Modelling Program at UNSW, to discuss.
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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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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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