☕️ Liberal Party ditches net zero

Feel like you’re completely out of the loop with the latest on the Epstein files? Listen to today’s podcast, where we explain what new emails reveal about U.S. President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein’s relationship (lots). You can listen here.

“What began as an investigation into fraudulent car financing has expanded into uncovering one of the most sophisticated financial crime syndicates I have seen in my career at the helm of the Financial Crimes Squad”.
NSW Police Detective Superintendent Gordon Arbinja in a statement on Thursday, after a woman who claimed to be a fortune teller was charged with fraud. The woman is accused of exploiting “vulnerable clients”, allegedly defrauding them of $70 million.

374
The number of bagpipers who played AC/DC’s hit ‘It’s a Long Way to the Top’ in Melbourne on Wednesday. ‘The Great Melbourne Bagpipe Bash’ broke the world record for the largest bagpipe ensemble. The previous record was set by a group of 333 bagpipers in the Bulgarian city of Sofia in 2012.

Ryan Murphy’s latest TV show ‘All’s Fair’ has received viral reviews over the week, with critics rating it 4% on Rotten Tomatoes. ‘All’s Fair’ (starring Kim Kardashian, Naomi Watts, Glenn Close, Sarah Paulson and Niecy Nash) follows a team of high-powered divorce attorneys in an all-female law firm.

The Liberal Party has announced it will abandon its net zero by 2050 policy.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said the party would make sure Australia remained in the Paris Agreement, a global climate treaty, if it returned to Government.

It comes weeks after the Liberals’ coalition partner, the Nationals, also abandoned the policy.

The changes to the Opposition’s policy have no effect on Australian law, unless they win the next federal election (due by 2028).

Net zero refers to balancing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced and taken out of the atmosphere.

When fossil fuels like coal, gas, and oil are burned, they release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Australia has legislated to achieve net zero by 2050. The plan involves reducing emissions by transitioning to renewable energy, such as wind and solar.

Earlier this month, the Nationals unanimously agreed to stop supporting net zero emissions by 2050.

Nationals leader David Littleproud said he believes the current net zero target is too ambitious and Australia is already doing more than its fair share on a global scale.

Littleproud also said he wants to protect industries like mining, agriculture and manufacturing in the regions, which he argued are being “torn apart” by the Government’s energy policy.

On Thursday, the Liberal Party voted to abandon its net zero by 2050 policy.

Ley said the Coalition would drop the 62-70% emissions reduction target by 2030, which the Government committed to in September.

She also announced the party would keep Australia in the Paris Agreement.

The agreement binds countries to limit their emissions to ensure global temperatures don’t rise more than 1.5°C above levels recorded during 1850-1900, after which fossil fuel emissions rapidly increased.

Ley said: “We will have an energy and emissions policy driven by two key objectives. Affordable, reliable power, and responsible emissions reductions.”

Shadow Energy Minister Dan Tehan said the Liberal Party will reduce emissions in five-year blocks and in line with other countries, additionally “throwing all technologies at emissions reduction.”

On Sunday, the Liberals and Nationals will hold a joint meeting. This is where the Coalition as a whole will determine its final position on net zero.

The current Labor Government is committed to net zero by 2050.

This means the Coalition’s policy won’t immediately affect Australians.

The decision could signal to businesses that the future of Australia’s climate commitments and energy industry will depend on who wins the next election, however.

Reporting by Annabel Whitehouse.

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South Australia’s upper house has voted down a bill blocking abortions past 22 weeks and six days.

The bill was introduced in September by independent upper house member Sarah Game and was drafted with assistance from anti-abortion activist Joanna Howe.

Upper house members voted 11 to eight against the bill during a late sitting on Wednesday night.

Here’s what you need to know.

In 2021, the South Australian Government passed legislation allowing lawful terminations of pregnancy (abortion).

The law specifies doctors can only perform an abortion on someone more than 22 weeks and six days pregnant if:

A second section of the law outlines the factors doctors must consider when making their decision, including whether “a patient has been denied agency over the decision to continue a pregnancy”.

This could include being subject to abuse or sexual slavery, or the pregnancy being a result of rape or incest.

Two doctors must agree that the procedure is necessary.

Independent upper house member Sarah Game introduced the Termination of Pregnancy Amendment Bill in September.

The amendment would have deleted the two sections allowing abortion after 22 weeks and six days.

Since the Termination of Pregnancy Bill came into effect in 2021, Game said there have been 79 terminations in “non-emergency situations”.

Game said anti-abortion activist and Adelaide University law professor Dr Joanna Howe helped draft the bill.

On Wednesday evening, eight upper house members voted in favour of the amendment, while 11 voted against.

Outside South Australian Parliament, activists, including Howe, staged a rally in favour of the bill.

It followed a pro-choice rally on 1 November, led by Fair Agenda and South Australian Abortion Action Coalition.

Before the vote, these groups presented a petition with almost 5,000 signatures against Game’s bill to upper house members, including independent Tammy Franks.

In a statement, Franks said “abortion is health care” and that the bill “was based on falsehoods”.

“[It] would remove protections for victims of incest, rape, sexual servitude or... ‘significant’ physical (and of course, mental) harm,” she added.

In a social media post after the vote failed, Howe said she was “devastated”.

The activist said: “This evil will not be forgotten, it will be EXPOSED… this is not the end.”

Reporting by Emily Donohoe.

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The Wanda Sofa Bed is 30% off, which means one piece that covers movie nights, accidental naps, surprise mates-crashing-on-the-weekend, and hidden storage for your “I’ll fold that later” pile.

Plus, the award-winning Koala Mattress (queen) is $999 – with flippable firmness for indecisive sleepers – and 30% off the Kirribilli Bed Base for a proper grown-up bedroom setup.

🍊 Australia’s been handed an Ashes injury scare. Here’s the latest.
🍊 The British boxer who could be Jake Paul’s next opponent. Read more.
🍊 The Socceroos are back in action this week. Details here.
🗞️ Also in the Sport Newsletter: NRL, athletics, NBL, and more…

Senior Constable Jade Henderson achieved 733 pull-ups in 60 minutes. Henderson was inspired by a conversation between her colleagues and trained at the gym, which she calls her “happy place”, with the initial goal of breaking the record for the most pull-ups in 24 hours by a woman. A week before the planned attempt, Henderson suffered a bicep tear and took five weeks away from her training. She shifted her focus instead to the one-hour feat and beat the previous record of 725, set in 2016, by eight pull-ups. Henderson broke the record back in August but only recently received her official confirmation from Guinness. The policewoman said, “I wanted to attempt a record of some sort… to see how far I can push my body and mind.”

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Reporting by Emily Donohoe.

How far would you go to prove a point?

An Adelaide woman has racked up more than $40,000 in legal fees while fighting a $107 parking fine.

The woman, Danielle Mathie, was fined by the City of Playford council in 2021 for “double parking”.

Her case disputing the fine made its way through two levels of the South Australian courts, with the council eventually dropping the charges.

Mathie then sought the City of Playford to cover her legal fees, totalling more than $55,000.

The court ruled the council should cover 20% of the fees, leaving Mathie with the remaining $46,000.

Reporting by Emily Donohoe.

New emails to and from Jeffrey Epstein suggest U.S. President Donald Trump knew about his abuse of young women. It has led to Trump, as well as other members of his administration, facing growing criticism about how the White House has handled the Epstein files, with some of Trump's own Republican supporters now calling for all documents to be released. On today’s podcast, we're going to break down what these emails actually say, why they're causing division within the Republican party, and what this means for Trump going forward.