☕️ Rupert Murdoch loses legal battle

Today is 11 December, which is widely known as Breakup Day, because it’s considered the most common day for breakups (right before the holiday season really kicks off).

So, stay safe out there and just keep riddling!

Here is today’s riddle: A woman in California owns a pear tree. This tree is beautiful and has been growing for 50 years on her land. Because the tree produces so well, a local grocery store buys fruit from her. The woman knows that there are 20 branches on the tree. Each branch has exactly 10 boughs. Each bough has 8 twigs. If each twig can grow one piece of fruit, then how many plums will the woman deliver to the local grocery store?

Answer is in the tidbit!

“I think we should have respect for the Aboriginal flag and the Indigenous flag, but we only have one national flag… I just don’t think that we can be a united nation and a unified nation without the thought of standing behind anything other than one flag.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton speaking to 3AW about his thoughts on leaders standing in front of the Aboriginal flag.

10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years
How long it would take a normal computer to complete a task that Google says its new microchip could finish in five minutes.

2005
The Cronulla riots broke out in Sydney’s south causing a divisive debate between Australia’s multicultural communities and Anglo-Australians. Rioters were calling to “reclaim the beach from outsiders”.

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The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has announced that the cash rate will remain unchanged at 4.35%.

It’s the ninth decision in a row where the RBA has maintained the same rate.

In a statement, the RBA Board said that while “inflationary pressures are declining,” it still believes that “risks remain”.

The RBA partly bases its decisions on underlying inflation, which measures the rate of price growth once you remove extremes on either side (such as a sudden fall in energy prices).

The latest data showed underlying inflation, also known as the ‘trimmed mean’, was at 3.5%. The RBA said this “remains too high”.

The RBA’s target range for underlying inflation is 2-3%.

The RBA is Australia’s central bank. Its key responsibility is setting the ‘cash rate‘ — an interest rate it charges commercial banks for short-term loans.

This rate influences the cost of borrowing across the economy, so changes to the cash rate are often called changes to ‘interest rates’.

The RBA started raising interest rates in May 2022 to fight high inflation by curbing spending. The cash rate was 0.10% at the start of 2022. It is now 4.35%.

Reporting by Lucy Tassell.

A U.S. court has rejected Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s attempt to name his oldest son Lachlan as his only successor, according to The New York Times.

The 93-year-old had sought to amend a legally binding trust to grant Lachlan full control of his media empire.

Currently, the trust equally divides control among Murdoch’s four oldest children: Lachlan, Prudence, Elisabeth, and James.

The court found that Rupert and Lachlan acted in “bad faith” in their efforts to amend the trust.

Rupert Murdoch started in media in the 1950s, when he inherited his father’s newspaper business in Adelaide.

He owns several American, Australian and UK publications and TV networks. This includes Fox, News Corp, and the Wall Street Journal.

Forbes estimates his net worth is $US22.5 billion ($AU35 billion).

Murdoch has been married five times and has six children.

Lachlan Murdoch, 53, is Rupert’s oldest son. He, Elisabeth, and James are the children from Rupert’s marriage to his second wife, Anna. Prudence, Rupert’s oldest child overall, was born to his first wife.

Over recent years, Rupert has handed increasing business responsibilities to his oldest son. In 2019, Lachlan was named CEO of Fox.

Last year, Rupert stepped down as chairman of Fox and News Corp after almost 70 years. Lachlan became the sole Chair of News Corp, and continued as CEO of Fox.

After divorcing Anna in 1999, Rupert Murdoch set up an “irrevocable trust”. Like a will, the legal document details how his business empire and assets should be divided when he dies.

Murdoch’s assets (e.g. his shares and property) will be equally shared between all six of his children.

The trust also ensured that the four oldest children would share voting rights in decisions about Fox and News Corp.

Rupert has since tried to change this aspect of the trust, giving Lachlan sole contol.

James, Elisabeth, and Prudence objected to the change.

The dispute ended up in court in the U.S. state of Nevada. Proceedings have been kept secret, and only The New York Times has seen actual court documents.

In a ruling handed down last week, Commissioner Edmund Gorman described the plan to change the trust as a “carefully crafted charade... regardless of the impacts on the company or the other children”.

In a statement, James, Elisabeth and Prudence said: “We welcome Commissioner Gorman’s decision and hope that we can move beyond this litigation to focus on strengthening and rebuilding relationships among all family members.”

Rupert and Lachlan’s lawyer Adam Streisand told the New York Times they were disappointed with the ruling and intended to appeal.

Another judge will also need to approve Gorman’s ruling.

Reporting by Achol Arok.

Betty’s will be shouting burgers for their new app users this December!

With Betty’s Burgers new Beach Club Rewards App, you’ll earn $1 for every $10 spent, plus birthday treats and app-only perks. Just scan your membership card in the app and watch the rewards stack up!

The best part? Spend $30 before December 24th, and Betty’s will shout you a Classic Burger.

Download the app today and start making every Betty’s visit even better!

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🗞️ Also in the Sport Newsletter: rugby, soccer and more…

This year, the Mumbai filmmaker released “All We Imagine as Light”, which has also been nominated for best non-English motion picture. Kapadia said she was “deeply honoured by this nomination” and that it’s “a celebration of everyone who worked so passionately on the film.” The musical and thriller film Emilia Pérez led the nominations at 10, followed by The Brutalist with seven nominations. The 2025 Golden Globes will air on Sunday 5 January.

Want more good news? Sign up to our weekly Good Newsletter here - we promise it’ll make your week better!

Reporting by Nandini Dhir.

We had Spotify Wrapped last week, and the adjacent Apple and YouTube Music versions. Now, it’s time for Google’s 2024 Year in Search.

These searches saw the biggest jumps in traffic compared to last year.

The overall top trending terms in Australia this year were:

Here are a couple of interesting searches that made the top 10 in different categories:

Reporting by Nandini Dhir.

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Riddle answer: None. The woman owns a pear tree, not a plum tree.

A 26-year-old man, named Luigi Mangione, has been arrested over the killing of a health insurance CEO last week in New York.

For now, it has brought to an end a nearly week-long manhunt that captivated the world and has triggered a wave of anger directed at the healthcare system in the U.S.

On today’s podcast, we’ll take you through how this story unfolded and what we know about the man they are now alleging was behind the murder.