☕️ Suspected terrorist is named

Here is today’s trivia question: What is the most-viewed YouTube video of all time?

Here is a clue from the team: It’s something your younger cousin would watch.

Answer is at the end of the titbit!

The quote: “I am satisfied that conditions that led to the extension last time do not exist now.”
NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon in a press conference announcing protest restrictions in Sydney will not be extended. The restrictions had been put in place following the Bondi terror attack, and extended during the visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

The stat: 70%. The percentage of university staff/students in a national survey who reported experiencing indirect racism, including behaviour directed at their community. Indirect racism is a less obvious form of racism (e.g. micro aggressions.)

The big question:

Yesterday’s results: 64% of you are saving up to go on a holiday. [1735 votes].

Together with AAP.

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Yesterday marked the beginning of the Year of the Horse, as millions around the world celebrate Lunar New Year.

The two-week celebration is also often called Chinese New Year or the Spring Festival.

The dates for Lunar New Year are based on the phases of the moon and the lunar calendar, meaning the dates change each year.

Lunar New Year is celebrated by around two billion people globally, making it one of the world’s biggest cultural events.

Here’s what you need to know.

Lunar New Year marks the start of the new year based on the moon’s cycles (unlike the Gregorian calendar, which follows the sun).

Different cultures celebrate it with different names. It’s called Spring Festival in China, Seollal in Korea, and Tết in Vietnam.

It always falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice (22 Dec), which means it can land anywhere between late January and mid-February. This year it coincides with a new moon solar eclipse.

Celebrations vary across cultures, but there are some common threads.

Before celebrations kick off, people thoroughly clean their homes to sweep away bad luck.

During the festivities, red decorations are put up, families gather for reunion dinners and kids receive money in red envelopes called hongbao or lai see.

There are also dragon and lion dances, fireworks, temple visits, and symbolic foods — think fish and dumplings in China or tteokguk (rice cake soup) in Korea.

There are 12 animals in the zodiac, and five elements – wood, fire, earth, metal, and water – meaning each animal-element pairing appears once every 60 years.

This year’s zodiac (the fire horse) is associated with speed, courage, dedication, and decisive action.

The last year of the fire horse was 1966/67. According to analysis from the World Bank, Japan’s fertility rate decreased that year due to a superstition that women born during a fire horse year will have bad temperaments and kill their husbands.

Sydney hosts the largest Lunar New Year celebrations of any place outside Asia.

To mark the event, the sails of the Sydney Opera House were lit red ahead of the Lunar New Year.

The colour is believed to attract luck, prosperity, and joy, while warding off evil spirits.

Celebrations will conclude on 3 March with lantern festivals held across the country.

Reporting by Elliot Lawry.

🎧 On today’s TDA podcast, Emma explains what we know about the disappearance of Gus Lamont.

🎿 Australia is having our best ever Winter Games in Milano-Cortina. You can sign up to TDA Sport here for a full rundown in your inbox this arvo.

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A group of 34 Australian wives, widows and children of jailed or dead ISIS fighters have attempted to leave Syria, where they have been held for seven years.

The group was turned back by Syrian authorities early in their journey, and the Australian Government has refused to assist in their return.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: “We have a very firm view that we won’t be providing assistance or repatriation”.

Here’s what you need to know.

Australia has listed ISIS (also known as IS or Daesh) as a terrorist organisation since 2005.

The group occupied one-third of Syria from 2014 to 2017, forming a ‘Caliphate’ governed under a fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic law.

The Australian National Imams Council (ANIC) says ISIS “does not represent Islam or the Muslim world in any way”.

ISIS lost all of its territory by 2019, and many of its fighters and their families were placed in detention camps across Syria, Libya, and Iraq.

This included dozens of Australian citizens.

In 2022, the Federal Government repatriated four Australian women, dubbed ‘ISIS brides’, and their 13 children from a Syrian camp.

Upon their arrival, the women told media they were “willing to do whatever is asked of us by government authorities”.

At least 34 Australians remain in the camps, the majority of whom are children.

In 2023, Save the Children Australia (STCA) took the Federal Government to court, requesting the Home Affairs Minister repatriate this group.

The non-profit lost the case, with the court determining Australia does not have to repatriate the women and children because it does not control the circumstances of their detention.

This week, multiple media outlets reported a group of 34 women and children attempted to return to Australia.

Around 50km into their journey from Al-Roj, a detention camp in north-east Syria, the group was told to go back.

In 2024, Amnesty International reported people held at Al-Roj are “unlawfully” and “indefinitely” detained, experiencing inhumane conditions and torture, including beatings, electric shocks, and gender-based violence.

The Sydney Morning Herald spoke with a camp official, who said the group’s departure to the capital, Damascus, had been “postponed”.

The unsuccessful attempt was put down to Syrian Government permissions.

The Federal Government and STCA confirmed to the Herald they were not involved with the attempted return.

Albanese told ABC News Breakfast on Tuesday: “The Government was taken to court by [STCA] saying we had a responsibility and they weren’t successful in that.”

“These people went overseas supporting [ISIS] and went there [to] provide support for people who basically want a caliphate,” he added.

Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson told ABC Radio: “Anyone who shares ISIS ideology... they should not be returning to Australia.”

Reporting by Emily Donohoe.

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After 10 years of surveys and three years of intensive trapping efforts, scientists successfully tagged a red fox with a GPS collar in the southern Sierra Nevada mountain ranges of California. Wildlife biologists in the state estimate fewer than 50 of these foxes survive in the region. The GPS collar will help researchers track the fox's movements and behaviour in its remote, high-elevation habitat, for the first time. The data will provide crucial information for protecting the elusive species.

Reporting by Emma Gillespie.

Valentine’s Day is usually a day of love, but it can sometimes be a day of breakdowns or breakups.

This year, it wasn’t just hearts that were shattered — Italy’s famous ‘Lovers’ Arch,’ a rock structure used as a backdrop for proposals and tourist photos, fell to pieces.

After days of being weakened by storms and heavy rain, it finally crumbled on Saturday. 

Reporting by Anju Dhanushkodi.

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Riddle answer: A dance video set to the song Baby Shark. It has 16 billion views.