☕️ Trump to sue BBC

I’m interviewing Opposition Leader Sussan Ley this afternoon, after she announced last week that the Liberal Party would abandon its net zero by 2050 policy in favour of cheaper electricity from traditional sources.

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"We'll sue them for anywhere between a billion and five billion dollars... I think I have to do it.”
U.S. President Donald Trump telling reporters on Air Force One that he will sue BBC for up to $US5 billion. This comes after the British broadcaster apologised for publishing a misleading edit of one of his speeches.

$50.26 million
The amount of money Westpac has back-paid to 47,000 current and former staff it underpaid between 2014 and 2025. The bank also paid around $9 million in interest and superannuation.

1558
Queen Mary I, also known as Bloody Mary, died. Her half-sister took the throne as Queen Elizabeth I.

Mexican prosecutors have asked a court to sentence the three people accused of murdering two Australian brothers and their friend to more than 200 years in prison.

Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter Rhoad disappeared on a surfing trip in Mexico’s Baja California region last year.

Three men have since been charged with their murder.

All three rejected plea deals, meaning the case will go to trial.

In April 2024, the Robinson brothers and Rhoad were reported missing after they failed to check in to an Airbnb.

Police later discovered a burnt-out car and abandoned tents believed to have been used by the brothers and Rhoad.

Their bodies were later found in an unused well in a remote part of Baja California, around 100km from the Mexico-U.S. border.

Authorities believe the men were shot dead by thieves who were attempting to steal their car or its tyres.

At a hearing this week, state prosecutors asked the court to sentence each of the three men charged with murder to 210 years in prison.

Alongside murder charges, they also face counts of aggravated robbery, violent robbery and car theft.

A woman has been charged with robbery as part of the case.

Authorities say they are searching for a fifth person believed to be involved in the murders.

Reporting by Achol Arok.

💭 What does it mean to “be a man” in 2025 – and who’s shaping that definition? Join the UNSW Centre for Ideas tomorrow, on Nov 18, for Who’s the Man?, a conversation with Thomas Mayo, Tom Harley and ABC’s Siobhan Marin on masculinity, mental health, and how social media algorithms are influencing it all.
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More than 3,300 people have had their vocational qualifications revoked after authorities found that the college they attended was not properly training them.

Last year, the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) revoked Gills College’s licence, finding it had failed to ensure “students had successfully satisfied all requirements.”

Graduates appealed the decision to the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART).

This week, the ART found ASQA’s decision was right, confirming that the graduates’ qualifications were revoked.

Last year, ASQA cancelled Sydney vocational institute Gills College’s registration as an educator, finding it had been “critically non-compliant” with regulatory requirements.

An investigation found that the school failed to ensure students completed the tests required for graduation.

It also found evidence that some students had been issued certificates through a program that grants course credit for relevant work or career experience, without ever being properly assessed.

Additionally, the college failed to ensure its trainers and assessors were qualified to teach the subjects on offer.

The college, which offered 18 qualifications, shut down in October last year. Students were then notified that their qualifications were void. Graduates could appeal the decision to revoke their qualifications to the ART.

In January, the ART received two separate applications from Gills College graduates seeking a review of ASQA’s decision.

The ART ruled in favour of the regulator both times, finding “there is little or no evidence” that the college met the standards required to award a certificate.

In one case, Senior Member Mark Harrowell found that the college could not provide “the required training and assessment necessary to achieve the learning outcomes for the qualification”.

ASQA CEO Saxon Rice warned students of “non-genuine providers and bad-faith operators” who seek to take advantage of them.

Since late 2024, the regulator has shut down several providers, leaving almost 30,000 former students without valid qualifications.

“There is no place for any training provider who seeks to undermine the sector or exploit students,” Ms Rice said.

Reporting by Achol Arok.

Ever opened a bill, said “I’ll deal with that later”, and then spent the next week wondering if you actually paid it? Same.

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Just log into your banking app, schedule your payment, and get back to literally anything more fun than bills.

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Robert Beattie, a now-retired school teacher, first presented the fossil to experts in 2016. After extensive research, the Australian Museum now estimates it to be a 151 million year old fossil of a non-biting midge, (a type of small fly) making it the oldest artefact of its kind in the southern hemisphere. According to the Museum, “until now, their oldest known fossils came from China and Siberia, leading scientists to assume they originated in the northern supercontinent of Laurasia… But this new Australian discovery suggests otherwise”. The Australian midge proves that the southern hemisphere holds what experts call “crucial pieces of the evolutionary puzzle… that can fundamentally reshape our understanding of life's history on Earth.”

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Reporting by Emma Gillespie.

Vine is back. 

Sort of. 

A new app called ‘Divine’ will allow access to around 170,000 archived Vine videos and 62,000 creator accounts. Users will also be able to upload their own videos. And in true 2010s fashion, there won’t be any generative AI content.

If you’re not familiar with Vine, it was one of the original apps that popularised short-form videos (before TikTok). It specifically focused on six-second-long videos.

Interestingly, former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is supporting Divine. Under Dorsey, Twitter (now X) bought Vine in 2012 and shut it down in 2017.

Reporting by Anju Dhanushkodi.

When we talk about cults, we tend to picture the classic images: a doomsday group in the desert, or a fringe religious sect that feels totally disconnected from everyday life.

But here in Australia, cults are a current and pressing issue in our communities. So much so that the Victorian Parliament has now launched an inquiry into cults and other coercive groups.

In today’s podcast, you’re going to hear from Clare Heath-McIvor. She established an advocacy organisation called the Survivors of Coercive Cults and High-Control Groups after she left behind the life she was born into a high-control group in eastern Victoria.