Monday Headlines:

• Albo slams Liberal party rebrand ahead of Pacific blitz
• Cannibalism link being investigated in NSW child murder
• USA celebrates its 250th independence anniversary as Iran mourns supreme leader
• Warnings against panic buying after bird flu confirmed in third Australian state
• Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce tie the knot

Deep Dive: If you believe the polls, One Nation is demolishing the political order and might become Australia’s biggest party.

At this moment of political flux, two of the ‘teal’ independents are bidding for a piece of the action by establishing their own alternative party: Community Strong Australia.

Joining us on The Briefing to discuss her new party, why she started it and whether it’ll have any electoral cut through is Waringah MP Zali Steggall.

Further listening from the headlines:
Bird flu's hit Australia. What now?

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If the rumours are true, Taylor Swift has tied the knot this weekend in a stadium in New York City.

Since Swift's August 2025 engagement to footballer Travis Kelce, there has been speculation about the venue, the guest list, the setlist... everything. Swift is, after all, one of the world’s biggest pop stars, and her success has been built on turning the details of her life into stories. This wedding is one hell of a story.

On this bonus episode of The Briefing, we revisit Swift’s most recent batch of stories on her 2025 album ‘The Life of a Showgirl’. Chris Spyrou speaks with Kate Pattison, a PhD candidate on Swift’s fandom and our in-house TS expert.

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Few politicians in Australian history have quite the standing that John Howard does.

While his time in power as Australia’s 25th Prime Minister between 1996 and 2007 was characterised by both economic wins and policy fails (think industrial relations and immigration), he is looked to now as an elder statesman and a symbol of when things in Australia were ‘good’.

But that’s revisionist history, according to political journalist Amy Remeikis, whose new book Where It All Went Wrong: The Case Against John Howard, explores how Howard sold out the younger generations to benefit their parents, undermined the public health system and destroyed the housing market.

In this chat with Amy Remeikis, Sacha Barbour Gatt explores these ideas with Remeikis while discussing the Canberra bubble and how a child of a conservative Lithuanian dad who voted One Nation went on to become one of the leading progressive voices in this country.

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