List of The Weekly with Charlie Pickering episodes

anti-vaccination religious exemptions; Australian Democrats

royal family; Olympic Games host cities; gender equality (with Caitlin Stasey); selfies (with Kitty Flanagan); Belle Gibson

foreign aid cuts; UK general election (with Tiffany Stevenson); opposition to a mosque in Bendigo

Kim Jong-un and North Korea; coffee snobbery (with Kitty Flanagan); Transparent (with Jeffrey Tambor); Labor Games

Waco, Texas; Bill Shorten's budget reply; old people; opposition to halal certifications; News of the World phone hacking scandal

Alan Bond dies; 41st G7 summit; junk food advertising and obesity; Indigenous race relations in Australia (with Miranda Tapsell); Australians playing in the NBA

CNS funding; the underreaction to the Matildas winning Australia's first World Cup knockout match

trade union Royal Commission appearance; the Sydney siege inquest; Generation Z; Joey Chestnut

Cecil the lion; palliative care and death

Vaping (with Kitty Flanagan); Mitchell Pearce Australia Day

body dysmorphia and use of dietary supplements; voluntary assisted dying (with Andrew Denton); ISIS name causes confusion and negative connotations; Donald Trump responds to Pope Francis

Godwin's Law invoked as Donald Trump is compared to Adolf Hitler; Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall

phone dependence; flushable wipes (with Kitty Flanagan); referendum on changes to the Australian Constitution to give Aboriginals constitutional recognition (with Adam Briggs

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders wins Hawaii, Alaska and Washington state caucuses (with Chloe Hilliard); the Australian Government's $6 million taxpayer funded fictional film The Journey which aims to stop asylum seekers heading to Australia by boat has been released in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan; Football

Gold Logie nominees; wrongful convictions; Australia discovered or invaded (with Adam Briggs); 2018 Commonwealth Games

Donald Trump's presidential campaign

CSIRO shifts focus from research for public good to commercial purposes; Special Correspondents (with Eric Bana); Climate change

European countries responding to Donald Trump's "America First

Michael Flynn for discussing US sanctions with a Russian official then misled Vice President Mike Pence about those conversations; Jacqui Lambie introduced a bill to ban the burqa for national security and public safety reasons; homelessness increases as public housing crisis worsens; the High Court ruled Rod Culleton was never eligible to be elected to the Senate and the Federal Court has declared he was bankrupt; Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull blames renewable energy for South Australia's power outages despite emails citing the state's extreme storms were the cause; cartoonist Larry Pickering

Kim Jong-un's half brother Kim Jong-nam was reportedly assassinated in Malaysia; Sutton United's goalkeeper Wayne Shaw was forced to resign after eating a pie in a betting stunt during the match between Sutton United and Arsenal which led to an investigation by the Gambling Commission and The Football Association; Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara arrived in Sydney for a 4-day visit to Australia; Malcolm Turnbull arrived in New Zealand last week to meet with Bill English for the annual leaders' meeting in Queenstown; the Coalition wants to avoid another Mediscare campaign by making it a criminal offence to impersonate or purport to act on behalf of a Commonwealth officer or entity and to use Commonwealth logos without permission to mislead the public; Jasper Jones

La La Land was announced as the 89th Academy Awards Best Picture winner until the acceptance speech was interrupted to announce that Moonlight actually won; Malcolm Turnbull blamed Tony Abbott's outburst last week for poor polling by Newspoll which showed the Coalition trailing Labor 55-45 in two-party preferences; a US research study in the Archives of Sexual Behavior show Millennials are having less sex than Generation X did at the same age (with Kitty Flanagan); Philippine's recently elected president Rodrigo Duterte

Prince William was caught on camera dancing daggy dad moves in a Swiss nightclub; String theory and physics (with Brian Greene); a short history of the Australian Grand Prix (with Francis Leach, Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki, Raoul Mulder

Obamacare after he failed to gain support from members of his own political party; Durban will no longer host the 2022 Commonwealth Games due to financial constraints and failure to meet deadlines (with Loyiso Gola); Better Call Saul

Nick Fitzgerald to score an open goal; Super bugs (with Kitty Flanagan); The Weekly

Alan Joyce supports Same-sex marriage

NAPLAN

Kim Jong-un meet for talks in Singapore; Kombucha

Palmer United Party to United Australia Party to contest the next federal election; US President Trump withdraws USA from United Nations Human Rights Council and continues with his policy by forcibly separating children from their parents at the Mexico–United States border and locking children in cages; five male students from Charles Sturt University who dressed in Ku Klux Klan robes and hoods with one man in blackface and black body paint for an end-of-semester party at the Black Swan Hotel in Wagga Wagga will be investigated after the university’s vice-chancellor condemned their actions; Football fans in Australia were angry at Optus for prolonged technical problems and failure to deliver live coverage of the 2018 FIFA World Cup on mobile apps and the Optus webpage and are calling for refunds and handing over coverage to SBS; the World Health Organisation has classified gaming addiction as a mental health condition; Australian schools have issued warnings to parents about the negative effects the video game Fortnite has on children that include online bullying, inappropriate language and abuse; Coles moves baby formula behind the counter to ward off bulk-buying for resale in China; South Australia became the first state to adopt a royal commission recommendation to legally compel clergy to report child sexual abuse

income tax returns (with Kitty Flanagan); Australia is out of the 2018 FIFA World Cup

A-League team Central Coast Mariners in Australia; US President Donald Trump receives criticism for lacking decorum and etiquette after he arrived late to meet the Queen, where she waited alone on the stage, and for walking and standing in front of her during his visit to Windsor Castle; US President Donald Trump criticises UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s handling of the Brexit deal and praised her conservative party rival Boris Johnson as a potentially great prime minister in an interview before meeting with her for the Blenheim Palace Gala in the UK; protests in the UK as US President Donald Trump arrives to meet UK Prime Minister Theresa May and the Queen

Channel Ten’s all-male hosted shows for the channel’s Pilot Week; Labor is under pressure to avoid losing any seats in the Super Saturday by-elections in Mayo, Perth, Longman, Braddon and Fremantle that resulted from citizenship issues for incumbent politicians; Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt orders an immediate review into his department’s use of Instagram influencers to encourage women to do more exercise following a report in News Corp media that the government paid thousands of dollars to social influencers who use racist language, homophobic slurs and endorse alcohol brands; teachers are asked to weigh school children and record the results as a way to fight childhood obesity; the Thai children and their soccer coach who were rescued from a Thai cave speak to the media for the first time after leaving hospital; the Queen felt angry that false claims of her husband Prince Philip’s death were circulating online despite no official confirmation or statement was released by the Palace; news media reporting on politics in similar ways as their coverage of sport; Cloud storage

Cambodian People’s Party wins all 125 seats in Cambodia’s parliament amid claims that the vote was a sham after a crackdown on rival party Cambodia National Rescue Party; Virginia congressional candidate Leslie Cockburn criticises her opponent Denver Riggleman for campaigning with a white supremacist and liking Bigfoot erotica; Labor retains the seats of Braddon, Longman, Fremantle and Perth in the Super Saturday by-election; complaints about the NDIS increased with issues regarding access to funds and support, failure to correct administrative errors, government outsourcing jobs to contractors, and fraud against NDIS users involving thousands of dollars being siphoned from support packages; Same-sex marriage

Australian Competition & Consumer Commission investigation, the two main reasons power bills are skyrocketing for Australian households are network costs of excessive number of poles and wires, and wholesale electricity costs which is when the power energy providers buy in bulk from the generators; The Academy announced three key changes to the Academy Awards

NAPLAN

Tiny house movement (with Judith Lucy); Bike riding with Adam Briggs and Anthony Albanese; Top End Wedding

Labor

RSL claims it could evoke bad memories for Japan's prisoners of war; Penis facial (with Judith Lucy); Barnaby Joyce was pressured to provide more answers over an $80 million taxpayer-funded water deal when he was the Water Minister, and the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources bought 28 gigalitres of water from Eastern Australia Agriculture, a company once linked to now-Energy Minister Angus Taylor and based in the Cayman Islands

International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems and changes are slated to be added in January 2022; Lance Armstrong told NBC sports reporter Mike Tirico in an interview that he would not change anything about his past on drug cheating; US President Trump called for a probe into Australia’s role in Russia’s interference with the 2016 US election; Steve Smith booed at the Cricket World Cup, Serena Williams wore a zebra-striped outfit designed by Virgil Abloh and produced by Nike at the French Open that featured the words "mother, champion, queen and goddess" in French (with Roy and HG); UK Prime Minister Theresa May announced her resignation as Tory Party leader and prime minister to be effective 7 June 2019; Rocketman

Tiananmen Square massacres where in 1989 the Chinese government brutally shut down long running student protests, killing thousands of people in and around the central square in Beijing, and continues the campaign by the Chinese government to try to erase the memory and rewrite the history of the bloody military suppression of peaceful unarmed protesters and residents of Beijing; Rugby Australia sacked Israel Folau for homophobic social media posts; Kym Abrook from Adelaide’s western suburb Fulham Gardens, chased an intruder from his property while dressed only in his underpants and wielding a didgeridoo; the 92nd Scripps National Spelling Bee competition ended in an unprecedented eight-way tie when organisers ran out of challenging words after hours of intense competition among American youngsters tackling some of the English language's most obscure words; Mindfulness and meditation with animals (with Judith Lucy); Indigenous rugby players from the Queensland Maroons and NSW Blues refused to sing the national anthem at the opening game for the State of Origin series because the anthem does not represent their indigenous heritage (with Adam Briggs); Modern love in the digital age at 2019 Vivid Sydney

Kim Jong-un died or was near death with no hope of recovery; the World Health Organisation approved the re-opening of wet markets in China despite reports of COVID-19 originating from a wet market in Wuhan; surviving the COVID-19 pandemic (with Judith Lucy); the Australian government released a COVID-19 contact tracing app named COVIDSafe despite concerns regarding data retention and privacy; discussing Greg Norman (with Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald); negative gearing

ABC’s Insiders for the tough stance in Victoria on allowing children to stay at home and not go to school unless other arrangements can’t be made or children were vulnerable; Dan Tehan withdrew his comments to Dan Andrews following the announcement that a teacher tested positive for COVID-19 at Meadow Glen primary school in Epping; UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s finance Carrie Symonds gave birth to a son; Life after the COVID-19 pandemic (with Judith Lucy and Professor Lisa Gibbs); the aviation industry was one of the first sectors affected by the COVID-19 pandemic with airlines worldwide grounding their aeroplanes; the COVID-19 pandemic in the US (with Rosebud Baker); Superannuation

gonorrhoea rose by 20 per cent on the Gold Coast, and eliminating the infection is difficult as the bacteria becomes increasingly antibiotic-resistant; a by-election for the seat of Eden-Monaro was announced following Labor MP Mike Kelly’s sudden resignation due to health reasons; Communication using emojis during the COVID-19 pandemic (with Rhys Nicholson); Australia's National Rugby League announced that it intends to resume its season on 28 May 2020 but released no details of the season’s structure or conditions under which matches will be played; three-part documentary series Miriam Margolyes: Almost Australian (with Miriam Margoyles); Alan Jones announced his resignation from radio station 2GB

COVID-19 symptoms

traditional owners, to expand an iron ore mine (with Adam Briggs); Reported auction clearance rate figures fudged to appear resistant to the COVID-19 pandemic

Victoria reached double digits daily; New Zealand reported two confirmed COVID-19 cases in more than three weeks after two women from the same family travelled from the UK and through Australia to New Zealand to visit a dying parent without being tested, and the country’s Ministry of Health blamed its policy of granting compassionate exemptions to its quarantine rules; Australian singer Guy Sebastian was criticised on social media for not representing struggling artists during the COVID-19 lockdowns when he appeared at Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s announcement of the $250 million arts package at a press conference; Minister for Families and Social Services Anne Ruston said a News Corp report was “factually incorrect” for reporting the JobSeeker payment will increase by $75 a week to become $715 a fortnight, which was the preferred option of some cabinet ministers; Scott Morrison told 2GB radio that he received anecdotal feedback from small and large businesses that unemployed Australians are not working because the JobSeeker payment is too generous; The departure of Labor’s Mike Kelly led to the 2020 Eden-Monaro by-election to be held on 4 July 2020 with the Liberals 2019 candidate Fiona Kotvojs and Labor’s selection of a former local mayor Kristy McBain as frontrunners; An independent inquiry by the High Court of Australia found former Justice of the High Court of Australia Dyson Heydon allegedly sexually harassed six young female associates with further allegations from senior legal figures of predatory behaviour by Heydon; The economic effects of the Arts in Australia

Roy Morgan survey in April 2020 revealed trust in the retail sector emerged as Australia’s most trusted industry, with the supermarket sector in second place and consumer products came third, while sixth placed ABC was the only media broadcaster in the top ten; Rosehaven

Victoria was in lockdown; Premier Daniel Andrews urged all Victorians to wear face masks when in public places, especially in situations where they cannot maintain physical distancing, as the state’s daily number of new COVID-19 cases reached 288; The re-opening of Florida’s Disney World on 7 July 2020 coincided with a sharp increase in confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state; Tom Gleeson announced his departure from The Weekly

Modern Monetary Theory

Bunnings Warehouse in Melbourne where she filmed Bunnings employees asking her to wear a face mask in keeping with COVID-19 rules but she refused and claimed the store had no legal right to request she wear a mask; Three South Australian Liberal party ministers Stephan Knoll, Tim Whetstone and David Ridgway will leave their posts in Premier Steven Marshall's Cabinet and Upper House president Terry Stephens will also step down from his position over investigations in expenses and lodging Country Members' Accommodation Allowance claim forms; A second woman, Lizzy Rose, posted online footage of herself refusing to wear a mask at a Bunnings Warehouse in Maribyrnong; Mining magnate Clive Palmer's challenge to Western Australia's hard border closure was heard in the Federal Court and is heading to the High Court; Universal Music Group served copyright infringement papers to Clive Palmer over the use of Twisted Sister’s 1984 hit song "We're Not Gonna Take It" which Palmer used in his political campaign for United Australia Party without paying licence fees but he claimed that copyright should not apply to the chorus of the song as it was “derived” from the Christmas carol "O Come, All Ye Faithful"; Monetising and commercialisation of tertiary education in Australia (with Judith Lucy); A parliamentary committee report released in June 2020 claimed that without urgent government intervention, koalas will become extinct in New South Wales before 2050, with at least 5,000 koalas dead in recent bushfires and more than 80 per cent of some habitat areas destroyed; Economic effects of immigration in Australia (with Luke McGregor); Discussing Alan Bond

Victorian Liberal MP Kevin Andrews lost pre-selection for the seat of Menzies to commando-turned-barrister Keith Wolahan at a pre-selection ballot of members on Sunday 31 January 2021; The Week in Work: Commuting to work (with Zoe Coombs Marr); The Week in the World (with Nina Oyama); The Week in Sport: Bernard Tomic's girlfriend Vanessa Sierra received criticism after she uploaded a video to YouTube showing their time in hotel quarantine in Melbourne and she said she never washes her own hair and the hotel food was not always to her liking so she often ordered Uber Eats (with Nick Maxwell); The National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program receive samples of wastewater to detect traces of COVID-19 and helps them target lockdowns to specific areas; Dinner with the Dead: Charlie Pickering travels back in time to discuss the swearing in of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States with deceased US Presidents George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Richard Nixon, Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy

Airport West Sexyland store using a pole and stole a life-sized sex doll that goes by the name of "Kitty" which retails for up to $4500 and also stole multiple vibrators collectively worth about $10,000 in the robbery; At least six cars were involved in a collision after a koala made a dash across Adelaide's South Eastern Freeway and it brought peak-hour traffic to a standstill while a volunteer from Adelaide Koala Rescue rescued the koala; Crown Resorts was deemed unsuitable to operate a new Sydney casino at Barangaroo after a year-long public inquiry which exposed allegations of money laundering; Eddie McGuire steps down as Collingwood president following the release of a report into systemic racism at the club and the furore around the press conference when he called it a "proud day for the Collingwood Football Club"; Australia postponed their Test cricket tour to South Africa due to concerns of the COVID-19 outbreak in South Africa accelerated by a new variant said to be more contagious than earlier strains of the virus; The Week in the World (with Nina Oyama); How Trump's lies about the US election being "stolen" and "fraud" contributed to misinformation and incited the US Capitol insurrection; Convincing the public to take the COVID-19 vaccine to reduce catching and spreading COVID-19

Duchess of Cambridge will welcome a fourth baby soon; Tabloid media announced The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are expecting their second baby; Scott Morrison criticised for lacking empathy after his comment on Brittany Higgins's interview with The Project about her rape allegations in parliament, using his daughters as a way to empathise; Google says it will shut down its search engine in Australia if it's forced to pay news outlets for content, after Scott Morrison said that Google profits from linking to news providers so it should pay for the journalism; The Week in Work: Casualisation of the workplace and a rise in Centrelink

Steven Miles happily ripped up in front of news cameras at a media conference; Scott Morrison received an anonymous letter attached to a detailed statement from a woman alleging a man who is currently a cabinet minister raped her in 1988 before he entered politics and she has since committed suicide, while two unnamed current cabinet ministers are facing legal action over alleged workplace bullying of a former staff member; South Australian Liberal MP Nicolle Flint announced she will quit politics and not contest her seat of Boothby and spoke openly about being stalked, harassed and her electoral office was egged and vandalised several times with obscene slogans; Attorney General Christian Porter revealed at a media conference that he was the unnamed man who alleged raped a woman in 1988 before he entered politics and he denied the alleged rape and denied having any knowledge of the now closed police case; Tabloid media TMZ reported Lady Gaga's dog walker was shot multiple times and her two French bulldogs were stolen which prompted Lady Gaga to offer a $50,000 reward for her dogs' return, and a few days later both her bulldogs were returned unharmed and her dog walker was expected to make a full recovery after the attack; The Week in TV: Married At First Sight (with Nick Maxwell); Trump made his first appearance at the CPAC since losing the US presidency to Joe Biden, where he continued to make false claims of election fraud; The Aged Care Royal Commission released a damning report into the extent of the substandard care in the system finding many of the system's failings are due to poor governance from successive governments' cuts to funding; Scott Morrison was criticised for not answering questions at a media conference on the same day he tabled a report in response to the Royal Commission's Aged Care Commission report and gave journalists insufficient time to read his report; Australia's netball team The Diamonds lost to the New Zealand Silver Ferns 49-44 in game one of the Constellation Cup with news that The Diamonds decided to abandon a single captain in favour of a group leadership approach (with Vidya Rajan); Tobacco giant Philip Morris pushed the Australian government to legalise vaping which resulted in Greg Hunt abandoning plans to ban the importation of vaping devices (with Greg Larsen); A 45 year old Indian man, Thangulla Satish, was stabbed to death by his own rooster after attaching a three inch knife to the rooster's leg for an illegal cockfight; The Week in Science: The Urban heat island

Prince William saying the Royals are "very much not a racist family"; ABC electoral analyst Antony Green called the WA State election for Labor just 42 minutes after counting began with just 0.7 per cent of the vote counted and Green said the McGowan Government had won a second term in power; The Week in TV: Inside the World's Toughest Prisons (with Margaret Pomeranz); Thousands of protesters across the country rallied at March 4 Justice demanding change to the sexist and misogynistic treatment of women in the workplace and Brittany Higgins, the former Liberal staffer whose rape allegations sparked a national discussion about the workplace culture at Parliament House, spoke at the women's rally in Canberra; Scott Morrison in parliament responded to the March 4 Justice rallies and said some marches are "being met with bullets" which sparked further outrage regarding violence against women; The UK-based neo-Nazi group Sonnenkrieg Division, was formally listed as a terrorist organisation for the first time in Australia, and it will become an offence to be a member of the group, fund the group, or in some circumstances associate with members of the group, while penalties can range to up to 25 years in prison; Pope Francis refused to bless same-sex unions and called homosexuality "a sin and a choice"; The Federal Government continued to roll out the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine despite other countries putting a total stop to the AstraZeneca vaccine including Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Ireland, The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Bulgaria due to deaths from blood clots after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine; Fisk

Canberra Times for defamation; Former Australia Post chief executive Christine Holgate said she was "bullied and humiliated" out of her job and she believed the board, led by its chair, Lucio Di Bartolomeo, unlawfully stood her down from her role because Scott Morrison had ordered it, after Holgate admitted she purchased four Cartier watches valued approximately around $20,000 in total as gifts for senior management executives who secured a lucrative deal with three Australian banks; Scott Morrison scrapped Australia's COVID-19 vaccine target where the federal government projected that four million people would be vaccinated by March 2021 and the entire country inoculated by October due to the goal unlikely to be reached, as more doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine touched down in Sydney; Scott Morrison blamed the slow vaccine rollout in Australia on vaccine supply shortages and strict export controls introduced by the European Commission which meant Australia received just 700,000 of a contracted 3.8 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine; The Morrison government were criticised for placing added pressure on GPs and pharmacies to administer COVID-19 vaccinations rather than state-run mass vaccination centres as a political stance to avoid dealing with state premiers, which led to GPs being inundated with calls for the vaccine but there were no vaccines available as supplies did not arrive; Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck was questioned over the aged care sector’s vaccine rollout failures and outbreak mismanagement, where residents in aged care facilities were ready to be vaccinated but there were no staff to administer the vaccine and doses were dropped of without needles or vials; The Week in Sport: Greg Norman (with Nick Maxwell); The Week in the Internet: How novice investors took on Wall Street by buying up shares of US video games retailer GameStop

Juventas released a joint statement responding to UEFA launching disciplinary proceedings against them which could lead to their expulsion from the UEFA Champions League

Canberra Times for defamation; Leaked video emerged of Scott Morrison speaking at the Australian Christian Churches conference on the Gold Coast where Morrison revealed that he had sought a sign from God while on the 2019 election campaign trail, and that he had practised the evangelical tradition of the "laying-on of hands" while working in the role of prime minister, and he also described the misuse of social media as the work of "the evil one", in reference to the Devil, which raised concerns about Australia being a secular society where politics should not be driven by religion; On the eve of the Morrison government's COVIDSafe app celebrating its "first birthday", there were calls from critics to dump the app as it cost more than $10 million to create and at least $100,000 each month to run, and only detected seventeen COVID cases since it was launched; Former US director of national intelligence James Clapper backed a call by former Australian prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull for a royal commission into the Murdoch media, saying Australia needs to take preventative steps to avoid any slide into "truth decay" and when Rupert Murdoch and Fox News are "disregarding facts and objective analysis and empirical data, it is insidious and dangerous to democracy"; The Morrison government fast tracked COVID-19 vaccinations for Australian athletes attending the Tokyo Olympics by giving them priority access to COVID vaccines, which was criticised by the aged care and disability sectors who have aged care and disability staff and residents still waiting for their vaccines; The Montague Street Bridge (with Nina Oyama); The Week in Economics: Aged care in Australia

Steven Miles called Scott Morrison a "c***" which caused a Labour Day crowd to erupt into laughter but Miles claimed he had stuttered and quickly corrected himself with the word "contrast"; The Week in the Country: Rural New South Wales Mouse Plague (with Dane Simpson); Bill and Melinda Gates announced their divorce after twenty-seven years of marriage, saying "we no longer believe we can grow together as a couple"; An instrument on NASA's Perseverance rover on Mars has made oxygen from the planet's carbon dioxide atmosphere; China launched an unoccupied module containing living quarters for three crew members on a permanent space station that it plans to complete by the end of 2022; SpaceX's Dragon capsule and the NASA Crew-1 mission it was carrying, safely returned to Earth after a trip to the International Space Station, with three American and one Japanese astronauts, and flew back in the same capsule named Resilience in which they launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in November 2020; The Week in Science: Service robot

Big Brother Australia 2021 (with Margaret Pomeranz); Violence between Israelis and Palestinians continued, bringing the death toll to 45, as Israel carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Gaza

Prince Charles conducted the proceedings in her place; Six-time grand slam champion Boris Becker was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for flouting the terms of his bankruptcy in 2017 by illicitly transferring large amounts of money and hiding assets after he was declared bankrupt, according to the UK's Insolvency Service; Controversy emerged after a viral video showed Russian kindergarten children dressed as tanks, fighter jets, military persons and medics with the infamous Z symbol for the Victory Day Parade, the anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945; Defence Minister Peter Dutton and Shadow Defence Minister Brendan O'Connor faced off in a debate at the National Press Club over issues including the recent security pact between China and Solomon Islands and the Morrison government's decision to cancel a $90 billion contract with France; Treasurer Josh Frydenberg debated his independent challenger Monique Ryan at the Sky News Australia Kooyong People’s Forum; The second leaders' debate which was broadcast on Channel 9 between Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese was described as a shambles and embarrassing due to the leaders shouting over each other and ignoring the moderator Sarah Abo with 51 percent of undecided voters supporting Albanese and 49 percent backing Morrison; A group of Neo-Nazis met in a Melbourne beer hall to celebrate Hitler's birthday with a birthday cake decorated with a swastika while performing Nazi salutes; Media on Trial: Ethan 'Hiccups' Hall (with Nick Maxwell); Plans for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations revealed Prince Andrew and Harry and Megan Markle will not join the Queen and other family members on the Buckingham Palace balcony; Story Time: Anna Jarvis, the founder of Mothers' Day (with Claire Hopper); Criticism of journalists covering the election grew as too much focus was placed on 'gotcha' questions while important issues were ignored; Cassidy's Canberra Nights: Paul Keating versus John Hewson (with Barrie Cassidy); Political Candidates Fashion Choice: Scott Morrison versus Anthony Albanese (with Rhys Nicholson); The Palmer Foundation is a private philanthropic entity set up and headed by Clive Palmer which included promoting his name and logo on 33 million doses of hydroxychloroquine that he donated to the Australian medical stockpile in 2020 as a potential treatment for COVID-19 which was soon shown to be ineffective as a remedy for COVID-19; Bronze plaques and artworks stolen from Elwood and St Kilda included a sundial provided by local children’s author Celeste Walters, to delight children travelling to and from school along Elwood Canal; Nominees for 'The Ricky Muir Award for the Obscure Candidates We Hope Will Hold the Balance of Power Largely for Our Own Entertainment': Kate Fantinel for the Liberal Democrats in Western Australia and Elvis Sinosic

Monkeypox appeared in Australia after two men, one from NSW in his 40s and one from Victoria in his 30s, both of whom had separately returned from Europe, have presented with mild symptoms consistent with Monkeypox; During his election campaign, Scott Morrison accidentally knocked over and flattened junior soccer player Luca Fauvette in Tasmania, while he was playing a training game with children at the Devonport City Strikers Soccer Club when he made contact with seven year old Luca who emerged unscathed; The television networks used all manner of new and advanced technology to provide definitive breaking and scrutinised election results including Channel Seven's 'Screen of Dreams' and computer graphics to determine when seats are won and lost such as Seven's 'Popping the Canberra Bubble' and Channel Nine's animated robot playing April Sun in Cuba on the ukulele; Former Prime Minister John Howard joined the Liberal Party campaign trail around the country, lending his support to vulnerable MPs in marginal seats but some questioned why it was all about a former leader and not the party's current leader, Scott Morrison; US President Joe Biden congratulated Anthony Albanese over the phone following Albanese's election win but an early morning phone call from singer Jimmy Barnes at 3:29AM was left unanswered; Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison held one last intimate party with close family and friends at Kirribilli House on his final day as the leader of Australia and was seen cracking a whip while his wife Jenny served a tray of margaritas as well as canapes; Ariarne Titmus broke the women's 400 metre freestyle world record at the Australian Swimming Championships in Adelaide when her time of 3:56.40 beat Katie Ledecky's old record by 0.06 seconds; Manchester City won their fourth English Premier League title in five years after defeating Aston Villa 3-2 at home on the final day of the season; The French Open (with Roy and HG); Mobile phone addiction in Australia; UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson claimed there were no lockdown parties and he never attended any parties at Downing Street during the nationwide lockdowns until photographs emerged showing him toasting and drinking alcohol at a party during nationwide lockdown but he denied he attended any lockdown party when questioned in parliament and denied he lied to parliament over lockdown parties; 2022 post-election review and leaving The 7.30 Report

Robb Elementary School when an 18 year old gunman crossed the grounds of the school in Uvalde, Texas, without being confronted and entered the building through an unlocked door, then killed 19 children and two teachers. Police confirmed the gunman was barricaded inside a classroom at Robb Elementary School for an hour before a tactical team finally breached the room and fatally shot him; Three days after a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas left 19 children and two adults dead, the National Rifle Association kicked off its annual convention about 280 miles away in Houston, where thousands of people protested for gun control; Texas Republican senator Ted Cruz was heavily criticised after suggesting schools would be safer if there were fewer exits and if more armed officers were stationed in school buildings, following the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, and he did not appear to comprehend the fact reducing the number of exits in a school building would pose an even greater safety risk, as well as a significant fire hazard; More than a dozen sitting or ex- Liberal Party MPs, advisors and officials anonymously spoke to The Saturday Paper and blasted ex-PM and ex-Party Leader Scott Morrison with expletives, and particularly slammed his willingness to defend transphobia and his last-minute flawed superannuation policy; Four decades after the Swedish pop supergroup ABBA last performed live, audiences were again able to watch ABBA onstage in an innovative digital concert where the voices and movements were the real Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad but the performers onstage are digital avatars, dubbed 'ABBA-tars'; A self-published romance novelist Nancy Crampton Brophy, who once wrote an online essay called 'How to Murder Your Husband', was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in gaol on 25 May 2022 following a seven-week trial, for murdering her husband Daniel Brophy, four years ago; Following their election loss, Peter Dutton was elected unopposed as the Liberal Party's new leader, with Sussan Ley to serve as deputy and David Littleproud was elected leader of the Nationals, defeating former leader Barnaby Joyce and Victorian MP Darren Chester in a party room vote; Senior Labor MP Tanya Plibersek apologised for comparing Liberal MP Peter Dutton, to Harry Potter's archenemy, Voldemort, just days before Dutton was announced as the new Liberal Party leader; In his first press conference after resigning as Home Affairs minister to become Liberal Party leader, Peter Dutton tried to show his softer and blokey side and said it was nice to be able to "smile" and "show a different side" to when he was the minister responsible for border protection but many people remain unconvinced; Greens MP-elect for Brisbane, Stephen Bates had to complete a few more shifts at his retail job before he is sworn-in as a member of Federal Parliament in Canberra because he said "the rent doesn’t pay itself"; Winner of the Most Outstanding Show at the 2021 Melbourne International Comedy Festival and new show at the Sydney Opera House (with Geraldine Hickey); UEFA Champions League finalist Liverpool asked for an investigation into the issues faced by its fans in the lead up to the UEFA Champions League final against Real Madrid, when the kickoff to the final was delayed by more than half an hour with UEFA

Russia invaded Ukraine

January 6th Attack public hearings being broadcast in prime time on free to air television; The ACT government decriminalised possession of small amounts of drugs including cocaine and heroin, and under new laws, anyone found with amount that falls within threshold will be fined, but not charged; Thailand became the first country in Southeast Asia to legalise the growing and possession of cannabis and allowed the consumption of it in food and drinks but new laws won't allow its recreational use; Prime Minister Anthony Albanese travelled overseas to discuss Australia's global dealings on climate change, and was keen to attend the Quad meeting in Tokyo for talks with US president Joe Biden, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida before returning to Australia to meet with New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to discuss bilateral relations between Australia and New Zealand; Rebel Wilson announced in an Instagram post that she was in a same-sex relationship with fashion designer Ramona Agruma and she chose to announce her relationship with Agruma to pre-empt an article by Andrew Hornery of The Sydney Morning Herald which would have outed her; The NSW government promised to reduce childcare costs and increase the number of places and female work participation by spending $5 billion on the sector over the next ten years; Childcare Costs (with Celia Pacquola and Luke McGregor); McDonalds exited Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine and announced it would sell all its restaurants in Russia which were later rebranded as Vkusno i tochka; Global markets plunged again as interest rate hikes fuel recession fears; Global cost of living increased (with Ivan Aristeguieta); Assets of Russian oligarchs continued to be seized to force Russia to withdraw from Ukraine and the proceeds from the seized assets would go to Ukraine; Vladimir Putin reportedly has a portable toilet and suitcase for his stool and urine when he travels overseas to hide any possible health problems; The Socceroos

Monkeypox after a man who had travelled overseas tested positive for the virus and health authorities said there was no risk of transmission to the community; Cassidy's Canberra Nights: Bob Hawke versus Paul Keating (with Barrie Cassidy); Nick Kyrgios fought with the umpire, spectators and a line judge before ultimately winning the battle to scrape through to the second round at Wimbledon and there were unsavoury scenes following the final point of the match when Kyrgios could be seen spitting in the direction of a spectator when he became fed up with being verbally and racially taunted throughout the match; Wimbledon Championships (with Roy and HG); A Florida

Nara and was rushed to Nara Medical University Hospital after suffering cardio and pulmonary arrest but died soon after; The President of Sri Lanka Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country after protesters stormed his home and office and the official residence of his Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe amid a three-month economic crisis that triggered severe shortages of food and fuel but Wickremesinghe as Acting President declared a countrywide state of emergency, imposed an immediate curfew in the western province and reiterated that he would not leave until a new government was in place; 'Joyful Strains'- Lettuce and other vegetables price rises (with Luke Heggie); Novak Djokovic defeated Nick Kyrgios and claimed a seventh Wimbledon men's singles title, and 21st grand slam title; The rising cost of lettuce did not affect a dugong named Pig who lives at Sea Life Sydney Aquarium even though lettuce is its entire diet; 'Who Can We Blame?'- Inflation (with Corey White); 1999 Australian republic referendum; Neighbours on 10 Peach

The Bachelors on Network 10 (with Margaret Pomeranz); Cancel culture

Pride Round in the NRL with a Respect Round and promote it as being inclusive (with Roy and HG); Two of NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet's brothers, Jean-Claude Perrottet and Charles Perrottet are among four people who were summoned to give evidence at an inquiry into allegations of impropriety at a Sydney council, but they have not been located; High inflation, cost of living crisis, housing affordability and rental crisis (with Alex Lee); Jetstar claimed a "passenger was removed from the flight after repeatedly failing to follow instructions and was abusive towards the crew" after an emergency landing in Alice Springs and a second plane had to be flown in; 'This is Apparently Your Life' (with Rhys Nicholson and Derryn Hinch); Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said from 1 July 2025, Australians who have a superannuation balance over $3 million will be taxed at a concessional rate of 30 per cent, up from 15 per cent and 99.5 percent of Australians will not be affected by this superannuation reform; Cancel culture

Labor candidate Mary Doyle won a by-election in the federal seat of Aston in Melbourne's outer eastern suburbs following the resignation of former Liberal frontbencher Alan Tudge; Belgian-Dutch racing driver Max Verstappen won the 2023 Australian Grand Prix (with Scout Boxall); A man who set off a major police operation in north-west Sydney is behind bars after the AK-47 rifle he was allegedly carrying turned out to be a Bong, and the man was charged with possession of an unauthorised firearm and intimidation, which both carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison; Former US president Donald Trump was indicted over hush-money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels

raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 with ratcatchers hurling dead rats at City Hall and violence on the streets; the Federal government issued a travel alert to warn anyone planning a trip to France should exercise a high degree of caution following violent protests and civil unrest; Easter celebrations (with Maisie Adam); Rupert Murdoch called off his engagement to Ann Lesley Smith after just two weeks reportedly due to Murdoch feeling uncomfortable with Smith's evangelical views; Spaniard Jon Rahm won the 2023 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club (with Roy and HG); Married at First Sight on Nine

Alan Joyce steps down in November 2023; Climate change was found to cause increased air turbulence during flights, according to Paul Williams, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Reading in England, as global temperatures increase due to rising levels of greenhouse emissions such as carbon dioxide and the jet stream experienced more sudden changes in wind speed and direction; Aunty Donna's Coffee Café TV series (with Aunty Donna); MILF Manor on Binge

plane crash in the Colombian Amazon jungle but their mother died four days after the crash; Boris Johnson stood down immediately as a Conservative MP after an investigation into the Partygate scandal found he misled parliament and a lengthy suspension from the House of Commons was recommended but Johnson said he may try to make a return to politics as he was "very sad to be leaving parliament – at least for now" (with Andy Zaltzmann); Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe was hounded by A Current Affair reporter Simon Bouda for walking onto the stage to Justin Timberlake's song 'Can't Stop the Feeling!' a day after raising interest rates for the 12th time in thirteen months; Prosecutors charged Donald Trump with 37 felonies, including 31 counts under the Espionage Act for "willful retention" of classified records where Trump haphazardly stashed military secrets throughout his Florida estate and other locations after he left office, and Trump ordered an aide, Walt Nauta, to move boxes with classified records to obscure them from investigators which Trump did without informing his attorney, who was preparing to search Trump’s property in compliance with court-authorised subpoenas to recover the classified records; A biotechnology company called Colossal Biosciences announced a plan to "de-extinct" the Dodo and may use artificial intelligence for their ongoing projects to recreate the Woolly mammoth and the Thylacine also called the Tasmanian tiger (with Rhys Nicholson); The Kardashians on Disney Plus

Australian Competition & Consumer Commission chair Allan Fels handing his report to the Federal Government stating that "rising prices were not just caused by true inflation but often by greed, corporate gouging and 'profit pushing' by companies with too much market power."; Switzerland as Australia's next ally (with Concetta Caristo and Daniel Frutgier - president of the NSW Swiss Club); A photograph of a polar bear sleeping on an iceberg wins the Wildlife Photographer of the Year People's Choice Award in a wildlife photography competition run by the Natural History Museum, London; The Enhanced Games is an international sports event planned for 2025 where athletes are not subjected to drug testing and allows athletes to use performance-enhancing drugs but anti-doping critics warn the event is irresponsible and puts profit before the health of athletes; Reporting on how The Weekly with Charlie Pickering reports on sports gambling (with Barrie Cassidy); NFL commissioner Roger Goodell says Super Bowl 58 conspiracy theories involving Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, whose team the Kansas City Chiefs will compete in the Super Bowl, are "nonsense" as right-wing critics say their relationship is part of a plot to rig the NFL's championship game and help get US President Joe Biden re-elected; Labor passed its Right to disconnect Law where employees are not to be contacted by their employers outside of rostered work hours but a second stage that prevents employers from facing criminal penalties for contacting employees after working hours and other changes including a right for some casual workers to seek permanence and minimum standards for gig workers are yet to be passed; Labor and the Greens joined forces in the Senate to block an attempt by the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union to split from the CFMEU; Russell Howard Live 2024 stand-up comedy show (with Russell Howard); Nemesis

Asbestos in mulch detected in schools, parks, residential housing, supermarkets and hospitals across Sydney led to the Environmental Protection Authority's biggest investigation in its history and may consider criminal charges over the blunder; Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Donald Trump to pay over $355 million of his fortune, plus interest, in a New York civil fraud case finding Trump lied for years about his wealth on financial statements he used to secure loans and make deals as he built the real estate empire that vaulted him to fame and the presidency, which included Trump committing fraud with his financial statements, falsifying business records, issuing false financial statements, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and conspiracy to falsify business records; The Russian prison service said Russian opposition leader and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny is dead after he "felt unwell after a walk and almost immediately lost consciousness" and said it was investigating his "sudden death", which drew strong reactions from Western leaders including US President Joe Biden who blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin, and said that "what has happened to Navalny is yet more proof of Putin’s brutality"; Gladiators on Network 10 and 10Play (with Margaret Pomeranz); National Party deputy leader Perin Davey was seen slurring her words and speaking incoherently during a parliamentary hearing but she denied being drunk then later admitted she had consumed alcohol at a function before attending the Senate hearing; A booze ban is being considered inside Parliament House and alcohol testing inside the building following Barnaby Joyce lying on a footpath in Canberra late at night and swearing into his mobile phone after apparently falling off a planter box due to mistakenly drinking alcohol after taking prescription medication and Perin Davey admitting to drinking alcohol at a function in Parliament House before slurring her words during a Senate hearing; Facebook

Australian Competition & Consumer Commission for falsely promoting him as keynote speaker and wrongly promoting that other government ministers would be in attendance; Finland was in the number one position in the 2024 World Happiness Report for the seventh consecutive time and Australia was in tenth place; China-based online retailer Temu is facing a class-action lawsuit in Illinois