WEBVTT - 2024: The year that was 0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:04.120 Already and this is the daily This is the daily. 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:15.960 Ohs oh, now it makes sense. Good morning, and welcome 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:18.480 to the Daily OS. It's Friday, the twentieth of December. 0:00:18.600 --> 0:00:22.000 I'm Billy, I'm Zara Zara. Today is our last day 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:22.720 in the office. 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:26.640 Cannot believe it. What a year it's been. We do, though, 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:28.560 I need to say at the top, have a summer 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:31.400 series coming, So this isn't the last that you will 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:34.199 hear Billy and I in your ears. Sadly, if that's 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:36.960 what you wanted, we will have those episodes over the 0:00:36.960 --> 0:00:39.559 coming weeks. But today we are wrapping up the year 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:42.240 that was. As we look back on twenty twenty four, 0:00:42.479 --> 0:00:42.960 it will. 0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:45.920 Be a very good series. Just quickly. You're saying, cannot 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:48.120 believe it. Do you think anyone ever gets to the 0:00:48.240 --> 0:00:50.120 end of the year and goes I can believe that 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:51.479 it's been a long year. 0:00:51.640 --> 0:00:54.480 I think well, I think when we're younger, time goes slower. 0:00:54.520 --> 0:00:56.560 We have had this conversation. Time goes slower, and so 0:00:56.600 --> 0:00:59.600 perhaps you reach the end of the year and you're like, oh, okay, 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:01.240 that was a roundred and sixty five days. 0:01:01.320 --> 0:01:03.960 Great time goes so fast when you're older. 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:06.680 It feels like genuinely yesterday that Sam and I sat 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:08.959 in this room made our predictions for twenty twenty four 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:10.720 and here we are. 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:12.760 And we'll get into them because I hear you were 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:15.520 quite Acuratezara, So I'm glad you've been able to sneak 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:19.280 that in early on too. Okay, So on today's podcast, 0:01:19.600 --> 0:01:22.720 we are going to reflect on what a big year 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:24.840 it has been in the news. The Daily Os has 0:01:24.880 --> 0:01:26.960 been there every step of the way breaking it down 0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:28.840 for you, and today we just want to look at 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:31.600 all of the biggest moments from politics to pop culture. 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:34.240 I think the best way to wrap up a full 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:36.280 three hundred and sixty five days. Oh it was a 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:36.720 leap year. 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:37.880 Was it a leapier this year? 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:42.200 Yes, every four years it's a leap yere US election 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:44.240 and Olympics, and that was this year. 0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:45.240 In a year. 0:01:45.480 --> 0:01:48.800 So we're going to go in themes. Why don't we 0:01:48.800 --> 0:01:51.600 start locally first with domestic politics? 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:54.080 Soar, you're coming off strong and interesting. 0:01:54.600 --> 0:01:58.560 Your favorite topic is Australian politics, is it? Yes, a 0:01:58.560 --> 0:01:59.200 a nerd. 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:04.000 Kick it off for us, Okay, So I think it's 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:07.200 fair to say that this year in Australian politics was 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:10.360 quite backloaded, and by that I mean it was like 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:13.320 a kind of slow start to the year, but then 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:16.119 the back saw quite a lot of progress and quite 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:19.720 a lot of news events happen in this space. And 0:02:19.800 --> 0:02:21.320 I think that just goes to the fact that we 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:25.680 are approaching an election and the government and the opposition 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:28.360 both knew that full well as we got to you know, 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:32.200 those last sitting weeks of the calendar, and that saw 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:36.160 a whole lot of massive pieces of legislation passed through. 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:38.160 So just to run you through them at the top 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:40.240 of my head, you know, we had a social media 0:02:40.280 --> 0:02:43.760 ban pass parliament in a matter of weeks. We had 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:46.920 the governments helped Buy and Build to rent legislation that 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:49.520 was of course their big housing policy that passed in 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:52.000 the last week. And we saw changes to the way 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:56.080 that He's indexation works also pass through parliament. 0:02:56.520 --> 0:02:58.760 Both of those things, just a social media ban and 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:01.400 also Hex's massive things for young people. 0:03:01.200 --> 0:03:04.240 Exactly, and I think again that speaks to the fact 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:07.959 that the government is really looking how to bring young 0:03:07.960 --> 0:03:11.640 people into the folds ahead of that election. In terms 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:14.160 of where I guess the country sits as a whole, 0:03:14.560 --> 0:03:16.800 it's fair to say that cost of living still remains 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:19.360 top of the agenda, both for voters and for the 0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:22.799 government and the opposition. We saw in the US election 0:03:22.880 --> 0:03:26.200 that the economy really stuck out as a defining feature, 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:29.480 and that is the same all around the world. It's 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:32.600 especially the same here. It'll be interesting to see whether 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:36.280 voters are talking about interest rates and things like that 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:38.120 at the election. We know, of course that that's not 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:42.080 something the government themselves can be changing, but we have 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:46.080 seen in other elections that governments are punished for higher 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:49.240 interest rates, so no doubt that'll be something that Anthony 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:52.720 Albinezi will be thinking a lot about over the summer holidays. 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:55.200 I think that if we take a step back, the 0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:59.800 other big defining part of the Australian political landscape this 0:03:59.880 --> 0:04:04.520 year were two independents. So Lydia Thorpe and Fatima Payman 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:07.839 were both part of other parties. Lydia Thorpe was part 0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:10.800 of the Greens she left last year and Fatima payment 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:14.120 was part of the Labor Government and she left this year. 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:16.600 And I think both of them have been part of 0:04:16.839 --> 0:04:21.280 the biggest moments in Australian politics. Lydia Thorpes of course, 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:23.920 and we've spoken about it on this podcast. Came when 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:27.640 the King was visiting Australia with Queen Camilla and she 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:31.880 stood up and staged a protest that made headlines all 0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:34.839 around the world, not just here in Australia. And then 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:37.880 with Fatima Payman, she left the Labor Party due to 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:39.960 their stance on the war in Gaza as. 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:42.000 I was of a massive moment when she did that. 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:45.280 Huge and you know, for a party that doesn't allow 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:46.880 for people to cross the floor, so when you're in 0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:49.080 the Labor Party you need to vote with the Labor 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:53.200 Party on all matters. She was standing against them and 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:56.000 then left the party altogether. And since then she's really 0:04:56.000 --> 0:04:58.799 been making waves. And again to the point of young people. 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:01.719 Fatima payment is one of the youngest people in Parliament 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:03.640 and so to see her leave one of the major 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:06.159 parties when we know young people are turning to minor 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:09.320 parties and independents, that'll be an interesting thing to keep 0:05:09.320 --> 0:05:11.520 in mind. And of course there was another viral moment 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:14.320 with Fadam A. Payman and Pauline Hanson when there was 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:17.400 a bit of a tussle about Fatima Payman's citizenship, So 0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:19.960 that'll be a story to watch in the new Year. 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:22.560 I'm going to take a breath now. But the other 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:25.240 big political story I think that it would be remiss 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:27.600 of us not to mention this year was the return 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:31.440 of Julian Massange and that has kind of cross party lines. 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:34.880 That's been something that both the Labor government and the 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:37.400 Coalition have been talking about for years and years and years, 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:40.560 and this year was the year that he was released 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:44.680 from prison and returned to Australia and now walks as 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:47.599 a freeman, which you know, when we went into twenty 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:49.200 twenty four, I don't know that would have been a 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:50.159 foregone conclusion. 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:53.240 Yeah, it's absolutely crazy. Juliana Massange feels like something that 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:55.200 just went on for years and years and felt like 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:58.120 the never ending saga. So to see that he finally 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:00.599 did come home, that was just one of the moments 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:04.080 of the year domestically. And then just quickly you've mentioned 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:07.240 you're foreshadowed that we do have an election coming up 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:10.120 next year. It needs to happen before May. But other 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:12.720 than that, it's in the hands of Anthony Albersi as 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:15.960 to when exactly it will be. What are your predictions 0:06:16.000 --> 0:06:17.159 as to what will happen there? 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:20.800 Well, I mean I think Firstly, in terms of the timing, 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:22.400 A lot of the chatter seems to be that it 0:06:22.440 --> 0:06:26.159 will be held around March, just based on a whole 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:28.160 bunch of things that need to happen for that election 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:31.560 to be called. In terms of what will actually happen 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:34.919 come that federal election, I don't think anyone knows really. 0:06:34.960 --> 0:06:37.640 I think based on the polling, it looks like it 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:40.400 might be difficult for either of the major parties to 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:44.440 win a majority. Support for both of the major parties 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:48.440 has continued to slip, especially as I said, among young people. 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:51.240 And I think that we can take some notes from 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:54.080 what we've seen globally, because twenty twenty four was the 0:06:54.200 --> 0:06:57.560 year of the election. We saw elections all around the world, 0:06:58.120 --> 0:07:01.440 and what we saw was a fairly uniform shift to 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:04.200 the right. Billy talked me through this trend that we saw. 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:07.560 Yeah, we did see elections all around the world. It 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:10.240 was actually the most amount of people that have ever 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:13.320 voted in elections around the world than ever before. So 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:17.040 it was a record making year four elections. I think 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:19.280 it's safe to say that the most high profile election 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:23.160 was definitely the US election between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:26.880 and it was a very dramatic lead up to the election. 0:07:27.320 --> 0:07:31.120 Obviously we had Joe Biden drop out just months before 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:34.600 election day, and then we also had the two assassination 0:07:34.680 --> 0:07:39.640 attempts on Donald Trump, which just major news moments. And 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:42.840 of course Trump did win in a decisive victory, and 0:07:42.880 --> 0:07:45.240 the race was nowhere near as close as what was 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:48.200 predicted in the polls, which once again just shows us 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:52.080 that the polls, I think the public's trust in polls 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:56.120 is comminishing, is definitely diminishing. They've really struggled, especially with 0:07:56.240 --> 0:08:00.320 the US elections. To get it right, Zara, we have 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:03.680 to play I mentioned it at the start of the 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:06.960 podcast that last year when you and Sam did the 0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:10.080 episode on recapping Train Training three, you also predicted what 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:12.960 would happen this year, and you did it has to 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:15.840 be said, predict that Trump would win. Let's play a 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:16.760 little bit of that now. 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:20.360 I think he'll win the nomination and he'll win the president. 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:21.880 So you think he's going to be the president. 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:24.840 I think this time next year we'll be talking about 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:27.560 President Trump. Yeah, Okay, well we'll come back in twelve 0:08:27.600 --> 0:08:30.080 months and sea, Yes, So what's going on? Hello future, Zara, 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:34.240 talk to you? Then, thank you for giving me that credit. 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:36.840 I will also just add, because the clip was not played, 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:40.440 that sam My beloved best friend and co founder, did 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:42.760 say on the same podcast that not only would Donald 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:45.200 Trump not win the presidency, but he believed he wouldn't 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:48.080 win the nomination and he was wrong on two her house. 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:50.640 If that's okay. He was right about starting a business, 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:51.520 so we still love him. 0:08:51.559 --> 0:08:53.840 If you guys could see Zara's face right now, she's 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:59.760 just like glowing knowing that she was right exactly. Zara, 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:02.400 what was your biggest takeaway from the US election? 0:09:02.920 --> 0:09:08.040 I think that the biggest takeaway for me was legacy 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:11.800 media getting it wrong. And by that I mean the tone. 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:15.560 The way that Donald Trump supporters were spoken about was 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:18.600 again fairly uniform when it came to legacy media. If 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:22.760 you flipped through you know, the big newspapers in the US, 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:25.880 what you saw was this writing that suggested there was 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:29.840 no way Donald Trump could win the presidency and that 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:33.520 anyone that voted for him was just wrong. And what 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:36.800 we saw was that more than half the country disagreed 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:38.840 with that and ended up voting. And I think that 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:42.720 this disconnect between the way that the media sees the 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:45.640 political class and the way that ordinary Americans and it's 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:48.160 not just an American issue, it's all around the world. 0:09:48.360 --> 0:09:51.600 But I think that disconnect was really really clear at 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:53.000 the US election, and it. 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:57.120 Was largely in legacy left wing media that you're talking about. Yeah, 0:09:57.120 --> 0:09:59.440 and after the election happened, we sat down as a 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:01.640 newsroom and went through a lot of the coverage from 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:04.960 other newsrooms, and the words shocking was used a lot, 0:10:05.040 --> 0:10:08.120 and we kept saying or surprise, yes, and we kept saying, 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:10.280 how could it be shocking if more than half of 0:10:10.320 --> 0:10:12.439 the people who voted in the election did vote for 0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:13.160 Donald Trump? 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:15.520 It was shocking for the other side, and it was 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:18.160 shocking because seemingly so much of the media sits on 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:21.200 that side. But yeah, taking a step back, that sort 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:24.840 of language around shock and surprise didn't really land for 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:27.840 anyone else. What about you, Billy, what was your takeaway? 0:10:28.840 --> 0:10:31.720 I'm going to stay in kind of like the media theme. 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:35.720 I think both campaigns really embraced new media for the 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:39.240 first time in the US election. I'm thinking about Joe Rogan, 0:10:39.520 --> 0:10:42.360 I'm thinking a bat call her daddy. Kamala Harris's team 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:45.240 really went hard on TikTok, as did Donald Trump's team. 0:10:46.040 --> 0:10:48.960 Donald Trump also spoke to the Paul Brothers, so there 0:10:49.040 --> 0:10:51.440 was a lot of talking to influences to try to 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:54.600 reach a new audience that way. And I think that 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:58.880 was really interesting and really smart on both sides to 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:01.480 not just go go to the legacy media that we 0:11:01.480 --> 0:11:04.040 were just speaking about Sarah, but to think of new 0:11:04.080 --> 0:11:07.880 innovative ways to reach new audiences, especially young people. 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:10.640 I'll be really curious to see if that translates here, 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:14.080 Like we haven't seen the same. I mean, obviously we've 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:18.080 had a sky minister and the opposition leader on this podcast. 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:19.640 But we're included in that we are new media. 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:21.800 But I don't know that there has been a kind 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:25.920 of all of government or all of political class embracing 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:29.040 of new media. I think that we're still a media company, 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:33.559 whereas I haven't necessarily seen influences engaged in the way 0:11:33.559 --> 0:11:35.319 they were in the US. I'll be really curious to 0:11:35.360 --> 0:11:36.240 see if that happens. 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:39.360 I actually just saw Peter Dunnan do an interview with 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:42.040 Sam Frick I think his name is, who is the 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:46.480 Olympic diver who's very famous on TikTok. Yeah, so he Yeah, 0:11:46.480 --> 0:11:49.760 there's an early indication that Christing possibly is going to 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:52.280 go down a similar route to what Donald Trump did. 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:55.800 Wow, I mean, definitely one to watch, and we will 0:11:55.840 --> 0:11:58.600 be absolutely knocking on the doors of both a prime 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:00.640 minister and that position leader ask them to come on 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:04.640 this part again ahead of the election. But Billy, not 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:07.360 just the US election that happened. Tell me about everything 0:12:07.360 --> 0:12:08.080 else in the world. 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:10.200 Before we get to that. We're going to hear a 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:15.679 quick message from our sponsor. Okay, you mentioned this earlier, 0:12:15.720 --> 0:12:18.080 and I don't think I answered your question properly, But 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:20.880 we did see across the world, not just in the US, 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:24.200 a swing to the right. We also saw in Europe 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:28.120 across several elections. So there was the European Parliament's election, 0:12:28.360 --> 0:12:33.079 which is the world's only democratically elected transnational organization. Was 0:12:33.120 --> 0:12:34.959 a mouthful, yes, but so it was a whole lot 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:38.640 of countries that were part of this election. They saw 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:43.200 a historic surge for small far right parties across Europe, 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:46.600 and in particular that one election caused a lot of 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:50.120 disruption to France, who had to call a snap election 0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:54.559 for its own parliament because of the popularity, the unexpected 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:58.079 popularity in the rise in the far right. Like you said, 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:00.760 and that has now led to months of disarray in 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:04.120 French politics, and we've already seen another French PM come 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:06.440 and go since that, and it's all because of this 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:07.760 sudden surge in the right. 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:11.520 Yeah. I mean, it's a really interesting thing because so 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:15.240 much of politics is cyclical in that it goes in cycles. 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:16.560 You know, you have a swing to the left, then 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:18.160 a swing to the right, and a swing to the left. 0:13:18.520 --> 0:13:22.360 But somehow this is still really surprising a lot of analysts. 0:13:22.640 --> 0:13:26.240 Yeah, and a similar thing also happened in Austria and Portugal, 0:13:26.440 --> 0:13:28.080 and also in Germany on a state level. 0:13:28.120 --> 0:13:30.520 Yeah, on a state level, there were grounds made from 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:33.199 far right parties that hadn't happened or hadn't been seen 0:13:33.240 --> 0:13:36.720 since World War Two. So that's definitely one. And we 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:40.840 saw the German Chancellor Olive Schultz voted down in a 0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:43.680 no confidence vote just this week, so definitely one to 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:45.599 keep an eye on in the new year, yeaph. 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:48.680 And then elsewhere, we had the biggest election that the 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:52.720 world has ever seen in India, where nearly one billion 0:13:52.800 --> 0:13:56.120 people voted over a six week period. Can you imagine 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:58.199 that we have twenty six million people who need a 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:01.920 vote in Australia, they had one billion people, unbelievable who 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:05.280 needed to vote, and that resulted in incumbent Prime Minister 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:08.680 Naranda Emodi returning to power for a third time. And 0:14:08.720 --> 0:14:12.240 then also just of note, Mexico elected its first female president. 0:14:12.360 --> 0:14:14.400 Yeah, and we knew that that was a foregone conclusion 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:17.200 because both candidates in the end were females. So either 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:19.880 way it was going to end with a female president there. 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:22.720 I had forgot that, Okay, and Zara. Whilst we are 0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:25.880 still talking about overseas, a big focus in the news 0:14:25.880 --> 0:14:28.360 this year has been what has been happening in the 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:31.480 Middle East. Yeah, the changing geopolitics there. Do you want 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:32.160 to take us through that? 0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:32.880 Yeah? 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:34.680 I mean the thing is that there are just so 0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:39.560 many different stories that are kind of interwoven and interlaced 0:14:39.600 --> 0:14:42.640 in this one region, and it has seen the biggest 0:14:42.640 --> 0:14:46.280 shift in decades just in the last couple of months alone. 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:49.160 So obviously, I think the first thing to be said 0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:51.680 is that the war between Israel and Hummas in Gaza 0:14:51.880 --> 0:14:55.120 remains ongoing. That has not come to an end. It 0:14:55.280 --> 0:14:59.040 started this round of violence rather started on October seven 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:02.120 of twenty twenty three. But there does seem to be 0:15:02.160 --> 0:15:05.000 a move towards a ceasefire, and perhaps the most meaningful 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:08.720 steps taken to a ceasefire that we've seen in months. 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:12.120 So based on reporting, there could be a ceasefire deal 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:15.080 over the Christmas period, but we'll have to wait and 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:20.320 see what happens there. Elsewhere. In Lebanon, Hesbela and Israel 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:24.080 reached a ceasefire earlier this year, and that came after 0:15:24.160 --> 0:15:28.360 Hesbelah was really quite weakened. There had been an ongoing 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:31.640 war since October eighth of last year between those two 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:36.560 and Hesbela had this year lost its leadership almost entirely, 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:39.560 and that ended up with, as I said, that deal 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:43.200 being reached. Then if we go to another border that 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:47.280 Israel has with Syria. In Syria, we saw the government 0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:50.440 collapse in recent weeks and there's been that vacuum of 0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:53.320 power that has been filled by the rebels there. 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:55.560 So I guess kind of what we can take from 0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:58.360 there is that previously last year, a lot of the 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.200 war was focused on what was happening in Gaza, and 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:03.040 now a lot of it is based on what is 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:06.080 happening at the borders of Israel on multiple sides. 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:10.520 Yes, exactly, so Israel is fighting on multiple fronts, but 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:13.880 I think the one commonality there is Iran. So the 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:19.120 Iranian regime backs Hamas, it backs Hezbola, and until recently 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:22.240 it was backing Syria and Bashar al Asad, and all 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:24.520 three of those, as I just mentioned, have had quite 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:27.920 significant changes. In recent months. We have seen Iran and 0:16:28.000 --> 0:16:30.600 Israel for the very first time directly attack each other. 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:34.040 But that didn't really escalate into a direct war between 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:37.480 the two, but it certainly symbolizes the biggest shift in 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:40.320 the region in a very long time. 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:43.560 An absolutely massive thing that happened this year and that 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:46.240 will continue to keep a very close eye on in 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:49.560 the new year. Zara, a bit of a change of pace. 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:52.680 We're going to talk about cultural moments. 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:53.760 We had a fight about this. 0:16:54.040 --> 0:16:56.920 Oh my, that sounds like we hate each other. We don't, 0:16:57.440 --> 0:17:01.280 but we just argued about what the biggest cultural moments were, 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:05.080 and I think that speaks to how fragmented everyone's algorithms are. 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:08.680 What's very popular on your for you page obviously isn't 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:10.639 the same as my for you page, which is what 0:17:10.760 --> 0:17:13.560 is so addictive about TikTok and yeah, algorithms that I 0:17:13.600 --> 0:17:14.760 think is so tailored to. 0:17:14.720 --> 0:17:18.360 You like, how interesting that in a conversation we're having 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:21.760 about big cultural news moments, TikTok is the thing that 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:25.040 has somehow shaped that like that is totally That in 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:27.800 itself is so novel and I can't remember a time 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:31.479 where it can dictate what is important to someone and 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:33.520 not important to another person. But we'll stop with the 0:17:33.560 --> 0:17:36.560 preamble now, Billy, what was the stand up cultural moment 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:37.240 for you this year? 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:39.399 Okay, well, it's not one that you agreed with, no, 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:42.280 but I didn't want to have recency bias, so I 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:44.480 wanted to pick one that was from earlier in the year, 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:48.200 and I would say it was Kate Middleton, which it 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:51.760 feels so long ago, Yeah, but that was this year. 0:17:51.840 --> 0:17:52.199 Yeah. 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:55.040 But it went on for about a month where the 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:58.479 world was wondering what had happened to her, what she was. 0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:01.320 There had been a lot of speculation about it, and 0:18:01.520 --> 0:18:03.720 in March, on Mother's Day, she put up a photo 0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:06.399 of herself with her three children, and it was then 0:18:06.480 --> 0:18:08.919 discovered that that photo was photoshopped. And I think what 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:11.359 stood out to me was the fact that Geddy and 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:14.639 I think AAP as well, which are both photo agencies 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:17.200 that we use at the Daily Os. They had put 0:18:17.240 --> 0:18:20.840 a kind of warning or cautionary message on that photo 0:18:21.320 --> 0:18:23.920 saying that this photo has been photoshopped and that you 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:26.439 should be wary when you use it. And I have 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:30.040 never seen anything like that before, And that was a 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:33.320 conversation at the time that that was unprecedented for them 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:36.080 to do that, and it then led to even more 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:39.480 of a storm of speculation, and it was then revealed 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:42.400 towards the end of March that Kate Middleton had been 0:18:42.440 --> 0:18:46.040 diagnosed with cancer and had begun chemotherapy, which I think 0:18:46.080 --> 0:18:49.280 was a very sad kind of ending to that speculation. 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:51.280 I think it caused a lot of people to reflect 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:55.800 on how they had reported and how they had commented. Discourse, Yeah, 0:18:55.840 --> 0:18:59.760 on her kind of disappearance, and they're not disappearance, but 0:18:59.840 --> 0:19:01.560 I would say that was, you know, in the first 0:19:01.600 --> 0:19:03.240 three months of this year, that was one of the 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:04.040 biggest stories. 0:19:04.320 --> 0:19:06.680 And also I just had to google this to make 0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:08.400 sure it was this year. But King Charles was also 0:19:08.440 --> 0:19:12.000 diagnosed with cancer this yes, so Prince William had both 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:16.080 his wife and his father battling separate cancer diagnoses at 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:19.159 the same time. It's unbelievable to think what can happen 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:23.040 in just one year. I do think that that recency 0:19:23.080 --> 0:19:26.200 bias is perhaps clouding my judgment, and I do remember 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:28.280 it was a huge moment at the time, and you're right, 0:19:28.400 --> 0:19:31.360 like the implications were fairly far reaching. 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:33.720 So I'll give you that, all right, Zarah, What was 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:35.840 your biggest moment of the year in culture? 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:39.040 Well, for me, when I think back to this year, 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:42.439 the thing that stands out is just this rise and 0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:46.320 rise and rise of female artists, and specifically the idea 0:19:46.640 --> 0:19:50.960 that people think that Charlie XCX, Chapel Ron Sabrina Carpenter, 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:54.679 that these people were overnight successes. And I have just 0:19:54.880 --> 0:19:59.960 loved reading, listening to watching the fact that these super 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:03.760 stars have been decades in the making but have emerged 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:07.760