Last night, Treasurer Jim Chalmers handed down the Budget, aka the economic plan for the next four years and beyond.

On the positive side, he delivered his second consecutive surplus and a bunch of cost of living sweeteners – including a new $300 payment in energy bill relief for every Australian household, which he reckons will help put downward pressure on inflation.

We saw more detail on Treasury’s optimistic new forecast showing inflation will drop below 3% by Christmas, plus the things we knew already about like Stage 3 tax cuts and $3 billion in student debt being wiped.

But on the negative side: critics have described it as a “band aid” budget that relies on a lot of variables for its economic outlook, benefits billionaires and multinationals and could actually make inflation worse.

And while the Treasurer can pat himself on the back for this year’s surplus of $9.3 billion, looks like we’re heading deep into the red next year with a $28.3 billion deficit, followed by a $42.8 per cent deficit in 2025-26.

With an election looming, the year ahead will be critical in determining if he hit the right note between bringing inflation under control without hurting the economy.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin is threatening nuclear war as his invasion of the Ukraine continues.

Putin last week ordered Russian troops to perform military exercises to prepare for the use of tactical nuclear weapons.

Tactical nukes are generally smaller and less powerful than traditional nuclear weapons, but use of such weapons would be catastrophic.

It’s now been more than 800 days since Russia’s massive ground invasion of Ukraine, a military operation supposedly intended to only run for ten days.

In this episode of The Briefing, Benison speaks to Dr Keith Suter, former President of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney about why Putin would make this new threat now, and just how worried should we be in this moment.

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It’s been a month since the horrific attack at Bondi Junction Westfield, during which a man stabbed 18 people, killing six. Most of his victims were women.

The event was heavily reported on by the media, and in the wake of the tragedy we’ve seen dozens more instances of violent knife crime right around Australia.

It may feel like we’re seeing an increase in these sort of attacks, but is that true? What do the stats tell us? And does more media reporting mean more people want to copy what they see?

Criminologist Xanthe Mallett from the University of Newcastle joins the Briefing to breakdown Australia’s knife crime.

Headlines:

NSW moves on new bail laws for domestic violence offenders

X no longer forced to remove videos of Wakeley church stabbing

Treasurer to announce $9.3 billion surplus in tonight’s budget

#Blockout2024: Celebs lose hundreds of thousands of followers over their silence on Gaza and insane displays of wealth

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