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January 2, 2025 • 15 mins

Michael Carr from the 96FM newsroom looks back at the biggest news stories of 2024

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello. I'm Mikayla Carr with a look back on the
biggest news stories of twenty twenty four. February fourteen is
traditionally the day of love, and the Prime Minister was
feeling it when he announced he was betrothed to longtime
partner Jody Hayden.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Will now have those discussions between us which I think
Clue would.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
Understand and sort out those details.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
The couple says their wedding plans are on the bag
burner and they won't be tying the knot until after
the next federal election. Australian journalism lost one of its
best when former sixty Minutes reported George Niggas passed away
in October. Known as the journal with the jackets slung
over his shoulder, Niggas was also revered as the man

(00:45):
who asked the tough questions of former Prime Minister in Britain,
Margaret Thatcher.

Speaker 4 (00:51):
Why do people stop us in the street almost and
tell us that Margaret Thatcher isn't just inflexible, she's not
just a single mind. And on occasion she's playing pighead
and won't be told. We don't tell me who has
stopped you in the street And said that we don't
tell me who and where and whereins in restaurants, then
I would say at least.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
One in two. Nigas went on to become the founding
host of the ABC's Foreign Correspondent and was famously parodied
by Paul Hogan. And the world looked to France in
July for the Games of the thirty third Olympiad and
no surprises that our swimmers scoop the pool literally. But
the biggest Australian story came out of the Games and

(01:32):
it was a kangaroo hopping sprinklers spraying brakdancer called Raygun.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
Everyone's still talking about the competitor from Australia named Rey Gun.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
You have to wonder where Reygun is right now?

Speaker 3 (01:45):
What about music coming from.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Jimmy Fallon among the many comedians to mock the Aussie
who later spoke of the damage the episode had had
on her metal health when the haters hated Rachel Gunn
is now being steered by one of the country's top
pr agents and is laughing or hopping all the way
to the bad terror. In April, for shoppers of a

(02:13):
Westfield in Sydney, where a forty year old man ran
a muck with a knife, stabbing people at random. Six
were killed and twelve others injured.

Speaker 5 (02:22):
About three point thirty this afternoon, mail with the knife
entered the Westfield shopping center at Bondi Junction and attacked
a number of people. A police offers responded and faced
that man and neutralized their threat within that shopping center.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
The New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb what followed
were many tales of heroism, security guards who called out
to shoppers ahead of the killer, and a young mother
who saved her baby by giving it to bystanders before
she became one of the victims. Still reeling from the
stabbing murders at Bondi Junction. Just days later, extremism hit

(03:01):
a church in Sydney's West A young man approaching a
bishop mid service the live stream, prompting hundreds of people
to head to the place of worship before attacking police
and paramedics baying for the blood of the young offender. Meanwhile,
the doctors and the Eagles could only dream of September action,

(03:21):
leaving Sydney and Brisbane to fight it out in an
all interstate grand final at the mcg pre entertainment by
Katie Perry revved up the crowd, but the Swans just
couldn't get started, thrashed by the lines to the Tune
of sixty Points and the lines of port Lightning in
a Bottle. Another year, another defeat for longtime Sydney coach

(03:48):
John Longmire, who's now handed over the reins to his
assistant and former premiership eagle Dean Cox. Singer Taylor Swift
brought her Ears tour to Australia in February. That March,
she broke her gig records with not one, but three
shows at the MCG You got ten people on the store,

(04:11):
Swift wrapping up her musical juggernaut in Canada. Australia's most
famous political prisoner, Julian Assange, returned home in June after
being released following a deal by the United States after
being accused of espionage by the Americans. He took shelter
for many years at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

Speaker 6 (04:29):
The experience of isolation for years in a small cell
is difficult to convey. It strips away one sense of self,
leaving only the raw essence of existence. I am yet
not fully equipped to speak about what I have.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
Endured Julian Assange addressing the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe, and he was known as the Man of
a Thousand Characters. Radio and TV announcer John Blackman went
to the Voice Booth in the Sky in June. He
introduced and at time to the stars of Hey, Hey,
It's Saturday, and also created some memorable characters for the

(05:06):
same show. I'm here and so is my used to
say helover for hello.

Speaker 3 (05:11):
That's good right.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
John Blackman was seventy six. Not many have an instantly
recognizable voice. James Earl Jones, although an accomplished actor, was
best known as Movefasser from The Lion King and this
ominous character from the Dark Side I Knew the Father.
Jones was one of the few performers to achieve the

(05:35):
so called egot, winning an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar
and a Tony. James Earl Jones died in September. He
was ninety three. Appearance Worst Nightmare when two young women
drank alcoholic beverages in Laos which were laced with methanol.
After several agonizing days with their families by their sides,

(05:56):
the two Australian girls passed away.

Speaker 7 (06:00):
So beautiful girl and hope her loss of life has
not been in vain. I would like to take this
opportunity to urge the Allow government to investigate this to
the force extent to make sure this incident doesn't happen again.

Speaker 1 (06:14):
That's the father of Bianca Jones. He also called on
the Laos government to take action, and so far eight
people have been arrested and much of the world shuddered
to a halt in July when computers around the globe
said no Russell was on air and I shared important
news updates while he worked out ways to keep the
music on air on the air until the cassette runs out. We,

(06:39):
like many many companies worldwide, it appears, are suffering from
a software issue, which means not much as working. After
that day, CrowdStrike became common vernacular. After holding the world
hostage with an outage the scale of which has never
been seen before, the newly crowned King Charles and Queen
Camilla to a stratea for the first time in October.

(07:01):
It wasn't a warm welcome at Parliament House in Canberra,
though from Independent Indigenous senator Lydia Thorpe and that was
captured live on TV. She was then escorted from the
building and later censured by the Senate. Thorpe says she

(07:22):
has no regrets and would continue her campaign fighting against
the monarchy. The war in the Middle East came far
too close to home in April when Australian aid worker
Zombie frankem was killed after a humanitarian cargo truck was
attacked in Gaza.

Speaker 3 (07:39):
Zombie was relentless.

Speaker 8 (07:41):
She was huge hearted and just really dedicated and really driven, worked.

Speaker 3 (07:48):
All hours and just would put everything into it.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
An investigation followed and it was determined that an Israeli
missile had hit the aid workers by accident. And Music
lost another singer far too young in October, with Liam
Payne from One Direction found dead after falling from a
balcony in Argentina to kill. Payne was thirty one and

(08:18):
the father of a small child. He married the singer
Sheryl Cole, who was one of the judges who discovered
him on X Factor, leading to his inclusion in one
of the most successful boy bands in history. Dame Maggie
Smith was a legend of the entertainment world, gracing the
stage cinemas and the small screen since the nineteen fifties.

(08:40):
In most recent times she was known as the feisty Dowager,
Countess of Grantham or Violet Crawley and resided in Downton Abbey,
and before that she was immortalized as Harry Potter Tutor
Minerva McGonagall in the series About the Boy Wizard.

Speaker 8 (08:57):
Now, in a few moments, you will pass through these
doors and join your classmates. But before you can take
your seats, you must be sorted into your hoses. They
are Gryffindor, Huffulpuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin.

Speaker 1 (09:10):
Maggie Smith won many awards, including two Oscars. She left
us in September, the ripe old age of eighty nine.
The shooting of an innocent mother and her daughter in
Florte in May sparked an emotional debate in w Way
about domestic violence. The daughter of the man responsible for
their deaths accused police of not listening to her when

(09:31):
she warned them about her father's cash of weapons.

Speaker 9 (09:34):
On each occasion, I alerted officers to my father's guns
and told them my mother and I felt there was
a real and imminent.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
Threat to our lives.

Speaker 9 (09:43):
I specifically mentioned that there was a glockhand gun which
was unaccounted for. My understanding is this ultimately would be
one of the weapons that my father used to take
the lives of two innocent women.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
An internal police inquiry is looking into the response to
her claims. Ten years after they were sentenced to an
Indonesian jail for drug trafficking, wat's left of the Bally
nine came home after a deal struck by the federal government.
The group flew into Melbourne in December, free men.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
They did a serious crime and they have rightly paid
a serious price for it.

Speaker 1 (10:19):
When it was time for then come home. The ring
leaders of the drugs operation were executed in twenty fifteen.
One of the mules was released early and another died
from cancer while incarcerated. Two Perth brothers were on a
surfing holiday of a lifetime in Mexico when they disappeared
in April.

Speaker 10 (10:38):
Yeah, look, this is obviously very worrying for the families involved.
When we do send our young men and women overseas
to enjoy that adventure holiday, they invite an element of
risk and this is really quite distressing.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
As time unfolded, the bodies of Jake and Callum Robinson,
as well as their American friend, were found killed for
the tires on their van. A foundation has been set
up in their honor. Nine oh two one Oho was
the postcode where everyone wanted to live in the nineteen nineties.

(11:16):
One of the stars was Shannon Doherty, who played twin
of Brandon Brenda. She also starred in the supernatural series Charmed.
Dohity developed breast cancer in recent years and passed away
in Hollywood in July. She was only fifty three. A
q from experts concerned about the mental health of the
Insta and Facebook generation, the federal government passed a law

(11:39):
banning anyone under the age of sixteen from having a
social media account, and the Prime Minister was unapologetic.

Speaker 2 (11:47):
There is a clear causal link between the rise of
social media and the harm for the mental health of
young Australians. And can I say when I was talking
with leaders, they are all looking at what we are doing,
and they are applauding what we are doing.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
And while some are hailing this world first, others are
dubious about its success. Time will tell, as the band
doesn't come into effect until the end of twenty twenty
five in March, in scenes normally captured in lower socioeconomic countries,
a bridge in Baltimore in the US was partially destroyed
after a cargo ship crashed into it.

Speaker 5 (12:30):
The entire key bridge in the harbor.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
Six members of a maintenance crew were killed after the
structure started to break up when the vessel steering gave
way and it slammed into the structure. In July, time
was up for Eagles coach Adam Simpson. Despite a premiership
in twenty eighteen, a couple of very lean years with
few wins saw the vultures circling and the former North

(12:54):
Melbourne player fell on his sharon.

Speaker 11 (12:57):
Obviously, a decision has been made and it's mutual. I
feel like the time's right. You know, I've reasonably stoic
over the last few years about the direction of the
club and now it's a slow burn and it's going
to take a bit of time, and that my position
hasn't changed, but I think it's the right call.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
In the nineteen eighties aerobics phase wasn't just about women
in skimpy g string leotards. Richard Simmons was the king
of that era and the darling of the talk show
circuit where he loved to chat about his shorts since.

Speaker 3 (13:29):
Nineteen seventy seven.

Speaker 6 (13:30):
These are relics.

Speaker 8 (13:31):
These belong in to Smithsonian, But I can't give it
to him because they teach four hundred and fifty classes
every year all around the country.

Speaker 3 (13:39):
Getting people healthy.

Speaker 1 (13:40):
The American fitness instructor couldn't beat cancer or a heart attack,
which led to his death in July. He was seventy six.
And the biggest news story of the year is going
to keep giving in twenty twenty five, and only one
word is required. Trump. It was a topsy turvy here
in US politics, and it came to head in fact

(14:01):
an ear when the Donalds was shot during a campaign rally.
But a clip on the ear leisterally wasn't going to
stop the former American President, who left the stage with
blood trickling down his face and his arm raised with

(14:23):
a fist. It was too much, though for his opponent,
current President Joe Biden, withdrawing from the race.

Speaker 4 (14:30):
Nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy
that includes personal ambition.

Speaker 3 (14:35):
So I've decided the best way forward is the past,
the torch for a new generation. That's the best wading a.

Speaker 6 (14:40):
Nine O nation.

Speaker 1 (14:41):
So in came his VP, Kamala Harris on behalf of
everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest
nation on Earth. I accept your nomination to.

Speaker 9 (14:58):
Be pre.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
There was another assassination attempt while Trump was playing golf.
No injuries this time, but his security was further beefed up.
According to the millionaire during his only debate with Harris.
Protection might also be required for American pets from the
clutches of migrants from Haiti in Springfield.

Speaker 3 (15:22):
They're eating the dogs the people that came in. They're
eating the cats, They're eating the pets of the people
that live there. And this is what's happening in our country.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
And despite that declaration, Donald J. Trump went on to
beat Harris comprehensively in November.

Speaker 3 (15:41):
It is now clear that we've achieved the most incredible
political there. Look what happened is this crazy?

Speaker 1 (15:50):
And Trump will continue to grab headlines after he's inaugurated
in the new year ninety six. An
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