Back at the start of the year, my good friend Snarky Platypus and I created a bingo card for 2025. A set of 25 things that might happen. Well, it’s now New Year’s Eve, so let’s see how we went. And let’s create a 2026 Bingo Card.
You might want to follow along with this chart, showing in bold which ones ended up happening at some point in 2025. We’ll skip over the ones we’d already discussed back in July.
| Australia announces another immigration amnesty | Coalition forms a minority government in Canberra | TikTok is able to operate in the US again | US and China warships exchange live fire | Musk disposes of X/Twitter |
| Rupert Murdoch separates from current partner | AUKUS cancelled by US | Penrith doesn’t win the NRL championship | Fatalities caused by space debris hitting a developed nation | Betelgeuse goes supernova |
| ABC finally cancels Insiders and/or Q&A | Hungary leaves the EU | FREE SQUARE: Musk embarrasses himself publicly | Taylor Swift separates from current partner | Fairy bread flavoured Shapes becomes a thing |
| Semaglutide (Ozempic) on Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme for weight management [See note 1] | Congestion charge introduced in an Australian city | Drug possession decriminalised in an Australian state or territory | US withdraws from NATO | Myanmar junta is overthrown |
| Tanya Plibersek becomes ALP leader | Natural disaster bankrupts a large insurance company, or at least a small one went down | Boeing carved up or bought out by Airbus | Tianwen-2 finds ingredients of life on Kamoʻoalewa | King Charles III dies |
Note 1: I’ve added “for weight management” here because semaglutide is already on the PBS. According to David Adam, “Novo Nordisk have applied to get Wegovy (the brand approved for weight management) on the PBS but the economics don’t stack up (mostly because long term benefits of weight loss are not well demonstrated)… I think Mounjaro (tirzepatide) getting the nod is more likely because it causes more weight loss, but to expand on my earlier comment there’s a great deal of post hoc thinking about obesity that (IMO) doesn’t match the real-world evidence. Even the riskier but more effective interventions like bariatric surgery don’t have strong lifelong evidence.”
We also announced our 2026 Bingo Card.
We talked about Taylor Swift, Chris Minns, weight loss drugs, rugby, AUKUS, Myanmar, Thailand, Glasgow, the Sydney Metro, and of course TikTok — and much more.
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A platypus of many talents. Interested in politics, food, pop music & basketball.
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[5 January 2025] Snarky Platypus and I have created this bingo card for 2025 listing 25 distinctly possible things. We also list the suggestions which didn’t make it.
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The short-form video-hosting service TikTok has been under a de jure nationwide ban in the United States since January 19, 2025, due to the US government's concerns over potential user data collection and influence operations by the government of the People's Republic of China. However, the ban has yet to be enforced.
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[19 December 2025] ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, has signed a deal with Larry Ellison’s Oracle, the private-equity group Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi’s MGX that will allow it to retain control of its core US operations.
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[25 December 2025] The Chinese government hopes that relevant parties can reach a solution regarding TikTok that complies with Chinese laws and regulations and achieves a balance of interests, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce said Thursday.
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[17 December 2025] Eight leading Australian and UK universities signed a landmark alliance at UNSW Sydney to accelerate skills, research and innovation in security and defence.
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[11 December 2025] After a series of meetings in Washington DC, Defence Minister Richard Marles says he is confident Australia's $4.5 billion contribution to the US's military shipbuilding program will help it deliver the AUKUS submarines on time.
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[11 July 2025] Any moment now, Donald Trump might cancel AUKUS, the massive defence agreement which among other things would see Australia buying eight nuclear-powered submarines. AUKUS has become the big thing in Australia’s defence procurement, but do we need it? Sam Roggeveen thinks not, and he’s our guest today.
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This links to the final NLS ladder showing Penrith Panthers at #7.
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The 2025 National Rugby League finals series is a tournament that was staged to determine the winner of the 2025 Telstra Premiership season. The series was played over four weekends in September and October, culminating in the 2025 NRL Grand Final on 5 October 2025.
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The Penrith Panthers are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Greater Western Sydney suburb of Penrith that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL). The team is based 55 km (34 mi) west of the centre of Sydney, at the foot of the Blue Mountains.
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[13 November 2025] No one under the age of 25 has ever known a time when there haven’t been humans in space — although to be fair, not many humans. To mark the 25th anniversary of the International Space Station’s inhabitation, and other space news, we chat once more with Dr Alice Gorman aka Dr Space Junk and astrophysicist Rami Mandow.
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[2 December 2025] Next year’s most anticipated wedding inspires Gen Z to drop the doomscrolling and dial up the real world, marriages - babies and all.
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[19 December 2025] The PBAC recommended it be listed for adults with established cardiovascular disease with obesity, while also identifying which groups could have more affordable access to GLP-1s.
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BMI is calculated using your weight and height (your weight divided by your height squared). Along with several other factors, like your blood pressure and cholesterol, BMI can help estimate your risk of a heart attack or stroke.
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[28 December 2025] The first of three phases of voting has finished in Myanmar, in an election widely dismissed as a "sham", with major political parties dissolved, leaders jailed and as much as half the country not expected to vote due to an ongoing civil war.
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[4 November 2025] Hurricane Ida revealed a fragile insurance industry ill-prepared for the consequences of climate change. More than four years later, what's changed?
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On September 27, 2022, FedNat Insurance Company ('FedNat") was ordered into receivership for purposes of liquidation by the Second Judicial Circuit Court in Leon County, Florida. The Florida Department of Financial Services is the court appointed Receiver of FedNat.
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Tianwen-2 (Chinese: 天问二号) is a Chinese asteroid sample return and comet exploration mission that launched on 28 May 2025. The China National Space Agency (CNSA) plans for the probe to return samples from 469219 Kamoʻoalewa—a near-Earth asteroid that is currently a quasi-satellite of Earth—in 2027.
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[13 December 2025] In a recorded video message broadcast on Channel 4 for the Stand Up To Cancer campaign, the King said: "This milestone is both a personal blessing and a testimony to the remarkable advances that have been made in cancer care."
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The 2025 Bondi Beach shooting was an Islamic terrorist attack that occurred at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia on 14 December 2025, during a celebration of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, attended by approximately one thousand people. Two alleged gunmen – Sajid Akram and his son, Naveed Akram – killed 15 people, including a 10 year old child.
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[24 December 2025] Premier Chris Minns says some of the tougher laws on guns and protests in the wake of the Bondi Beach attack will go into effect immediately after the NSW Parliament passed a package of changes in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
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[28 December 2025] NSW premier also announces police will carry long-arm rifles at major New Year’s Eve event in Sydney
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The 2023-24 NSW Budget ▪ external sitecommitted funding to develop two business cases that consider: (1) a future rail connection between St Marys and Tallawong, via Schofields and Marsden Park and (2) future rail connections between Bradfield and Leppington/Glenfield, and between Bradfield and Campbelltown/Macarthur - working with the Australian Government.
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[15 November 2024] A report by the Committee for Sydney released in October called for a massive expansion of the city’s metro network, proposing five new lines in addition to three under construction and three already proposed.
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What's brewing in Thai politics and beyond — with @kenlmathis.
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[15 October 2025] The release of the event-by-event competition schedule has set the stage for an action-packed Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games, confirming 215 medal events to be contested across 10 sports
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As of October 2024, over 11,000 workers at 500 Starbucks stores in at least 40 states in the United States have voted to unionize, primarily with Workers United.
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As of December 2025, SpaceX has not confirmed an official initial public offering (IPO) date. However, reporting suggests the company is preparing for a potential listing in 2026, supported by internal restructuring, regular secondary share sales and engagement with advisers.
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[12 March 2025] The fatal flaw SpaceX can't overcome.
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[25 November 2025] I know nothing about cars. I don’t even know how to drive. So obviously my guest today is freelance motoring journalist and editor of The Redline, Peter Anderson — because a lot has been happening in the auto industry, right? I might learn something.
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[18 October 2025] According to a new measurement of the Kuiper Belt plane – the vast ring of icy worlds wherein Pluto resides – an unexpected 15-degree tilt in the orbital alignment of some objects in the belt could be the result of the influence of a planet stirring up trouble.
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[17 November 2025] China warns citizens not to travel to Japan amid escalating row over comments about Taiwan made by PM Sanae Takaichi.
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[15 May 2024] In honor of AAPI Heritage Month, here's a look back at some of the major strides made by Asian artists in chart history, from the 1960s to the 2020s.
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[5 August 2025] The breakdown of nuclear diplomacy, misleading talk of ‘limited’ nuclear war and a lack of public awareness have produced a dangerously heightened risk.
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CONVERSATION TOPICS: None this time.
THREE TRIGGER WORDS: Bernard Walsh, Garth Kidd, Paul Williams, Peter Lieverdink, Peter Wickins, and one person who chooses to remain anonymous.
WE WILL, WE WILL JUDGE YOU, part of Another Untitled Music Podcast: Joanna Forbes, Martin English, and one person who chooses to remain anonymous.
ONE TRIGGER WORD: Andrew Best, Drew Mayo, Errol Cavit, Frank Filippone, Jim Campbell, Jordan Wightman, Karl Sinclair, Kym Yeap, Mark Newton, Michael, Michael again, Miriam Faye, Nicole Coombe, Oliver Townshend, Peter Blakeley, Ric Hayman, Stephen Collins, Steve Sainsbury, and two people who choose to remain anonymous.
RECOMMEND A SONG TO US, another part of Another Untitled Music Podcast: Briala Bowmer, Kimberley Heitman, Mindy Johnson, and Rhydwyn.
PERSONALISED VIDEO MESSAGE: None of these this time either.
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Series Credits
- The 9pm Edict theme by mansardian via The Freesound Project.
- Edict fanfare by neonaeon, via The Freesound Project.
- Elephant Stamp theme by Joshua Mehlman.