Ever added the wrong person to a group chat? Well, Trump officials just did it with classified military information - and somehow managed to make it even worse by continuing to chat after they noticed.
Plus, as we enter a new quarter century, it's time to meet Generation Beta...
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CREDITS
Hosts: Taylah Strano & Grace Rouvray
Guests:
Amelia Lester, Mamamia's US Correspondent
Mark McCrindle, Social Researcher & Founder of McCrindle
Executive Producer: Taylah Strano
Audio Producer: Lu Hill
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Hey, I'm Taylor Strano. This is MMA MIA's twice daily news podcast, The Quickie. You know those nightmare scenarios where you accidentally add the wrong person to a group chat, Well, imagine doing that. We're classified military information. That's exactly what's happened in the Trump administration. Plus, I don't mean to alarm you, but twenty twenty five marks a new quarter century and also the beginning of a new generation of people. It's time to meet Jen Beater. But first, here's Grace roof Ray. We're the latest from the Quickie newsroom for Thursday March twenty seven.
Social media posts have shown hundreds of Palestinians protesting in the north of the Gaza Strip to demand an end to war chanting Hamas out in a rare public show of opposition to the militant group. The posts, which began circulating late u showed people marching down a dusty street between war damaged buildings. The North has been one of the most devastated areas, where most buildings in the densely populated area have been reduced to rubble and much of the population has moved several times to escape. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanya, who was quick to say the protest showed Israel's decision to renew its offensive was working. Australians struggling with soaring bills are calling for more substantial relief as Opposition leader Peter Dutton prepares to unveil a cost of living policy. In his budget reply, Dutton is expected to promise a twelvemonth halving of fuel, cutting petrol and diesel taxes from fifty to twenty five cents per liter. This comes after the Coalition voted against Labour's tax cuts, arguing they provide too little, too late for struggling Australians. Treasurer Jim Chalmers defended the cuts as part of a broader relief strategy, while Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor criticized Labour for prioritizing short term gains ahead of the election. Economic policy is set to be a key battleground for this upcoming election, with speculation growing it could be called as early as Friday. More than ninety Gen's West stores are set to close after the company behind the fashion brand collapsed, putting over six hundred retail jobs at risk. Citing tough market conditions and failing consumer spending. The company said brick and mortar stores were no longer viable, while all physical locations are expected to shut the brand and online store may survive if a restructure succeeds. Stock will be sold off immediately to repay creditors. The Australian Retailers Association warned that rising costs and reduced spending may have left many retailers vulnerable, calling for government support. Genes West's collapse follow similar retail struggles, including Mosaic brands shut down last year, which cost three thousand jobs across brands like Miller's and Rivers. Gwyneth Paltrow and Meghan Markele shut down feud rumors by posting a video together in Paltrow's kitchen. During an Instagram Q and A, Paltrow addresses the speculation, saying I genuinely do not understand this, before turning the camera to Megan, who shrugged and laughed. Rumors arose after Paltrow's breakfast making video resembled scenes from Meghan's Netflix show with Love Megan, even using the same song. Paltrow defended Meghan's new lifestyle brand, saying everyone deserves an attempt at everything they want to try. Despite mixed reviews, Megan's show has been a Netflix hit, and she recently teased a new podcast promising girl talk and business advice.
Thanks Grace. Next, the group chat that's landed US officials in hot water. In what might be one of the biggest national security breaches of the year, the Trump administration has found itself read faced after accidentally adding a journalist, yes, a journalist, to a high level group chat discussing military operations in Yemen.
The editor in chief of the Atlantic was accidentally texted top secret, minute by minute war plans about this month's military strikes in Yemen. I will repeat that. Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic, says he was included in a group chat full of our nation's top security officials, including the Vice president, the CIA director, the Director of National Intelligence, the Secretary of State, the White House Chief of Staff, and more, discussing what we can only assume to be top secret plans to bomb hoo the targets across Yemen. On March fifteenth.
That's Katie Ta from MSNBC, who is just as shocked as the rest of the world to learn about this. To help us understand the extraordinary situation, we are joined by our US correspondent, Amelia Lester. Amelia, words fail me with this one. What exactly has happened to you?
I know we are always saying that story is coming out of this administration are extraordinary, but this one is maybe the craziest national security story in thirty years. So let me explain. The editor of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg. The Atlantic is a US news magazine, went public on Monday with a story that made heads spin in Washington. A few weeks ago, he got an invitation from Trump's national security advisor, whose name is Mike Waltz, to join a group chat on Signal. Signal is like a super encrypted version of WhatsApp. He thought, that's weird because I'm a journalist and this is Trump's national security advisor, who probably should be talking in very encrypted forums and not on a commercial messaging app.
But I'll give it a go.
It's probably a Russian hoax, but let's see. So he joins the group. It's called Hohothy PC Small Group PC refers to national security jargon for Principals Committee. The Huthis are an a round backed terrorist organization that operates in and around Yemen and been responsible for these pirate attacks on commercial shipping vessels around there and have caused a lot of havoc around supply chains. He joins the group, and then he discovers that what they are talking about in the group is exactly when and how they should drop bombs on the Hoothies. These are the other people he sees in this group chat. Vice President j. D Vance, Secretary of State Micro Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Treasury Secretary Scott percent White House Chief of Star Suzy Wiles, and US Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff. In other words, the big wigs.
That is a huge list of very important.
Very important people. He was in a grocery store car park over the weekend, Jeff Goldberg when he finally realized the group chat was real. News broke that the Houthies really had been bombed by US forces and at least fifty three people had been killed. Steve Witcoff, who is Trump's Middle East Envoy, responded to the news with what I have to say is now an infamous string of celebratory emojis, hands praying, flex bicep, two American flags.
Okay, I still cannot believe that this happened. There are so many questions I want to ask you. Firstly, at what point do they realize they've added a journalist, not just a journalist, the editor in chief of The Atlantic into the group chat.
It's a really good question. There are still lots of questions that are unanswered about all of this because the White House's response when Jeffrey Goldberg contacted them was basically nothing to see here. They were having a thoughtful discussion about national security matters. What we know is that he did leave the group after the bombing happened. He essentially decided that that was the ethical thing to do. That would have triggered a notification to Waltz, who was the person who's set.
Up the group chat, and possibly also the.
Other members of the group, notifying them that Jeffrey Goldberg had left the chat. But what's kind of stunning is that no one followed up with him. First thing that is their response is when he contacts the White House and he says, Hey, why was I in this group?
Follow up is why does this group chat exist on an app that really, this shouldn't be happening on right.
Yah, can't stress that enough. So there's a place at the White House called the Situation Room. You may have seen the photo when Osama bin Laden was killed by US forces in Pakistan. There's a very famous photo of Barack Obama sitting in a sort of central chair at this long table. Hillary Clinton is next to him with her hand over her mouth. The Situation Room at the White House is where you go when you want to talk about top secret stuff, like the fact that you're about to bomb someone. It has very secure communication systems. You're not allowed to take your own phone in there, even it certainly isn't even on the White House WiFi. So people who are national security experts have been coming out and explaining why this is such a big deal that they were using signal and not the Situation Room. And they've said it's almost a certainty that Russian and Chinese governments are monitoring what's happening on signal. Even more stunningly, today it came out that Wikkof was actually in Moscow at the time that he was discussing these things on signals. So it's almost a given that the Russians knew exactly what was happening and when it was about to happen.
So beyond this just being a absolute blunder of like, oh my god, we added the wrong person to the group chat. How embarrassing for us. Hope they don't tell people our secrets. What are the national security implications of hosting this conversation?
Yeah, so, first of all, just to mention, there are legal implications as well. Everyone involved, but particularly Waltz for starting it, may have violated the Espionage Act and many other laws. And Waltz is now being sued by a public interest group because of course, unless he is sued, none of these people are going to face any consequences for flagrantly violating the law. Setting that aside, one of the biggest national security implications is around the Five Eyes intelligence gathering alliance, and this directly involves Australia. So Five Eyes is an intelligence alliance of the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. The idea is that these countries freely share any information they get with each other. All of these countries, now you would imagine, are very seriously considering whether or not they want to keep sharing intelligence with each other, given that the Russians and the Chinese are probably intercepting it in a commercial messaging app.
I just want to take a moment to highlight the irony that's stripping from this story. The Trump administration hung Hillary Clinton out to drive for her email scandal. If you don't remember, she used her personal email to allegedly send classified material when she was the Secretary of State. This feels almost so much worse.
Yeah, so Waltz himself, in a twenty twenty three post on Twitter now X said Biden's sitting national security advisor sent top secret messages to Hillary Clinton's private account, and what was done about it? Not a damn thing. You've got countless examples of that, of all of these people talking vociferously about Hillary Clinton's lax security protocol when she was Secretary of State. And then you might also mention the Hunter Biden laptop story, which we were told to care about during the selection cycle, that hung on the idea that because he was the president's son, he should not have lost his laptop or left it at a computer repair store, because that is also a national security problem. Turns out he basically just had sex and dickpicks on there. But nonetheless we were told that it was a big deal.
So the Trump administration has basically said nothing to see here, swept it under the rug, We're basically going to ignore for now. What about the rest of the US political sphere though, I imagine Democrats are not happy about this.
No, and Pete Boudhajeedge and others have come out very strongly saying that this shows that these people can't be trusted with national security issues. The issue in the US is that because it's not a Westminster parliamentary system, opposition voices are generally drowned out in the news cycle. No one's very interested to hear what Pete boodha Judge has to say about it. And these people are not going to face any accountability until the next election, which is the midterms in twenty twenty six.
And just very quickly, Amelia, what about the MARGA massive. I feel like last time we spoke there was already division within MARGA supporters of how they were feeling about the current Trump administration. Do you feel like this is pushing some of them even further out. I'm pretty skeptical about that.
I think the more interesting marga division is within the White House. You've got a Steve Bannon camp, You've got a Pete haig Seth camp, You've got a micro Rubio camp. I think amongst Trump's supporters there really is an almost cult like quality where they will follow him anywhere. We had this tragic news in the last couple of weeks that there was the death of a child of measles in Texas. The family was interviewed actually by The Atlantic, and they sought to downplay the issue of measles as a serious disease and said it wasn't that bad because it didn't kill their other children, and that they would continue to not vaccinate their children. There was another story recently of a man who went on his honeymoon and when he came back into the country, his new wife was deported on immigration charges, and he came out and said he did not regret his vote for Trump despite the deportation of his wife. So I'm skeptical about whether a national security violation, albeit a pretty disastrous one, is actually going to make any impact amongst Trump supporters.
We all heard of Millennials, Gen Z and Jen Alpha, but there's now a new generation emerging, Generation Beta. And while I'm still wrapping my head around Jen Alpha language, like really, if someone can please tell me what skibberty rizzohiomemes, just drop that in the quickiedms, please and thank you. Gen Beter are not just incoming, some of them have actually already arrived. Born from twenty twenty five onwards. These kids will be the first generation to never know a world without artificial intelligence, and they're said to be the most technologically integrated generation we've ever seen. Founder and principle of mcrendall Research, Mark mccrendall has been familiarizing himself with Generation Beta. Mark, who are Gen Beater and what makes them so different to previous generations?
Well, firstly, there the generation growing up not just in a world of digital, not just in a world of devices and social media, but AI. And they will grow up in homes that are AI connected, in classrooms where teachers AI in four where they'll be using technology and content that is generated through artificial intelligence, as well as of course facilitating that with the human interactions from parents monitoring the children using AI or even diagnosing with health issues or other challenges. It's certainly a world of AI. This is the first generation of grap in that environment. But interestingly, the parents of Generation Beta, the gen zs, are the first generation of parents to not fully embrace technology. In fact, they're a bit more tech skeptics rather than tech optimists because they themselves grow up with technology and have seen the downsides of too much time on screens and social media. So they're not likely to just fully go for open slaver with the children like we saw with the previous generation, but rather put some guide rails in place as their children are shaped.
It's interesting because I feel like when we look at particularly Jen Alpha, a lot of them get labeled as iPad kids. So you're saying we could see a bit of a departure from that.
That's right. You know, generation how far we're born from twenty ten, which was the year that the iPad was released, and it was actually the same year that Instagram was launched, So they've only ever grown up with a world of device and tablets and social media. And the parents you know, of that previous generation, the Alpus, they saw the downsides of it. Now that the Gen Alphas are hitting their mid teenage years. We've seen that overall technology added and benefits, but in the feedback we get from research, they say, look, it had a negative on us that created addictive approaches to needing that screen time. They spent longer on screens than traditional activities and connecting with others in a face to face world.
What kind of world are Gen Beta entering when they will eventually reach the workforce. I imagine it's going to look a little bit different to what we're currently looking at.
Well, that's for sure, because already we've seen just in the last few years, where we work has changed with more flexible or hybrid working opportunities. What we do in workers change from more manual tasks over the last couple of decades and manufacturing to a knowledge economy, and it did economy are far more global workforces now rather than just localized ones. And we're going to see with this emerging generation even more of that. We'll see portfolio careers where they'll move We estimate across six separate careers in their lifetime. They'll up skill and retrain, They'll be lifelong learners. Education won't just be at the start of life. But to remain relevant, they'll be more entrepreneurial, so not just looking for job, as many will start jobs, and it's that era where they've been inspired by others that have gone before, who have done a few startups themselves. And in addition to all of that, they'll be using AI. They'll be globally and digitally connected. And they'll be the most formally educated generation ever, beginning their education earlier and staying in education longer. They'll be bringing that knowledge as well as the people's skills to the world of work into the future.
You're painting quite an inspirational and optimistic picture their mark. Are there any concerns that you have for this generation?
Yeah, there are. I mean they're coming of age in a time where economic unsse certainty prevails, where global geopolitical uncertainty is a little bit more volatile than we've seen for some decades, where global connectivity provides great opportunities, but it can create some challenges as well if jobs or earnings or companies get offshot and local Australian gen beaters miss out on some of that, but does require them to keep on the front foot to remain relevant to amid spas changing careers, but the life cycle of a career is shorter. Jobs are coming to an end, so they'll need to keep an eye on their pathway to remain relevant into the long term. They'll live longer, I mean longevity we're seeing continue to increase, and that'll mean they'll be able to work later in life as well. And many will want you, not just for financial reasons, but many will have to because we're seeing costs of living and particularly the age at which young people can get into a home being pushed back as well compared to what their parents and grandparents had. So new challenges financially, socially globally, but new opportunities as well. I think it is important that we recognize that we sit in a spectrum of generations, seven generations currently alive in Australia. Many have gone before and paved the way, and we're grateful for them, but many will come after, and we've got a steward things well for the coworts yet to come.
Thanks for taking some time to feature mind with us today. The Quikie is produced by me Taylor Strano and Grace Rubrae, with audio production by Lou Hill.