Tangle - The mass shooting in Australia.

Episode Date: December 15, 2025

On Sunday, two gunmen opened fireon a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, killing 15 people and injuring dozens of others in the country’s deadliest mass shooting since 1996. According to authorities, the shooters were a father and son, and the father was shot and killed by the police while the son sustained “critical injuries.” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the shooting “an act of evil, antisemitism, terrorism”; investigators have said they are still working to understand the shooters’ motives. Ad-free podcasts are here!To listen to this podcast ad-free, and to enjoy our subscriber only premium content, go to ReadTangle.com to sign up!Need a last-minute gift?The holiday season is here, which is a good time to remind you: You can give the gift of Tangle to friends and family! There are two great options: Gift a Tangle subscription. Whether it’s an earnest present to a friend or family member who would love our work, or a passive-aggressive gift for your favorite relative who doesn’t share your politics, a Tangle subscription is a great way to find some common ground and keep your loved ones informed. It takes thirty seconds! Hit the merch shop. We have hoodies, shirts, mugs, stickers, hats, and even onesies for the little ones. Snag something fresh with our new logo or grab a vintage Tangle brain on any garment you’d like. You will want to hop on these quickly to make sure they arrive before the holidays!You can read today's podcast⁠ ⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠, our “Under the Radar” story ⁠here and today’s “Have a nice day” story ⁠here⁠.You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here. Take the survey: How do you think Australia should respond to this attack? Let us know.Our Executive Editor and Founder is Isaac Saul. Our Executive Producer is Jon Lall.This podcast was written by: Isaac Saul and edited and engineered by Dewey Thomas. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75.Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Senior Editor Will Kaback, Lindsey Knuth, Kendall White, Bailey Saul, and Audrey Moorehead. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon and good evening and welcome to the Tangle podcast, a place we get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking, and a little bit of my take. I'm your host, Isaac Saul. I am perpetually sick now. Apparently having a 10-month-old son in daycare is just, it's like having this adorable little plague-ridden, beautiful, joyful human being running around the house. I can't explain.

I don't think I've breathed through my nose in like six months. Yeah, I was laid up this weekend, sick as a dog. I'm back in the arena trying to fight through it today. So I probably sound like crap. I apologize for that. Just you're not John, our podcast editor, who's going to have to spend three hours cutting out all my coughs

and joking on my own words because I can barely speak from the episode. So be grateful that you don't have to edit me. You only have to listen to me. But I'm here. It's Monday, December 15th, and we have a much more serious topic today to cover. than my illness.

We're going to be jumping into the horrific, terrifying mass shooting in Australia, which, I mean, yeah, hard to wrap your head around at this point, especially given that it came on the same weekend that we got reports of a separate mass shooting at Brown University here in the United States. I'm going to break down that Australia story, share some views from the left and the right, and some views from abroad, and then my take. Before we jump into it, though, I do want to. to give you a quick heads up on two things. First, we have a correction today in our March 12th edition

on the U.S. Canada trade war. Yes, March 12th, this is going back. We referred to then-representative William McKinley as a Democrat and then presidential candidate Grover Cleveland as a Republican. We mistakenly swapped their parties. McKinley was a Republican and Cleveland was a Democrat. We did not initially catch this error. But an eagle-eyed reader, flagged it to us recently, and we felt like, well, there's no statute of limitations on screwing up in the news business. So we probably have to address it. This is our 148th correction entangles 332-week history. It's our first correction noted since December 10th, though obviously this correction happened well before that. We track these corrections and we place

them on the top of the podcast in an effort to maximize transparency with our audience. All right, that out of the way in more cheerful news, the holiday season's here, which is a good time to remind you. You can give the gift of Tangle to friends and family, and there are two great options. First, you can gift a Tangle subscription, whether it is an earnest present to a family member or a friend who would love our work or a passive aggressive gift to your favorite relative who doesn't share your politics. A Tangle subscription is a great way to find some common ground and keep. your loved ones informed. You can go to readtangle.com slash gift dash subscription. That's readtangle.com slash gift dash subscription. It takes just about 30 seconds. Also, you could hit up our merch shop. We have hoodies, shirts, mugs, stickers, hats, even onesies for the little ones. You can snag something

fresh with our new logo or grab a vintage tangle brain on any piece of garment you'd like. you probably want to hop on these quickly to make sure it gets shipped out before Christmas or during Hanukkah if you celebrate Hanukkah I think you're still able to do that if you go hit the shop now there is a link to our merch shop

on our website and in today's episode description if you want to do that as well all right with that I'm going to send it over to John for today's main topic and I'll be back for my take Thanks Isaac And welcome, everybody. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

I know that feels tough to say, especially after the set of tragedies that has happened this weekend. And I personally want to express my deepest sympathies for the families and friends and those affected by these awful events. It also reminds me that especially in this time during the holidays, that there are many people who really could use just a little bit of extra attention just to know that people care. So if it's within your means to do so,

to reach out and just let people know that you're thinking about them, sometimes that can go the longest way, just being seen. So with that said, let's bring the best of ourselves to everything that we do in the hopes of spreading some positivity

in this world. All right, here are your quick hits for today. First up, a gunman killed two students and injured nine others at Brown University on Saturday. The suspect remains at large. Authorities detained and then released a person of interest on Sunday. Number two, two U.S. soldiers and a U.S. civilian interpreter were killed and three other service members were injured in an ambush attack by a lone gunman in Syria.

The U.S. Central Command identified the attacker who was killed as a member of the Islamic State. Number three, a court in Hong Kong found businessman and activist Jimmy Lai guilty of violating the territory's national security. and sedition laws for funding and advertising campaign in his newspaper that called for sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials. Lai was arrested in 2020 shortly after the national security law was passed, part of a crackdown on pro-democracy advocacy. Lai faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. Number four, President Donald Trump reportedly plans to issue an executive order directing federal agencies to change cannabis's classification from a Schedule 1 to Schedule 3 drug. expected as soon as Monday.

And number five, Ukrainian President Volodemir Zelenskyy said he would drop his effort to secure North Atlantic Treaty Organization membership for Ukraine as part of negotiations to end the war with Russia, acknowledging that the move lacked support from the United States and other European countries. Tonight, In Australia, horror and heroism. Thousands running for their lives down Sydney's famous Bondi Beach. As police say two shooters, a father and son, opened fire with long guns on a Jewish community

event celebrating the first night of Hanukkah. At least 15 people were killed, including a 10-year-old girl and a Holocaust survivor, and around 40 more wounded in what authorities say was a targeted terrorist attack. An act of evil anti-Semitism, terrorism, that has struck the heart of our nation. On Sunday, two gunmen opened fire on a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, killing 15 people and injuring dozens of others in the country's deadliest mass shooting since 1996. According to authorities, the shooters were a father and son, and the father was shot and killed by the police while the son sustained critical injuries.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanyes called the shooting an act of evil anti-Semitism terrorism. Investigators have said that they are still working to understand the shooter's motives. A note that Tangle does not typically name mass shooters because of the documented contagion effect. At approximately 6.45 p.m. local time, emergency services began receiving calls of shots fired at the beach, where an estimated 1,000 people were attending a celebration marking the first night of Hanukkah. Footage of the scene showed the gunman firing from a footbridge leading to the beach. At one point, a bystandard, identified as fruit shop owner Ahmed al-Amed, tackled one of the shooters disarming him while the other shooter continued firing.

Ahmed was shot twice but is expected to recover. Law enforcement exchanged fire with the suspects, eventually incapacitating both of them. As of Monday morning, 42 victims were hospitalized, with several in critical condition. Those killed ranged from 10 to 87 years old, including Rabbi El Elie Schlanger, who was assistant rabbi at Habad of Bondi, as well as two Holocaust survivors. New South Wales Police Commissioner Malayan said that the older gunman had a firearms license and six weapons registered in his name. Four firearms, including a rifle and a shotgun, were recovered at the scene, as well as two

improvised explosive devices. The Australian Broadcast Corporation reported that the Australian Security Intelligence Organization had investigated one of the gunmen six years ago over suspected ties to a Sydney-based Islamic State terrorist cell and believed that he had pledged allegiance to the group. Additionally, two IS flags were reportedly found in the suspect's car. World leaders condemned the attack and expressed support for the Jewish community. President Donald Trump called the shooting a purely anti-Semitic attack, adding, today we can say loudly, we celebrate Hanukkah. Separately, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized Australian Prime Minister Albanese,

saying, you did nothing to curb the cancer cells that were growing inside your country. and Yahoo noted Albanese's decision to recognize a Palestinian state in August, suggesting that it had poured fuel on the anti-Semitic fire. Today, we'll share responses to the shooting from the left, right, and Australian writers, and then Isaac's take. All right, first of let's start with some agreement. Commentators on the left and right condemn the shooting and view it as clearly motivated by anti-Semitism. Many also say Australia's leaders must do a better job of addressing rising hatred toward Jews. All right, let's move on to what the left is saying. Many on the left highlight the ongoing devastation caused by gun violence around the world.

Others say political leaders and ordinary people must play a role in addressing the root causes of these attacks. In CNN, Stephen Collinson wrote, two mass shootings, many time zones apart, shattered communities and exposed fraught politics. At Brown, two students were killed and nine others were injured. At least 15 people died at Bondi Beach and more than three dozen remain in the hospital, Collinson said. There's little circumstantially linking the outrages. Both featured the now routine rituals of mass shootings, including jerky cell phone footage of people fleeing for their lives. and two communities were left shattered by the same incomprehensible reality of death that came suddenly for people gunned down as they went about their daily life.

In 20th century Europe, the legacy of two world wars that killed millions of people was palpable. It was hard to believe anti-Semitism would again become a global scourge. But as the last survivors of Nazi death camps fade away, history's lessons are being forgotten, Collinson wrote. The Australia attack will renew huge scrutiny of the huge global demonstrations in solidarity with tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza killed during Israel's onslaught against Hamas. The chant, Globalized the Intifada,

has come to epitomize more radical aspects of the pro-Palestinian movement. The latest anti-Semitic attack underscores why some Jewish people interpret it as a threat. In the forward, Dan Perry offered three responses to the Bandai Beach Hanukkah attack that could make Jews safer. Anti-Semitic attacks have increased across the Western world, and the way that the Gaza war unfolded has only accelerated the trend. The narrative of genocide has become increasingly entrenched, making it harder for Jews to occupy the once-unquestioned moral space.

I still defend Israel and should not be attacked for it, Perry wrote. So what can be done? First, Jewish communities must assume that the maximal security at every event, and certainly on holidays and around landmarks, is essentially not optional. Second, political leadership matters. World leaders must speak clearly and forcefully against anti-Semitic violence. Silence or hedging is read as permission. Muslim leaders in particular should speak plainly.

Condemming attacks on Jews is not an endorsement of Israel nor a betrayal of Palestinian suffering, Perry said. Finally, Israel itself must confront its role. The current government has become a strategic liability, not just for Israel's security, but for Jews worldwide. Its policies, tone, and posture have helped create the conditions. in which anti-Semitism flourishes abroad. All right, that is it for what the left is saying, which brings us to what the right is saying. The right says that Australia's leaders have failed to heed the increasing prevalence of anti-Semitism in the country.

Some linked the attack to anti-Israel rhetoric that has taken hold globally since October 7th. The New York Post editorial board argued Australia's government failed its Jews in the long run-up to the Bondi Beach attack. Prime Minister Anthony Albanyes failed to heed multiple warnings about the rising tide of hate, including from human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrowski, himself wounded Sunday,

who spoke out December 1st after graffiti reading F Zionist Israel and Israel has blood on their hands appeared on Bondi Beach overnight, the board wrote. And Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu wrote Albanese months ago, thundering that his call to recognize a Palestinian state pours fuel on the anti-Semitic fire

and emboldens those who menace Australian Jews and encourages the Jew hatred now stalking your streets. That hate has been growing ever worse since Hamas's October 7, 2023 atrocities. Anti-Semitic graffiti has grown common, as well as attacks on Jewish-owned shops. A group of nurses made global headlines for cutting a video where they announced

that they wouldn't treat Jews. In the year leading up to September 30th, the Executive Council of Australian Jury counted 262 anti-Semitic incidents across the country, the board said. In August, Albanese blamed Iran for the Melbourne synagogue burning and an attack on a Sydney kosher restaurant and expelled Tehran's ambassador and three other diplomats. But Albanese, the next month, chose to pander to his domestic Jew haters, joining a pack of left-wing leaders of Western governments in announcing recognition of a Palestinian state. In the free press, Ayan Hersey Ali wrote,

The Intifada comes to Australia. Families were gathered in joy when men with guns got out of their car and began firing. The violence arrived with speed and cruelty, and though the scale differs, the pattern is unmistakable. It mirrors October 7th in Israel. A holiday, a crowd, daylight, attackers who targeted the most vulnerable and knew precisely what they were doing, Ali said. This way of killing has been studied,

praised and spread for years. It appears in pamphlets, videos, and online posts. It is celebrated in slogans shouted at marches and emblazoned on placards. It is excused as rage, sanitized as politics. The Bandai Beach atrocity was horrific, but it wasn't unforeseen. It was the result of long indulgence. It was tolerated into being. Ideas matter because they shape what people come to accept, especially when they are repeated unchallenged, Ali wrote. When crowds call for Intifada, they are calling for the most brutal form of violence. When Jewish symbols are burned and Jews singled out as symbols of evil, this is not dissent, and certainly not resistance, but preparation. It is a rehearsal for what follows. All right, that is it for what the

left in the writer saying, which brings us to what Australian writers are saying. Many Australian writers view the attack as a consequence of unchecked anti-Semitism in the country. Others call on Australians to reject the hate that motivated the shooting. The Australian editorial board said, The Bondi attack has changed our nation. It was the Australian Jewish community's worst nightmare, happening in their heartland. At sunset, with bodies strewn on the ground,

as paramedics worked frantically to save lives, the area was crowded with dozens and dozens of ambulances and police cars. Nearby businesses were locked down. The scene was so unlike the Bondi so many of us know so well. It seemed like something from a foreign place, the board wrote. The timing was telling and cowardly. It was the first night of Hanukkah, from the Hebrew word for dedication, the commemoration of the dedication of the second temple. Hanukkah also celebrates the resilience, survival,

and the enduring strength of Jewish identity. In Australia, the signs of anti-Semitism have been ominous for a long time. It began in the Sydney Opera House forecourt two nights after the October 7th attack. It should have been nipped in the bud then. The ineptitude of officialdom set a pattern for appalling scenes to come. For more than two years, the unbridled rise, of anti-Semitism ran largely unchecked, the board said. The ramifications of Sunday's events will be felt by the local Jewish community for years. These attacks will also change the nation, like the Port Arthur attack of 1996. Some people left Bandai on Sunday night to go home to light their Hanukkah candles.

The spirit of hope over despair will endure. In The Guardian, George Newhouse, the former mayor of Waverly Council in Sydney wrote, All Australians must support the right of Jews to live without fear. Over the years in my official role, I attended many Hanukkah ceremonies. They were always occasions of light, joy, and belonging. That is why these murders have been so shocking to the peace-loving citizens of Bondi, and especially to the Jewish community, Newhouse said. We are a small community.

I know some of those who were murdered and injured. This is not an abstract tragedy for us. It is profoundly personal. My heart breaks for the victims, their loved ones, and for all those who experience the trauma of this act of terrorism. At the same time, I am in awe of the extraordinary heroism of those who stepped forward at great personal risk to defend innocent congregants and bystanders. What compounds the grief is fear.

In recent years, Jewish people in Australia have felt threatened, dismissed, alienated, and at times openly vilified. There is a temptation to explain a way or qualify this by reference to political differences or debates about events in the Middle East. But that misses the point. Every Jew is not responsible for every decision made by the Israeli government. The right to live free from fear in Australia should not depend on a person's politics, their views on the Middle East, or their religion, New House wrote.

This is not a demand for special treatment. It is a call for basic decency, equal concern, and the simple acknowledgement that Jewish Australians are entitled to live without fear. All right, let's head over to Isaac for his take. All right, that is it for the left and the writer saying and some takes from abroad, which brings us to my take. Last night was my 10-month-old son's first Hanukkah. The light in the menorah blinked across his face in our dark living room

as my wife held him in her lap saying the prayers on the Hanukkah candles. I handed him a book for my mom, a day in the snow with a very hungry caterpillar, and as he sifted through it with that goofy infant smile on his face, I wondered about the world that he was entering. Perhaps some part of me felt a tragedy like this coming, or perhaps this just fits a larger trend we've been witnessing for years now. Either way, I'd just gotten done writing about the uneasiness of this moment for Jews in Friday's members-only peace on anti-Semitism.

An excerpt from that, quote, We Jews have been in the headlines a lot recently. Historically speaking, this is not a good sign. Ask any self-aware Jew about whether it's good when the Jews are being talked about and the answer will probably be no. Please stop talking about us. Even when the attention might sound positive,

like, wow, Jews sure win a lot of Nobel prizes, you know the conversation will inevitably turn dark. It's hard to describe the feeling of writing that piece on Friday and waking up to this news on Sunday. Sunday. I grasp for words. Dispondent, horrified, eerie, affirmed, all of the above. Details about the shooting and the shooters are still coming to light. I always preach caution in breaking news situations, especially regarding mass shooters, and this shooting is no different.

Without a single shred of evidence, one former Gaza correspondent for the BBC claimed that Zionist Mossad fingerprints were all over Sydney. A separate post on X alleged the shooter was a former a member of the Israel defense forces. That post garnered nearly five million views before it got a community note. Multiple other posts claimed Google searches for the shooter's name spiked in Israel before the shooting. This supposedly proved some kind of conspiracy. It turned out the users just didn't understand time zones. This is the information ecosystem we're operating in, corrupted and broken. Still, we can reach one safe conclusion based on law enforcement statement so far. This was a terror attack targeting Jews. The shooter's motives are still

unknown, but one of them had been investigated in 2019 for ties to the Islamic State, and two Islamic State flags were found in their car. The father-son duo were Pakistani, though the son is Australian-born. For now, that's about all we can say with confidence. If those details stay consistent, they will force a reckoning in Australia on its problems with anti-Semitism. Incidents of vandalism and desecration have been on the rise since 23. Last year, the country established a special envoy to combat anti-Semitism, but its effectiveness seems shaky at best. This is now the deadliest terrorist attack to ever take place on Australian soil.

In the U.S. and Australia, the shooting will spark plenty of debate outside of anti-Semitism, likely starting with immigration and gun control. On Sunday, I spoke on the phone to a close childhood friend of mine, who is a senior constable for the state police force in Australia. I asked him for his thoughts on the situation and what I might be missing watching from abroad. He made a few observations I felt were worth sharing. First, Bondi Beach is an iconic location in Australia,

emblematic of its laid-back beach and surf culture. He's been there more times than he could count, and he emphasized how unthinkable it is that it would be the setting for violence of this kind. Second, he said the rage from Australians is going to be immense. The desire for more restrictionist immigration policy has been growing in recent years, and this is just going to pour gasoline on the fire. He expects the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, to face some major political challenges going forward.

Third is the country's gun laws. Many Americans may not understand how successful the societal buy-in from Australians on gun control has been up until now, and how genuinely earth-shattering that makes this event. Here in the States, we mourn this weekend, too, after the horrified, shooting at Brown University. Yet the dark, ugly, shameful reality is that we are almost numb to these headlines now. In Australia, that isn't true. After the Port Arthur Massacre in 1996, nearly every Australian bought into the country's ban on assault rifles. The government bought back and destroyed over one million firearms and implemented provisions like mandatory lock

storage, bans on mail order purchases, and uniform gun registration. Gun laws are now so strict that even as a police officer, my friend has to go through an arduous process to carry a firearm when he's not on duty, so arduous that he still hasn't ever done it. As an American, he understands how these laws may seem draconian through our lens, but emphasize the obvious point that many Australians will tell you, they work. Mass shootings in Australia are almost non-existent, and instances of any kind of gun violence are rare too, typically limited to things like bike or gang violence. While 3D gun printing has created a fresh problem in the country,

its level of gun ownership and violence still pale in comparison to ours. That the shooter was a legal gun owner is less likely to be viewed as an indictment on Australia's gun laws than to prompt the country to even stricter gun control reform. We don't need to go as far as Australia did, but as I've argued before, the country provides a great case study, supporting the general principle of creating more friction between the desire to purchase a gun and actually getting one.

As we get clarity on the ideology of the shooters, and if the initial reports are confirmed, all of this, the gun control debate, the immigration debate, the anti-Semitism debate, is going to get wrapped up in a larger debate about Islamic extremism. Part of that debate overlaps with immigration. We'll likely see increased calls for restrictions

on immigrants from Muslim majority countries. Another part will center on speech. The Australian government is already facing pressure to crack down on anti-Semitism, which could manifest as increased surveillance of Muslim or Islamic groups critical of Israel. As with any fraught, complex issue like this one, context is key. Globally, the overwhelming majority of terrorism is committed by Islamic extremists in Muslim-majority countries against fellow Muslims. Terrorism is ascended again in the West, with seven Western countries now ranked among the 50 most impacted by terrorism. That's according

to the 2025 Global Terrorism Index. In the U.S., right-wing extremism is the most common source of violence. In Europe, ethno-nationalist terrorism is the most common, and left-wing violence is more common than right-wing violence. Australia is fighting a rising tide of both Islamic and right-wing extremism. I expect Australians are going to want to show force against extremist groups in their country, and given the details of this shooting, the focus will be largely on Islamists. The challenge, as always, is going to be walking the fine line

between rooting out Islamic extremism and not blaming or punishing innocent Muslims for the actions of terrorists who share their faith. Perhaps nothing illustrates this challenge more clearly than the facts of this story. The heroic civilian, who risked his life to disarm one of the terrorists, was shot twice and is now recovering in the hospital,

is himself a Muslim. In fact, the older shooter and the hero both reportedly worked at fruit stands in Australia. One was murdering innocence while the other nearly died trying to save them. In my piece on Friday, I wrote the Jews are not uniquely evil and not a monolith. The same is true of all religious, ethnic, and racial groups. Australia's challenge now, an admittedly big one, is holding that ideal close,

while ensuring the safety of its citizens amid a rising tide of anti-Semitism. We'll be right back after this quick break. All right, that is it for my take. We're skipping the reader question today because we just had a lot to cover in the intro and the correction and the length of my take. But we'll be back with that tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm going to send it over to John for the rest of the pod.

And I'll see you guys then. Have a good one. Peace. Thanks, Isaac. Here's your under-the-radar story for today, folks. On Thursday, Amnesty International released a report accusing the Palestinian militant group Hamas of war crimes in its October 7, 23 attack on Israel, calling it a systematic attack directed against a civilian population. The Human Rights Organization alleged that Hamas deliberately targeted civilians

and that some of those captured in the attack were subjected to physical and sexual violence. Hamas rejected the claims and said that the report was flawed and unprofessional. Last year, Amnesty International became the first major international rights organization to accuse Israel of committing genocide in Gaza in its response to the October 7th attack, a charge which Israel denies. In response to Thursday's report, Israel's ministry of foreign affairs said the investigation falls far short of reflecting the full scope of Hamas's horrific atrocities. The New York Times has this story, and there's a link in today's episode description.

All right, next up is our numbers section. According to the 2021 census, the estimated Jewish population of Australia is 116,967, comprising 0.46% of the national population. The estimated percentage of Jews in Australia who live in Melbourne or Sydney is 84%. According to an Executive Council of Australian Jury Report, the number of reported anti-Jewish incidents in Australia between October 1st, 2024 and September 30, 2025, is 1, thousand six hundred and fifty-four. The number of reported anti-Jewish incidents in Australia between October 1st, 2023 and September 30th, 2024 was 22. The average annual number of anti-Jewish incidents in Australia in the 10 years prior to October 23 was 342. 1996 was the year Australia enacted the National Firearms Agreement, which restricted access to semi-automatic weapons

and implemented new gun control provisions. The number of shooting, in Australia that killed five or more people, not including the shooter, in the 18 years prior to the National Firearms Agreement, was 13. The number of shootings in Australia that killed five or more people in the first 22 years after the law was passed is zero. And according to a September 2024 Australia Institute poll, 70% of Australians think that gun laws should make it harder to access a gun, while 9% think it should make it easier. And last but not least, our have a nice day story. Marine Corps veteran Stacey Batiste has logged over 5 million accident-free miles in his 34-year career as a truck driver.

That kind of reliability can go underappreciated, but his best friend took notice, nominating Batiste for the 2025 Road Warrior Award, and he was selected as the winner in November. In addition to the title, Batiste received $50,000 and a custom-made semi-truck. The trucker credited his military discipline and patience for his exemplary record and gave all drivers some good advice. You have to watch everyone out there, Patiste said. I back off and take my time. I'm always early. Good News Network has this story and there's a link in today's episode description.

All right, everybody, that is it for today's episode. As always, if you'd like to support our work, please go to retangle.com, where you can sign up for a newsletter membership, podcast membership, or a bundled membership that gets you a discount on both. We'll be right back here tomorrow. For Isaac and the rest of the crew, this is John Lull, signing all. Have a great day, y'all. Peace. Our executive editor and founder is me.

Isaac Sall and our executive producer is John Lull. Today's episode was edited and engineered by Dewey Thomas. Our editorial staff is led by managing editor Ari Weitzman with senior editor Will Kayback and associate editors Hunter Casperson, Audrey Moorhead, Bailey Saul, Lindsay Canuth, and Kendall White. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75. To learn more about Tangle and to sign up for a membership, please visit our website at reetangle.com.