The Briefing …

Good morning, and welcome to The Briefing.

The federal government has offered to pay Rohingya refugees on Manus Island thousands of dollars each to return to Myanmar.

More than 1000 Rohingya have died and 400,000 have fled since the Myanmar government launched a military offensive in the country’s western Rakhine state that the United Nations has called “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing”. A 32-year-old Rohingya man told Guardian Australia he had been offered $25,000 by the Australian Border Force to return to Myanmar. Refugees on Manus and Nauru are also set to learn whether they will be resettled in the United States.

And the Matildas have claimed back-to-back victories over Brazil, earning a 3-2 win in Newcastle in front of more than 16,000 fans. The result continues a stellar year for the national side, which beat the world number one-ranked United States for the first time in June and won the Tournament of Nations in August. Crowd attendances at the Matildas’ two friendlies against Brazil this week rivalled those at the NRL and AFL finals and outstripped the A-League’s most recent averages. Under the terms of a deal struck between Football Federation Australia, Professional Footballers Australia and the W-League last week, female professional soccer players in Australia will now take home an average of $15,500 a year, compared to $180,000 earned by male A-League players. Go figure.

Read more here
Alex McKinnon, The Saturday Paper