‘Because of Your Dk?’ Australian PM caught in embarrassing hot mic gaffe With Chris Bowen

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was caught on a hot mic at the COP31 climate summit dispensing advice on where to keep a mobile phone. His climate minister, Chris Bowen, turned the conversation towards trouser pockets, setting up a punchline that soon travelled beyond the conference hall.

The exchange, captured on camera during a break and shared by RT, began with Albanese asking Bowen whether he was right-handed and usually kept his phone in the left breast pocket of his blazer. Bowen said he did. “Don’t,” Albanese replied.

Bowen asked if he should move it to the other breast pocket. Albanese said he should keep it away from his heart, suggesting that signals from the phone could interfere with its rhythm. Bowen joked that the device was “a little bit of radioactive”, and Albanese replied, “Yeah. Like, it makes absolute sense.”

Bowen had already given up one pocket

Bowen then said he had stopped carrying his phone in his trouser pocket. Albanese immediately asked, “Because of your dk? Yeah.”

“Yeah, that’s rather important,” Bowen replied, before adding, “Arguably more important than a heart.”

A 2014 study indexed by the US National Institutes of Health examined sperm samples directly exposed to electromagnetic radiation from a mobile phone. Researchers reported lower progressive motility, meaning fewer sperm moved forward effectively, and greater DNA fragmentation in the exposed group compared with unexposed samples.

The study measured direct exposure in samples and left open what happens when someone carries a phone in a trouser pocket. It did not examine heart rhythm, the concern Albanese raised at the start of the exchange.

With inputs from ANI