Saturday Extra - Separate stories podcast

Is the end of the Iran war in sight? The Iranian foreign ministry, President Donald Trump and Pakistani mediators all say a deal is close to being finalised. But we've been here before, with CNN calculating this week that Trump has said 39 times that the US and Iran are on the verge of a deal. The conflict is set to be high on the agenda at next week's G7 Summit in France, where world leaders will...

To celebrate what would have been Marilyn Monroe's 100th birthday last week, over a thousand die-hard fans donned platinum blonde wigs, red lippy and white halter-necks in Palm Springs, California. They easily broke the world record for the most Marilyn Monroe lookalikes in one place — snatching it from 254 lookalikes from Adelaide.  That's not the end of the story. The Adelaide Marilyns are vowin...

As part of our series marking 250 years since American independence, we feature British historian Adam Smith. In 1775, war broke out between the British and the American colonists. The following year, the former colonies declared themselves independent and in 1783, following a prolonged and bloody war, Britain was forced to recognise the independence of the United States. Adam Smith discusses why...

Last weekend on a London stage, acclaimed actress Rosamund Pike did something very unexpected. Pike, who is starring in Inter Alia by Australian playwright Suzie Miller, returned to the stage at the end of the play, to call out some bad theatre etiquette. So, in 2026, what's OK and not OK in a theatre or cinema?

It's no secret that legacy media is facing a crisis. Traditional media outlets like newspapers, television and radio stations have had their business model upended by the internet, social media and now AI. Newspapers in the US are closing their doors at a rate of two per week, according to one study, while in Australia over 200 local newspapers have disappeared over the last 15 years. CBS News, ow...

Elon Musk's SpaceX is planning for what could be its biggest launch yet. Next week, the rocket, space, and AI company is set to make its initial public offering, or IPO, which may end up being the largest in history. And if it all goes to plan, this Musk is set to become the world's first trillionaire.

This week, there were signs that Australia-Solomon Islands relations are on the mend, when the new leader of the Solomons Matthew Wale stood alongside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Canberra to announce plans for a new security treaty — and that a secretive security deal with Beijing would be reviewed. Meanwhile across the ditch, four New Zealand MPs have been banned from travelling to China a...

Victoria Falconer is the co-artistic director of Hayes Theatre in Sydney's Kings Cross, a tiny venue known for almost entirely putting on musicals. She joined Saturday Extra for The Last Thing, where she talked through some of the last great things she's done.

In August 2017, during the early months of the first Trump presidency, hundreds of white supremacists and neo-Nazis descended on the small Virginian city of Charlottesville. They were there to protest the planned removal of a statue of the Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Overnight, Charlottesville became the frontline of a history war, an ugly battle that's captured in a new book by the author...

Last week, an unlikely stoush broke out on X after one user maligned the design of Australia's Parliament House.  Criticism of Canberra (and its institutions) is as old as the bush capital itself.  But these days it's getting a bit more love. 

This week OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman declared Australia could be a world leader in AI data centres. While Pope Leo XIV laid out a sweeping vision and a warning to safeguard humanity from AI's most harmful effects. Dozens of data centres are popping up on the fringes of our major cities, and big tech is lobbying the federal government to seize the opportunity and support their construction.  But...

On Friday, a Russian drone hit an apartment building in Romania, a NATO member state. And earlier in the week, Russia pummelled Kyiv with drones and used a hypersonic missile - prompting condemnation from European leaders. Moscow has since threatened to launch more waves of attacks, warning foreigners and diplomats to leave.  Sergey Radchenko, a Russian-born security expert who is writing a histor...

Hours after President Donald Trump concluded a Situation Room meeting with his national security team on Iran, the White House has not indicated whether there will be an Iran-US deal. A proposed deal, which would reopen the Strait of Hormuz but leave the nuclear issue for further talks to resolve, brought a shower of criticism from some of President Trump's Republican supporters.

Mahjong is being revived by a younger generation who want to reconnect over the game they grew up watching their families play. And they've taken matters into their own hands by starting new Mahjong social clubs around Australia.

This week in Tasmania, the minority Liberal government has delivered a budget to cut the state's debt and deficit. Tasmanian budgets don't usually make national front-page news, but a new paper argues that the apple isle's finances and its older demographics warrant a closer look, offering insights for other states.

This week, Israel's security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted a video of himself waving a large Israeli flag and appearing to taunt activists, who are shown kneeling, their heads on the ground and their hands zip-tied behind their backs. The members of The Global Sumud Freedom Flotilla are claiming they were abused by Israeli forces, after their ships were intercepted in international waters on Mon...

This week President Trump demonstrated that his grip over the Republican party is tighter than ever. In Republican primaries, Donald Trump's hand-picked candidate Ed Gallrein defeated seven-times elected incumbent Thomas Massie in Kentucky. While in Washington, the Justice Department granted President Trump and his family immunity from inquiries into their tax affairs. The concession came as Trump...

In Tennant Creek, a new bespoke home designed by its occupants is the envy of town. With wide balconies, solar panels, and architecture that accommodates cultural relationships, the house stays cool through the devastating heat of a Central Australian summer. It's a far cry from the overcrowded, unbearably hot homes that have become the norm across many remote Aboriginal communities. The house was...

The Russian national anthem rang out across Tiananmen Square in Beijing this week to welcome President Vladimir Putin back to the Chinese capital. The two day summit between Vladimir Putin and China’s President Xi Jinping included a flurry of joint announcements and obvious camaraderie. Joseph Torigian unpacks the substance and the symbolism of the summit - how did it differ to President Donald Tr...

Depending who you ask, AI could be pushing humanity towards its downfall or helping to create some sort of tech utopia. Whatever you think of AI, it's a disruptor that's changing the way individuals, businesses and governments do things. And in a sign of just how big the AI moment is, the ABC has created a role of national AI technology reporter, which was filled this week by former Crikey journal...

This week Jim Chalmers claimed that the federal budget is the most ambitious in decades, and the one to end generational inequity.  From across the generational divide, we speak with an older journalist and a younger journalist.  Are some young Australians actually the biggest losers from this budget, and is this budget as historically significant as the treasurer says? 

This week, Durbach Block Jaggers Architects won the Australian Institute of Architects' highest honour – the Gold Medal. Neil Durbach, Camilla Block and David Jaggers have been working together for more than two decades, and the award recognises their "extraordinary body of built work" over this time.

International students have been a boon for Australia's higher education institutions and the Australian economy more broadly. But amid changing migration politics and overseas competition for international student dollars, arrivals are slowing.  That's raising questions about the dependency of this sector on these students.

US President Donald Trump left Beijing after a two-day summit with President Xi Jinping, saying he had struck "fantastic trade deals, great for both countries", but few details have emerged on what the two superpowers agreed. Both sides hailed a reset in relations - Sarah Beran unpacks the optics and progress of the talks. 

Westminster is witnessing the kind of prime ministerial instability which Canberra went through not so long ago, with Sir Keir Starmer facing yet another leadership crisis, which this time could be terminal. It follows Labour's catastrophic performance in local council elections in England and parliamentary elections in Scotland and Wales. One of his most senior Cabinet secretaries, the former Hea...