The Radio National Hour

This week in the US the Trump administration was forced to dump plans for a slush fund to compensate MAGA loyalists, and not even an f-bomb directed at Israel’s Prime Minister could shift the dial on peace negotiations in the middle-east. Republican strategist John Feehery says Trump supporters have a high tolerance for the President's adventurism but that there's growing anxiety in the GOP as we...

African migrants are being evacuated from South Africa following a spate of deadly assaults and growing protests supposedly targeting undocumented foreigners. They’re being blamed for taking jobs, squeezing public services and driving crime. Is this xenophobic scapegoating really a protest against a failing government?  In some European nations cooperatives account for as much as 40 percent of the...

The director general of the World Health Organisation says controlling the spread of Ebola in central Africa is everybody’s business, but governments are slashing their aid budgets.  Medicins Sans Frontier is funded almost entirely by private individuals and philanthropic organizations. The group's Humanitarian Affairs coordinator for the Democratic Republic of Congo, Anastassia Chkolenok, is work...

A heated phone call between Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu raises fresh questions about just how strained that relationship has become, and about prospects for a peace deal with Iran.   The government’s just put 40 million dollars into pre-fab housing, so can it deliver better houses, built faster and in greater numbers as well as it has overseas?  Australians are now discarding their pianos...

How is National Reconciliation Week been acknowledged where you live and work? Has it been acknowledged? In the wake of the Voice Referendum some businesses and organisations have scaled back their commitments to reconciliation and reports of racism in the workplace are growing. Co-directors of Evolve Communities Aunty Munya Andrews & Carla Rogers, say that change won't come if organisations a...

She lived for decades under a fake identity in a Berlin apartment, but in 2024 Daniela Klette - an alleged left-wing terrorist - was captured, and this week she was convicted in a German court - we'll delve into the history and legacy of the murderous Baader-Meinhof gang  Sydney says goodbye to beloved ABC broadcaster James Valentine with an all-star cast of tributes, including Jacqueline from Ran...

Fran Kelly brings you compelling conversations on issues that challenge,entertain and inspire us. 

The Kremlin has urged foreigners in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, to leave the city now, with threats of a systematic attacks targeting ‘decision-making centres and command posts’. But diplomats in Kyiv are staying put, saying they won’t be intimidated by Russia’s threats.   As he Pope calls for a go slow on AI, environmental and community groups are also for a pause on data centre approvals in Aust...

Sorry doesn’t cut it, that’s the overwhelming message from Indigenous leaders today as the nation marks the anniversary of the apology to the stolen generations. Twenty Nine years ago Professor Mick Dodson delivered the landmark Bringing Them Home report on the plight of Stolen Generations; today he describes the government’s response to its recommendations as a ‘woeful failure’. Pope Francis has...

As the world waits for an agreement between Iran and the US, another middle east peace deal is hanging by a thread. Six months on from the ceasefire in Gaza, with hundreds more civilians dead, US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace is failing in its mission to disarm Hamas and begin the reconstruction of the bombed out territory, leaving two million Palestinians stuck in limbo.   If you use th...

He’s been exporting chaos and testing democratic norms across the world but journalist, author and podcaster Jon Sopel reckons we’re about ready to switch off from the Donald J Trump presidential psychodrama.  And where do the wild horses roam? In Western Sydney apparently. DNA analysis shows that animals descended from the Przewalski horse dating back to the time of Genghis Khan are alive and wel...

Australian activists from the Global Samud Flotilla detained by Israel are en route to the airport tonight after they were detained for several days for attempting to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid to the devastated territory.  Also New Zealand's Finance Minister calls on Australian start ups to move across the ditch to escape the Albanese government's proposed capi...

For many young people, the great Australian dream is now a share portfolio, and if you believe social media these zoomers and millennials are outraged at the government’s proposed changes to capital gains tax. With home ownership out of reach for so many, are they right to feel aggrieved? And should we be cutting them some tax slack?  In just over three weeks time America will become the centre of...

It's a country wracked by violence, poverty and corruption and now a deadly strain of Ebola. Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo are scrambling to contain the virus which has already killed at least one-hundred and thirty people. Australian health company, Aspen Medical has been on the front-lines of the fight against previous Ebola outbreaks in Africa and experts Dr Katrina Sanders an...

Founders and venture capitalists say the government's proposed changes to tax concessions in last week’s budget will be a massive handbrake on the start-up sector. They’re calling on the government to back the big thinkers and risk takers. Zac Altman, CEO of Kantoko, & Shivani Gopal, founder and CEO of Elladex share their wishlist?  It’s the size of a sesame seed but - if left unchecked - has...

The Coalition leader Angus Taylor has laid out his vision for a more prosperous Australia, with plans to end bracket creep and block permanent residents from accessing welfare and social services. Political hounds Clare Armstrong and Phil Coorey give their budget replies.  Intergenerational equity was another key theme , but Angus Taylor insists its migrants not boomers who are to blame for the ho...

Filipino senators and staff were forced to run for their lives as gunshots ring out in the Manila Senate last night. The chaotic scenes were broadcast live on national television, but was it a gun fight or was it all a smoke screen aimed at protecting Senator Ronald dela Rosa, the chief enforcer of former President Rodriguez Duterte, now wanted by the ICC for crimes against humanity.  Never pay a...

Last year the Labor government was re-elected with an historic majority, and last night the treasurer delivered what he calls a ‘big reform’ budget, aimed at tipping the scales on tax policy to help younger Australians get onto the property ladder. For some it’s a budget betrayal that won’t do anything to improve house prices but UNSW economist Richard Holden reckons it’s a waste of a good mandate...

Gambling addiction is costing more lives than we know. This week a coronial inquest in Victoria has heard harrowing testimony of a young man who lost nearly $50,000 before taking his own life at just 22. It was stories like this that moved the late Labor MP Peta Murphy to act and today nearly three years after she delivered her review into gambling harm, the government has finally tabled its respo...

Anthony Albanese is going where no Labor leader has successfully gone before with the budget expected to see cuts  to negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts. But will it deliver the changes younger Australians really need and want?  The march of the populists continues, with historic council elections in England, delivering Labour’s traditional heartland to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party...

Sunday is Mother’s Day — a tradition wrapped in flowers, cards, and a very neat idea of what motherhood is. But in reality motherhood is an experience shaped by history, circumstance, and the stories families tell, and keep hidden. In their new memoirs, journalists Cynthia Banham and Sheryle Bagwell exploring the secrets, absences and complicated bonds that define the sacred connection between mot...

We may not know the details yet but the Prime Minister and Treasurer have made their intentions clear; this year’s budget is aimed at giving younger voters a fair crack. So what will that mean for older investors and will the changes go far enough?  This time last year many of us thought the Australian Pavilion would sit empty during the famous art biennale after artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator...

This week the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion has heard harrowing stories; of school children being called ‘dirty Jews’ and others living in constant fear in the wake of the Bondi terrorist attack. Anthony Halas, gave evidence to the Royal Commission that the hatred of Jewish people has grown so bad he’s contemplated moving to Hungary - from where his parents fled the Holocaus...

Four Australians are among dozens of passengers trapped on board a luxury cruise ship that's been refused safe harbour following a suspected outbreak of Hantavirus. One person is confirmed to have died and two other deaths are being investigated. So what is this mystery virus and where does it come from? Sanjaya Senanayake, Associate Professor and Infectious Diseases Specialist with the ANU School...

Donald Trump says Iran is choking like a stuffed pig as the US seeks to deprive the nation of its last economic lifelines. Unemployment, inflation and food shortages are growing but the regime shows no sign of giving in. Iranian-American journalist Borzou Daragahi says the US has greatly underestimated the resilience of the Islamic Republic, Africa is the world's second largest continent with the...