The Radio National Hour

Two court judgements in the US this week have seen  eta fined hundreds of millions dollars for enabling social media addiction and wilfully ignoring paedophiles roaming on their platforms. The Stanford Social Media Lab is helping Australia evaluate the effectiveness of it's ban for under-16s. It's founding director Jeff Hancock says the momentum is going against social media giants.  Myanmar has d...

Europe is open for business, that’s the message from the president of the EU commission Ursula von der Leyen as Australia finally seals the deal on a free-trade agreement with the bloc. But farmers are furious saying this trade pact is a bad deal for cattle producers and regional Australia. So who are the winners and is the symbolism of this FTA as important as its substance?  President Trump has...

You’re a victim of sexual assault or domestic violence, who do you turn to for help? Investigative journalist Nina Funnell has revealed through Freedom of Information that support line 1800RESPECT is regularly receiving subpoenas to hand over the private recordings of sexual assault victims some of which are ending up in the hands of the courts, police and perpetrators.   As fuel prices spike Inde...

The decision by Reuters news agency to expose the true identity of the British street artist Banksy has upset many of his fans and left critics scratching their heads. It's not the first time that a news outfit has publicly named him but his Australian friend Professor Alison Young says many people have become invested and protective of his anonymity as his fame and notoriety has grown.  After thi...

South Australians head to the polls this weekend in what will be the first big political test for the ascendant One Nation party. The ABC’s chief election analyst Casey Briggs says whilst Labor and Premier Peter Malinauskus will likely be returned to Government there will be some surprises.  Tropical cyclone Narelle is definitely not as harmless as she sounds.. Now upgraded to a category five she’...

Australia’s productivity is at its lowest in 60 years, and if you believe the hype Artificial Intelligence will wipe out 50 per-cent of white collar jobs in the next five years. Is it any wonder then that young people are terrified of graduating with a useless degree and saddled with debt. Universities have long been centres of learning and advancement, but where do they fit in the AI revolution? ...

The energy minister Chris Bowen says ‘panic buying’ is to blame for the surge in fuel prices and supply shortages. We’re told there’s enough to go around, for now, but energy analysts say the war in the middle-east is a call to action for countries like Australia, to accelerate as fast as possible out of fossil fuels.    'Ambitious Australia' is the title of a new report released today showing tha...

Hezbollah says it's locked in an existential battle against Israel, trapping the citizens of Lebanon in another brutal war it neither asked for nor started. Israel says it's determined to secure its northern border, with plans for a major ground offensive, possibly as far as the Litani River.  US President Donald Trump has declared Cuba an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security...

The clash between the Pentagon and AI giant Anthropic reflects a deeper fear about the future — could the AI tools built for defence and intelligence be used for mass surveillance of citizens and for kill operations in far-flung lands? Anthropic says that’s a red line for them, but President Trump says: you’re fired. The red carpet is being rolled out ahead of the Oscars this Sunday in La La Land....

Bill Shorten took some big risks in his political career and he’s continued in that spirit in latest  his role as Vice Chancellor of the University of Canberra, proposing a levy on corporate profits to help fund higher education.  It's the holy grail of CO2 abatement, and the government has spent billions trying to make it so. But carbon capture and storage or CCS has yet to live up to its promise...

With the US and the Gulf states being forced to use multi-million dollar interceptor missiles to combat Iran’s cheap and plentiful drone army, is the US in a war of attrition it can’t afford — where Iran’s cheapest weapons steadily drain America’s most advanced ones? Man up, and get out. As more young men are drawn into the online ‘manosphere’ with its messages of male superiority and victimhood,...

In an act of incredible courage, five members of Iran’s women’s football team made a break for freedom last night, and were granted asylum in Australia. Now as the rest of the team begins their journey home, the immigration agent who helped them to make this life changing decision, Nagmeh Danai, shares her story.   Australia has answered a call for help, deploying wedgetail aircraft and missile sy...

'The worst oil shock in 50 years' - that’s how one former CIA officer has described the stranglehold on the world’s energy supply as the price of a barrel of oil pushes past 100 US dollars for the first time in four years, since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. With Washington unable to clearly articulate an exit strategy or even given a timeline for the conflict analysts like Amena Bakr from Keplr s...

Human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson campaigns tirelessly for the rights of the oppressed and the abused. As we mark another International Women’s Day with so many hard fight gains for women going backwards, she says there's many small gains that give her hope.  Punch the macaque monkey stole our online hearts two weeks ago. The video of him clinging to a plush toy for comfort and company went vi...

Australia has just five week’s supply of fuel in its reserves. The government says it's more than enough, but with Iran threatening to set any tanker in the Hormuz Strait on fire there’s growing anxiety about energy supply and petrol prices. First they were now they're not. The US has backed away from earlier reports that they've been arming Kurdish fighters in western Iran and Iraq with the hope...

Rules were meant to be broken right? But what if they're the framework for a global order that’s endured for more than 80 years, preventing liberal democracies from going to war against each other and generally cooperating for the good of all humankind. As the US and Israel continue to pound Iran with bombs, does the rules based order still even exist? Fifteen thousand strip searches are conducted...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasts the war on Iran will be a gateway to peace and has laughed off suggestions that the war will drag on. The US is also insisting that it will be quick and decisive. But as gulf states like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE bearing the full force of Iran's retaliation, there's speculation they may be forced to end their long-held stance of neutr...

The deadly strike that killed Iran’s Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday came without warning, reasoning or for that matter congressional consultation. While few will mourn the passing of Iran’s murderous dictator, his death and the deaths of dozens of his trusted lieutenants in the revolutionary guard  leaves an unpredictable and combustible void in a region that’s already paid a he...

Another round of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear enrichment program have wound up in Geneva with mediators claiming ‘significant progress’ has been made. It's another reprieve for the regime’s leadership who’ve watched in recent weeks as the US has manoeuvred the largest military arsenal into the region since the invasion of Iraq in 2003. But the exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi, son of the last Shah o...

For years now the peddlers of Artifical Intelligence have told us that the technology will free us from the drudgery of work, but is this really what humanity needs and wants? Acclaimed economist and author of A world without work Professor Daniel Susskind explains the opportunities and dangers that might lay ahead.  The children of the so-called ISIS brides have spoken publicly of their despair a...

After four years fighting off Russia’s advance Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky has warned Europe that world war 3 is already at its doorstep. And according to Russian journalist and analyst Andrei Soldatov we already seeing it in acts of sabotage across the continent and in the UK. All directed by the Kremlin. Artificial Intelligence maybe coming for your job next. Today Australian logistics company...

The Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion has begun in Sydney with a clear mandate and a tight deadline, but as the Jewish community reckons with the atrocities of Bondi will expectations meet reality? Former Federal Court judge Ronald Sackville says the deadline of December 14, 2026 will limit what the Royal Commission can achieve.  Movie award ceremonies are famous for protest s...

The Coalition wants to slam the door shut on 34 Australian women and children stuck in a Syrian detention camp for relatives of ISIS fighters proposing jail terms for them and for anyone who tries to help them come home. ANU extremism and deradicalisation expert Dr Clarke Jones says the process of bringing these women home is complicated and involves considerable and ongoing input from security an...

Lurking in the soggy undergrowth of the rainforests in South America is one of earth’s most poisonous species. With its lurid, exotic patterned skin, the poison dart frog screams DANGER. So how did its deadly toxin find its way into an Siberian penal colony to be ingested by Russian president Vladimir Putin’s political nemesis, Alexi Navalny, and what does his shocking assassination two years ago...

Around the world infections once easily treated are becoming harder — sometimes impossible — to treat, often necessitating drastic surgical interventions. In Australia 100 die from antibiotic resistant superbugs every week and mortality rates are growing around the world, prompting an urgent rethink of how the miracle drugs are dispensed. Dame Sally Davis, the UK’s Special Envoy on Antimicrobial R...