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The leader of Hezbollah has been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut. Hassan Nasrallah led the group for more than 30 years, building it into a powerful political force within Lebanon and the most heavily armed non-state militia in the world. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly ordered the killing from his hotel room in New York, before his speech at the United Nations genera...

Sri Lankan-born Canadian essayist, poet, and Booker Prize-winning novelist Michael Ondaatje recently released a stunning collection of poems. Ondaatje is now 80 years old and it’s almost half a century since he published his first novel; even longer since he first published poetry. On this episode of Read This he joins Michael for a conversation about A Year of Last Things and why writing remains...

The Reserve Bank should lower interest rates, and if they don’t, the government should make them, according to the Greens. Their spokesperson for economic justice Nick McKim has said he won’t support the government's reforms to the RBA unless the treasurer intervenes in the bank’s decision-making processes and tells them to lower interest rates.  It’s a big demand: something that has never happene...

The Liberal National Party has been in the political wilderness in Queensland for most of the past three decades. But in a month’s time that’s likely to change, after an election campaign fought on youth crime. Yesterday, David Crisafulli announced courts would be able to access young people’s full criminal histories, even after they have turned 18. It’s a move legal experts say is cheap and won’t...

In more than 30 years of lobbying for gambling reforms, Tim Costello says no government has tried to silence him through the use of a legally binding non-disclosure agreement. That’s until the Albanese government asked him to sign an NDA as part of lobbying the government on new gambling advertising laws. The chief advocate for the Alliance for Gambling Reform says he believes its purpose was to “...

If you ask a Melbourne local, almost all of them would have heard of the 1977 Easey Street murders. In one of Victoria’s most brutal unsolved killings, two women in their 20s were stabbed dozens of times in their home on Easey Street in Collingwood. Now, after 47 years and examining over 130 “persons of interest”, police have finally made an arrest. Today, journalist and author of Murder on Easey...

Peter Dutton is now on TikTok, and his first post was about as inspiring as you might imagine. It’s shot in an office, he’s wearing a suit, and he’s talking about housing. It’s easy to see this as a case of trying to appeal to the kids. But it’s also a sign of a broader trend among Australian politicians, with around a third of them now on TikTok and more likely to join the platform. Peter Dutton’...

Even if you’re not an obsessive Ancient Rome aficionado, you may have heard of Mary Beard. With more than 20 books to her name, including the wildly successful SPQR , Mary might be most famous for her work as a BBC host for shows such as Pompeii: Life and Death in a Roman Town and Julius Caesar Revealed. On this episode of Read This , she sits down with Michael to discuss her life sentence — the h...

In a court case earlier this year, an art installation at Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art that was designed to playfully poke at the historic and ongoing disadvantages faced by women was found to be discriminatory. MONA’s Ladies Lounge was a small, private room within the museum, bordered by silk green curtains and open only to those who identify as “ladies”. MONA is appealing the decision, arg...

As a child refugee in India, Harini dreamt of making it to Australia to study medicine and become a doctor. She arrived in Australia in 2013 when she was 10 years old, leaving behind her two siblings and mother. Harini did not realise her visa status made her different to her classmates until she received a university offer for a biomedical science degree that required her to pay international stu...

When Bill Shorten finally gave up his hopes of ever becoming prime minister, one door closed and another, much more lucrative, door opened.  In his new role as vice-chancellor of the University of Canberra, he could earn up to three times as much as the PM.  His appointment comes amid a fight about the exorbitant salaries Australian vice-chancellors receive and as his government's new cap on inter...

When Jim Chalmers said that interest rate hikes were “smashing the economy” he was either stating the obvious or starting a war, depending on who you ask. For weeks – in question time and in the news – a picture has been forming of an aggrieved treasurer, angry at the governor of the Reserve Bank. At the same time, senior unnamed Labor insiders have called Michelle Bullock a “nutter” and the RBA b...

The militia movement in the United States has a long and bloody history.  In the aftermath of January 6, it was buoyed by Donald Trump’s praise of those who attacked the Capitol, and the numbers of people wanting to join militia groups grew. With a resurgence in numbers, militia groups are now patrolling the US-Mexico border, forming bonds with active duty police and military and trying to influen...

Star investigative journalist Louise Milligan has spent her career working on some of the most high-profile criminal cases in Australia. This incredible breadth of experience informs her first novel Pheasant’s Nest , which follows the abduction of a young journalist and provides a unique insight into the media, policing and politics that surround a crime like this. On this episode of Read This , M...

When former inmate Daniel Vansetten heard about the idea of a national newspaper, produced for prisoners and by prisoners, he jumped at the opportunity to be involved. He says the incarceration system in Australia can be an information black hole and About Time intends to rectify that. The free paper is available to approximately 21,000 prisoners in Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales and the ACT....

The United States presidential campaign so far has largely been based on fashioning public perceptions: with the Democrats painting Donald Trump as a threat to democracy, and Republicans calling Kamala Harris a radical Marxist who will destroy America. And with the election just around the corner, their first and possibly only debate was a chance to tell Americans about their visions for the count...

Peter Dutton’s first major promise when he became opposition leader was to build nuclear power plants. It was a curious idea with no cost attached and and without much community support, according to polling.  Now, the Labor government has signalled it wants the next election to be fought on the viability of these plants, with the release of a new attack ad focusing on how expensive nuclear power...

Politics was changed at the last election in a way the major parties are still grappling with. Now, the record crossbench it delivered looks set to grow even more, with a hung parliament looking ever more likely. In the lead up to the next election, Labor is courting the teals, knowing the relationship could be crucial to forming government and keeping Coalition MPs out of inner-city seats. Today,...

The Albanese government’s long-promised National Anti-Corruption Commission was met with high hopes that it would weed out corruption within our institutions and restore faith in politics. But when it came to its first big test – investigating the robodebt scandal – it took the commission a year to decide it would do nothing. Now, there are concerns that the NACC is failing to live up to its oblig...

Gerald Murnane doesn’t have readers, he has acolytes. The New Yorker described him as “the reclusive giant of Australian letters”. He’s written 10 novels, several collections of short stories and essays, and a memoir about horse racing. Together these books represent one of the most formidable and singular bodies of work in literature. On this episode of Read This , Michael drives out to the Gorok...

Bill Shorten has wanted to be the prime minister since he was a teenager.  Yesterday he finally gave up that ambition, announcing his resignation from politics.  Shorten spent almost two decades in parliament – rising to be opposition leader and contesting two elections, but never winning. As an architect of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, his legacy is significant. But his political fai...

At a Senate committee last year, the NRL and Football Australia acknowledged the link between head injuries in contact sports and the neurodegenerative disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) . But a core member of the NRL’s concussion research group is also one of the most outspoken critics of the link between repeated head injury and CTE, calling it an “invented disease … conjured out of...

Although Australians voted resoundingly against an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, Thomas Mayo – one of the Voice’s key campaigners – has not given up hope. He says while the “Yes” campaign lost the referendum, what they gained was resilience and a new generation of Indigenous leaders ready to take up the fight. He’s also written a new book , Always Was Always Will Be : The Campaign for Justice an...

The census is meant to reflect the country back to us – to give vital data on who makes up Australia.  But this week it’s become a political landmine for the federal government, who first cancelled questions on sexual orientation and gender identity, only to partially reverse that decision amid tense backlash.  But the question of data isn’t just academic. This debate is coming at a time when the...

It’s been almost a decade since Jacqui Lambie dramatically quit the Palmer United Party.   Since then, she’s become a political force in Canberra and in her home state of Tasmania as the leader of the Jacqui Lambie Network.  At the last federal election, Lambie’s longtime staffer Tammy Tyrrell won a senate spot – and at the last Tasmanian election, just a few months ago, the party won three seats....