The Morning Edition

Since Russia launched its full scale invasion of Ukraine three and a half years ago, both sides have suffered catastrophic losses. More than one million Russian soldiers killed or injured. And on the Ukrainian side? Nearly 400,000.

Both sides seem to agree on nothing except for one thing: whoever has the support of American president Donald Trump has the best chance at stopping this war on their terms.

Today, international and poli...

It was billed as a “vibrant gathering of readers, writers, and creative thinkers” who would spark “ideas, conversation, and inspiration”. 

So what happened last weekend to turn the Bendigo Writers Festival from an idyllic ideas-fest into an event that exemplified “an authoritarian abuse of power”, as the festival’s founder put it?

Today, senior culture writer Kerrie O’Bri...

It may have once boasted one of the most heartwarming advertisement ever to grace our TV screens reminding us that Qantas meant coming home, but in the last few years, the airline has weathered multiple scandals, and allegations of ripping customers off.

And then came Monday morning, when the national airline was slapped with a whopping $90 million dollar fine for unfairly sacking staff. 

We bring you this episode on Mond...

For more than a decade of dazzling media coverage, Dr Munjed Al Muderis was lauded as a miracle worker to some of the most vulnerable people in our community, helping people to walk again, against all odds, after losing their limbs in accidents and warzones.

This all came crashing down, after a months-long investigation by reporter Charlotte Grieve, who exposed allegations of treatment gone horribly wrong with patients left disfigu...

This week the Albanese government announced it would recognise Palestine as a state, a huge foreign policy shift that was greeted with approval by many and criticism by others. 

Plus, the Reserve Bank assumes a fall in productivity right before the government's productivity summit, and is there tension between the PM and Treasurer?

Joining Jacqueline Maley to discuss is chief political correspondent Paul Sakkal.

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Two former Israeli prime ministers and now, the chief of staff of the Israeli defence force, have objected to Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial Gaza takeover plan, in the face of growing objections from the west, including Australia, to the starvation and death of Palestinians.

But, as international editor Peter Hartcher pointedly argues, Netanyahu doesn’t care. Nor does he care about the Israeli hostages still in Gaza...

It was a scene straight out of the Donald Trump playbook: a rambling press conference where he spoke about oceanfront property in Ukraine, his upcoming meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Russia – though he’s actually meeting him in Alaska. And then, as if on cue, his claim that, Washington DC has been “overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals”.

Today, North America correspon...

Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese has announced that Australia will recognise Palestinian statehood at the United Nations, next month. 

After being told, over the weekend, of Australia’s imminent announcement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted Australia - and the other countries that have recently flagged their intention to soon recognise Palestinian statehood - as being “shameful”.

T...

If you've bought a house lately - or tried to - then you'd know the price advertised for properties in the big cities are, more often than not, way below what they sell for. 

But we've never really had a handle on how widespread underquoting is. Until now.

In a new investigation that analysed tens of thousands of property sales in Sydney and Melbourne, our mastheads have uncovered an extraodinary level of misinformat...

This week on the pod we are going to delve into what we are calling Canberra’s Coachella - AKA the Productivity Summit, which is happening the week after next. 

What is the point of it? And what is productivity anyway? 

Here to discuss, we have Chief Political Correspondent, Paul Sakkal as usual, and special guest star and productivity king, Senior Economics Correspondent Shane Wright.

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If you heard the news that Donald Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday and responded with a shrug, you probably weren’t alone. How do or die are monthly jobs statistics? And wasn’t this just another instance of Trump attacking someone whose findings he didn’t like?

Not according to experts from across the political aisle, who have raised the alarm that this move represents a different t...

We all know that divorce settlements often get ugly. 

We hear stories about the couples who chainsaw couches in half, such is their disagreement over who is entitled to get what. So, who knew that, behind our backs, divorce settlements have been getting even messier? 

Today, legal affairs reporter Michaela Whitbourn on the new methods that couples are using to hide their assets.

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Picture this. A man has been convicted of rape. And as he sits in his prison cell, awaiting a sentence, he continues to be paid his taxpayer funded salary of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. He hasn’t been fired. 

It might sound implausible. But this case is playing out right now, with a NSW member of parliament. 

Today, state political editor Alexandra Smith on the case of Gareth Ward. And why behaviour t...

If you feel like you’re working like crazy, but getting nowhere fast, you’re far from alone. It turns out that Australians work many more hours, per week, than our counterparts in Germany and Japan.

But a new study has shown the benefits of a four-day work week. 

Today, economics writer Millie Muroi, on why the government keeps going on about productivity. And whether a shorter work week, which has already bee...

French President Emmanuel Macron, and Canadian and UK prime ministers Mark Carney and Keir Starmer have all called for Palestine to be recognised, one way or another. 

But Anthony Albanese remains cautious. So what is the Australian Prime Minister waiting for?

This week on Inside Politics, European correspondent David Crowe, national security correspondent Matthew Knott and chief political correspondent Paul Sakkal e...

For the last 54 years, countless writers have lived by the words of the late author Graham Greene who wrote that writers should have a “splinter of ice in the heart”. He meant that we need to maintain a critical distance from the events we cover, in order to remain objective.

But have journalists become part of the world’s problems, with our focus on catastrophes?

Today, international and political editor, Pe...

The release of images of starving children lying listlessly in their mothers’ arms, in the Gaza strip, has pushed a growing number of global leaders to accuse Israel of breaking international law. 

So, is this the tipping point that will end the war?

Today, foreign affairs and national security correspondent Matthew Knott on the plight of Gazans, now. And whether Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will bow to...

Mark Smyth was one of Australia’s very top cancer scientists. Or, as one former colleague puts it, “the god of immunology."

But Smyth was a god who fell to earth and doubt now surrounds his work after a public unravelling.

Today, The Age and Sydney Morning Herald's national science reporter Liam Mannix on Smyth’s so-called “lab of secrets”, and his faked data, which now underpins a cancer drug being gi...

Obesity affects about a third of Australian adults, while another third are classified as overweight. But the weight loss drug Ozempic has proven to be a game changer in tackling this health epidemic across the country. 

Drugs such as Ozempic have evolved from managing diabetes to managing waist lines as Hollywood celebrities and doctors have   hailed it as a phenomenon, with Ozempic users dropping kilos without crash die...