The Morning Edition

What obligation does the Australian government have to help retrieve its citizens from debilitating circumstances, overseas?

This question will be at the heart of a High Court case on Monday, which will help decide the fate of 12 Australian women, and their 22 children, who’ve been languishing in refugee camps in Northern Syria for five years.

To those who have opposed bringing them home, the women are a threat - the family members...

Over the next week, while you and I are sleeping, members of the Murdoch family will be duking it out in an American courtroom over control of one of the most powerful media empires on the planet.

It’s the latest escalation in a civil war that has been building within the family for years.  

Today, media writer Calum Jaspan, on why Rupert Murdoch has pitted one of his children, Lachlan, against three of his other kids. And how the ...

Nine weeks after Republican candidate Donald J Trump was almost killed at a rally in Pennsylvania, the FBI is investigating another attempt on his life.

Trump was on his golf course in Florida on Sunday afternoon when Secret Service officers spotted a man with an AK-47 hiding in the bushes a few hundred metres away.

In the aftermath, Vice President Kamala Harris said: “Violence has no place in America”. Her running mate, Tim Walz, ...

It's arguably the most shameful stain on Australia's military. In 2020, an inquiry concluded that there was credible information implicating 25 special forces personnel in alleged war crimes in Afghanistan.

Four years on, the finding is still reverberating. 

Last week, Defence Minister Richard Marles announced he would strip medals from a number of senior officers who served in Afghanistan. The move has drawn the ire of some vetera...

Snapchat is officially on notice. As are Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. 

This week the Prime Minister and his communications minister Michelle Rowland announced they will introduce a ban on young people using social media. But they were short on detail, including exactly what age the government would require teens to be before they could access social media. 

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton promised the min...

It was one of the most highly anticipated debates in modern politics: a verbal showdown between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

Because for millions of Americans, the stakes couldn’t be higher. For many, a Trump win will stoke fears of a more autocratic United States.

And for countless others, a Harris win would mean a move against conservative beliefs.

Today, North America correspondent Farrah Tomazin on how the candidates, who we...

Deep in the snowy mountains is a tiny town called Nimmitabel. It’s almost smack bang in the middle of Sydney and Melbourne, it’s got a school, a pub, a couple of churches – enough for a few hundred people.

It’s the sort of place you move to start a fresh chapter of life, to feel part of a community, where literally everyone knows your name and drops round a casserole or a jar of freshly made jam.

And Nimmitable is all of those thin...

In terms of bizarre court cases, investigative journalist Kate McClymont has covered a few.

But this most recent one, which ended in the conviction of colourful construction boss George Alex, was right up there.

There was a soapie star turned doctor, who gave evidence that jail was a “terrible idea” for George Alex.

Then there was an arrest warrant issued when Alex failed to appear at court in person, but rather, logged on from his...

Australia's major union for construction workers, the CFMEU, has long been known as hardline in the way it went about its business.

But a couple of months ago, investigative journalist Nick McKenzie's stories revealed damaging accusations that the union, which regularly overseas government funded work sites had been infiltrated by organized crime. 

Even before the story broke on 60 minutes and in our mastheads, it triggered the res...

This week’s National Accounts figures showed that GDP growth was the weakest annual figure since the 1990s recession, not counting the pandemic. 

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the soft growth reflected the “impacts of global economic uncertainty, higher interest rates and persistent but moderating inflation”. But Chalmers also seemed to blame the Reserve Bank, saying the RBA is “smashing” the economy with interest rates. 

Meanwhile, ...

Mass protests erupted in Israel over the weekend - in one of the biggest displays of wartime dissent in Israel’s history - after the bodies of six Israeli hostages were found in a tunnel in Gaza.

The Israeli Defense Forces said the hostages had been murdered by Hamas, only a short while before Israeli troops were able to reach the captives.

Today, former army officer, and current Middle East analyst, Dr Rodger Shanahan, on whether ...

What is going on with the crazy weather right now?

In some parts of the country, the temperature is icy, while in others the heat is breaking records. Then there’s the wind; so fierce, it’s killed one woman, hospitalised another, and left tens of thousands of people without power.

Today, environment reporter Caitlin Fitzsimmons, on what’s driving these conditions. And whether we’ll soon see relief, or, instead, bad bushfires, and a...

Cartoonist Cathy Wilcox once said that cartooning is an art form crying out for attention. 

The domain of attention seekers who, when they were young, were the kind of kids to foist their drawings in their parents' faces, for approval.

Maybe so, but during Wilcox’s many years of drawing cartoons for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, she’s also been our conscience. She’s made us do double takes about some of the most vexed, and...

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra was plunged into turmoil last month after it cancelled the performance of a highly acclaimed pianist, who had made comments on stage about the war in Gaza.

Artists within the orchestra protested. The director resigned. And Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett has been enlisted to conduct a review of what happened.

Today, the journalist who broke the story - senior culture writer Kerrie O'Brien - take...

The Albanese government has told the university sector it has to slash foreign students by 53,000 places by next year. The universities say this will financially devastate them, but the government has pledged to halve net migration by next year, and something has to give. 

Plus, this week, members of the militant CFMEU hit the streets in major capitals to protest the Government’s decision to place the controversial union into admin...

He’s the fifth member of the Kennedy clan to run for the American presidency. But, notably, the only one to have dumped a bear in Central Park, as a prank. Even so, Robert F Kennedy Jr was, for months, a thorn in the side of Joe Biden and Donald Trump and, more recently, Kamala Harris. All feared that he could siphon votes from them. And ruin their bid for the White House.

Today, international and political editor, Peter Har...

A new American study has found microplastics in brain tissue, at levels up to 30 times higher than in other tissues in the body. This comes after years of disparate research, which has found microplastics in other parts of the human body, like the heart and the placenta.

Today, science reporter Angus Dalton on whether this is, as one toxicologist has put it,  a “global emergency”. And whether microplastics might have been ac...

When two American astronauts took off from earth on June 5, it was meant to be a triumph. Not just for the astronauts, who would spend a coveted eight days on the International Space Station, but also for Boeing, the company that created the spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the station for research.

Almost three months later, the astronauts are still stuck in space, and unlikely to come back down to Earth until next year.

The allegations are hard to stomach. The women tell stories of rape, harassment and being encouraged to use drugs. The men were offered a special prize if they were the first to have sex with a customer.

Today, investigative reporter Eryk Bagshaw and Good Food reporter Bianca Hrovat on the dark side to the alleged debauchery at high profile venues like Restaurant Hubert and the Baxter Inn. And whether these latest allegations about...