Parliament rises after a turbulent six months

Jennifer Westacott: Australian Jews have been let down by all our leaders

This week it was the turn of University leaders to front up at the Antisemitism Royal Commission.They were challenged and chastened over their failure to protect Jewish students and academics in the protests that followed October 7. Jennifer Westacott, Chancellor of Western Sydney University says too many institutions hid behind the defence of free speech. Do you struggle with the shorter days during the winter months? Well in Antarctica the sun doesn’t rise at all for six long weeks, and when it finally peaks over the horizon, it's only there for 24 minutes. Davis Station leader Jenny Bonser talks about what it's like living in the dark for so long.  And a musical collaboration that crosses borders and cultures. Australian-British pianist Jayson Gillham and Palestinian pianist Iyad Sughayer get ready to tour their new show, The Keys of Life

US mandates testosterone tests to keep troops on the 'leading edge of lethality'

First he came for the beards, now he wants their bloods. US defence secretary Pete Hegseth has unleashed a brave new policy for restoring the American defence forces: mandatory testosterone checks. Professor Bu Yeap is an endocrinologist  in the school of medicine at the University of Western Australia, he’s also the author of one of the world’s largest ever studies on the factors influencing testosterone levels in men.  More than one thousand home batteries are installed in Australia everyday. EVERY DAY. It’s a green energy success story, placing us third in the world for battery storage capacity. But it's also changing the economics of the grid. Could virtual power plants be the answer and would you give your energy provider the keys?

AI the Australian way - Albanese announces plan to regulate tech future

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has opened the Office of Artificial Intelligence, tasked with creating new standards governing the technology. Johanna Weaver, executive director of the Tech Policy Design Institute, says its an important step towards determining what our AI future looks like and who gets to build it. The words discounts and diamonds don’t usually go together but the world’s largest miner De Beers is slashing prices for their precious gems as demand for cheaper, lab grown versions takes off. Diamond expert Edahn Golan says the decline in demand is a combination of shifting demographics and cost of living pressures.  And Australia’s ‘sorceress of percussion’; the prodigiously talented, award winning percussionist Claire Edwards

Are we now in a post-literacy world?

The US has vowed to dismantle the International Criminal Court, declaring it a rogue force that threatens every aspect of America’s political and legal systems. Former ICC special advisor and UTas Professor of law Tim McCormack says the Trump administration is completely misrepresenting the way the court operates.  Australia sends more than 27 million tonnes of construction and demolition waste to landfill every year. Architect Alex Symes believes that has to change — and he's turning a 120 year old terrace into a working demonstration of how renovation can be done with less waste, fewer new materials and a smaller environmental footprint. Its dramatic. We’ll take a visit to his house to find out just what that looks like.  The end of reading is here; that’s the stark claim in a new essay published by The Atlantic charting the decline in reading and comprehension and the profound impact it's already having on our brains, even the bestsellers have shorter sentences than they did 50 years ago.

'Honoury Aussie' Sam Neill dies aged 78

He was the New Zealand actor we claimed with pride; Sam Neill, star of film and television, has died at the age of 78 in Sydney. In a career spanning six decades he starred in the blockbuster Jurassic Park franchise, the Oscar winning film The Piano and played opposite Hollywood luminaries like Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. His good friend and fellow actor Heather Mitchell says he loved Australia, and he cherished and loved people. The US and Iran are sliding back into a state of all-out-war less than a month after a ceasefire and Memorandum of Understanding to progress peace talks was agreed. At issue is a disagreement over the passage of vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, with Iran insisting they have the power to decide who comes and who goes. Dr Dania Thafer Executive Director of Gulf International Forum says Iran is seeking to become a regional hegemon.  More than a decade after ISIS launched its genocidal campaign against the Yazidi people, thousands are still waiting for justice. Later this year a Community-Based Truth Commission will be convened in the German Bundestag in a bid to force countries and organisations to reckon with these atrocities and prosecute perpetrators. Aldo Zammit-Borda, Professor of Law at City St George's, University of London is among the experts running the commission.