Democracy after Donald Trump

Parliament rises after a turbulent six months

The Parliament has risen for its winter recess, leaving much unfinished business and a trail of broken promises. Press gallery journalists Clare Armstrong and Ashleigh Raper wrap up a long 6 months in federal politics.  Former Attorney General Mark Dreyfus is among those who’ve made deeply personal submissions to the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion. He says he's been shocked at the growing abuse of Jewish Australians, particularly on social media.  After growing up in a family where a game of Mahjong was cutting loose, Jailing Cai chose a decidedly more daring career; photographing microscopic sea creatures in the open ocean in the dead of night. Now the award winning photographer travels all over the world mastering this dark art.

Are your meds doing you more harm than good?

Healthcare workers are embarking on a world first project to help people reduce their reliance on prescription drugs like sleeping pills and opioids amid growing evidence of dangerous side-effects. The project called SUPPORT-Meds is lead by Associate Professor Emily Reeve, at the Centre for Medicine Use and Safety at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences. As the Christian Brothers cry poor and appeal to the court for a stay on compensation payments to victims of historical child sexual abuse, attention is turning to the properties they transferred to Edmund Rice Education Australia for as a little as one dollar.  80 years ago today the USA detonated an atomic bomb over Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, the beginnings of a devastating nuclear testing program in the pacific. Dave Sweeney, co-founder of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons Nobel peace prize winner and Samuel Barton, President of the Marshall Islands Student Association at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji are using the anniversary to appeal to the Government to finally ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Is Vladimir Putin a drowning man?

As Russian soldiers continue to die in appalling numbers and Ukrainian drones terrorise civilians in Moscow, fears are growing that a paranoid Russian president could escalate the war both at grave cost at home and abroad.   On the eve of the Dalai Lama’s 91st birthday his special representative is in Australia to sound an alarm about China’s new ethnic unity laws, which, they say, seeks to crush their culture and identity. It’s the food staple that nourishes half of humanity, but rice crops are particularly vulnerable to the ravages of an El Nino weather cycle. That’s forcing poor farmers across our region to roll the die with their crops in a bid to outrun the long hot dry.

In quake stricken Venezuela, people wonder who is actually in charge

In quake stricken Venezuela once bustling streets are silent but for the sound of crying, as citizens scrape through the rubble with their bare hands searching desperately for the missing. Freelance Venezuelan journalist Camilla Rodriguez Montilla says hopes are fading but anger at the slow official response is growing.   If it takes you by surprise chances are you’re more likely to remember it. Neuroscientists from the University of Sydney have looked inside our brains to understand how we respond to unexpected events, and how that primes our neural pathways for high performance and memory making. Dr Reuben Rideaux, is the lead researcher of this paper.  Palestinians describe their presence as psychological warfare, but music teacher Ahmed Abu Amsha has found a way to drown out the menacing thrum of Israeli drones - with song.

'Like trying to play hieroglyphics' — how did The Shaggs achieve cult status with so little talent?

There was a lot of hustle and plenty of chances and in the end Australia got the job done in San Francisco with a scoreless draw against Paraguay delivering them a berth in the knockout round of 32. Freelance football writer and ESPN Australia contributor Joey Lynch says whilst many people were hoping for an outright win, the team is playing with more confidence every time they step onto the pitch.  Somewhere in rural Paraguay Australian flags were flying over a small township during today's clash. Its Paraguayan residents go by the names of Smith, Kennedy, Adams and Murray; descendants of a failed 19th century utopian experiment dreamt up by a radical unionist from Brisbane. Writer and journalist Ben Stubbs visited Nueva Australia more than a decade ago and was surprised to meet some very Australian characters.     Did you ever rock out to The Shaggs back in the day? The trio of sisters in the sixties were challenging on the ears, but decades on this curious anti-musical outfit has achieved a cult status. And now a documentary in their name by filmmaker Ken Kwapis.