Is Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ a power grab?

Donald Trump has invited Australia to join his new “Board of Peace” – a Trump-led body he says will help bring peace to Gaza.

But the invitation comes with a warning. Some leaders say the board could undermine the United Nations – and Trump himself has suggested it might even replace it.

Trump has spent years attacking the United Nations as ineffective – and this term, his administration has moved to pull the US out of dozens of UN agencies.

So is this a peace plan, or a power play?

Today, UN analyst at the International Crisis Group, Maya Ungar, on the real agenda behind Trump’s Board of Peace and whether Australia should join.

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How hate speech blew up the Coalition

This week, Labor’s watered-down hate speech laws passed the Senate.

The following day, the bigger story wasn’t the bill.

Three senior Nationals – Bridget McKenzie, Susan McDonald and Ross Cadell – were forced off the opposition frontbench after defying shadow cabinet and voting against the legislation.

Then, after a late night emergency meeting, the rest of the Nationals frontbench followed suit, quitting their roles in a show of solidarity.

Now, the Liberal National partnership is hanging in the balance and Sussan Ley’s leadership is again under threat.

Today, Press Gallery journalist Karen Middleton, on how hate speech blew up the Coalition.

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How Elon Musk's Grok started undressing children

When Elon Musk first launched his AI tool Grok, he called it “rebellious” and anti-woke.

But over the summer, what that meant took a disturbing turn.

The chatbot, which is embedded in Musk's social media platform X, started creating sexualised images of women and children without their consent.

Anthony Albanese has staked his legacy on keeping children safe online, so what is he doing to protect them from Grok?

Today, associate editor at Crikey, Cam Wilson, on whether it’s time for the government to get off X.

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Why Australia has more guns than ever

In the aftermath of the 1996 massacre at Port Arthur, Prime Minister John Howard donned a bullet proof vest and argued the case for gun control, to crowds of angry protestors. 

His reforms, including a ban on automatic and semi-automatic weapons, and a national buyback scheme, changed the country by getting rid of more than half a million guns.

But in the years since, the number of guns in Australia has skyrocketed, and as Anthony Albanese tries to change that, the Coalition is fighting back, while the Greens have signalled early support. 

Today, deputy director at The Australia Institute Ebony Bennett on why Australia has more guns than ever – and whether Labor’s proposed plan will make us safer.

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The AFP’s secretive new anti-protest command

Rex Patrick is a former senator from South Australia. Before that, he was a submariner in the Navy.

Last year, he noticed a reference to a new arm of the Australian Federal Police called the AUKUS Command.

He wanted to know more, so he lodged Freedom of Information requests with the Australian Submarine Agency and the Australian Federal Police. 

The documents he got back were heavily redacted – but he was able to form a picture of a secretive new command set up to protect AUKUS submarines. 

But hidden in the fine print were plans to surveil protest, manage dissent, and deploy force against it. 

Today, Rex Patrick on the Australian Federal Police, their new powers to protect America’s interests in Australia, and what it means for the future of protest.

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Revisiting Creative Australia’s decision to drop Khaled Sabsabi

The fallout from this year’s Adelaide Writers’ Week debacle has reignited fierce debate about political interference in the arts and about who gets to speak in Australia’s cultural spaces.

After the invitation to Palestinian-Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah was withdrawn, 180 writers pulled out in protest. 

The festival was eventually cancelled and Adelaide Festival has since apologised for excluding the author from Writers’ Week, admitting it had failed to uphold artistic freedom. The whole saga raises urgent questions about how decisions are being made – by governments, by boards, and by those in charge of our institutions. 

Today, we’re bringing you a story from last year that exposed one of the initial fault lines in cultural administration.

It’s about artist Khaled Sabsabi, who was dropped from representing Australia at the Venice Biennale after political pressure. Then, as the backlash intensified, Sabsabi was reinstated. 

It’s an episode that feels more relevant than ever.  It features chief political correspondent for The Saturday Paper Karen Barlow, speaking with Ruby Jones.

This episode originally aired in February last year.

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Hannah Ferguson on the politics of hate speech

On Monday, parliament will return early to debate new laws to deal with hate speech and gun ownership.

The legislation has been drafted in a hurry – under mounting pressure in the aftermath of the Bondi terror attack.

But support for the bill has already fractured. The Coalition says it goes too far. The Greens say it doesn’t go far enough. Both want more time to consider the changes.

The debate over what is and isn’t hate is unfolding at a time of deep political division with consequences not just for parliament, but for Australia’s cultural institutions.

Today, CEO of Cheek Media and host of the Big Small Talk podcast, Hannah Ferguson, on the politics of hate speech and how a fight over free expression spilled into the arts.

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Why Trump “needs” Greenland

Directly after Donald Trump intervened in Venezuela, capturing president Nicolas Maduro and laying claim to the country’s oil industry, the US President set his sights on Greenland.

Trump claims America “needs” Greenland for national security, and has asked his military chiefs to draw up plans to invade if neccessary. 

Meanwhile, a meeting between US Vice-President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Rasmussen and Greenlandic Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt ended in a stalemate – with Trump doubling down, and Denmark asking for European back-up.

Today, defence editor at The Economist Shashank Joshi, on the real reason Trump wants Greenland, and how his plan could change the world.

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