Inside Politics: The best and worst of 2024

Exhausted firefighters are making slow progress against three fires raging in Los Angeles. The fires have claimed at least 24 lives and displaced over 100,000 residents.  The world watched on in horror as the elderly were evacuated in wheelchairs against a fiery backdrop, Hollywood’s biggest stars’ mourned their scorched homes on social media, and abandoned cars were bulldozed in a heap to clear roads. But the worst may not be over, with extreme wind conditions forecast over coming days and no sign of significant rainfall.  Today, national environment and climate editor Nick O’Malley on the unique and frightening weather patterns caused by a warming climate, and whether or not Australia is prepared.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So, Donald Trump wants to expand the United States - in a big way. But why is he considering seizing Greenland, of all places - and by military force, no less? And why does he want to reclaim the Panama Canal, and absorb Canada?Trump’s comments aren’t just, as one commentator put it, “untethered from international law”. They’ve also angered many world leaders. And made others laugh. One president responded with a troll of her own.Today, North America correspondent Farrah Tomazin, on what this all means, for the next four years. And what the history of American domination over other parts of the globe can teach us.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When opposition leader Peter Dutton proposed nuclear energy reactors on almost every mainland state in June last year, he reignited divisive public debate.  It’s a debate Indigenous Australians are unwillingly at the heart of. A story that starts in the 1950s, when radioactive fallout from bomb tests caused illness among Aboriginal communities that were not adequately protected by the government of the day.  Today, audio producer Julia Carr-Catzel brings us a special edition of The Morning Edition on the resistance in Aboriginal communities to a potential nuclear energy industry in Australia. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners are advised that this podcast contains names of people who have died.Read the full story on our website: https://www.smh.com.au/environment/sustainability/there-s-a-gaping-hole-in-dutton-s-nuclear-plan-he-says-it-s-albanese-s-problem-to-solve-20241113-p5kqe4.html Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hi there, I’m Jacqueline Maley, the host of Inside Politics, The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald’s weekly politics podcast.  We’re bringing you the best episodes of 2024, before we return in early February for the election year. Last year was a big one for the Greens, often called the third party of Australian politics. They took what was seen as a hardline stance backing Palestinians in the war with Israel, owned the issue of affordable housing, and controversially came to the defence of the CFMEU in the wake of revelations the union had been infiltrated by criminals. National affairs editor James Massola and federal political correspondent Paul Sakkal bring you this episode today, on January 10.  Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

They’re on opposite sides of one of the world’s most violent political conflicts, representing groups who often express extreme animosity towards each other.  One refers to them as the occupied and the occupier. But what do the Israeli and Palestinian representatives in Australia make of each other? Especially now, when relations between Israel and Australia are if not at an all-time low, then pretty close to it? Today, foreign affairs and national security correspondent Matthew Knott, on why both men - famously reluctant interviewees - granted him an interview at the same time. And what, 15 months into the war in Gaza, they wish Australians knew.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In what has to be one of the more stunning political reversals of fortune, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has resigned. So, what happened to the former golden boy of progressive politics? He was, after all, the man seen as the ‘good cop’ in North American politics, for so long - the counterpoint to Donald Trump.Today, digital foreign editor Chris Zappone on the downfall of Justin Trudeau, after nearly a decade in power. And how a new Canadian prime minister might impact the rest of us.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you’ve been reading recent headlines about coffee prices you might be thinking: what fresh hell is this? We’re being told that, by year’s end, a cup of coffee could cost as much as - wait for it - twelve dollars. Today, business reporter Jessica Yun, on why the beverage so many of us rely on to cope with each day could soon become a luxury item.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’ve been living through a housing crisis for so long, that sometimes it feels as though it’s been with us forever. But when did it actually start? And what would it take to make the dream to own your own home once again within reach? For the first time, thanks to newly unlocked cabinet papers from 2004, we now know more about what role former Prime Minister John Howard and his treasurer, Peter Costello, played, in arguably contributing to house prices that have, well, gone insane. Today, senior economics correspondent Shane Wright, on the warning that Howard and Costello were given, but decided not to present to their own cabinet. And what voters should know, ahead of the next federal election.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hi there, I’m Jacqueline Maley, the host of Inside Politics, The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald’s weekly politics podcast.  We’re bringing you the best episodes of 2024, before we return in early February for the election year. In this episode, which aired in April, we take you to the moment Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong signalled the start of a shift in Australia’s position on the question of Palestinian statehood in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war.  Since then, Australia changed its stance, voting for the first time in more than 20 years for a United Nations resolution that demanded Israel end its presence in the occupied Palestinian territories.  We’re releasing this episode, which features foreign affairs correspondent Matthew Knott and chief political correspondent David Crowe, on January 3.  Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hi there, I’m Samantha Selinger-Morris the host of The Morning Edition, the daily news podcast from The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald.  We’re bringing you the best episodes of 2024, before your Morning Edition team returns in early January. Today, we revisit the start of an investigation into medical misogyny experienced by Australian women. Health editor Kate Aubusson and senior writer Wendy Touhy delve into an invisible epidemic that has its roots in Ancient Greece.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.