On paper, the Australian economy seems to be going pretty well.

We learned last week that we avoided a recession in the second quarter of this year, and according to the latest calculation of the Bureau of Statistics the unemployment rate is a healthy 4.6%.

But with half the country in lockdown and the other half all but hermetically sealed from everywhere else, is that really the full picture?

Today on The Signal, we catch up with the ABC's Business Editor Ian Verrender.

We hear about what the latest numbers tell us, what they don't, and what may lie ahead.

Featured:

Ian Verrender, ABC Business Editor

The number of COVID patients needing an ICU bed in New South Wales is expected to keep climbing into October. 

The problem is that even now, with demand sitting well below the state's technical ICU capacity, hospitals are already feeling the strain.

So what's the surge plan in New South Wales, and will it work the way the State Government is hoping? 

Featured: 

Dr Greg Fox, Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the University of Sydney, and respiratory physician, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney

Australia is borrowing Pfizer jabs, while it waits for purchases to arrive. But when might mRNA vaccines be made onshore? And Indigenous communities are being targeted with anti-vaccination propaganda. We look at what went wrong with the rollout in Indigenous communities.

There's a lot of anger and frustration in the far-west of New South Wales.

And Wilcannia, 11 hours west of Sydney and 8 hours north-east of Adelaide, is ground zero.

The tiny outback town, with a predominantly Indigenous population, is facing what governments had been telling us they'd been working around-the-clock to prevent: a cluster of COVID-19 among some of its most vulnerable inhabitants.

So how did this happen?

Today on The Signal, ABC Radio reporter Carly Williams talks us through what's become Australia's single worst outbreak of the Delta variant so far.

Featured:

Carly Williams, ABC journalist

Sarah Donnelley, teacher and community member, Wilcannia, NSW

Chloe Quayle (Barkaa), performing artist and Barkinji woman 

Monica Kerwin, Barkinji woman, Wilcannia, NSW

Brendon Adams, Manager, Wilcannia River Radio

With the US and its allies out of Afghanistan, there's no real contest for power anymore.

But the next challenge facing the Taliban is arguably even greater, albeit in a different way: how to run a country.

Today on The Signal, major aid donors have frozen their support, and many public officials have fled the country or gone into hiding.

So do the Taliban actually have the resources and know-how to run Afghanistan?

And if they don't, where does that leave the Afghan people?

Featured: 

Dr Greg Mills, Director, Brenthurst Foundation, Johannesburg, and former advisor to International Security Assistance Force, Afghanistan

It's called the Community Development Program or "work for the dole", and in remote communities in the Top End many say the work and training they have been forced to complete for basic welfare payments is "gammon", or rubbish.

Now, the Federal Government is promising a redesign, along with a pledge from the prime minister Scott Morrison to hand over more control of programs like this to Indigenous leaders as a way of Closing The Gap.

Today on The Signal, ABC reporter Jane Bardon has been speaking to Indigenous people living in the Katherine region of the Northern Territory about what might replace the CDP.

Featured:

Jane Bardon, ABC reporter

Esther Bulumbara, Jawoyn traditional owner

Natalie Blitner, Wardaman ranger

Antonia Burke, Indigenous healer and cultural trainer

Lisa Mumbin, Jawoyn Association chairwoman

John Berto, Jawoyn Association chief executive

Most people who've taken more than a fleeting glance at Australia's Family Court, agree that it's broken, even if not everyone agrees on what exactly is wrong.

The latest attempt at a solution comes into effect this week, when the Family Court and the Federal Circuit Court merge.

So will it help Australia's most troubled court system, or just make matters worse?

Today on The Signal, why the Family Court is broken, and what it'll take to fix it.

Featured:

Catherine Lumby, Professor of Media, University of Sydney & Co-author, 'Broken: Children, Parents and Family Courts'

America's biggest cable news network, Fox, played a decisive role on election night in 2020.

With early states seemingly falling Donald Trump's way, the network put paid to premature claims the former President would win by calling the crucial state of Arizona for his rival, Joe Biden.

Despite pressure from inside the Trump campaign for a backtrack, Fox News stood firm.

So why did some of the biggest commentators at Fox later peddle the lie that the election was stolen?

Today on The Signal, we catch up with ABC 4 Corners reporter Sarah Ferguson.

We discuss Sarah's latest two-part investigation into Donald Trump's big election lie, and ask why so many of the former President's media allies came on board.

Did Donald Trump's lies change Fox?

And if so, what does that mean for America?

Featured:

Sarah Ferguson, Reporter, ABC 4 Corners

As NSW charts a path to schools opening, experts say measuring and filtering classroom air is essential, alongside masks and vaccines, as we "learn to live with COVID". And from a mythically resistant valley, Afghanistan’s Taliban resistance assembles, who are they and what is the plan?

It's been over a year since an explosion tore through the centre of Beirut.

The blast killed hundreds, injured thousands, and left hundreds of thousands without homes.

But in the 12 months since it happened, living conditions in Lebanon have got worse, not better.

Today on The Signal, we're heading back to Beirut.

We're asking why life in Lebanon has deteriorated so rapidly, and what those who are part of an exodus from the country say about the broken homeland they're leaving behind.

Featured: 

Luna Safwan, independent journalist, Beirut