Counterpoint

What will the relationship between the EU and the UK look like post BREXIT and might it mean the beginning of the end for the EU? The coronavirus, or COVID-19, is not the first virus, nor will it be the last, that spreads from animal to humans. How can we stop the spread of these viruses or will they now always be with us? In 2018 Dr Francis Arnold was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. A few months later she retracted her paper because the work was flawed. Was it evidence that scientists can't be trusted or should she praised for her transparency? At the turn of the 20th Century Australia went through a bit of a fortune telling craze. The practise was illegal and the police tried to prosecute where they could but the women survived and in some cases thrived.

India is going through some rapid changes politically but is Australia paying enough attention? Should hate speech be banned from social media and who gets to decide if it is hate speech or opinion? Alphabets are disappearing. There are between 6,000 to 7,000 languages in the world. Yet 96% are spoken by just 3% of the global population and 85% are endangered.

Why do regime changes rarely work? What does the term ideological really mean and why is it so often used as an insult? An analysis of the coronavirus suggests it comes from bats who carry a host of viruses without themselves getting sick. How do they do it? How much BPA is too much and is there such a thing as too little to make a difference and why is there a stoush over this? How sick do we need to be before it's solved?

Can you think of anything more boring than living in a world in which nothing and nowhere is unique? Why do we fear difference and yet crave it at the same time? Australia has cracked the top ten in The Economist Intelligence Unit's annual Democracy Index but we're still behind New Zealand! Why? Is Twitter representative of 'main stream' opinion? Do it's users speak for us all? What was it like to live in Romania under Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu? How are they viewed in Romania now?

Do separatists still have ambitions in the Middle East? What are the consequences of gender inequality across Africa and what can be done to give women more economic and social opportunities across the continent? How is it possible that the world is running out of sand and why are people killing for it? Golden Rice could save hundreds and thousands of people every year from dying, why isn't it?