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The demand for oversized cars in Australia is surging, with SUVs and utes increasingly becoming the family and commuter car of choice. And while they are seen as the safer choice, experts say they may be making our roads deadlier. Transport and urban affairs reporter Elias Visontay tells Reged Ahmad why size doesn’t always equal safety and whether we need to reverse our attraction to SUVs

One weekend every year, Formula One takes over Melbourne. And while F1 is riding high in Australia with a massive new audience of young people – especially women – flooding the stands, critics point to a host of issues surrounding the sport, including the environmental cost. Matilda Boseley talks to sport reporter Jack Snape on what’s behind the new golden age of motor sport and if an Australian could win the F1 Championship this year

As we approach the Australian federal election, our new podcast series is exploring how much power and influence Gina Rinehart has in this country. She is a success story, worth almost $40bn. She’s also a climate sceptic, a Trumpette, a litigant – even against her own kids – and the woman who saved Australian swimming. Reged Ahmad speaks to senior correspondent and the host of this new series, Sarah Martin, to ask: who is Gina Rinehart, and what does she want? Listen and subscribe to the Gina Podcast at theguardian.com/gina

It’s been a wild week in Australian politics. Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred delayed the election, giving us a bonus budget while the revelation a caravan filled with explosives was not part of a terror plot delivered lessons for politicians on all sides. But dominating the debate was Donald Trump’s decision to implement tariffs on Australian steel and aluminium. Tony Barry and Barrie Cassidy examine how best to manage a relationship with an unpredictable ally, look closer to home at what the WA poll means for the federal election and examine why things are looking up for Albanese

As the shadow election campaign marches inexorably towards the official one, Peter Dutton and the Coalition have started to face scrutiny. The opposition leader and his team keep contradicting themselves, ‘misspeaking’ and backtracking. Reged Ahmad talks to editor-in-chief Lenore Taylor, head of newsroom Mike Ticher and national news editor Jo Tovey about if Peter Dutton’s missteps and the Coalition’s policy problems will start to add up in the minds of voters

Mark Carney, the former governor of the Bank of England, has a new role – saving his country from becoming America’s 51st state. Leyland Cecco reports You can support the Guardian at theguardian.com/fullstorysupport

There’s still a long road to go before a federal election and it’s already been pretty bumpy. Not only has Anthony Albanese delayed firing the starting gun because of Tropical Cyclone Alfred, we now have the prospects of a budget amid a fresh stoush between Donald Trump and Malcolm Turnbull. Political reporter Dan Jervis-Bardy tells Reged Ahmad what this latest argument between the US president and our former prime minister means for trade – and the delayed election

When then prime minister Scott Morrison signed the $US3bn Aukus agreement, it was hailed as Australia’s entry point into nuclear-power submarine status. But as Donald Trump’s second presidency unfolds, there are fears this landmark deal might never be delivered. Former foreign correspondent and Guardian reporter Ben Doherty tells Reged Ahmad how, with America an increasingly unreliable ally, doubts are rising above the waves

Michael Safi travelled to north-east Syria to speak to IS foreign fighters imprisoned there. He discovered that a change in the US administration, and USAid funding cuts, means there is a growing fear of prison breaks

This week, Barrie Cassidy and Tony Barry go back to the future to look at how history has given us an insight into what to expect in 2025 – and what lessons Anthony Albanese can learn from Bob Hawke.