Global Roaming with Geraldine Doogue and Hamish Macdonald

Eight months into the war between Iran, Israel and the US, the Middle East's old order is being redrawn, while opportunities and pitfalls abound. Geraldine Doogue and Nick Bryant ask Middle East scholar James Dorsey how Gulf states like Saudi Arabia and the UAE are navigating a world where the US is no longer a guaranteed protector, why the Houthis remain a potent force in Yemen, and why Dorsey believes a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians may now be genuinely unworkable. Plus: new sectarian unrest in Bahrain, the shrinking autonomy of Kurdish forces in Syria and Iraq, and what the UK's decision to send air refuelling support to Saudi Arabia signals about where the region is headed next.

Guest: James Dorsey, scholar and author of the newsletter The Turbulent World

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China's ultra-rich have started quietly selling down stakes in their own companies ahead of a looming October 22 deadline that will close a decades-old tax loophole on offshore family trusts. 

Geraldine Doogue and Nick Bryant ask International Intrigue's Jeremy Dicker what's driving Xi Jinping's push to tax China's wealthy under the banner of "common prosperity," and what a historic property crash and hundreds of billions in capital flight reveal about the health of the world's second-largest economy. 

Plus: what this year's aviation awards reveal about the soft-power battle being waged in business class, and a cold war turns up the heat in South Korea after a landmine blast on the DMZ. Is North Korea to blame?

Guest: Jeremy Dicker, managing editor, International IntrigueGet in touch:

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German Chancellor Friedrich Merz looks weaker than ever, and the nation's far-right AfD is stronger than ever. 

Europe's most important country looks to be heading into a period of deep political instability. The AfD has just won two state elections in eastern Germany, while the hard-left Die Linke has taken Berlin. 

That leaves coalition talks in turmoil and raises fresh questions about whether Germany's long-standing political "firewall" against the far right can hold. 

At the same time, Berlin is trying to lead Europe's rearmament, support Ukraine against Russia, and fill the gap left by a more reluctant United States.

Tom Nuttall, The Economist's chief Germany correspondent and head of its Berlin bureau, joins Laura Tingle and Latika Bourke to explain how Germany reached this point. 

We unpack the AfD's rise, its links to Russia, why Friedrich Merz has become so unpopular, and why growing numbers of voters are backing what Nuttall calls a "policy of rupture".

Guest: Tom Nuttall, Chief Germany correspondent & head of the Berlin bureau - The Economist.

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Richard Walsh has spent decades publishing books. He thinks the physical book is surviving for a reason.

As Radio National prepares to reveal Australia's Top 100 Books, Walsh joins Geraldine Doogue and Waleed Aly to explain why print continues to endure, even as reading habits decline and digital platforms dominate almost every other form of media. He argues that books offer a deeper reading experience than screens, helping readers remember, reason and engage with ideas in ways technology struggles to match.

The conversation ranges from the changing economics of publishing to the rise of Amazon, book influencers, writers' festivals and book clubs. Walsh explains why individual book sales have fallen, why launching new authors has become harder, and why Australia remains one of the strongest book-reading nations in the world. Along the way, he reflects on some of the most influential books and authors he has worked with across a long career in Australian publishing.

It's also a conversation about what books represent in a digital age. Are readers looking for authenticity? Why do physical books continue to matter? And what do we lose if reading moves entirely onto screens?

Geraldine Doogue and Waleed Aly speak with veteran publisher Richard Walsh about the future of reading, publishing and the strange resilience of books.

Guest: Richard Walsh, Australian publisherMentioned: Radio National's Top 100 Australian books

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The world's leaders are heading home from UN General Assembly week, and Donald Trump gave them plenty to talk about: a threat to annihilate Iran, and a line about "the spoils" of victory that Foreign Policy editor-in-chief Ravi Agrawal says shocked him more.

Agrawal argues Trump's coercive power may have peaked, with US munitions depleted by the Iran war, an unpopular presidency and midterms looming.

So who fills the gap? He tells Geraldine Doogue and Latika Bourke he sees no clear successor, but he does see countries de-risking from Washington through new defence pacts and trade deals.

He also warns that Ukraine faces a brutal winter as Russia scales up jet-powered drones.

Plus: Israel's isolation ahead of its October election, and a surprising reason for hope.Guest: Ravi Agrawal, editor in chief of Foreign Policy

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Four years after Kabul fell, hundreds of Afghans who worked for the Australian Defence Force, diplomats and NGOs are still waiting on promised visas, while facing lethal risk. 

Waleed Aly and Hamish Macdonald speak to security consultant Dr Tony Murney and Azadi-e Zan's Susan Hutchinson, both of whom have spent years trying to get Australia's locally engaged employees to safety, about the human cost of a promise made by several successive governments and, they argue, broken by all of them.

Plus, how Canada is leading the world in sponsoring refugees, and how Australia's current political climate is making it harder than ever to bring Australian allies home

GUEST: Dr Tony Murney, security consultant & Susan Hutchinson, executive director of women's rights organisation Azadi-e Zan

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A month after catastrophic floods and glacial collapse swept through Nepal, thousands are still missing and entire mountain communities have been wiped off the map.

The Australian's Asia Pacific correspondent Amanda Hodge, just back from the disaster zone, tells Geraldine Doogue and Hamish Macdonald what she saw on the ground — including a shelter where 70 children have lost every member of their family — and unpacks the stark contrast between Nepal's response and Beijing's heavily censored silence.

Plus: a story that's had almost no coverage in Australia — how Sri Lanka's High Court has just convicted 14 men over the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, and why a former president now faces imminent arrest over explosive allegations regarding the attack. 

Guest: Amanda Hodge, Asia Pacific correspondent, The Australian

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Australian author Richard Flanagan joins Global Roaming to talk about his new essay collection Heresies. He tells Hamish Macdonald and Waleed Aly why he thinks Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter echoes the public punishment of heretics in the Spanish Inquisition, why he believes Australia is a uniquely conformist nation unable to reckon with its colonial history, and the extraordinary story of a plan to build a Jewish homeland in the wilderness of southwest Tasmania.

Plus: why Flanagan says hope, not despair, is the truly heretical position in 2026.Guest: Richard Flanagan, author of HeresiesVote in Radio National's Top 100 Australian books here

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China controls as much as 95–99% of the world's heavy rare earth processing.

Your phone, your car, the wind turbines on the horizon, the F-35 fighter jet; all of them run on permanent magnets made from a handful of obscure elements, and nearly every gram of it passes through Chinese hands before it reaches the rest of the world. 

Beijing didn't seize this position overnight. It's the result of three decades of Western capital and regulation walking away from an industry China chose to dominate. 

Now, with export freezes already hitting Japan and rattling European car makers, analyst and author Tomasz Nadrowski explains how deep the West's dependency really runs and whether Australia's own rare earth deposits can help close the gap before it's too late.

Guest: Tomasz Nadrowski, author of Mineral War: China's Quest for Weapons of Mineral Destruction. 

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Argentina's President Javier Milei is suffering in the polls. The Falkland Islands may help with that.

Javier Milei's radical style of leadership has earned him more than just the nickname 'El Loco', it's engendered a serious turnaround in Argentina's economy, slashing inflation down from triple digits. 

However, with his approval rating dropping and an election approaching, Milei has returned to a long-standing issue to drum up some support - Argentina's claim to the Falkland Islands.

Hamish Macdonald and Waleed Aly are joined by Constanza Sanhueza, a senior lecturer in comparative politics at ANU, on why exactly the issue of the Falklands (or Malvinas) resonates so strongly with the Argentinian people, and whether there's any bite behind the president's bark.

Plus, will Trump back Argentina's claim in order to punish the UK over the Iran conflict? and why is Argentina struggling with such a persistent poverty rate despite their economic turnaround?

Guest: Constanza Sanhueza, senior lecturer in comparative politics, ANU

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