The government announced its 2035 emissions reduction target this week, committing Australia to climate action despite a retreat from the United States. Meanwhile, the Coalition looked a lot like it was about to take up arms in the climate wars - again.

Chief political commentator James Massola joins host Jacqueline Maley.

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A flurry of numbers relating to climate change have been tossed around all week.

But what do they mean?

Today, environment and climate reporter Bianca Hall and climate and energy correspondent Mike Foley on what impact the government’s climate emissions target for 2035 will have on all of us.

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Three years ago, mainstream newspapers in the West had a bit of fun ridiculing so-called nepo-babies, and the unfair advantage enjoyed by the children of the rich and the powerful, like Gwyneth Paltrow's daughter, Apple, or Lenny Kravitz’s daughter, Zoe.

But in Nepal, nepobabies are no joking matter.

They have just, in part, sparked the most widespread social unrest that the nation has seen in recent years. Last week, this left the prime minister toppled, and the wife of one former prime minister in critical condition.

Today, Griffith University International Relations Professor Renee Jeffery, on the Gen Z-led violence that has erupted in Katmandu, and what triggered tens of thousands of protesters to take to the streets.

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Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s charisma has led to her meteoric rise, and also, to her recent relegation to the back bench.

Lambasted for her position on various issues including the Stolen Generation, the Black Lives Matter movement, and more recently, immigration, the Indigenous senator is celebrated by some of the most powerful conservatives in the country, and has become the most followed Coalition MP on social media.

Today, investigative reporter Patrick Begley and federal political reporter Natassia Chrysanthos track plain-speaking Price’s journey from children’s entertainer to political celebrity.

You can read their story here: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/she-s-making-big-trouble-why-jacinta-price-is-losing-favour-in-her-family-s-hometown-20250912-p5muia.html

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US President Donald Trump is a fascist, running an authoritarian regime.

We hear this allegation a lot, now. But is he? Really?

Fascism expert Jason Stanley says he moved with his family to Canada so that he could leave behind, and protest against, the political climate in the United States.

Today, Stanley, a University of Toronto philosophy professor, and author of Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future, argues that American exceptionalism has blinded many Americans from thinking fascism could ever take root in their country. And he discusses if fascism could flourish here in Australia.

Jason Stanley appears in Curious at the Sydney Opera House on Sunday 28 September and in Melbourne on Thursday 2 October, presented by The Wheeler Centre.

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Controversial Liberal senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price was sacked from the Coalition frontbench this week. Price left Opposition Leader Sussan Ley with little choice, after she refused to apologise for comments she made about the Indian community, and then refused to publicly affirm her faith in Ley’s leadership.

Chief political correspondent Paul Sakkal and federal political correspondent Natassia Chrysanthos discuss the inside story of the sacking with host Jacqueline Maley, and they also check in on the climate debate, before a key climate policy measure to be decided next week.

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When we think of countries trying to show the world their power and influence, we might think of muscular shows of force, like China’s army parading its newest nuclear weapons, missiles and lasers in a military parade in Beijing, last week.

But then there was our government scrambling to out-deliver China with a tit-for-tat over, of all things, cars, for a tiny but crucial Pacific nation.

Today, international and political editor Peter Hartcher on why the region Australia long thought was least important is now the region that matters the most.

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More than a year ago, the CFMEU – one of Australia’s most powerful unions – was placed into administration, after an investigation by our mastheads, and 60 Minutes, revealed that it was infiltrated by bikie gang members and criminals who were guilty of corruption and cronyism. But now, some of the very union officials who have been tasked by the government to stamp out the corruption have themselves been threatened - via arson attacks, vandalism and threats. 

As one union leader puts it:  “I was gobsmacked. I feel like I'm in an episode of the Sopranos. It’s bizarre".

Today, investigative reporter Nick McKenzie on the ongoing allegations of corruption, and the bravery of one man who is steadfast in his goal of purging the union of it, even as he admits he now does so while looking over his shoulder.

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So now we know: Erin Patterson will be 82 before she gets the chance to get out of jail; if she gets out at all.

This will make her one of Victoria’s longest-serving female inmates.

But the revelations from Patterson’s sentencing hearing, in the Supreme Court of Victoria on Monday morning, leaned less to the historic, and more to the primal.

Today, crime and justice reporter Erin Pearson, on the people impacted by Patterson’s premeditated and pitiless cruelty, and what the judge made of them. And the unexpected moments of mercy and forgiveness that Patterson was, nevertheless, offered by one of them.

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Year 9 debaters in South Australia were given a topic for the third round of their debating competition a few months ago. The topic was whether the ''tradwife'' movement, a lifestyle in which women embrace traditional gender archetypes, was good for women.

While it was deemed offensive by some, senior writer Jacqueline Maley today outlines why such a debate is worthwhile, and whether the movement is a "frilly version of fascism" or a way to reclaim motherhood.

For more, read Maley's article, 'Year 9s were asked if women should stay in the kitchen. People were outraged. I wasn’t'.

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