PM

The Federal government has released its overarching energy and climate change policy - naming five priorities; hydrogen, energy storage, carbon capture and storage, soil carbon and low-carbon steel and aluminium production.

An Israeli court has this evening approved the extradition of former Melbourne teacher Malka Leifer, wanted in Australia on charges of child sex abuse.

Despite the continued drop in case numbers in Victoria, the West Australian leader Mark McGowan is holding out on re-opening borders until community transmission is stamped out, but how realistic is that goal?

Also on the program, the COVID-free Northern Territory tries to lure interstate travellers with travel discounts worth hundreds of dollars.

A money-laundering expert says the issue of illicit funds flowing through banks often gets traded off when police are seeking confessions to other crimes.

The Washington Post's Supreme Court correspondent discusses the debate in US politics following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

In another US court, a judge has temporarily blocked President Trump's executive order banning the Chinese owned social media app, WeChat. To discuss that and the President's attempts to quash Chinese control of another app, Tik Tok, we're joined by ASPI's Fergus Ryan.

And, a night like no other at the Emmys, forced online because of the pandemic.

National Cabinet has reached a compromise on allowing more Australians to return home from overseas. Also on PM, the former Chief Justice of the New South Wales Supreme Court James Spigelman has had his position on Hong Kong's top court revoked.

August's unemployment rate has come in lower than feared at 6.8 percent, but is everything as it appears on the surface? The Bureau of Statistics says 111,000 Australians found work, but what kind of work and what's happening behind that top line? Also on PM - former Victorian Chief Police Commissioner tells the inquiry into the state's botched hotel quarantine program that he didn't decide private security guards should be used rather than police.

For weeks now we've been hearing heartbreaking stories of Australians stranded overseas....unable to get home because of coronavirus entry restrictions and upheaval in the airline industry. Now though - there are signs political leaders will finally try to ease these pressures, by increasing the caps on overseas arrivals.

Also on the program, Victoria's Chief Health Officer has confirmed today that he was not consulted when the state's catastrophic hotel quarantine program was set up; a pilot program to support people to do the right thing and stay home when they test positive for coronavirus is being rolled out across Victoria; and a coronial inquest opens in the NT into the suicides of three young girls in remote communities.

Overseas and in the Middle East they've woken to what Donald Trump says is a new dawn in the region, our correspondent analyses the deal signed by the UAE, Bahrain and Israel and its implications for Palestinians. And farewell to Beijing, we speak to veteran Washington Post reporter Anna Fifield as she departs China and her life as a foreign correspondent.

Build it... or we will -- a threat from the Prime Minister, demanding energy companies stump up and build new gas power plants before ageing coal fired stations are retired. Also, why wasn't the ADF used in Victoria's hotel quarantine program; the NT government sends in the Gamba Army to try and eradicate a noxious weed; a proposal to lure young Australians unable to travel overseas for a gap year into fruit-picking to plug COVID-related labor shortages, and they came at a high price for Australia - we examine what chance the Afghan peace talks in Qatar have of making progress.

After Shinzo Abe's sudden resignation because of ill-health Japan has designated a new leader in Yoshihide Suga.

Juukan Gorge destruction causes heads to roll at Rio Tinto; the NSW Government survives its own extinction crisis over koala laws, but the National Party leader is looking endangered; and NASA will buy moon rocks collected by privately-funded lunar missions.

The New South Wales Nationals declare they won’t support government legislation because of land clearing laws supposed to save the koalas; and recordings of President Trump reveal he deliberately downplayed the COVID threat.. We get the reaction of a doctor who's been on the front lines.

Chinese scholars and journalists are caught up in a foreign interference investigation; and a vaccine trial put on hold - scientists warn it could be weeks before the world knows if it's a major hurdle.