PM

Federal Trade Minister Simon Birmingham speaks with PM's Sally Sara on his visit next week to China for regional trade talks. The meeting will focus on the China-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which is set to eclipse the Trans-Pacific Partnership, from which the United States has withdrawn.

There's plenty of evidence indicating the public sector is going strong, as a result of initiatives like the NDIS. But at the same time, economic activity in the private sector has come to a complete stop. Economists and businesses are calling for urgent economic reform because, they say, the government sector can only carry the economy for so long.

Of the 9.3 million international tourists who visit Australia each year, around 15 per cent take part in some kind of Aboriginal cultural tour. West Australian operators say that, while interest in Aboriginal tourism is steadily rising, the number of people who go on a tour hasn't budged.

Australia refuses to budge on a corrosive issue in the Australia and New Zealand relationship; and Donald Trump may insist he disagreed with his supporters chants against a Somali born congresswoman, but could race be the basis of his re-election strategy, and what does it mean for the United States?

In Western Australia, a man who killed five family members has become the first person in that state to be jailed with no chance of release.

New Zealand's Prime Minister says her country's friendship with Australia can't be taken for granted, as she used a meeting with Scott Morrison to raise the issue of Australia deporting criminals to her country.

US politics is roiling over racism, as Donald Trump has claimed he tried to stop "send her back" chants from supporters at a rally in North Carolina.

A study by the Australian National University has found a growing mortality gap, where poorer women were found to have much higher mortality rates than wealthier women.

As the United States and Iran continue to needle each other, the Islamic republic has offered a diplomatic concession in a bid to ease concerns about its nuclear program.

Protesters will be back on the streets in Hong Kong this weekend, continuing weeks of protests, over fears communist Beijing is squeezing Hong Kong's supposedly guaranteed freedoms.