PM

Tensions are continuing to rise on the Korean peninsula as the US President and the North Korean regime trade threats of military action. The North Koreans say they're in the final stages of planning a missile launch into the waters of Guam, a US territory in the Pacific which is also home to a major US base. Donald Trump responded by saying the US nuclear arsenal is 'far stronger and more powerful than ever before'. Joining PM is Dr Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

An Australian Border Force officer and a former customs officer have been charged over their role in an alleged international criminal conspiracy to import massive amounts of drugs and tobacco into Australia. The two accused were among eight people arrested as part of widespread raids across Sydney on Tuesday. Police say they've dismantled an international crime organisation enabled by corrupt public officials.

The Competition watchdog is worried that a proposed merger between two of Australia's biggest after-school care providers is going hit parents where it hurts. The ACCC claims a merger between Camp Australia and the Junior Adventures Group will result in higher prices for parents, and a reduction in the quality of service for kids. But one Sydney mum has come up with a very simple solution to the whole problem, and it's entirely free.

Victoria's Opposition leader Matthew Guy has referred himself to the state's anti-corruption watchdog IBAC after it emerged he had dinner with an alleged Melbourne mafia figure in May. Mr Guy is adamant he didn't know Tony Madafferi was amongst the group and denies political donations were discussed at the dinner. But Fairfax media is reporting secretly recorded phone conversations that suggest Mr Guy's office was aware of the guest list. Mr Guy is now calling for those recordings to be investigated too.

Australians are spending more on prisons and police than most other countries in the developed world, a new study has found. Australia spends $16 billion a year on its criminal justice system, but according to a new report by conservative think-tank, the Institute of Public Affairs, we're not getting value for money.

Labor began the first question time of the new parliamentary session by probing the Government on its latest push for a same-sex marriage plebiscite. But it quickly moved onto other issues, seizing on the AUSTRAC investigation into the Commonwealth Bank to renew calls for a royal commission into banks.

The nation's top electricity retailers will be told tomorrow that further regulation of the industry will be an option if they don't do more to help people save money on their power bills. The power company bosses have been summoned to Canberra for what's been called an 'eyeballing' by the Prime Minister, the Treasurer, and the Energy Minister. Joining PM is Matthew Warren, the chief executive of their representative group the Australian Energy Council.

He says he's a retired nightclub consultant but Sydney businessman John Ibrahim, his family and associates have been the target of a joint State-Federal drugs operation today. Officers raided Mr Ibrahim's luxury Eastern Suburbs home along with a number of other residences in the city. And across the other side of the world, his two brothers Michael and Fadi Ibrahim were picked up by authorities in Dubai.

Business PM catches you up on the most important news in business and finance.

Former union leader and Labor minister, Martin Ferguson, will tonight argue it's time to take industrial relations out of the policy deep freezer. Speaking on behalf of the mining industry he'll make the case for high income earners to be allowed to 'opt-out' of union-negotiated agreements and he'll call for tougher rules around union right of entry. His old allies in the union movement are seeing red.