Radio National Breakfast

On Thursday last week, Tony Briffa stood in Melbourne's Parliament House and wept.

In the moments before, Victoria had become the fist state, after the ACT, to pass legislation banning unnecessary surgeries on intersex children until they are able to give informed consent.

People with intersex traits are born with variations in sex characteristics, like differences in anatomy, reproductive organs and hormonal and chromosomal patterns that don't fit typical medical and social norms.

Advocates for intersex people say while some procedures are successful, others can have lifelong consequences including infertility, sexual dysfunction and psychological trauma.  

The anguish of her own experience when she was a child led Tony to become a powerful voice for intersex people and a major proponent influencing last week's historic change. 

• Guest: Tony Briffa, co-chair of InterAction for Health and Human Rights, Co-Chair of the Victorian Intersex Advisory Group, patron of Equality Australia and former mayor of Hobsons Bay City Council.

On the 24th of February 2022, after months of mounting tensions, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion of Ukraine.

Four years on and the invasion has become a war of attrition; as Ukraine fights to reclaim its territory from Russia.

An estimated 1.2 million Russian troops and close to 600,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed or wounded; with combined Russian and Ukrainian casualties projected to surpass two million in the coming months.

While US led peace negotiations continue to unfold, Europe is preparing to enter its fifth year of the deadliest conflict the continent has seen since World War II.

• Guests: Gabriele Visentin, EU Ambassador to Australia, and Vasyl Myroshnychenko, Ukrainian Ambassador to Australia 
• Producer: Grace Stranger

The Leader of the Nationals David Littleproud says he stands ready to work with the Federal Government to try and influence the United States to back down on imposing a 15% global tariff. The Trump Administration has signalled it wants to bring the new global tariffs as early as Wednesday, after the US Supreme Court ruled the President's original tariffs were illegally implemented. 

• GUEST: David Littleproud, Leader of the Nationals
• PRODUCER: Isadora Bogle

The federal opposition says it should be a criminal offence to help Australians with Islamic State links to return home.

The announcement comes as more than 30 Australian women and children try to leave a Syrian camp and return to Australia. 

• GUEST: Ted O'Brien, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs 
• PRODUCER: Isadora Bogle

The Trump administration has announced a 15% baseline tariff on imports to the United States. 

This comes just three months after Australia's agricultural sector welcomed the news that US President Donald Trump was dropping a 10% tariff on Australian beef.

So, what does it mean for the meat and livestock industry to be back to square one?

• Guest: Michael Crowley, Managing Director, Meat and Livestock Australia
• Producer: Grace Stranger

The Trump administration says it plans to impose a 15% global tariff later this week after the U-S Supreme Court struck down much of the president's Liberation Day tariffs.

In a split 6-3 decision, the Court ruled Donald Trump lacked the power as President to unilaterally set tariffs on imports, and had therefore illegally imposed them under a law meant for national emergencies.

The US President has now vowed to use other measures to continue his tariff program.

Australian businesses are believed to have paid more than one-point-four billion dollars on goods shipped to the US since April 2025 ... now there are calls for the tariffs to be refunded. 

• GUEST: Professor Kathleen Claussen, Georgetown University in Washington and a former Associate General Counsel at the Office of the US Trade Representative 

The UK government is considering introducing legislation to remove Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor from the line of royal succession, as the scandal - over the former prince's links with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein - deepens.

Andrew was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office last week. He was later released and a police investigation continues.

Police have previously cited reports that Mountbatten-Windsor allegedly sent trade information to Epstein in 2010, when the former prince was Britain’s special envoy for international trade. 

The former Duke of York has consistently denied any wrongdoing

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor ceased being a working member of the Royal Family in 2019 and was stripped of his royal titles in October last year. However, he remains eighth in line to the throne.

• Guest: Jennie Bond, former BBC Royal Correspondent
• Producer: Pip Cook

The UN finds atrocities committed in Sudan show the “hallmarks of genocide”.  

The acts committed by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) during the 18-month siege and eventual fall of the Sudanese city el-Fasher included starvation, mass killings, rape and torture - which the report said was intended to destroy non-Arab communities.

The fall of el-Fasher - in October - was one of the most brutal chapters in Sudan's nearly three-year civil war. The UN believes the RSF killed at least 6,000 people in the first 72 hours of their takeover.

A group at Yale played a significant role in the latest UN findings.

• Guest: Nathaniel Raymond, Executive Director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health
• Producer: Pip Cook

We cover the extraordinary news of the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor with the journalist who once interviewed him. 

The 2019 BBC Newsnight interview with the then Prince, was widely regarded as a car crash that would lead to Andrew's demise. 

Emily Maitlis shares her shock at his arrest. 

Then, we turn to Sudan as a UN probe finds atrocities committed bear the hallmarks of genocide. 

Recap the morning's news, politics and global affairs with the Breakfast Wrap.

From a new shadow ministry to a new debate about what to do with Australians with links to the Islamic State group in Syria - it's been a big week in politics. 

Our Friday political panel discuss. 

• GUESTS 
  • Karen Middleton, political author and columnist with The Monthly
  • Mark Kenny, Professor at ANU's Australian Studies Institute and host of the 'Democracy Sausage' podcast
  • Evelyn Manfield, Radio National Breakfast's Political Correspondent